Saturday, January 21, 2017

Emerald City: "Science and Magic"

Okay, we're halfway through the series, and now we have four storylines to juggle:

  • Dorothy and Lucas are staying off the Brick Road (when did it get bricks?) to stay away from the Wizard's guards, but encounter a mute girl. Lucas wants to leave her and be on their way, but Dorothy wants to take her to the nearby village and find her parents. A couple claim her, but Dororthy's not convinced, and later finds them turned to stone while holding on to the girl, imprisoning her. Dorothy frees her and they all escape, but not before Eamonn confronts them and recognizes Lucas. The next morning, the guards find them. Dorothy manages to get away, only to be knocked out by a boomerang thrown by Ojo.
  • Tip, distraught over what she (yes, I guess at this stage we have to think of Tip as being exclusively a girl—if nothing else, it makes using pronouns easier) did to Jack, attempts to jump off a bridge, but a captain stops her and takes her to Glinda's convent. West comes by, however, and wants to take Tip to learn to be a courtesan. Tip is not wild about either choice, but tells West she wants to learn her magic.
  • The Wizard, hearing about a new magic portal, frees Anna from her cell to go with him to investigate, but Anna is injured and causes it to disappear. The village alderman, meanwhile, confronts the Wizard about his actions leading to the alderman's wife's death, and the Wizard wonders what to do. He seeks Anna's council once she regains consciousness, and she convinces him not to kill the alderman, but make an ally of him. The Wizard is able to do just that, and the alderman publicly rejects magic and embraces science—and then we discover that one of the Wizard's guards is threatening the alderman's unborn grandchild! (I really don't like the Wizard, but I don't think we're supposed to! I also really like how Vincent d'Onofrio is playing him, however.)
  • And what happened to Jack after last week's cliffhanger? It seems he didn't die, but was recovered by an Evian surgeon, who gives him a new metal body. Only Jack's head and right arm and shoulder seem to be intact. And yes, this means he has a new, mechanical heart. Jack learns how to use his new body, only to then be sold into the palace of Ev, where he meets Lady Ev, the Princess Langwidere.
Okay, so we finally have a Tin Woodman, with a touch of Tik-Tok thrown in. So I guess thi means Jack isn't really Jack Pumpkinhead. And yay, another new character, although this version of Langwidere changes her personality when she changes masks, not her entire head, which I guess wouldn't quite work in this iteration of Oz. (At least it makes more sense than changing hats, which is what happened in the 1980s Cinar anime series.) Still no Lion.

One recurring theme that keeps, um, recurring is The Beast Forever, which is some sort of phenomenon that comes through Oz every once in a while and cleanses the land. The Wizard managed to deal with it once before, but there is a very strong implication that Dorothy is somehow connected to its next appearance, and the Wizard wants to stop it again. So, yeah, that has nothing to do with what L. Frank Baum wrote...

Next week's trailer seems to show Dorothy meeting the Wizard at last. I doubt that's going to go well!

1 comment:

rocketdave said...

Ha, I also thought of Cinar's Princess Langwidere when I saw Emerald City's interpretation of the character.