Wicked: For Good brings the beloved Broadway musical’s moving conclusion to the big screen, and the film’s best scene has left a lasting mark on audiences. Resuming the story of Wicked (2024), Wicked: For Good follows Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) after she has been vilified as the Wicked Witch of the West for trying to use her powers to help Oz’s persecuted animals. Concurrently, Glinda (Ariana Grande) basks in her status as an adored public figure, yet feels unhappy with her seemingly perfect life in the wake of Elphaba’s exile. The duo’s heartfelt friendship becomes more complex as the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) escalate their campaign to label Elphaba as an enemy of Oz, culminating in a riveting and tear-jerking finale in Wicked: For Good.
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The song “For Good” serves as Wicked: For Good‘s emotional climax, bearing the entire weight of Elphaba and Glinda’s relationship. In the poignant duet, the two appreciate how they’ve forever altered the course of each other’s lives. Then, accepting that she cannot prevail as the hero she set out to be, Elphaba resolves to sacrifice herself and task Glinda with changing Oz for the better. Their emotional farewell at Kiamo Ko reaches its most heartbreaking point after Elphaba shoves Glinda into a closet, and the pair tell each other, “I love you.” The next shot depicts Elphaba and Glinda crying with their hands pressed against opposite sides of the closed door, prefacing Elphaba’s supposed melting at the hands of Dorothy and a bucket of water. Wicked: For Good director Jon M. Chu stunningly revealed that the moment wasn’t in the script; rather, it was improvised by Erivo and Grande. This profound expression of love and despair is Wicked: For Good‘s greatest scene, and it proves that the movie adaptation cast the right stars.
Wicked: For Good’s Closet Door Scene Beautifully Illustrates Elphaba and Glinda’s Heartbreaking Farewell
Splitting Wicked into a two-part movie risked weakening the emotional impact of Elphaba and Glinda’s tearful goodbye, but Wicked: For Good packs a stronger punch than most viewers expected. Crucially, the door scene isn’t just a brief split-screen shot of the two characters. Instead, the camera lingers on Glinda in the closet and Elphaba outside for a whopping 25 seconds while their painful sobs can be heard over the movie’s rousing score. Obviously, this scenario doesn’t play out identically in the Wicked stage musical, so it came as a gut-wrenching surprise for everyone watching Wicked: For Good.
It’s nearly impossible to hold back tears while witnessing Elphaba and Glinda earnestly release their emotions once parted for the final time. Despite Wicked: For Good‘s reveal that Elphaba faked her death to escape Oz with Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), her separation from Glinda is still unbelievably tragic. Perhaps in another life, Elphaba and Glinda would have lived happily as close friends in a just world, but their diverging paths and the reality of Oz’s deep-seated flaws inevitably drive them apart. As a viewer, one feels compelled to grieve Elphaba and Glinda’s loss as much as they do while divided by a closet door in the film.
The breathtaking emotional payoff Wicked: For Good‘s conclusion demanded, Elphaba and Glinda’s split door scene was a piece of improv that almost didn’t make it into the movie. Chu told USA Today that Erivo and Grande created the powerful moment themselves during a rehearsal of “For Good.”
“I didn’t call cut, so they just kept going because they were so present,” the filmmaker said. “Suddenly, they were improvising this scene and they said, ‘I love you,’ which was almost meta. On that day, we never planned for the shot of the door in between the two of them. But watching them do it, I was like, ‘We’ve got to do the door shot.’ There’s this separation, and yet they’re connected. It gave me the catharsis I needed in that moment, and I think for our audience, too.”
Chu’s insistence on incorporating Erivo and Grande’s dreamed-up door scene in Wicked: For Good wonderfully paid off in the end, and it’s easily the film’s most praiseworthy deviation from the stage show. Per Variety, Chu went as far as having a wall torn down to capture the shot.
“We had to knock down that wall,” Chu said. “They told me, ‘If you knock down that wall, you can’t use the set anymore.’ But I didn’t care. It was the moment. Knock down the effing wall.”
Elphaba and Glinda’s remarkably candid reaction to leaving each other is an emotional payoff not even the original Wicked musical could generate. Thus, Chu, Erivo, and Grande deserve endless acclaim for conceiving and keeping such a pivotal scene in Wicked: For Good.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s Improv Further Proves Their Perfect Castings as Elphaba and Glinda
When Wicked hit theaters a year ago, it was immediately evident that Erivo and Grande were perfect for the roles of Elphaba and Glinda. Their outstanding vocal performances and layered interpretations of their characters resonated early on in tracks such as “No One Mourns the Wicked” and “The Wizard and I,” reaching greater heights in the empowering musical number, “Defying Gravity.” Erivo and Grande thrive once again in Wicked: For Good, portraying Elphaba’s agonizing strife to expose the Wizard’s corruption and Glinda’s enlightening journey to discovering what it means to be good. The stars pour so much heart and vulnerability into their portrayals, bringing Wicked‘s film adaptation to life in a way few thought possible.
Erivo and Grande’s talents flourish even more when they share the screen, and Wicked: For Good‘s closet door scene works as the strongest example of their chemistry. Their exchange of “I love you” comes across as instinctual, even though no one else in the musical ever utters those words. Moreover, their tears and cries before and after Elphaba shuts the door carry an unbridled sincerity that can easily shake one to the core. Not many emotional outpourings succeed to the same extent as Elphaba and Glinda’s dramatic farewell in Wicked: For Good, and Erivo and Grande are to thank for this unforgettable cinematic moment.
Ultimately, Erivo and Grande’s genius improv truly encapsulates why no one else could have portrayed Elphaba and Glinda better. The devised split-frame moment solidifies that Erivo and Grande understand their characters to an incredible degree. Their ability to invent such an effective farewell for Elphaba and Glinda without a script is beyond impressive and a testament to their excellent intuition as performers. A moment of genuine magic between Erivo and Grande produced Wicked: For Good‘s most emotional sequence, and fans should be grateful that the moment found its way to the big screen.
Wicked: For Good is now playing in theaters.
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