by Katie Welch
**SPOILERS!**
If you have not watched this episode, please do so before continuing!
Who doesn't want to see what a villain's life was like before they became so evil? I mean, we saw all the way back to the cute little boyhood days of Jafar--Next up, Anastasia!
No... not that one...
Okay, so except for sharing a name, this Anastasia bears little resemblance. At the start of the episode, Will and Ana are about to jump into the looking-glass portal, when who should appear but mummy dearest?
She immediately gives her daughter a dressing-down for wanting to run away with a poor vagrant, going on and on about how she wanted a queen, about how Will isn't worth the work it'll take to make her (Ana) happy--work that Will is perfectly willing to do, by the way--and about how she doesn't believe in love, herself. (Oh, now I understand why there's no father in the picture...) In possibly the worst phony British accent I've heard on this show, Anastasia's mother promptly loads her daughter down with guilt, blame, and doubt, and delivers the Unkindest Cut of All: "When you do decide to come back, bring a bucket--because the only way you'll ever return to this house is to empty my chamber pot." You live in a cottage in the middle of the bloody Enchanted Forest, for pity's sake, woman! And you'd make your own daughter the maid you clearly never deserved? Despicable... Maybe she does bear some resemblance to Lady Tremaine (sans the grand mansion) after all. Anastasia is choking back tears as Will takes her hand and they jump.
Going back to the events from the end of the last episode, Alice spreads a blanket over Will-the-Statue. The Queen arrives, and offers to help her. Alice initially refuses, till Anastasia points out that they now have a common enemy, and one that neither can defeat on their own. She promises to tell Alice where Cyrus is, if Alice will do something for her: collect fairy dust from a place only the pure of heart can access. The fairy dust has the power to protect Anastasia from Jafar's dark magic, and it potentially could help Alice, as well. Alice, for her part, has no choice but to agree.
In the flashback, Will and Ana have been wandering around Wonderland for days, reduced to foraging for berries in order to survive. (As Ana points out, "I always thought Wonderland was short for 'wonderful', not 'wonder how we're going to make it.'")
A wagon positively loaded down with food crosses their path, all headed for the palace, as there will be a ball that evening. Ana wants to sneak into the castle, if only to have a decent meal.
In the present time, Alice and Anastasia are headed for the Great Divide--a ravine full of shadows and dark magic, across which stands the place where the fairy dust may be gathered.
MEANWHILE ... Jafar has acquired the White Rabbit, and he wants to use the White Rabbit's knowledge of Alice to be able to exploit any weakness she has--since the only weakness he thought she had backfired so profoundly at him...
MEANWHILE... Cyrus has almost finished cutting open the grate. He keeps making small talk with the old man, who reveals that he is being kept prisoner in spite of his age and feebleness, because he has something Jafar wants, and steadily refuses to give in to him. Cyrus offers to free him as well. At last, the gate comes off, and Cyrus begins swinging the cage, to get enough momentum to slip through the hole he's made and onto the bridge leading into the castle. A guard almost catches him, but Cyrus knocks him out.
The scene flashes back again, and Will and Ana attend the ball wearing stolen clothes and carrying forged invitations. Will goes to get some food, and Ana, in trying to imitate the other courtiers, catches the eye of the king. He starts flirting with her, and she flirts right back--until the guards bring Will, after only just then discovering that his invitation is fake. Only then does a lady notice that the dress Ana is wearing is hers (though I, for one, was looking at the actress making the accusation and thinking that "Ana" did her a service, by ensuring she would never have to make that dress fit...) They get tossed out of the castle. Will is unperturbed, as he was able to pinch at least three loaves of bread, enough, he says, for a week--but Ana looks back at the castle, thinking of the fabulous crown jewels that everyone was talking about...
Back at the Great Divide, Anastasia shows Alice the spell surrounding the ravine: "Only the pure of heart shall make the leap." Alice is still suspicious, accusing Anastasia of bringing her out here to kill her. The queen responds with a smile, "If I wanted you dead, darling... I'd push you!" Alice decides that the proper interpretation is to cling to the "purest thing in her heart" (her love for Cyrus) and that will support her. She makes it about four steps and then falls, leaving the Queen to believe that her last hope failed.
In the flashback, Ana has given in to her mother's cruel words, wants to go back because life in Wonderland wasn't at all what she was expecting--but first, she asks Will (being the skilled thief he is) to go back to the castle with her to steal the crown jewels. Her mother wanted a queen, well by golly, she'll buy her mother's affection with the royal treasures! (Because that works so well...)
MEANWHILE... Back in the dungeon, the newly-liberated Cyrus tosses the keys to the cage for the old man to free himself, but the old man lets the keys fall, claiming he would only slow Cyrus down. Cyrus has no choice but to go on without him.
MEANWHILE... At the bottom of the Great Divide, Alice is trying to figure out how to get out, or what to do next--then she hears a creepy voice calling her name.
It's Alice's younger self, testing her thirst for revenge. Young Alice taunts Older Alice, claiming that the fact she never stopped dreaming about Cyrus was borne out of a thirst for revenge. Young Alice causes a small quake which makes the Queen fall into the ravine so that Alice can kill her, but Alice refuses. The little girl congratulates Alice on passing the test of the purity of her heart, and dissolves into a pile of the fairy dust they sought.
The two women make it out of the Divide, and the queen tricks Alice out of the powder, and still refuses to tell Alice where Cyrus is. Unbeknownst to Anastasia, Alice had kept at least a handful of the dust, and she uses that to reveal the location of Jafar's floating island.
MEANWHILE... The White Rabbit has told Jafar of one other person Alice might care about, that he could use to exploit her, but the Rabbit runs off before Jafar can force him to bring him to that person. He almost exposes Cyrus' escape when he runs into him in the halls, but the White Rabbit distracts Jafar and Cyrus can get away. The White Rabbit complies, making him a portal to "You know where."
In the flashback... Ana is the one stealing the jewels, with Will acting as lookout (I can only think of one reason why she would arrange it that way, since Will is obviously more experienced at this sort of thing...) Of course, she makes entirely too much noise and takes too long admiring the jewels, so the King catches her.
Now, this is where I think the creative team got sloppy; if it had been Will in there, he would have been arrested and escaped and they'd return empty-handed. But since it's Anastasia, she gets a dissertation from His Majesty--about how their financial states are just their lot in life?? "I am the king, so I must have all the riches, and you are common, so it's your lot to have nothing."Okay... so... but she was still stealing, right? There needs to be an example made of what happens to thieves, right?
Instead, though, the King proposes! "I admire your ambition, the drive to be more than what you are. That is what I want by my side." (because it's not like that ambition might eventually prompt her to kill him or anything...) She asks about love, because that's the whole reason she came to Wonderland, out of love for Will, but he assures her that "Love just simply isn't enough."
So poor Will is waiting below for her, and right then, in the middle of the night, the King appears to make an official proclamation to the vagrants and soldiers and unscrupulous people who would be out at that hour-- presenting Anastasia as his queen.
And poof! Goes poor Will's heart...
The episode ends with THE MOMENT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR ALL THIS TIME: Anastasia uses the dust to revive Will, reinstating him as a character (I like to think that the network got a ton of backlash over threatening to remove him, so they put him back post-haste!) and disappearing before he knows it was her that did it.
FINAL SCORE: Albeit the Queen is a far more entertaining character--and just a little bit more worth our sympathy--than Jafar, her strength is severely negated by the fickle wimpy-ness of her "shaping influences": her odious mother and the communistic King (seriously, when he was talking to her, I thought of that quote from Animal Farm: "All animals are equal... just some are more equal than others.") There are no other characters more pointless than these two--evidenced by the fact that they really don't show up in any other episode ever...
Through it all, Alice and Will absolutely shine! Will's commitment to making Anastasia happy, whatever it takes (even as Anastasia's mother is saying such evil things about him to his face), and Alice's rather mature response to the prospect of getting revenge on the one who's keeping her away from Cyrus--she didn't even get all teary-eyed over fighting whatever urge she might have!
The banter from Alice and Will are good--and I even appreciated the back-and-forth when Anastasia and the King were flirting.
As with "The Serpent", there really wasn't an actual "conflict and resolution" in this episode beyond difficult situations because of stupid choices made by the characters. The only reason this gets a "3" in that category was because there was finally some conflict and resolution between Alice and Anastasia in the Great Divide.
On the whole, it was good, but still not great. I give it an 8/10.
Heroes: 5/5
Villains: 3/5
Banter: 4/5
Graphics/VFX: 4/5
Conflict/Resolution: 3/5
GRAND TOTAL: 8/10
Who doesn't want to see what a villain's life was like before they became so evil? I mean, we saw all the way back to the cute little boyhood days of Jafar--Next up, Anastasia!
Okay, so except for sharing a name, this Anastasia bears little resemblance. At the start of the episode, Will and Ana are about to jump into the looking-glass portal, when who should appear but mummy dearest?
She immediately gives her daughter a dressing-down for wanting to run away with a poor vagrant, going on and on about how she wanted a queen, about how Will isn't worth the work it'll take to make her (Ana) happy--work that Will is perfectly willing to do, by the way--and about how she doesn't believe in love, herself. (Oh, now I understand why there's no father in the picture...) In possibly the worst phony British accent I've heard on this show, Anastasia's mother promptly loads her daughter down with guilt, blame, and doubt, and delivers the Unkindest Cut of All: "When you do decide to come back, bring a bucket--because the only way you'll ever return to this house is to empty my chamber pot." You live in a cottage in the middle of the bloody Enchanted Forest, for pity's sake, woman! And you'd make your own daughter the maid you clearly never deserved? Despicable... Maybe she does bear some resemblance to Lady Tremaine (sans the grand mansion) after all. Anastasia is choking back tears as Will takes her hand and they jump.
Going back to the events from the end of the last episode, Alice spreads a blanket over Will-the-Statue. The Queen arrives, and offers to help her. Alice initially refuses, till Anastasia points out that they now have a common enemy, and one that neither can defeat on their own. She promises to tell Alice where Cyrus is, if Alice will do something for her: collect fairy dust from a place only the pure of heart can access. The fairy dust has the power to protect Anastasia from Jafar's dark magic, and it potentially could help Alice, as well. Alice, for her part, has no choice but to agree.In the flashback, Will and Ana have been wandering around Wonderland for days, reduced to foraging for berries in order to survive. (As Ana points out, "I always thought Wonderland was short for 'wonderful', not 'wonder how we're going to make it.'")
A wagon positively loaded down with food crosses their path, all headed for the palace, as there will be a ball that evening. Ana wants to sneak into the castle, if only to have a decent meal.
In the present time, Alice and Anastasia are headed for the Great Divide--a ravine full of shadows and dark magic, across which stands the place where the fairy dust may be gathered.
MEANWHILE ... Jafar has acquired the White Rabbit, and he wants to use the White Rabbit's knowledge of Alice to be able to exploit any weakness she has--since the only weakness he thought she had backfired so profoundly at him...
MEANWHILE... Cyrus has almost finished cutting open the grate. He keeps making small talk with the old man, who reveals that he is being kept prisoner in spite of his age and feebleness, because he has something Jafar wants, and steadily refuses to give in to him. Cyrus offers to free him as well. At last, the gate comes off, and Cyrus begins swinging the cage, to get enough momentum to slip through the hole he's made and onto the bridge leading into the castle. A guard almost catches him, but Cyrus knocks him out.
The scene flashes back again, and Will and Ana attend the ball wearing stolen clothes and carrying forged invitations. Will goes to get some food, and Ana, in trying to imitate the other courtiers, catches the eye of the king. He starts flirting with her, and she flirts right back--until the guards bring Will, after only just then discovering that his invitation is fake. Only then does a lady notice that the dress Ana is wearing is hers (though I, for one, was looking at the actress making the accusation and thinking that "Ana" did her a service, by ensuring she would never have to make that dress fit...) They get tossed out of the castle. Will is unperturbed, as he was able to pinch at least three loaves of bread, enough, he says, for a week--but Ana looks back at the castle, thinking of the fabulous crown jewels that everyone was talking about...
In the flashback, Ana has given in to her mother's cruel words, wants to go back because life in Wonderland wasn't at all what she was expecting--but first, she asks Will (being the skilled thief he is) to go back to the castle with her to steal the crown jewels. Her mother wanted a queen, well by golly, she'll buy her mother's affection with the royal treasures! (Because that works so well...)
MEANWHILE... Back in the dungeon, the newly-liberated Cyrus tosses the keys to the cage for the old man to free himself, but the old man lets the keys fall, claiming he would only slow Cyrus down. Cyrus has no choice but to go on without him.
MEANWHILE... At the bottom of the Great Divide, Alice is trying to figure out how to get out, or what to do next--then she hears a creepy voice calling her name. It's Alice's younger self, testing her thirst for revenge. Young Alice taunts Older Alice, claiming that the fact she never stopped dreaming about Cyrus was borne out of a thirst for revenge. Young Alice causes a small quake which makes the Queen fall into the ravine so that Alice can kill her, but Alice refuses. The little girl congratulates Alice on passing the test of the purity of her heart, and dissolves into a pile of the fairy dust they sought.
The two women make it out of the Divide, and the queen tricks Alice out of the powder, and still refuses to tell Alice where Cyrus is. Unbeknownst to Anastasia, Alice had kept at least a handful of the dust, and she uses that to reveal the location of Jafar's floating island.
MEANWHILE... The White Rabbit has told Jafar of one other person Alice might care about, that he could use to exploit her, but the Rabbit runs off before Jafar can force him to bring him to that person. He almost exposes Cyrus' escape when he runs into him in the halls, but the White Rabbit distracts Jafar and Cyrus can get away. The White Rabbit complies, making him a portal to "You know where."
In the flashback... Ana is the one stealing the jewels, with Will acting as lookout (I can only think of one reason why she would arrange it that way, since Will is obviously more experienced at this sort of thing...) Of course, she makes entirely too much noise and takes too long admiring the jewels, so the King catches her.
Now, this is where I think the creative team got sloppy; if it had been Will in there, he would have been arrested and escaped and they'd return empty-handed. But since it's Anastasia, she gets a dissertation from His Majesty--about how their financial states are just their lot in life?? "I am the king, so I must have all the riches, and you are common, so it's your lot to have nothing."Okay... so... but she was still stealing, right? There needs to be an example made of what happens to thieves, right?
Instead, though, the King proposes! "I admire your ambition, the drive to be more than what you are. That is what I want by my side." (because it's not like that ambition might eventually prompt her to kill him or anything...) She asks about love, because that's the whole reason she came to Wonderland, out of love for Will, but he assures her that "Love just simply isn't enough."
So poor Will is waiting below for her, and right then, in the middle of the night, the King appears to make an official proclamation to the vagrants and soldiers and unscrupulous people who would be out at that hour-- presenting Anastasia as his queen.And poof! Goes poor Will's heart...
 |
| "Frailty, thy name is woman!" (hey, it had to be said...) |
The episode ends with THE MOMENT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR ALL THIS TIME: Anastasia uses the dust to revive Will, reinstating him as a character (I like to think that the network got a ton of backlash over threatening to remove him, so they put him back post-haste!) and disappearing before he knows it was her that did it.
FINAL SCORE: Albeit the Queen is a far more entertaining character--and just a little bit more worth our sympathy--than Jafar, her strength is severely negated by the fickle wimpy-ness of her "shaping influences": her odious mother and the communistic King (seriously, when he was talking to her, I thought of that quote from Animal Farm: "All animals are equal... just some are more equal than others.") There are no other characters more pointless than these two--evidenced by the fact that they really don't show up in any other episode ever...
Through it all, Alice and Will absolutely shine! Will's commitment to making Anastasia happy, whatever it takes (even as Anastasia's mother is saying such evil things about him to his face), and Alice's rather mature response to the prospect of getting revenge on the one who's keeping her away from Cyrus--she didn't even get all teary-eyed over fighting whatever urge she might have!
The banter from Alice and Will are good--and I even appreciated the back-and-forth when Anastasia and the King were flirting.
As with "The Serpent", there really wasn't an actual "conflict and resolution" in this episode beyond difficult situations because of stupid choices made by the characters. The only reason this gets a "3" in that category was because there was finally some conflict and resolution between Alice and Anastasia in the Great Divide.
On the whole, it was good, but still not great. I give it an 8/10.
Heroes: 5/5
Villains: 3/5
Banter: 4/5
Graphics/VFX: 4/5
Conflict/Resolution: 3/5
GRAND TOTAL: 8/10
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