Emerald City: Everybody Lies Recap

Synopsis of 1×05: West interrogates Dorothy to get answers about East’s death, while the Wizard asks the Kingdom of Ev to build him an arsenal, and Lucas learns about his past. 

I complained in my general recap that parts of Emerald City‘s storyline were too convoluted and esoteric for their own good, but they’ve scaled it back this week, simplifying and consolidating some of the odds and ends. Perhaps because they wanted to make sure the build-up to the big reveal was nice and clean. And it was. But as it stands, I have a lot of questions. 

First question, why did it take me so dang long to figure out that Sylvie is the cowardly lion? That’s embarrassing. Second question, Lucas what the hell!? 

Lucas, our amnesiac “scarecrow” was confronted last week by a member of The Wizard’s Guard who recognized him – a man named Eamonn, who was supposedly a friend. He says that the reason Lucas was strung up and left for dead is that he was accused of single-handedly attacking and killing a wagon full of civilians during battle.

Eamonn says that Lucas (AKA Roan) was a great solider and a good man, and he’s never believed that it was true, but rest of The Wizard’s Guard does, and they’d kill him if they knew he was alive. 

Lucas takes some measure of comfort in this, and reassures little Sylvie that everything is going to be okay, and they will stay with Eamonn and his family just until they can find Dorothy, who was separated from them in the woods the night before, when the Munchkins attacked and the group was forced to flee their makeshift campsite. 

What Lucas doesn’t know, is that the Munchkins were there on the orders of Mistress West, to kidnap Dorothy and bring her back, so that she could be interrogated about the death of Mistress East. While Lucas and Sylvie are having dinner with a nice family, Dorothy is being questioned and brutally tortured by a grief-stricken West and her girl gang – which now includes Tip. 

The next day, while wandering around the Emerald City festival hoping to meet up with Dorothy, Lucas and Sylvie are set upon by more of The Wizard’s Guard, who recognize Lucas as the traitor. Lucas fights them off – probably ten of them – with amazing ease, all while insisting he doesn’t remember anything, but couldn’t possibly have done what they’re saying – until one of the men reveals that he was there, and saw the whole thing.

He says that Lucas did in fact, kill a bunch of innocent people in cold blood. He even mentions a wound that he inflicted on Lucas – the wound that created his mysterious scar. Horrified to learn the truth, and believing he deserves to be punished, Lucas immediately surrenders to the man. 

I repeat, Lucas what the hell!? You’ve known about this for like ten seconds, you have no idea if it’s even true, Dorothy is still missing, and you literally just LEFT Sylvie standing alone in an alley surrounded by dead guys? 

In an earlier scene, Sylvie, with her hinted-at magical powers, wordlessly tells Lucas that she senses Dorothy is nearby, in the city. Lucas also knows that The Wizard wants them all dead, so it occurs to me that getting captured and taken to the palace might have been, even partly, a way for him to find her.

But he still left a mute and traumatized six year old girl with abandonment issues alone in the corner of a big city like NBD. And it’s a moot point anyway because Dorothy escaped. After being relentlessly prodded by West about how East died, with West even going so far as to impersonate Karen, West finally learns that Glinda has been keeping a secret. We don’t know what, but we know it’s big, and that East was coming to warn West about it before she died. 

West also sees the gauntlets that Dorothy accidentally inherited from East, but they burn her when she tries to touch them, driving her away long enough for Dorothy to convince Tip to help her get out. 

Meanwhile, The Wizard has called the King of the neighboring land Ev to the festival, in the hopes of persuading him to build a weapon to defend against The Beast Forever. It becomes clear however, that the King is completely senile, and his cunning, but vindictive and selfish daughter Lady Ev has been running the show for some time.

The Wizard asks her instead, and she decrees that Emerald City deserves to burn for closing ranks to save themselves last time, instead of trying to protect the surrounding communities as well – lots of people died – including Lady Ev’s mother and brother – while Emerald City was completely safe. 

At a loss, The Wizard retreats to the palace, unaware that Dorothy is currently sneaking in with a gun, disguised as a party guest. When she finds him in his room though, she finds him listening to Pink Floyd on a Walkman. “Pink Floyd?” she asks, and he whirls around, demanding to know how she recognizes it.

He sees the gun and asks if she’s here to kill him. She says no, she’s here to find out about her mother, Karen Chapman. She removes her mask and The Wizard says “Dorothy?” And then it cuts to black, but I’m pretty sure Kill Bill sirens were going off in their heads. 

I’ve made no secret that I don’t especially care for the storyline happening within the actual city, and being quite familiar with the original book, the original film, and Wicked, it was certainly no shock that The Wizard is from Earth, or even that he knows who Dorothy is, but the reveal was done well, and things are much more interesting in Emerald City now that Dorothy and Lucas are actually present for the storylines they apparently are at the center of. 

I’m excited to see them reunited, and I’m curious about Jack and Lady Ev becoming friends. It’s only a matter of time before Jack ends up with Dorothy, Lucas, Sylvie and Toto, and I’m especially excited to see the whole gang together. Bonus points if they sing a song.