Emerald City – Science and Magic

By: Naomi Johnson

Friday’s “Emerald City” was a whirlwind of fast paced narrative, making me giddy with excitement to see what happens when all the different plotlines finally converge and all characters prepare for the battle with the Beast…just guessing here. For all I know, “The Beast” is a tiny Chihuahua. But because of the short quick paced scenes it made the storytelling seem somewhat rough and could give the viewer a serious case of whiplash. The story continued to go back and forth from Dorothy and Lucas to Jack and then to Tip chilling with West and Glinda and then making a pit stop with the Wizard. So, this recap will consist of compiling the major storylines.

So, let us start our journey with Dorothy and Lucas (Adria Arjona and Oliver Jackson-Cohen) or simply Emerald City main ship “Dorcas.” Our beautiful budding duo is making their way through the woods, avoiding the yellow brick road in hopes of eluding Eamonn and the Wizard’s guards grasp. Dorothy, of course, hasn’t changed her tune and all she wants to do is get the heck out of Oz. She is getting restless already and Lucas, the poor bloke, just wants to keep everyone safe.

Out of nowhere, a young girl rushes our heroes and grabs ahold of Lucas, clinging to him as if he’s her savior, dad, hero, god…! Dorothy tries to get the young girl to talk but to no avail, preferring to stick close to Lucas. And why wouldn’t she…have you seen our dear scarecrow? Lucas wants to keep moving and leave the girl behind, but Dorothy insists on returning the little one to her village. Cold Lucas, just cold.

Once they reach the girl’s village someone recognizes the girl, at least not at first. A woman approaches and refers to the little girl as Sylvie (Rebeka Rea) and hugs her. She then turns to Dorothy, thanking her for returning her daughter. The husband seems to be a bit shady and Dorothy is having second thoughts about letting this girl go off with her “parents.” She asks to go with them and make sure the girl is all right. When they get to the house, the parents clearly don’t want Dorothy there and are less than enthused about giving Dorothy the grand tour.

Lucas, having stayed behind with Toto in the woods to keep watch, sees the Wizard’s guards and immediately gets Dorothy out of there. But Dorothy is the heroine of this tale and obviously suffers from the hero complex so she runs back and hides near the house. She pulls out her gun because it has a never-ending supply of bullets and she has perfect aim…Then, Dorcas shippers, she tells Lucas to strip but not for the reasons you think. Dorothy disguises herself in Lucas’ clothes and breaks into Sylvie’s house where she finds the girl shaking and sitting between the charred remains of the couple who claimed her. It is obvious she’s responsible for whatever happened to those people, but Dorothy either has no fear or just doesn’t care and takes the murderous and magical Sylvie with her when she leaves.

They don’t make it too far before they stumble across Eamonn (Mido Hamada). He’s in the middle of sentencing her to death when he sees the handle of Lucas’ sword sticking out from her jacket. He recognizes it and tells Dorothy that he has been “hunting for the owner of this sword for a very long time.” When Dorothy refuses to give up Lucas, Eamonn slaps her. Dorothy fires a warning shot in the air from her gun to let Eamonn she is willing to kill if he crosses that line again. Seriously, no touchy. Lucas appears and grabs Sylvie. The trio make a run for it with Eamonn following closely behind. He is relentless and Dorothy sees no other option, but to shoot Eamonn who falls to the ground.

When we see them again Dorothy starts telling Lucas about the role of science and magic in her world and pulls out an iPod to show him an example while Sylvie sleeps. Bill Withers’ song “Ain’t No Sunshine” starts to play and not too long after they are sharing the earbuds and discussing Eamonn’s claim that he knew Lucas. He tells Dorothy, “He knew who I was.” He leans in closer to Dorothy and this is the moment Dorcas shippers have been waiting for… Lucas says, “The man I am today is who I want to be” and then after no time at all really, they kiss. Remember this show is fast paced, dash development when they are so cute.

The next morning, they hear footsteps approaching in the snow. Dorothy takes off in one direction as Lucas runs off with Sylvie in the other only to run straight into a very much alive Eamonn. Who else saw that coming? Dorothy, meanwhile, is knocked unconscious when a wooden throwing star hits her in the head. Say hello again to Ojo (Olafur Darri Olafsson)!

Now, we move on to everyone’s favorite wizard (Vincent D’ Onofrio). The ruler of Oz is having some trouble enforcing his no-magic rule over in the town of Nimbo. So what does he do? Well, he burns some of Nimbo’s villagers to death. His guards discover a magical-looking tunnel hidden away. When word gets back to the Wizard, he decides to go to Nimbo himself to investigate and refuses Elizabeth’s (Roxy Sternberg) offer to accompany him. Instead, he frees Anna (Isabel Lucas) from her dungeon because she is the only sensible choice.

On their way to Nimbo, the Wizard confesses that Anna was right — he can’t bring back the giants. She tells him it doesn’t matter, as the giants wouldn’t be able to kill The Beast forever. Anna, ever the prophet, states, “I feel this beast will come from the sky. It will have a brain and a heart and will be possessed of relentless strength.” So, Dorothy is possibly the beast…shocking. Anna reassures the Wizard that if The Beast forever has a heart, it can be killed. They arrive in Nimbo to the screams of an angry alderman named Jermiah (Chook Sibtain), whose family members are dead. He insists there’s no magic in Nimbo, but the Wizard sends Anna to investigate the magical tunnel. She reaches out to touch it and it explodes before disappearing completely.

Anna is injured, but soon wakes up to the Wizard sitting next to her. “I thought I’d lost you. I don’t know what I would have done,” he says. She thanks him, but replies, “I chose this path, service over pleasure, and I cannot stray.” Seriously, can this not be the next ship because AW!! We then have Jermiah urging the townspeople to embrace the Wizard’s teachings and “allow science to rule the day.” It is easy to succomb to the will of the Wizard, especially when he has his guards holding a knife to the belly of your pregnant daughter.

Now, to the character that I am growing to love almost as much as West…Tip (Jordan Loughran)! Tip is racked with guilt over seemingly killing her friend, she is seconds away from jumping from the banister to her own death when a guard from the City of Ev talks her down. He takes her to Glinda’s orphanage, where the Good Witch of the North (Joely Richardson) encourages Tip to follow her teachings and become a member of the Wizard’s council. West (Ana Ularu) is there, too, but wants Tip to join her brothel instead. Decisions, decisions, right? With two powerful witches and two very different options, Tip replies with the best line of the season says, “So you’re saying my only choice as a girl is nun or whore?” It looks like her desire to forget her past will push her towards West’s offer. But the last we see of Tip she’s telling West she doesn’t want to forget anymore and what she wants is West’s magic. This may not go over well with our magic hating Witch of the West.

So, Jack (Gerran Howell) he is dead, right? Wrong! It turns out Jack survived last week’s fall, waking up to a doctor named Jane (Gina McKee) hovering over him and performing surgery. She urges him not to be frightened. So, of course, he is terrified. When Jane is done performing whatever procedure she did to save Jack’s life, she shows him the reflection of his new body in a mirror. He is a boy made from metal and with a mechanical heart. There you have it – Jack is our Tin Man. Jack struggles throughout his recovery, but eventually regains the ability to walk, move his hands, etc.…He also catches the attention of a strange masked woman whom we come to learn is Lady Ev (Stefani Martini). Although Jane wanted him to stay in her care, she brings Jack to Lady Ev’s castle and leaves him. He is to hoping her intentions are good, but this is “Emerald City.” So, alas we must wait for next week.