Emerald City: No Place Like Home Recap

Synopsis of 1×10: In the first season finale, Dorothy, Glinda, and the Wizard face off on the battlefield, while Tip and West storm Emerald City with an army of witches. 

In a lot of ways – a lot of them – Emerald City came full circle in its first season finale. The show has left itself open for infinite other seasons, but it ends having completely retold a version of The Wizard of Oz from a unique and serialized perspective. It’s open for anything to happen, but the story as we know it has run its course. Which is pretty cool. 

The epic showdown begins with Dorothy returning to the cottage where she stayed with Lucas and Sylvie before they reached Glinda and everything went to hell – the eye of the storm, if you will. I literally have no idea why she went back there, but when she gets there, Lucas is waiting, and attacks her. As we already know, he’s been manipulated by Glinda into believing that the only way to solve his war with himself over everything that’s happening is to kill Dorothy. He manages to get the drop on her, but he can’t bring himself to do it. She’s pissed off though and essentially goads him into trying again, but Toto saves the day. 

Dorothy runs for it and Lucas chases her into the field outside. At the base of the scarecrow – of course – she manages to get the drop on him and he begs her to kill him, end his torment, but she refuses. Instead, she ties him to the scarecrow’s cross so he can’t follow her, while he’s still half-insane with the fallout from Glinda’s spell – which is exactly how she found him in the beginning. 

Meanwhile, in the forest outside Emerald City, West is trying to convince Tip that they really are Osma, the true heir to the throne of Oz – usurped by The Wizard after he thought he killed every member of the royal family to ensure his own power. Using the magic West harvested from East after she died, Tip sees into the past and learns that they really are Osma, and that Eamonn was the one who slaughtered their family – at The Wizard’s command. West uses the same magic to free all the witches from the Prison of the Abject to create an army for Tip to take back control of Oz, but Tip only agrees to stop the witches from killing West. 

Back in the city, The Wizard still believes the Beast Forever will come in the form of Glinda and her school of young witches. They do come, and face off with The Wizard’s Guard, who brutally gun down all the girls, including Sylvie. But only a witch can kill and witch, and the girls rise again, taking out The Guard with the element of surprise. They march back into Emerald City, just as West and her witches are seating Osma on the throne. The witches tensely agree to let Tip rule Oz, and let the witches be free.

In their first act as ruler, Tip confronts Eamonn, seeking justice for their slaughtered family. Eamonn is willing to sacrifice himself in penance, but instead, Tip banishes him from Emerald City, and casts a spell to make his entire family forget him, sending him into the woods with his lion mask, setting him up to join Dorothy’s merry band when the time comes, as in the original story.

The biggest twist though, comes when The Wizard tells Dorothy that Karen is not her mother. Jane, the mechanist who rebuilt Jack and Lady Ev, is her mother, and the one who built the vortex than can take her home. Shocked, Dorothy finds her, and Jane promises to go back to Kansas with her, but she sends Dorothy into the tornado ahead, and closes the door behind her, forcing her to go home alone, with no explanation. 

Dorothy is dropped back into Lucas, Kansas just as the tornado that brought her to Oz in the first place is clearing up, indicating that essentially no time has passed in the real world. Dorothy returns to her life in a subdued daze, thinking of Oz and her mother. At one point she wanders into the field behind her house, thinking that she’s seen Toto, but it’s just another stray dog. She mutters to herself that she must be dreaming (wink wink), but when she turns around, Lucas is standing there. 

He tells her that Jane is in trouble, and they need Dorothy and the gauntlets to fix it. She stares at him in disbelief as a tornado touches down in the distance. 

It’s a neat trick too, because it cleverly turns around the ending of the original story, while giving them essentially carte blanche for the future. If the entire first season apparently took place over a matter of minutes in earth time, and Dorothy has been home for days, there’s really no telling how much might have gone down in Oz. 

I guess we’re off to see the Wizard.