We sat down with Once Upon a Time show creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis after an airing of tonight’s episode and they explained tonight’s biggest reveals.

Last week we got a chance to view two episodes of Once Upon a Time along with a Q&A session with the Horowitz and Kitsis and they had a lot to say about what you just saw.

Can you explain why you picked these two characters [Belle and Will] to be together?

Kitsis: For us, any time you have your heart broken you look for a way to smile again. And I think that we’ve hinted that Will leaving Wonderland had some heartbreak, and you have Belle who’s clearly also had heartbreak. The reason was is they have a lot in common — they both fell in love with villains, they both hoped that these villains would be redeemed.

For the three of you that saw Wonderland, he fell in love with the Red Queen and she changed and [Will] saw the woman beneath the monster and that’s the same with Belle. They had a lot in common and what we loved about Belle in the winter finale is that she was kind of like, “It’s enough,” it’s enough lying and at a certain point you have to stop giving people the benefit of the doubt. You have to say “change or eff off.”

We love the strength from Belle and we love her moving on because if we look at her as a character, you remember she volunteered to save her town because her father wouldn’t let her be a hero. And she became the maid and she became his wife and she hasn’t really lived. And for us, you know, if you got married at 21 and now you’re 32 you kind of might think “maybe I want to live again.”

Horowitz: Belle has to be strong and I think one of the things that happened in that relationship with Rumple is that as his lies and betrayals grew the audience was seeing that Belle was unaware of any of this. And we really wanted to build, in the first half of the season, her discovery and then letting her act out of strength. And if they were to have any chance of being together, she has to be a strong person, but what he has to do, well, it’s going to be pretty difficult.

Kitsis: What we also like is how many people were so upset by his behavior, yet he warned us in “Skin Deep” that he’s a difficult man to love, and we just don’t want to believe it. What we love is even the fans are like, “No! That’s not, no, yeah he’s killed people and he’s a horrible person and told us he was a liar and he always chooses power over love but that was different!” But it’s not.

Will we delve more into Hook and Ursula’s history?

Kitsis: We’re getting a whole episode! Episode 15 will explain what he did to her. When you think about what’s worse than having your heart broken, I would say it’s having your soul crushed.

Can you talk about how the last scene with Regina and Snow might change their relationship?

Horowitz: What we loved about it was that it’s, you know, Snow was asked to keep a secret and couldn’t keep her mouth shut. Can Regina keep her mouth shut? I’d say that Regina is a stronger and better secret keeper than Snow White. But it does create a bond between the two of them, and a bond that’s going to last a long time.

Kitsis: One of my favorite scenes we did this year was in the two-hour episode we did. When they were talking and Snow said to Regina, “I have to believe we have a chance at grace,” and you know in that scene it was like she was giving Regina hope, she was helping her open up. Based on tonight’s episode it makes you wonder, was she also speaking about herself? And so we just love the fact that these two, despite everything, can come together because they started out as friends.

What do you think of the new ship on ‘Once Upon a Time’?

Now that they’ve explained themselves, do you still disagree with the pairing of Will and Belle, or do you ship them now?