How It All Goes Down
- Ama Clutch arrives the next day with a swollen foot and, hopefully, a tetanus shot.
- Ama Clutch isn't bothered by the fact that Galinda's roommate is green, but Galinda is freaked out by the situation.
- Ama Clutch says:
"You affect worldly airs, Galinda, but you don't know the world yet. I think it's a lark. Why not? Why ever not?" (2.1.2.3) - Galinda met with Morrible the night before and proceeded to turn into a pathological liar. Or at least a really great improv storyteller.
- According to Galinda, poor Ama Clutch suffers from a tragic condition where she will confuse inanimate objects with people and will hold long conversations with things like furniture.
- Galinda insists that she doesn't mind, but her Ama couldn't possibly deal with a dorm full of people. She also hints that Elphaba would be better off elsewhere, but that's no go.
- Morrible is sarcastically sympathetic to Galinda and implies that the two of them will get along well. It's all very political and Galinda is creeped out by the whole thing.
- Morrible also has a "clockwork" servant, aka a robot. She's clearly some sort of Dr. Evil-like mastermind.
- Elphaba and Galinda have almost nothing in common and don't speak to each other.
- Galinda has new friends, though: Shenshen, Pfannee, and Milla. The girls all gossip about Elphaba and make fun of her.
- We learn that the Wizard has ruled Oz for the past sixteen years, following his "Glorious Revolution," and that Elphaba's family dropped off the social radar and spent years living in Quadling Country. We guess Frex got his wish after all.
- Galinda is depressed that she is expected to study since she's more interested in socializing:
It hadn't dawned on Galinda that there was more to learn, and furthermore that she was expected to do it. (2.1.2.35) - One night Galinda and Elphaba are in their room alone during a storm and they actually end up speaking to one another.
- Galinda teases Elphaba for reading all the time, then the two bond over shutting a window that blew open during the storm. It's like that scene in The Parent Trap, except for the whole secret identical twins thing.
- Galinda badgers Elphaba into trying on one of her hats, and Galinda notes that "you terrible mean thing, you're pretty" (2.1.2.59).
- The girls then discuss what Elphaba is reading. It's a unionist text on good and evil. Elphaba is fascinated by the subject, and she explains her ideas to an uninterested Galinda.
- Elphaba thinks there isn't one single answer to what evil is. Galinda makes a shrewd remark and Elphaba is thrilled that she is actually "thinking." But then Galinda goes to sleep.
- The next day Galinda tries to distance herself from Elphaba again, since her roommate is such a loser.
- Later she gossips about Elphaba and ridicules her interest in "evil" to her new friends. We're thinking that Galinda clearly hasn't earned her "Good Witch" title yet.