Wonderland

"A specific annoying little world. Useless to me, but, for your purposes, perfect."

- Rumplestiltskin to Regina

Wonderland is a world featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. It first appears in the seventeenth episode of the first season of Once Upon a Time.

Before the Curse
In the Enchanted Forest, a young Regina is forced to marry a man she does not love on her mother's wishes. In retaliation to gain her own freedom, Regina, with the help of Rumplestiltskin, banishes her mother through a looking glass.

From the looking glass, Cora travels into another world called Wonderland. Through unknown means, she manages to take over the land and rule as the notorious Queen of Hearts. Sometime later, Regina's father, Henry, is transported to Wonderland and is held prisoner by his wife. The Evil Queen convinces Jefferson, a former portal jumper who traveled to other lands by the use of his magic hat, to take her there to rescue him. After successfully retrieving a box from a vault belonging to the Queen of Hearts, the Evil Queen takes a piece of the Caterpillar's mushroom and places it in the box, causing her father to be transformed to his normal size after he takes a bite of the magical food. Per the rules of his hat, which dictate that only the same number of people can exit the portal of doors as entered, Jefferson is unable to leave Wonderland. He is brought before the Queen of Hearts and tasked with making another magical hat. This is strongly implied to be the cause of the Mad Hatter's "madness;" his inability to create another hat to get home to his daughter.

At some point, Jack travels to Wonderland and slays the Jabberwock. As a reward for her efforts, she is given a magic mushroom by a "wise woman", which she later gifts to a giant in the Enchanted Forest.

At the behest of the Evil Queen, Hook travels to Wonderland to kill Cora—the Queen of Hearts—so the Dark Curse can be enacted without Regina's love for her mother being a weakness holding her back. To do so, Hook's eponymous hook is enchanted by the Evil Queen to rip out Cora's heart for her. Hook attempts to break into the Queen of Hearts' palace, but is arrested and taken to the Queen of Hearts herself. However, he is unable to fulfill the Evil Queen's request as Cora's heart is not in her chest, and Cora demands to know what is going on or she will rip out his own heart. After a confrontation, a partnership between Cora and Captain Hook is struck and the two leave Wonderland with plans to exercise revenge on the woman who sent them there.

Jefferson, who is still stuck in Wonderland, is taken away to a new land created after the Evil Queen casts the curse. AS the Evil Queen can choose who she takes with her, Jefferson is affected by the Dark Curse, though he is not present for in the Enchanted Forest for its casting.

Locations
For detailed location information, please see the list of Wonderland locations.

Inhabitants

 * Caterpillar
 * Cheshire Cat
 * Queen of Hearts ^
 * Grendel/Handsome Man †
 * Henry ~ ^
 * Knave of Hearts *
 * Knave of Hearts ^
 * Mad Hatter ~ ^
 * Queen of Hearts' Courtiers *
 * Red Queen
 * Silvermist
 * Tweedledee
 * Tweedledum
 * White Rabbit

Trivia

 * Some of the food in Wonderland has the power to change the size of whomever consumes it; this is a reference to the food in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, where some of the food has the same property.
 * For unknown reasons, the Mad Hatter despises this world, even before becoming trapped and losing his mind here. Similarly, Rumplestiltskin has referred to Wonderland as an "annoying little world".
 * Traveling to Wonderland is done by means of a looking glass located in the portal of doors or elsewhere.
 * There are dragonflies and mock turtles in Wonderland.
 * The world serves as basis for the spin-off Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.

Appearances

 * Wonderland appears in Henry's storybook in "Pilot", "Hat Trick", "We Are Both" and "Selfless, Brave and True".