Once Upon A Time In Wonderland Recap S1E11: Heart of the Matter

Drink and merriment surrounds the Caterpillar, and Cyrus pays him a visit. It’s been a while since they’ve seen each other, and Cyrus breaks the news to him that he is no longer a genie. He’s come looking for the lost and found compass. The Caterpillar wants the Knave and Alice. A tiny Alice is much closer than he is aware of, as she crawls below his little stage and steals it. Cyrus grabs a beer, which starts a fight, just the distraction he needs to grab Alice and the compass.

The Jabberwocky watches Jafar carefully as he casts a spell over the genie bottles. Below in the ceilings threaten to fall over the Queen and the other prisoner, the work of magic.

Past, the Queen first meets the Tweedles. She’s delighted, but they have no names, they’re mere servants. Queen Cora comes for a visit. This is before Anastasia has wed the King. Cora was surprised to receive an invitation from the Red King. Cora tells Anastasia that she sees her potential, that she’s much closer to what she’d want in a daughter rather than what she has, she even offers to teach her some magic. Anastasia declines at this time, but Cora leaves the offer open.

Cyrus looks over the compass, but its not showing him anything yet. Tweedle arrives, and breaks the news to Cyrus and Alice that the Queen was forced to make all of her wishes, that Jafar has all of the genies and that they should leave. They ask for a way into the castle, and there is a way, but he has another piece of bad news. Jafar has released the Jabberwocky. Alice is horrified by the news, Cyrus has no clue what that means.

Jafar continues his spell casting with no luck. The Jabberwocky wants to know what he hopes to accomplish, she can’t read his mind only his fear that he’s doing something wrong. Jafar releases Will, but he was trying to nap. Jafar blames him for his failure, thinking he’s blocking him somehow. Jafar wants to know how he’s resisting the spell. The Jabberwocky wants to play with the Knave, and Jafar lets her. She sniffs around, listening for his deepest fears, but the knave is willing to give them to her willingly: Water, hairy spiders, being stabbed in the head, and raisins. The Jabberwocky tells Jafar that Will is different, she cannot read him. Jafar concludes that the Red Queen must have put a protection spell on him. They decide that they’re talking to the wrong person.

Will comes to visit Anastasia, he sneaks over her balcony, and all she can do is ask him what he’s doing here. He wants answers. Cora listens while Will tries to justify her actions. Anastasia thinks that what she is doing is for the both of them. But Will remembers what they had, what she’s throwing away. The guards come, and Will tells her that he will wait for her at dawn.

The prisoner tells The Queen that they make their own prisons. Cyrus and Alice comes through the prison. She told them to run, but Alice vows to stop them. The Queen thanks them for coming back, even if it wasn’t for them. Jafar and the Jabberwocky intrude on the reunion, sending Alice and Cyrus into hiding. Jafar asks what the Queen has done to the bottle. First she gave him a counterfeit bottle, and now a broken Genie, now he wants answers and he uses his magic to manhandle her to get them. But the Jabberwocky tells him to stand down, she has found the answer. She knows why the Knave isn’t responding to the spell, why she couldn’t read the fear, he doesn’t have a heart. Jafar turns to the Queen thinking that she kept the secret from him, but she tells him that it was not her that revealed that secret, that they have guests.

Jafar has the dungeon searched, and the guards report that they’ve found a secret tunnel. The Queen knew about the tunnels, the King used them to ferry in his hussies. Jafar wants her to help him find the Knave’s heart, but she doesn’t know where it is, she didn’t know it was missing. Her value is going down, but its not gone yet.

Alice and Cyrus get away, and Alice admits that the Jabberwocky was slithering around her head. Alice knows that its only a matter of time until they get inside of the Knave’s head. Cyrus’s solution: they find the Knave’s heart first. Alice knows where it is, it’s the getting there that will be challenging. It’s not in Wonderland.

Jafar asks Will where his heart is. He tells him that he doesn’t remember, and that sleeping in a dungeon won’t bother him. Jafar asks if sleeping next to a corpse will, and brings forth the Queen. She struggles against him, and Will watches with little interest as Jafar holds a knife to her throat. He debates saving her, but she tells him not to bother, that he’ll kill her anyways. As the knife bites into her throat, Will capitulates, and will reveal the location. His heart has caused him enough suffering he says, and no one needs to die, not even her for it.

Past, Will awaits Anastasia, but she does not come. Cora does. He bows, but he’s unsure what he’s suppose to do. Cora tells him that Anastasia sent her, and that she is not coming. Anastasia’s decision breaks Will’s heart, Will has kept hope that she would change her mind, but Cora tells him that he needs to get over it, that Anastasia will never come back. Will’s purpose was to bring Anastasia into Wonderland. Will asks Cora to take his heart, to help him. Cora makes sure that he understands without it he’ll never be able to love again. Will accepts that fate, and Cora snatches Will’s heart, instantly relieving his heartbreak. He’s feeling much better, and Cora keeps the heart. Will is off.

Alice got the Knave his heart back, but the Knave didn’t want it she tells Cyrus. They go to the Rabbit’s house and finds soldiers leaving. The rabbit has been looking for people to go up against Jafar. The campaign is going poorly, the people have nothing to believe in. Alice tells the Rabbit that they have to take a trip, that otherwise it won’t matter how many people they find, Jafar will be too powerful. Alice tells the Rabbit to take them to Storybrook.

Alice and Cyrus arrive in the very modern Storybrook. It’s a very odd land, a very noisy one. They head to the Knave place. Cyrus marvels over the electricity, and Alice is shocked over all of the Knave’s things. It’s all overwhelming.

The Queen tells the Knave that he should have let them kill her. He didn’t want the blood on his hands, he would have done the same for anyone. She tells him that he’s no Knave, but the good man that she fell in love with. But she never loved him he says, only the times they had. If she did love him, she would have come to him at the wagon that day.

She prepared to leave, but Cora stopped her cold feet. She tells her that she was making a horrible mistake, thinking that perhaps it was all her fault. Anastasia tells her that it wasn’t. Cora prattles on, thinking that the accolades she laid on her before were too much, but Anastasia has never had such praise. Cora tells her she sees a desire to make a mark in the world. She asks when she leaves the world does she want an unmarked grave behind a rickety wagon, or to be beloved by scores. Anastasia wavers, and Cora tells her that she chose power over weakness, that Will’s words lie like all men. Anastasia may be weak, but she knows that Will does not lie, and she turns to go to him. Cora shows her in the mirror, that Will is not waiting, that the wagon is empty. She tells her that Anastasia tossed him aside for a crown, and betrayed him, that he will never forgive her, and never love her again. No mention of the fact that she relieved him of his heart though. Anastasia doesn’t believe her words, but Cora tells her to turn the other cheek, start a new chapter and be a wonderful Queen. Anastasia asks her to teach her how, and Cora is delighted to.

Alice bumps about, and knocks over Will’s lamp. Alice blames herself for Will’s current predicament. Cyrus points out that he fetched her for a reason, she wasn’t the only one who left someone in Wonderland, that the Knave though surrounded by shiny new things, wasn’t happy. She realizes he was there for Anastasia. Cyrus asks her if she was him, where would she keep her heart. She chooses behind his Queen dartboard, and low and behold his heart is indeed there. She opens the box, and inside is the shining heart.

Anastacia didn’t realize he was heartless, but he couldn’t take feeling the way she made him. He points out that she said she wanted to learn magic so that she could change the past their past. He asks her what she would change? Marrying the King? Losing the jewels? She’d take back them coming to Wonderland. They would have stayed in Sherwood. The start of magic, was the start of their trouble. As Anastasia and Will they had all the magic they needed.

Past. Cora teaches Anastasia magic, how to conjure fire, but Anastasia struggles. Cora tells her that it starts with respecting power, understanding your place. Anastasia asks what she uses magic for, and she tells her to get what she wants. But there are drawbacks to magic, familiar genie ones. You can’t bring back the dead, you can’t make someone love you, and the doozy, you can’t change the past. Anastasia asks if any can be broken, but they cannot. Cora knows that something is holding her back, but Anastasia claims that she fears that the Red King will stop them. Cora wants Anastasia to challenge her pain, her fears, to channel it into her power and prove them all wrong. The fire flares to life, and the Red Queen is born.

Alice and Cyrus make it back to Wonderland. They plan to hide the heart, some place where neither of them know in case the Jabberwocky picks their brains. The compass goes crazy, it knows his mother is near. Jafar comes from the forest, ready to claim the heart. Alice refuses to give it to him, and Jafar uses the staff to knock Alice and Cyrus away. Jafar goes to destroy Alice and Cyrus, and when he raises his staff against Cyrus, the staff balks, a mother would never harm her son. Jafar tries to take the staff back, but it will not go. Jafar runs, and Alice thinks it was Cyrus who did it. Cyrus stares at the staff. He hands the compass to Alice to see what she sees, and she sees that the needle is following the staff. Bingo! Cyrus tells her that the staff fought back against Jafar when he tried to use it against him. He tells her that it makes sense, that his mother was obsessed with serpents, with their ability to change. With his mother recovered, Alice wants to free her, they just have to figure out how to.

The Queen apologizes to Will. She’s sorry she resorted to magic to try to get him back. She knows that he will never love her, but asks if she could forgive her. He tells her that anything is possible. She doesn’t want Jafar to succeed, but she does hope he gets his heart back so that he can feel something, love someone even if it isn’t her. She’s about to get her wish. Jafar and the Jabberwocky return with Will’s heart. The Jabberwocky holds him as Jafar shoves it in. Anastasia calls him to look at her, and he does. They kiss passionately, forgetting where they are for a moment. The Jabberwocky pulls him away, throwing him into his cell, while Jafar pulls Anastasia from her. He tells Will be wants to make sure that his heart is working as he plunges his blade into her back, killing her. Will is brokenhearted in a whole new way, poor Knave.