Is “Once Upon A Time” turning into “American Horror Story?”

Might we soon be seeing Once Upon A Time: Asylum?

It sounds weird, but it’s true. Though we’re only two episodes into the second half of Once Upon A Time Season 5, it’s already time to start thinking about how this season is going to end. Judging from some newly released details about who’s joining the show, and where the show is going, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be all sunshine, rainbows, and happy endings. That’s because OUAT is headed to a mental hospital.

According to Deadline, two brand new characters are coming to Storybrooke to close out the season. Hank Harris and Sam Witwer will play Nathaniel and Jacob, respectively. Nathaniel is “a meek and troubled patient at a mental institution who finds himself trapped under the thumb of its evil and overbearing warden,” with Jacob being the warden, “who takes pleasure in tormenting his most disturbed and helpless patient.”

Pause for a second to try and figure out how OUAT is jumping from the Underworld to a mental hospital. Pause for another second to think about the fact that Storybrooke has had a mental hospital this whole time, which is little seen, and even less discussed. But sure, let’s head back there!

As of right now, the grand OAUT plan is for both of these characters to stick around for Season 6, which means that we could be stuck in a twisted Storybrook mental hospital for a while (and hopefully that means maybe we’ll see the return of Doctor Whale, HINT, HINT, PLEASE?). But like… huh? There are no Disney fairytales with a psych ward setting, so this is uncharted OUAT territory. TVLine  speculates that these two guys could end up being the Brother’s Grimm, and that makes sense since Henry’s author status is coming back into play.

There’s also the fact that one of these characters is named Jacob, and that happens to be a name from OUAT’s sister series, Lost, which also had two guys — Jacob and the Man in Black — on opposing sides, one light, one dark, fighting for rule of the Island. This Jacob and Nathaniel could easily be fighting for control of the mental hospital. Or like, Pride Rock, if the mental hospital ends up being a long drawn out allegory for The Lion King. OUAT has done stranger things before, and clearly, they’re going to keep doing them.