Stuck on Wicked’s last minutes and that so-called melting scene. Here is the straight answer: in the Broadway musical, Elphaba does not die. She stages her death during the water incident, escapes through a hidden exit, and leaves Oz with Fiyero – now transformed into the Scarecrow.
The public in Oz celebrates the end of the “Wicked Witch,” while Glinda stays and quietly reshapes the regime. That split ending – myth for the crowd, truth for a trusted few – is the point. Wicked recasts villainy as propaganda, and the show lets Elphaba live so the legend can do the heavy lifting.
Wicked ending explained: the final scene, step by step
Before the finale, guards torture Fiyero. Elphaba casts a desperate protection spell. It works in a thorny way: he becomes the Scarecrow, a figure who can withstand harm and move in secret.
When Dorothy throws the bucket, chorus and lighting sell the “melting.” On stage, Elphaba appears to dissolve, but it is a trick. A trap mechanism helps her slip away. Moments later, the Scarecrow lifts a panel, and the real Elphaba steps out alive. They leave together, unheard under the celebrations above.
Glinda then presents the hat and the broom as relics. She validates the story Oz wants to hear, not out of cruelty, but to buy space to govern differently. The public gets a victory. Glinda gets the power to stop the harm that made Elphaba an outcast in the first place.
Viewers often miss tiny breadcrumbs planted across the show. They stack up in the finale, right when the emotions peak and attention flickers a bit.
- Fiyero’s “transformation” means the Scarecrow can be in the right place at the right time.
- Elphaba studies spells that shield and conceal, not just attack.
- The set includes a practical exit used in that last blackout moment.
Glinda’s choice and the politics of Oz
Glinda does not chase Elphaba. She turns to governing. The Wizard – a man from America with no real magic – is exposed as a fraud and sent away. That detail ties back to L. Frank Baum’s novel from 1900, where the Wizard is a humbug from Omaha.
Madame Morrible, the architect of fear, lands in prison. Glinda commits to reversing anti-Animal policies and lowering the temperature of public life. The cost is personal. She keeps the lie of the melting alive to hold a fragile peace. It hurts, and the musical lets that ache sit.
That is why the crowd chants while Glinda stands alone. She carries a narrative she knows is false so she can dismantle the machine that once used it. The ending is political, not just romantic.
From page to stage: how the musical changes Gregory Maguire’s novel
Gregory Maguire’s book, published in 1995, is harsher. On the page, Elphaba dies. The musical, adapted by composer Stephen Schwartz and writer Winnie Holzman, bends the arc toward survival and reconciliation.
Wicked opened on Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre on October 30, 2003. At the 2004 Tony Awards, it won 3 trophies, including Best Actress for Idina Menzel. Those choices – a living Elphaba, a redeemed Glinda – helped the show reach a broad audience while keeping its critique of power intact.
The core idea stays consistent across versions: labels like “wicked” and “good” are tools that rulers use. The musical just lets the rebel slip the net, so the critique can breathe past the curtain call.
The two-part movie: what changes for the ending reveal
Universal Pictures split the film into two releases – Part One on 27 November 2024, Part Two on 26 November 2025 – directed by Jon M. Chu, with Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda. That structure mirrors stage pacing.
Act One of the musical ends with the airborne set piece that sends Elphaba into legend. So the “ending explained” moment – the faked death, the Scarecrow reveal, Glinda’s hard choice – lands in what the film labels Part Two.
For anyone watching the first half: treat the politics as foreshadowing. The Wizard’s PR machine, the smear campaigns, the carefully staged arrests – they are the gears that make the final illusion work. When the second half arrives, those gears spin into a public myth, and the private truth slips out a side door.
One last thing. Wicked’s survival twist is not a cheat. It comes from spells we already saw, from a lover already half remade, and from a city already blind to nuance. The ending is earned, then hidden in plain sight.