Sana has Ayumu captive in her Wonderland world, and she’s prepared to grill Ayumu and make her feel horrible for Hatori’s actions. What she’s not expecting is for Ayumu to readily apologize for what she and Hatori unintentionally did to Sana and Zouroku, and to hear her plead for Sana to help Hatori.
I think this episode does a great job of highlighting is that Sana’s a good kid and a kind person at heart. She keeps saying that Hatori is an evil person, even though deep down I’m pretty sure she doesn’t believe it. Sana was just very upset and wanted to take her anger out on someone, and because Hatori was at fault Sana’s now convinced that Hatori is this awful person.
Ayumu tells Sana where Hatori’s house is, and that’s where Sana finds the young girl. Sana creates a pair of large wooden doors in Hatori’s house, and when Hatori passes through them she finds herself in a Lisa Frank-esque magical world, complete with a flying whale. A little white rabbit with a clock, who I think is Sana, leads Hatori up a flight of stairs and to some kind of building that looks like it was created by a small child.
Hatori confronts Sana, who has sealed herself up in a matryoshka doll-like costume that looks like a king. She tries to bluff about her identity and what she’s capable of, but Hatori sees through Sana’s lies almost immediately.
Sana calls Hatori evil, but instead of denying the insult Hatori readily agrees. This is really sad to see because Hatori’s a new Dreams of Alice and unfamiliar with how her powers work, and I feel like she’s being way too hard on herself. Sana hears Hatori’s words and tries to convince herself that Hatori is evil, even as she flashes back to her conversation with Ayumu where Ayumu told Sana lots of positive things about her best friend.
Hatori tries to leave, but Sana won’t let her. Sana still feels frazzled but can’t quite identify why yet. She accidentally reveals that she’s already spoken to Ayumu, who told her where to find Hatori. Hatori tries to use her Dreams of Alice to command Sana to confirm this, but her powers collide with Sana’s and both fizzle out.
Suddenly Wonderland starts to shake and roll, and the building the two girls are in falls into a giant chasm. Out in the real world Wonderland is starting to expand exponentially, turning many ordinary people into new Dreams of Alice and causing ferris wheels to pop up all over the city. Yamada’s tech team suddenly has their hands full!
Also, because they are in Wonderland, both Sana and Hatori have disappeared from the real world. Ayumu’s father gets the news and goes out to search for Hatori, and Zouroku also gets a call from Shizuku after he returns home from searching for Sana. Shizuku says that Sana and Hatori must be trapped in Wonderland so she’s going to go rescue them, but Zouroku insists that he will go too.
Inside Wonderland, Sana and Hatori waken at the bottom of the giant pit. Snow is falling around them, and there are fragments of the building they were in all around them. Sana is trapped within her nesting doll costume, but she’s so weak that she’s not able to open its door herself. And she won’t ask Hatori for help, so finally Hatori just pushes the door open and rescues Sana.
Hatori says that she will apologize to Sana if Sana will only just send her home, but Sana has a confession: her powers aren’t working anymore. So if she can’t portal them out of Wonderland, are they trapped in Sana’s magical world for good?
My thoughts: Now the show’s opening theme suddenly makes sense, what with Sana flying with Zouroku around a “wonderland” complete with a ferris wheel. Foreshadowing ftw? ;D
I hope the series ends with Sana having the epiphany that sometimes good people do bad things and make mistakes. Obviously Hatori didn’t mean to freeze Zouroku and upset Sana, and I imagine that despite claims to the contrary, Sana doesn’t actually want to hurt Hatori. She just wants an explanation and a genuine apology. I feel like this whole story arc will help Sana come closer to her goal of being more like a human.
Down to the last two episodes. Go Zouroku and Shizuku!