Recap: Once Upon a Time in Wonderland S01E06 “Who’s Alice”

SPOILER ALERT! I’M LATE! I’M LATE! FOR A VERY IMPORTANT DATE!

I didn’t really like this episode, but let’s see if I can come up with something to say about it anyway.

a screencap of laudanum, a tincture of opium
Yummy!

One of the first things we learn in this episode is that Dr. Lyndgate is doped out of his mind most of the time. I looked it up and laudanum is a tincture of opium. So that’s fun.

a screencap of alice (played by sopie lowe) meeting her half-sister, millie (played by kylie rogers)
Matching Pink Butterfly Net

So, to set the scene, we’re back in the past and Alice thinks that Cyrus is dead. She has been unceremoniously dumped back into Victorian England near her house.

A little girl runs up to Alice. Who is she?

a screencap of alice (played by sophie lowe) reunited with her father, edwin (played by shaun smyth)
SO MANY FEELINGS

It’s Alice’s half-sister, Millie!?

Time in Wonderland and Victorian England must work differently, because it turns out that several years have passed while she was in Wonderland, enough time for her father, Edwin, to start a whole new family.

Alice is much more concerned about losing the boyfriend she’s had for, like, 3 days, than the father she abandoned for a decade. The most important love is True Love™.

a screencap of alice's stepmother sarah (played by heather doerksen)
Grrrrrrrrr…

Alice’s new stepmother, Sarah, is evil and hates Alice, because of course she does. Once Upon a Time in Wonderland only subverts traditional female fairytale roles for its heroes, the villainous women have to all be clichés.

Wouldn’t it have been interesting if Alice’s new stepmother was the one that was sympathetic to Alice, the one defending Alice from a father that doesn’t understand her?

a screencap of alice (played by sophie lowe) inhaling some purple mist
Somebody’s baking purple cookies!

Back to the present, Alice is wandering around the forest looking for Cyrus, because the producers paid a lot to rent out this section of the Vancouver forest and, buy gum, they’re going to get their money’s worth out of it.

So, Alice wanders around the Black Forest (Hey! It prefers to be called the “African-American Forest”) and she ends up in the Boro Grove, which is still pretty much the same forest, only it’s more purpley.

The first thing Alice does in the Boro Grove is inhale a strange, purple mist, because, you know, that’s what one should do when they come upon an unidentified gaseous substance. The mist make her all mimsy. Get it? It’s like “All mimsy were the borogoves”. It’s like that thing from that book by that guy!

a screencap of alice (played by sophie lowe) meeting the carpenter (played by john prowse)
Where’s the Walrus?

We meet the Carpenter from the poem The Carpenter and the Walrus. He doesn’t do anything really, except stand around and become a tree, because he inhaled the purple mist. His buddy, the Walrus, is nowhere to be found. They’re just name-dropping a character from Through the Looking-Glass to remind us that we’re still in Wonderland, because, really, without the occasional shout-out  and fibreglass mushroom, this is just like any other generic fairytale world. I blame all the wandering about in the woods.

a screencap of the red queen (played by emma rigby) berating a tweedle (played by matty finochio)
It’s a SHADE-OFF!

The Red Queen also wanders around the woods, because they needed to give her something to do this episode. She wants capture Cyrus for evil reasons. but, like, they’re reason’s that are slightly less evil than the reasons that Jafar want’s him for. We still don’t know what either of them are trying actually trying to accomplish and it’s hard to stay interested at extremely vague hints at potential evil doings.

The Red Queen is really mean to her Tweedle. What are the Tweedles, exactly? Is a Tweedle a type of critter, or is it a family name? When are we going to find out how they became David Bowie fans?

Anyway, she better start being nice to the Tweedles, or they’ll probably quit doing her hair up all pretty-like. Oh… And they’ll probably keep reporting her secrets to Jafar, which is what I assume the missing Tweedle is doing.

a screencap of alice (played by sopie lowe) at dinner with her family (played by john prowse, heather doerksen and kylie rogers)
Awkward!

Back in the past, Alice is having a lot of trouble readjusting to Victorian England norms. Her evil stepmother wants to marry Alice off as soon as possible, because finding a good husband is the best a woman can hope for in Victorian England. Doesn’t Stepmom know that in Wonderland a girl can aspire to be a princess or an evil witch? It’s way more progressive in Wonderland.

And it’s not like Alice offers up any viable alternatives to her stepmother’s plan. Moping over your dead boyfriend and trying to convince people that Wonderland is real isn’t going to put food on the table, Alice.

Alice says that they should believe her about Wonderland, because love means never having to provide proof, or something. You know, my Uncle Vito told us to believe that he had stopped drink because we loved him, and then he drove his Honda Accord into a lake. Sometimes, love means throwing Uncle Vito into rehab. And so, Alice gets carted off to Bethlem Asylum for saying crazy-sounding things.

a screencap of alice (played by sophie lowe) turning into a tree
This is not good.

You know that purple mist from earlier? It turns you into a tree for some reason. Don’t worry, the Knave shows up to save her.

Why doesn’t the Knave start turning into a tree as well, you ask? Well, as it turns out, when Alice got the Knave’s heart back for him, he never bother putting it back in.

But the Knave doesn’t act heartless at all! Actually, I’d say that he seems to have the biggest heart of anyone on this show. He agreed to help the White Rabbit save Alice, even though there was nothing in it for him. He’s always trying to find nonviolent solutions to things, while Alice is going around stabbing everything. He apologized for breaking Silvermist’s heart. These aren’t the actions of a heartless man.

a screencap of jafar (played by naveen andrews) meeting alice's father, edwin (played by john prowse)
Greeting, my jolly-good chum!

Oh. Did I mention that Jafar is in Victorian England? Well he is and he stole some guy’s clothing and left him dead and naked in a field. Sure, Jafar could have probably just have magiced himself some new clothes, but the other way was more fun.

Jafar is probably going to do nasty things to Alice’s dad.

a screencap of cyrus (played by peter gadiot) falling off a cliff
Again with the falling?

And then Cyrus fell off a cliff again, because it’s his favourite pastime.

Some other stuff:

According to the creators of the show, there is an entire Victorian England realm, so this show doesn’t actually involve any time travel. I’m still waiting for them to go to the Star Wars realm.

Seriously, what the Heck happened to Elizabeth Lizard? Did she die? Why does no one seem to care?

Recap: Once Upon a Time in Wonderland S01E01 “Down the Rabbit Hole”

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

Hello everyone, and welcome to Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, the needless spinoff of Once Upon a Time, that, thus far, isn’t really the distinguishable from Once Upon a Time in any way.

If you’ve seen the previews for this show, then you’ve pretty much know most of the plot of this episode: Alice travels to Wonderland. Alice falls in love with a genie named “Cyrus”. The Red Queen kills Cyrus. Alice returns to the real world where everyone thinks shes crazy and sends her to an asylum. The Knave of Hearts and the White Rabbit breaks Alice out of the Asylum and return her to Wonderland. Alice believes that Cyrus is really alive and the start a search for him

There were two main twists: The White Rabbit is really working for the Red Queen and Jafar is in Wonderland because he want’s the three wishes that Cyrus gave to Alice.

So, with the recap done, here’s what I thought of the characters:

a screencap of a young alice (played by millie brown)
Bah! Another kid!

Young Alice

Young Alice is another annoying kid for us all to have. Like Henry from Once Upon a Time, her main trait is that she believes in fantastical things, even though those around her tell her that none of it is real.

I sure hope that we don’t get a bunch of flashbacks her annoying kid adventures in Wonderland.

a screencap of alice (played by sophie lowe)
Strange Attire

Adult Alice

Alice’s main trait is that she likes to run around in her underwear. Seriously, she spends most of this episode in Victorian undergarments.

In this episode, Alice signs a form and the camera cuts away before we see her last name. I wonder if her last name is significant. Maybe she is related to one of the characters from Once Upon a Time and they don’t want us to know about it just yet. Otherwise, she probably doesn’t have a last name, because the last name of Alice from the original stories was never mentioned.

a screencap of dr. lyndgate (played by jonny coyne) and his two colleagues (played by ryan elm and michael q. adams)
Dr. Lyndgate and the Gaslighting Crew

Dr. Lyndgate

Dr. Lyndgate is one of the doctors of Bethlem Asylum and tries to convince Alice that Wonderland isn’t real. He is cast somewhat as a villain, but he really doesn’t have any evidence that Wonderland is real and the only conclusion to be had is that Alice is delusional. It’s just too bad that Victorian Era mental health treatments usually ended up doing more harm than good.

Even though Alice has escaped from the asylum, I don’t think that this is the last we will see of Dr. Lyndgate. Someone has to explain to Alice’s father what happened to her. Plus, Dr. Lyndgate has now seen the White Rabbit. Is he a believer now or does he discount what he’s seen as an hallucination?

a screencap of cyrus the genie (played by peter gadiot)
Handsome!

Cyrus the Genie

Cyrus’ main traits are that he is handsome, he looks good and he wears a vest. Other than that, from what little we see of him in this episode, I guess it can be ascertained that he’s charming and a good fighter. He doesn’t seen to have any magic powers like a genie should and The Knave of Hearts even says that he has no magic, which is weird.

Cyrus gets thrown off a cliff and is presumed dead, but it’s really a trick by The Red Queen and Jafar to capture him. I thought that genies could fly though?

screencap of the knave of hearts (pleyed by michael socha)
The leather jacket means that he’s a renegade.

The Knave of Hearts

The Knave of Hearts is our roguish badboy with a heart of gold. He did some bad things in Wonderland an dis on the run. For some odd reason he wants to start a new life in Storybrooke, so Wonderland must really be horrible.

A small thing: when we first meet the Knave of Hearts he visits Granny’s Diner in Storybrooke. There is a small cameo by Grumpy the dwarf and he is with a waitress the isn’t Ruby. It’s a girl named Ashley instead.

Another thing: The Knave of Hearts is in present-day Storybrooke, when the White Rabbit asks him to help save Alice, but Alice is in Victorian England, which means that the White Rabbit can open portals through time. Why don’t they just ask him to open a portal to a time before the Red Queen pushes Cyrus off a cliff, so that they can save him? Also, why do they have to leave right away to save Alice? Can’t they take some time to prepare before they travel back through time? When you can time travel, you have all the time in the world! I think that the writers just wanted a Storybrooke cameo and didn’t think things through. Time travel always screws stories up.

screencap of the white rabbit (voiced by john lithgow)
Is there an Uncanny Valley for animals?

The White Rabbit

The White Rabbit is a nervous, cowardly little guy. He is working for the Red Queen for reasons as of yet unknown to us. Although, he may have reason to be angry at Alice. She kidnapped him to use as proof the Wonderland exists. We never see how he escapes from her and he obviously didn’t come back with her to the real world, because no one believes her and thinks she’s insane.

a screencap of the cheshire (voiced by keith david) about to attack alice (played by sophie lowe)
Tasty!

The Cheshire Cat

The Cheshire Cat is hungry all the time. Alice says that he looks different than before, which suggests that he has become twisted by evil magic. I predict the he shall become uncursed and also an ally.

a screencap of the red queen (played by emma rigby)
Evil gets the best clothing!

The Red Queen

The Red Queen is evil and she wears pretty dresses. We pretty much know nothing else about her at this point. She has some sort of beef with Alice that will probably be revealed in a flashback.

a screencap of jafar (played by naveen andrews) with some bad blue screening behind him
No there’s some bad blue screen!

Jafar

Jafar is evil and he has a sweet-looking snake cane. He wants the three wishes that Cyrus gave to Alice.

Wishes in this universe are actual physical objects that look like jewels and can be traded to other people or stolen. We don’t know what Jafar wants to wish for. Wishes always come with a catch though, so is it really a good idea for him to be seeking them out?

How did characters from Agrabah get to Wonderland? Mysteries!

a screencap of the credits from once upon a time in wonderland
Tweedle #1?
a screencap of the credits of once upon a time in wonderland
Tweedle #2?

Here is a thing that bugs me. The credits mention “Tweedle #1” and “Tweedle #2”. Did the mean “Tweedledee” and “Tweedledum”, or did the mean “Thing 1” and “Thing 2”?

Bah! See you next week!