Recap / Once Upon A Time In Wonderland S 1 E 12 To Catch A Thief

Jafar tells Will that if Will steals the Serpent staff back for him, he will be able to bring Anastasia back to life once he rewrites the rules of magic. Though he desperately wants to kill Jafar, Will wants Anastasia alive more than anything.

Will thinks back to the days when he still worked for the Queen of Hearts. The Queen sent the Knave out to track down the “most dangerous criminal in Wonderland:” Alice. As the Queen’s soldiers chased Alice, the Knave got separated from them and stumbled down a hill, where Alice caught him at sword point. She informed the Knave that the Queen's accusations against her were false and that he should be more selective about taking orders. When Alice asked who he was, he introduced himself as the Queen’s Knave.

Alice: (Amused) A knave? Kind of like a court jester?

Will/Knave: No, more like a jack-of-all-trades, actually.

Alice: But apparently, a master of none.

Will/Knave: Watch your tongue, lass. Else you’ll lose that as well as your head.

Alice: That’s a little redundant, don’t you think?

Will/Knave: Depends which one you lose first.

Alice walked away, but the Knave told her she would be seeing him again.

At their magical tent, Cyrus and Alice discuss what to do. Cyrus insists that they should take the Serpent staff to the Well of Wonders, hoping that Nyx will accept that as attempting to return the magical water, since they now know that Cyrus’ mother is imprisoned inside the staff. Before they can head out, Will arrives at the tent. Will tells them what Jafar did, and that the only way to bring Anastasia back is to let Jafar win.

Alice thinks back to the second time she met the Knave. He had tried to sneak up on her while she was sleeping, but got caught in a net trap she had set up.

Alice: You’re making me wonder why I keep sparing your life when you are continually trying to take mine.

Will/Knave: Honestly, I’ve been wondering the same thing, given your history and all.

Alice: My history?

Will/Knave: Yep.

Alice: All I did was try and pick a weeping willow from the Queen’s garden.

Will/Knave: You know what? I actually believe you.

Alice: Good!

Will/Knave: But I still have to kill you!

When Alice finds out that the Knave has to do whatever the Queen orders, she decides to see if she can steal his heart back for him, saying that everyone deserves a second chance.

In the present, Will reminds Alice of her past words and argues that Anastasia deserves a second chance. As much as they want to help, Alice and Cyrus know that letting Jafar win would be too dangerous for the world, and they refuse to give Will the staff.

Will/Knave: You’re right. I was thinking with my heart and not with my head. I haven’t had the option in a while. I guess sometimes you just need a friend to set you straight.

Alice suggests that Will come with them to the Well of Wonders, and he agrees. As the group leaves, Will looks intently at the staff.

The Jabberwocky analyzes Jafar’s fears. Without his staff, he can’t perform the ritual, because it takes two magicians to complete the spell. Jafar is also worried by his staff failing to kill Cyrus, and wonders if it has something to do with Amara, who is trapped inside the staff. Jafar gets annoyed at the Jabberwocky and keeps her at bay with the Vorpal sword.

At night, while Alice sleeps, Will knocks out Cyrus and steals the serpent staff.

In the past, by learning the schedules of the Queen’s guards, Alice managed to break into the vault of hearts. To find Will’s heart, Alice looked through the vault and realized that the hearts were categorized as though they were cards in a deck. Alice was confused for a moment about which heart she needed due to thinking she needed to take KH for Knave of Hearts, but then she realized that would be the King’s heart, and the Knave’s heart would be filed under J, for Jack.

Cyrus wakes up Alice and tells her what happened. Because Will didn’t steal Cyrus’ lost and found compass, they can use it to find Will.

To test his hunch, Jafar rubs the two other genie bottles in his possession. Taj and Rafi come out of the bottles, wondering why Jafar finally called on them when they had been in his possession for years without ever being summoned. Jafar asks them if they have ever heard of Amara. Taj and Rafi say they have no idea who she is, but Jafar knows they are lying. In fact, he had only wanted to have a look at them. Seeing the family resemblance between them and remembering Amara’s obsessive search for the genie bottles is enough to confirm his suspicion that the genies are the sons of Amara.

With the magical compass, Cyrus and Alice soon catch up with Will. Will manages to double back and catch Alice by surprise, disarming her. Alice pleads with him not to give the staff to Jafar.

Will/Knave: I know it doesn’t make any sense. I’m not saying it does, but I love her.

Alice: I understand…

Will/Knave: Do ya? I finally got my heart back and you’re asking me not to use it. I went to the ends of the earth for you and Cyrus, risked me neck a dozen times…

Alice: That was different—

Will/Knave: Why? Why is it different? You know what your problem is? You think your love story is the only one worth fighting for. Don’t follow me.

Will turns to leave, but as Alice asks him to wait, she suddenly slips and falls into the river. Concerned for her, Will stops and leaps in after her.Later, Alice and Will sit around a campfire. For the moment, they are both calmer and try to talk through their current situation. Alice acknowledges that Will did stay with her through thick and thin and has the right to fight for his own love, and Will acknowledges that helping someone as evil as Jafar will end badly for everyone.

They think back to what happened after Alice brought the Knave his heart. Initially he kept trying to kill her until Alice gave him a new order to free him from the Queen’s control. Alice ordered the Knave to help her find something she could use to prove Wonderland exists.

As Alice’s group heads off to the Well of Wonders, they are stopped on the road by the Jabberwocky. The Jabberwocky has decided to betray Jafar because what she wants most is her freedom. Alice isn’t keen on working with the Jabberwocky, as she is just as dangerous as Jafar.

Jabberwocky: Yes, I feed on fear. But remove Jafar from this land, and fear will leave with him. With nothing left to eat, I’ll be forced to simply…move on. Isn’t that what everybody wants?

Alice says that defeating Jafar is not their only goal, the group also wants to bring back the Red Queen. The Jabberwocky admits she can’t help with that, but says that “she can,” while looking at the staff. The eyes of the serpent glow yellow at these words.

In the past, while looking for proof of Wonderland, Alice and the Knave had stopped to have drinks in a tavern. Alice apologized for holding onto the Knave’s heart, but he didn’t hold any ill will toward her. He talked about his past, and how Alice reminded him of his younger sister, who had been very tough and better than him at everything but had tragically died when she fell through a patch of thin ice one day. Alice returned the Knave’s heart to him.

While Alice and Will sneak into the palace through the secret tunnels, the Jabberwocky brings Cyrus to Jafar as a prisoner. The Jabberwocky pretends to analyze Cyrus’ fears and tells Jafar that Alice and the Knave are long gone. Jafar senses that something is off, so he has Cyrus taken away and refuses to hand over the Vorpal Sword, much to the Jabberwocky’s frustration.

Meanwhile, Will leads the guards on a wild-goose-chase around the palace while Alice unlocks the cell of Jafar’s father. Jafar taunts Cyrus about how strange it must be to look at the genie bottles from the outside. Cyrus tricks Jafar into summoning Will, who gets whooshed away just as the guards are about to catch him. Jafar chokes Will with magic, demanding to know where his staff is, when suddenly Amara the Serpent steps forward, having been freed from the staff and restored to her normal form. A mage duel commences between the two while at the same time, Alice fights off the guards in the dungeon.As the mage duel continues, Cyrus frees himself and tries to steal the genie bottles. Amara taunts Jafar that he can’t perform the ritual without another sorcerer, which means that even if he kills her, he will still lose. As Amara attacks Jafar with a barrage of deadly glass shards, Jafar has an idea.

Jafar: After all these years, I’ve finally figured it out…what you were really after. It wasn’t power. It’s always the same story with us sorcerers. At the end of the day, it all comes back around…to family!

Redirecting a glass shard, Jafar sends it straight into Cyrus’ chest. As Cyrus dies, Jafar notes that the only way Cyrus can be saved is if Amara rewrites the laws of magic. Amara and Jafar complete the ritual together, combining their magical power with the power of the three genies.The laws of magic are rewritten.

Tropes

• Always Save the Girl: Will is so desperate to get Anastasia back that he’s willing to help Jafar win.
• Dead Guy on Display: The Red Queen is put in a glass coffin as though she is at a state funeral.
• Enemy Mine: The Jabberwocky briefly makes an alliance with Alice against Jafar.
• Falling Chandelier of Doom: During the mage battle, Amara causes the palace chandelier to collapse and turn into four giant cobras.
• Fly Or Die: Will saves Alice from a rushing river, despite not knowing how to swim.
  Will/Knave: Give a man the proper motivation, you never know what he might be willing to do.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: In the flashback, the Queen of Hearts' guards march around the vault of hearts in a pattern so strict and precise that Alice is able to sneak past them by counting the seconds at which they move. They are also so focused on what is ahead of them that they don't notice Alice unlocking the door behind them, even though she is within an arm's length of them.
  • In the present, Jafar's guards waste time chasing the Knave for no particular reason, and even attack him with their weapons, which Jafar would not want them to do, since he needs the Knave to be his third genie.
• Mercy Lead: Because of the Queen of Hearts’ orders, the Knave is still compelled to try to kill Alice even after she returns his heart. To make it fair, he offers her a 20 second head start, but fortunately Alice realizes she just needs to give his heart a new order to free him from the Queen’s control.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: How Amara was freed (or possibly freed herself) from the staff.
• Spiteful Spit: Cyrus does this to Jafar when Jafar interrogates him.
• Trojan Prisoner: Cyrus pretends to be the Jabberwocky’s prisoner in order to infiltrate the palace and distract Jafar.
• Unexplained Recovery: It is not shown how Amara was freed from the serpent staff, and she declines to give an answer when Jafar asks.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Will calls out Alice for not helping him save Anastasia after he risked his life to reunite her with Cyrus.
  • In the flashback, Alice holds on to the Knave’s heart for a while, and tests it out by giving him a few pointless orders. Thankfully, Alice soon realizes that it is wrong for her to hold on to the heart, and she gives it back to the Knave.
• Wizard Duel: Amara and Jafar have a magical duel in the palace. Jafar manages to win by killing Cyrus, so that Amara will have no choice but to complete the ritual with Jafar so she can bring Cyrus back to life.