The Green Light in Your Eyes

[Spoilers, spoilers, sooooooo many spoilers! You have been warned!]

What kills me about this scene is that Elphaba is trusting Glinda with something unimaginably powerful (the Grimmerie) with full faith that she not only will be able to use it, but will use it for good. Elphaba knows Glinda’s magic is weak, and furthermore, she has no reason to believe an ancient book that so far has only answered to her will even allow itself to be read by another person, but none of that matters. She believes in Glinda.

And Glinda’s bereft expression is the perfect demonstration of where her heart’s priorities truly lie. Glinda has wanted magic her whole life, and now she parades around Oz with a fake wand and mechanical bubble as constant reminders of her lack of powers. Now here is her best friend, telling her she believes in her, telling her she trusts her to make things better, and giving her the most important magical artefact in Ozian history. But despite all that, I think her shock here comes from another realisation: if Elphaba is giving her the Grimmerie, it means Elphaba is leaving. Leaving Oz. Leaving her.

And once again, the triumph of getting exactly what she wanted doesn’t taste so sweet, because she always pays a price for it. And the price is always being apart from the one person she can’t be happy without.