Major Once Upon a Time Season 2 Spoilers: Magic, Memories, and Captain Hook

As promised, the creators of runaway hit Once Upon a Time came to Comic-Con armed with major Season 2 spoilers. Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis (former writers for OUaT’s big brother, Lost) revealed exciting new characters, key characters’ origin stories, and how, exactly, Storybrooke has changed now that Mr. Gold has unleashed magic and memory upon its fairy tale residents.

Introducing New Faces and Creatures
The two showrunners previously revealed several major characters who would get their own origin story on OUaT Season 2 (for a full rundown, click here). But now, in addition to Sleeping Beauty and Mulan, we will meet Jack (of Jack and the Beanstalk), the Big Bad Wolf, Captain Hook, and even more of Maleficent in her horrifying dragon form. Also, something called the “Love Bug — or Emma’s car,”

Post-Intelligencer reports, “We’ll learn why certain parts of [the] fairy tale land — like Snow White’s glass coffin — appeared in the real world in the finale.” As we know, the first season ended with Regina’s curse being broken by Emma. That means that everyone in Storybrooke will now remember exactly who they were in the fairy tale world. The producers revealed, “They won’t be erasing everyone’s extra memories from Storybrooke” either. And, since Mr. Gold introduced magic into the town...

…Everyone Becomes Their Magical Characters in Storybrooke
Confused? Let’s use an example. Ruby, who was Little Red Riding Hood in the fairy tale world, will not only remember her true identity in Storybrooke, but she’ll also be able to transform into her wolf form whenever there’s a full moon. As Edward puts it, “The curse breaks and everyone can remember what they lost and what they had and who they are. For some people, it might be a second chance. We'll see who repeats the same mistakes.”

We’ll Find Out Who Henry’s Father Is
At Comic-Con, TVGuide reported that “We will definitely learn the identity of Henry’s birth father,” and Jennifer Morrison knows who he is already!

Barbara Hershey Is Back (Thank the Evil Gods)
Yes, Regina’s insidious mother, Cora, will be back, as Edward pretty much confessed. “I mean, to not have Barbara Hershey come back would be such a travesty of Season 2,” he said at Comic-Con. This also means that we’ll learn more about Regina’s origin story, including a very important triangle. Here is how Adam explains the dynamic: “In [Season 1, Episode 18: “Stable Boy”], [Cora] talked about how she was the miller's daughter and she had to do a lot to keep Regina. If I remember correctly, the miller's daughter was given to a prince because she could spin straw into gold. Therefore, she owed Rumpelstiltskin a baby. The question is, is that baby Regina? ... When you get that Regina is the baby that's promised to Rumpel, then you're like, what did Cora do to get out of a deal with a man who usually kills people?”

Finally, Who Is Dr. Whale?!
The producers promised that, yes, we will find out who Dr. Whale’s fairy tale counterpart is in Season 2. Since we can’t help ourselves, we’re going to go ahead and theorize, apropos of nothing, that Dr. Whale is Captain Hook.

What are you most excited about heading into Season 2?

Once Upon a Time Season 2 premieres in the fall on ABC.

Sources: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, TVGuide