I have said it before, but I have been pleasantly surprised with the first season of Emerald City. After a poor start, the show has steadily gained momentum and has set itself up well for an exciting finish. That being said, this week’s episode was the first in a while to fall flat and not grab my attention. It’s not that it was terrible either, just nothing really happened.
“They Came First”was an episode that saw several characters forced to make difficult decisions or define a relationship. For example, after a stupid disagreement, Lady Ev decided to abandon Jack in the “Forest of Screams”. Jack tried to get himself out but his metal legs quickly gathered rust and he was stuck. Fortunately for him, Lady Ev regretted her decision and decided to go back for him. That’s when she awkwardly lubed him up (it was honestly pretty painful to watch) and brought him back to her castle where their “sexual tension”was officially broken. I don’t know about you, but I find this relationship really weird. These were two of the most interesting characters until the writers decided to make their relationship sexual. I just find it creepy and unnecessary. Besides, isn’t he supposed to be like 14?
Meanwhile, the Wizard continued to show how crazy he’s become on his quest to destroy magic. This week he decided it would be a good idea to take all the young girls in the city from their parents to see if any of them were witches. If that wasn’t crazy enough, he then decided to round up all his council members and burn them alive. The Wizard has clearly become paranoid to the point of insanity and I can only assume his time is limited which I’m perfectly ok with. The show has done a terrible job of justifying his hatred of magic. Yes, he was a disrespected scientist, but that doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to go completely insane.
After that, the rest of this week’s episode was either spent watching West mope around feeling sorry for herself or watching Dorothy, Lucas, and Sylvie wonder around thinking of a plan. At first, Dorothy was going to abandon Lucas and Sylvie and return to Kansas but after they both freaked out she thought it would be better to bring them both back to Kansas with her. When they arrived at Glinda’s castle, however, Lucas had a revelation and decided to stay with Glinda. I guess we were supposed to be shocked when Lucas chose Glinda over Dorothy but I seriously doubt that will end up being the case.
Overall this week’s episode of Emerald City did a poor job of carrying its strong momentum into the final few episodes. Dorothy’s storyline still lacks excitement and the Wizard has just become irrational and annoying. If there is one thing I realized, though, it’s that Tip is a total badass. I’m hoping, however, that this was just an off episode and not the start of a complete tailspin.
Score: 7/10
