Jabberwocky

This article focuses on the character. For the species, see Jabberwocks.

The Jabberwocky
Wonderland Character
Biographical Information
Gender:	Female
Status:	Alive
Physical Description
Species:	Unknown
Hair color:	Blonde
Eye color:	Brown
Show Information
Portrayed by:	Peta Sergeant
First appearance:	"Nothing to Fear"
Latest appearance:	"And They Lived..."
Relevant Pages

“

I can feel your nightmares. I can taste your dread. Your fear.

”

—The Jabberwocky to the Red Queen ^src

The Jabberwocky is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. She débuts in the ninth episode and is portrayed by guest star Peta Sergeant.

The Jabberwocky is based on the Jabberwock from the novel Through the Looking-Glass and the Jabberwocky from the live-action Disney film Alice in Wonderland.

History

Before First Curse

Via the vorpal blade, made from very powerful magic in Wonderland, an ancient creature known as the Jabberwocky is imprisoned for a hundred years by the strength of five hundred men. She has been described as being "more powerful than any army" and is incapable of being stopped once her sights are set on obtaining something. In her enclosure, she is pinned to the ceiling and held in place by the mystical vorpal blade. ("Nothing to Fear")

After First Curse

Many years after her imprisonment, the Jabberwocky is visited by the sorcerer Jafar, who requests her help to find something in Wonderland. At first, she ominously warns him about her ability to get inside his head. After deciding to assist Jafar in exchange for her own freedom, she directs him to the ceiling, and he pulls out the embedded vorpal blade from her body, which allows her to move freely. When she tries to take the weapon from him, he insists on holding onto it. Irked by his response, the Jabberwocky demonstrates her knowledge of Jafar's greatest fear—being drowned underwater by his father—and taunts him until he is frozen with fright. ("Nothing to Fear")

Sent out by Jafar to locate a genie bottle, the Jabberwocky sleuths out information from a local resident in town of where he was last seen. She walks into an inn room; discovering the genie's last owner dead on the floor, but as the girl died with her eyes open, the Jabberwocky gouges them out. After taking them to Jafar, he casts a spell to see the last person the eyes saw, revealing an image of the Red Queen. In the forest, the Jabberwocky finds the Red Queen, who stabs her with a sword, but the weapon has no effect. She terrorizes the woman with fear and eventually knocks her out cold before snatching the hidden genie bottle in the bushes. Once the Red Queen and the genie, Knave, are shackled down in the palace jail cell, Jafar commands the Jabberwocky to get inside their female prisoner's mind and force her to make the three wishes. As per his request, the Jabberwocky brings to light the Red Queen's greatest pains; being unloved by her mother, having lost Knave's affection and the empty hole in her chest from being without love. She manipulates the Red Queen into making two frivolous wishes; one for her crown and another for her jewels. Finally, Jabberwocky makes the Red Queen, now overcome with agony, use the third wish to ask her to "stop." Once this is accomplished, Knave returns to his bottle under Jafar's complete possession. ("Dirty Little Secrets")

While Jafar attempts, and repeatedly fails, to break the laws of magic, the Jabberwocky looks on with mild interest. At his wits end, the sorcerer summons out Knave; believing him responsible for the spell's failure. The Jabberwocky assists by trying to get a read on Knave's fears, though she cannot, leading Jafar to believe the Red Queen put a protection spell on the genie. While Jafar questions the Red Queen, the Jabberwocky grasps an answer from another person's presence nearby and forces him to stop the interrogation. She states that his spell didn't work since Knave is without a heart and reveals this tidbit came from someone else present in their vicinity. Though Jafar sends guards after Alice and Cyrus, who were hiding in the dungeon, they escape. Later on, she reenters the dungeon with Jafar after he procured Knave's heart and watches as it is shoved into the genie's chest. Following this, she also witnesses her partner-in-crime murder the Red Queen right in front of a grief-stricken Knave. ("Heart of the Matter")

Growing impatient with Jafar's prolonged hold on the vorpal blade, she teases him with his latest fears concerning the person inside his serpent staff, Amara, who apparently refused to harm Cyrus. Jafar snaps back by pointing out her own fear of remaining his slave forever if she never regains the vorpal blade. Trying her luck elsewhere, she agrees to distract Jafar by bringing Cyrus into the castle as a "prisoner" while Alice and Knave secretly infiltrate the building. In doing so, the Jabberwocky hopes that Jafar will be pleased by her work and return the vorpal blade. Cyrus tells Jafar that his serpent staff is gone from Wonderland along with Alice, to which the Jabberwocky lies and confirms the authenticity of his words. Even after this, Jafar still refuses to give her what she wants. ("To Catch a Thief")

Called upon by Jafar, who has just broken the laws of magic, she is asked to state what he fears the most. After checking him, the Jabberwocky senses he is now afraid of nothing. Jafar, satisfied with her response, comments that having no fears is what it means to have true power. As he unexpectedly advances on her, she backs away and then screams in agony when pinned to the dungeon wall with the vorpal blade. With her eyes glimmering with tears, she watches him leave and asks, in a faltering tone, what he will do with his amassed power. Jafar casually remarks his intentions of doing whatever he desires, and then blows her a mocking kiss; extinguishing all the light in the dungeon. ("And They Lived...")

After Jafar's defeat, the Jabberwocky is saved through unknown means.

Trivia

• Character Notes
• Production Notes
• Set Notes

Etymology

• "Jabberwocky" is the name of the poem included in the novel Through the Looking-Glass, while Lewis Carroll's character is actually called "Jabberwock."
  • In addition, "Jabberwocky" is also the name of the character in the 2010 live-action Disney film Alice in Wonderland.

Character Notes

• According to the Jabberwocky, everyone's fear has its own unique scent. ("To Catch a Thief")

Production Notes

• The casting call describes her as "a force of nature in Wonderland."
• The unique way the Jabberwocky moves was Peta Sergeant's idea. When researching the character, she read that Lewis Carroll might have taken the inspiration from the mythology about the griffin, a legendary creature which is half lion and half eagle. She liked the idea of the upper body and head being a sort of floating, appearing at any time, other-worldly kind, like an eagle, with the bottom half being "all legs and hips and having a lot of gravity in the pelvis" like a wildcat and lion.

Set Dressing

• The framed prints in the hallway of Jefferson's mansion are John Tenniel's illustrations from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. An illustration of Alice fighting the Jabberwocky can be seen behind Jefferson when he asks Emma to tie Mary Margaret back up. ("Hat Trick")

Appearances

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
"Down the Rabbit Hole":	"Trust Me":	"Forget Me Not":	"The Serpent":	"Heart of Stone":	"Who's Alice":	"Bad Blood":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
"Home":	"Nothing to Fear":	"Dirty Little Secrets":	"Heart of the Matter":	"To Catch a Thief":	"And They Lived...":
Absent	Appears	Appears	Appears	Appears	Appears

References

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