Before returning to Kiamo Ko, Elphaba decides to go looking for Dorothy to see if she can get back her sister’s shoes. After asking several Munchkinlanders if they had seen where she had gone, she is directed a well-kept house where she is told Dorothy stayed. There she finds her old friend Boq, his wife Milla, and their many children. They welcome her courteously, and she explains why she is there and why she wants the shoes. Boq and Milla tells her how they adored Dorothy, and they invite her to stay for a while.

As they talk, Elphaba tells them she now calls herself the Wicked Witch of the West, for “as long as people are going to call you a lunatic anyway, why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention.” Boq insists that Elphaba is not wicked, that “it’s people who claim that they’re good, or anyway better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.” 

This brings to mind Nessarose, and both Boq and Milla make it clear that they are glad she is gone. They both hope for a “sensible government” to take her place. Neither worries about the possibility of reunification—they just want peace and quiet.

At this, Elphaba wonders what has become of all her friends. They used to have ideals, and now they seem to have given them up. She brings up Dr. Dillamond and points out how his ideas still live on—that it is still possible to make a difference. Milla, however, insists that those times are gone and that the people who used to be in charge are now wasting away and that they should not bother with them. Elphaba points out that the Wizard is still just as powerful, but Milla says that is not true of Madame Morrible, who she has recently learned is now bedridden and in pain.

The conversation turns back to Dorothy, and Milla says how Dorothy reminded her of what Ozma might be like if she ever comes out of her supposed deep sleep—a “holy little girl.” Elphaba can think of nothing but the shoes and, saying she cannot waste any more time talking, she grabs her hat and broom and prepares to leave. 

Frustrated, she feels disappointed by everyone around her and wonders why she did not team up with Nessarose when she had the chance. All of her campaigns, she thinks bitterly, have been unsuccessful. She decides to accomplish one important task before returning home: to kill Madame Morrible.

Arriving in Shiz, she sees that although the Colleges are largely unchanged, the city is all about money now, and there is not a single Animal in sight. She asks some passing students where she might find the Head, and she is directed to a Main Hall. However, the woman who greets her is not Madame Morrible but a new Head. Upon questioning, the Head tells her where she can find Madame Morrible, who is in her retirement apartment. Elphaba declines the services of Grommetik and says she can find her own way.

Finding the apartment, Elphaba goes in, only to discover that Madame Morrible died moments before. Needing to release her anger, she strikes Madame Morrible with her broom, then finds a trophy with a large marble base and uses this to bash in her skull. She leaves the trophy—with the engraving “IN APPRECIATION OF ALL YOU HAVE DONE”—in Madame Morrible’s arms.