Read our interview with Once Upon a Time‘s Emilie de Ravin where she teases Sunday’s episode, talks her new alter-ego Lacey, and whether she’ll be drawn to Rumpelstiltsin.

Once Upon a Time finally returns Sunday night with the episode “Lacey,” which introduces Belle’s new Storybrooke alter-ego and flashes back to show a different chapter of the Rumbelle saga, while also introducing Robin Hood (played by Tom Ellis).

In the following interview, Emilie de Ravin offers us some clues about what we can expect from this new and very changed Belle. Now that she’s Lacey, she’ll have no memory of Rumpelstiltskin – but that doesn’t mean she won’t be attracted to him!

Hypable.com: You finally get an alter ego after all this time! Were you excited when you found out about that?

Emilie de Ravin: Yeah, ’cause there was no reason to give her one when she was locked up in a concrete mental hospital cage really, was there? God, Belle must have been so bored. Not even a book! So cruel [laughs].

Tell us about your new character Lacey.

Actually, it’s really sad. I mean it’s cool, but it’s sad. Mr. Gold is so desperate, and then Regina pops up and gives her her memory – but it’s obviously not her memory, it’s Lacey, who dresses differently, looks differently… she’s a quote-unquote “scantily clad bar whore” who likes to spend more of her time at [the bar] The Rabbit Hole.

She’s not a loser by any means, she’s just a carefree, fun girl who can look after herself. She likes to play pool, she likes to drink, she dresses a bit provocatively – but not so guys will look at her, just ’cause she feels comfortable like that. She doesn’t care what people think, basically.

She’s got no instinct to leave the town, as opposed to Belle, who’s always been interested in reading about things and going places and experiencing things. Lacey is just pretty happy with her little Rabbit Hole life at the moment.

Does it say anything about Belle that her alternate self is almost the complete opposite of her?

Not really, because this personality was made by Regina just to get back at Mr. Gold. Because how is Mr. Gold going to get Lacey to fall in love with him? And he really needs Belle right now, emotionally, and just in general. So this is just out of complete spite, because Regina is saying well, good luck having Lacey fall in love with you. So that’s an interesting conquest now for Mr. Gold [laughs].

Is this Belle/Lacey storyline something that will be wrapped up this season?

Yeah, there’ll be resolution to that. That’s a good word, resolution.

What else can you tease about Sunday’s episode?

Well, there’s some cool fairytale land flashbacks. There’s me and Rumpel, and it fills in the gaps between the two fairytale land flashbacks with the two of us, and it shows the first time that she sees an inkling of the fact that he’s not as bad as she thinks he is. And she’s happy about that. It’s the first tiny little speck of her wanting to delve more into his psyche and have him believe that he’s not a Beast, and that she can see that.

We also meet a thief called Robin Hood [Tom Ellis], and he’s a pretty fun character. He appears in fairytale land and throughout the rest of the season, too. Storybrooke’s not the safe place it used to be, we’ve got some people to watch out for! And you know, we don’t know if the town’s existence might be in danger and how that will affect everything. And then there’ll be people deciding if they’re gonna move home to fairytale land.

Will there be an opportunity for them to make that choice?

I can’t tell you that! [Laughs.] But at least for Lacey, she’s not involved, she doesn’t care. She’s doing her own thing, and Gold’s trying to get her to love him.

Why do you think Lacey isn’t drawn to Rumpel the way Snow and Charming were drawn to each other?

Well… that Snow and Charming thing took a long time though. This is a short period of time, and it’s different because she has zero memory. Nothing. Whereas they remembered who they were in Storybrooke, and there was something that drew them together, but they didn’t know they were Snow White and Prince Charming.

For me, I’m rejecting this guy who’s just coming in, I have no idea who I am, and he’s bringing me a cup with a chip in it and trying to get me to hypnotize myself with it? Okay. But then there’s the phone call which was so emotional, and it’s really messing with her head, he’s so honest and it’s so sad, you can’t not believe it yet she doesn’t know how to believe it.

And he’s dying, I mean, it’s the one person who – even if she’s being scared and frustrated and confused by it all – he’s the only person who’s tried to help her through this whole thing. She starts to see that even more, so when he comes back alive that’s obviously much more of a relief than she probably would have felt if she hadn’t had that time to reflect. Not with a memory, but just what he said to her.

So will there maybe be a bit of a Gold/Lacey romance developing?

See, this girl is not drawn to him because she doesn’t know him, she’s got nothing to be drawn to at that point, and neither does Lacey – unless Lacey was to be, “hey, you’re hot!” The Lacey and Mr. Gold development is like going on a first date, it’s starting all over and that’s interesting because they’ve obviously got nothing in common. Until maybe Lacey lets out that she kinda likes his dark side…

Thanks to Emilie de Ravin for doing this interview with us. It’s definitely given us a lot to think about. Do you think Rumpelstiltskin can bring Belle back by getting close to Lacey? Or will it perhaps be counter-productive for him to have someone around who might be encouraging his dark side rather than holding it back like Belle did?

Once Upon a Time 2×19 “Lacey” airs Sunday at 8/7c on ABC.

You can learn more about Once Upon a Time on the show’s official ABC page!