A Magical Date Night: Reviewing Wicked: For Good and Finding Spiritual Meaning by Jared Harding Wilson

by Jared Harding Wilson

🚨 MAJOR SPOILER ALERT 🚨 If you haven’t seen Wicked: For Good (or the stage musical) yet and want to stay completely unspoiled, bookmark this and come back after the credits roll. Everything below reveals massive plot points—including the ending. You’ve been warned!

A week ago—Tuesday, November 26th—my wife and I finally had the date night we’d been counting down to. We drove out to the Megaplex Theatres in Vineyard, Utah, to see Wicked: For Good, the breathtaking conclusion to the two-part film adaptation of one of our favorite Broadway musicals. I finally saw the stage show (long after my wife and most of our friends and family had already seen it), and we adored Part One last year, and finishing the story on the big screen felt like coming full circle. In a word: we had an absolute blast. We laughed, we sobbed, we held hands through the finale, and we’re still talking about it. Here’s my full review, a few spiritual reflections, and the moments that are living rent-free in my thoughts.

A Review of Wicked: For Good: A Triumph of Emotion and Spectacle

Wicked: For Good picks up right where Part One left off: Elphaba on the run, branded the “Wicked Witch,” while Glinda wrestles with power and conscience inside the Emerald City. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are nothing short of miraculous; Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Michelle Yeoh, and Jeff Goldblum all deliver career-best work. The visuals are stunning, the new songs land beautifully, and the emotional payoff of the second act is mostly more powerful on screen than I remembered on stage. I walked out giving it a rock-solid 4.9 out of 5 stars and immediately wanted to buy tickets again.

Our Tuesday night at the Megaplex was perfect—comfy seats, perfect sound. Although the theater was sold out due to the holiday week, I had a giant popcorn shared with my favorite person. Pure married-couple magic.

The Love Story That Stole My Heart: Fiyero & Elphaba

I need a whole section for this because the attic reunion between Elphaba and Fiyero (now the Scarecrow) absolutely undid me.

After the torture, after Elphaba’s desperate spell to save his life, and towards the end, it’s Fiyero that finds Elphaba in the hidden trap door, so many emotions pouring out…

SCARECROW It worked!

ELPHABA (turning to him, touching the straw) Fiyero! I thought you’d never get here.

SCARECROW Go ahead, touch. I don’t mind. You did the best you could. You saved my life.

ELPHABA (voice breaking) You’re still beautiful.

SCARECROW (quiet, ashamed) You don’t have to lie to me.

ELPHABA (fierce and tender) It’s not lying… it’s looking at things another way.

Cue the ugly-crying in row D.

In that moment, Fiyero is literally a sack of straw—voiceless, mocked, dismissed by the world as worthless. But Elphaba sees the man who chose her when no one else would. She sees his heart, his sacrifice, his unwavering love, and to her, he has never been more beautiful. And she gives him back the exact gift he gave her all those years ago at Shiz University: the gift of being truly seen.

That’s the kind of love that reflects Christ’s love for us—love that looks past the straw, past the green skin, past every label the world slaps on us, and says, “No. I see you. And you are beautiful.” My wife squeezed my hand so hard I thought she’d break it. That’s the love we want to live out every single day.

A Spiritual Metaphor: The Redemption of Misunderstood Hearts

Elphaba’s whole journey screams John 15:18—“If the world hates you, keep in mind it hated me first.” She’s mocked, feared, and hunted for being different, yet she keeps fighting for the voiceless Animals and the oppressed. Her life is a picture of costly, Christlike love.

The Wizard, on the other hand, is all of us at our worst—charming, insecure, clinging to power because we’re terrified of being ordinary. His silent, horrified realization that he is Elphaba’s father is a gut-punch of grace and judgment all at once. It’s the prodigal father staring at the wreckage he helped create and longing for a way back.

The Wizard’s Sorrow: A Father’s Silent Horror

Speaking of that moment, Jeff Goldblum deserves every award for the wordless shot when Glinda hands him the empty green elixir bottle. The camera lingers on his face as the truth crashes in: Oscar Zoroaster Diggs is Elphaba’s biological father, and every terrible thing that happened to her started with him. No dialogue. Just pure, shattering regret. My heart broke for the man who sang “A Sentimental Man” yet unknowingly became the architect of his daughter’s pain. Silence was the only possible choice; any line would have ruined it. I felt his agonizing pain.

Final Thoughts: A Night to Remember

A week later, I’m still humming “For Good,” still tearing up at the attic scene, still thanking God for a wife who looks at me “another way” on my straw days. That Tuesday night in Vineyard, Utah, gave us memories (and conversations) we’ll carry for years.

If you’re anywhere nearby, go see Wicked: For Good on the big screen while you still can. Grab your person, get the big popcorn, and let it change you—for good.

So tell me in the comments (after you’ve seen it!): which moment hit you hardest? For me it’s still Elphaba’s “It’s not lying… it’s looking at things another way” and the look on the Wizard’s face.

Thanks for reading, friends. Here’s to loving people green, straw, broken, beautiful—exactly as they are.

“For good.”

🙏🎭💚

Featured image by Jared Harding Wilson. All rights reserved.