Alice freezes mid-decision and realizes her hand has already taken the green apple. The Weaver Girl snaps the test closed, declaring the choice made, and hoists Peter in tightening silk, mocking the familiar pattern of a fearful girl and an unreliable man. Alice panics and hacks at the cocoon, but the silk resists and thickens, leaving Peter immobilized and Alice powerless.

Clicking approaches: the bone-things crest the hill and swarm. They first drag down the Weaver Girl, then converge on Peter, shredding the cocoon and biting. Alice’s water is insufficient and her knife is useless; the pack envelops her, then unexpectedly lifts and carries her toward the Lethe, led by a larger, two-legged amalgam.

A horn blast stops the pack short. A ragtag barge skims in, flown by a masked boatman who leaps ashore with a spear. He smashes joints and spines, then reveals a Lethe-spritzing mechanism that drives the bone-things into retreat, freeing Alice and pushing the pack back under the leader’s command.

The boatman hauls Alice and then Peter aboard. The Weaver Girl rushes the bank, threatening divine retribution, but the boatman mocks her, poles into the Lethe, and spritzes her silks, which sizzle and fall away. As the barge cuts into the river, the Weaver Girl’s grasp breaks; she cackles a final curse while the boat carries Alice and Peter downstream.