something i’ve been thinking about after seeing wicked: for good is what would have happened after “wonderful” if elphaba never found the locked up animals? they made it seem like it was such an easy fix, that elphaba would just be accepted after however many years of being villainized by these people. like, you expect me to believe the wizard would just show up with elphaba and say “oh we’re good now?” and that would be that? no. it would have been played in the wizard’s favor, because that’s the crux of every decision he’s made.
something different from the musical in the film — at the end of the song, the wizard tells elphaba that with her by his side the people “don’t need an enemy” referring to the animals. but in act one, he says nothing unites people better than a common enemy. he’s not contradicting himself; there will still be an enemy. it’s still her. there’s absolutely no way elphaba’s “rehabilitation” into oz would be played as anything but the wizard “taming” her with his “power”. he tells elphaba that if he tells oz the truth that he has no power, they just won’t believe him. and even if they would, he will never do that.
and the addition of glinda in the song just furthers the point that when you stand by the wizard, you really have no voice. everything glinda is in act two is by the wizard’s design. she knows the same things elphaba does, but she doesn’t say it because, like the people of oz, she doesn’t want to believe it. glinda has no authority, whether she is aware of that or not. she sees this as an easy fix — she marries her love, gets her best friend back; and on paper, yes, this is such a happy ending, but she doesn’t realize that she puts elphaba (and fiyero) in a position that limits them. and that doesn’t make her evil or vindictive, it just drives home the point that the wizard is a very convincing con artist.
and what will happen when elphaba tries to advocate for something that is against the wizards vision? they’ll try to silence her, say that she’s still “recovering from her wicked ways” or some bullshit. by the wizard’s side, she will never be taken seriously. and the wizard knows that. so yeah, he’ll let the monkeys go because it’s a small price to pay for having elphaba, someone with immense power, under his control.
when chistery led elphaba to the secret passage where the animals were locked up, it was because he saw through the wizard. he’s been silenced so he can’t warn her verbally, so he does the next best thing. i don’t think the monkeys ever really blamed elphaba the way she blamed herself — they just became what she was bound to become if she agreed to be with the wizard. and so, when elphaba freed the locked up animals from their cages, she was also freeing herself. wicked was never going to have a happy ending.
