Today the lovely Leah is back with her thoughts on the latest episode of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland!

I sincerely apologize to everyone for this review being so late this week. I had a tough week between several character deaths occurring on the shows I’m watching, I had to make a tough decision to stop watching a show that I’ve loved, and it was a busy week for me in general, all of which postponed my writing.

Title Heart of the Matter

What Happened? In flashbacks, we see how Cora influenced a young Anastasia on the eve of her wedding and helped facilitate the events that lead to Will’s removal of his heart. She also taught Anastasia how to use magic, bringing Anastasia more fully under its corrupting power. In present-day, Will’s lack of a heart is getting in the way of Jafar’s spell, and Alice and Cyrus go to Storybrooke to get Will’s heart back before Jafar gets to it first. When Jafar takes the heart from Alice and Cyrus back in Wonderland, he loses his staff to Cyrus, and Cyrus realizes that the staff contains his mother. After putting Will’s heart back in, Jafar has no need of the Red Queen, so he kills her in front of Will after their reunion.

Favorite Lines “I’ll save you some time: water, hairy spiders, being stabbed in the head, and uh, raisins—grapes are fine, but raisins-” (Will)

“I believe he is as much my captive as I am his. We create our own prisons.” (The Sultan)

My Thoughts This episode continued to bring the intensity in our build up to the season finale, and it was full of new information for both the audience and the characters. As a general note, I am really enjoying the way that—since the show has returned—it has felt like they are playing out the final showdown, while also giving it room to breathe. Instead of packing all the most important events into the last episode and making it so fast-paced that there’s no time for more nuanced, quieter moments, we are getting one big event stretched out over a few episodes, and I really appreciate it.

The flashbacks in this episode were a major source of information, and personally I felt grateful that they showed Anastasia’s conflict. Since the midseason finale, I have fully believed that the Anastasia truly does love Will, regretted her past decisions, and wasn’t as cold-hearted as everyone thought she was. This episode showed us that she regretted her choices even before she married the king, and if it weren’t for Cora’s influence, she would likely have run away from the palace and gone back to Will. I love that this show has evolved the Red Queen from a somewhat one-note villain who was a cold, simpering, power-hungry queen into a complex woman who is ambitious, will fiercely stand up to anyone who tries to take her down, and is also able to be loving and compassionate. She is full of complexity, and I enjoy seeing female characters that are given so much depth.

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It’s time once again to travel down the rabbit hole, as the lovely Leah shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland!

Title Dirty Little Secrets

What Happened? Will and the Red Queen head off to attempt to build an army, and Alice and Cyrus go to find the Well of Wonders. Will and the Red Queen are captured by the Jabberwocky before they can achieve their goal and are brought to Jafar, where the Red Queen is forced by the Jabberwocky to use her three wishes. In flashbacks, we are shown how Cyrus and his brothers became genies when they stole magic water from the Well of Wonders to save their mother’s life.

Favorite Lines “Not me. That’s my house he’s holding now, and frankly I hate it. There’s not a lot of elbowroom, and you know what else there isn’t? A toilet!” (Will)

“You can dispense with the insufferable small talk Jafar, or is this your idea of torture?” (the Red Queen)

My Thoughts This week’s episode was interesting and a bit intense. There were a few things I really enjoyed as well as a few things that disappointed me; “Dirty Little Secrets” will not be my favorite episode of the season, but it also won’t be my least favorite.

In flashbacks we are shown how Cyrus’s actions brought about his and his brothers’ fates. As a quick note—I thought it was fun to see that he and his family had lived in Agrabah, and that they had taken magic from the Well of Wonders, which I’m assuming is a reference to the Disney film Aladdin’s Cave of Wonders, which was where Aladdin found the genie’s lamp. It was a fun way to connect the two genie origin stories for those familiar with the Disney tale.

In these flashbacks it was interesting to see a different side to Cyrus—we have already seen that Cyrus has a bit of a trickster side, but this younger Cyrus was one who was a bit dishonest, greedy, and reckless. He was less patient than the Cyrus in the show’s current timeline and less aware of how actions involving magic can have serious consequences. He did, however, still have that kind heart that we’ve seen at his core.

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Fear not, fellow Once Upon a Time in Wonderland fans—the lovely Leah is back with her thoughts on the start of the second half of this season! 

Title Nothing to Fear

What Happened? Lizard finds Will’s magic bottle in the river and ends up using some of her wishes to try to gain Will’s attention and affection with devastating consequence. The Red Queen, Cyrus, and Alice team up in their efforts to find Will, but are sidetracked when unhappy constituents who want revenge kidnap the Red Queen. Meanwhile Jafar, now the ruler of the land, seeks out the dangerous Jabberwocky as a tool in finding the genie.

Favorite Lines “The throne is made when the man who sits on it is worthy. Where you sit Jafar, is nothing more than a large chair.” (The Sultan)

“I’ve tried, but word’s gotten out; working for you tends to shorten one’s life expectancy.” (The Caterpillar)

My Thoughts This was a fairly strong returning episode for Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, which was reassuring to see, as it suggests that the show will be able to keep up a high level of quality for its remaining four episodes. I feel like the show balanced each of the three different groups of characters well, cutting between them without making it feel like we were jumping all over the place and also not lingering too long on any one storyline.

We open the episode with Alice, Cyrus, and the Red Queen, who reluctantly team up together to try to find Will. I found it interesting that now that Will’s gone, Alice, who is normally the more optimistic and open-hearted of the group, plays the role of the cynic and constantly questions the Red Queen’s motivations. Cyrus, however, regards her with much more of an open mind. I don’t know if part of Alice’s mistrust is because she doesn’t remember the Red Queen’s confession of her love for Will, or if it’s merely that Alice will never completely trust the Red Queen after she was the one who Alice spent so long believing had killed Cyrus. Either way, I found the new dynamic interesting and a good way to endear us to Cyrus and give more depth to Alice. I’m really looking forward to seeing these three and Will work together over the rest of the season.

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Get ready for another trip down the rabbit hole—Leah is back with her latest review of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland! 

Title Trust Me

What Happened? As we follow Alice and the Knave on their continuing journey to find Cyrus by finding his bottle, Alice sets a trap with the purpose of knowing whom she is up against—something Cyrus once told her is essential to any battle. Meanwhile, the Red Queen and Jafar continue to struggle for dominance in their relationship, and the Red Queen makes a move that puts them on more equal footing.

Favorite Lines
“The one thing you can count on in Wonderland is that you can’t count on anyone.” (Alice)

“Very nice dungeon you have here…I can really see you enjoy dampness. Remind me to tell you the value of keeping pretty things around.” (Red Queen)

“I thought when you truly loved somebody, you didn’t need any proof.”
“You don’t, but it’s still nice to have.”
(The Knave and Alice)

My Thoughts
In my opinion, this episode was a major improvement on last week’s pilot episode. The characters all gained more depth, and the plot gave you just enough information to move the story along while not revealing everything all at once.

I found myself pleasantly surprised by Alice in this episode. While I already liked her from what we saw of her in the pilot, I did not expect the trap she set in this episode. Alice may seem naïve and foolish to the outside observer, but she’s got more to her than that. She showed us in this episode that she also has cleverness and creativeness, and is perhaps not quite what everyone first perceives her to be. She’s an optimist, yes, but she also knows what it is like to feel left behind by a loved one, as she tells us that her father has “moved on” from her. It was nice to see that even someone as persistent and optimistic as Alice sometimes has doubts, and has things in her past that haunt her.

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