Recap / Once Upon A Time In Wonderland S 1 E 2 Trust Me

Many years ago in Agrabah, Jafar confronted a scarf-seller named Farzeen Shahmed. Jafar had guessed that Farzeen possessed a genie bottle. Terrified of Jafar, Farzeen wished that the genie would be as far from him as possible, this is how Cyrus’s bottle ended up in Wonderland.

Today in wonderland, the Knave wakes up to see Alice practicing with her sword and wearing a new outfit for adventuring. Alice discusses her strategy for finding Cyrus. If they can find the genie bottle, Cyrus will automatically be drawn back to the bottle once the three wishes are used up. Alice can use her three wishes on small things to avoid any unexpected problems, and then the Knave can rub the bottle to let Cyrus out again.

Knave: Alice, once I rub the bottle, doesn’t that make Cyrus my genie?

Alice: I guess I’ll just have to trust you.

Alice tells the Knave that she and Cyrus hid the bottle in the Mimsy Meadows. They leave the White Rabbit because he appears to be sleeping, but in fact the Rabbit was only pretending to be asleep and has overheard everything.

At the Red Queen’s palace, the people come with petitions and complaints. The people are abruptly frozen as Jafar comes to speak to the Queen. He mocks the Queen for trying to gain the people’s respect when all she needs to do is take it. The Queen points out that if either of them had what they wanted they wouldn’t need to mess with Alice and her genie. Their conversation reveals that they plan to rewrite the rules of magic and make the impossible possible, though neither knows exactly what the other one wants to accomplish with these powers. Jafar pressures the Queen to find the genie bottle, and when she tells him she has other responsibilities to attend to first, he disintegrates all the peasants in the room.

The Knave wonders why Cyrus hasn’t contacted Alice, and warns her that things might not be the same between them when they are reunited. Alice says he can’t understand the bond she and Cyrus have, and the Knave agrees.The White Rabbit reports to the Red Queen that he knows where the genie bottle is hidden.Alice and the Knave have to cross a lake, but the Knave is unable to swim.

Alice: How have you lived your whole life and never…

Knave: I was doing other things.

Alice: Like what?

Knave: Like being afraid of water, Alice.

To cross the lake, they have to take the ferry, a fairy named Silvermist. Silvermist hates the Knave for something that happened in the past, but offers to take them across the river, claiming she doesn’t let feelings interfere with work.

In Jafar’s prison, Cyrus talks to an old man locked in the other cage. Cyrus can’t use magic to escape because his cage is made of silver, which has anti-magical properties, but he can still use magic inside the cage itself.

Cyrus thinks back to when he gave the wishes to Alice. After Alice let the White Rabbit go, Cyrus explained to her that there were certain restrictions to his wishes.

Cyrus: I can’t kill anyone, I can’t bring anything back from the dead, I can’t change the past, and I can’t make anyone fall in love.

Alice: Reasonable enough. So after the third wish, what happens then?

Cyrus: I get returned to my bottle until someone else finds me.

Alice: So you spend your entire life…

Cyrus: Serving at the pleasure of my masters.

Alice: What if I wish for your freedom?

Cyrus: It’s been tried, and it’s never gone well for either party. Wishes come with a cost Alice. The bigger the wish, the greater the consequence.

The two of them then took a walk together through the hedge maze.

Silvermist ferries Alice and the Knave halfway across the lake, but then she drops the Knave into the water. Alice goes in after him since he can’t swim. Alice pulls the Knave to a tiny island in the middle of the lake. When Alice criticizes him for breaking Silvermist’s heart, the Knave says she should never have given it away in the first place. He expresses more jaded feelings about the concept of love. When Alice tries to get him to see things differently, the Knave tells her he’s only helping her for the wish she promised him.

Alice thinks back to her and Cyrus’ first date. Cyrus told her that being a genie was like being a wanted man, since people are always trying to get genies to give them wishes. Cyrus regales Alice with stories of his travels and adventures, and gives her an origami rose made from magic paper.

In the present, Jafar confronts the Red Queen about the whereabouts of the genie bottle.

Red Queen: Dispensing of pleasantries so early in our relationship? How tragic.

Jafar: This is not a relationship, And I’m a very busy man.

Red Queen: So you keep saying, yet it appears to me that I am the one doing all the work. I brought Alice back to Wonderland, and I found out where the bottle is hidden.

Jafar: Where?

Red Queen: I’m happy to share that information with you Jafar, but first I feel like we need a little chat. I have needs. Before I am happy to play another hand in the game, I need proof that you can satisfy them.

Jafar freezes the Queen with a spell and tells her she needs to be quiet and follow orders. Intimidated, the Queen tells Jafar that the bottle is hidden in Mimsy Meadows.

Alice realizes that the island they are sitting on is actually a giant turtle with an island on its back. Alice threatens the turtle with her sword and it starts swimming towards the other side of the lake.

Years ago, Cyrus taught Alice how to fight with a scimitar. During one of their practice fights, they kissed for the first time when Cyrus had Alice trapped and she got out of the situation by kissing him.

On the other side of the lake, Silvermist shows up and taunts the Knave by telling him about the huge bounty the Caterpillar has put on his head.

Knave: Ok, look, I made a horrible mistake. The thing is, you were right about everything. I felt bloody awful after what happened between us.

Silvermist: If you ever had a heart, I don’t know what happened to it. But then again, maybe your precious Anastasia used it all up.

Alice looks surprised to hear about the Knave’s past love. The Knave tells Silvermist that while she shouldn’t care about him, she should care about Alice, who may still have a chance to be with the person she loves. Silvermist is touched enough by his apology to let them go without contacting the Caterpillar. As they walk off, the Knave refuses to tell Alice who Anastasia is.

Alice remembers that one morning after she had spent some time with Cyrus, Cyrus had asked her to hurry up and make her wishes. He was feeling depressed because he realized he had fallen in love with her but knew the day would come when she would make her wishes and they would be separated forever.

Alice: But if I don’t make my wishes, you’ll never go back inside.

Cyrus: Everyone makes their wishes.

Alice: I won’t.

Cyrus: You say that now, but I’ve lived countless lifetimes and no one has ever not made their wishes.

Alice: Why would I wish for anything? I have everything I could possibly wish for. You are everything I’ve ever wished for, Cyrus.

Cyrus: What if you change your mind?

Alice: I won’t.

Cyrus: But what if you do?

Alice: You just have to trust me. How about we make a deal? I’ll never move on from you, if you never move on from me (they kiss). What do you propose we do with this? (holding up the bottle)

Cyrus: We bury it.

In the present, Jafar visits Mimsy Meadows and tries to find the genie bottle. The Knave and Alice hide in the bushes and watch him. Alice reveals that the bottle was never actually hidden here. She had deliberately given a false trail to find out who was looking for it. She then takes the Knave to the place where the bottle is really hidden, but to her horror, all she finds is an empty hole. Someone else got there first. For a moment, Alice is shaken and thinks back to what the Knave said earlier about the possibility of Cyrus moving on.

Meanwhile, Cyrus painfully reaches out through the silver bars of his cage and sends a magical origami crane to find Alice. No sooner has it gone, Jafar returns and demands that Cyrus tell him where the bottle is hidden. The Red Queen shows up and gloats that she has the bottle.

Red Queen: How about we start with changing the game? Beginning with a new rule: do not talk down to me anymore! You see, I was planning on telling you where the bottle was hidden, and then I realized something: I don’t trust you. And the reason I don’t trust you is because this relationship is not mutually beneficial, what with you holding all the cards and me holding nothing. But all that’s changed now, hasn’t it, darling? You have the genie, and I have the bottle.

As night falls, Alice tries to figure out what happened, and is sure that she and Cyrus were the only people who knew where the bottle was hidden, so if it’s gone, he must have taken it and moved on.

The White Rabbit asks the Red Queen to fulfill her side of the bargain, since he went above and beyond what she demanded of him, but the Red Queen tells him he won’t get what he wants until she has what she wants. When asked, the White Rabbit reveals that he had seen Alice and Cyrus hide the bottle long ago, which is why he knew where to find it.

The Knave apologizes to Alice for being such a pessimist before. Allice asks him about Anastasia, and he admits that he does know something about love. He tries to tell Alice not to give up hope, saying that the people who truly love her don’t move on, but Alice gets sadder as she thinks about how her relationship with her father fell apart. As she thinks, the paper crane arrives with a message from Cyrus. The message urges Alice to leave Wonderland for her own safety, but knowing that Cyrus is alive and still loves her inspires Alice with Hope.

Knave: I thought when you truly loved somebody you didn’t need any proof.

Alice: You don’t, but it’s still nice to have.

Alice writes the message “I’m coming for you,” on the back of the paper crane and sends it back to Cyrus.

Tropes

• Bullying a Dragon: Once again, the Red Queen tries taunting Jafar when he asks her for information. Jafar quickly demonstrates the massive power imbalance between them and emphasizes that they are not partners.
• Foreshadowing: When the Knave warns Alice that Cyrus may have moved on, she says he can’t possibly understand the bond they have. The Knave agrees that he can’t foreshadowing that the bond with his girlfriend was broken in a painful way, and now he has a diminished capacity to feel love due to no longer having a heart.
  • Later Alice calls the Knave out for breaking Silvermist’s heart and he harshly says she shouldn’t have given it away in the first place. Silvermist angrily suggests that Anastasia ruined his heart which is exactly what happened.
• I Lied: The Red Queen refuses to keep her promise with the White Rabbit, saying that ”promises were made to be broken.”
• Ironic Echo: Jafar mocks the Red Queen for trying to earn the people’s respect instead of simply taking it. When the Red Queen manages to find the genie bottle before Jafar can she throws his words back in his face.
• Kick the Dog: Jafar disintegrates an entire room of townsfolk just to make a point to the Red Queen.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: The Knave is dismissive of the idea of love and tells Alice he is only helping her for the wish she promised him.
• Pet the Dog: A very downplayed example, but the fact that the Red Queen feels a responsibility to listen to her subjects’ pleas (even though she tells them their problems bore her) implies that she’s not completely heartless.
• Shout-Out: When the Knave hears the bottle is hidden in the Mimsy Meadows, he says no one would go there unless they were a Care Bear.
  • To call the fairy to ferry them across the river, Alice and the Knave clap their hands.
• Single Tear: When Alice declares her love for Cyrus.
• Suspicious Spending: Jafar guesses that Farzeen has a genie from the rich way he lives despite being a poor scarf-seller.
• World of Pun: How did Alice get her new outfit? The clotheshorse came by.
  • The ferry to cross the lake is a fairy.