Recap / Once Upon A Time In Wonderland S 1 E 1 Down The Rabbit Hole

Once upon a time…a group of stuffed animals sat around a tea party in a garden, when suddenly the garden was rocked by an explosion, and out of a hole in the ground climbed a young girl: Alice. Alice excitedly ran home to tell her father where she had been, but when her father saw her, he was astounded, because she had been gone so long everyone thought she was dead. No one believed her stories about talking rabbits or size-changing mushrooms.

In the present day a young man with dark hair and a leather jacket walks calmly through the town of Storybrooke during a thunderstorm. He heads into Granny’s Diner, where Ashley and Leroy are closing up for the night. They tell the stranger to find a dry place before the storm gets worse. Casually swiping the keys, he heads on into the diner. He treats himself to a cup of coffee when the ground starts to shake, and suddenly a rabbit hole bursts up through the floor of the diner. Out of the hole comes the White Rabbit.

Knave: Bloody hell! What are you doing here?

White Rabbit: I’ll tell you on the way. We’re late.

Knave: I’m not interested in your important dates, Rabbit. Or your unimportant dates for that matter.

White Rabbit: No, no, no no, we’re not late for something, we’re late for someone.

Knave: Who?

White Rabbit: Alice. She needs help. You’re the Knave of Hearts. She needs you.

In Bethlem Asylum, Alice, now a young woman, is an inmate. Alice is brought before several doctors and therapists who ask her about her strange stories. The doctors think they are making progress when Alice admits that her stories of an invisible cat and hookah-smoking caterpillar sound ridiculous.

As they talk, Alice flashes back to her last adventure in Wonderland, when she had tried to obtain proof that it was real. She had been pursued by the Queen’s guards in the hedge maze, and hid by shrinking herself with the magical mushroom. She then found a mysterious bottle...

Dr Lydgate calls Alice back to her current situation. At his urging, Alice says she never left England and just made up her stories of Wonderland.

Dr. Lydgate: The question is, which is the real performance? Little girl with tales of tea parties and barbaric queens, or the young lady who says it was just her imagination?

Alice: That little girl was a fool.

Dr. Lydgate: And the lady?

Alice: She knows what really happened.

In the past, Alice took refuge in the mysterious bottle, only to find that it was already occupied by a handsome young man named Cyrus, the genie of the bottle. Making friends with Cyrus, Alice explained to him that she came back to Wonderland to try to find proof that all of it was real. She opened her bag to show the White Rabbit, which she intends to take back to her home as proof.

Cyrus: You know, when you really love someone, you don’t need proof. You can just feel it.

Alice: Maybe where you’re from, but in my land I wish thing would…

Cyrus: You wish things would what? You found my bottle Alice, anything is possible.

Cyrus explained that since Alice opened his bottle, this meant she was entitled to three wishes.

Dr Lydgate continues his questions by asking Alice about her story of traveling the world with her genie boyfriend. He asks her to admit that this story was all a lie.

Alice remembers how she and Cyrus watched the sunrise on a magnificent cliff over the Boiling Sea. It was at this place that Cyrus proposed to Alice, and she accepted before he could finish his speech. Their hearts being entwined was symbolized by the magical amulet Cyrus wore, which would glow whenever they were close to each other. But before they could celebrate further, the couple was suddenly attacked…

The memory brings tears to Alice’s eyes as Dr. Lydgate continues to interrogate her.

Dr. Lydgate: When your father found you, you were inconsolable. You said the love of your life was gone, murdered by some…

Alice: No, that’s…that’s not what I said.

Dr. Lydgate: Alice, you were an ignored little girl who wanted to be loved, so you created a fantasy land full of characters who’d help you become who you wanted to be. Tall, brave, beautiful. You wouldn’t be the first child to do this. You’re just the first to grow up and still believe it was real.

Alice: No. I don’t believe it anymore.

Dr. Lydgate: We know you’re lying. You still cry out for him in your sleep.

Alice remembers how she and Cyrus were attacked by the Red Queen and her soldiers, who wanted to capture the genie. When Cyrus managed to get the upper hand, the Red Queen used her magic to throw him off the cliff.

Seeing the distress this memory causes, Dr. Lydgate suggests that Alice could take part in a new medical procedure which would help her forget all of these painful memories. Tearfully, Alice signs the form for the treatment.The next day, the Knave breaks into Alice’s cell. Alice refuses to go with him, and the medical staff soon rush to restrain him, but before he can be dragged away he tells Alice that Cyrus is still alive.

Knave: You know as well as I do Alice, nothing’s impossible in Wonderland.

In seconds, Alice reverts back to her old, adventurous self. She soon beats up the asylum’s orderlies and heads out.

Alice: Was that supposed to be your idea of a rescue?

Knave: Well, it was supposed to be more of a message delivery type situation.

Alice and the Knave are joined by the White Rabbit. Dr. Lydgate shows up and tries to persuade Alice not to leave, but when he sees the White Rabbit he is flabbergasted.

Alice: Seeing things Doctor? I hear there’s a procedure for that.

Alice, the Knave, and the White Rabbit escape from the asylum, but the police and asylum guards are hot on their tail. The White Rabbit opens a portal to Wonderland. The Knave is reluctant to enter the portal since he didn’t leave Wonderland on good terms, but Alice insists.

Alice: Listen Knave, once long ago I got you back your heart. Now you need to help me get back mine.

Just before the orderlies can recapture them, they jump into the portal. Unfortunately, the portal drops them in Mallow Marsh. Alice soon learns that the White Rabbit hasn’t actually seen Cyrus recently, he’s only heard rumors from the Dormouse that Cyrus was seen at the Mad Hatter’s house in the Tulgey woods. Alice and the Knave sink up to their waists in marshmallow. The rabbit runs off to get help, but Alice gets the idea of using the fiery breath of the dragonflies to toast the marshmallow so it will harden and they can climb out. Once free of the marsh, the Knave wants to leave, upset that the Rabbit misled them about having seen Cyrus.

Knave: I left Wonderland because I did a lot of bad things here. A lot of people want to see me dead. They have their reasons, and to be honest, they’re good reasons. I left this place for a future I’m quite keen to see, and you want me to risk all that for a hunch?

Alice offers to pay the Knave with one of her wishes. She reveals that she kept the wish tokens (which appear as small rubies) hidden in her shoe during her time at the asylum.

Knave: I don’t get it. Why don’t you just use ‘em to bring Cyrus back?

Alice: Wishes can be…unpredictable. If I used one to bring Cyrus back, he might arrive hanging from a tree with a noose around his neck. See, with wishes, sometimes there’s literally a string attached.

Knave: (looking at the wishes with a greedy glint in his eye) Then one just has to be careful what they wish for.

The Knave agrees to this deal but watches carefully as Alice puts the wish tokens back in her shoe.

Meanwhile, the White Rabbit runs into the Red Queen. The Rabbit informs the Queen that Alice has returned to Wonderland. The Queen coerces the Rabbit to spy on Alice for her.Alice and the Knave enter the ominous Tulgey Woods, hoping to reach the Hatter’s house on the other side.

At the Red Queen’s castle, the Queen reports to Jafar that Alice has returned. Jafar notes that for their plan to work, they need to find the genie bottle and get Alice to use up all of her wishes. Jafar considers killing the Red Queen, thinking that he doesn’t need her help now that she has brought Alice back to Wonderland. The Red Queen points out that she knows Alice and the workings of Wonderland far better than Jafar does, so he still needs her. Jafar concedes the point and spares her life.

In the Tulgey Wood, Alice decides to climb a tree to get a better vantage point. She takes off her shoes before climbing, which the Knave watches, thinking about the wishes hidden inside the shoes. Up in the tree, Alice sees the Hatter’s house, but she is caught by surprise by the Cheshire Cat. The Cat is so hungry it tries to eat Alice (even without pepper!), but Alice is saved when the Knave returns and throws a piece of magical mushroom down the Cheshire Cat’s mouth, shrinking it to the size of a harmless kitten. Alice calls out the Knave for trying to steal her wishes.

Knave: Oh that. I think maybe you misunderstand. I was just protecting the wishes.

Alice: You except me to believe that?

Knave: Not really, no. But can we focus on the part where I came back and saved your life?

Alice: You know you can’t steal a wish. It has to be granted.

Knave: Of course I did. Everybody knows that. (he returns Alice’s shoes)

They reach the Mad Hatter’s house, but all they find are a bunch of hats and the White Rabbit. Dismayed to not see Cyrus, Alice goes back outside and finds his amulet lying in the garden. The Rabbit says that if the Amulet survived falling into the Boiling Sea, Cyrus must have too. Will is skeptical of this statement, but Alice has renewed hope.

Alice: When you really love someone, you don’t need proof. You can feel it.

Meanwhile, Cyrus awakens in the cage in which he has been suspended. He remembers how when the Red Queen threw him off the cliff he was saved from the Boiling Sea by Jafar, who caught him in a magic carpet, but then took him prisoner.

Tropes

• Be Careful What You Wish For: Said almost word for word by the Knave when Alice warns him that wishes can be unpredictable.
• Bedlam House: Alice has spent a year in an insane asylum due to her stories of Wonderland.
• Bird Caged: Cyrus is suspended in a cage in Jafar's dungeon.
• Bullying a Dragon: The Red Queen talks down to Jafar right after he nearly kills her. Justified, since Jafar only spared her when he thought she had something to contribute, so acting submissive would probably have gotten the Queen killed.
• Cassandra Truth: No one believes Alice's stories when she returns home.
• Continuity Nod: The Mad Hatter’s house is abandoned in Wonderland, and Will mentions that the Hatter now lives in Storybrooke.
• Establishing Character Moment: The Knave is introduced casually swiping keys from Ashley and going into the diner to pour himself a cup of coffee. He puts money on the counter to pay for it, but then takes his money back since no one is watching, establishing him as a Loveable Rogue.
• "Eureka!" Moment: The Knave mentioning s’mores gives Alice the idea of cooking the marshmallow so it will harden and they can climb out.
• Foreshadowing: Overlapping with Tempting Fate, Cyrus notes that it would be a terrible fate to be separated from a loved one, and Alice agrees.
• Love at First Sight: Cyrus falls for Alice soon after meeting her. When he asks if she has a husband and she claims she doesn’t he replies “good.” Before hastily explaining that he meant it’s good that she isn’t separated from her loved ones.
• Mythology Gag: The White Rabbit keeps telling Will and Alice that they’re late.
• Narnia Time: It is implied that time passes differently in Wonderland than in the England that Alice originally came from, though the exact details are not made clear.
• Neutral Female: When Alice and Cyrus are attacked by the Red Queen’s soldiers, the Red Queen initially just stands by and watches while the others fight, but this is subverted when Cyrus starts to win, and the Queen throws him off the cliff with one wave of her hand.
  • During the escape from Bethlem Hospital, the Knave is a male example, standing back and letting Alice do all the fighting.
• Quicksand Sucks: Mallow Marsh is a swamp literally made of marshmallow, and Alice and the Knave nearly drown in it.
  Knave: This is humiliating. I’m gonna die like a bloody s’more.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The Knave reacts to the White Rabbit bursting up through the floor of the diner with only mild surprise.
• "Wanted!" Poster: Wanted posters demanding the Knave of Hearts (with or without his head) are posted up all over Wonderland.
• World of Pun: Alice lands in a marsh made of marshmallow, and uses dragon flies (flies that can breathe fire like dragons) to toast the marshmallow.
• "You!" Exclamation: How Alice reacts when the Knave breaks into her cell.
  Knave: “You?” That’s what I get? “You?” Well, nice to see you too, Alice.
• You Have Out Lived Your Usefulness: Jafar almost kills the Red Queen when he thinks he doesn’t need her anymore, but the Red Queen points out that she knows more about Alice and the way Wonderland works than Jafar does, and Jafar decides to keep her around.