- RegAc main hall, where the student body is shocked and in utter disbelief over the missing professors. Pinocchia: "Now who's going to take care of us?" Vicky offers her services, but no one seems to be listening.Cyrus explains: "Everyone's too scared to pay attention to you right now Vicky" V: "Then make them pay attention! You do want to stay my vice principal... don't you Cyrus?" C: "Of course, of course" Cyrus hands her a megaphone... Astoria is just now getting back on her feet, when Vicky makes her announcement through the megaphone. A: "Please tell me this is just a dream"
- Cyrus tries to make a cheerleader style name spelling cheer, but a) it doesn't work well with his voice and b) V: "You forgot the C" A: "This isn't a dream. It's a nightmare" (Faints again LOL) The Pompoms razz at her as well LOL Vicky gives lip service at the notion of finding the missing teachers, but Rose points out that Cinderella would never have left Vicky in charge; however, Vicky has Cyrus holds up a declaration making Vicky headmistress in Cinderella's absence, yet another Cozy Glow tactic... A: "This is the worst day in the history of fairy tales!" Astoria demands to see the scroll, and this leads to a bit of a brawl...
- Hawk tells Fala that the kidnapping of the teachers shouldn't be considered her fault since she was under the Snow Queen's spell, and Lingling adds: "And we couldn't know Kira was her daughter" Yeah, because she had pretty much no direct interaction with anyone outside of Team Vicky, the better to prevent any goody goodies sniffing out the secret of her fake background... Incidentally, an ice-themed villain lying about her background to get into school as part of her scheme... sounds familiar
Hawk: "We need to go after her right now!" However, the dog guards stop Hawk and the rest from going off to rescue their families, and to add insult to injury, Vicky decides to have Team Rose rake the leaves at the dragon arena under Cyrus' supervision (V: "We have to keep a special eye on our heroes, vice-principal")
- So Team Rose, plus their pets, are raking leaves at the dragon arena, and Cyrus is keeping an eye on them. One of the dragons flies in, knocking away a pile of leaves, and chats with other dragons about a ban on them from leaving RegAc... An instrumental of This is How It Goes plays out as we see them going about their task, not helped by the Pompoms jumping into other piles... Of course, Rose, the Cinderella, has her pile well-made, but Cyrus kicks the leaves around. Travis calls him out and uses his Fury Magic, and then LL her Fan Magic, to gather up the leaves in tidy piles
, but Cyrus, not one to be frustrated, has the family dragons fly around to spread them out again
- This really angers Travis, and Hawk is frustrated: "Cyrus is stalling us. We need a plan to get out of here and beat the Snow Queen" A: "Yeah! Too bad we have no idea how to do any of it" Fala points out they have to "combine the powers of the great fairy tale families" LL says they have them (how convenient, tm Dana Carvey) but that still leaves how to get to SQ... and Fala says that they need a special key that she knows someone named Alice has kept for years... And of course Rose figures out what Alice she's talking about and is so giddy about going to Wonderland that she shakes Joy LOL. Of course they need to get out of here, and they'll need their dragon riding armor for this mission as well...
- Rose sees the three little pigs carrying trays of burritos (and once again, the animators are still drawing the wrong kind of tortilla) and has an idea... and has a gaggle of Pompoms attack them, causing them to throw their burrito trays in the air, whereupon the Pompoms catch the burritos and toss them at Cyrus ("I don't even like burritos" LOL), allowing them to sneak off to the dragons. R: "Guys, we know about the ban on dragons, but could you at least summon our armor?" After a short beat, the dragons nod in agreement, and we're spared those lengthy transforms
Team Rose runs off in their outfits and the dragons high-five HEH!
- Vicky rides in on a dragon and Cyrus tells her about the escape... her reaction: "Cyrus, you fool! You're demoted to vice... vice-principal!"
As Team Rose are running, with pets and Pompoms in tow, Cyrus sends the dog guards after them: "They're escaping!... I mean, stop and protect them for their own good!" Team Rose sees the dogs gaining on them, and Fala decides to stay behind along with the pets to fend them off. Understandably, Hawk would rather stay by her sister's side, but she insists on him going off to beat SQ and leaving this part to her (even adding a thumbs up for good measure) so Hawk shares a quick hug before running off... F: "Alright guys, let's see how the guard dogs like these apples" Huh, a pop reference in RegAc... In this case, the pets pelt apples at the guard dogs LOL, while another one gets tripped by a rope...
Team Rose (plus Pompoms) gets to the portal and activates it to leave Fairy Tale Land and Vicky sees this, so she gets Shire Cat to follow them. Cat: "I know exactly who can help out..."
- Back in Not!Gardenia, Team Rose emerges from the portal, and Rose reveals how they're going to get to Wonderland: "I read that if you turn the Fairy Tale Key counter clockwise, you can get to Wonderland!" She does just that, opening the portal again to Wonderland... As Travis approaches though, he gets burned (just another case of Travis being Travis LOL) Astoria decides they need to disable the trap with a magic formula, and she happens to have just learned a new one (Always trust Astoria to know these things
)
- Team Rose falls through the sky, and Rose is absolutely chill about it: "Any moment now a dragon will save us!" H: "Rose, there are no dragons in Wonderland!" R: "Pumpkin seeds! Aaah!" Cut to a table, where Hattie, grandson of the Mad Hatter, Humpty and a caterpillar named Crocolegs are having their tea... And guess where should most of Team Rose land but the seats around the table (with the Pompoms landing in a vat of soup, apparently?) Rose and LL manage to land sideways, and armor or no, those wooden armrests can't have done Rose any favors... Travis being Travis, he gets a nasty landing against the ground LOL
- So anyways, Rose runs around all giddy and decides to take a muffin for her collection (dunno how well that would keep, but then again she had a cookie in her collection during Shire Cat's S1 ep) Croc tells Rose to wait her turn since they're waiting for a guest. Rose recognizes both Humpty and Hattie, though Croc is new to me AFAIK... Astoria quickly asks about Alice's whereabouts, and it turns out Hattie and crew are wondering that themselves: "She should have been here ages ago" (and I suppose the same goes for a certain white rabbit, right?) "Yes, it's quite strange, Alice is never late for her unbirthday party" Humpty calls the Pompoms foul creatures, and Travis gives Humpty a nice slap on the back, to which Humpty does not take kindly LOL.
- Here comes Shire Cat (A: "What are you doing here?" Cat: "I live here darling") telling them that Alice has been captured by the Queen of Hearts, and everyone is shocked at the news... well, except maybe Croc: "Well, I guess she's gone for good then. Tea's on, we can start" Team Rose is stunned and Rose adds: "That's not the way to behave! Guys! Alice is your friend!" H: "Well, I find that new friends can be found all the time" Humpty: "Take it from me. It's best not to be fragile hearts" (?) Nevertheless, Shire Cat convinces them that they can't leave Alice alone, which dovetails perfectly with Hawk's purview. Shire Cat offers to be their guide through Wonderland, and it's obvious he's going to bamboozle them... speaking of, why would Rose and Travis ever trust the Shire Cat again considering he did that last time they interacted with him? Incidentally, he's wearing the usual RegAc uniform, even though he's not in Fairy Tale Land...
- So anyways, Shire Cat takes them to the Queen's castle, which of course looks made of cards (there's also a playing field in front as well) LL: "Wow, it's really very pretty here" Cat: "What were you expecting, something evil and foreboding?" A: "Um, yes actually" They hear Alice in a plant cage, and from a distance one might visually mistake her for a younger Bloom, between the blue dress and the red hair (yeah, she has red hair, rather than the blonde of the somewhat iconic Disney version... hmm, maybe Winx got their S8 design cues from here?)
- Rose tells Alice that they need her to take them to the Snow Kingdom, and Alice answers: "That sounds fun. Maybe it will get a little cold" LOL. Travis discovers Alice's cage is covered in thorns, because it's a cage of roses... Anyways, here comes the Queen of Hearts and her card guard entourage, and Shire Cat proceeds to present them as her new captives (!) Hawk is teed at Shire for setting them up, and Rose takes out her wand to attack, and it doesn't work (only releasing a small flurry of hearts) because according to the Queen: "This castle and my garden are immune to your magic weapons" On top of that, Shire throws in an extra charge of trying to attack the Queen, so just like that.. "It's off to my prisons with this lot... forever!"
- Rose is familiar with the Alice story, and knows the Queen has one weakness... A: "Now would be a really good time to use it then!" So Rose approaches the Queen and proposes a croquet challenge... except that the Queen tells Rose "You're way behind the times cutie" It turns out these days instead of croquet, she prefers... American football. HUH (and yes, they include the qualifier, I suppose as an artifact of being Europe made) Travis shares our sentiment: "American football? Huh, you gotta be kidding me" Rose's offer still stands, and the Queen has the card guards repaint the playing field...
- Pretty interesting considering the gender make-up of her team... and all Rose knows about the game is that there are two teams, a field and a ball (yeah well so does soccer) A: "You don't look so sure about it either, Rose" R: "It doesn't matter, Alice will help us" Uh, how about the guy who actually also lives on Earth? Indeed, Alice reveals: "I'm not good at it (Me: No kidding) and that's why I'm here" A: "Oh my grade, we're doomed! We'll end up in jail..." Rose ducks off to talk to the Pompoms, as the real idea behind this is for the Pompoms to help free Alice while they're playing football... To quote a certain famous spoof of sports films: "Bold strategy Cotton, let's see how it works out for them"
The cards bring out a football and place it midfield, and the tall Pompom punts away the actual ball into the trees, and lies down to pretend to be the ball, somehow not getting noticed... and this has literally no bearing on the game that follows (LOL!) Rose tell the other two to watch their hands on the thorns...
- And away we go! Right from the word go, the Queen has no respect for playing by the rules, as the card guards directly pick up the ball from midfield instead of kicking off (R: "No fair, the game hasn't even started! She's cheating" Alice: "First of all, never say that") and then pass the ball straight to the queen in the end zone for an instant TD... T: "I'll show you how to really play" Travis takes the ball and starts running and gets quickly tripped by a card guard and fumbles the football right to the Queen, and takes it to the house for another TD T: "Oh come on, I've never seen American football played like this" The Queen is gloating ("Can you smell the damp of my prisons already?") when Rose grabs the ball out of the Queen's hands and passes it to Hawk, and as he's getting tackled he laterals to Joy, Joy turns into a frog and Travis takes the ball and gives her a kiss in one fluid motion LOL Travis laterals to Astoria's hair, and Astoria makes a(n illegal forward) pass (which bounces off the pitch I might add) to LL, who darts past the Queen to take it to the house... and the Queen calls on the guards to "Get the cheater!" LL says she didn't do anything wrong, but the Queen calls her out not for the forward pass, but for just plain scoring (Sore much? Then again, wouldn't put it past her to not know laterals are a thing...)
- By this point, the other two Pompoms have freed Alice, so Team Rose decides to run off with their prize, as the Queen sends the card guards after them, and for good measure, conjure up some more with Heart Magic... During the chase, Rose tells them they need the key to the Snow Kingdom, and Alice holds up a loop of keys, full of keys to other locations in Wonderland...
- While she's looking, the card guards manage to catch up, but they're far enough from the castle to use their magic, so Rose makes a minibus and has the team plus Alice ride in it... Alice is still looking through the keys when Shire jumps on front of the windshield and sends it crashing, allowing the card guards to catch up: "It's time to give up" R: "Never, not in my fairy tale!" The other students use their magic on the guards, blowing them away, trapping them in vines, or turning them into frogs, but after a bit of fighting, Travis seems to think they're making more cards, and LL adds "Every time we stop one card, three more show up!"
- Alice keeps searching through her keys, as Hawk blocks some more guards with an ice wall (A: "Thanks Hawk! Oh wait, now I remember") and Rose uses Pumpkin Magic skates to avoid another guard... There's still a lot of them to deal with and Hawk says "We'll keep fighting until we can't anymore" ...And here comes Humpty taking out some more guards in a rolling maneuver (with Astoria putting up vines to catch him) Hattie and his crew have come to help them in the fight... H: "I thought about what Rose said... true friends are rare indeed" Croc threatens to turn the cards into origami, and a few more cards get frogged... Alice finally finds the ice key ("Hawk's magic made me remember what key it was") and tosses it, a pretty risky proposition, but we get a first-person view of Rose skating past some guards before then showing her jump in her skates to nab the key... R: "You didn't remember the key to the Snow Kingdom is made of ice?" Next step is to find a tree with a keyhole to use the key, and Rose skates off to look for it, as Hattie uses his hat to slice off a corner from one of the guards... After a pretty short search, Rose quickly finds the tree and opens it with the key to create a portal, and the rest of Team Rose sprint through the tree portal, while the Pompoms, who have been absent since the bus crash, jump out from a bush to join them (even getting a lift from Hawk zooming by courtesy of his Snow Magic)
- Alice and friends show up wave Rose goodbye... Rose doesn't want to leave Alice behind, but Alice tells Rose she knows how to face the card guards and the queen... R: "Are you sure?... You're my hero!" Alice: "You have to save all the Fairy Tale Land from the Snow Queen. YOU are my hero" Rose and Alice share a hug, and when Rose holds out the key to return it to Alice, of course Alice has Rose keep the key for her collection... you'd think she'd be a bit more clingy about it... A card is about to tackle the two, so Alice quickly pushes Rose into the portal, where on the other side, the gang is shivering as they discover that there's a labyrinth between them and SQ's castle... R: "Pumpkin seeds!"