Dorothy discovers that Lucas isn’t a soldier, but Glinda’s husband in “Lions In Winter.” Meanwhile, Tip learns about his past and wants to make a choice about his future while the Wizard begins a journey to the Kingdom of Ev to check on his weapons.
Tip gets to make a choice
West tells Tip the story of Ozma -- daughter of the previous rules of Oz, she was thought dead, slaughtered by the Wizard like her parents -- but Tip doesn’t initially accept the story at face value.
As he points out, he’s tired of people telling him who is he or what he’s supposed to be. He wants to make his own choice. West gives him a way to make that choice: by drinking the magic preserved after East’s death.
No one has ever just taken the preserved magic of a witch, and this seems especially dangerous for someone who isn’t a witch to do. Tip hesitates, but after the reveal that if it works he can turn himself back into the boy he wants to be, he drinks it down. It’s such a great show of bravery and analogous to transgendered individuals in society who make the decisions to change their biological sex.
Tip’s story is one of the best “Emerald City” has offered and I love how it’s been handled.
Of course, the writers do give us all a little scare as Tip seemingly dies after consuming the magic and West gives him a water burial. Lucky for us after a horrible fake-out, Tip is back at the end of the episode just in time to see West try to commit suicide. I’m very curious to see Tip’s decision and how his story plays out.
Lucas is Glinda’s husband
Yes, Lucas is actually named Roan, but since Dorothy knows him as Lucas, it’s a hard name to give up. As it turns out, he isn’t just working for Glinda or a loyal subject or anything like that; he’s also her husband. That certainly complicates matters for the relationship he’s had with Dorothy since she came to Oz and found him strung up in a field.
She insists that their history is equally important, but he keeps repeating that Glinda is his wife like some sort of mantra.
What’s interesting is that now that he has his memories back as Roan, he doesn’t even interact the same way with Sylvie (whose real name is Leith) as he did before. It’s as though Lucas really is a completely different person than Roan, even though he and Glinda both insist that he’s still the same man. When he’s unable to completely turn his feelings for Dorothy off and wants Glinda to remove them, she tells him he’ll have to get rid of Dorothy himself. Something tells me we haven’t seen the last of Lucas instead of Roan.
Young witches get pushed too far
Glinda’s entire reason for raising the young witches and training them in their abilities is to use them as an army against the wizard.
The little girls don’t have a choice in their path in life; they are witches, so they are part of Glinda’s growing army. The problem is that so many of the little girls end up in various states of catatonia when they push themselves too far and can’t come back from the magic involved.
The visual of Glinda leading Dorothy into a room full of these young witches is startling and disturbing, and it’s one of the story points that really sells Dorothy as being on the “right side.” It’s interesting for a viewer because you see both the Wizard and Glinda as in the wrong in this episode, making it difficult to decide where you stand.
The verdict and what’s next
While this episode moved a little slow for my taste, it did farther tease the question of whether or not Dorothy is also a witch and just where Mother South is.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
Next week in “The Villain That’s Become,” Lucas and Dorothy find themselves on opposing sides, while West and Tip bond, and the Wizard has problems in the Kingdom of Ev.