How It All Goes Down
- Boq, Crope, and Tibbett all end up helping Elphaba with her work over the summer.
- The group often meet at a café and discuss Dillamond's work and their own findings and beliefs.
- Dillamond is making scientific breakthroughs and has invented something that sounds like a microscope.
- The group has all been researching origin myths that involve Animals in order to see how people have thought about the issue over time.
- Tibbett researched one involving the Fairy Queen Lurline: Lurline drank lots of water and then peed all over the world and the Animals who swam in her urine became intelligent. That's certainly a wacky take on the "flood" myth:
"Baptism by piss," said Elphaba. "Is that a subtle way both to explain the talents of Animals and to denigrate them at the same time? - "And what of the animals who drowned?" asked Boq. "They must have been the real losers." (2.2.4.16-17)
- Boq studied a Unionist myth that said the Unnamed God cried over the doomed land of Oz, and the animals who swallowed his tears became Animals.
- Elphaba studied a myth that said a Kumbric Witch put a powerful spell on animals to make them Animals, and that the spell hasn't worn off. Elphaba is worried about this, since a spell implies that the Animals condition is reversible.
- Aslan made all the animals talk in Narnia; they should probably look into that one.
- Madame Morrible's robot Grommetik comes in. Elphaba is nervous around it and quickly leaves.