Greetings all and welcome back to another month of Wicked reflections and celebrations. So, as the chapter opens, Elphaba is now a baby and Melena has called in for reinforcements to help her with raising Elphaba. She has called upon the nanny at her family home in Colwen Grounds, where she has been staying all these years later even after Melena left to marry Frex. Melena's family history is detailed in this chapter; but you can find a synopsis here. There is also a family tree that was created in the third and fourth book, as seen below. So, Nanny comes to stay with Melena and Frex and you can believe that Frex has something to say about his "unnatural" looking daughter. Elphaba name in this world comes from Saint Aelphaba of the Waterfall, which you can read more about in the book, Tales Told in Oz (cover below). You can purchase the book online or find it at a local library. Its filled with lots of good stories that are referenced in the books. As the chapter continues, we see more and more of how careless Melena and Frex are toward the baby and how helpful Nanny is in trying to make Elphaba more comfortable, even though she tries to bite her own hands off. Nanny is the first person to ever show true admiration, love, and compassion to Elphaba. It really makes you wonder why was it so hard for Frex and Melena to do this for their own daughter? Unfortunately, Frex does not take well to his daughter being green and does quite a bit to reverse the process like gather ingredients to perform an exorcism because he believes that Elphaba came from hell; however, unknown to Frex, there is a deeper truth that Nanny is determined to find out. So, while Frex is gathering the ingredients, Nanny confronts Melena and asks if she slept with someone other than Frex because she knows the kind of person she is. She even thinks that Melena had sex with an elf. Eventually, Melena admitted to having an affair under the influence of drugs with “a tinker with a funny accent, who gave [her] a draft of some heady brew from a green bottle” (pg. 29). Might this be this wizard? The play shows the affair happen and I found it in Sims form. Check it out. So, Frex did the exorcism, which did not work, and Nanny bathed Elphaba in cow's milk, which also did not work. This chapter is also where we learn about her negative reaction to water. At the end of the chapter, Nanny decides to stay at the Stonespar End Inn instead of staying at the Thropp household and had also managed to take the green bottle out of their house that Melena had talked about before. Unfortunately, we are left with a bunch of questions:
Well, however it ends out, we will hopefully get our answers throughout the book. In the meantime, check out this wonderful green elixir bottle you can purchase online. Unfortunately, it is sold out at the US Wicked store; but you can always check out other venues, distributors, or manufacturers elsewhere. I do know that it is currently available at the UK Wicked: The Musical store but does cost a bit for shipping if you are willing to pay it. Do you have a green bottle in your collection? Share in the comments and until next month, when we will find out what happens next in Elphaba's story, I’ll be seeing you somewhere in the Oz-verse.
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