"Down the Rabbit Hole" is the first episode of the Once Upon a Time spin-off series Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. Written by Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, Zack Estrin, and Jane Espenson, and directed by Ralph Hemecker, it premiered on ABC in the United States on October 10, 2013.
In this premiere episode, Alice is rescued from her captivity in an insane asylum and returns to Wonderland to find her presumed-dead genie lover, while in flashbacks, her first and subsequent trips to Wonderland are revealed, which have dire consequences.
The premiere received generally positive reviews from critics, despite low ratings; the episode was watched by 5.8 million viewers.
Plot
Opening Sequence
A title card which states "Once Upon a Time..."
In the characters' past
Alice (Sophie Lowe) returns home to her father (Shaun Smyth), who tells her that everyone thought she was dead. Her imaginative stories about a talking White Rabbit (John Lithgow) and a mystical place called Wonderland end up getting the attention of Dr. Lydgate (Jonny Coyne), a psychologist from an asylum. She is admitted to that asylum, where it is revealed that she continued frequent visits to Wonderland to confirm its reality. After capturing her proof in the form of the White Rabbit, she encounters Cyrus (Peter Gadiot), a genie with whom she falls in love. The two lovers have several adventures, leading to a fateful day on the cliff of the Boiling Sea, where Cyrus proposes to Alice. They are interrupted by the Red Queen (Emma Rigby), who has her henchmen attack them. In the end, the Red Queen throws Cyrus off the cliff into the sea, where Alice looks into the mist of where he's fallen. In a final flashback, it is revealed that Cyrus actually survived the fall into the Boiling Sea, as Jafar saved him with his flying carpet.
In Storybrooke
In present day, the Knave of Hearts (Michael Socha) resides in Storybrooke, Maine, stealing coffee in the dead of night from Granny's diner, until the White Rabbit interrupts him via bursting through a newly made rabbit hole. He convinces the Knave to help him save Alice, who is in Victorian England.
In Victorian England
Dr. Lydgate tells Alice that there is a new treatment that will take away all of her memories of Wonderland, which she agrees to allow them to use on her. The morning of the procedure, the Knave and White Rabbit come to save Alice, and the three of them escape the asylum and journey through a rabbit hole back to Wonderland, after convincing Alice that Cyrus has been seen alive.
In Wonderland
Upon arriving, the three land in a Mallow Marsh. The Rabbit recounts that he himself did not see Cyrus, rather that he had been told by the Dormouse that the latter had seen Cyrus at the Mad Hatter's house, which has been abandoned for some time. Alice and the Knave find themselves stuck in quicksand (made of marshmallow), and the Rabbit runs ahead to go find help. Alice and the Knave manage to escape, while ahead of them, the Rabbit is ambushed by the Red Queen. He is taken back to her palace, where it turns out that he was forced by her to bring Alice back to Wonderland. The Red Queen tells the Rabbit that he will be her eyes and ears in all of this, lest he be killed. The Rabbit complies and sadly walks away, when the Agrabahian sorcerer Jafar (Naveen Andrews) begins to talk to her. Jafar was the one who wanted Alice back in Wonderland. He tells the Queen she is no longer needed, but she convinces him not to kill her when she reminds him that she is the only one who knows of Alice's whereabouts. Back at the marsh, the Knave tells Alice that he never wished to return to Wonderland, and he would rather not continue on this journey. She takes off her heel, where it turns out she keeps three glowing gems that are actually wishes that Cyrus gave her long ago. She offers one to the Knave if he helps her see this adventure through. When asked why she doesn't use them to wish Cyrus back, Alice tells the Knave that wishes are far too unpredictable, and that wishing Cyrus back could likely teleport him to her as a hung corpse.