TV Review: Emerald City 1×06 “Beautiful Wickedness”

“Dorothy, you’ve come home!” – the Wizard

Last week on Emerald City, we were left with a major bombshell; Dorothy has been to Oz before, and the Wizard seems to know Dorothy better than she knows herself. This week’s episode exposed pieces of the past that led to everything that has happened thus far. War is now imminent, and “Beautiful Wickedness” is preparing us for battle while tensions rise in the land of Oz.

The episode opens back in 1996 when it all began. Dorothy’s mother, Karen Chapman (Gina Bellman), was a scientist working on creating alternative energy sources and the Wizard, whose real name is Frank, was a worker at the facility. The scientists have finally created a vortex to create energy out of thin air, but the vortex quickly begins to spin out of control. The strong cyclone transports a pregnant Karen and her team to Oz.

Flash forward to present-day Oz, where Dorothy is still unsure about the Wizard. Frank explains that he wants to protect Dorothy, and offers to send her home through his own vortex chamber, but only if she helps him first. After West exposes Lucas’s memories, it is revealed that Lucas was trying to protect a group of young witches, witches that could only have been created by “The Mother Witch,” who supposedly was destroyed many years ago. It is also revealed that Glinda is involved with the young witches, and her goal is to overthrow the Wizard and take back control. After uncovering this truth, Frank realizes that his alliance with Glinda was created in vein in order for her to unveil his secrets.

In the midst of everything, Jack and Tip finally are reunited, and Tip is shocked that Jack is even alive. Still unable to forgive Tip, Jack stays by Lady Ev’s side. Lady Ev continues to try and take care of her ill and confused father, who then wanders off and runs into the little witch Sylvie and is waiting for Lucas and Dorothy to take her to safety. Confused and scared of the man, she turns the king into stone.

Lady Ev, saddened and furious with the death her father, declares a vengeance on the city of Oz. Frank suggests that it is Glinda, who is responsible for the death of her father, and she is the one who must be destroyed. We know from East’s death that guns can kill witches, and Frank pleads with Lady Ev to use Ev’s resources to create the guns to fight Glinda. He pulls out a gun in order to prove their power, and then, boom, he shoots Anna dead because of her unintended involvement with Glinda’s plan. This cold-blooded move is not only shocking, but way too wicked for even the Wizard. War has begun, and poor Anna is the first casualty.

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“Beautiful Wickedness” revealed a great deal of information about Dorothy and Frank’s past that we’ve been dying to know from the beginning. But along with those reveals, a whole new set of unanswered mysteries have been brought to the surface. The culmination of events in the halfway point of Emerald City’s story has set the stage for a great deal of excitement and suspense for the episodes to come.

Rating: 9/10

Emerald City airs Fridays at 9 PM EST on NBC.

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