Shizuku, Sanae and Zouroku are preparing to go rescue Sana and Hatori. Zouroku comes clean with his employees about Sana’s real nature, but they are thankfully accepting of the news and don’t make a big deal out of it.

The trio head back to the former research facility, which has been turned into a home base for the good guys. The staff within are monitoring the status of Wonderland – it appears to be expanding. Shizuku uses her Dreams of Alice to change into her final form, and opens the massive sliding metal doors protecting the entrance to Wonderland. Then Zouroku, Sanae and Shizuku head inside, and the doors slide shut behind them.

Inside Wonderland Hatori is determined to look for a way out, whereas Sana just wants to stay put. When Hatori walks off on her own, Sana very reluctantly follows. The route out of the chasm takes the girls up numerous flights of stairs, and even a ladder – poor Sana gets out of breath quite quickly! But she doesn’t give up.

Hatori pushes open a hatch door in the ceiling, and emerges on the surface of Wonderland. Here we ses flying fish blimps, what look like worms wearing bows, and floating islands. Hatori spots a door at the end of a staircase of piano keys and she takes off running for it, convinced that this door will send her home. But because Sana’s Dreams of Alice powers aren’t working, the door doesn’t lead anywhere. Nearby, at the end of a suspended bridge, sits a mansion embedded in the side of a floating island, so that’s where Hatori heads next with Sana again following her.

There appears to be no one inside the house. Sana sits down on a flight of stairs to catch her breath, and Hatori pointedly ignores her as she walks by. The girls end up sitting on two overstuff library chairs, and Hatori has a nap while Sana does some thinking.

Elsewhere in Wonderland, Shizuku, Zouroku and Sanae are learning just how wild Wonderland can be. They see a special moment from Sana’s post-research facility life enshrined as a stone monument around the landscape, and at one point a giant version of the stuffed pig Zouroku gave her comes crashing down from the sky. Surprise – with the missing spotted pig from earlier in the series sitting on top! Sanae has the idea to follow the pig because it will take them to Sana and Zouroku goes along with the idea, much to Shizuku’s surprise.

They don’t get far when they start to see more weird looking monuments. Shizuku starts to use her Dreams of Alice to fly, but the little white rabbit with the clock appears and makes Shizuku fall into a hole in the ground!

Back in the mansion, Sana finally apologizes to Hatori. Her desire to get revenge on Hatori and Ayumu has unintentionally landed them trapped in Wonderland. Hatori says that their current situation is partially her fault too.

From inside the mansion the girls can see weird going-ons outside, like ribbings spiraling through the air and clouds of sparkles floating around. Sana says that this is likely Wonderland “practicing” the things it’s learned. Wonderland “wants to know” about things like what life is made of, and how humans see the world. Sana theorizes that the Mirror Gates used by those with Dreams of Alice powers are Wonderland’s gate into the human world, and that Wonderland tries to imitate when it can see from those brief glimpses.

Hatori says that if Wonderland is going to be as big as the human world, maybe she could just stay in Wonderland. She’s already run away from home, after all. Hatori slowly starts to explain her situation with her parents to Sana. You see, Hatori thinks that her mother hates her because she failed her elementary school entrance exam. She’s noticed her mother won’t look her in the eye anymore, and she feels that her parents fight over her. Hatori loves her mom but she hates seeing her mom so upset all the time, and so even though she wants to be with her mom more than anything, she’s trying to convince herself that it’s best if she doesn’t go home.

Hatori opening up causes Sana to explain some of her background in turn. We already knew that Sana is not human and that she’d been “born” in Wonderland, underneath the research facility. Sana thinks that because she was born in Wonderland, she is part of Wonderland itself, similar to the way a human child has genetics from both of its parents inside of it. Sana is literally Wonderland’s child. Maybe Sana was Wonderland’s attempt to mimic the humans it saw inside the research facility.

However Sana feels that if this is true, if she is Wonderland’s “communication device”, then she can easily be replaced by another person created by Wonderland. Sana questions whether she’s really needed.

Hatori sees the parallels between herself and Sana and starts to cry. Sana thinks that maybe the things that make her feel frazzled aren’t needed at all, but she thinks they’re needed and that’s why she does her best to keep them. Sana says that most adults around her tell her she’ll understand these frazzled feelings better when she’s older, so she’s glad to have Hatori to talk to because Hatori understands much better and actually listens to what Sana is saying.

Hatori leans in to hug Sana, and we get a flashback to when child!Hatori was crying and telling her mother about her bad day at school. Her mother tells her not to worry because she did exactly what she was told, and she picked child!Hatori up and held her.

When the hug is over, Hatori asks Sana to help her get home to see her mom one last time, and Sana agrees. Outside, a little piece of Wonderland drifts down from the sky and lands on the windowsill. Maybe it has heard Hatori’s request?


My thoughts:
Up until this episode I’d thought that Sana was tied to the white rabbit somehow (back when she had her powers and was using them to create the doors and the cheshire cat), but it seems like I was wrong. Perhaps the white rabbit is a manifestation of Wonderland’s consciousness somehow? That’s my theory anyways.

I wish we knew more about Wonderland, and how it came to be beneath the research facility.

This was a really fun episode, especially the moments when we got to see Wonderland from Sanae and Zouroku’s perspective. I was also glad we got more details about both Sana and Hatori’s backstories.

I’m sad this series is ending next week. T_T