Revenge is about to take us back to the early aughts.

At Sunday's PaleyFest panel, the entire cast of this ABC thriller was joined by creator Mike Kelley, who offered up the juiciest of all spoilers to a packed Saban Theatre:

The series will soon air what Kelley dubbed an "origin story," which will tell us a lot more about the day featured in the photo at Lydia's house, where a dark-haired Emily is acting as a waitress.

“The way we’re treating it is that this is an episode of Revenge set in 2002,” said the producer. “We’re not setting it up like a flashback.”

Why take such an unusual step?

Star Emily VanCamp explained that setting will provide Emily with “her first glimpse at these people who destroyed her family, when she’s still not quite believing her father and his journals. There’s a big event [that happens] at this New Year’s Eve party, and it really solidifies what her father’s been telling her... That’s sort of the beginning of her journey.”

Among other Revenge panel teases and reveals:

• Roger Bart will return as Mason Treadwell.
• The murder trial will be concluded by episode 19, with a time jump taking place before then and the season concluding with winter in The Hamptons.
• The lengths Victoria will go to in order to protect her son will become evident when she actually orchestrates a beating of Daniel in prison. Said Madeleine Stowe: “In Victoria’s mind, the best way to get her son out of jail is to get the daylights beaten out of him... it’s going to cause a big problem between them.”
• Having shown off her deceptive side on the most recent new episode, we'll see even more from Ashley in the coming week, previewed Kelly: she'll “have a definite shift in loyalty."

NOTE: Return to TV Fanatic later this week for our red carpet interviews with various cast members, which include scoop from VanCamp on either Jack or Daniel betraying Emily, and advice from Connor Paolo on how to style your hair like his.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.