The Queens of Darkness will be given greater depth as ABC's Once Upon a Time moves forward with the second half of season 4.

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Once Upon a Time co-creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz spoke about the latter half of the season with Entertainment Tonight and what they are hoping to accomplish with Maleficent (Kristin Bauer van Straten), Ursula (Merrin Dungey) and the series as a whole.

"We hope that in the second half of the season, you'll go back and look at the series in a different way," Kitsis said. "Just like in the end of the second episode, you realize Maleficent isn't just a villain, she was trying to protect her kid. Now if you re-watch [episode] 13, and watch everything she's doing, hopefully it gives more depth to it."

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Ursula's backstory with Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) will also be explored in the 15th episode of the season. The series is flashing back to when Ursula was "around 18, 19" according to Kitsis.

"You're going to see an entire flashback of what happened. You're going to see the origin of Ursula," Kitsis said. "Similar to what we've done with Cora/young Cora or Emma/Young Emma -- as we all know, Hook is about 385 years old. It's the guy-liner."

The flashback will help explain what Hook did to Ursula, but Kitsis assured that it is not a sexual encounter. In fact, it is "far worse," the show runner said.

"When you think about what would be worse than having your heart broken, I would say having your soul crushed."

Perhaps this will further explain why the Queens of Darkness are the way they are, and why they are so desperate to finally get their happy endings.

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

Watch the promo for the next episode of Once Upon a Time here:

Tags: Once Upon A Time television ABC