'Once Upon a Time' scoop: Emma and Regina confront issues, Snow gets her groove back

The highly anticipated SwanQueen episode of Once Upon a Time is finally here.

During Sunday’s hour of the ABC fairy tale drama, Regina (Lana Parrilla) will begrudgingly team up with Emma (Jennifer Morrison) to find the Snow Queen (Elizabeth Mitchell). But Emma will use this as an opportunity to clear the air after she seemingly ruined Regina’s relationship with Robin Hood (Sean Maguire) when she brought his dead wife Marian (Christie Laing) back from the past at the end of last season.

“She feels extremely betrayed by Emma and won’t let her off the hook that easy,” Parrilla says, teasing that Regina will “suffer a loss” during the hour. “She plays really hard to get throughout the episode. Regina lashes out verbally quite a bit. It’s like every scene is another snarky remark, but it’s warranted because she’s been burned. She doesn’t hate Emma. She’s just really upset with her.”

Adds Morrison: “It’s definitely complicated. It’s good that they’re getting it out in the air, though. They definitely are finally talking about the complications of Marian coming back. It seems like Regina understands that Emma clearly didn’t have bad intentions and didn’t realize what she was doing, but that doesn’t change how much it sucks.”

The goal, Morrison says, is for Regina and Emma to eventually be friends—something no Once fan could’ve imagined when this show first debuted. But it may be a while before they actually get to that point since there are plenty of other complications getting in the way. “Regina is concerned about who wrote the book and she wants to track that person down,” Morrison says. “Rumple (Robert Carlyle) and Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) are dealing with the Sorcerer’s Apprentice hat. Emma is concerned about Regina with Marian being back, but she’s also concerned about the Snow Queen, and she’s starting to work out that maybe she’s more involved in the Snow Queen’s plot than she realized.”

Elsewhere in Storybrooke, Charming attempts to quell Snow’s fears in raising baby Neal by setting up a date night away from their child. “She’s worried about failing and he definitely can recognize that because that’s one of his biggest fears: failing as a father,” Dallas says. “She’s keeping Neal quite close. She doesn’t want to leave the baby with anyone because as she rightfully says, ‘We don’t have the best track record with babies.’ They want to get it right this time.”

“I think—and I have found this in real life—that when a woman has a baby, everyone assumes that said woman needs to have some time to herself, and make time for romance,” Goodwin says. “The woman has to be in the mindset that she is looking for that outlet. It can’t be something that’s imposed. So when David does put the pressure on Mary Margaret to go on this date, while she’s hoping to please him and connect with him, she’s not yet ready, and therefore their time together is a bit strained because it’s a bit forced.”

Therefore, David comes up with an interesting idea to get Snow’s groove back. “He wants her to get out and have some time for herself and to get back in touch with who she is and where she came from,” Dallas says. “And hopefully remind her of the woman that she was before she became all encompassed with bringing up baby Neal.”

Once Upon a Time airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.