diff --git a/pandas/core/internals/blocks.py b/pandas/core/internals/blocks.py
index d8875b38ed738..185b0f4da2627 100644
--- a/pandas/core/internals/blocks.py
+++ b/pandas/core/internals/blocks.py
@@ -1384,15 +1384,13 @@ def equals(self, other) -> bool:
             return False
         return array_equivalent(self.values, other.values)
 
-    def _unstack(self, unstacker, new_columns, fill_value, value_columns):
+    def _unstack(self, unstacker, fill_value, new_placement):
         """
         Return a list of unstacked blocks of self
 
         Parameters
         ----------
         unstacker : reshape._Unstacker
-        new_columns : Index
-            All columns of the unstacked BlockManager.
         fill_value : int
             Only used in ExtensionBlock._unstack
 
@@ -1403,17 +1401,17 @@ def _unstack(self, unstacker, new_columns, fill_value, value_columns):
         mask : array_like of bool
             The mask of columns of `blocks` we should keep.
         """
-        new_items = unstacker.get_new_columns(value_columns)
-        new_placement = new_columns.get_indexer(new_items)
         new_values, mask = unstacker.get_new_values(
             self.values.T, fill_value=fill_value
         )
 
         mask = mask.any(0)
+        # TODO: in all tests we have mask.all(); can we rely on that?
+
         new_values = new_values.T[mask]
         new_placement = new_placement[mask]
 
-        blocks = [make_block(new_values, placement=new_placement)]
+        blocks = [self.make_block_same_class(new_values, placement=new_placement)]
         return blocks, mask
 
     def quantile(self, qs, interpolation="linear", axis: int = 0):
@@ -1878,7 +1876,7 @@ def where(
 
         return [self.make_block_same_class(result, placement=self.mgr_locs)]
 
-    def _unstack(self, unstacker, new_columns, fill_value, value_columns):
+    def _unstack(self, unstacker, fill_value, new_placement):
         # ExtensionArray-safe unstack.
         # We override ObjectBlock._unstack, which unstacks directly on the
         # values of the array. For EA-backed blocks, this would require
@@ -1888,10 +1886,9 @@ def _unstack(self, unstacker, new_columns, fill_value, value_columns):
         n_rows = self.shape[-1]
         dummy_arr = np.arange(n_rows)
 
-        new_items = unstacker.get_new_columns(value_columns)
-        new_placement = new_columns.get_indexer(new_items)
         new_values, mask = unstacker.get_new_values(dummy_arr, fill_value=-1)
         mask = mask.any(0)
+        # TODO: in all tests we have mask.all(); can we rely on that?
 
         blocks = [
             self.make_block_same_class(
diff --git a/pandas/core/internals/managers.py b/pandas/core/internals/managers.py
index f3b4ebad9cec1..0f105b0a7ee75 100644
--- a/pandas/core/internals/managers.py
+++ b/pandas/core/internals/managers.py
@@ -1461,8 +1461,11 @@ def unstack(self, unstacker, fill_value) -> "BlockManager":
 
         for blk in self.blocks:
             blk_cols = self.items[blk.mgr_locs.indexer]
+            new_items = unstacker.get_new_columns(blk_cols)
+            new_placement = new_columns.get_indexer(new_items)
+
             blocks, mask = blk._unstack(
-                unstacker, new_columns, fill_value, value_columns=blk_cols,
+                unstacker, fill_value, new_placement=new_placement
             )
 
             new_blocks.extend(blocks)
diff --git a/pandas/core/reshape/reshape.py b/pandas/core/reshape/reshape.py
index b883c5b1568a0..882e3e0a649cc 100644
--- a/pandas/core/reshape/reshape.py
+++ b/pandas/core/reshape/reshape.py
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ def sorted_labels(self):
         indexer, to_sort = self._indexer_and_to_sort
         return [l.take(indexer) for l in to_sort]
 
-    def _make_sorted_values(self, values):
+    def _make_sorted_values(self, values: np.ndarray) -> np.ndarray:
         indexer, _ = self._indexer_and_to_sort
 
         sorted_values = algos.take_nd(values, indexer, axis=0)
@@ -205,6 +205,9 @@ def get_new_values(self, values, fill_value=None):
 
         # we can simply reshape if we don't have a mask
         if mask_all and len(values):
+            # TODO: Under what circumstances can we rely on sorted_values
+            #  matching values?  When that holds, we can slice instead
+            #  of take (in particular for EAs)
             new_values = (
                 sorted_values.reshape(length, width, stride)
                 .swapaxes(1, 2)