The Queen of Hearts Returns!! Once Upon a Time in Wonderland Ep.11 Recap!!

CAREFUL MY DARLINGS!! SPOILERS AHEAD!!

Jafar begins his spell to magnify his power. In the past, Anastasia meets the Queen of Hearts who offers to teach her magic. At the trailor, Tweedledee tells Alice and Cyrus about Jafar gaining the power of all three genies and that he released the Jabberwwocky. Noticing that his spell is not working, Jafar releases the Knave. The Jabberwocky offers to speak to the Knave. However, she is having a difficult time reading the Knave’s fear. Will Scarlet speaks with Anastasia about her decision to marry the Red King until he is chased away by the guards. Alice and Cyrus make their way into the dungeon of Jafar’s tower. They hide just as Jafar and the jabberwocky enter the dungeon. Jafar asks the Red Queen about the Knave resisting his spell. The Jabberwocky tells him that the Knave doesn’t have a heart and that they are not alone. Alice and Cyrus escape from the dungeon and Alice tells Cyrus that she knows where the Knave’s heart is. The Queen of Hearts meets with Will Scarlet where she tells him that Anastasia is not coming. He asks her to remove his heart which she does. Alice and Cyrus find the White Rabbit and ask him to take them to Storybrooke. They arrive in the town where the Rabbit takes them to his place. There, they find the Knave’s heart and return to Wonderland. Jafar is there waiting and he attacks them and takes the Knave’s heart. Cyrus tries to stop. Jafar retaliates with his staff but to no avail. The staff repels Jafar away. He tries to retrieve it but the staff resists him, forcing him to leave. Afterward, Cyrus determines that the staff is his mother Amara. Jafar returns to his dungeon and puts the Knave heart back inside him. Then he decides to test to see if the Knave’s feelings return by killing the Red Queen.

It was such a treat to see Barbara Hershey return to her role as the Queen of Hearts. She is just wonderful in portraying this character. In the past, she became friends with Anastasia and appeared to take kindly to her. But this is Cora we’re talking about so you know there’s an underlining agenda. After eavesdropping on Will Scarlett and Anastasia, Cora finds him by the wagon he shared with Anastasia. She tells him how much of a weakness love is which isn’t hard for her to explain since she removed her own heart. However Will Scarlett knows who the Queen of Hearts is and what she is capable of. No longer able to bear the pain of Anastasia marrying the Red King, Will asks the Queen of Hearts to remove his heart which she does without hesitation. The second part of Cora’s plan comes when she talks to the newly crowned Red Queen and shows her that Will has left her. She gives the same speech about love’s weakness that she told Will Scarlett. Now Cora eases Anastasia’s pain by showing her the ways of magic the same as she did with her daughter Regina. Since Regina was the one who sent Cora to Wonderland, it is likely that she took Anastasia under her wing in the hope of succeeding with her where she failed with Regina. Well given the fact that she was eventually cast out of Wonderland shows that she indeed fail with Anastasia. Barbara Hershey is deliciously wicked as Cora/the Queen of Hearts and I hope we get to see more of her.

In case you haven’t guessed this is a crossover episode with Alice and Cyrus traveling to Storybrooke in search of the Knave of Hearts’ heart (pun intended). It was interesting to see how they would react to a world far different from their own. Being from a time and place without electricity, Alice and Cyrus look at everything with the curiosity of a child discovering the world around them. Cyrus switches the lights on and off while Alice marvels at the ice maker in the refrigerator, believing that magic is involved. This reminded me of how Ichabod Crane reacted to the modern world in “Sleepy Hollow”. But things return to normal (for them anyway) when they return to Wonderland with the Knave’s heart and are met by Jafar. He manages to take the heart and tries to kill Cyrus with the staff only to discover that it will not obey him. This is likely due to the fact that a mother can never harm their own child. Amara resists Jafar and casts him away. It isn’t long before Cyrus figures out that the staff is actually his mother. Now that he has her back, Cyrus has to find a way to return her to normal.

Will Scarlett asked the Queen of Hearts to remove his heart so he would not feel pain anymore. He is quickly reminded why he wanted the bloody thing taken out when Jafar returns, shoves his heart back in and kills Anastasia. For a moment before this, Will Scarlett’s feelings for Anastasia returned. Now the Knave is able to feel again and right now he is angry at Jafar for killing the love of his life. But should Jafar be afraid of an angry Genie