Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West Volume 2, Chapter 3, Part 7 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Boq heads off with everyone else to the Philosophy Club.
  • This place sounds like a sort of risqué cabaret, which is interesting given that the Emerald City under the Wizard bears some resemblances to pre-Nazi Germany. Cabarets in Germany were often sites of political discussions as well as partying. Want to read more about cabarets? Check out this site.
  • When they arrive, an old woman named Yackle gives them their tickets. (Remember her? She's the one who gave nanny the pills for Melena!)
  • A dwarf shows them inside, telling them that "You all go in together or you don't go in at all. That's the rule of the house" (2.3.7.12).
  • Inside is a huge mixed crowd and everyone is dancing.
  • The group starts to get uncomfortable, except for Avaric and Shenshen.
  • Their tickets are called and the dwarf leads them into a back room with some other people and Animals.
  • There's some sort of incense in the air and everyone is feeling drugged and high.
  • There is a stage in the middle of the room. The dwarf picks a woman, a Tiger, and Tibbett from the audience and drags them up onstage for some sort of sex show/orgy.
  • Before things get underway and totally out of control, the dwarf announces, "So now, let the true, clandestine study of knowledge begin" (2.3.7.27).