Recap / Once Upon a Time S1 E17 "Hat Trick"

Season 1, Episode 17:

Hat Trick

Centric Characters: Jefferson

Previous: Heart of Darkness | Next: The Stable Boy

Jefferson: I hate Wonderland.

Jefferson: Stories. Stories? What's a story? When you were in high school, did you learn about the Civil War?
Emma: Yeah, of course.
Jefferson: How? Did you read about it, perchance, in a book? How is that any less real than any other book?
Emma: History books are based on history.
Jefferson: And story books are based on what, imagination? Where's that come from? It has to come from somewhere. You know what the issue is with this world? Everyone wants a magical solution for their problem, and everyone refuses to believe in magic.

---

Mary Margaret runs through the woods, having just escaped her holding cell at the police station.

Henry congratulates Emma on the "escape plan" as she returns to the station with Mr. Gold, but Emma is horrified to see that Mary Margaret is gone.

Emma: She's a fugitive. It doesn't matter if she's convicted for Kathryn or not, she's screwed!

Emma gets ready to search for Mary Margaret despite Gold's warnings that she could be in big trouble if she's caught helping her.

Driving through the woods, Emma tries to spot Mary Margaret from her car but the fog and darkness make it difficult to see. Suddenly a man appears on the road in front of her, and Emma swerves to dodge him as he dives out of the way. Emma checks on the man and he insists that he's fine before inquiring what brings the sheriff into the woods late at night. Emma lies that she's looking for a lost dog before noticing that the man is limping. He tells her he just twisted his ankle and his home is nearby, but Emma insists on driving him there. The man thanks her and introduces himself as Jefferson.

---

FLASHBACK! Jefferson runs through the forest and hides behind a tree, but is soon found by his daughter, Grace, with whom he is sharing a game of hide-and-seek. The two go out to look for mushrooms to sell.

Upon returning home, Jefferson and Grace see the Queen's carriage parked out front. Jefferson tells Grace to keep hidden in the woods while he goes to see why the Queen has come.

Jefferson: What are you doing here, Regina?
The Queen: I have a job for you.
Jefferson: I don't do that anymore.
The Queen: Yes, I heard you hung up your hat. Why? Is it because of your sweet daughter, Grace?
Jefferson: Because of my work, she lost her mother. I don't want her to lose her father too.
The Queen: So now you're foraging for fungus? What kind of future does your daughter have here with you? Do this one last favor for me, and you can give her the life she deserves.
Jefferson: That's why I'm staying. You don't abandon family. That's what she deserves. Now please leave.
The Queen: All I need is your special skills to get me somewhere. Somewhere you've been before. Do it and I can change your life.

The Queen hands Jefferson a piece of paper bearing the name of the place she wants to go.

Jefferson: What business could you possibly have there?
The Queen: Something of mine was taken and found its way over there. I want it back.
Jefferson: Then find someone else to get it.
The Queen: I see. Hard living has strengthened your resolve. Well I'm sorry I couldn't convince you. But I understand. There's nothing more important than family.

---

Emma and Jefferson arrive at his mansion, but contrary to Emma's first impression Jefferson tells her that he lives alone there. Emma helps him climb the front stairs and once inside he offers her a cup of tea and a map to help her with the search for "the dog". As Emma sips the tea and begins to plan her next steps, she suddenly becomes drowsy. Jefferson helps her over to the sofa and as he walks to open the window, Emma notices that his limp is gone shortly before she blacks out.

Jefferson: I guess you caught me.

---

FLASHBACK! At a market, Grace asks for a stuffed rabbit from a toy cart but Jefferson can't afford the asking price and the old woman selling won't haggle, so Jefferson leaves disappointed despite Grace's insistence that it's okay. Going behind the cart, the old woman reveals that she's the Queen in disguise as she speaks to the Mirror.

---

Emma wakes up Bound and Gagged on the sofa, and since Jefferson is gone she breaks her dropped teacup and uses a shard to free herself. After trying and failing to open the windows, Emma finds a telescope pointed at the police station. Hearing a scraping noise, Emma sees a door slightly opened and peeks through to see Jefferson sharpening a large pair of scissors in a room across the hall.

---

FLASHBACK! Jefferson finishes making a stuffed rabbit for Grace, gifting it to her as he joins her pretend tea party along with her other toys. Jefferson tells Grace to stay with the neighbors for the day as he has work to do. Grace pieces together that he's doing something for the Queen and begs him to reconsider. Jefferson explains that he's doing it for her so she can have things she needs and promises that he'll be back for their next tea party. After Grace leaves, Jefferson opens a trunk and takes out a large hatbox.

---

Emma sneaks out into the hall and quietly moves through it, but hides in another room after the floor creaks. Inside the room she finds Mary Margaret tied to a chair. Emma frees Mary Margaret who explains that Jefferson jumped her in the woods and that she escaped using a key that someone planted in the cell. The two sneak back out into the hall but are instantly caught by Jefferson who holds them at gunpoint.

Emma: I've already called for backup. They'll be here any second.
Jefferson: You haven't called anybody. For the same reason you didn't tell me about her. You don't want anybody to know you're here. Which means, nobody does. So now tie her back up.

Emma obeys before asking Jefferson why he's been spying on her with the telescope.

Jefferson: I need you to do something.

---

FLASHBACK! Jefferson arrives at Regina's castle with his hatbox. After making sure that the Queen will keep her promise to give Grace a good life, he opens the hatbox and produces a weathered top hat. Jefferson sets the hat on the floor and spins it. It magically gains speed and forms a large whirling vortex which Jefferson and Regina jump into together.

---

Jefferson takes Emma into a hatmaking room where she tries to threaten him away from hurting Mary Margaret but he insists that he saved her by stopping her from leaving Storybrooke, since the curse causes bad things to happen to anyone who tries to leave.

Emma: Have you been reading Henry's book?
Jefferson: <confused> Henry? You mean the Queen's father?
Emma: Henry. The mayor's adopted kid.
Jefferson: Oh, Henry! Your Henry. And his book of stories, the ones you choose to ignore. Maybe if you knew what I know, you wouldn't.
Emma: Why have you been spying on me?
Jefferson: Because for the last twenty-eight years, I've been stuck in this house. Day after day, always the same. Until one night, you and your little yellow bug roll into town, and the clock ticks, and things start to change. You see… I know what you refuse to acknowledge, Emma. You're special. You brought something precious to Storybrooke. Magic.
Emma: You're insane.
Jefferson: Because I speak the truth?
Emma: Because you're talking about magic.
Jefferson: I'm talking about what I've seen. Perhaps you're the one that's mad.
Emma: Really?
Jefferson: What's crazier than seeing and not believing? Because that's exactly what you've been doing since you got to our little hamlet. Open your eyes. Look around. Wake up. Isn't it about time?
Emma: What do you want?
Jefferson: I want you to get it to work.

Jefferson sits Emma down at a table with a nearly finished top hat.

Emma: You want me to get what to work?
Jefferson: You're the only one that can do this. You're gonna get it to work.

---

FLASHBACK! Jefferson and Regina find themselves in a round chamber lined with various doorways. Jefferson leads Regina to one that appears to be a full-length mirror, and warns her that they need to stay together once they're on the other side, as the return trip can only be made by the same number of people that came in. They step through the mirror and emerge into a field of giant grass with a few similar-sized mushrooms, upon which is a massive hookah-smoking caterpillar.

Caterpillar: Who are you? Who? Who?
Jefferson: I hate Wonderland.

---

Jefferson gives Emma some fabric, instructing her to make a hat like the one before her. Emma asks why he needs another hat when he already has so many.

Jefferson: Well, none of them work, do they? Or else you wouldn't be here. Now make a hat, and get it to work.
Emma: I don't-
Jefferson: You have magic. You can do it.

Emma notices the tea set behind Jefferson and begins to piece things together.

Emma: The hats. The tea. Your psychotic behavior. You think you're the Mad Hatter.

Jefferson tells Emma that there's not much of a difference between stories based in history and in imagination, before demanding her to "get it to work" again.

Emma: Here's the thing, Jefferson. This is it. This is the real world.
Jefferson: A real world. How arrogant are you to think yours is the only one? There are infinite more. You have to open your mind. They touch one another, pressing up in a long line of lands, each just as real as the last. All have their own rules. Some have magic, some don't. And some need magic. Like this one. And that's where you come in. You and your friend are not leaving here until you make! My hat! Until you get it to work.
Emma: And then what?
Jefferson: Then I go home.

---

FLASHBACK! Jefferson and Regina arrive at a gigantic hedge maze which contains Regina's stolen item. Jefferson is wary since the maze belongs to the Queen of Hearts.

Jefferson: You know what she does to anyone who crosses her?
Regina: Indeed. Better than most.

Jefferson warns Regina to keep her distance from the hedges, demonstrating with a stick that they consume anything that touches them, but Regina scoffs and casts fire from her hand, burning a path straight to their destination, a vault. Regina throws open the doors and removes a box from one of the drawers. The two begin to leave but are immediately apprehended by the Queen of Hearts' soldiers. They run throughout the maze, defeating their pursuers by pushing them into the deadly hedges. Escaping the maze, Regina magically closes the hedges behind them to stop the last of the soldiers before they hurry back to the looking glass doorway.

As they draw closer, Regina stops to break off a piece of mushroom. Regina sets the box on the ground and drops the bit of mushroom inside. A cloud of magic smoke rises out of the box before clearing to reveal Regina's father. Stunned, Jefferson realizes that Regina knew the hat's rules from the beginning and needed to make sure that she could get her father back to the Enchanted Forest. Regina traps Jefferson's foot in the ground before she and her father step through the doorway. Jefferson is unable to react as the Knave of Hearts arrives with soldiers to take him to the Queen of Hearts.

At the Queen's court, the Queen of Hearts has her face hidden and speaks by whispering through a tube to the Knave, who repeats what she asks aloud. The Queen demands to know how Jefferson was able to get to Wonderland from the Enchanted Forest. Jefferson tries to make a deal by asking if the Queen of Hearts can help him get back home in exchange for the information, but the Queen of Hearts doesn't take kindly to that and orders her executioner to behead Jefferson. After the deed is done, Jefferson is surprised to still be alive as a disembodied head. Jefferson tells the Queen of Hearts that they used his magic hat which has now been claimed by Regina. The Knave tells Jefferson to just make himself a new hat to get back to the Enchanted Forest. Jefferson protests, since "a hat without magic is just a hat", but the Knave mockingly tells him to "get it to work".

---

Emma has finished the hat but it's no more magical than Jefferson's other hats. Emma asks why Jefferson even wants to get away from his current life since getting to live in a beautiful mansion isn't a bad deal at all, but Jefferson insists that he's still a true victim of the curse in that the thing he loves most has been taken from him. He has Emma look through another telescope, through which she sees a young girl with her parents at their home.

Jefferson: Her name is Grace. Here it's Paige. But it's Grace. My Grace. Do you have any idea what it's like? To watch her day in and day out. Happy. With a new family. With a new father.
Emma: You think she's your daughter?
Jefferson: I don't think. I know. I remember. She has no idea who I am. Our life together. Where we come from. I do. That's my curse.
Emma: To remember.
Jefferson: What good is this house? These things, if I can't share them with her?
Emma: If you really think she's your daughter, why don't you reach out to her? Why don't you tell her?
Jefferson: And destroy her reality? I'm trapped by knowledge. How cruel do you think I am? You think I'd inflict that awareness on my daughter? It's hard enough to live in a land where you don't belong, but knowing it? Holding conflicting realities in your head? Will drive you mad.
Emma: That's why you want me to make the hat work, isn't it? You just wanna take Grace home. To your world.
Jefferson: It's the one world where we can be together. Where she'll remember who I am.
Emma: I know what it's like to be separated from your kid.
Jefferson: Yeah you do, don't you?
Emma: It can make you feel like you're losing your mind.
Jefferson: I'm not losing my mind. I'm not crazy. This is real.
Emma: Maybe. Maybe it is.
Jefferson: You believe?
Emma: If what you say is true… that woman in the other room is my mother. And I wanna believe that more than anything in the world. So maybe you're right. Maybe I need to open myself up more. Maybe if I want magic… I have to start believing.
Jefferson: So you- you gonna help me? You're gonna get it to work?
Emma: I can try.

Jefferson turns and picks up the completed hat, only for Emma to knock him out cold with the telescope.

Emma: Crazy son of a bitch.

Emma grabs Jefferson's gun and runs back to Mary Margaret to free her, but suddenly Jefferson is back and tackles Emma to the ground. They wrestle and Emma pulls off Jefferson's scarf to uncover a thin scar running around his neck. Jefferson manages to grab the gun and stands triumphant.

Jefferson: Off with his head.

But Mary Margaret pops up behind him and strikes him in the back with a croquet mallet before kicking him in the chest, sending him out the window. The two women look down but only see the finished hat, which Jefferson had been wearing during the fight. They go outside but find no trace of Jefferson. Emma asks Mary Margaret how she was able to fight like that but she doesn't know. They find Emma's car with the keys still inside, and Emma gives them to Mary Margaret.

Mary Margaret: You want me to run?
Emma: No. But it's your choice. Just know something. Running ain't easy; I've done my share of it and once you go there's no stopping.
Mary Margaret: Emma, everyone thinks I killed Kathryn.
Emma: Mary Margaret, you have to believe me, you have to trust me. I know it seems impossible but I can get you out of this.
Mary Margaret: Why is it so important to you what happens to me?
Emma: Because when Regina framed me, and you bailed me out, I asked you why and you said you trusted me. And when I wanted to leave Storybrooke 'cause I thought it was best for Henry, you told me I needed to stay because ''that'' was best for him. And I realized all my life, I have been alone. Walls up. Nobody's ever been there for me except for you. And I can't lose that, I cannot lose my family!
Mary Margaret: Family?
Emma: Friends. Whatever. You know what I mean. Wouldn't you rather face this together than alone?

Mary Margaret gives back the keys just as the clock tower tolls. Emma realizes that Regina is going to be at the police station for Mary Margaret's arraignment.

Regina arrives at the station, pleased to see that Emma's car isn't there, but once inside she's surprised to see Mary Margaret in the holding cell shortly before Mr. Gold escorts her away. Once in the hall, the two discuss their evil plan. Regina was the one who planted the creepy skull key, and although Mary Margaret ran away as they predicted, Emma convinced her to return. Regina reminds Gold that she wants results from their deal, and he promises to deliver.

Emma visits Henry at the schoolyard, where Paige briefly stops to say hello to Henry. Reminded of Jefferson, Emma asks to see Henry's storybook and finds illustrations of Jefferson and Grace.

---

FLASHBACK! In his Wonderland abode, Jefferson sews a hat amidst thousands of other hands, ranting that he needs to "Get it to work".

---

Henry tells Emma that he has to go to school now, but is surprised when Emma asks to borrow the book to which he readily agrees.

Tropes

• Alone with the Psycho: A particularly chilling version as Jefferson segues between crazy ranting and heartfelt, invokedsympathy-inducing Woobie-ness.
• Badass in Distress: Big time. If it wasn't for Mary Margaret, Emma might not have made it out of that house alive.
• Bottle Episode: Almost the entire episode takes place in Jefferson's house.
• Bound and Gagged: Emma when she is kidnapped, however she quickly escapes from her restraints; she later finds Mary Margaret in this position.
• Couch Gag: The title card features Wonderland's giant mushrooms.
• Destination Defenestration: Mary Margaret, momentarily channeling Snow, throws Jefferson out a window.
• Dungeon Bypass/Playing with Fire: How the Queen manages to get through the maze.
• Evil Is Petty: Regina disguises herself as an old woman selling toys, just so she can use the price to deny Jefferson a stuffed rabbit for his daughter. Lampshaded by the Magic Mirror, but it does serve the purpose of reminding him he doesn't have the ability to care for Grace unless he accepts payment for her job.
• Exact Words: Regina promised Jefferson his daughter wouldn't want for anything, but she never said this would be with him. In fact since his neighbors that he left Grace with are also the family she is placed with in Storybrooke, this could be considered Regina's warped way of fulfilling her promise.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The doorways in Jefferson's hat. Of particular note is one containing green curtains emblazoned with a golden "Z" in a circle, serving as Foreshadowing to Season 3B where the Oz mythos takes center stage.
• Garden of Evil: The Queen of Hearts' hedge maze, considering its walls can wrap around people and swallow them up. This is something the Queen shows on many occasions before becoming Queen...
• God Save Us from the Queen!: The Queen of Hearts is up to her old tricks. Given who she actually is it is exceptionally appropriate.
• Gold–Silver–Copper Standard: Is in use in the Fairy Tale Land. The different coins don’t even have names; they're called 'silvers' and 'coppers'.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: Well, he's already mad thanks to being stranded in Wonderland for years and his frantic quest to make a new hat, but Jefferson's form of the curse also includes being left to live all alone in a grand mansion, his memories of his past life fully intact, always able to see his daughter happy with another family but never able to be with her or tell her who she is.
• Heroic BSoD: Jefferson goes catatonic after Regina leaves him behind.
• Hypocrite: Regina hardly has room to talk, stating the Queen of Hearts "isn't one for subtlety." Then again, considering who she actually is, she has a point.
• I Lied: The Evil Queen promises if Jefferson does one last job for her, he'll never have to worry about his daughter again, but neglected to tell him that the job involved rescuing her father—which meant by the rules of the hat, one person would have to stay behind and of course that person would be Jefferson. She even twists the knife by implying she did this to punish him for abandoning his daughter, which he wouldn't have done if not for her actions or her lie in the first place.
• Improvised Weapon: Big, heavy telescopes certainly do make good blunt weapons. As do croquet mallets.
• Ironic Echo/Meaningful Echo: "You don't abandon family."
• Irony: Back in the Enchanted Forest, Jefferson was but a poor man, but at least he still had Grace. In our world, he now has to luxury to provide for himself and then some, but Grace lives with another family. So for all the riches he now has, he's in a living heck where he's without his daughter and he knows it.
• Legacy Character: The Knave of Hearts is apparently the second person in this role, after Will Scarlet defected in the sister show.
• Made of Iron: Jefferson's skull, apparently (possibly, because he's been decapitated, it has no blood left in it). A Tap on the Head that hard ought to have knocked him out for more than a few minutes.
• Madness Mantra: GET IT TO WORK! GET IT TO WORK! GET IT TO WORK! GET IT TO WORK!
• Magic A Is Magic A: The rule for the Hat is established—it can only take the same number of people in as out (though it isn't specified if this is only for Wonderland or for any world it opens a portal to; "The Doctor" at least seems to imply it applies to Frankenstein's world too).
• Mama Bear: The part of Snow that resides in Mary Margaret immediately comes to the top as soon as Emma is in deadly danger - culminating with her smashing Jefferson in the back with a croquet mallet.
• Mouth of Sauron: The Queen of Hearts refuses to speak louder than a whisper, so she has her Knave listen to her and yell her whims to the rest of the court.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Jefferson's name doubles as a Shout-Out to Jefferson Airplane, the band famous for their song "White Rabbit", while his daughter has the same name as the band's lead singer Grace Slick.
  • Also there's the fact his daughter loves tea parties, the two of them hunt and sell mushrooms from the forest, the toy Grace wanted at the market stall was a stuffed rabbit, the stuffed turtle she possesses resembles the Mock Turtle, and the mallet Mary Margaret uses on Jefferson is a croquet mallet.
  • Inverted in the Mouth of Sauron example above, however: most versions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (as well as the original book itself) depict the Queen of Hearts as a furious tyrant who shouts and screams and rants against anyone who disobeys her or whom she simply takes a disliking to. But here she speaks only in whispers, even to deliver her iconic "Off with his head!" line.
• Never Found the Body: After Jefferson gets knocked out of the window, all that remains is his hat.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Jefferson. In the flashbacks he stands a bit closer to Regina than is strictly warranted, but he rarely gives Emma more than six inches of personal space, and that's when he's not getting grabby and straight-up sniffing her hair. In the latter case it seems like it could be an intimidation tactic, rather than just a lack of boundaries.
• Not so Dire: The first time we see Jefferson, he is running from something. Turned out he was just playing hide and seek with his daughter.
• Off with His Head! / Losing Your Head: Of course. Actually happens to the Hatter. He survives.
• Papa Wolf: The Hatter's greatest strength and his greatest weakness.
• Pet the Dog: Not only does Regina show her kinder side when rescuing her father, there is a brief moment when Jefferson appeals to her not to leave him and separate him from his daughter where she falters, looking sorrowful with tears in her eyes.
• Reveal Shot: As Jefferson gets in Emma's car, the camera pans down to show him stop walking with his faked limp.
• Sealed Good in a Can: Regina's father Prince Henry was shrunk and kept prisoner in a box in Wonderland.
• Shout-Out: Mary Margaret uses a croquet mallet as a weapon. This is, in American McGee's Alice, exactly what the title character does too.
• Slipping a Mickey: Jefferson drugs Emma's tea.
• Stalker with a Crush: Some of Jefferson's interactions with Emma sure come across as this. He didn't have any real reason to sniff◊ her hair. Needless to say, she is incredibly creeped out by this.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Like the audience, Emma seems to harbor pity for Jefferson once she learns his tragic Backstory. Subverted when it turned out she was just stalling for time until he turned his back so she could knock him out.
• Tap on the Head: Emma whacks Jefferson a good one with his telescope.
• They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite the fact that Season Five reveals that Regina put her father in a box in anger, she had no intention of leaving him there for long and when Cora takes him, she goes right after him - and Regina's reaction when her father is rescued shows that she actually does care for him.
• Wham Episode: This episode, while being a Bottle Episode, has revealed several nuggets of information that change everything. The first being that Wonderland exists in the universe of the show, second being that Regina and Mr. Gold are working together against Mary Margaret for reasons revealed next episode, and the last being that Emma is informed that there are other worlds out there from someone who didn't get their information from the book. While she doesn't believe him at first, she starts to believe his story, and by extension Henry's, after she discovers pictures in the book that match Jefferson and his daughter's appearances.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: How Jefferson gets Emma back to his place.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: At the beginning, Henry assumes that Mr. Gold is in on Mary Margaret's escape. He is, but Henry just guessed the wrong side.
• You Have to Believe Me!: Jefferson really, really wants Emma to believe him. He doesn't seem to realize that drugging and tying her up is not the best way to achieve this.
• You're Insane!: Emma says this to Jefferson when he tells her about the curse. Given that Jefferson appeared to actually go mad in Wonderland, she may be right. We're not sure.