SPOILERS AHEAD!!
Robin Hood and his merry men rob a carriage. Will Scarlet shows robin his haul. Alice and the knave continue to search for Cyrus. Will tells her bout the forget-me-knot that can show her who took the bottle belonging to Cyrus. Jafar shows Cyrus the letter from Alice. Meanwhile Will takes Alice to Underland. There they meet the Caterpillar whom Will owes money to. Will asks the Caterpillar for the forget-me-knot but Alice sees through the Caterpillar’s deception. The Caterpillar tells them that the Grendel has the knot in Wispy Wood. He expects will and Alice to fail and shows them what will happen if they do. He lifts a lid revealing a screaming severed head. Alice and will travel to the Wispy Wood in search of the Grendel. Alice is unsure of giving the knot to the Caterpillar but will asks her what she do for Cyrus. In the enchanted forest, Will discusses his plan to take gold from malecifent but robin talks him out of it. But will careful convincing, Robin soon relents.
The Red Queen has found out about the Grendel and the knot from the white rabbit. In the wood, Will comes up with a plan to get the forget-me-knot from the Grendel until they end up in a trap set by the creature. Alice and will awaken to find themselves in the Grendel’s kitchen. In the enchanted forest, Robin Hood and his merry men enter Malecifent’s castle. They split up to cover more ground. While searching for a way to escape, Will and Alice discover that the Grendel has the knot right in front of him. However, Will notices something that may help them get the knot. Elsewhere, Jafar and the queen unleash a beast to hunt Alice. In the Grendel’s home, will tries to reason with the creature. The people he sees in the knot are him and his wife. However, the Grendel refuses to listen. While their host prepares to have his meal, Will and Alice manage to free themselves however; their escape is cut off by the Bandersnatch. The beast bursts into the house in search of Alice. The Grendel tries to help but he is felled by the Bandersnatch. The Bandersnatch hunts for Alice. It sees her through the knot. Alice’s ploy works and the beast is killed. Grateful for saving his life, the Grendel gives the knot to Alice after telling them about the Red Queen and the curse she placed on him. Later, Jafar and the Red Queen show up at the Grendel’s home and ask about the people he had there. He tells them that a woman and a man were there. He asks to be reunited with his wife. Jafar obliges and kills him. Later, Will makes a decision to not give the Caterpillar the knot and burns it instead.
In the enchanted forest, Robin is upset with will for taking a magical item from malecifent. Will has no regrets for what he has done. He returns home to Anastasia, who is revealed to be the Red Queen, with the looking glass which they use to travel to Wonderland.
The denizens of Wonderland are given a different depiction than Lewis Carroll ever would have imagined. In this episode, we meet the Caterpillar. The hookah smoking insect is portrayed as a kind of mobster who presides over Underland, the world beneath Wonderland. He is far cry from the chain-smoking character in Disney’s 1951 animated feature that is known for his breathy phrase “Whooo…are…you?” Here, the Caterpillar wants to exact revenge on the Knave for skipping out on his debt. For emphasis of his fate, the Caterpillar shows the screaming severed head of the last person who crossed him. See, not so cute and fuzzy, is he? He makes a deal with the Knave to retrieve the Forget-Me-Knot from the Grendel. The Grendel is one of three monsters from the Anglo-Saxon poem “Beowulf” along with the dragon and his mother. Just like in the poem, he is a fierce monster who has an appetite for people. However, this version of the Grendel has a sad story. He was once a man who was turned into a monster by the Red Queen for stealing the Forget-Me-Knot from her. He uses the Forget-Me-Knot to see his wife who is now deceased. Whether she died or was killed is not known. Seeing this, the Knave tries to reason with him, for he knows what it is like to lose a loved one. The Grendel doesn’t buy into the Knave’s kindness until his home is attacked by the Bandersnatch that the Red Queen sent and he is saved from it by Alice. Appreciative of the noble act, he willingly gives Alice the Forget-Me-Knot. He later visited by Jafar and the Red Queen, where Jafar asks him about the man and the woman who were in his home. The Agrabahn sorcerer promises the Grendel that he will see his wife again. The Grendel, still mourning her loss, answers Jafar’s question and Jafar answers the Grendel’s request to be reunited with his wife by stabbing him with his staff.
William, the Knave of Hearts, has made many enemies in Wonderland, among them the Caterpillar with whom he owns a debt to and the fairy Silvermist whose heart he broke. But Will’s life of deception and thievery didn’t start with Wonderland. He was a member of Robin Hood’s Merry Men in the Enchanted Forest. Then, he used his real name Will Scarlet. For those who are not familiar with the English tale, Will Scarlet was an expert swordsman and is depicted as being young and impetuous, which explains his portrayal in “Wonderland”. However, where Will Scarlet is upstanding in other versions of the English tale, in “Wonderland” he is an expert thief who becomes consumed with greed. After yet another successful mission in the name of the poor, Will suggests to Robin that their next mission should be the castle belonging to the powerful sorceress Maleficent. Robin is wary of going to the castle but soon relents. While in the castle, Will takes a mirror from the sorceress’s cupboard which brings about her wrath. Robin is wary of magic and feels betrayed after telling his men to take only the riches. He may be an outlaw but Robin has his standards. He does what he does for the good of the people. Will does what he does for himself. This conflicts with Robin Hood’s morals and Will Scarlet leaves. Will returns home to his lover Anastasia, who is revealed to be the future Red Queen. Now we see the connection the Knave of Hearts has with the Red Queen. But what happened to Anastasia that would make her become the Ruler of the Kingdom of Hearts? With this, it is likely that that story will be told along with Will Scarlet and Anastasia’s interaction with the previous Ruler of the Kingdom of Hearts, the Queen of Hearts, also known as Cora.
It would be a delight to see Barbara Hershey reprise her role from when she was first introduced last season. With the introduction of the Grendel, this sets up for the other creatures from “Beowulf” to appear in the series but I’m not looking towards Grendel’s mother. It is the dragon-like Jabberwocky that may rear its ugly head.
