REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 113
Once Upon A Time in Wonderland closes its season/series with episode 13 entitled “And They Lived…” and while our heroes prepare to fight their final battle, Jafar is more powerful than ever.
Right in the beginning of the episode we found out what Jafar actually wanted to achieve with this spell. Apparently his plan wasn’t just to force his father to love him, what Jafar actually wanted was to let his father know what was like to be murdered by someone you love. So, in what was a bit of a twist, Jafar killed his father in cold blood.
In an episode in which laws of magic didn’t apply, rules were broken several times, far from just the example I mentioned above. Because it couldn’t happen in any other way, both Cyrus and Anastasia were brought back to life, but the latest was resurrected by Jafar, and because he never does anything from the kindness in his heart (because he doesn’t have it), he decided to torment Will by making this Knave watch himself and the former Queen, “in love”. Jafar even promised Alice that he would change the past and make sure that she would never meet Cyrus, but Alice wasn’t very worried about this, because she knew something Jafar didn’t, which brings us to the next topic of conversation.
Like Snow and Charming from the original show usually say (or even sing sometimes), Love is the most powerful magic of all and love can break any curse, and in this episode that was a clear message. This is why Alice wasn’t worried about whatever Jafar might do to her, because she was sure that what he did would either not work, or be reversed eventually. But Alice and Cyrus’ love wasn’t the only one featured in this episode, and as hope speeches and virtues of blind faith come, I did love what Will said to a cursed Anastasia. I loved it so much that I am going to have to remind you guys of it: “[Love] is messy. It means arguing and making up and laughing and… and crying and struggling. And sometimes, it doesn’t seem worth it. But it is. And, at the end, when you’re in love, no matter what happens, you forgive each other. I forgive you, Ana, for what you did to me. Because I love”. And because true love’s kiss can break any curse, this speech was followed by one that woke Anastasia up from Jafar’s spell. Even though this episode had many sweet moments, this speech followed by the kiss was definitely my favorite one.
Even though villains on Once Upon A Time are usually very well developed, making the audience love them and feel sorry for them even when they plot to kill everyone, it is always nice to watch a villain being defeated and this time it was Jafar’s turn and the most satisfying part about it was that he was the one who caused it. When Cyrus was about to return the stolen water to the Well of Wonders, Jafar caught and destroyed it. When asked what she was going to do then, Alice replied with one of those badass answers; answers which, even though sometimes are a bit cliché, I always love: “I plan to do nothing”, she said, “Because you didn’t steal that water from me. You stole it from her”. It is really these kinds of lines that make me love these moments when villains are defeated. Plus, it is always very satisfying to watch because usually they deserve what they get. The Nyx appeared and Jafar was turned into a genie.
Another very satisfying thing after seeing a villain defeated is watching our heroes be happy, even if sometimes it is for just for a few moments. The Rabbit married Alice and Cyrus and everyone was there. Yes, even Edwin. Alice forgave him and we watched him walk his daughter down the aisle. Anastasia put her red dresses aside, and became the White Queen, making Will the White King.
Alice and Cyrus stayed in her world, while Will and Anastasia went back to Wonderland, but not before the two close friends that we got the chance to watch in these past 13 episodes shared a hug and said an “I’ll see you soon”. I feel like the friendship between Will and Alice was a bit underrated sometimes, but maybe that is still realistic because we don’t usually give much value to the things/people we see every day, only to those that we don’t. It is only when those people leave that we realize we will miss them a lot.
This season finale, as I said before, turned out to be a series finale, and even though it sucks that it got cancelled, I sometimes feel like it was for the best. This show was supposed to be an anthology of Alice’s adventures in Wonderland, which means, even though we would probably still see an Alice, and a Knave…, it wouldn’t be our Alice nor our Knave. Also, there would probably not be a Cyrus next time (since he isn’t part of the original story). And it would also make things confusing while we would try to realize which season would be considered canon to the main show. That is why I like to see Once Upon A Time in Wonderland as a miniseries, because that is really what it looks like.
This was definitely an incredible episode, the best of the show in my opinion, and so it is worthy of a 9.7/10.
Sadly, I now conclude my reviews of this amazing show. I keep on saying that it was really great it finished well, with everyone happy, because pretty much every cancelled show doesn’t have that much luck. I am sure Alice and Cyrus started living their Happy Beginning, until some other villain decided to try to take away their happiness (but don’t worry, because I am sure he/she didn’t succeed).
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 112
Once Upon A Time in Wonderland is closer and closer to the finish line and in the penultimate episode, entitled “To Catch a Thief”, Jafar finally gets what he wants when he forces some heroes to work beside him.
In flashbacks we find out how the beautiful and strong friendship between Alice and the Knave started, and even though Cora didn’t make an appearance this time, she was definitely the one pulling the strings. These flashback scenes weren’t actually very relevant to the story, since we already knew that Alice was the one who stole Will’s heart from Cora and that Will didn’t put it back in his chest, but it was still nice to see these two start bonding, and it was also quite funny in some scenes. But what I enjoyed most in these flashbacks was the very last scene of it. After Will helped Alice kidnap the Rabbit to show Edwin that Wonderland is real, these two mates go down separate paths and the last thing Will tells Alice is “A great girl like you won’t be alone for long. I have a feeling your happy ending is right around the corner”. And this was exactly what happened because Alice was then seconds away from meeting Cyrus and starting the greatest adventure of her life.
Back to the present now, Jafar is definitely the kind of guy who works alone, because for the past 11 episodes his partnerships never last long. In this episode another one of his companions leaves him. And the best thing about it is that when she does, he doesn’t even know it. Positively sure that Jafar won’t live up to his word, the Jabberwocky joins the heroes in an attempt to regain her freedom. In the scene they cross paths, we find out that a happy ending can also be provided to this villain. Once again, Evil isn’t born, it’s made, but so is good. The Jabberwocky thinks she might change once Jafar is gone for good, in a scene that made me feel bad for her. That is what Once Upon A Time does: it makes you love all characters, no matter in which side of the chess board they are on.
The serpent staff now being the last thing Jafar needs to complete the spell, this sorcerer enlists Will’s help to get it, giving him hope that perhaps he will bring Anastasia back to life. With no other option of getting his love back, Will goes to Alice and Cyrus to do just that. After another beautiful scene between Alice and Will, he realizes that there is always another way, and with the Jabberwocky’s help they come up with a plan to free Amara and stop Jafar. But plans never end up the way we want them to, and, though they were able to free Jafar’s father from prison and Amara from the staff, things take another very surprising turn when, like in the previous episode, another major character is killed by the ruthless Jafar, this time it was Cyrus. Proving that Cyrus and Alice share true love and are soulmates, Alice was able to feel Cyrus’ death, even though she wasn’t very near him nor wasn’t she seeing how things were unfolding.
Those last final minutes (expect Cyrus’ death) were very enjoyable to watch. With the season finishing it was to assume that Jafar was finally going down, but it turned out to be the other way around, because it seems he gets more and more powerful every episode, and especially now. I never get tired of seeing Alice kicking ass, and so I found it awesome watching her fight all those guards. Watching the magical battle between Amara and Jafar was also really great. I do love watching two sorcerers fight. Hearing Amara say that no matter who would win the fight, Jafar would lose anyway, made it seem even more like things were getting to a closing point, but as usual Jafar outsmarted everyone, doing with Amara the same thing he did with Will, doing something that is almost irreversible, unless you can break the laws of magic.
Once Upon A Time in Wonderland is really getting better and better and things are really getting to a looming point. I am giving this episode a 9.4/10.
With only the season/series finale remaining, and with Jafar finally getting what he wanted from the beginning, things promise to get really intense, so don’t miss my next review of “And They Lived…”.
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 111
With the season closer and closer to the end, in Once Upon A Time in Wonderland’s episode 11, “Heart of Matter”, there were a few connections with the original show.
In flashbacks we got to revisit Cora, aka the Queen of Hearts, and realized that she is actually the reason why Will and Anastasia are still separated. Cora actually mentioned her daughter many times, and even said that, if she would have been able to pick, she would rather Anastasia to be her daughter. Of course that by then Cora probably didn’t know what her actual daughter was up to, because if that was so, she wouldn’t be much of a disappointment anymore. But for someone like Ana, hearing this must have felt better than good, because it seems like she never really got much love from her mother. Since Cora never had the chance to make her daughter a Queen and help her adjust to the Queen’s life, Cora desperately wanted to do that with Anastasia. So desperately that she even made sure that her and Will wouldn’t end up together ever again. Cora ultimately convinced Anastasia of her mantra, “Love is Weakness”, and she was even the one who taught the new Queen, magic.
But to pull the strings on Ana, Cora first had to pull them on Will. Cora lied saying Anastasia wasn’t planning on coming, and that is what made Will ask the Queen of Hearts to do what she often does and rip out his. Will preferred to feel nothing rather than have a heart that got broken, saying that he couldn’t live like that anymore.
Cora was also, in a way, the reason why Jafar couldn’t begin the spell. Last episode he thought he had everything he needed, but he didn’t know that all genies needed to have their hearts for the spell to work.
Alice and Cyrus begin the episode searching for the Lost and Found, so that they can continue what they started the previous episode and find Amara. That scene in the Underland was really enjoyable to watch: seeing Cyrus and Alice outsmart the Caterpillar and stealing from it literally right under its nose. But the mission to find Amara soon had to be sidelined because this couple found out that Jafar was going to go after Will’s heart. If he laid his hands on it, he would have everything for the spell. So, for the second time in this show, we travel to the awesome town of Storybrooke. Storybrooke is said to be a place that is lost in time, and a lot of us already noticed in Once Upon A Time that the technology they use is far from being up to date, but for Alice and Cyrus it was so futuristic already that they thought that it was all magic, but the Rabbit simply called it electricity. I guess it is all about points of you.
After they found the heart and got back to Wonderland, Alice and Cyrus were intersected by Jafar who managed to steal Will’s heart. At this point, Jafar doesn’t need pretty much anyone but himself alive and so, when he prepared to kill Cyrus and Alice, his staff fought back and Jafar was forced to retreat without it. Thanks to the Lost and Found, Cyrus and Alice found out that Jafar’s staff is actually Amara, and so they will now try to put her back in human form.
There are always some characters in a show that the viewers believe will never die, but sometimes they do and it usually is as much surprising as it is painful. Accepting his lost for now, Jafar went back to the dungeon and put Will’s heart back. Will and Ana shared their first kiss in a long time, but quickly got stopped by Jafar, who, in a very big twist no one saw coming, killed Anastasia right in front of her lover, putting an end to the episode.
This episode was really great. Once Upon A Time sometimes comes out with some really amazing and shocking twists, and Anastasia’s death was most certainty one of them. I am giving it a 9.2/10.
With only 2 more episodes before the end, everything is going to start happening at the same time, so brace yourselves for my next review of episode 12, “To Catch a Thief”.
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 110
Once Upon A Time in Wonderland returns with episode 10, “Dirty Little Secrets”, and our favorite team of heroes and villains decides to split up in order to cover more ground.
If we can always count on something when it comes to Once Upon A Time is that pretty much everyone is related to each other, and characters that pop up out of nowhere and with no ties to anyone don’t exist. In this episode the family tree grew a little bit more: we met Cyrus’ two brothers (which wasn’t much of a surprise since he had mentioned them last episode) and also their mother, Amara, who was spotted on episode 4 as Jafar’s partner and in every other episode of the show as Jafar’s serpent staff.
Fate is a very tricky business. It may not always be fair, we may not always agree with it, but in this show’s universe, fate usually prevails. This episode wasn’t one of those cases, though. The water from the Well of Wonders can only save people whose fate wasn’t yet written, but Amara’s fate was apparently to die on that day. Her sons didn’t agree and went to save her anyway, making a choice that changed the entire history of multiple worlds. When we think about it, if she had died, then there would be no Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, because Jafar wouldn’t be a threat that wanted to change the laws of magic, hurting everyone that stood in his way.
Meanwhile, in present day, two plans come up, and so the team goes down separate paths. Cyrus and Alice go to the Well of Wonders to beg the Nyx, the Guardian of the Well, to break the genie’s curse (which was a bit of a foolish idea), while Anastasia and Will go try to raise an army to break into the palace and steal the genies Jafar already has.
It doesn’t take long for the Jabberwocky to find the genie and the genie’s new master. Anastasia tries to fight her, but without luck, and so they are both kidnaped and taken to the palace, where we see the scene which, in my opinion, is the best of the episode: the Jabberwocky breaking Anastasia and forcing her to make the three wishes, while Will can do nothing but watch. This scene was really intense and full of amazing acting, dialogue, direction… It was also great to see that the Jabberwocky was smart enough to force Ana to wish for small things (crown, joules), making sure that no one (especially she and Jafar) don’t pay the price for these wishes. With Will back in his bottle, Jafar has now everything he needs to complete the spell (or almost everything).
At the same time, Alice and Cyrus find their way to the Well of Wonders. While they walk, Alice makes a lot of questions about Cyrus and his past, and he manages to dodge them all. Cyrus doesn’t want to tell Alice the truth because he feels like that whole thing is his fault, and maybe that Alice will think so too, if she was to find out the truth. Sure he could have acted better, he could have not cheated in the poker game, but even he if hadn’t cheated and had won anyway, those men would probably still think that he cheated somehow, and nothing would have changed. But it is safe to say that Cyrus didn’t really know the strength of their love, because if he had he would have known that Alice doesn’t care about a mistake he made a century ago.
The trip to the Well of Wonders was more profitable than I thought it would be. I, of course, never expected the Nyx to lift the spell out of the kindness in her heart, but at least she told Cyrus a way to do so: return the water. The Nyx also even told them that Amara is alive, and so a search party will have to be organized.
This was a great and intense episode. That scene I mentioned totally made it much better and so I am giving it an 8.4/10.
With only 3 more episodes to go, things in Wonderland promise to get even more intense, but next episode, “Heart of Matter” promises a visit from an old acquaintance and a trip to the best town in the whole state of Maine (not to say in the entire world).
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 109
With the arrival of the ninth episode of Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, “Nothing to Fear”, the race is on, and this time the goal is to find the newest genie in Wonderland, Will Scarlet.
There were no flashbacks in this episode, and that was great. Of course that, as I said before, knowing the character’s history is always important, but sometimes it is also important to take a break from what already happened and focus only on what is happening right now. Plus, I am not sure if there was anything they could have added to the episode to make it more understandable (which is what flashbacks usually do). Maybe they could have shown one of Will and Lizard’s adventures, but that wouldn’t contribute much to the major storyline, and would only allow us to see that they were in fact good friends, but we will take their word for it.
It was also nice to see that Will’s first master wasn’t just some random man or woman, but someone that we had met before: Elizabeth, also known as Lizard. Not that we know her very well, but at least we got to see a familiar face. This episode really seemed to focus on the fact that wishes come with a price. The first two wishes were harmless ones (Will wished for beers for everyone, and Lizard made a wish that gave her a new dress and some fireworks). The last wish however, came with the ultimate price: Will knew Lizard was in love with someone, but apparently he wasn’t smart enough to realize he was that someone. During a conversation, Lizard accidently wished that Will would feel something for her, and the wish totally made that happen, but in the most devastating way: Lizard died while Will could do nothing but watch. Even though Will wasn’t in love with her, the two of them were “good mates”, and it can’t be easy seeing a friend die in front of you.
Knowing that Alice already made the third wish, Jafar wants desperately to find the bottle so that he can complete what he wants. He is willing to go to distance to get it, including going after the one creature everyone seems to be afraid of, the Jabberwocky. This creature is originally from “Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There”, the sequel to “Alice’s adventures in Wonderland”. In this show this creature is more humanized and possibly more powerful. It is said that it took Wonderland’s most powerful magic and the strength of 500 men to imprison it. In this show the Jabberwocky is really a fascinating creature. She can read everyone’s fears and get inside their heads, no matter how powerful that person is. Everyone is afraid of something, and, as a reward of setting her free, the Jabberwocky made Jafar relive the worst day of his life: the day he was almost killed by his own father.
Cyrus and Alice were reunited at last on last episode and so now there is no way they will voluntary part ways again. In this episode, this couple really reminded me of Snow and Charming, from the original series. Alice never gave up hope that they would find each other, but now that they did, she is afraid that the battles will never end, that they will have to always be fighting an enemy, and so she is afraid they will never get a Happy Ending, just like Snow used to think. Cyrus in the other hand, is sure that that is not true, and they will eventually stop fighting and start living, just like Charming used to say. But the highlight of this couple in this episode was without a doubt the scene in which Cyrus proposed (again). Even though it wasn’t that much of a surprise seeing Cyrus go down on his knee, it was a very sweet scene that was full of hope and romance, one that will definitely stand aside in Once Upon A Time’s sweetest moments ever.
Also just like Snow and Charming, Cyrus and Alice have a Queen to babysit, and it is not easy to do so, especially after she got kidnapped by angry peasants who wanted to see her dead. Fortunately, they escaped (in a bit of a stupid way, since peasants would how to tie knots that would prevent people from untying them), and later found Will, who met his second master: Anastasia. It was certainly very interesting to make her Will’s new master, adding a new twist to the show. But Cyrus found out that the genies Jafar has in his possessions are his brothers, so no one will be leaving Wonderland just yet.
This was definitely a very enjoyable episode, with a fast pace and also a few twists. I am going to give it an 8.2/10.
In episode 10, “Dirty Little Secrets” we will find out who Cyrus’ brothers are, and how they were all turned into genies, so don’t forget to check my review.
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 108
Once Upon A Time in Wonderland returns with episode 8, “Home”, and with the winter finale upon us, everyone wants to be the first to find Cyrus.
In flashbacks we saw Alice and Cyrus and learned a few things more about these two. I never get tired of seeing Alice kicking ass, and especially everyone’s face when they find out she can fight, and so it was very amusing watching that first scene. What wasn’t so amusing was seeing her injured. Luckily it was nothing Mrs. Rabbit couldn’t fix, but the Rabbit is right to point out that she may not be this lucky next time. One thing is true however: even though Alice didn’t choose to fall in love with Cyrus, she chose the life she was having, she chose to be with him, and she knew the consequences of that decision. And she would rather die a premature death on Cyrus’ arms than live years and years apart from him. And that is exactly what true love is all about. But even considering all this, it is obviously still nice having a place to call Home, somewhere to go to when things get tough and, with the help of the Caterpillar, Cyrus was able to build it.
And it is to their Home that Alice believed Cyrus was going to. But before getting there, she wanted to make a stop at the Rabbit’s place so that he would help them escape from Wonderland. Unfortunately, the Rabbit isn’t very keen on helping them, since the Red Queen kidnaped his family. With Will’s help (he knows Anastasia better than anyone) they manage to find them, and these 3 head to the Outlands.
Meanwhile, Jafar enlists the help of one of the Queen’s Tweedles to get Cyrus’s bottle. With this, all he needs is for Alice to make her last wish, and he will have everything he ever wanted. But he soon realized that the Queen was much smarter than he thought, and the bottle he was given was fake. So he gets mad as he had never gotten before and destroys the Queen’s castle after taking one of her hairs. The Queen’s castle was definitely a very beautiful and original castle, definitely one fitted to a beautiful queen such as Anastasia.
At the same time, after learning that Cyrus was caught in one of her traps, Anastasia goes to get him. They make a stop to go get the real bottle and, after convincing Cyrus to tell her where he was going to, they also make way to the Outlands. Obviously Anastasia never trusted Jafar, but when he got the fake bottle was probably the moment she realized Jafar didn’t need her for the spell, and that she was simply the means to an end.
Alice was the first getting there and after she couldn’t find Cyrus she started making all sorts of other plans to search for him again. It was a bit weird that she didn’t think that the reason why Cyrus wasn’t there was simply because he hadn’t arrived yet. But it was still nice seeing that Alice didn’t lose hope that she would find him, I think she simply thought they wouldn’t reunite that day, but she was wrong. After 8 episodes apart, Cyrus and Alice were reunited at last, and it was just as beautiful as we had imagined. But the sweet nothings soon came to an end when Alice saw who Cyrus’ travel companion was.
It is finally in this scene that we realized what Anastasia was trying to get: she wanted to travel back in time and stop herself from accepting the King’s offer to become queen, so that she would continue living with Will. She probably thought she didn’t have many chances of getting him back in present day, so a trip to the past was her only option. Anastasia begged everyone to leave Wonderland immediately but anyone trusted her at first, and I definitely don’t blame them after everything she put them through.
Wanting to get rid of the Red Queen, Jafar performs a spell to kill her. Anastasia is able to dodge it, but the lightning strikes Will. Because of the first wish Alice made, they both find themselves dying, and Alice doesn’t want to make a wish because that will take Cyrus back to the bottle and Jafar will have what he wanted from the beginning. But what she didn’t remember was that she had promised Will a wish, and so he wished to “end Alice’s suffering”. As wishes go, this was kind of a smart one, since I don’t think anyone can take back wishes, and so, for Alice to stop suffering, Will would have to stop too. But what no one remembered was that physical suffering isn’t the only kind of pain, and thanks to Will, Cyrus is no longer a genie. But wishes come with a price, and Will payed his by taking Cyrus’ place in the bottle.
This was certainly an amazing episode, and that twist in the end was an incredible one that I definitely did not see coming. I am giving this episode a 9.0/10.
I will be back soon with my review of episode 9 entitled “Nothing to Fear”, where we will find out who Will’s first master will be.
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 107
Once Upon A Time in Wonderland is back with episode 7, “Bad Blood”, which made all blood ties between characters become a burden.
In flashbacks leading to maybe a few weeks before what was seen in 104, we meet Jafar’s parents. There is nothing particularly interesting about the mother, but the father is a totally different story: Jafar’s father is the Sultan, making him a bastard to the throne. Jafar goes to the palace hoping to be welcomed with open arms, but his father says he is lucky enough to become a servant. We also saw a scene in which Jafar called the Sultan father (or almost did) in the middle of a business reunion. This scene didn’t seem very realistic, because it can’t be easy calling someone we have never seen before “Father”, and it’s not like they were very close to each other. But I’ll let this one slide. But the Sultan is definitely not as OK with this as I am, and he did not let it slide, in fact he drowned Jafar for it (of course Jafar didn’t actually die, or we wouldn’t be here).
Flashback stories like this is one of the reasons I love Once Upon A Time. The writers develop both heroes and villains the same way. If heroes had a moment in their lives that made them a hero, then villains should have one too. And that makes us understand what drives them to do whatever it is they are trying to do. In this case, Jafar is trying to break the laws of magic, so that he can make his father love him. Of course this is totally a very desperate attempt for love. “What good is love and respect if it has to be stolen?”. This is something Jafar’s father says, and it couldn’t make more sense, but it looks to Jafar that he ran out of options, and force some love into his father is the only chance he has to be loved.
But Jafar’s father wasn’t the only one who popped up in this episode, Alice’s father, Edwin, did too. Jafar kidnapped him and pretended he was him so that he could tell Alice all those things she wanted to hear, but it didn’t take long for Alice to find out the truth. The only disappointment in all this is how Alice and Will made it obvious they knew what was happening. Alice actually gave a good excuse to leave with Will, but talking to each other and occasionally look at a man who has something to hide is definitely not the way to go.
But Jafar was still not done, and so he went to get Alice’s real father and we were able to see a beautiful scene between this father and daughter. Edwin said he blamed Alice for his wife’s death, that he shouldn’t have needed proof to believe his own daughter and finishes by telling Alice that Cyrus escaped. Finally Edwin served a purpose other than always being the one doubting, and embraced his daughter, her belief and her love. I said before that it would have been very hard for anyone to believe what Alice used to say, but of course that Edwin could have been a little bit more understanding and flexible than sending his daughter almost immediately to an asylum.
Tired of listening to all this sentimentalism, Jafar threw Edwin from the cliff in which he was over, and this forced Alice to make her second wish: she wished her father back home. Two down, one to go. But don’t forget that wishes come with a price and, although her father did in fact return home safely, he thinks all the impossible things he saw were nothing but a dream.
It was just a pity that we didn’t get to see much of Will and Anastasia, but this was still a great episode. Of course that for some characters to shine, others have to be sidelined, since there is no time in one episode for everything. But that is exactly why there are still some episodes to go through, and I am giving this one an 8.1/10.
With 6 more episodes before the story comes to an end, things are definitely starting to get more and more intense, and episode 108, “Home”, was the winter finale, thus I promise that there will totally be a few twists and turns. So don’t forget to stick around.
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 106
The story of Alice’s struggle for love in this new world continues with episode 106 of Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, “Who’s Alice”.
Flashbacks in this episode showed us where Alice went after she lost Cyrus and before she joined Bethlem Royal Hospital (fun fact: this is based on a real asylum in London, the oldest in the world). Alice went home where she found her father’s new family: his new wife, Sarah, and his new daughter, Millie. Of course that her father continues not believing Alice but, let’s be fair, who would? He could obviously try a lot harder to understand what his daughter went through, but his new wife definitely doesn’t help by forcing Alice to meet someone else. It was never to expect that Sarah would try to understand Alice’s situation, that is more Edwin’s job, but it would have definitely been nice to see him stand up to her. I think he wasn’t really a fan of the idea of forcing Alice to marry, and that he was hoping he didn’t have to pick a side between his daughter and his wife, but when it comes to family you can’t not take sides. Realizing that ultimately her father took Sarah’s side, Alice preferred to go to the asylum than marry some dude. I wonder if these parents (specially Sarah) would make the same choices and demands if this whole thing was about Millie instead of Alice. Maybe. But maybe not.
Present day begins after Alice found the location of Jafar’s tower, and now she is headed that way. Right in the first few scenes we see her kick the ass of 2 men, and it was really funny when they found Will and said that Alice attacked them while they were sleeping. We are all like “yeah, right”, including Will. Jafar definitely made an amazing prison: very hard to escape, since we learn that the tower is in a floating island, and also hard to get rescued, since you have to cross the Black Forest to do so. This forest definitely stood up to its name, because everything was literally black. Most people in Wonderland didn’t know this, but the reason why no one returned wasn’t because of this first part, but because of the second: Borogrove. Here we meet the creepiest man ever who apparently goes by the name Carpenter. The reason why very few people leave is because this place makes you want to stay there forever. But not all is lost because Will comes to Alice’s rescue. But even after that, things decline because Alice doesn’t remember anything, so Will makes her remember by using Cyrus’ neckless, proving once again that love is the most powerful magic of all.
Sometimes things are left unexplained, and that sucks real badly, but it is great that they explained why Borogrove didn’t affect Will: because he doesn’t have his heart. I think this makes sense because it makes you want to stay by giving you happiness (not real happiness, but happiness nevertheless), and since he doesn’t have his heart he can’t feel anything, neither real nor fake. It was also nice seeing Alice happy, even if it wasn’t real happiness and it was only for a short while. She is on a quest for love and that will probably only lead to one of the two: heartbreak, or a happy ending (or happy beginning if you prefer). Since happy endings are hard to come by, at least we managed to see her smile, just in case she doesn’t succeed.
At the same time, we see Cyrus also meaning to find Alice, while on the run from Jafar’s guards and the Red Queen. It was nice seeing the Queen here. She has the bottle and if she finds Cyrus, then Jafar can’t continue underestimating her. The writers are definitely well developing her character, and I like her more and more every episode. But her efforts are worthless, because when Cyrus is caught between Anastasia and a cliff, he literally takes a leap of faith.
This episode was nice, but I feel like it was more of a filler episode, because nothing much happened that affected the major storyline. This was a little bit of a step back in the season, so I will give it a 7.6.
I will be back soon with my next review of episode 107, “Bad Blood”, in which blood ties will become a burden.
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 105
The fifth episode of “Once Upon A Time in Wonderland”, “Heart of Stone”, begins in the exact moment episode 103 left off, with Will and Anastasia ready to jump off to Wonderland. It is in that moment that Anastasia’s mother shows up and tries to talk her out of it. As cruel as she might have been, she was right because Will and Ana didn’t think things through. When this episode aired there was a lot of rumors (none officially confirmed) that Anastasia’s mother was Lady Tremaine, making Anastasia one of the wicked stepsisters, which sounds right since this has the name of one of the two (the other being named Drizella). But in season 6 of “Once Upon A Time”, we met Lady Tremaine and also both stepsisters, which would normally cut off the rumors, but knowing what we know now about season 7, maybe she was actually a Lady Tremaine and maybe Anastasia is indeed one of the wicked stepsisters. This would take thing into a whole new level of confusing, but it is possible.
After ignoring Anastasia’s mother, this couple makes the jump and enters Wonderland where they realize that things are far from being what they imagined they would be. With just a wagon to call home and the food they manage to steal or gather, they realize that they can’t live only on love. Despaired as they are, Will and Ana sneak into the palace to steal food, but it becomes obvious that Anastasia wants something more. This is most easily seen after they get caught and kicked out. We see that Will stole some bread and is very happy about that, but Anastasia doesn’t even care about it. Realizing that going to Wonderland was a mistake and that her mother was right, Anastasia wants to go back home, but not empty handed. After she sneaks back into the castle, she meets the king once again. That is the moment the king realized he found his Queen, because Anastasia has ambition or, as he put it, “the desire to be more” than what she is. But this story is not yet finished. There will be someone that will push these two characters, making them the people we see in present day.
Instead of continuing the villain team-up, this episode showed something even more interesting: the team-up between a villain and a hero. In a team-up like this, the villain usually thinks he/she has the upper-hand, and this time it is no different. The Red Queen is aware that Jafar is simply using her to get what he wants. While he still doesn’t have it, she is sure she doesn’t have to worry much about him, but the problem lies on the fact that Jafar won’t need the Queen forever, and he will turn on her once he has what he needs. To protect herself from him, she needs a powerful magic dust, and to obtain that she needs Alice’s help. As a reward for her help, the Queen says she will tell Alice where Cyrus is. They go to a ravine, and while on the road, there was something the Red Queen said that I thought was really interesting “We both want something we don’t have, Alice. It’s just a matter of what we’re willing to do to get it”. This is definitely one of the things that distinguish a villain from a hero. Obviously everyone wants (at least one) something, and we all try to get it the best way we can. But that is of course subjective. It is exactly what we are willing to do to get what we want that makes us who we are. And in this episode we find out what Alice is willing to do to get what she wants. She will go to great length to find Cyrus, but she won’t kill someone to do it. This is one of the things that makes her a hero.
But heroes and villains aren’t so black and white, and I think, in her own way, Anastasia is a hero too. She hides behind an evil she created, but deep down, she is good, and we start to see that in this episode. She didn’t want the magic dust for herself, she wanted it to reverse the spell Jafar put on Will. “We are all heroes in our own tales”, but Anastasia is a hero in some other people’s tales too (at least she is one on mine).
Meanwhile, Jafar is planning other ways to force Alice to make a wish, and he kidnaps the Rabbit for help. In the end of the episode we see that they are now going to find someone Alice cares about.
After reversing the spell Jafar placed on his tower with the magic dust she was able to obtain, Alice is now coming for Cyrus, but Cyrus is also coming for Alice too, since he broke out of his cage. I am sure they will find each other soon.
This was, as usual, a nice episode, but not as nice as the last, so I will give a 7.9/10.
I will be back soon with my next review that will answer a question we have been wondering since the beginning of the show: “Who’s Alice”.
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 104
Things are starting to make more and more sense and Jafar is one step closer to getting what he wants on episode 104 “The Serpent”.
This episode starts with a flashback, and in it we see young Jafar finding a woman everyone was afraid of, to be his teacher. It is because of flashbacks like this that they are so important in the Once Upon A Time universe. There are some things that could always, of course, be explained in the present, but it would probably feel more rushed and it wouldn’t be as easy to understand, and this is one of those cases. In this episode we finally know more of Jafar’s plans, and what he needs to do it. To change the laws of magic, Jafar needs 3 genies and to perform that spell it takes 2 sorcerers. Jafar already has 2 genies, which he and Amara were able to catch, so now he only needs Cyrus. Maybe it would be to imagine that something had happened to Amara along the way, and the two sorcerers now are Jafar and the Red Queen but, as I said before, Jafar is only using the Queen to get what he wants. She thinks they are going to change the laws of magic together, but she has no idea what is to come.
We also see some symbology of the serpent. “When they need to, they change their skin, and are reborn”. And that is exactly what Jafar does. But turned out he had done that already, before we all thought he did. Jafar was playing Amara just so that he could learn everything she knew. We also learned, with a little twist in the end of the episode, that the staff Jafar carries with him all the time is actually Amara’s magical essence. She was the one who made him aware of the genie spell. And as everyone has an endgame, we will find out, in episodes to come, not only exactly what Jafar wants to do when he is able to change the laws of magic, but also why Amara also wanted to perform this spell.
In present day, we continue to see conflicts of interest inside the villain team. Now that Jafar knows Alice has help, he wants Will eliminated and wants Anastasia to do it. The Red Queen is hoping to set the matter aside by simply putting Will behind bars, but Jafar wants him completely gone and wants everyone to see it, so that they don’t follow his example of helping Alice. A public execution is prepared and Anastasia is probably hoping very badly that Alice shows up to save him. I have to say that the people of Wonderland are definitely having too much of a good time in a public execution, which can totally relate to the original story in which the Red Queen is obsessed with cutting people’s heads off.
Meanwhile, after Alice and the Knave split up to run from collectors, who are working for the Caterpillar, Alice makes a new friend who is actually an old friend of Will’s: Elisabeth, also known as Lizard. This could possibly be another connection to the original animated movie Alice in Wonderland. There we see Bill who was literally a lizard, unlike Elisabeth who is a person. This character isn’t that much important in the movie, but then again she isn’t also here in the show, although we will see her once again. They find out the Knave of Hearts is to be executed and they manage to save him.
Trying to escape from the royal maze, Alice and Will stumble upon Jafar and the Red Queen. Jafar threatens to kill Will and even starts chocking him, which forces Alice to make her first wish: “I wish that if the Knave of Hearts dies, then I die”. This was totally a smart wish. Jafar can hurt Alice, but he can’t kill her since he needs her alive to make the rest of the wishes, otherwise he can’t use the genie. So, Alice doesn’t have to wish to save her own life. But Jafar would gladly kill Will, and now he can’t. It was also smart since she didn’t wish that only Jafar couldn’t kill Will (like a guy did in a flashback), no one can, or else she dies too. Jafar tried to force Alice to make a second wish by saying he would rip her arms and legs off, but she didn’t, which makes Jafar aware that she cares more for others than herself, and so going after the people she loves is exactly what Jafar is going to do. But wishes comes with a price and Alice paid it when Jafar turned Will to stone, saying if she wants her friend back, she will have to wish it.
Confrontations between good and evil started to take place, Jafar is starting to get what he wants and Cyrus is closer to being free. This was definitely a great episode and so I am giving it an 8.2/10.
I will be back soon with my next review of episode 105, “Heart of Stone” where we will find out how Will and Anastasia were separated and how she became Queen.