‘Emerald City’ Season 1 Episode 8 Recap: Lions in Winter

Emerald City Episode 8
Joely Richardson as Glinda and Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Lucas/Roan in ‘Emerald City’ (Photo by David Lukacs/NBC)
NBC’s Emerald City season one episode eight begins with The Wizard (Vincent D’Onofrio) and his army heading out of Emerald City without Eamonn (Mido Hamada) who’s been left behind to take care of the city. The Wizard’s first stop will be in Ev where he believes he’ll be picking up weapons, and then they’ll journey on to face Glinda and her witches.

West (Ana Ularu) explains to Tip (Jordan Loughran) that the dagger she took from her home belongs to Princess Ozma who’s the heir to Emerald City’s throne. Ozma was thought to be dead, slaughtered by the Wizard along with her parents – Emerald City’s King and Queen. If she lived, she’d be Tip’s age. Tip doesn’t believe this, even though West is convinced it’s the only logical explanation for why she was hidden away and why she has the dagger. Tip finally concedes West may be right, asking what kind of a name is Ozma. (Translation: Leader of Oz.)

Dorothy (Adria Arjona) is locked up in a room with a pregnant woman named Noa (Jennifer Saayeng) as a cellmate. Noa’s close to her delivery date and was locked up because she fell in love and broke her celibacy oath. Dorothy’s not sure what crime she supposedly committed, and her new roommate reveals it was the crime of kidnapping Glinda’s husband.

Speaking of Glinda’s husband, he’s sharing some quiet time with his wife. Glinda (Joely Richardson) lays her head on Roan’s lap and admits she’s worried the magic memory-blocking spell worked too well since he doesn’t really seem to be fully committed to their relationship anymore. She wants to know more about Dorothy, who she refers to as an assassin, and it’s obvious Glinda is very jealous of Roan’s traveling companion. She warns Roan (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) not to come back to her until he’s fully himself and then strips naked in front of him to entice him to return.

Apparently, Noa’s boyfriend was murdered by the Wizard for betraying him. She thinks the real monster people should fear is the Wizard who she labels the true Beast Forever. Roan enters the cell then, telling Dorothy not to call him Lucas ever again. Dorothy asks if he loves Glinda, declaring he’s still the same man she knows no matter his name. Roan warns her she needs to convince Glinda she means no harm, but Dorothy says she can’t lie. Dorothy’s still stuck on trying to convince Roan they’re meant to be together, but he says he can’t do anything to help her since Glinda is his wife.

Meeting with Dorothy over, Roan makes love to his wife but doesn’t smile while doing so. He frowns behind Glinda’s back as she confesses she’s missed him.

Glinda holds Sylvie’s hand as they walk through her all-white marble castle, explaining to the young witch that soon it will feel like she’s never left. Sylvie asks after Dorothy and Lucas, but Glinda doesn’t answer. Instead, she introduces Sylvie to the other young witches, telling them to treat her well. Sylvie looks at the girls, feeling lost after Glinda leaves.

Glinda tells her young apprentice witch/right-hand girl Jinjur (Lily Newmark) she wants Dorothy gone now. Jinjur enters Dorothy’s cell just as Noa’s about to deliver. The baby’s breach and Dorothy asks for a doctor or at the least hot water and towels.

Meanwhile over in Ev, Jack (Gerran Howell) is startled to find Lady Ev’s servants watching him from the foot of her bed. He asks after the newly crowned Queen and is told she’s busy. They offer to oil his “odd parts.”

West and Tip (who will from now on be referred to as Ozma) arrive in the secret crypt of the witches’ sacred temple. The temple houses the reliquaries of fallen sorceresses, with the spells of each fallen witch housed in its own reliquary. West points out East’s container, telling Ozma to drink East’s spells to absorb them. Ozma’s hesitant and West confesses no one has done it before and it could kill her. The desire for East’s powers is too great and Ozma drinks. In pain, she falls to the ground while watching a flashback of her mother and father being murdered by a guard wearing a lion’s head. She sees the Wizard standing close by and hears him yell, “Kill them!” Ozma watches her father first and then her mother being slaughtered, and then the man in the lion’s head bends down close to her. Ozma appears to die after having the vision and West tries to revive her but can’t.

Jack really wants to see the Queen but is told he can’t because she’s in a meeting. He doesn’t listen and barges into the room anyway. The Queen is upset and tells him he’s not allowed to know what her people are planning, forcing him to leave the room. The Queen returns to examining the guns her people have built as Jack leaves the room.

Over at Glinda’s, the young witches are gathered to eat when Roan walks through the room. Sylvie’s face lights up but he only pauses for a moment to tell her to eat. She tries to after he walks away and the other girls use their magic to pull her bowl away, laughing.

Glinda arrives in Dorothy’s cell as she’s trying to deliver the baby. Dorothy asks for medicine to ease Noa’s pain and instead Glinda uses her magic to remove the pain. Roan rushes into the room, explaining his presence by telling Glinda it’s because he heard screaming. Dorothy asks for his knife and Roan bends down to help her. Dorothy yells to push and the baby is delivered, with Roan working with Dorothy to clean the child. They share a smile and then Glinda angrily commands him to leave the room.

West places Ozma’s dead body in the water.

Roan catches up with Glinda by her rose tree, and Glinda won’t even look at him. She tells him he’s not even there and he swears he’s trying. She wants to know how he felt when he saw the baby being born and he admits he felt alone. She asks if it was because he knew they could never have a baby, but he says it was because he wasn’t with Glinda or with Dorothy. He’s being pulled apart, and Glinda reminds him that when they got together two years ago he promised not to keep any secrets from her. She took his memories but didn’t make him a different man. Roan says he loves her but he can’t live like that. Glinda believes he won’t have to much longer because war is upon them. She knows the Wizard’s soldiers are on their way. “Your life – or death – will depend on which side you choose,” says Glinda.

The soldiers have made it to just outside of Ev. The Wizard takes a battalion with him to retrieve the weapons.

Jack visits Jane in her lab, telling her he’s now with Langwidere, Queen of Ev. He watches as Jane packs up her place, and she lets him know her job’s been terminated. Jack’s upset and can’t believe the Queen would fire Jane after she saved him. Jane reveals she wouldn’t make weapons so she was fired. Jack says he won’t let it happen and Jane responds by telling him he didn’t lose his heart, even though he thought he did when he was first brought into her care.

Emerald City episode 8
Adria Arjona as Dorothy in ‘Emerald City’ (Photo by David Lukacs/NBC)

Glinda and Dorothy walk through the palace, and Dorothy asks after Sylvie. Dorothy wants to know if Glinda’s training Sylvie to be a soldier, and Glinda says she is but not all of the witches take to the training. “Some are more resilient than others,” explains Glinda as she shows Dorothy a room full of young witches who’ve gone insane as a result of the training. Glinda explains they were pushed beyond their limits, and Dorothy can’t believe Glinda did this to these girls and young women. Glinda hopes Dorothy can help them, telling her to save them. Glinda will sacrifice whoever she has to in order to take down the Wizard. “Science is not magic; we are. We are the magic and the magic is Oz,” she declares. If Dorothy can’t save the girls, then she’ll be killed.

Sylvie sits down in the cafeteria again with her fellow young witches and this time she’s able to use her magic to make her bowl return so she can continue eating. Then, she pulls the bowls away from a bunch of the girls and they begin laughing and slapping their tables in approval. (I guess that’s the equivalent of clapping in Glinda’s world.)

Glinda’s trimming her roses when West flies in and interrupts. West has come bearing a gift – herself. Glinda thinks she’s high, but West swears she’s clean. West says she forgives Glinda for hiding their mother but now she needs her mother. West is ready to serve Glinda and their mother, declaring she’s ready to redeem herself. Glinda reminds her that when they were children, West was their mother’s favorite and the one chosen to be her heir. Glinda won’t let her see their mother, calling West “just a void.”

Langwidere meets up with Jack in her chambers following a busy day of being queen. She says she’s been waiting all day to be with him, but he’s angry Jane’s been fired and tells Langwidere that people don’t just exist for her benefit. They argue about love and property, and Jack doesn’t understand how she can think that you have to own someone in order to make them love you. She says she can prove it and tells him he’s free, releasing her hold over him.

Back at Glinda’s palace, Dorothy’s comforting the disturbed women when Roan rushes in with a child in his arms. Dorothy tells him he pushed the child too hard and says Glinda’s wrong in believing she can heal them. Dorothy approaches Roan who’s still holding the child and asks, “Is that what you’re going to do to Sylvie?” She gets upset and East’s gauntlets appear, and she confesses she knows she’s lost him but she won’t lose Sylvie. The gauntlets allow her to create a door and escape into the palace.

Dorothy walks through the halls and finds Glinda’s room. She uses the gauntlets to encapsulate Glinda in her sheet and hangs her in mid-air with the sheet as a noose around her neck. Glinda cries out in pain but can’t free herself as Dorothy tightens the noose using her magic. Roan arrives to stop Dorothy, telling her she has to kill him before she kills Glinda. Dorothy does stop and leaves the room, and Glinda yells at Roan to go after her, not understanding why he didn’t automatically do so.

Dorothy finds Sylvie but Sylvie doesn’t want to leave. She seeks protection from her fellow young witches and won’t leave with Dorothy, forcing Dorothy to flee without her.

Back in Glinda’s room, she’s livid Roan didn’t gut Dorothy while Dorothy was trying to kill her. Roan desperately asks his wife to bring back his old self, but Glinda says only he can do that since she lifted his spell. Roan says he can’t break Dorothy’s spell and wants Glinda to rip Dorothy’s spell out of him. Glinda removes his knife from its sheath, telling him he must do that. Roan must take Dorothy’s life to break her hold over him. Glinda commands, “Do it, or I will!”

Dorothy escapes, riding away on a horse with Toto at her heels.

Jack leaves Langwidere’s chamber, now a free man. He steps outside and watches as soldiers welcome the Wizard to Ev. The Wizard asks for his weapons and the guards take aim at the Wizard. He quietly responds, “You’re joking.”

Back in Emerald City, Eamonn’s wife asks if war is coming. He stares into the fire and says, “Soon,” and then opens a cabinet to expose the lion’s head he wore when he killed the King and Queen of Emerald City.

West returns to the temple, talking to herself and saying she doesn’t want to die. Still, she attempts suicide by slicing her wrists. Her blood seeps through the carving in the floor, dripping down into another chamber. As she’s laying there dying, Ozma arrives, fully revived. Ozma says, “It worked.”