In This Section
TV Guide Spotlight
Also on TVGuide.com
|
« Tin Man
Episode Recap: Part Three - The Conclusion
“That’s the OZ I remember. I am so glad to be home.” ~ DG
That’s it? This is where the journey beyond the yellow brick road ends – one big happy family (and a few friends) smiling at the sunrise. For this darker re-imaging of the Wizard of Oz I expected a more satisfying ending then smiles and sunshine, especially after this final chapter full of action and homage’s to the Baum classic.
It started off with DG and company finally reaching Finaqua, and DG skipping a stone shaped as a heart, activating a holographic message from her mother. In which she tells DG to seek out Ahamo for the rest of her journey. Ahamo is her father Toto tells DG, and since abandoning her mother has been hiding in the realm of the Unwanted. But before they even reach the realm, Cain brings up issue with were the loyalties of Toto lie, and in result he travels with them now solely in pooch form.
The realm of the Unwanted brings trouble as the gang is falsely lured by a gypsy who offers up a seeker to reveal where to find Ahamo – however she is just after the reward money for turning the foursome in. DG gets kidnapped, and Raw, Glitch, and Cain are taken into custody by Zero and the Longcoats. On their journey back to the castle, the group is stopped in the forest by a broken wagon in the road. We see Cain’s son is alive and he rescues Glitch, Raw, and his father in a Robin Hood like display. Since his mother’s death it appears he has become a freedom fighter, and is eager to take revenge on Zero, but Cain stops him. Later, after having nightmares of his wife’s death, we see Cain get some closure himself, as he puts Zero in the tin suit.
Meanwhile, DG awakens and again finds herself in a mystery location – the seeker arrives out of the corner of the room and for defense the first things she grabs is a broom. The seeker discloses himself to be the real Ahamo – DG’s father. Not ready to make nice just yet, it takes some convincing on DG’s side – but then she sees the dolls her and sister made years ago on his desk. Ahamo gives DG a compass of sorts as the token her mother wanted her to have to find the emerald. While DG is trying to figure out how to work the compass, Ahamo goes and gets his balloon ready – wait balloon? Yep, seems DG’s Popsicle is the Wizard we are familiar with.
The next scene was my favorite – what I was waiting for, the true connection to the Wizard of OZ. Ahamo and DG enter a secret passage door in the woods, which transports them to the royal Annex. It is here that Ahamo takes DG to the “Grey Gale.” “She was your greatest great grandmother – the original slipper. She was the first one to make it through to OZ from the other side. You were named in her honor,” he tells DG as she looks up and reads DOROTHY GALE above the door. So DG is the great grandchild of little Dorothy Gale.
DG’s mark on her hand opens the door, and she crosses into the black and white depiction of her Kansas farmhouse. She hears a voice say, “I have been waiting for you.” As she turns around we see a young Dorothy (who looks nothing like Judy Garland) dressed in pigtails, silver slippers and that blue gingham dress. Dorothy hands DG the Emerald – which looks like a mini emerald city – and then she is gone and DG is back in color in the annex with her father.
Of course this whole time, Azkadellia has been closely following behind DG, and after reducing her father to size - she seizes the emerald from DG. She leaves DG buried alive in a green marble casket in the annex. Lucky for DG, Toto has also been following her and upon sniffing out the clues runs to the woods to gather up Cain, Raw, and Glitch to rescue her.
Once reunited, the foursome head to the castle for a last-ditch effort to try and stop Azkadellia from darkening the O.Z. forever. Before they break in, we witness another familiar scene. Hearing, that Raw is losing his nerve, DG reassures him he is not a coward. She says he taught her to have courage. “Courage is not about being fearless, but about standing up in spite of your fears,” she tells him. Glitch thinks if he had no brain that he would be four times braver. DG declares to Glitch that he is the smartest guy she knows, and without him he would not have unlocked her memories. Cain witnesses the whole display and tells DG he knows what she is doing – he had to send guys into battle before, but admits that she is doing a good job. Cain warns DG not to lose her head when battling Azkadellia – that if she must save herself first. DG responds to that by telling Cain that family is what really is important (i.e. heart).
Inside the castle, Raw, Glitch, Cain and Toto run off to shut down the power of the sun-seeder, while DG attempts to reclaim her sister back from the old evil witch who has possessed Azkadellia for so many years. DG finds Azkadellia in a green glow on the balcony of the castle. To pull the inner child and real Azkadellia out, DG sings the nursery rhyme about the two princesses and begs Azkadellia to take her hand – that she won’t let go this time. We see flashes of the old witch, then her in full flying form as Azkadellia grabs hold of her sister’s hand and stand next to her in fear. The green light dims and in that moment the witch begins to sink.
“She melted.” Yes, DG the old witch melted when the sun-seeder’s power was cut. She went quietly, and it just wasn’t as thrilling as having water thrown on her and hearing her shriek. Sisters hug, and family and friends are reunited just in time to see the sun shine out on the O.Z. The end.
Short recap on Tin Man versus Wizard of OZ characters:
The Queen = Glinda the Good Witch
Ahamo = The Wizard (Omaha spelled backwards – remember that is the fair his balloon was from)
Witch of the Dark = Wicked Witch of West (melting scene and all)
DG (named after her greatest great grandmother) = Dorothy Gale
Glitch (Ambrose) = Scarecrow
Wyatt Cain = Tin Man
Raw = Cowardly Lion
Tutor = Toto
Hank and Em = Aunt Em and Uncle Henry
Resistance Fighters = Munchkins
Longcoats = Winkie soliders
Mo-bats = Flying Monkeys
Quotes:
Cain to Toto: “I’d shoot you in the heart if I thought you had one.”
Glitch referring to Toto: “Maybe we could keep him on a short leash.”
DG to Ahamo: “Where I come from…freaks like you have vans.”
Cain to son Jeb: “If you don’t have a heart, you have nothing.”
DG : “Green’s not your color.”
Azkadellia: “You look good in green – green marble.”
Azkadellia: “Want to share you shiny new trinket with your big sister?”
DG: “Noooo.”
Azkadellia to her mother after revealing she has the emerald: “You don’t know how long I have waited to see that look on your face.”
I have mixed emotions on this mini-series – I liked some parts and disliked others. I was thinking how they would continue it has a series before I saw the ended but now I think I would like to see where the yellow brick road goes from there, but I am not making room on my DVD shelf anytime soon. My somewhere over the rainbow will always be found in the classic MGM picture and the prequel novel and musical- Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of OZ. What did you think? Were you Ozified by it? I look forward to reading you comments.
Relive the journey in our Online Video Guide.
|
TVGuide Links:
|
|
|
|
Dec 5, 2007 12:06 AM
|
Uneven, slow in parts, could have been a bit more tightly edited but overall good, good fun and highly entertaining. I liked it and will be making room on my shelf for Tin Man, alongside the 1939 movie, the vastly underrated Return to Oz, Was and Gregory Maquire's brilliant Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
As for the inevitable carping about the so-called "abrupt" ending, it makes me wonder how many people actually remember the ending of the '39 movie. But in this day and age, I suppose nothing less than a psychosis induced murder-suicide of the Gale family and friends would suffice for some people as a proper ending.
|
|
Dec 5, 2007 12:20 AM
|
Did anyone notice the 'glitch' in the conclusion? Glitch had told Cain all the numbers to put in to the machine to stop it except the last one, when the soldiers and evil scientist guy broke in. Little lion/seer told them all the numbers in reverse and put the machine back to full power. Then later Glitch remembers the last number and thats all Cain types in. Shouldn't they have had to redo all the numbers again?
Other than that and the abrupt ending I like the miniseries a lot. I do agree with another poster though that Verizon pony commercials were getting a little tiresome.
|
|
Dec 5, 2007 12:30 AM
|
As for the inevitable carping about the so-called "abrupt" ending, it makes me wonder how many people actually remember the ending of the '39 movie.
I thought that too...she arrives back in Kansas, everyone hugs her, and...it ends. So really, it mirrored it quite well.
Did anyone notice the 'glitch' in the conclusion? Glitch had told Cain all the numbers to put in to the machine to stop it except the last one, when the soldiers and evil scientist guy broke in. Little lion/seer told them all the numbers in reverse and put the machine back to full power. Then later Glitch remembers the last number and thats all Cain types in. Shouldn't they have had to redo all the numbers again?
Not only that, but isn't the first number the seer said the same one that Glitch gave as the final number? Therefore, putting it in at that moment should have been the final number they needed to power down. My first thought was, "Oh, the little seer guy is tricking him by giving him the wrong number that will power it down." But then they just kept going.
Some thoughts:
I've decided the tin man suit is the eeriest image I've seen in a while.
What was the purpose in sending DG to extract the emerald? From the scene where Dorothy tells DG she's been waiting for her, I can't really see her just handing it over to Az had Az arrived first. And what can Az do to someone who's already dead?
I wish they'd connected the witch from the cave to the original wicked witch just a little bit more, if they were going to go the route that DG was spawned from Dorothy Gale. It would have been a nice grace note for her to have been descended from the green witch, or possibly have been part of her from after she melted. Who was she, and why had she been stuck behind that face? Who put her there?
I'm not sure if I agree that the resistance fighters = munchkins, because I thought that the creatures that captured DG and Glitch in the beginning were alterna-munchkins.
I'll definitely be purchasing this once it's available. Sci-Fi did well...if only they could give all their original movies half as much effort as they did with this!
|
|
Dec 5, 2007 1:18 AM
|
I feel robbed after that ending. What were they thinking?!
However, I thought it was a fantastic take on the baum novel, being from Kansas makes me pretty sceptical about most Wizard of Oz revivals. Except for the ending, I enjoyed it.
|
|
Dec 5, 2007 1:28 AM
|
I enjoyed the first two nights much more than tonight. It was sort of like the writers ran out of ideas for the third segment. Perhaps it should have been a two-night mini-series.
Furthering your thought about that emerald, Dianora, if DG hadn't retrieved the emerald there would have been no problem whatsoever. Of course Az would still be possessed and the O.Z. would still be in her control, unless the Freedom Fighters won. But she didn't know where the emerald was, and it was only DG getting it that caused the near-darkness to happen. What was the point?
|
|
Dec 5, 2007 1:49 AM
|
What was the point?
Your question reminds me of another question I had while I was watching...why did the witch want to plunge the O.Z. into darkness? One of my biggest pet peeves is evil characters who do evil things just for the sake of being evil. What did the witch get out of it? Even the original Oz movie had some bits about the wicked witch being pissed that Dorothy's house landed on her sister, and Wicked clearly goes well beyond expectations to explain Elphaba's motivations.
I think one of the things I loved about this miniseries is the idea that Dorothy Gale found her way back to Oz. Even when I was little, I refused to believe that her trip was just a dream.
|
|
Dec 5, 2007 2:08 AM
|
I stand by my comment from last night. I was entertained by the last installment, but the ending with Azkadelia taking DG's hand? So freakin' cheeseball I could barely stand it. And aside from cheeseball, why didn't the mom (who's name we never learned, incidentally) just sing her that little song years ago?
I thought the same thing about the evil witch's endgame - what was the point? Worst case scenario, no sun = no plants = no food = everyone dies. What's the point in being evil if you have no one to boss around
Also, gotta say I thought the sun plot ripped of Angel season 4, in which the beast blotted out the sun to let vampires roam free. Not to mention that one Simpsons episode. I would have preferred a more innovative plot.
But it was entertaining.
I don't think Ahamo was supposed to be the Wizard from the movie. They made it seem like Dorothy Gale lived a long, long time ago. I take that to mean the wizard we know from the movie would have been long gone. I think the whole baloon thing was just a kind of homage to the movie and/or book.
Last thought: I can't tell if I really like Zooey Deshanel or if she's a horrible actress. She has a kind of likeable tone about her, but she kind of delivers all her lines the same way.
|
|
Dec 5, 2007 3:06 AM
|
Also, did anyone else find it odd that Az had zero substantive lines after her little exorcism? There was simply no explanation whatsoever about what it was like for her with the witch. So bizarre.
And that whole prophecy thing about only one of the daughters taking the throne was never resolved...
|
|
Dec 5, 2007 3:19 AM
|
I liked it. Yeah the ending sucked big time, and it had some unanswered questions at the end, but it was still good. I espcially liked the way how they mixed the classic version with todays. At first I wasnt going to watch this Miniseries but im glad that I did. And I might just make room on my DVD shelf for this show. I know the extra's are going to be good.
I didn't get to say this the first 2 nights, but the gold bolero armour jacket that AZ had on was similar to the jacket that Jennifer Hudson had on Oscar night.
And who played Ahamo his voice and sounded very familar to me?
|
|
Dec 5, 2007 6:44 AM
|
I agree, the ending was way to abrupt! They really shouldn't have had Az possessed by an evil witch. Having her chose evil would have been much better. Plus, DG wouldn't have been to blame.
Yet, I still hope that "Tin Man" will become a regular series. Can someone please tell me why the heck they called it "Tin Man?" It's not like Cain was the main character. They should have called it "O.Z." or even "DG". If it does become a series, I really hope that all four actors come back (DZ, Cain, Glitch, Raw). I'm not sure they really need the rest of the royal family. Does anyone else want the series to continue?
I did like the connection between the O.Z and the original OZ. I thought Cain was a little young to have a son that old. The first night I had assumed that Cain and DZ would get together, but apparently that wasn't the direction the writers were going.
|
|
Dec 5, 2007 8:59 AM
|
I thought some parts of Tin Man were good. The parts I liked included the scene with the tornado and DG being told to jump into it; the first time we meet Cain; Cain getting his revenge on Zero; and seeing the house in the forest that DG went into with her father.
I was not much of a fan of the series overall but as I stated before there were some nice parts. Wish some things had not been answered and wrapped up so easily. And the ending was so-so. I did not understand how after all those numbers were entered to shut down the machine, that after it went back on again to full power, one number was all that was needed to help stop the witch. I too would have thought the sequence would have had to begin again. Plus it was a lame how DG saved her sister and the witch melts. It was a let down to what I had hoped would have been more climatic.
|
|
Dec 5, 2007 9:18 AM
|
Thank god that I was not the only one that was a little disappointed with the finale. Yea I have seen the original & it kind of ended abruptly too, but you expected it from that time, now you just want more. I thought it was all just a bit predictable last nite. I mean when you met the "seeker" you just knew that that was going to be her dad, when Tin Man, Raw & Glitch were all handcuffed to the log & the hooded guy showed up you knew it was going to be his son, when they finally turned off the Sunseeder you knew that the witch was going to "melt". It was like the writers had gone on strike right after they had written the 2nd part.
For everyone that thinks that the girl that played DG, Zooey Deschanel, was a bit boring, don't know if you know this or not, but Emily Deschanel from Bones is her sister & they kind of act the same way, I guess that was why it didn't bother me too much.
I too wondered why it was called Tin Man when there really wasn't anything special about him & he wasn't that big of a character in it, it was mainly DG & the O.C, sorry, the O.Z. (I kept thinking that when they would say it too). I didn't notice when the wicked witch was taken out of Az, but did the monkey tatoos go away? Also, speaking of tat's when she originally got infected by the witch & the monkeys showed up on her it was on her back, there was nothing on her chest, how did they come to being on her chest?
Not too sure that it would go all that well for a series about it. I mean where would it go, what would the plot be?
My dad had said that he was thinking that she would wake up in the diner & it all be a dream, like from the original & she woke up in her bed saying "and you were there & you & you..." I could have seen that too. Other than that it was a good miniseries, coulda ended a tad better though.
|
|
Dec 5, 2007 9:24 AM
|
I'd give this effort a "B", and despite the slow spots, I actually warmed up to the main characters and found this quite fun. Was nice to see a young female actually getting herself out of danger for a change - despite some folks complaining about Zooey's acting, I rather liked her delivery and spunk. This whole production was much better than the usual junk we get from SciFi.
Good to see it was more of a sequel instead of a "reworking" with the nod to the original Dorothy. The ending just stopped, and was odd, but if someone had shot that pony, we might have had time for a more tied-together ending!
Don't know how a series could move forward, but I would like to see one, especially since Atlantis has tanked with the "new-improved" cast changes. Ugh.
Baum actually wrote a whole series of OZ books, and if the studio can get the rights, there is a gold mine of unusual characters and stories to tell. Go for it, Skiffy!
|
|
Dec 5, 2007 9:31 AM
|
Well, I guess all my theories on DG's dad were wrong. Oh, well. The witch said she had been waiting 500 years for this day, so I thought she was the Wicked Witch of the West and had been trapped in the cave for 500 years, ever since Dorothy melted her. It seemed to me that it had been a very long time since Dorothy was there, 100s of years, which was funny since my thought on meeting Ahamo was "Wow, 500 years in OZ and Nebraska and Kansas are still the same as when Dorothy left!!" Also, Dorothy apparently came back to OZ, which is great but where did the girls (and all of Dorothy's descendants) get their powers from? She got hers from the slippers but nobody else seemed to have the slippers even though DG's dad said "the original slipper."
Since I had originally thought Cain was DG's dad, I never thought they would get together. He's like 40 years old or something, even with that baby face. Of course, we don't know how old the character himself was supposed to be but he played it like he had seen a lot of bad things in his life and was world-weary.
I would watch a series based on this if they made one. It was good and intruiging. I still like the 1939 version better, though and always will.
|
|
Dec 5, 2007 9:40 AM
|
|
|
