Wicked: For Good concludes the tale of doomed friendship between Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande), turning to a new page in the Grimmerie as the story ends.
The film is an alternative take on an iconic story, showing how the Wicked Witch and Glinda the Good earned their titles in The Wizard of Oz, suggesting that Dorothy had no idea what was really going on behind the scenes.
The twist ending to Wicked: For Good reframes Dorothy’s journey through Oz as an opportunity for Elphaba to change her fate, creating the legend of the Wicked Witch and Glinda the Good.
What Is The Plot Of ‘Wicked: For Good’?
The film opens some time after the ending of Wicked, with Elphaba and Glinda having chosen sides and separated.
Glinda is now an agent of friendly-faced tyrant, the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum), and is given a mechanical, seemingly magical bubble that allows her to fly, to fool the Munchkins into thinking she really is a witch—a good witch, no less.
Elphaba is a rebel on the run, working to liberate the animals of Oz, who are being rounded up and oppressed under the Wizard.
Her reputation as the Wicked Witch of the West is firmly cemented at this point, and the inhabitants of Oz have convinced themselves that she can be killed by the purity of water.
Elphaba keeps using her magic to perform good deeds, only to see them backfire horribly.
When attempting to make her disabled sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), fly by enchanting her slippers, Elphaba inadvertently drives away her lover Boq (Ethan Slater), and when Nessa tries to capture his heart magically, the spell goes wrong and his heart shrinks.
To save him, Elphaba transforms his flesh into metal, into a being who can live without a heart— the Tin Man.
Things seem to take a turn after Elphaba is convinced by the Wizard to join forces, but the union immediately falls apart after she uncovers his secret animal prison, right after he pledges to stop oppressing the creatures of Oz.
Worse, Nessa is killed after a tornado summoned by Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) drops the house of a girl known as Dorothy Gale onto Munchkin Land, starting her journey in The Wizard of Oz.
Dorothy is gifted the silver slippers by Glinda, and told to seek the advice of the Wizard.
Elphaba, devastated by her sister’s death, feels betrayed by Glinda giving away the slippers. The two fight until Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) and a troop of guards break it up.
Fiyero is in the middle of a love triangle between the two, but he firmly chooses Elphaba, threatening Glinda’s life to save his love. As Elphaba flies away he is grabbed by the guards and beaten half to death.
Elphaba, now joined by the winged monkeys, reads a strange spell from the Grimmerie to protect Fiyero’s body from harm, and unknowingly turns him into a Scarecrow.
Grieving, reeling from constant betrayal and villainization, Elphaba breaks bad and embraces the title of Wicked Witch, vowing to get her sister’s slippers back.
Meanwhile, Dorothy and her friends have been tasked with killing the Wicked Witch, and if they fail, an angry mob is waiting for Elphaba.
Seeking to warn her, Glinda enters Elphaba’s castle to find Dorothy held captive by Elphaba. The two share their final conversation and realize how their friendship has changed them for the better, and Elphaba realizes that her evil reputation is too far gone to come back.
Glinda hides as Elphaba faces Dorothy, who throws a bucket of water, seemingly melting her into a puddle.
Glinda is devastated, left with only the Grimmerie and a final request from Elphaba, to behave as a good witch and keep the legend of the Wicked Witch alive.
Glinda is given a mysterious green bottle by a flying monkey, and she suddenly understands why Elphaba was born green.
She confronts the Wizard, who remembers giving Elphaba’s mother the potion, and he realizes that he is Elphaba’s father. Glinda sends away the Wizard in shame, and vows to rule over Oz as a good witch.
Unlike Elphaba, Glinda has no magical talent—she isn’t really a witch, despite desperately wanting to be. But she does have the Grimmerie.
Unknown to Glinda, Elphaba isn’t really dead, having relied on the “weakness to water” myth to stage her own death, hiding under a trapdoor until the Scarecrow, otherwise known as Fiyero, releases her.
She is shocked to see what her spell did to him, but her love has not diminished. The two flee Oz through a secret tunnel, emerging through the desert that surrounds Oz, in search of a new life.
Elphaba looks back as the Grimmerie magically flips its pages and opens for Glinda, who smiles.
Why Does The Grimmerie Open For Glinda?
There’s a certain ambiguity to the scene, as Elphaba seemed to know what happened, and perhaps was even responsible for the pages flipping.
It’s tempting to think that Elphaba might have used her magic to open the book, sending Glinda a subtle signal that she is still alive, that Glinda is worthy of being her magical successor.
However, Elphaba laments during her voice-over that she can never let Glinda know the truth.
It seems likely that the book is opening for Glinda to mark her new role as magical leader of Oz.
All Glinda ever wanted was to be truly magical, like Elphaba, and the Grimmerie seems to be accepting her as a witch.
Either way, there is a new chapter ahead for both characters, with Glinda the Good ruling over the Land of Oz, and Elphaba fleeing to a new world with Fiyero.
