‘Once Upon A Time’ Spoilers: Why Captain Hook And ‘Little Mermaid’ Fans Should Be Happy

Once Upon a Time is trading snow and ice for salt and waves during the second half of season 4.

According to Spoiler TV, Once showrunner Adam Horowitz recently gave fans an exciting Christmas gift in the form of a title spoiler. You can check it out below.

Here’s a holiday #OnceUponATime #titlespoiler! Happy holidays! Hope to see y’all on March 1! pic.twitter.com/N8S5AA5OM5

— Adam Horowitz (@AdamHorowitzLA) December 24, 2014

As you can see, Once Upon a Time is likely going under the sea for episode 16. Unfortunately, Horowitz didn’t reveal whether Merrin Dungey’s Ursula will have her own creepy soul garden full of mermaids and mermen that have been turned into polyps.

“Poor Unfortunate Souls” will probably tell Ursula’s back story. As the Inquisitr previously reported, JoAnna Garcia Swisher will return as Ariel in the same episode, and Ghostbusters star Ernie Hudson will portray sea god Poseidon.

Poseidon isn’t a character in The Little Mermaid movie, but he does make an appearance in Disney’s Hercules. Once Upon a Time has already introduced viewers to Medusa, so perhaps other characters from Greek mythology will eventually appear on the show.

Interestingly, Triton is the son of Poseidon in Greek mythology. This would make Ursula’s father Ariel’s grandfather. However, Once Upon a Time may choose not to use this family tie.

According to Plato, Poseidon resided in Atlantis, so Once just might take viewers on an undersea journey to the lost city. Once Upon a Time mainly focuses on fairy tales, but if the show is introducing the villain from 101 Dalmatians during the second half of season 4, why can’t it pay homage to Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire?

Since Ursula is a sea witch and Hook is a pirate, it would not be surprising to see the two butt heads in “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” TV Line recently confirmed that the second half of Once Upon a Time will feature more of Hook’s back story, and Colin O’Donoghue told Zap2it that Killian has a history with at least one of the Queens of Darkness. It’s already been hinted that he crossed paths with Maleficent long before coming to Storybrooke — the pirate recognized the dark fairy at the end of season 2 when he encountered her in her zombie form. Because Maleficent is pals with Ursula, there’s a good chance he’s also encountered the octo-witch.

Fans of Hook will be glad to know that they’ll also get to see more of the pirate in modern-day Storybrooke when Once Upon a Time returns. According to Colin O’Donoghue, the pirate will even make a few new pals.

“You definitely see in the second half of the season where Hook is integrating a little bit more into Storybooke life. It’s been difficult because every interaction he’s had with people has been helping save the world somehow. We see where he kind of begins to make connections with other people.”

Maybe he’ll make amends with Will Scarlet — the lonely Knave could definitely use a friend, and he and Hook could swap stories about their encounters with Maleficent.

Speaking of Maleficent, her back story will be featured in the episode preceding “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” Episode 15 will be titled “Enter the Dragon,” and it will likely reveal how Regina and Maleficent first met. Entertainment Weekly recently reported that Originals star Sebastian Roche has been cast as King Stefan, the father of Aurora/Sleeping Beauty. Perhaps he’ll appear in “Enter the Dragon,” and maybe Once Upon a Time fans will finally learn why Maleficent cast that sleeping spell on his daughter. Because episode 15 is all about Maleficent and episode 16 is all about Ursula, it’s highly likely that episode 14 or 17 will feature Cruella de Vil’s back story.

Get ready to see a lot more of the sea when Once Upon a Time returns on March 1 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

[Image credits: ABC]