Although Once Upon a Time is a family show in every way, its scripts are often R-rated and full of cursing – of the non-magical variety!

A feature article by EW reveals that the Once Upon a Time script writers are continuing in the Lost tradition (from which Adam Horowitz and Ed Kitsis come) and filling their scripts with curse words that could never make it to air.

Kitsis tells the magazine that, “When we were on Lost, [showrunner Damon Lindelof] once said, ‘You can either be running through the jungle or you can be f–king running through the jungle — What’s more intense?’” So, “we carried that on because it helps the actors.”

They also give some examples of the loaded scene descriptions, taken from last Sunday’s episode “Lady of the Lake”:

When Lancelot was first revealed to Emma and Snow in last Sunday’s episode, for example, the script noted that “things appear f–ked” for our heroes when “a smile grows across Snow’s face” as she recognizes her old friend. And in the next moment, “we wonder how the f–k these two met…” The producers recall that one rousing piece of description explained an action taken by actor Josh Dallas this way: “Because he’s Prince f–king Charming.”

We would love to get our hands on one of these scripts, or a video of the cast doing a read-through! It’s too bad these would never make it to air, but we guess that might be a bit too meta even for Once Upon a Time.

Don’t miss tonight’s episode, “The Crocodile,” which airs at 8/7c on ABC. We meet Captain Hook for the first time, and learn how he ended up with the infamous hook on his hand – and what role Rumpelstiltskin played in making that happen. Check out the promo and sneak peeks right here on Hypable!