The Battle Rages in the Season Finale of EMERALD CITY

Season 1, Episode 10 “No Place Like Home”
Written by Josh Carlebach & David Schulner
Directed by Tarsem Singh

[Header image courtesy of David Lukacs/NBC]

On last week’s episode of Emerald City, Queen EV (Stefanie Martini) decided to try and take the Wizard’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) gold without giving him the guns he was paying for. Her plan backfired when his assassins jumped out of the chest and captured her. Roan (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) tried to kill Dorothy (Adria Arjona), but she stabbed him in the side then crucified him so it’s as if they’d never met. Tip (Jordan Loughran) turned himself back into a boy, and West (Ana Ularu) freed the witches that were trapped in the Prison of the Abject by using the magic Tip drank. When the witches refused to follow them because Tip didn’t look like Ozma, he ended up transforming himself back into a girl order to save West. Jack (Gerran Howell) tried to stop the Wizard, but ended up shooting the Queen, who was actually a robot that was rebuilt after the Beast killed her. She wore her masks in order to cover up the fact her face never aged. Dorothy talked Nahara (Mia Mountain) into awakening the giant in order to stop the war, and the skinned man (Julian Bleach) who was hanging in the prison ended up attacking Ojo (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson). For my full recap and review from last week, you can go here. This week’s recap and review are below.

Tonight’s episode is the season 1 finale, and with no announcement yet as to whether or not it will be renewed, it could be the series finale, as well. Personally, I love this show, so I am very much hoping for a renewal. The costumes are beautiful, the plot twists are unexpected, and the characters are complex and wonderful!

We start off tonight where we left off with Ojo (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), Nahara (Mia Mountain), and the skinned man, who is actually named Roquat (Julian Bleach). The skinned aesthetic looks pretty realistic, but then again, almost all of the graphics look real! He ends up pulling his skin down from one of the branches and cutting it up so he can put it on. This show has never really been kid friendly, but this episode really hammers that in.

While the Wizard is away with most of his army, it looks like Eamonn (Mido Hamada) is in charge at Emerald City. When the flying monkey drone captures the advancing witches on camera, he ends up putting the place on lockdown, and doesn’t do much to assuage his soldier’s fears of having no weapons to fight the witches with.

I loved how the monkey drones all jumped to action and crashed out of the castle to form the name “Ozma” in the sky! It was so powerful to me as it announced the return of the lost child of the King and Queen of Pastoria. Of course, Ozma has a lot to learn about ruling as he came from a very sheltered life, so West is guiding him. Luckily, he still stands by his convictions, even if it means possibly being attacked by the injured guard he tried to protect.

Dorothy still seems undecided about which side she’ll choose. She’s been pulled in so many directions and lied to by so many people that it makes it difficult to know what the right choice for her is. She still loves Lucas and Sylvie, but she also very much wants to go home, so she can’t just go against the Wizard, either. She was always a pretty strong, independent character, but I love how much more confident she is in Oz and with the magic gauntlets she has. She seems to be the best compromise between science and magic since she came from a science-based world, but can wield the magic of the gauntlets.

Loughran does a fantastic job when Eamonn meets Ozma at the gate with his lion mask on. Ozma, of course, remembers that the Lion killed his parents, so seeing that mask again almost gives him a panic attack. I thought he handled the situation really well, though I really love Eamonn, so I’m sad to see his punishment is to lose his entire family when Ozma made them forget him. He also gets banished and forced to wander Emerald City in his lion mask.

My biggest question about that part is where the mouthpiece of the lion head went. The mask originally covered his full face, but when the witches put it back on him, his entire face was showing. Did it get removed? Is it folded up inside the mask? I’m confused!

When Ozma takes the crown from West, he sees his reflection in the emerald as Tip. This is such a huge moment for him, because he knows if he puts the crown on and accepts his role as the ruler of Oz, he has to give up who he truly is and his real appearance.

And then the battles begin. Jack runs onto the field with his axe in order to avenge the death of Queen Ev. He kills a few guards before finding the Wizard, who gets out of it with one of the big plot twists of the episode when he tells Jane that her daughter, Dorothy, is here!

Then the witches arrive by the cover of a swarm of locusts, which Dorothy awesomely stops with her gauntlets. Glinda’s (Joely Richardson) dress is, I think, the most bejeweled one we’ve seen, and is true to form in its beauty. I can’t praise Trisha Biggar enough for all of her costume designs on this show!

I was not surprised when Glinda called Sylvie (Rebeka Rea) in, but I was surprised when she was able to actually break apart the stone giant that Dorothy was controlling. I was also surprised Dorothy used her gauntlets to control the second giant in order to destroy the witches’ temple in Emerald City! I was the absolute most surprised when the Wizard shot Sylvie!! I audibly gasped when it happened, as I was not expecting it at all.

When the dust from the giant covers everyone, the guards start shooting all of the witches. Jack, still in the crowd, ends up getting taken down by some of the guards, and they very gruesomely hack him up. I’m not going to lie, I actually paused the show and just looked around, freaking out and cussing, when it happened.

Dorothy was so awesome when she stalked through the dust with her glowing gauntlets throwing the guards aside to get to the Wizard. It was so awesome seeing her use her power.

And then another twist happened that shouldn’t have even been a twist! From way back at the beginning, we were told multiple times that only a witch can kill a witch. Well, I forgot that with all of the action going on lately. That means, though, that every witch that was shot by the Wizard’s guards is actually still alive, including Sylvie!

The Wizard is genuinely shocked because he actually thought the witches were the Beast Forever, which surprised me because I thought he was just using them as a scapegoat in order to turn the people of Emerald City against magic again. Of course, when the Wizard asks incredulously who the Beast is then, we jump back to the Prison of the Abject and find Roquat with his skin back on and wings sprouting out of his back to signify that he was the Beast this whole time!

I’m not sure the exact map of Oz, but the witches appear back in Emerald City after the battle to see the damage done to their temple, so it seems Ev and Emerald City are pretty close to each other. Dorothy also removed the Wizard’s wig, which I think is a symbol of her taking his power from him.

I don’t understand why Glinda is still so obstinate about making magic the sole basis for ruling Oz. I’ve always loved West, and even though she got a little vengeful in this episode, her idea for marrying magic and logic seems perfect. If Glinda could join with her and strike a compromise, I think they could really help guide Ozma in a good direction for everyone.

We don’t actually get to see the Beast fully developed or from the front, but we do see his shadow fly over Jack, Eamonn, Roan, and the West/Glinda/Ozma trio in various scenes. It sounds like he says “you” as he’s flying over each time, and the characters are portrayed very specifically in their roles with Jack being in pieces, Eamonn wearing the lion mask, and Roan hanging on the pole.

The Wizard leads Dorothy up to the vortex machine, but he says he doesn’t think it’s ever been used for the purpose Dorothy has in mind, which is to return to Kansas. He also then says that he sent men to Kansas to kill Karen (Gina Bellman) for fear of her coming back for him and Jane, so I’m confused as to how he got his men in Kansas if this machine has never been used for that.

When the Wizard snaps and tries to destroy the machine, Jane ends up shooting him, which I think is a nice touch of revenge for her since he trapped her in Oz and she had to send her daughter away because of it. We also find out that the five dots on Dorothy’s hand are a tattoo the Jane gave her so she could find her daughter if she were ever lost.

The explanation seems really underwhelming and unusual to me. She had to have done the tattoo before Dorothy was taken to Kansas, since she said she used to kiss each dot every night, and because it was healed on the baby the first time we saw her. Since she was only a few months old at that time, did Jane tattoo her immediately after having her? It just doesn’t make sense what her motive would’ve been, unless it was something for Ojo’s tribe, which they were living with.

In another sad moment of this episode (there were many!), Jane helps Dorothy start up the vortex machine, then promises she’ll be right behind her on their way to Kansas together. Then Jane shuts the door and sends Dorothy without her.

When Dorothy wakes up, it’s apparently only been about 10 minutes in Kansas since the tornado came through, so that seems to suggest either time goes much faster in Oz or the vortex machine can also time travel. Either way, she checks on Karen, whom I was surprised to see was still alive, and then ends up back home.

All of the little things that happen while she’s there, like seeing the scarecrow, her aunt’s black fingers, etc. made me think she was actually in Oz still and just under a spell. I can’t even describe how excited I was when she walked out into the field and saw Toto sitting there. Then I got even more excited when Roan appeared behind her, too! He tells her that Jane is a prisoner of the Beast, and when she asks if he was there to take her back, he says he’d come to take her home, and that’s the last line of the episode!

Overall, it seems like the Wizard may be an embodiment of the scarecrow, lion, and tin man to me. What they are lacking (brain, courage, and heart) seem to be what he’s also lacking. I don’t know if those are actually tied together, but it makes sense to me.

I’m really hoping for a second season, as the ending to this season left so much still to see! Did Glinda and West team up? Did Frank die? Did Jane repair Jack? Did the Beast keep any of the other characters around? What happened to Ojo? Does Roan still have feelings for Dorothy? How will they defeat the Beast?

What are your questions that you still have from the show? Are you hoping for a second season? Comment below and let me know!

 

You can watch all 10 episodes of Emerald City on the NBC app and website. You can also find all of my Emerald City recaps and reviews from the first season here! Be sure to check back for renewal/cancellation news, which we’ll post as soon as we hear something!