Once Upon a Time Spring Preview: Addled Emma, MIA Neal and 6 Other Burning Qs Answered

The spring premiere of ABC’s Once Upon a Time is still seven weeks away, but at long last we have some fresh intel on the ramifications and aftermath of the game-changing midseason finale.

When last we tuned in: To save Storybrooke from being enslaved by Peter Pan and the Dark Curse Redux, Rumple used the Dark One’s dagger to do in his mortal enemy, while Regina worked her hocus pocus to ward off the curse. That crafty countermeasure, however, came with a steep cost: As Storybrooke vanished as if it never existed, everyone — save for Henry and Emma, who went on to live in New York City with tweaked memories — was transported back to from whence they came.

Series creators Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis broke their Lost-like “radio silence” to share with TVLine on Friday night an overview of the second half of the season. Here, for starters, are some quick answers to some burning questions — but rest assured, much more is to come.

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WILL HOOK BE ABLE TO JOG EMMA'S MEMORY?

The midseason finale closed with Emma and Henry -- one year after being sapped of their Storybrooke memories -- being visited in New York City by a strange man wearing guyliner and way too much leather. And when he went in for True Love's Kiss, Emma was having none of it. "Emma's not easily charmed by him in the real world," Kitsis reports. "I'll just say that!"

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WHY DID HOOK, AND NOT NEAL, COME FOR EMMA IN NEW YORK CITY?

"There's a very good reason why Neal didn't come," Kitsis assures. (Perhaps Henry's pop is counted among the "family" Hook arrived to report was "in trouble"?)

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IS NEAL STILL HENRY'S FATHER?

Though Regina gifted Emma and Henry with new, "good" memories in which the incarcerated beauty had never given her boy up for adoption, Henry's paternity remains intact. That said, any eventual reunion won't necessarily be a joyful one. "In Emma's current mind. the last time she saw Neal, that guy f---ing let her go to jail," Kitsis points out. "She doesn't have the benefit of re-meeting him in New York."

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WHY IS THE WITCH WICKED?

With the introduction of Lost alum Rebecca Mader's emerald enchantress, expect "lots of backstory" on the spring season's Big Bad. "Whether that unfolds in Storybrooke, the Enchanted Forest or Oz -- or all three -- remains to be seen," Horowitz teases. (And no, this Wicked Witch is not also known as Miss Gulch, Elphaba or any other familiar name, but one of Once's own creation a la the Evil Queen's mum Cora.)

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IS THERE A REGINA/WICKED WITCH RIVALRY?

Does a dwarf carry a pick axe? Kitsis trumpets the showdown between sorceresses thusly:
"Wicked Versus Evil! That's the second half of our season."

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WILL REGINA COME FACE TO FACE WITH HER TRUE LOVE ROBIN HOOD?

That awaited encounter takes place in the second episode back, airing March 16. But since Regina once already forsook the chance to meet him (in flashback), Kitsis asks: "What does it look like for her to be given a second chance? How does she react to it?" -- especially when she's a bit preoccupied with "huge, more important things," Horowitz notes, "like the loss of her son, and trying to destroy that Wicked Witch!"

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HAS BELLE LOST RUMPLE FOREVER?

This is where the producers will only offer up a pat, "Keep watching.... The fate of Rumple and Belle is something that's going to be explored." Since the Dark One seemingly did himself in, in the course of vanquishing Peter Pan/his father Malcolm, "There's plenty of story we have in mind for Belle, that we hope the audience likes," says Horowitz. "Emilie [de Ravin] is fantastic, doing some of her best work that we've ever seen."

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WILL WE SEE STORYBROOKE AGAIN?

In a word, yes -- even though the Maine burg blinked out of existence in the midseason finale. "But how and why [we see Storybrooke again] and what happens there is something we don't want to spoil," says Horowitz.