Oz ??

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The next show is entitled "The Emerald City." That name refers to Seattle and also Oz. Last week, Nucky was reading from the "The Road to Oz" to Margaret's children, so I think the episode reference is to the fictional city. What, if any, [symbolic] connection is there between Atlantic City and Oz? Nucky's the wizard; Margaret is Dorothy; Jimmy's the Tin Man....?

Maybe I'm reading waaay too much into it. After all, the next book in the Oz series after the "The Road to Oz" was called, "The Emerald City of Oz." Still, the Sopranos shows often had some subliminal messages.

Re: Oz ??

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That sounds right sopranology, most of the episodes have been named after books or songs.

From my (limited) knowledge of The Wizard of Oz, I'd argue Richard Harrow is the Tin Man. Not only does he have the mask, he's mentioned he's yet to have made love to a woman. And it looks like he's moving in with Margaret in Atlantic City this week.

Jimmy is more of a Scarecrow character to me. While it seems he's got a lot of potential (having gone to Princeton, etc.), he hasn't really used his brains yet in the series.

Also, the D'Alessio brothers are the flying monkeys. :icon_wink:

Nice catch, sopranology.

Re: Oz ??

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I don't know if I am reading too far into this but I have found a few similarities. I am a huge Wizard of Oz fan. I would have to agree that Margaret would be Dorothy. She is pulled from her life as a lower class immigrant by Nucky in a way, like a tornado picked her up and placed her in this new life. The lifestyle she currently lives in would be the Emerald City itself. While the Emerald City is nice it still is not "home". Also Dorothy is somewhat torn she wants to go home, but OZ is an accepting land that understands her and is where all of her new friends are. Margaret is torn between how happy she is that she now has the right to vote (her original goal), and that Nucky wants her to use her influence with the Leaugue of Women Voters to support Edward Bader. Dorothy at home in Kansas in the 1939 movie is shot in all sepia tone when Van Alden shows Margaret her immigration picture he asks her if she remembers the girl in the picture. Margaret's immigration picture is also in sepia tone, rather than black and white (sepia tone photographs require chemical treatments to the photo to get that hue, considering this was an immigration photo it would have been simply in black and white).
I also see Nucky as the Wizard. The Wizard is actually an average man, who had an everyday life before he became the Wizard. He isn't incredibly bright, but he is great at putting on a show. The Wizard lands in OZ because he is not very good at flying his hot air balloon. When he lands he convinces everyone that he is a great Wizard all through talk and people blindly believe him. Essentially the Emerald City is built around the Wizard's lies. Which is basically what all of Nucky's riches, his own Emerald City is built around. When Richard Harrow is asleep on the couch and Margarets daughter screams, Nucky says "We're all on edge here as it is". This is 'similar to how the Emerald City is always on edge because of the Wicked Witch of the West.
Al Capone could probably be seen as the Lion. It seems in this episode that he finds the courage to grow up. The same as when you first meet the Lion, he tells tall tales of his courage in the forest. Al Capone tells tall tales of his courage during the First World War.
Richard Harrow is definitely the Tin Man. His face mask is obviously made of tin. Also like Billy Bass mentioned the fact that he has never made love to a woman.
I kind of see Van Alden as the Wicked Witch of the West. He has a constant threat on Nucky's "Emerald City". I also think that Van Alden's home is West from Atlantic City. Although Van Alden's main focus is supposed to be on Nucky and the black market alcohol trade, but he gets distracted by Margaret. Van Alden wants Nucky to "surrender Dorothy". In The Wonderful Wizard of OZ, the witch has the ability to take over the Emerald City, but then gets distracted by Dorothy. In a way Van Alden and the Wicked Witches demise both happened around water. The Wicked Witch melted and Van Alden kills Sebso by drowning him during baptism.
I agree that Jimmy definitley shares qualities with The Scarecrow in the fact that he has brains all along. However he is not yet aware of them.
As funny as it seems I would compare Mickey Doyle to the singer midgets or munchkins in the 1939 film. The same as how the munchkins sing to Dorothy telling her all the things that happen in OZ. Doyle goes to Nucky and "sings" to him everything that was done by the D'Alessio brothers.

Re: Oz ??

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I forgot to add that I agree with Billy Bass as to the fact that the D'Alessio Brothers are the flying monkeys. In the book the flying monkeys tell Dorothy "Once we were a free people, living happily in the great forest, flying from tree to tree, eating nuts and fruit and doing just as we pleased without calling anybody master. […] This was many years ago, long before Oz came out of the clouds to rule over this land." The forest representing New York City. They now answer to both Luciano and Rothstein, their masters. OZ coming out of the clouds is the control that Nucky and Atlantic City seems to have over everything. Not to mention the fact that the D'Alessio brothers are hired to kill Nucky and the flying monkeys are always sent out to do the witches dirty work.

Re: Oz ??

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Another comparison of the Tin Man and Richard Harrow. The Tin Man was originally Nick Chopper an axe man who had a spell cast on him by the Wicked Witch of the East. One by one his cursed axe would chop off one of his limbs, so each time he would replace that limb with a tin prosthetic. Richards mask is a tin prosthetic. Eventually all Nick Chopper was, was a man made of tin. Just as when Richard is in public people just see him as an eerie tin mask. By the end of the book you realize that with or without a heart he is the most tender and emotional of all the male characters. Just as in the end of "The Emerald City" you find that Richard Harrow is the most tender and emotional of all the male characters despite being loved or not by a female.
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