Warning: This article contains spoilers for the ending of Wicked: For Good.
“Wicked: For Good” brings fans the long-awaited finale to the film adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical. And a small change in itself, Very The ending could mean a big change from the original story.
Like the musical, the story ends with Glinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) being forced to break up after singing the second act's signature song, “For Good.” Glinda, watching the shadows through the slightly open door, sees Elphaba melting after Dorothy throws a bucket of water at her. Glinda runs away on horseback, shrouded in a black cape. (Yes, Glinda was a mysterious figure we saw the escape from the castle in the very first scene of the first Wicked movie.) She rises to power in Oz while mourning the death of her best friend.
Only Elphaba didn't die. She hides in a hatch, waiting for her beloved Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) to meet her before they travel to the Land Beyond Oz together.
From here the audience gets some twist before the film ends. That's what's happening.
How Wicked: For Good ends
The stage version of “Wicked” ends with Elphaba and Fiyero leaving Oz and Glinda in a position of power.
But in Wicked: For Good, viewers see what happens to Glinda after she becomes the leader of Oz. First, she officially declares that the earth welcomes all animals again.
In the final scene, Glinda looks out over the Emerald City as Elphaba and Fiyero walk through the desert to leave Oz. Elphaba looks back for a moment. Elphaba's spell book, Grimmery, then comes to life before Glinda's eyes. Elphaba gave the book to Glinda before Elphaba met Dorothy.
As shown in the first film, Grimmery is revealed and can only be read by a true witch, which, no matter how hard she tries – be it begging Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) for witchcraft lessons or twirling her training wand – Glinda was determined to No.
So what does the beginning of Grimmery mean?
We asked the team behind Wicked: For Good how they felt about the final scene. See what director Jon M. Chu and stars Cynthia Erivo, Jeff Goldblum and Jonathan Bailey had to say.
How the Wicked: For Good Stars Interpret the Finale
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Chu refuses to say “what exactly (the ending)” is by his intention.
But he points out all the different interpretations of what Grimmery, the “book of knowledge”, could be, in relation to Glinda and Elphaba.
“Whether (Glinda) can finally become who she's meant to be, she won't rely on that image in that mirror,” Chu says. “She didn't say, 'I'll behave.' She says, “I'll try to behave.”
“Simply trying to be who we are meant to be opens up and reveals our limitless possibilities,” he adds.
The spontaneous discovery of “Grimmery” may also be related to the film's theme: the search for truth in the face of propaganda. By the end of the film, Elphaba's reputation as the Wicked Witch of the West, as told in The Wizard of Oz, is overturned by the political lies told by the non-magical Wizard of Oz. as actress Michelle Yeoh says, a real wicked witchMadame Morrible. But while the audience knows the truth, in the world of the film, the Osians do not, after Elphaba tells Glinda. No to clear your name.
“Or maybe Cynthia could be Jesus giving us humans this Bible and saying, 'You know the truth, what are you going to do with it?' says Chu.
“I think it's a challenge for us as an audience, whereas maybe the first film was more of an answer. It's more of a question and a challenge for us to see how we're going to tell our story to the next generation,” he adds.
Cynthia Erivo
Erivo says that Elphaba leaving Grimmery means she entrusted him to Glinda.
“I think Elphaba's powers exist independently of Grimmery, and because she has certain powers, she can read Grimmery. It's like she and Grimmery have an internal relationship, and so Grimmery responds to her,” she explains.
“But by leaving him and entrusting him to Glinda, Grimmery is essentially saying, 'You're in new hands, trust this man,'” she adds.
But that doesn't mean Elphaba has lost touch with the book. She says she believes Elphaba can truly see the beginning of Grimmery for Glinda.
“She's having visions, so I think she can see what's going on and she can feel it. And what this discovery means to her is that, one, Glinda made the right decision, and two, Grimmery now trusts Glinda, so everything will be okay,” she says.
But he does Glinda Do you know that Elphaba is looking after her?
“I think she knows Elphaba had something to do with this (discovery), but I don’t think she knows Elphaba is alive,” Erivo says.
Jeff Goldblum
As for Goldblum, who plays the Wizard of Oz, he's curious what giving up Grimmery means for Elphaba's powers. He also wonders why Elphaba couldn't trust Glinda to know that they had survived?
“Why couldn't she believe it: 'Hey, we'll be fine, don't try to contact us… Don't tell anyone we faked it.' I don't know,” Goldblum says. “Or is the loss that (Glinda) experiences in the portal what triggers her power. Her ability to experience this loss of the greatest love she ever had with Elphaba, does that trigger her power ability?”
Regarding Grimmery's discovery, Goldblum says that Elphaba can “telepathically” “communicate” with Glinda across space.
“Glinda says, 'I don't think I did it. Are you around here somewhere? Are you okay?” he adds. “Maybe it should be ambiguous.”
Jonathan Bailey
Like Goldblum, Bailey believes that there is a possibility that Grimmery's discovery was the result of Elphaba sending Glinda a message.
“I think the answers always lie in Grimmery, and I do think it's especially exciting to see Grimmery come to life for someone… (with) the absolute knowledge that she has no magic and that she has no power,” he says.
“Seeing Grimmery come to life feels like a transport and a conversation between two women.”
He believes it, even if it's not as literal as a conversation or a message.
“As we know with grief, these people always exist in different forms, don't they? In a metaphysical sense, they still live together,” he adds.
Vinnie Holtzman and Dana Fox
Holtzman, who wrote the book “Wicked” and co-wrote both films with writer Dana Fox, says the goal of the ending was to create a “mystical moment.”
“With something mystical, it's not that you know the answer, it's that it draws something out of you, like a spiritual feeling,” she says.
According to Holtzman, one interpretation of Grimmery's introduction relates to the evolution of Glinda's character.
“She was willing to let go… of all the need to be admired in such an empty way. And she was willing to be humble, to be a student, to say, 'I don't know everything,'” Holzman says.
Fox adds that the moment when Glinda “earns” the beginning of Grimmery is when she confesses to Elphaba her “deepest shame”: that she cannot read Grimmery and cast spells.
“She wanted so badly to be that magical being who could do magic, and eventually she would be, but it would take hard work,” Holtzman says. “And to me, Grimmery's intro is like Grimmery saying, 'Okay, you're ready.'
But the question remains: does Elphaba know?
“I think it's really all down to interpretation that everyone has to just talk about among themselves: Does Elphaba know? Does she have anything to do with this? I think that's something that everyone has to decide for themselves,” Fox says.
