Artice from TV Line

The following contains spoilers from the Season 1 finale of ABC’s Once Upon a Time. 

To think that an assembly of lookie-loos almost threw a wrench in this TV season’s most romantic reunion.

Because as excited as Once Upon a Time stars Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas were to film the season-ending epiphany reached by Storybrooke’s Mary Margaret and David — that they really are Snow White and Prince Charming — precautions had to be taken to make sure game-changing moment didn’t leak out sooner than expected.

“Oh my gosh, it was incredibly intimidating,” Goodwin tells TVLine of shooting the momentous moment when Mary Margaret and David realize their true identities, thanks to the dark curse being (partially) lifted by Emma. “And what made me very nervous about that scene was we had a huge crowd of people watching us film [in the town of Steveston, BC], so I was very concerned that we were giving something away by yelling each others’ names across the street.”

As such, Goodwin suggested that she and Dallas instead use nonsense words that to the camera would look like they’re saying “Snow” and “Charming,” then drop in the real names in post-production. But for one, the likes of “Marming” (an example she gave) weren’t quite cutting it. And two, the director and crew, she says, “ended up feeling that the crowds of people couldn’t actually hear us, given all of the elements.”

Dallas, meanwhile, says that he wasn’t nervous about the scene but instead was caught up in the “joyous” significance of it.

“That was the biggest moment of all [Season 1], particularly for David and Mary Margaret,” he says, “because it’s them all of a sudden realizing who they actually are. All of these memories come flooding back of who they are in fairytale land and their history there - but combined with the new history that they have in Storybrooke. When all of that came together, it hit them like a ton of bricks.”

So to answer one question coming out of the finale, yes, Mary Margaret and David now know who they really are but also retain memories of their brief yet significantly angsty time together there in Maine. Which is good, because, well, someone has to teach the school kids, right? And you can’t leave Granny confounded at the diner by an electric mixer.

“We don’t know anything about what’s truly going to happen next season,” Goodwin acknowledges, “but from what I understand, our characters will remember everything about both worlds, so it will be a whole new show!”