The hidden meaning of the final frame of Wicked: For Good makes the ending even sadder

The final frame of Wicked: For Good has a clever meaning, and it just makes the whole ending 100 times sadder. I may never recover.

Okay, so at the very end of the film, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo belt out one last duet. Glinda takes control of Oz and develops some magic powers all of a sudden. Elphaba runs off into the land beyond Oz with Fiyero. The absolute final frame is of Glinda and Elphaba in a field of poppies. This isn’t a flashback to any particular moment we saw in the first film. It feels more like a vision or a dream – especially as poppies cause magic sleep in the world of Oz.

Glinda then leans over Elphaba’s shoulder, and whispers in her ear. Elphaba smiles.

This moment is an exact recreation of the original Broadway poster for the musical. Ariana and Cynthia recreated it for the first Wicked film.

This is the same poster that Cynthia Erivo kicked off about on Instagram, by the way.

The Broadway poster doesn’t depict any one moment in the musical. It just shows us that Glinda and Elphaba have some big mysterious secret.

Ending the film in this way brings everything back full circle. Now we’ve made it through all five hours of the films, we’ve learned all the secrets about Oz that were teased in the promo from 2003. It also reminds us of how tragic it is that Glinda and Elphaba each have a final secret to keep. Elphaba can’t tell Glinda (or anyone else) that she and Fiyero are actually alive. Glinda can’t tell anyone that Elphaba wasn’t quite so “wicked”. Wow, this weird witch musical just has so many levels.

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Featured image by Universal Pictures.