On Friday night, NBC released the two-part season premiere of Emerald City, a retelling of The Wizard of Oz. Catch up here before this week’s episode.
A woman runs up to a house in Kansas carrying a baby, begging for help. She’s let in and then the story fast forwards 20 years.
A young woman, Dorothy, pulls up to a trailer and watches the female resident from her truck. Could they be the mother and child from the beginning?
Dorothy is a kind-hearted nurse in a retirement home. It’s her birthday and at home, her aunt and uncle bake her a cake. After dinner, she helps her aunt do dishes and they talk about her visit to her mother. Her aunt wants her to talk to the woman. Dorothy is afraid it won’t live up to her expectations.
When Dorothy goes outside, she finds a storm brewing. Worried about her mother, she drives to her trailer and pounds on the door. She finds it unlocked and goes inside to find her mother’s computer open to track the storm. The floor is covered in blood. Is her mother dead already? Dorothy pulls the curtain back and finds the corpse of a man instead.
What’s happening?
Dorothy runs outside and finds a storm cellar. Her mother is unconscious at the bottom of the stairs. She’s been stabbed. She begs Dorothy to run and not notify the police who have shown up outside. Dorothy runs to the car anyway where the cop threatens to shoot her. Just as he gets close enough, the tornado tears him off the ground. Dorothy hops in the police car and is picked up by the storm as well. It hurtles her forward to run over someone, then hit a tree.
Who did she hit?
When Dorothy lifts her head from the airbag, the ground is covered in snow. She’s obviously not in Kansas anymore. She finds the body of the woman she hit and tries to call for help, but the radio is dead. She puts on a coat and grabs a gun she finds in the trunk. Will she need it? She also frees the K-9 officer from the backseat who plods on ahead of her as she walks.
The tornado looks different from here, making the sky red. Dorothy hears someone behind her and several children appear dressed in furs. She follows them to a small native village. The adults are less happy to see her, but the dog stands guard. Dorothy asks for directions, then spots the dead woman’s body. When she admits to killing who turns out to be the benevolent Witch of the East, the natives torture her as a witch. They tell her she must answer to the Wizard of Oz. Is the whole world of Oz this dark and menacing?
In the center of Oz, two women show a man a recording of the tornado and tell him the Beast Forever will rise. The man sends out a soldier to kill the Beast so it won’t return to Emerald City. He must be the Wizard.
Is Dorothy the Beast?
The munchkin village exiles Dorothy beyond their borders. The guide that takes her there, tells her of a Beast who flooded their world. The Wizard saved them.
The Wizard visits the Witch of the West. She’s supposedly given up magic because it is banned. Her sister Glinda appoints the Wizard’s council. The Witch calls out one of his supposedly chaste assistants as being pregnant by the Wizard’s guard. The Wizard doesn’t look pleased.
Dorothy’s guide takes her through a dark and mysterious cave. The muddy ground writhes with what look like dying bodies. It’s a prison and the guide’s wife is there. The Witch of the East was the only one who could have freed her. No wonder he was so upset by the Witch’s death.
The guide leaves Dorothy at the yellow brick road. It’s actually made of poppy pollen. As she walks, she becomes high from the Opium. She comes across a crucified man begging for help. She takes down his cross and pulls his arms from the wires that bind them. He doesn’t remember his name or what happened to him, but his house is burning up the hill. Dorothy returns the man’s sword and gets him dressed. She invites him to travel with her.
The Wizard’s soldier gets to munchkin village to find Dorothy and the Witch’s body both gone.
Where did the body go?
Dorothy and the nameless man find food. She names him Lucas after the town in Kansas she grew up in. While they sleep, the Witch of the East appears above them, most definitely alive. Lucas wakes to find Dorothy missing. Did the Witch take her? No. He finds her on her knees on the road and then collapses himself.
They’re suddenly in two places at once – the opium road and stuck in the mud in the Prison of the Abject. The Witch shows herself and tortures them. Lucas tries to draw his sword, but the Witch takes it from him. She examines Dorothy’s gun and Dorothy tricks her into shooting herself in the head. They’re released from the prison.
The Witch of the West screams in grief. Her sister is truly dead. The Wizard makes a speech that he will protect his people. When he’s back behind closed doors, he removes his wig. Perhaps his confidence is just a show, like a man behind a curtain.
Read the recap for episode 101, part 2 to see what becomes of Dorothy.