Grandpa Joe, Charlie, and Wonka navigate the elevator toward the Commuter Capsule, extending a steel rope and hook that they attach to the ship. The astronauts Shuckworth, Shanks, and Showler gape at the elevator uncomprehendingly. Meanwhile, endlessly morphing squadrons of Knids attack the elevator.

The largest Knid, who pursued the elevator on its lap around the Earth, wraps its body around the elevator and forms a hook shape at its end. The other Knids begin to form themselves into a long chain. With dread, the group in the elevator realizes that the Knids are going to try to tow them to their planet, Vermes. When Grandma Josephine cries that she wants to go home, Wonka remembers that they can press the reentry button to return to Earth; he instructs Charlie to do so as he fires rockets at the pursuing Knids by playing a series of buttons like piano keys.

The Knids continue to form a chain, and the grandmothers are fearful that the Knids will manage to tow the elevator (and the attached Commuter Capsule) to Vermes, but Wonka reminds them of the aliens’ intolerance to the Earth’s atmosphere’s heat. The Knids soon turn into “shooting Knids,” sizzling and exploding.