Emerald City Review: Beautiful Wickedness (Season 1 Episode 6)

We get to see the Wizard’s origin story on Emerald City Season 1 Episode 6. “Beautiful Wickedness” takes us on a flashback journey through time to where it all began — to when the first tornado to Oz was created.

As it turns out, the Wizard is a nobody named Frank, which explains an awful lot about the insecure, power hungry, desperately pathetic man he is today.

Frank, it seems, was never one who could stand to be upstaged.

He wanted his importance to be acknowledged and valued. He couldn’t stand being overshadowed by Jane and her work, so, he sabotaged it, and created the tornado that killed Dorothy’s Father and brought the rest of the team to Oz.

Beyond that, he became so enamored with the idea of being revered in Oz that, despite Jane’s efforts to negotiate their return home with East, he adamantly refused, despite knowing that their presence in Oz will bring about the Beast Forever.

This episode effectively shows us that this man is so selfish, so greedy, and so pitiful that he puts his pride above all else.

He craves power and acceptance so much that he is willing to sacrifice the lives of thousands of innocent people just so that he can feel important — so that, just maybe, he can play the hero, for once.

Which is why he continues to create this never ending war on magic. He can not stand the idea that he is being upstaged by something far more incredible than science. Therefore, when he rises to power, he outlaws it — makes people fear rather than admire it.

There is also something to be said about the social commentary behind the fact that all these people Frank feels so threatened by are strong and powerful women. Frank is a true meninist if I ever saw one.

Regretfully, we do not see as much of Tip, Langwidere and Jack this week. It really is a shame because they do continue to be one of the most interesting aspects of the show.

However, with her helpless Father having been killed in Oz, perhaps we can expect to see more from Langwidere as her thirst for revenge continues to grow.

At this point, I would be surprised if there is any hope for the Wizard to have the alliance he wants — and he seems to see that chance slipping through his fingers as well, hence why he returns to his tried and true intimidation tactic to get Langwidere to agree to make his weapons for him.

What we need is to have Langwidere team up with the Witches to take down the Wizard.

Now, that would be interesting.

You may note that we have not spoken much about Dorothy this week, and that’s because she remains the least fascinating piece of the story. She is dull and, despite being the central character, seems to serve very little real purpose in the show.

Hopefully, that is about to change.

What did you think of this episode of Emerald City? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Emerald City airs Friday at 9/8c on NBC.

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