Can you believe that the writers did what they did in last night’s episode?! See what showrunners Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis have to say about it! They also discuss a bit about the episodes coming up in January, so beware of mild spoilers.

Speaking to Zap2It, Kitsis and Horowitz explain that they had to kill off a major character early on to establish that, “if a battle is going to begin, there has to be stakes and unfortunately, sometimes stakes are people’s lives.”

But it wasn’t just for shock value:

What we want to do is obviously we want the show to be as dramatic and exciting as we can make it, but we also feel seven hours into the show, we want the audience to know that what’s at stake is big. It’s life and death. You need to feel like the world of Fairytale Land and the world of Storybrooke both have their own dangers and these dangers are real.

Well, we’ve got until January 8 to dry our eyes, but then it’s time for a Rumpelstiltskin episode, which will explore his backstory! The EPs preview the episode and what else is coming up:

I’m very excited for people to see Rumpelstiltskin’s origin story. That’s what we’ll be coming back with after the break. […] These stories don’t exist in a vacuum. They can mash-up with each other … we’re very excited to show you what you didn’t know about Hansel and Gretel and what you didn’t know about Belle and Beauty and the Beast.

We can’t wait to see what happens next!