Finding Nemo installs a new high-tech filter before the Tank Gang can escape. Marlin and Dory exit the East Australian Current and are engulfed by a blue whale. Dory communicates with the whale, which carries them to Sydney Harbour and expels them through his blowhole. They meet Nigel, who helps the pair escape from a flock of relentless seagulls and takes them to the dentist's office. Darla has just arrived, and the dentist is handing Nemo to her. Nemo plays dead to save himself as Nigel arrives, terrifying Darla and throwing the office into chaos. After Nigel is violently thrown out by
Little Nemo the strip's copyright, but McCay won a lawsuit that allowed him to continue using the characters. In the "American", the strip ran under the title "In the Land of Wonderful Dreams". The "Herald" was unsuccessful in finding another cartoonist to continue the original strip. McCay left Hearst in May 1924 and returned to the "Herald Tribune". He began "Little Nemo in Slumberland" afresh that August 3. The new strip displayed the virtuoso technique of the old, but the panels were laid out in an unvarying grid. Nemo took a more passive role in the stories, and there was no continuity.