Once Upon a Fangirl...: Dirty Little Secrets

In this episode, we get to learn more about Cyrus' backstory with his brothers as we get to see how they became genies. When their house is torched after a game of poker goes wrong & their mother is left badly burned, they go to a to the Well of Wonders in the hopes of finding a cure. However, the Nyz that guards the well tells them that their mother's fate has been sealed & that she will die. In desperation of saving their mother, the brothers steal the water from the well & save her, revealing that she's Amara (Jafar's mentor) & the price of them stealing the water is them becoming genies, therefore explaining why she wanted them in the first place. In Wonderland, the group split up as Alice & Cyrus try to find the Well of Wonders in Wonderland while Anastasia & Will go off to the White Rabbit's for help. This leads Anastasia to the Jabberwocky, who kidnaps & emprisons both her & Will.
What I liked about this episode was how surprisingly dark it was! Rather it be the Nyx from the Well, the Jabberwocky getting into Anastasia's head or the mere fact the she plucked out Lizard's eyes from her corpse! I liked seeing Cyrus' backstory as we get to see a more smarmy side of him compared to the noble genie he was when he costs the lives of himself & his brothers to save their mother. I even liked seeing Cyrus attempt to make up to the Nyx about what he did & that both him & Alice could finally be honest with each other. I loved seeing more of Anastasia & to their credit, the scene with her & the Jabberwocky when she's locked up was well done as the Jabberwocky was actually pretty terrifying when getting down to it. I did have a feww issues like some cases of hammy acting, sometimes the writing can be a bit awkward & I thought Amara being Cyrus' mother was pretty predictable & obvious, but it didn't stop me from enjoying this dark twist of Wonderland!