Once Upon a Time boss, Colin O'Donoghue on Hook's journey back to Emma

Can Hook and Emma’s relationship survive Once Upon a Time‘s latest twist?

Though Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) had initially mulled running away after Emma (Jennifer Morrison) uncovered he was responsible for the death of David’s (Josh Dallas) father, a run-in with Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) made him change his mind. Unfortunately, Gideon (Giles Matthey) trapped Hook on Captain Nemo’s (Faran Tahir) departing ship, therefore making Emma believe Hook has abandoned her.

Even so, O’Donoghue is optimistic that the duo can weather this new challenge. “He realizes he can’t run away anymore,” O’Donoghue tells EW. “He’s not the same Hook. He has to confront the issues and deal with them head-on and whatever happens happens, which is part of who he is as a changed man. Unfortunately, Gideon sends them away, and now it’s a case of he’s banished and he’s got no way of getting back to Emma, so she’s got no idea that he actually was going to come back and try and deal with it.”

Therefore, Hook will attempt to work his way back to Emma, but it won’t be easy. “He’s beyond desperate,” O’Donoghue says. “We saw in the last season that it is true love. He’s so desperate to get back to the woman that he loves. He’s already lost somebody that he loved years and years ago and this is an even stronger love, if that can be possible.”

So, where is Hook heading? “He’s going to find himself on a circuitous journey to try to get back to Emma,” executive producer Adam Horowitz says. “It might take a pirate to a land that is very unfamiliar to him, which is a desert, perhaps a desert like Agrabah.”

Hence, while stuck on the Nautilus, Hook will come into contact with a number of familiar faces, chief among them Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz) and Jasmine (Karen David), who are just as desperate to save their land from Jafar (Oded Fehr). “We’ll also see him interact with Nemo, we’ll see him interact with Liam, his half-brother, which is great because you get to see them deal with their relationship a little bit more than we had seen before,” O’Donoghue adds. “We come across Black Beard and Ariel, which is always fun. The Black Beard stuff is really good fun because these are two pirates trying to outdo each other.”

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