Once Upon A Time - Episode 3.17 - Title revealed

Shes BACKKKKKK!!!!!! Spoiler

ABC’s Once Upon a Time is bringing back a familiar evil later this season — but to what end?

TVLine has confirmed that in Season 3, Episode 18, Rose McGowan will reprise the role of Young Cora.

McGowan first appeared as the onetime miller’s daughter in the March 2013 episode titled… well, “The Miller’s Daughter,” in which it was revealed in flashback that Cora and Rumple once kinda sorta had a “thing.” Until she removed her own heart in the name of pursuing great power, as Prince Henry’s wife. By episode’s end, she had given birth to wittle bitty baby Regina.

Why will Once again revisit Young Cora? Is it to perhaps add a branch to the show’s complicated family tree, which is due to add two spaces by the end of the season? (The Wicked Witch’s backstory will at least have begun to be revealed two episodes prior.) And what if anything might this suggest about the big upcoming [spoiler]? (When we first met Young Cora, her current-day self died in that episode.)
Also, who could be having this flashback — Regina? A possibly returned Rumple?

Once Upon a Time resumes Season 3 on March 9, with Episode 12.

The battle between evil & wicked will soon begin

A pic taken by pur very own Evil Queen herself! Who else is excited to seen this epic battle begin???

Season Three Schedule - 3x12 to 3x16 SPOILERS

Spoilers Ahead!

3x12 - New York City Serenade  
Christopher Gorham is playing a mysterious new stranger with ties to Emma in New York. Will he be someone that will be looking out for Emma or someone that is trying to destroy her and her family? Rumors are rampant that Gorham's character also has ties to Rapunzel.

The March 9th episode will also incorporate the fact that Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas are expecting a child. The baby will have an intriguing connection to the impending birth of Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip's child.
Airdate: March 9th 2014

3x13 - Witch Hunt
Expect some details about the new Big Bad and the long awaited Regina/Robin Hood meet! How will Regina react to a second chance at love. Sparks are sure to fly!
Airdate: March 16th 2014

3x14 - The Tower
Viewers will be introduced to Rapunzel, played by Alexandra Metz. Fans can expect a very Charming rescue!
Airdate: March 23rd 2014

3x15 - "Quiet Minds"
A Belle centric episode. Fans will finally meet the flamboyant Lumiere, played by Henry Lubatti. Fans can also expect the relationship with Belle and Rumple to be explored in more depth in the latter half of season three.

As for the title of the episode, this quote from Robert Louis Stevenson may give us a hint as to Belle's role in the story, ''Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.''. Wll Belle be going on her own personal journey and facing her fears?
Airdate: March 30th 2014

3x16 - "It's Not Easy Being Green"
Written by Andrew Chambliss and directed by Mario Van Peebles. This episode is hugely anticipated by fans. Expect a number of reveals with regards the origins and motivations of several characters, a return to Storybrooke, and more Tinkerbell.
Airdate: April 6th 2014

Something Wicked This Way Comes...

Something Wicked This Way Comes...

By Mauri Lazaro - @DarkDearieMauri

Wicked is coming to Once Upon a Time, but the Wicked Witch of the West was first created from the author L. Frank Baum’s imagination in his Oz book series for children.

Lyman Frank Baum, known as L. Frank Baum was born in Chittenango, New York in 1856, and died on May 6, 1919 after suffering from a stroke and falling into a coma. During his lifetime he wrote a total of fifty-five novels, plus four “lost” novels, eighty-three short stories, over two hundred poems, an unknown number of scripts, and many other miscellaneous writings. Out of all of his writings he is best known for writing the original fourteen Oz books.

Author L. Frank Baum

After Baum’s death, publishers Reilly and Lee, who had published most of Baum’s Oz novels, printed an additional twenty-six Oz books: nineteen by Ruth Plumly Thomson, three by John R. Neil, two by Jack Snow, and one each by Rachel Cosgrove Payes and her daughter Eloise Jarvis. Of all the books written after his death, only the Oz books written by Sherwood Smith, The Emerald Wand of Oz (2005) and Trouble Under Oz (2006) are officially recognized as canon by The Baum Trust.

The Wicked Witch of the West is the principal villain in Baum’s first Oz book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and is rarely referred to again in the rest of the book series after her character’s death. In the book she is described as an old hag with three pigtails and an eye patch. L Frank Baum specified that her one eye was like a telescope, allowing her to see what was happening in her kingdom from her castle. The witch carried an umbrella instead of a broom which she used to hit Toto from time to time. Most of her powers reside in the creatures she controlled. She has a pack of wolves, a swarm of bees, a flock of crows, and an army of Winkies. Winkies are the residents of Winkie Country of which the witch lives. Her weaknesses include water and being afraid of the dark. In spite of these weaknesses, she is one of the most powerful witches in all of Oz. Even Glinda is known to be cautious of her.

An Illustration of L. Frank Baum's original vision of Wicked Witch of The West

It was in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz that the Wicked Witch of the West, played by Margaret Hamilton, acquired the iconic green skin and long black dress with a pointed hat and broom that we associate with her today. Her powers consisted of casting fireballs and conjuring a field of poppies to cast a sleeping curse on Dorothy and her friends before they reached the Emerald City. The Wicked Witch meets her demise when she sets the scarecrow on fire and Dorothy throws a pail of water on him inadvertently getting the water on the witch too, causing her to melt. Margaret Hamilton’s concept of the character was that Wicked Witch enjoyed the things she did, but was ultimately a sad, lonely person who never got what she wanted.

Margaret Hamilton in the 1939 MGM film, 'The Wizard of Oz'

Meryn LeRoy, the film’s producer, originally envisioned the Wicked Witch to be a beautiful, cruel woman much like the Evil Queen in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). But having a sexy evil witch played against the line of the script that bad witches were ugly. In fact, it was the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that spurred Louis B. Mayer, owner of MGM Studios, to come up with a film that would rival the Disney movie. August 25th of this year will mark The Wizard of Oz’s 75th Anniversary. Walt Disney himself had wanted to make an Oz movie after Snow White, but MGM owned the rights to the book. Disney Studios would later go on to make Return to Oz (1985), The Muppet Wizard of Oz (2005), and Oz the Great and Powerful (2013).

If you want to read more about the 1939 movie, I suggest reading:

The Wizard of Oz: The official 75th Anniversary Companion by William Stillman and Jay Scarfone

The Making of the Wizard of Oz by Aljean Harmetz. The book features an introduction by the Wicked witch herself, Margaret Hamilton.

Idina Menzel in the Broadway Musical, 'Wicked'

Another notable Oz book series is Gregory Maguire’s Wicked Years Series. He creates an alternate Oz universe for his story that features the Wicked Witch of the West, naming her Elphaba after L. Frank Baum’s initials L-F-B. Unlike the original Oz books, this series is not intended for children. The first in the series is Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch, and it is also the book that inspired the musical Wicked. After her mother has an affair with a stranger, Elphaba is born with green skin and is also allergic to water. As a child she acts feral and is misunderstood, making her an outcast among society and she grows up to be the Wicked Witch of the West.

On Once Upon a Time the Wicked Witch will be played by Lost alumni, Rebecca Mader. Observing the publicity photos, the wicked witch is no longer ugly, but sexy and green. Too bad Captain Kirk isn’t on this show; he likes green women. I don’t know what the Wicked Witch has in store for our favorite Storybrooke residents, but I’m sure it’s going to be wicked!

Rebecca Mader on 'Once Upon A Time'

L. Frank Baum’s Oz books:

1) The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)

2) The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904)

3) Ozma of Oz (1907)

4) Dorothy and Wizard of Oz (1908)

5) The Road to Oz (1909)

6) The Emerald City of Oz (1910)

7) The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1913)

8) Tik-Tock of Oz (1914)

9) The Scarecrow of Oz (1915)

10) Rinkitink in Oz (1916)

11) The Lost Princess of Oz (1917)

12) The Tin Woodman of Oz (1918)

13) The Magic of Oz (1919)

14) Glinda of Oz (1920)

Gregory Maguire’s Wicked Years series:

1) Wicked: the Life and times of the Wicked witch (1995)

2) Son of a Witch (2005)

3) A Lion Among Men (2008)

4) Out of Oz (2011)

there is the link of a SPOILER PIC!!!!!

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AHvQmV6AIj8/UuJMs03rHHI/AAAAAAAAAAM/MRMVmroItQ0/s1600/12114215096_b3bd7b9733_c.jpg

Ruby... is that you...???

So as most of you may know Meghan Ory AKA Ruby as the Oncers know her left OUAT at the end of season 2 to begin a new project called Intelligence on CBS. The show premiered on January 13th but look who is back. Ruby is on the set Once again!!! (Excuse my bad pun)  

Exclusive Once Upon a Time Bombshell: A [Spoiler] Is Coming — Ready, Set, Speculate! R.I.P!!!!!!!!!!!!

Warning: The following contains a spoiler of unusual size from the second half of Once Upon a Time Season 3.

By the time ABC’s Once Upon a Time closes the book on its third season, someone will have been definitively denied his or her chance at a happy ending. Because that character will be — gulp — ended.

Series creators Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis tell TVLine exclusively that the fantastical series will be killing off a major character during the second batch of 11 episodes (launching March 9), resulting in the exit of a series regular. “The character dies, for real,” Kitsis makes clear — at which point his/her portrayer will, make no mistake, leave the show.

Every series regular cast member is a possibility – except for Robert Carlyle. The EPs have agreed to rule out that one candidate, seeing as Rumplestiltskin is theoretically already “gone” (having sacrificed himself in the name of vanquishing Peter Pan).

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Emma / Jennifer Morrison

WHY IT CAN'T POSSIBLY BE HER | Come on -- it's Emma Swan, the heroine of our story. The heart, the soul. The non-believer turned believer (...turned non-believer) whose journey this is.
WHY IT JUST MIGHT BE HER | Um... maybe J-Mo has waved the white flag in her ongoing battle with the Vancouver cold...? (Honestly, I've got nothing. Can't be her. Right?)

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Show White / Ginnifer Goodwin

WHY IT CAN'T POSSIBLY BE HER | Snow's go-to motivational word is "hope." If we lose her, we'd lose precisely that.
WHY IT JUST MIGHT BE HER | Hook did say that Emma's family was in "danger"....

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Prince Charming / Josh Dallas

WHY IT CAN'T POSSIBLY BE HIM | Who will "always find" Snow if her prince ceases to be? Plus: Emma/Dad scenes = WIN. (Besides, Josh and I still need to have our Puffy Shirt-Off.)WHY IT JUST MIGHT BE HIM | Losing her husband at the hand of an evil or wicked foe would make Snow even more determined in her fight for good.

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Regina / Lana Parrilla

WHY IT CAN'T POSSIBLY BE HER | The Evil Queen is the yang to Emma's yin. It'd be like a Reese's peanut butter cup minus the peanut butter. In other words: sacrilege! WHY IT JUST MIGHT BE HER | Perhaps a certain green witch wins Season 3B's epic battle between "Evil" and "Wicked"?

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Henry / Jared Gilmore

WHY IT CAN'T POSSIBLY BE HIM |This isn't some dreary indie film at Sundance. They're not gonna kill off the rugrat. (Besides, didn't he just "die" a few weeks ago?)
WHY IT JUST MIGHT BE HIM | What if Henry's death -- tragic as it may be -- serves as a catalyst of sorts for Emma, prompting her to embrace her magic... and perhaps in a dark manner? (Ooh, I like that one. Goosebumps.)

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Belle / Emilie de Ravin

WHY IT CAN'T POSSIBLY BE HER | Belle has already endured so much (imprisonment, amnesia, distance) and been so patient, waiting for her and Rumple to get their "happy ending." With his return presumably somehow on the horizon, surely her resolve was not all for naught.
WHY IT JUST MIGHT BE HER | It'll probably take some hefty hocus pocus to bring Rumple back to "life." And you know what the Dark One always says about the cost of magic....

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Hook / Colin O'Donoghue

WHY IT CAN'T POSSIBLY BE HIM | Hook presumably traveled back to our realm, to find Emma and Henry, at the risk of great peril. How tragic were the pirate to perish after all that heroic effort!
WHY IT JUST MIGHT BE HIM | Or... would such an outcome be more ironic than tragic? After all, we have oft been told, villains don't get happy endings.

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Neal / Michael Raymond-James

WHY IT CAN'T POSSIBLY BE HIM | So much of the past year has been about Henry's parents laboring to reconnect, to find the time (or at least be in the same realm!) to smooth out their thus-far rocky romance. Plus, as Neal said before Emma departed the vanishing Storybrooke: "This isn't over." Ergo, he can't be over.
WHY IT JUST MIGHT BE HIM | Hmm, in reviewing all that Neal and Emma have endured -- yet to little romantic effect -- maybe these two are simply not meant to be?

Once Upon a Time: Emma's New Life, Regina's New Love and a Wicked New Villain

Once Upon A Time

There are still seven weeks until Once Upon a Time returns! That's the bad news. The good news is TVGuide.com caught up with executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis to get the scoop on what's ahead.

The last we left our favorite fairy tale characters, Peter Pan's (Robbie Kay) attempt to reuse Regina's (Lana Parrilla) curse forced everyone back to the Enchanted Forest, effectively destroying Storybrooke. But Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Henry (Jared Gilmore), who were not part of the original curse, could not come along. Instead, their memories were wiped and they were living happily, one year later, in New York City until Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) showed up with news that her parents were in trouble. Find out what (and who) is coming next:
 
Why was it Hook that came to Emma and Henry's home in New York City?
Adam Horowitz: That is an excellent question. Why and how?
Edward Kitsis: What's he doing back? What the hell is going on?
Horowitz: We're answering your question with more questions. It's not why Hook, but how Hook and when Hook? What does it mean? That's something that we get to, again, pretty quickly.

The true love's kiss did not work. What lengths will Hook have to go to get Emma to actually believe?
Kitsis: Assuming that he does, it will not be easy, as it never is with Emma.

Emma finally joins the club of having two sets of memories. Will that be explored?
Kitsis: Yes.
Horowitz: The ramifications of this new life of Emma's that we glimpsed at the end of the winter finale and what would happen if she did regain her memories play a huge part in the second half of the season.

How different is this Emma from the one we've known?
Kitsis: It was an important thing. Emma, as a character, we love her. She has some new memories, but that didn't ruin her upbringing. She still grew up tough, she still grew up with a wall. It was her against the world and what we'll see is with these new memories it's now her and Henry against the world. She still is the same person, but we're going to really explore what her life is like in Episode 12 called "New York City Serenade."

Christopher Gorham appears in that episode. What's his connection to Emma?
Horowitz: Chris is an old friend. We worked with him onPopular a million years ago. We love him and we're so excited that he agreed to come aboard.
Kitsis: We called him and said, "You need to do this for us." He was great.
Horowitz: We love his character.
Kitsis: He's an integral part of two characters' lives.

Emma might not have memories, but she still has magic. Could she stumble upon that?
Kitsis: We did see her drive out of town, so there's no magic on that side. She is strong, but if we remember in Season 1, you have to believe in magic to see it.

Do the fairy tale characters sent back to the Enchanted Forest still have their memories of Storybrooke?
Kitsis: Yes. They know and that gets explored.
Horowitz: As we laid out in the winter finale, Emma was the one who being back there was going to lose those memories and have this new life. The fairy tale characters get left with the pain and knowledge of what happened over the years that the show has been on and what they've been through. None of that is erased.


Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Charming (Josh Dallas) are in danger. Does this have to do with the Wicked Witch (Rebecca Mader)?
Horowitz: That's an excellent guess. The Wicked Witch plays a huge part in the season half of Season 3.
Kitsis: She's the big bad. She's a bada-- witch who knows how to get hers. She does have a name.
Horowitz: You will learn it pretty quickly. It's not a name you've heard in Wicked Witch lore before.
Kitsis: Like in Once fashion, we're doing our own name, our own thing with its own meaning.
Horowitz: It's not like the play Wicked or the MGM movie. We're using the books as a jumping-off point to do our Once twist on the classic characters of Oz.

It looks like she's taken up residence in Regina's castle.
Horowitz: It does look that way!
Kitsis: You know Regina. How do you think Regina will handle someone sitting in her chair looking through her stuff?
Horowitz: And eating her porridge?

What can you tell us about the Evil Queen's relationship with Robin Hood (Sean Maguire)?
Horowitz: They have a connection that we hinted at and talked about earlier this season. Their stories are going to intersect.
Kitsis: We set something up for a reason. We're really going to explore what that meant and what happens when these two people meet. We're going to see what happens when Regina has a second chance at love.

Tell us about some of the new characters coming in.
Horowitz: We have a whole bunch of fun people popping up, but it's in service of focusing on the core group of characters and the problem that you saw outlined in the winter finale.
Kitsis: We're still going to get to see Tink (Rose McIver) again and Ariel (JoAnna Garcia Swisher) and some of the people we met in the first half of the season as well. Lumiere (Henri Lubatti) is one of our favorite characters. He's really fun and interesting.
Horowitz: It's a slightly different take than what you might expect from the movie. Alas, Jerry Orbach is not with us so we couldn't bring him aboard to do it, but we have a take on the character that we think is fun. It's fun to see him interact with Belle (Emilie de Ravin).
Kitsis: With Rapunzel (Alexandra Metz), it's princes and damsels in towers.


There's a possibility for a Snow and Charming baby. So Goodwin's pregnancy is being written in?
Kitsis: We definitely hinted that she wanted to have another child. They're certainly going to try.
Horowitz: We'll deal with the realities of her pregnancy, but how we do it, we're not ready to share. When you saw Snow saw her secret about that, it was well before we knew Ginny was pregnant. We're telling the story that we've been setting up since the beginning of the season.
Kitsis: But you know, every time Snow White gets pregnant, hell gets unleashed.
Horowitz: Pregnancies tend to attract some chaos.

What can you tease about the wedding?
Kitsis: Yes, there may be a wedding, a birth and a lot of things.
Horowitz: We're not ready to send the save the dates out yet, but we can possibly expect some nuptials.

Regina still wants a child. Will that be explored?
Horowitz: The hole of Henry in her heart, that we're going to explore and how that affects her and what it makes her do.
Kitsis: She definitely wants to have another child, but for right now, she's not thinking about that. She just lost one. For Regina, it's what is going to make her heal again and where is she going to go. We know she filled the hole in her heart by doing the most selfless thing we've ever seen. She did what's best for Henry and gave him up to Emma, her sworn enemy, so they can have a better life. What happens when she returns to the Enchanted Forest? She needs to fall in love first. Right now, she's not open to anything.
Horowitz: She's not looking to replace Henry. As far as she is concerned, Henry is irreplaceable.
Once Upon a Time returns Sunday, March 9 at 8/7c on ABC. Hit the comments with your excitement! Stay tuned for more scoop in this week's Mega Buzz!

'Once Upon a Time' EPs on Emma's Brief Bliss, Looming Danger and 'Wicked' Villain (Q&A)

It's not long" before Emma realizes she's been living a lie, executive producer Edward Kitsis tells THR of the March 9 return.
 
 The countdown to Once Upon a Time's return has begun.
After the events of the game-changing Dec. 15 finale saw Emma and Henry's memories wiped away and replaced with new ones (and Storybrooke gone), mother and son set off on a brand new life trajectory. In their new reality, the two acted every part the happy family, but it wasn't long before Captain Hook barged into their Manhattan abode, breaking the news to Emma -- who failed to recognize him -- that her family was in grave danger. Even a "true love's" kiss failed to snap Emma out of her seemingly perfect life.

The Hollywood Reporter caught up with executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz to break down the winter finale cliffhanger, preview the "wicked" new villain and discuss what's in store for the rest of the season.

You flipped the show on its head with the winter finale, wiping away Emma's memories and inserting new ones. How much discussion was there about the cliffhanger that you left viewers with, showing Emma a year later not recognizing Captain Hook?
Edward Kitsis: We knew we were going to do that. Every year, usually you start getting ideas for one season, you kind of have things in your  head. But by the end of season two, we started to see three. And then what we do is called a mini-camp in between seasons where the writers come for three weeks and we just plot it out. So for us, we wanted episode 11 to feel like a series finale, so people would say, what are they going to do next?
Adam Horowitz: That's the question we want people to be asking -- how are they going to get out of this one? What's it going to be? And then we're really excited for the audience to see a new paradigm for the show that will hopefully feel familiar in a nice way, but new in an exciting and intriguing way.

How many different endings did you toy with before you landed on what ended up on the screen?
Kitsis: That was the only one.
Horowitz: That came very quickly as we were designing the end of the 11-episode pod. That just became this inevitable place we kept getting to. And we got so excited by it, particularly because -- hopefully you'll see in the second half -- it leads very naturally to a whole new story we're telling that hopefully as you look through the whole season, feels like they connected to each other and spoke to each other in thematic and character ways that make a lot of sense.

The first half of the season had the characters spending a lot of time in Neverland, with hints of Storybrooke sprinkled throughout. Is there some relief on your part to bring the story elsewhere?
Kitsis: It's really funny because we wanted to tell one story this year, and really tell it. And the patience level of the Internet is every three episodes, it needs to be a new show and then if you do that, they tell you you're doing it too fast. So we decided that what we wanted to do was go up river and meet Peter Pan and tell the hell out of that story and end it in episode 11. Were we there an episode longer than people would have liked? It's a matter of opinion. For me personally, I loved Neverland. I think it was some of our best stuff. It was magical, it was character and that payoff just worked. That for us was fun. You'll see that both sides of the season feel like two different seasons.
Horowitz: Yeah, Neverland, we were very excited to tell the story. We loved the story we were able to tell there. We loved how we were able to come back to Storybrooke and throw all the pieces up in the air, and now we're excited to show you where they land. Now for the second half of the season, we've got Rebecca Mader as the Wicked Witch, who is a completely different kind of villain and the kind of character were excited to unfurl on the audience.

Is this the last we've seen of Neverland or Storybrooke?
Kitsis: Neverland, absolutely. We will definitely glimpse Storybrooke.

In the winter finale, we saw Emma and Henry in their Manhattan apartment. Is that a new setting that we'll see them in?
Kitsis: The most fun is to deepen the characters and keep telling their story. So to see Emma and Henry in the real world is really interesting. The premiere is a lot about that.

How soon before Emma and Henry realize that the life they've been living for a year isn't the life they had?
Horowitz: What we can tell you is it's not easy ...
Kitsis: But it's not long.

Will there be more "Captain Swan" moments in the second half of the season?
Kitsis: I certainly hope so. She's got many suitors and I want to know if any of them have a shot.
Horowitz: The thing about Emma is she's a tough cookie and for anyone to crack her, whether it's Captain Hook or Neal or someone to be determined, it's not going to be an easy road of it.

So the love triangle is still alive and well?
Kitsis: Well, it's hard because they're on one side and she's in New York.
Horowitz: We don't think of it as a triangle as it's Emma's story, and her journey -- which involves Henry, which involves so many things -- has these men in it, and as they profess their love for her, how she deals with that becomes a part of what she's trying to do on a larger level, which is her journey as a person and a woman to get her life in order and to discover who she is and where she belongs. And Emma is not a person who defines that by any single relationship.

With Ginnifer Goodwin's pregnancy, how has that affected the show?
Kitsis: You'll see in the second half. It's pretty obvious how we get around that. We did see in Neverland that her secret was that she wanted another child, so we'll see if [Snow and Charming] had any alone time in the Enchanted Forest.

Hook warns Emma that her family is in danger in the winter finale. What can you tease to about what that danger is?
Kitsis: That danger comes in the shade of green.

Is it fair to say that the second half is lighter in tone?
Horowitz: It has a mixture of tones that we do on the show: darkness and lightness and adventure and all that. But I would say there is a sense of delicious fun that the Wicked Witch brings. It is a different tone than the fall. We felt Peter Pan was a very psychological villain and very Machiavellian. The Wicked Witch operates from a place of delicious wickedness.
Kitsis: It's Wicked versus Evil, that's what the second half's about. We'll see what wins. Always bet on crazy.

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.

'Once Upon a Time' spoilers on new villian and Rumplestiltskin's possible return

Keck's TV Guide exclusives published yesterday, January 12th, 2014, "Once Upon a Time" spoilers for the second half of Season Three. Regina (Lana Parrilla) will clash with Wicked Witch Rebecca Mader in Oz, Belle (Emilie de Ravin) will find Lumiere, and hints of a possible wedding finale for Season Three.
The winter finale of "Once Upon a Time", airing last month, saw what viewers are believed to be the end of Rumplestiltskin,(Robert Carlyle) as he disappeared in a cloud of magic after defeating his father, Peter Pan with the Dark One's dagger. There was little time for grieving as Pan's curse crept toward Storybrooke and Regina had to make the tough decision to end the curse once and for all, the consequence being her son Henry wouldn't remember her.

The finale left fans with crushed hearts and feelings everywhere, but William Keck's exclusive interviews with Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz give us a light at the end.
The March 9th episode of "Once Upon a Time" will reveal the Wicked Witch of the West and how she became green. She'll have ties to two familiar characters, one possibly being the Evil Queen. Viewers will also be treated to a baby storyline with Snow White and Prince Charming, as the writers work Ginnifer Goodwin's real-life pregnancy into the plot.

As the season progresses, fans will see Belle meeting the much-anticipated Lumiere at the castle, portrayed by Henri Lubatti. Lumiere has been renamed "Lawrence" and will be shown in flashback episodes in the Enchanted Forest with Belle. This would give Robert Carlyle fans a chance to see their favorite magical imp again, possibly even a resurrection, as the Keck article had Rumple and Belle listed as one of the possibilities as bride and groom?

"Once Upon a Time" resumes on ABC March 9th, 2014 at 8 pm.

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Keck's Exclusives First Look: Once Upon a Time Takes on Oz, Rapunzel, Babies and a Wedding!

Rebecca Mader

Get ready for some big reveals when ABC's Once Upon a Time returns on March 9. Executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz preview what's brewing in Fairy Tale Land, Storybrooke and Oz.

- The Wicked Witch of the West (Lost's Rebecca Mader) lands in Storybrooke on the March 9 episode. She shares ties to two familiar characters. Viewers will learn what turned her green and will eventually meet the Wizard. "There might be some other surprises along the yellow brick road," Kitsis says. "We're setting up the fight of all fights: Evil Queen versus Wicked Witch!"

- The March 9 episode will also incorporate the fact that real-life couple Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas (Snow and Charming) are expecting a child. The baby will have a connection to the impending progeny of Sleeping Beauty (Sarah Bolger) and Prince Phillip (Julian Morris), though producers promise there won't be a soap opera-like baby switch.

- Emma (Jennifer Morrison) will encounter a mysterious stranger in New York City (Covert Affairs' Christopher Gorham); Charming will come to the rescue of Rapunzel (Alexandra Metz) atop a tower; and Belle (Emilie de Ravin) will meet her French candlestick pal, Lumiere (True Blood's Henri Lubatti). 

- Now that Meghan Ory has wrapped the first season of CBS's Intelligence, she may be back as Little Red this spring.

- Expect a splashy season-finale wedding. Will the bride and groom be Belle and Rumple? Emma and Hook? Regina and Robin Hood?

- Cruella de Vil and the princesses from the box-office hit Frozen top the producers' character wish list for Season 4.

Spoilers!!!