Wicked: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

One night, Boq walks to Crage Hall hoping to run into Galinda, whom he hasn’t stopped thinking of since the poetry event. Instead, he runs into Elphaba, who teases him for looking for Galinda. Elphaba agrees to set up a meeting.

Three days later, Boq meets with Elphaba and Galinda. Galinda tells Boq that she’ll never be with him. His height, social standing, region of origin, and family history are incompatible with her background. They are interrupted by Ama Clutch, who shoos Boq away because the girls of Crage Hall are not allowed to fraternize with boys without permission and supervision. Boq is embarrassed when the girls walk away making fun of his looks.

Boq goes into the city and peruses the kiosks. He notices literature and slogans that criticize the Wizard’s move to take control of Oz from the Ozma Regent 16 years prior. Boq sits at a café with a new pamphlet from the Emerald City. The news is bleak; Animal uprisings and other protests have caused tension throughout the regions. Boq fears secessions. He looks up and spots Elphaba. She sits with him and shows him the fancy things she’s buying for her sister, Nessarose, who will soon attend Shiz. They talk about Galinda, whom Elphaba has grown fond of. She tells him about her work with Doctor Dillamond, whom Boq idolizes. They have been searching for a gene or characteristic that differentiates animals from Animals. Because Elphaba is a girl and Doctor Dillamond is a Goat, neither are allowed into the Briscoe Hall library, which houses precious documents that may help their studies. Boq volunteers to retrieve the resources, and Elphaba gratefully accepts. As they leave the café, they notice the absence of any Animals in the streets.

Boq involves his friends to help Elphaba. They try to find documents from old unionist philosophies about the origins of Animals. Legends tell the story of animals running from danger while those who stayed became Animals, or the story of a spell that turned some animals into Animals. Boq finds an old illustration of a witch with an animal in her grasp. Though he isn’t sure if the witch is drowning or saving the animal, he logs the illustration to show Elphaba.

Boq is forever changed one day when he runs into Elphaba, Galinda, and other Crage Hall girls in a huddle. Elphaba tells him that Doctor Dillamond is dead, and Boq spots a medic covering Doctor Dillamond with a blanket, his throat cut open. The night before, Ama Clutch had noticed something odd happening in Doctor Dillamond’s lab from the window of their dorm. Ama Clutch went down without saying anything to the girls and never came back; she’s now hospitalized. Galinda cries for Ama Clutch, but Boq is disgusted that anyone could think of Ama when Doctor Dillamond is dead.

Ama Clutch stays in the hospital, muddled and smiley. Galinda starts going by the name “Glinda” in honor of Doctor Dillamond, who misunderstood her name when they first met. Without Ama, Glinda and Elphaba call for Nanny to accompany Nessarose and act as Ama.

Boq meets Nanny and Nessarose at the train station. Nanny tells Boq about their family and brags that Elphaba will one day take over the title of Eminent Thropp.

Glinda has learned a difficult lesson. She feels guilty that she lied about Ama Clutch’s tumble over the cliff, believing the lie manifested Ama’s new, real mental break. Glinda is now close with Elphaba and hopes that Nessarose’s arrival won’t impede their friendship. Elphaba told Glinda Nessarose’s story before her arrival: Nessarose was born without arms on a night when townspeople had made a human sacrifice of Turtle Heart, whom Elphaba knew as a friend of the family. In homage to Turtle Heart, Frex moved his family to Quadling Country to preach. Their mother Melena lived five more years before dying in childbirth with their brother Shell. In the years after Melena’s death, the Quadlings were rounded up, placed in settlement camps, and mostly killed off. Animals were drafted back to the countryside to work the land and give the people a false sense of empowerment. Elphaba emphasizes to Glinda, “It’s a systematic marginalizing of populations, Glinda, that’s what the Wizard’s all about” (152).

Glinda tries to devote herself to her studies, but she finds no natural ability in sorcery. She works hard and is supported by a clumsy teacher, Miss Greyling. Elphaba asks why a university founded in unionist beliefs would teach sorcery. Glinda argues that sorcery is not religious or irreligious; it’s simply a skill to learn like reading or writing. Boq and Elphaba attend the same class taught by Doctor Nikidik. Their lecture is interrupted by a new student, a Winkie from the Vinkus. His entrance disrupts Doctor Nikidik’s presentation, and his potion goes awry and bewitches a set of decorative antlers that pin the Winkie to the wall.

Glinda asks Miss Greyling why Doctor Nikidik’s demonstration is considered life sciences when it operated as a spell. Miss Greyling details the differences between science and sorcery. While science seeks to break down elements of the world for understanding, sorcery synthesizes these elements to create and heal. In the next lecture, the Winkie takes a seat far away from the front. A classmate named Avaric criticizes the Winkie’s bluish-diamond skin and claims he heard that the Winkie’s name is Fiyero and that he’s a prince in his home county.

For his next lecture, Doctor Nikidik brings out a shivering young lion cub and asks the room if the cub is an animal or an Animal. Elphaba stands and declares that its mother can testify to that and asks why the cub has been separated from its mother. Other students posit that because the cub is too young to have learned any language, it’s impossible to tell between Animal or animal. Doctor Nikidik proposes that, in cauterizing the part of the lion’s brain responsible for language, he can erase its pain. The cub runs away from the professor amid the students’ protests. Two girls chase after the lion cub and rescue him, running away with him in their aprons.

Madame Morrible calls Nessarose, Nanny, and Elphaba in for a meeting. She says she’s heard from their father, who has taken on a mission to return the Ozma Regent to power. Madame Morrible warns them that the school doesn’t take kindly to royalist views, but Nessarose assures her that she only believes in the Unnamed God, and Elphaba declares that she doesn’t care about any of it. Frex has also sent a package for Nessarose that contains red shoes that sparkle with crystals, which he learned to make from Turtle Heart.

Later, the group of friends stay out late. Fiyero tells them about his marriage at age seven to a girl he will not really be with until age 20. Nessarose and Elphaba tell funny stories about their father, partially to help ease Elphaba’s resentment at being overlooked. Nessarose tells everyone how much Frex loved Elphaba’s singing. The friends demand a song, and the entire pub is transfixed by Elphaba’s beautiful voice.

Glinda receives word that Ama Clutch is on her deathbed. She and her closest friends go to say their goodbyes. Before she dies, Ama Clutch tells Elphaba and Glinda that Grommetik, Madame Morrible’s tiktok, killed Doctor Dillamond.

Madame Morrible hosts a reception after Ama Clutch’s funeral. When all the guests have gone, she sits down with Glinda, Elphaba, and Nessarose. Morrible claims that she sent Grommetik to the lab with a pot of tea, and Grommetik found Doctor Dillamond dead from a lab accident. Morrible believes that Ama Clutch must have been so shocked that her mental condition regressed. But Morrible has a more serious reason for meeting with the girls: She has been assigned by great powers to find women who can help the Wizard heal the violently strained intercultural wars raging throughout Oz. Morrible wants to train the girls to serve their country as powerful agents for the Wizard.

Elphaba convinces Glinda to go to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard. Emerald City is mammoth and seems misplaced in the horizon of the countryside. As they walk, Elphaba notes that there are no Animals around; she suspects that they’ve all gone into hiding. Elphaba and Glinda wait five days and endure several interviews before they can meet with the Wizard. When they are finally given an audience, they are initially scared off by the sight of him; he seems to be an amalgam of lights and rain. His voice is large and aggressive. Elphaba reports the murder of a great mind. The Wizard dismisses Doctor Dillamond as a mere animal.

Elphaba refuses to return to Shiz. Glinda protests, and the friends say a tearful goodbye.