Many years ago in Agrabar a grumpy Jafar enters our home. Well I say ‘our’ home, it belongs to a scarf trader…
Unlike all the other locals, this scarf trader appears to have quite a good set-up in Agrabar, with fresh veggies, a well-designed home, and TWO camels! I don’t even have one… How did this guy get so lucky? Family investment you say?
No… wishes!
His previous owner on the other hand finds himself begging for mercy and suffering an unpleasantly long death by strangulation at the hands for Jafar… As Once Upon A Time's Rumplestiltskin of would say, “Magic comes at a price, Dearrrrry!”
Cyrus is having a bad time at the moment, stuck in his cage of silver with only a Buddha-like man for company. He has the realisation that he CAN do something to help Alice, rather than allow Jafar to blackmail her/him for wishes, and begins to write…
He’s slain a dragon, but wouldn’t recommend it. He also has magic paper for origami! In Wonderland you have to be creative to get by. But sword fighting lessons would definitely help – keep your grip loose, learn your opponent’s weakness and be creative. Penned in by two swords (and a tree) Alice has to do just that, kissing Cyrus to knock him off guard. Sword flirting!
“It took several lifetimes to meet you, but only seconds to love you.”
In Wonderland the Red Queen (Emma Rigby) and Jafar’s relationship is well in motion. After interrupting a public audience with the Queen, he freezes all the peasants and turns them into dust to get her attention… cue the well-trained footmen to brush all the dust away. Jafar wants the genie’s bottle to make the impossible possible and change the laws of magic, regardless of polite etiquette for Wonderland queens. Trust is a... one-way street eh Jafar? Of course, as we have learnt from our many other encounters with evil queens this lack of respect won’t go by unpunished.
Mid-pedicure we see the conniving ways in play, as she blackmails the White Rabbit (John Lithgow) into revealing the location of the famous bottle…
Wonderland is deliciously silly – clapping for the ferry and all… OH WAIT the fairy? What?!
Meet Silvermist (Jordana Largy) who will magic them from A to B. Shame about the failed relationship between her and the Knave. Despite saying she had a very professional attitude to work, she drops him right in the deep end without armbands! Bloody Hell Silv!
Silvermist is waiting for them, as the caterpillar has put a bounty on the Knave’s head – are mushrooms involved? After explaining the Cyrus quest she lets them go. We also are dropped a few hints about a mysterious Anastasia, who broke the Knave’s heart – that is one backstory I’m looking forward to!
At the Whimsy Meadows, Jafar is using beetles to dig up the bottle, watched from the bushes by Alice and the Knave. Alice told everyone the location of the bottle on purpose so she could find out who she’s up against… JAFFA CAKE ahem Jafar…
“The one thing you can count on in Wonderland is that you can’t count on anyone”
In Agrabar Cyrus pushes his magic paper origami crane out through the bars of his cage. It flies away just in time as a grumpy Jafar enters the dungeon, soon followed by a very smug looking Red Queen. She didn’t need to earn his respect – all she had to do was take it because SHE HAS THE BOTTLE. And doesn’t sound like she wants to share. The White Rabbit had seen Alice and Cyrus bury the bottle all that time ago, while on the way home to his family – but where are the other bunnies now…?
Heartbroken by the disappearance of the bottle Alice and the Knave are very miserable. But through the gloom flutters hope – the magic paper crane bearing the letter from Cyrus. He wants her to leave Wonderland as she can’t save him… and that he loves her (obviously in more words). Hope restored there is a more positive outlook to the story!
Now all we need are some celebratory bread-and-butter-flies!
Tune in next week!