Thanks for the response — I hope they can get this bug sorted for PC/Facebook. I can't get the game on mobile, but I did finally get the tickets to advance filled on the King.com site, so that's a workaround.
I've tried asking friends on Facebook and on my King account. I have plenty of friends playing the game on both, and yet repeated requests to unlock the next episode haven't filled in even one of my squares. I'm stuck waiting 3 days. I even filled some of the time by going back and getting 3 stars on all levels, but now…