Once Upon a Time in Wonderland – Heart of Stone

• Title: Once Upon a Time in Wonderland – Heart of Stone
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With the Knave (Michael Socha) turned to stone, Alice (Sophie Lowe) gets an unexpected offer of partnership from the Red Queen (Emma Rigby) who agrees to help Alice find and rescue Cyrus (Peter Gadiot) if the heroine agrees to go on a dangerous mission to procure magical dust which would make the Queen immune to Jafar‘s (Naveen Andrews) powers.

To survive Alice must first make a leap of faith to cross the Great Divide and later face temptation from her younger self (Millie Bobby Brown) who makes a persuasive argument for Alice to kill the backstabbing Queen before the villain betrays Alice again. Alice proves herself to have a pure heart, and even though the younger version is proved right with the inevitable betrayal the experience does show Alice the way to Jafar’s hidden tower where her true love has just broken out of the sorcerer’s dungeon.

Flashbacks showcase Anastasia’s disapproving mother (Sarah-Jane Redmond) and the circumstances that led Anastasia to abandon Will, marry the King (Garwin Sanford), and become the Queen of Wonderland. Although the woman puts on an uncaring face, that doesn’t stop the Red Queen from using Alice’s hard-fought magic dust to save the life of the man she once loved (even though she doesn’t stick around for the credit). “Heart of Stone” also lays the groundwork for next week’s episode when Jafar blackmails the White Rabbit (John Lithgow) to discover another exploitable weakness of his enemy.