4/9

4/9 Johnny's descent begins before he inherits the Hatter's role. Alice's death, his discovery of his father's affair, and his murder of his father all belong to the collapse of the Liddle household. Calie then pushes him through the mirror. Once inside Wonderland, Johnny encounters Drake again. His uncle imprisons him with Lacie, the part of Alice left behind in the realm. Johnny uses the Ebony Blade to end Lacie's suffering at her request and then kills Drake. Those events bring several generations of the family's pain into the same place. Johnny is facing the person who abused him, while also confronting another piece of what happened to his mother. Killing Drake does not free him from the pattern. It is worth keeping that distinction in view. Johnny has real victims in his past and becomes responsible for victims of his own. The explanation for his violence gives the history context; it does not make the people he hurts disappear from the story.