Once Upon a Time Postmortem: A Storybrooke Reunion! What's Next?

[Warning: This story contains major spoilers from Sunday's midseason finale of Once Upon a Time. Read at your own risk!]

Finally!

After spending most of Once Upon a Time's second season in fairy tale land, Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) have returned to Storybrooke to reunite with their family — and boy, was it a sweet reunion.

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Faced with the possibility that Cora (Barbara Hershey) could come through the portal, Regina (Lana Parrilla) and Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) devised a plan that would kill anyone traveling through the portal. But swayed by a pleading Henry (Jared Gilmore), Regina decided at the last minute to lift the spell, which spared Emma and Snow's life and safely reunited them with David (Josh Dallas) and the rest of Storybrooke — something Goodwin and Morrison had been eagerly waiting to happen.  

"I actually always knew in what episode we were coming back, not to mention the fact that even if I hadn't been warned, I knew that I wasn't having costume fittings for a very long time," Goodwin says with a laugh. "I was clearly going to be staying in the same stinky sweater."

Now that the family has been reunited, Goodwin says the ABC fairy tale drama will get back to focusing on its characters together in Storybrooke. "The separation of these characters has reached its expiration date," she says. "It was time for us to all come home and figure out what the rules of this new world are and who these characters are going to be in Storybrooke now that they've remembered who they are, because that's something that we haven't really been able to focus on because of all of the other plot points. It's time to get back to the characters."

This includes seeing how the relationship between Henry and Emma has evolved considering Emma learned firsthand what it was like to be a mother while in fairy tale land. "I think she's always going to be a little unsure of herself," Morrison says. "Coming back from fairy tale land, she knows that she can't be separated from him because it was torture to be separated from him. She knows that ultimately, as long as she's there for him and she's supportive and that she loves him, that she will make mistakes, but at least he will know that he's loved."

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Unfortunately, the happy reunion was marred by the arrival of Cora and Captain Hook (Colin O'Donoghue), whose ship traveled to the Storybrooke harbor via a beanstalk bean. "It's going to be really interesting because we've clearly established that Cora is incredibly powerful," Morrison says. "I don't think any of us have really dealt with — I mean I guess Snow and Charming have to a certain extent — but really dealt with the depths of her darkness. To have that suddenly enter humanity is definitely going to be interesting to watch and see what comes of all that." 

Are you excited Emma and Snow are back in Storybrooke? Hit the comments!