Regrets and consequences are the theme of this week’s episode, examining things lost and hearts broken. Anastasia gave up Will for her crown, but now wants him back… unfortunate. Cyrus gave up his ‘lost and found’ compass to the caterpillar years ago, yet needs it to find his mother who is still alive encased in Jafar’s staff.
But Wonderland is all about finding things…
Returning to basecamp the two are interrupted by a Tweedle (Matty Finochio) delivering the Queen’s message of doom – leave Wonderland. Now the naming of Tweedles Dum and Dee is quite misleading. According to their introductory meeting with Anastasia (Emma Rigby), a ‘Tweedle’ is the Wonderland equivalent of ‘servant’; so unless Tweedledum is the dumber Tweedle, who sided with Jafar and had his head removed, we can’t really classify them in the Lewis Carroll way… apologies.
By the by he unveils the secret tunnels beneath the palace and a vague rescue plan is set in place. Surely most heroes would take a step back and double check the ‘plan’ is in order before blazing in swords at the ready, particularly with a fear-reading Jabberwocky at the palace, but then again maybe that is just my opinion…
Following on from this, present day Will is completely heartless giving reason to his resilience to the attempts by the Jabberwocky (Peta Sergeant) and Jafar (Naveen Andrews) to read his fears –
“Water, hairy spiders, being stabbed in the head, and raisins – grapes are fine but raisins no thank you.”
To continue with his evil genie-orientated spell Jafar needs Will’s heart returned (true OUAT style) and in an attempt to save the day Cyrus and Alice go to Storybrooke to collect it first. Light switches and cars puzzle the Victorian and ex-genie from Agrabar but they still manage to find the heart behind a homemade, Red-Queen-themed dart board. On their return to Wonderland Jafar promptly takes the heart (as the villain ALWAYS does when the hero does the work for them) and raises his staff to destroy the pair – when the serpent staff revolts and joins sides with Cyrus. This leads to their discovery that the staff is in fact his long-lost mother! The Wonderland storyline is picking up speed!