Shuffle the deck

Back at Ever After High, Alistair and Bunny are still in the search for their missing friends. They go up to a tower and find Dexter stuck in a trunk, who ended up there because he has been searching for Darling. Daring flies by the window on dragon back, surprising everyone and urging them to get on because he has an idea of where Darling is. Daring is betting that she's studying in the library and lets out a pretentious chuckle, accidentally steering into the school building and is pressed charges by police officers. Dexter, Alistair, and Bunny take the search from there.

In Wonderland, the six girls are being led to court by the card guards. Their judge (the Caterpillar) unreasonably questions them, agitating them further. A now-angered Apple takes a stand and complains on about how Courtly is the reason why they're stuck there in the first place. Her remark shocks the crowd and right on the dot, Courtly walks in and would like to swiftly end it by sentencing the girls guilty as charged. As the vice-principal, she personally twists things up and charges the girls with unruliness if found innocent, and graduated if found guilty, following their lifelong detention sentence - making this a win-win situation in her perspective.

Like the Evil Queen, Brooke discovers that she too has the ability to interact with objects like pushing books off of shelves. She then tries to figure out how to use this newfound skill to send messages. In Wonderland court, the caterpillar judge concludes it with a guilty, or extremely guilty, plead. Given that they have one more trump card left, Kitty blurts out that Courtly's attempt at taking over Lizzie's destiny would be futile if she doesn't sign the Storybook of Legends, which her mother has. She instantly regrets saying that. The girls are then sent to detention and Courtly is triumphantly rejoicing in her office. Courtly calls in Chase to her office. Waiting for him to arrive, Courtly remembers that the Cheshire Cat can turn invisible, much to her dismay. The Evil Queen hears of this behind Courtly's makeup mirror and decides on helping Courtly by giving her her spell book. Once Chase arrives in her office, Courtly announces that she is anointing him as the acting vice-principal while she's away at the Queen of Hearts's birthday party. Concurrently, in detention, the girls are being forced into the room with no way out. The mockturtle awakes from his snooze and introduces himself to the girls, affirming that escape is impossible. Brooke wishes she could help them, but pushing books around is the most of her ability to interact with others. This news catches Maddie's attention and uses Brooke's ability to her advantage.

Dexter, Bunny, and Alistair find a falling book from a top shelf. More books continue falling and they head down to check it out. Alistair catches on and believes that the books' have opened up to a specific page with an illuminated letter to spell out a message. They soon read it and notice how they need to get the Mad Hatter's help to break the girls out of detention. At the Mad Hatter's Haberdashery & Tea Shoppe, Alistair, Bunny, Dexter, and the Mad Hatter play a recollection game where the Mad Hatter remembers how to escape from detention. He remembers that he used to be let out by beating the Mockturtle at tiddlywinks. But because Chase is the temporary acting vice-principal of Wonderland High, the Mockturtle would rather the girls trial by swords instead of tiddlywinks. At that note, they are sent out of detention and onto the school grounds, surrounded by the students egging them on to sword fight. The White Knight blocks Chase's blow and defends the girls, who escape down a rabbit hole following the White Rabbit. The girls take wrong turns in the rabbit holes and are spewed out portals all over Wonderland from one portal to the next.