The slippers briefly appear in the 2012 episode "Fractures" of in the Dark Vault, seemingly having a life of their own, accompanied by a witch's cackle and a few notes of "".
And similarly, their reality is never as fulfilling as their promise, leaving their visitors disillusioned and longing for home — a point only furthered by the tragic life of star Judy Garland and her own immortality inextricably tied to The Wizard of Oz.
Her own personal struggles resonated more broadly with their own during the Cold War — a time of unparalleled persecution of gay people in the west.