In a new interview, the Once Upon a Time showrunners Kitsis and Horowitz answer burning questions about last night’s season 2 premiere episode!

In the first episode of Once Upon a Time‘s second season, the characters in Storybrooke reacted to the curse being broken, while in fairytale land, Mulan and Princess Aurora saw Prince Phillip’s soul being devoured by a wraith. And as it turned out, these two stories were happening at the same time: one area of fairytale land was mysteriously not touched by Regina’s magic.

At the end of the episode, Emma and Snow were pulled back into the fairytale land with the wraith that was targeting Regina, putting them right into the hands of a pair of very pissed off princesses. What will happen next?!

Speaking to TV Guide, the showrunners express their excitement at fans finally having seen this first episode. Horowitz explains the decision to take some of the main characters back to fairytale land, saying, “The idea now that we can tell stories in Storybrooke parallel with fairy tale land that are both present day and both moving forward is exciting to us. We’re excited for the audience to see it.”

He also talks about choosing Emma and Snow, saying that they wanted to, “take Emma into a land that she’s never been to and then have it be a difficult place where maybe she’s not as beloved as she would want to be.” Kitsis adds, “now she’s in a land where that person [who Emma was acting like a big sister to] is her mom and knows better.”

But what about that mysterious character, played by Michael Raymond-James, who opened up the episode? The writers of course won’t give anything away, but Horowitz does say that within the span of nine episodes (up until the Christmas break), “you’ll learn a lot more about him and what his role in our larger story is.” There are of course a lot of theories about him being Henry’s father, and while the showrunners won’t confirm or deny, they do reiterate that we’ll learn the answer to that question “well before the finale,” too.

Finally, Kitsis teases that we haven’t seen the last of Prince Phillip: “We didn’t see him die. We saw his soul be sucked, so the question is: Can somebody go get it?”

And while he doesn’t want to label Phillip’s relationship with Aurora and Mulan as a love triangle, he does comment on Phillip’s ambiguous declaration of love, saying, “it looked to me as if he was saying it to both of them.” So maybe it will be Mulan’s true love kiss, and not Aurora’s, which will wake him?

So many questions still left unanswered, but we definitely enjoyed the beginning of what looks like an exciting season! What did you think?

Don’t forget to check out the promo for 2×02 “We Are Both,” in which we’ll learn a bit more about Regina, and how she met Rumpelstiltskin.