TV Recap: Once Upon a Time in Wonderland 1-8 - Home

I called one part of the winter final.  Another part was spoiled thanks to the preview last week.  And even so, I never saw the final moments coming.  It’s going to be a long wait until March.

We’ll start with the same place the episode did – a flashback.  Alice and Cyrus are enjoying a night with the shooting stars when some men show up ready to capture Cyrus and get their wishes.  He and Alice fight them off, but in the process Alice gets slashed in the stomach.

Cyrus takes Alice to the White Rabbit’s house, and he manages to save her.  We also meet the White Rabbit’s wife (their two kids are asleep).

While Alice completely recovers, Rabbit talks to Cyrus about how this is no life for Alice.  She may enjoy it now, but at some point she will need a real home.  It conveniences Cyrus, who goes and talks to Caterpillar.  He gives Caterpillar a magic compass his mother gave him before he became a genie (he used to be human) in exchange for something.

We learn what it is when Alice does.  It’s a cloaked tent that they can use to hide and live in.  And no matter what happens to them, they will meet up there.

You think that might become important in present day Wonderland.  You’d be right.  And there were lots of developments there, so hold on.

When we first meet up with Alice and Knave, they are watching soldiers hunt for Cyrus.  That means he’s still out there, so Alice decides to head off to where Cyrus would go.  Yep, the cloaked tent.  But first she wants to stop by Rabbit’s and find out just why he betrayed them.

When they get to Rabbit’s house, it looks abandoned, but that doesn’t fool Alice.  Sure enough, he is there, and he finally explains that the Red Queen has kidnapped his family and is using them to make her do his bidding.  Alice decides to rescue his family before she meets up with Cyrus because they will need Rabbit to dig them a hole to escape when they’ve met up.

Fortunately, Knave is able to help with that part.  He figures that the family must be stashed in the wagon he and Anastasia lived in when they first arrived in Wonderland.  And he is correct.  With Rabbit’s wife and kids rescued and safely out of the picture, the trio set off to the cloaked tent.

However, Cyrus isn’t as free as Alice hopes he is.  He got snagged in a magical vine trap set by the Red Queen.  One of the Tweedle brothers learns this and goes to tell Queen, but he also spies his brother giving Cyrus’ bottle to Jafar.  He reports both matters to Queen.

She leaves the castle and heads out to collect Cyrus, who is tied up so he can’t escape.  They go to the wagon (arriving and leaving before the others get there) and get the real bottle.

Meanwhile, Jafar has learned he was tricked and goes to Queen’s castle.  Only he finds she isn’t home and she’s left a present for him – the betraying Tweedle’s head in a box.  He’s still alive, and he says, “I think she’s on to us.”  Jafar plucks one of the Queen’s hairs from the brush and sets the castle on fire before he leaves.

Queen isn’t as upset by the castle going up in smoke as you might think.  That leads Cyrus to think she wants something much deeper than it appears.  He’s learned to read real wishes after his time as a genie, but he can’t tell what she wants.

Alice, Knave and Rabbit have arrived at the meeting point, but they are the first ones there.  However, as Alice is beginning to worry, Cyrus shows up.  Their reunion is brief, however, and Queen is right behind him.  That’s when we learn what she really wants.  Jafar is planning to rewrite the rules of magic (as we’ve already learned), and she wants to use those to rewrite time so she never leaves Knave.  Alice and Knave aren’t buying it, but Cyrus immediately recognizes it as her true wish.

While everyone is arguing about whether to trust Queen or not, storm clouds are approaching.  They are magic storm clouds that Jafar has summoned using Queen’s hair.  It is sent to kill her.  Or at least tell Jafar where she is since she easily sent it away when it tried to strike her with lightning.

Unfortunately, Knave is hit by part of the deflection.  He lies dying, which immediately does the same to Alice (her first wish).  Cyrus is pleading with her to use her third wish, but she refuses.

So Knave speaks up.  He was promised a wish in exchange for helping reunite Alice and Cyrus.  And he uses it to wish Alice’s pain away.  Immediately, she sits up well.  And Cyrus finds he is no longer bound by his cuffs.  He’s no longer a genie – something else that was causing Alice pain.  (So I wonder what’s going on with her dad as a result of this wish.)

However, all magic comes with a price.  Knave had disappeared as soon as he made the wish.  Cyrus’s bottle had gotten dropped earlier in the scene, and the last shot is of Knave in it about to float over a waterfall.  Knave is now a genie in place of Cyrus.

Obviously, when we come back in March, we’ll be racing Jafar to get to Knave and rescue him.  I can’t wait to see how that unfolds, especially if we are truly working with Queen now.  I tend to believe her that she wants to go back to being poor with Knave, but we’ll have to see how that plays out.

I was right that Alice’s last wish got used – I was just wrong about who used it.  Cyrus being free is a twist I never expected.

I already can’t wait to see where they go from here.  This is quite the interesting twist on things.

Your thoughts?  Predictions of the Spring part of the season?  Hit me up in the comments.