Emerald City: Favorite Episode

Emerald City: Favorite Episode

(I'm a day behind, so I'm posting two today.)

1x08: Lions in Winter

I think this is my favorite because it's really where all the secrets are revealed and everyone has to deal with the things they've done. Lucas finally recovers his memory. And OMG he's Glinda's husband WHAT. The fallout for him is enormous. Suddenly he's got the memories of two different selves inside, and he can't just choose which person to be anymore.

Emerald City deals a lot with self and identity, and those themes really drive all the characters here.

Dorothy doesn't know what to do when faced with this new man who isn't even Lucas anymore.

Glinda can't quite grasp what she's done to him and therefore to herself. She sent her husband away thinking that when he came back, her magic would return to her the husband she sent off. And it just doesn't. She got back a stranger. There's nothing her magic can do to change that.

Tip similarly goes on a discovery of self journey. She drinks East's spells and sees that West wasn't lying about her being Ozma. Like Lucas, Tip contains two selves who are at war. Tip is the boy Tip, Tip is the girl Ozma, queen of Oz. And those around them expect them to resolve this easily, somehow. "Just be the person I want you to be!" Both of them struggle trying to explain that it's just not that simple.

The themes have been growing up until this point, but I feel this episode is where it all stops being background color and starts being the explicit text the show is exploring.