This was a really hard episode to watch. Pulled at every single emotional string in your soul. The ending, was beautifully done, but wow, crying like a baby.
I'm a quite sensitive watcher so you can imagine how much I cried during this episode. Like a baby. So sad yet brilliant!
HOW DARE THEY END IT LIKE THIS ASDFGHJKL
[9.5/10] Holy hell. This was incredible. I love that after A New Hope pulled a lot from classic Japanese films like Yojimbo and The Hidden Fortress, the franchise is coming full circle. Japanese artists are now translating the tropes of Star Wars back into a feudal Japan setting, and it could hardly be cooler.
The art here is just gorgeous. This is the most beautiful blend of 3D animation with 2D flourishes since Klaus. The choice to go black and white, with only electronic things like lightsabers, droid lights, and whistling birds appear in color creates a striking aesthetic. And the design choices are downright stunning, from straw-covered R2 units, to the force-sensitive combatants and their artistically-conceived hair and clothing, to vehicles, weapons, and whole species reimagined with an ancient Japanese flair.
The basic premise works just as well. The notion of a Sith warlord coming to harass a humble village, while a calm ronin springs into action to save the innocent from their oppressors, fits wonderfully into this new rendition of Star Wars. That’s no shock. Episode IV reinterpreted a number of standard ronin tropes into a space setting, and watching those tropes reabsorbed and remixed back into a feudal setting is a thrill.
The action here is top notch. This is one of the best lightsaber battles we’ve seen in ages, with stellar choices in the blocking, shot-selection, and choreography. I love the little choices like letting the “camera” focus on the Sith’s hood floating away in the wind while we only hear the sound of her clashing with the hero. There’s a real mood and atmosphere which adds to the epicness of the confrontation. Intensity in the pace, eye-catching poses, and clever shifts and ruses to get the upper hand all make this a stand out among Star Wars skirmishes.
I’m also a big fan of the texture to this one: little moments that don’t contribute that much to the fairly simple “story” but which add color and intrigue to the world the characters inhabit. A ten-year-old being the chief because his dad’s asleep or ran-off, the hunched tea-maker fixing the droid, the bounty hunters fighting back against the Sith are all little details, but make this world feel more alive and lived-in beyond the immediate story.
On the whole, this is one hell of a coming out party for Star Wars: Visions. I’ll confess, I’m not much of an anime afficionado. But “The Duel” is enough for even a relative neophyte like me to sit up and take notice.
While the episode was entertaining, it clearly shows a change in writing that does not fit the Black Mirror style at all. It's as if Netflix doesn't understand what the show is about. Where are the questions? Where is the unease?
They could have gone with the same idea in a different order and it would have felt more like Black Mirror: start off with the hologram, then throw in the doll, and slowly uncover what's behind it all and how messed up it is. Same story, different order, classic Black Mirror feel.
that animation my dude
THAT ANIMATION IS LIT AF
Annie: "In fact, what are you doing for lunch?"
Abed: "It's Wednesday. Sometimes I eat in Jeff's car. Don't tell him."
"CLASSIFICATION: BITCHES"
Troy: "Why are you doing this?"
Donald Glover's performance, omg
Troy: "I hate you. I hate you."Girl: "What are these?"
Abed: "Destruct codes."
7/10
"Asks the guy who fucks bats" — Harley LMAO
"And we're murdering everyone in Gotham in three, two..."
"Joker never loved me. He only loves Batman."
Wow, that was amazing! "Harley Quinn" is the best thing I've seen today! It's laugh-out-loud hilarious and steeped in character! I hope it keeps up this quality or gets better! Wow, this is fun. Thanks for the tip, Sarcastic Chorus!
SCORE: 8/10
What a fantastic series! I really hope Amazon greenlights Season 2! As a superhero fan, "Invincible" is a breath of fresh air. Ah... it's good to have superhero stories that aren't just the DC and Marvel line-up.
SCORE: 9/10
"As my blood type always says, 'B' positive!"
Todd :)
This episode is so heartwarming! We got happy endings for Todd, Bojack and Hollyhock, Princess Carolyn and, oh, nevermind. But it's mostly positive! Todd's clown-dentist caper got a hilarious resolution with a satisfying pay-off. BoJack's words to Princess Carolyn by the episode's end were exactly what I'd hope to hear. And those last words, man—I've never shed tears of happiness before.
"Where's my random detail that's gonna suddenly make everything make sense?"
That's too meta, man! XD
Anyway, the end of Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter's plotline was sad—Mr. Peanutbutter's words are too authentic. His character just received way more depth, and I'm too sad right now. He just wants to be a good boy! He wants love! IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK!?!
"So remember, once you're in there, don't stop running."
Todd no!
This one is such a heartwarming and slightly heart-wrenching episode. It gives me all the feels, and I'm so glad I got to experience it. Oh, man, I'm watching Bojack Horseman.
SCORE: 9/10
THAT TOOK A DARK TURN.
This episode isn't very PG. I mean, people get decapitated! Including David!
But it was fun, endearing and gave some excellent development for David, who we've only seen so much of this season. I'm glad the writer's dedicated this and the last episode to Frida and David, allowing them a chance to shine. It's nice. I also loved the adventure outside the wall. I don't know about the episode ending with Vikings killing and bringing themselves again and again. This episode was the darkest one yet!
TECHNICAL & ENJOYMENT SCORE: 8/10
Reggie? Rickie? Ritchie has one messed up business. The cops definitely need to shut him down.
Throughout the episode, I thought the mystery was going to be something profound, or there would be a big revelation, but it turns out it was a huge waste of time. Well, almost.
Mr Peanutbutter and Diane's relationship is on thin ice. Princess Carolyn has to try to keep Mr Peanutbutter from tearing his house apart, and Diane is trying to keep in contact with Mr Peanubutter, making sure he knows she's safe. But it's then when they find Cuddlywhiskers. He talked about his time as a filmmaker and the moment he won an Oscar.
Up until this point, BoJack has been juggling solving this mystery with Diane and attending all his meet and greets to help him win an Oscar. Along the journey, Diane's been getting calls from Mr Peanutbutter and keeps refusing them. But when they find Cuddlywhisker's home, Diane finally picks up, and Mr Peanutbutter is furious.
"I'm glad you're safe, but I was worried about you."
"You have to call me. It doesn't matter what's happening. It doesn't matter if it's the middle of the night. You can't keep doing this to me."
- Mr Peanutbutter
Cuddlywhiskers then finally arrives and sits down to drink tea and talk with BoJack and Diane. He talks about how he found no happiness in winning an Oscar yet felt even more miserable. Diane tells Cuddlywhiskers that "Everyone was worried" about him, how he "can't just disappear" and how he "really hurt a lot of people."
"Sometimes you need to take responsibility for your own happiness."
"It takes a long time to realise how truly miserable you are, and even longer to see it doesn't have to be that way. Only after you give up everything can you begin to find a way to be happy."
- Cuddlywhiskers
Cuddlywhiskers' words resonate with BoJack and Diane. For BoJack, because he's trying to win an Oscar and has been told it'll be "the happiest moment in his life." And for Diane, she's started to think about her own happiness and how she's been leaving Mr Peanutbutter disconnected from her life.
IT'S REFRESHING.
TECHNICAL SCORE: 7.5/10
ENJOYMENT SCORE: 8/10
I think it's hard to put into words how geniusly devious this one is. What floored me was the look on Brennan's face as you watch him put all the pieces together in his head.
[8.4/10] When I realized we were getting an anthology-style episode centered on Hooty, I assumed this was going to be a comic relief, assorted hijinks outing for the show. And I would have been good with that! The King story, which falls the most into that framework, was delightful. Instead, this is one of the most powerful episodes of the show, and it caught me completely off guard.
As I mentioned, King's story is probably the lightest. Hooty trying to help him by uncovering what type of demon he is has all sorts of comic potential. The taxonomy of bugs/bipeds/beasts creates a solid framework for the silly “tests” that Hooty runs on King. And the comic exchanges that ensue between them are quite funny (let’s not talk about the cocoon).
But naturally, it lands someplace more profound. I honestly love that Hooty cheerfully tells King that he still doesn’t know what kind of demon King is, but that he’s still glad that King is who he is. But I also like how the show leans into King's distress at thinking he would have at least one answer to his identity and being thwarted even there. It's a familiar trope, but I still love that it’s bringing out that emotion (in the throes of demon puberty, naturally) that allows King to discover that he has a special vocal ability, showing that Hooty did do some good.
(That said, I find the reveal of King's obvious relative coming to give him a letter and Hooty just swallowing it utterly maddening. I know it’s a way to prolong the story until when the show’s ready to unbox it, but still! C’mon! What a tease!)
Eda’s story is my absolute favorite though, and one of my favorite things from the show writ large. The scenes and memories in her dream help us to better understand her psyche and sympathize with what she went through to become the superlative witch we know and love. The fact that she hurt her father in one of her transformations helps establish why she felt she had to stay away from the people she cared about and not let anyone get too close. And with the flashback to her breakup with Raine, we see how her embarrassment and insecurity about it prevents her from actually opening up, forming new bonds, or asking for help. It’s incredibly sad to see these traumatic moments in Eda’s life, that still cause her pain today, and they help illustrate what she's grappling with.
I love where the show ends up with it all though. The imagery of her on the beach, tethered to the owl who’s trying to get away just as much, is a powerful, impressionistic reputation of her challenges. (As Disney properties go, it made me think of Kingdom Hearts.) I adore her epiphany and urge to try to live with the owl, commune with it, rather than fight each other. The owl calming down and even curling up in her lap is a great rendition of that concept, and the fact that once she makes peace with it, it gives her a new powerful “harpee” form is a neat way to pay that off practically.
I’d never really thought about the metaphor behind Eda’s curse. I’d kind of taken it to be a chronic disease or something along those lines. But in this episode, it feels like a metaphor for mental illness or other emotional disturbances. The idea of worrying that you’re going to lose control of yourself and hurt someone, the fear of letting someone get close lest they get to know that side of you, the reluctance to ask for help, all align neatly and resonantly with mental health struggles. So that makes the notion of making peace with those parts of ourselves rather than fighting against them all the more powerful. Whatever the analogy (and this one doesn’t map perfectly onto Eda’s circumstances), the way the realization feeds into Eda’s breakthrough is wonderful.
Luz’s story leans back into the comic hin=jinks side of things, but also pays off the long-simmering attraction between her and Amity. While I love Hooty’s dorky attempts to set the mood for love (him as a paddleboat is particularly delightful), the shtick with Luz trying to prevent Amity from seeing it gets a bit over-the-top sitcom-y for my tastes. Again, the show leans hard into the teenage embarrassment angle, and loses some of the truth of their otherwise adorable crushes on one another.
At the same tie, there’s the kernel of something really genuine at the heart of this one. However high volume the illustration, it’s relatable for two people to like one another, but be uncertain about making the first move, or if the other person will think they’re cool enough, and wanting the big steps in your relationship to be perfect for the sake of the person you’re wooing. The pair’s romance is very sweet, and their teenage nervousness about it very relatable, so that helps cover for any broadness in the material.
And they pull the trigger on it! Seeing them finally ask each other out is very wholesome, and the support Luz gets from her adoptive family makes it all the sweeter.
I also love how it makes everything work within the confines of the frame story. Hooty feels unimportant and gets some encouragement from Lilith that he’s an essential part of the household. (I mean, he is the household.) So him trying to help his family members with their problems, thinking he made a hash of things, only to see that his meddling got them all where they needed to be is a really nice note to play for the show’s resident punching bag.
Overall, this is one of my favorite episodes of the show to date, one that serves all of the main characters well with a unique format and big boost for Hooty to boot!
[8.5/10] Poor Luz. From the minute she’s desperate for a distraction to take her mind off the phone reminder, you know whatever eating at her is going to be emotionally harrowing. And it was.
One of my favorite things about season 2 is that it engages with the fact that Luz is away from her mother and her life in the human world. Season 1 is a blast, but in the back of my mind, I often found myself wondering how, if ever, the show would pay the bill of having run away to a place where she faces down supernatural danger on an (at least) weekly basis.
Luz’s visit home answered that question to some degree. But her destroying the portal home to protect her mom, while also separating Luz from her, made for a more interesting emotional strain for our protagonist. Now home isn’t the thing she’s running away from; it’s the thing that’s out of reach, and with it, so is her mother.
That’s hard enough in a season where Luz’s main quest is opening another portal home. But I love how this episode leans into the small, down-to-earth things that Luz is missing from being in the Boiling Isles. After a few oblique hints, the show confirms that Luz’s father passed away when she was young. To miss her and Camila’s ritual, to gather flowers for one another, as he once did, to visit his grave and mourn this important member of their family together, is a sacred thing. To miss that, to be reminded not only of a painful thing like the loss of a parent, but to be unable to comfort someone you love going through the same thing, or be comforted by them, is devastating. No wonder Luz wants to do anything but think about it.
I love that element of this one too. Sometimes, unavoidable, unfixable things take up residence in our brains. It could be grief, or worry, or garden variety pain. Whatever the form, it cannot always be conquered. Sometimes all you can do is try to focus on something else so that this complicated thought or feeling doesn’t weigh you down too badly.
So it’s relatable when Luz jumps at the chance to help Amity with a straightforward problem that promises to distract them all day. I like that Luz genuinely errs here, and not in a take-backsies sort of way. She coaches up Amity and cheers her own in a Witches’ Duel rumble modeled after professional wrestling. She enters the tournament herself once the competition begins and she realizes that simply staying in Amity’s corner wouldn’t keep her occupied enough. She babbles while Amity and her sister need to focus to complete a healing spell between rounds. And in her anxiousness to do something, anything besides think about what’s bothering her, she messes with Amity’s abomination minder and inadvertently alerts Amity’s father that she’s disobeying his wishes.
The need to stay in constant motion, remain totally occupied lest the bad thoughts creep in, makes Luz sympathetic. But at the end of the day, she also lets her problems hurt Amity, and she even lies about it. The stakes aren’t tremendous, but it’s enough of a betrayal to have meaning. And it’s cathartic when Luz admits what she’s going through and explains what drove her to these mistakes to a girlfriend who is stung, but who still cares.
Granted, Amity has her own struggles here. Luz’s story alone would be enough to bump this one up to “great” territory. The Owl House does its audience one better, though, with an episode that explores Amity’s relationship with her dad. The idea that Amity wanted to join this rumble in the first place to follow in her dad’s footsteps is endearing. But it also comes from a place of estrangement. Since he drifted away into his work and her mom’s pan, Alador’s been distant with his children. This is partly an act of rebellion from Amity, choosing to find her own way rather than try out for the Emperor’s Coven like her mother wants. But it’s also partly an effort to understand her dad a little better by doing what he did, since he’s so closed off.
So I love Amity sticking up for herself. I love the shared strength the father and daughter demonstrate when they’re working together rather than at cross purposes. I love Amity continuing the arc she began last season, forging her own path and her own life distinct from her parents’ expectations.
But I also like that she calls her father out for this stuff. She’s frank with him about feeling that distance, feeling like he doesn’t understand her or even know her, feeling like he let her Mom dictate her life and just went along with it. Alador’s admission that she’s right and commitment to do better earns a handshake, not a hug, which recognizes the complexity of a problem that can’t be solved with a single conversation or gesture. There’s truth in that, and it laces Amity’s big triumph of self-actualization with some lingering family problems that haven't been resolved yet.
Interestingly enough, she’s not the only Blight offspring who finds their way in this episode. While Em is in Amity’s corner for most of the festivities, Ed feels out of place and a little useless. His magic skills don’t seem to fit well with anything, and he worries that he’s bad at the lot of it.
Shock of shocks, his problem ends up dovetailing with King and Eda’s efforts to make a blabber potion that forces rumble champion Warden Wrath to spill the beans on Belos’ plans. It ends up being a good story of Edric finding his tribe. He too doesn’t seem to fit in perfectly with the Blight family’s rigorous standards. And when he tweaks the potion, leading to Wrath turning into an unstoppable beast, he worries it will undo the good work and esteem he earned helping Eda and King find the creature ingredients for their brew.
But Eda, ever the fan of coloring outside the lines, pats him on the back instead for mixing magicks and improvising. It’s a nice sign of Ed’s strengths that connects to one of The Owl House’s key themes -- the way supposed misfits have value even if they don’t fit into traditional structures. Seeing Edric praised for his ingenuity even when things go wrong, and made a member of the Bad Girl Coven, is a surprisingly heartening part of what I assumed would be a comic relief storyline.
There’s not many laughs to be had when Luz confesses what’s been bothering her to Amity. There’s a realness to this moment, in the way a young adult wants to seem like they’re unbothered, like they’re not making a big deal out of something, when it’s obviously a very big deal, that I adore. Luz’s talk about the difficulty of being away from her mom on such an important day is heartbreaking.
But talking about it with someone she loves also gives her a comfort that simply trying to run away from the thoughts can’t. Amity offers solace, in the way a good partner would. But she also finds a way to recreate the ritual, just a little, in the way the Boiling Isles allows for. It’s something different, but something hopeful. And the imagery of the two sitting under falling cherry blossoms, sending a bouquet of flowers into the sky with their shared magic, while Camila sets a bloom out for daughter as well, is one of the most beautiful bits of imagery in the whole show. It adds a lyricism to this emotional breakthrough, the hardship of being away, but the peace that comes with support and action instead of distraction and evasion.
The end result is one of my favorite episodes of the series to date. By digging deep into the toughest part of Luz’s separation, The Owl House vindicates what she’s missing by being away, but also the community and support she’s found to help comfort her here.
[9.3/10] For a character whose presence I was a little resistant to at first, I’m amazed at how much I feel for Hunter here. The show has done work nudging him further and further away from his “uncle’s” programming. This is the final straw, the last step that makes him understand why everything about Belos is toxic, and it nearly breaks him.
Why wouldn’t it? I think Eda puts it best in the early part of the episode. People don’t want to hear that everything they’ve founded their lives upon is wrong. It is an unmooring thought to immerse yourself in, whether it’s learning that the societal beliefs your community rests upon are mercenary and wrong, or learning that your personal connection to someone is founded on a lie. Hunter doesn’t want to believe these things about Belos any more than the citizens of the Boiling Isles do. So when he can deny the truth no longer, when confronted with the horrible reality of who his uncle is and who he is, he is shattered by it.
There is so much pathos in that. And as with so much of the show’s subtext, it speaks to real life young adults breaking free from the systems they were brought up in, and learning that the people who raised and mentored them are not the good-natured souls they thought. That gives it extra power.
But for Hunter to figure that out, he and Luz have to discover the truth via entering the Emperor’s mind. I love the setup. Willow’s mindscape was one of my favorite episodes of season 1, so returning to that conceit, and melding it with the series’ myth arc, makes for a strong premise. The fact that Luz and Hunter end up there together, but accidentally, with no way out creates stakes. And the connections to Raine’s resistance and Eda’s efforts to protect her ward without magic all make this one a keeper.
It also feels like the right time to finally get Belos’ backstory in grand detail. It’s a strong choice to make him a garden variety charlatan, moving from town to town with his tricks and scary stories to try to fool the local populace. The idea that the grand leader of the coven system is all colored balls of light, fantastical claims about being able to speak with the Titan, and garden variety fireworks, speaks to the bunk that underlies his order.
What stands out most, though, is the fear. It’s not enough to promise that the Titan is displeased. It’s not enough to claim that the diversity of magic use is morally wrong somehow. He needs a mysterious Other to unite the people against. So he uses wild magic as his scapegoat, setting fires, burning down homes, and blaming it on Wild Witches who dare to mix magicks. That’s what’s so striking about his rise. Anyone can spin pie-in-the-sky falsehoods. What gets Belos his following is showmanship, certainly, but also that sense of terror, that someone and something dark and wrong is coming to get you, and only he has the answers to stop it. Like so many things on the show, it resonates because it’s true to life for how genuine fascist strongmen operate.
Hunter gradually comes to realize that. One of the touches I appreciate most is how he keeps trying to rationalize what he sees in the Emperor’s mind. He speaks of this place as sacred. He assumes the little impish version of Belos who appears to be leading them to safety represents his pure intentions. He justifies a little misleading theatricality in the name of leading the masses to the right path.
Until the Emperor turns on him too. How dispiriting must it be to defend someone all your life, to devote yourself to their service, only to discover that they never really loved you and view you as disposable. That’s the dagger in the heart for Hunter, the personal side of his uncle’s malfeasance, that upends his life and the life he thought he knew in ways that are understandably impossible to reckon with. There’s plenty of interesting hints at play, from the appearance of similar looking/sounding assistants in Belos’ past, and statements that they all betray him eventually. But the emotional thrust of this one is Belos talking about how easily manipulated his nephew is, and how easily replaced.
(Andrew’s crazy theory: My bet is that Hunter is some kind of magical clone of Philip Wittebane’s brother. In Luz’s spectral visit to the human world, the conspiracy nut mentioned town lore that two brothers were tempted by a witch into the humana world. My bet is that Philip tried to recreate his brother in some form (hence the “nephew” terminology) and the physical recreation of a dead person is why Hunter’s a “grim walker.” The theory would also account for Belos’ “You looked the most like him” comment.)
I appreciate how steadfast and compassionate Luz is through all of this. She never stops trying to show him the truth about Belos. She reads all of the events they witness fairly, even though she’s already predisposed toward believing that Belos is evil. But she also tells Hunter that he doesn't have to go back, that he can stay with them, that there’s another way. The balance of frankness and comfort helps mark Luz as a good person, never wavering, but showing empathy to Hunter at the same time.
I’ll admit, the part of this that doesn’t land with full force to me here is Belos revealing to Luz that he is, in fact, Philip Wittebanae. It’s anticlimactic because the show has hinted strongly in that direction for episodes and episodes now, so it’s not much of a shock to the audience.
Theoretically, it could still make an impact given the effect it has on Luz. But she seemed interested in Wittebane’s diary for practical purposes, not an emotional connection to its author, so no big deal there. She already knew Philip was a bad guy from her time travel escapade, sso that’s no big surprise either. And while Wittebane turning out to be Belos’ nom de guerre from after “Philip” was run out of too many towns is a neat twist, it doesn’t change much.
The most you can say is that it’s a strike against Luz’s ability to return to the human world. If Philip is Belos, and he hasn't been able to make the portal work in all this time with all his sources, then it's right for Luz to be discouraged about her prospects for achieving the same thing. But we don’t really get much of a sense of that in the text, just her being gobsmacked by who he is.
That notwithstanding, I still love all the turns and reveals in this one. For one thing, I’m over the moon for the way the episode plays with your expectations for the personifications inside Belos’ mind. The malevolent-looking representation of the Emperor is legitimately terrifying. Big kudos to the designers and animators, who manage to give him an Eldritch Abomination feel that evolves and becomes more grotesque and frightening with each appearance.
It leads to the grand reveal that this scary-looking creature is not Belos’ darkside, and the spritely boy who leads them about is not a good part of him that’s been lost. Instead, it’s the little cherub who represents Belos’ real self, only taking that form to manipulate our heroes and get them right where he wants them. And the ghastly creature turns out to be the collected souls of the palismans he’s imbibed to stay alive, a horrifying concept made all the more gut wrenching when he traps and eliminates them.
I’m also intrigued by the presence of The Collector, another playful spirit who talks to Belos in private moments and seems to have a form and presence beyond what we’ve seen before. (Gravity Falls fans like me cannot help but see parallels to Bill Cipher.) The idea that Phlip found the partner he was looking for all those years ago, and is still collaborating with them, adds a new dimension to his plans. So does the reveal that The Collector is not a demon as we know them, but seems more like a trickster god, rhyme-inclined and childish in its frolics and protestations. More to come, I can only assume.
Otherwise, there’s some other nice details throughout. The reveal that Belos is a witch hunter is no great shakes since the clues have been there for a while, but him meaning to eliminate all witches does step things up a bit. The twist that he used glyph magic in the form of the coven brands to try to kill witches is an interesting spin on something the audience already knows. And I love the tough choice of Eda to use the last of the Titan’s blood to bring Luz back from the mindscape lest she not be around or alive enough to make it back to the human world. This one is filled to the brim with great lore, great character moments, and great storytelling bits that power it from start to finish.
Overall, what I’ll remember about this one is threefold: that devotion Eda shows to Luz in bringing her back, the lore drops that change the game for Belos’ backstory and purpose, and most of all, the gutting epiphany for Hunter that everything he’d anchored his life to is a lie. Poor boy.
[8.1/10] I owe The Owl House an apology. When Luz discovered that Emperor Belos was Philip Wittebane in “Hollow Mind”, I found it anticlimactic. More than that, I didn’t get why Luz took it as such a devastating revelation.
“Thanks to Them” provides a satisfying answer: because she helped Philip find The Collector, because she blames herself for setting into motion all that he’s done since, and because she’s worried her friends will hate her for the part she played in the difficulties that have steadily exploded since.
It’s her big struggle in this season premiere. Belos may have been thwarted, but things seemed potentially dire in the Boiling Isles when they last left, the witchlings are stranded here, and all of Luz’s efforts to find a way back for them have been for naught. It’s understandable that she’d be down on herself, worry that she’s made her friends’ lives worse through her mistakes and association with them. The teenage experience is one of heightened emotions and stepping into the big choices of adulthood for the first time. Luz is sympathetic in her concern that she’s screwed everything up, and relatable in her worry that it’ll make everyone reject her.
This is The Owl House, a warm supportive show, so savvy fans know things are, in all likelihood, headed for acceptance and affirmation rather than guilt and blame. (See also: the endearing part of the “What I did on my summer vacation” montage where Luz comes out as bi to her accepting and supportive mom.) But it’s still a good way to root the epic threats and challenging predicaments of the show’s major arc coming to fruition in something personal and understandable, one of the show’s strengths. It gives the wide-ranging events covered of the show’s new format an emotional throughline that helps the special feel unified.
Honestly, how well The Owl House pulls that format change off may be the most impressive part of an all-around outstanding episode. “Thanks to Them” has to tell a new story in an almost entirely new setting (something the show struggled with in “Yesterday’s Lie”, cross-pollinate a number of characters who’ve barely bumped into one another before, establish the Hexside crew in their new digs, cover the passage of time, resolve Luz and her mother’s reunion, and build toward the series’ endgame with only three installments’ worth of real estate left.
That it could succeed at all with so much ground to cover would be commendable. That it does this all so well, without missing a beat, is a hell of an achievement.
It succeeds in big ways. One of the big boons of the show is that despite the big threats, it’s a cozy show with characters you want to spend time with. “Thanks to Them” doesn’t skimp on the fact that Willow, Gus, and Amity miss their parents, in the same way that Luz missed her mom on the other side of the portal. But it also seems like a blast to basically have a kid clubhouse for several months, with your best friends all living under one roof. The little bits of Willow’s scrapbook, the montage of the crew thinning and working together, the glimpses we get of hijinks make it feel like one big sleepover you’d love to have gotten to join in when you were a kid.
If I had a complaint about season 2, it’s that Gus and Willow’s stories got a little downplayed in favor of other characters, (and to a lesser extent Amity’s stories as well), but I like the collective story they get here. On the one hand, they’re having a blast. On the other, they’re plainly more than a little homesick. On a third (magical demon hand), they’re good kids who are doing their best to adjust and repay Camila’s kindness and cheer up Luz.
One of my favorite parts of this one is the magical shoe being on the other foot here. It’s a shame that The Owl House’s third season is limited to a few specials, because I'd love to see more episodes centered on the witchlings getting used to the peculiarities of the human realm the way Luz did the Boiling Isles. There’s a lot of fun to be had, and even some sweet moments like Luz showing Amity some non-boiling rain. The fact that they have to navigate it in order to solve the rebus puzzle they find beneath the floorboards of the abandoned house serves the humor (from them not fitting in at various human spaces), plot (decoding the puzzle to help locate fuel for another portal), and character (them working together in the hopes of boosting Luz’s spirits.)
There’s some good lore additions going on as well. Masha, the Halloween tour guide and Jacob’s replacement at the historical society all but confirms that Hunter is a clone of Philip Wittebane’s brother Caleb. There’s also strong hints that Belos’ beef with witches stems from the fact that Caleb left him after falling in love with one, which is an interesting angle that would tie into the LGBTQ themes of the series. And, naturally, the reveal that magic comes from the Titan itself, such that mere proximity to TItan’s blood could be enough to get Luz’s powers to work in the human worlds is a hell of a twist.
Those twists have big import for Hunter, of course. As an inveterate Trekkie, I love that he gets obsessed with the “Cosmic Frontier” series (and seems to have admiration for an ersatz Ensign Rutherford). But on a broader level, I like the idea that he loses himself int his world and even cosplays as a way of trying on a different self. More than any of the others, he feels at home here. As he admits to Gus, when eh was in the EMperor’s Coven, he knew who he was and what was expected of him. Now he’s on his own, with the joy and terror of dictating his own destiny and purpose. The idea that ti’s a safe way to try out his true self, with bumpers big enough to keep him safe, speaks to the escape and representation I suspect many viewers feel for The Owl House itself.
To the point, I love how supportive Luz is when she realizes that Hunter literally and figuratively feels more comfortable behind a mask, and gives him one to put him at ease. And there may be no more touching moment in the show than Luz telling Hunter he’s family now, the kind of acceptance and kindness he never got from his biological family, and the poor young man breaking down in tears from the force of the moment.
But as much as I adore Hunter’s progression, I think my favorite part of this one is the exploration we get of Camila. Maybe it’s because I’m a lot closer to her age than Luz’s at this stage of my life, but it’s honestly lovely to get to see things from the mom’s perspective with complexity and empathy.
In particular, I love the choice to account for why supportive, accepting Camila would choose to send her daughter to the human equivalent of a conformatorium camp. Camila’s nightmare about it is heartbreaking. You can see her lauding her daughter’s offbeat creativity, defending her against tsk-tsking parents, and earnestly trying to do what’s best for her little girl.
But you can also see the powers of intolerance and conformity box her in too. You can see the legitimate suggestion from the outside that some of Luz’s “acting out” could be a product of grief over losing her father. You can see Camila trying to keep a stable school environment for her daughter. Most of all, you can see Camila recalling her own bullying as a child (see also: her nervous response to Hunter finding the ostensibly hidden Cosmic Frontier materials), and not wanting her daughter to suffer the same thing.
Seen through that lens, the “reality check” camp is not the oblivious act of a parent who doesn’t get their kid, but instead a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency measure by a loving parent, worn down by the same traditional forces Luz is resisting, trying to protect her child from the worst.
It’s easy for me to sympathize as someone who cares deeply about a bevy of lovable, off-beat youngins’ who come from nerdy stock, since I too worry about the challenges they’ll face in a world that tends to punish, rather than celebrate, difference. And it’s also easy for me to sympathize with Luz, since I too was an offbeat kid whose oddball interests and occasional (read: frequent) lack of tact made it tough to make friends or fit in. This is a familiar story, in a good way, which makes it resonant across the generational divide.
Which is why I like how the climax of this one brings all these threads together to bridge that gap. The return of Belos is terrifying. It’s terrifying because the simple fact of him surviving and making it to the human world is concerning in and of itself. It’s terrifying because he possesses Hunter, once again corrupting this kind soul. And at a base level, it’s terrifying because he returns to his palisman-strocity form, does fearsome battle with our heroes when they’re caught off guard, and most harrowingly of all, mortally wounds Flapjack.
I’m legitimately pretty impressed that a Disney show went there, even if Flapjack’s wounding and death is done in tasteful, impressionsitic terms. It makes sense that Belos would crack into one more palisman. But it feels tragic because Flapjack was this angel on Hunter’s shoulder, nudging him gently toward a better path. It was a pure force for good, one who stayed persistent in its efforts to help when it would have been all too easy to just fly away. Its sacrifice, its willingness to give its life so that Hunter can regain hsi, is an ultimate act of devotion, one made all the more heartening, and all the more heart-rending, by the choices that led Flapjack to that point.
Not for nothing, the battle where Flapjack perishes is another superlative outing visually for the show. The animators always bring their A-game to these big showdowns, and this is no exception. The fluidity of the magical chaos, the fight for the vial of titan’s blood, and the sense of genuine peril is all there in the imagery at play.
But so is the storytelling. Things come to a head when Luz’s role in Philip’s rise comes out in the open. Instead of the judgment and excommunication she expects from her friends, she gets absolution and encouragement. I love the theme expressed in that -- that it is no sin to make an honest mistake, and that it’s a sign of courage and character to keep standing up for what’s right despite that.
There’s a lot of adolescents who need to hear that. It’s easy to beat yourself up for missteps, especially when you're young and everything feels like the end of the world. The idea that it’s okay to mess up, that you can still learn from your mistake, and you don’t have to bear it for the rest of forever, is wholesome and uplifting. And the understanding Luz gets from her support system that Belos’ whole deal is tricking people, and the confirmation that they still love her for who she is, remains heartening.
Especially when it comes from her mom. Camila gets her own bit of redemption here. Let’s be real, it’s nuts that after witnessing a demon monster pop up and threaten the children in her care, Camila’s response is, “Time to take them back to a place where they’ll face many more of them!”
But granting the premise of the show, and understanding that it probably wasn’t going to end in the human realm, it’s just as rousing to see Camila not only support Luz returning to the demon realm, but come join her. It is, in a roundabout way, an apology for trying to send her to the “reality check” camp in the first place, an affirmation of the helpful experiences her daughter had on the other side of the portal, and a crucial recognition that, despite Luz’s sad diary entries, there’s never been anything wrong with who she is.
It’s a lot to tackle in forty-five minutes. And I do still wish we got a full season to explore these ideas in more depth. But damn if The Owl House doesn’t make it look seamless, and feel moving, in the process.
[8.0/10] This was a very well-written episode! Everything is nicely set up, both emotionally and plot-wise. The twists and turns are well earned. Thecomedy is on point, and there’s even some solid Gravity Falls-esque teases for big reveals yet to come.
It’s nice to get an early episode here to establish some pathos for King. It would be easy to keep him as a comic side character, and he could easily excel in that role. But having him genuinely want to be a teacher to Luz, and more than that, to be taken seriously by his peers and erstwhile friends, makes him a sympathetic character. When Luz learns that about him, and eventually leans into his demon-knowing talents, it helps them relate since she knows what it’s like to be disregarded or underestimated, and it brings them closer together from some joint problem solving. That's deft character writing, which does well to establish what I would anticipate being one of the core relationships of the series.
I also love the premise of a terrifying beast who’s loose in the house that turns out to be none other than Eda. The animation on the beast in shadow is fantastic. There’s a real sense of movement and terror to her bounding about the house. There’s a clockwork quality to King warning about demons, and wanting to be heard, only to end up causing one to emerge when trying to help Luz with her witch training so she’ll pay attention to him. The poetic irony of it isn’t lost on me, and the resulting beastie rampaging around makes for a good obstacle and threat for our heroes.
I love the solution though. The show establishes that it’s not clear how a human like Luz will be able to do magic without the enchanted bile sack most witches have. King helping her review the footage of Eda doing the spell, leading Luz to see the pattern and recognize that drawing it on something allows her to make the magic happen, is a really nice touch. There is, again, a clockwork quality to Eda teaching Luz a light spell earlier in the episode and it being the thing that helps them quell Eda’s cursed form later. The action that ensues from King and Luz’s team-up to stop Owl Beast Eda is very good as well.
The humor here is on point too. There’s a lot of good gags rooted in King being a little sad and pathetic, but endearingly so. His discussion of various demons is quite funny, and I’m also a fan of the scrabble-back, adorable and sad sack as anything. The show’s got plenty of good one-liners here, which is an early strength, and even just Hootie’s silly voice manages to tickle my funny bone.
I’m also naturally intrigued by Eda’s curse, the dream where she sees the shadow of who did it, and what it means for her future that she turns into some kind of owl creature. (Her sleeping in a nest and liking shiny objects like an all important light-up pen are a nice touch in that regard.) What I’m particularly interested to know more about is whether this curse is a metaphor for something. Eda explains that she was cursed as a child and can’t remember, but that with medicine, it’s manageable. That's true for any number of conditions people develop, and I’m interested to see whether they explore that idea or tie it more explicitly to real life maladies.
Either way, this is a “regular” episode that nonetheless is really well-built from start to finish. Good show!
actually evil of them to air this the same night as the succession finale im so empty right now
[9.5/10] It will be hard to top “Into the Bunker” when it comes to momentousness. Our heroes journey into the underground hideout of the infamous author of the three journals. Dipper finally comes clean about his feelings to Wendy. And if that weren’t enough, Gravity Falls delivers and homage to The Thing featuring none other than Mark Hamill. We’re hitting epicness overload here.
But I think my favorite part of this one is simply how well it handles the long simmering Dipper/Wendy situation. There is something agonizingly relatable about being a kid and having a crush on someone who is a few years older, definitely unobtainable, and deep down in your heart, you know it wouldn’t work, but you still can’t help but like. Dipper’s nervousness between trying to express his feelings, realizing it’s a bad idea, and being spurred on by Mabel to just out with it so he’ll feel better makes you feel for the poor kid.
Not for nothing, this is a great Wendy episode and showcase for why Dipper would nurse his schoolboy crush on her beyond her fun slacker attitude. There’s a nice casual rapport with them, from laughing at cheesy B-movies together to being on the same page about going on neat adventures. More than that, though, Wendy is a badass. Between her using her lumberjack competition skills to open the tree hideout, to spelunking her way through the bunker, to getting into raucous combat with a shape-shifting monster, Wendy proves that despite her lackadaisical bona fides, she’s a capable, kickass champ to have in your corner when you’re in a tight spot.
It’s that fight with a shape-shifter that prompts Dipper to spill his guts. Seeing Wendy hurt or worse brings out a vulnerability in Dipper. He’s distraught and blames himself and laments that it happened before he had the chance to tell that he’s in love with her. Once again, you feel for the poor little guy, so anxious about sharing his feelings up to this point, trying his best to just move on and doing everything in his power not to come clean about his feelings, only to feel crestfallen over the fact that he might lose her entirely having never fully expressed how much he cares.
What a brilliant move it is to have the “grievously injured” Wendy turn out to be the shapeshifter in disguise, with the real Wendy right behind to hear the whole thing. While in other hands, the fake out could feel cheap, here it plays nicely into the established existence of the shape-shifter and the standard “Which one should I shoot?” trope. The move allows Gravity Falls to have its cake and eat it too when it comes to Dipper’s crush and his nigh-pathological inability to speak honestly about it.
Part of what makes it seem like fair play, though, is that Wendy and Dipper have an incredibly mature conversation about it afterwards. I love the reveal of Wendy saying that of course she knew, because she’d have to be blind not to. But she very gently explains that she’s way too old for him, and Dipper knows and acknowledges it. Her reassurance that he can handle any awkwardness, given how much weird stuff he’s already braved, is very wholesome. And I love the resolution that, even though their ages are too far apart to make an actual romance anything but creepy, she genuinely values Dipper’s friendship, thinks the summer was boring until he showed up, and would be legitimately upset to lose their companionship. It’s a great place to land, one that acknowledges why this crush is impossible, but vindicates that there is a wonderful connection between them, just not the one the twelve-year-old thought about in that way. I really admire the way Gravity Falls pays this off in a sensitive and uplifting way, rather than dragging it out for another season or otherwise turning it into wish fulfillment.
And by gum, that’s only half the episode! I cannot tell you how exciting it is to parse through all the major teases we get in this installment. The gang finding The Author’s bunker, replete with the same mysterious symbols and similar machinery to what Stan’s using is such a thrill, that makes it seem like the show’s truly advancing its mystery arc. Cryptic clues that The Author was planning for some kind of apocalypse, that they may have created the various creatures who lurk in Gravity Falls, and that, given the shape-shifter’s comments about them having six-fingers and the type of rubber gloves Stan used, may also have something to do with the suspiciously similar bunker under the Mystery Shack, get the mental gears turning.
I love Gravity Falls’ standalone episodes, but it’s also nice to feel like we’re making progress toward unraveling the big mysteries the show has been teasing from the start.
Plus hey, Mark freakin’ Hamill! He is, as always, great playing villains in animation, giving the shape-shifter a truly malevolent premise. And full credit to the design and animation team. Beyond showing that the shape-shifter has encountered the various supernatural beings of the town (include the “The Hide Behind” from the Dipper’s Guide shorts), they also come up with some fantastic Cronenberg-esque character designs for the shape-shfiters various other forms.
The shape-shifter material itself is pretty great. I love the way the show baits and switches us, with Wendy and Dipper seemingly running into The Author, with an appropriately steampunk-ish, eccentric explorer look that communicates the vibe of someone with all the answers to this strange place. But the moment Wendy smartly clocks the exact same man on a can of beans, and the guy blinks his eyes sideways, you know some freaky stuff is on.
The ensuing “Who’s the real _____” shtick is fun and spooky. As mentioned, it pays off well with the Wendy/Dipper situation, but even before then, the show does a good job of creating a paranoid atmosphere. Not for nothing, while far less dramatic, Mabel and Soos make for a great comedic pairing, (Soos’ failed attempt to do a rhyme had me in stitches) and Soos’ efforts to ensure he remained the right shape were great.
On the whole, this episode is a real homerun. It works on its own as a scary tale of a shapeshifter in a mysterious location tricking and terrorizing our heroes. It works as part of the show’s larger mystery arc, dropping some big clues and our way to a few more tantalizing questions. And it delivers the best ending imaginable to the long-running subplot of Dipper’s crush on Wendy, resolving things with sensitivity, grace, and heart. What a treat this show is, to be so good at story, character, horror, and humor all at once.
Eda: "Don't worry, Lily. With this spell declared, I promise I'll be back."
Lilith: "That's not a spell, doesn't even rhyme."
Gus: [Muffled] "King? King, are you okay?"
The Collector: "You wanna play tag? I'm it."
The Collector: "We're gonna have a blast, everyone!"
King: "Luz, I am so happy I got to have you as a big sister."
"Girl Lost in Frogland Hoax?"
8/10
Hunter: [Text message] "LEAVE. ME ALONE"
Amity: "I'm not going anywhere with you!
[Amity takes Luz's rune.]
Amity: "...Either of you."
Luz: "Thank you for listening. I can't wait to pick flowers with you."
Eda: "I've got my eyes on you, Blight."
9/10
I wanted to see Sasha keep trying to apologise to Anne, but this works too.
7/10
Ooh. An episode centered around my favorite duo: Roy Mustang and Risa Hawkeye. It was interesting seeing them as naive idealists becoming weapons of mass murder becoming people who are just trying so hard to keep their humanity and fulfill their dreams in spite of all the crimes they have committed.
i love you
again
i love you
again
One of the most unhinged and insane season finales I have ever seen attempted in a KIDS SHOW????
Genuinely great, characters get their moments to shine, the plot goes into high gear, and the twists at the end of this episode setting up the final season are genuinely shocking.
A promising start. Like @deanzel I thought it started off pretty generic but it certainly ramped up and got interesting and a lot better. I also appreciated it being a double-length episode to take the time to establish things. Of the characters introduced thus far, they all seemed pretty likable. Having just seen Erased last season, it's interesting to see another series handling time travel again so soon, and no doubt it will draw comparisons to that series. And like Erased, it has the potential to handle the premise and mechanics well, or badly. Shame there's a fair amount of dodgy CG to be seen but hopefully the quality of the story will be enough to excuse that.
Still, a good first episode. Here's hoping it stays good. White Fox as a studio do have the potential to do very well when they're on point.
Meh. Quite the collection of overdone cliches:
-- It's a crime drama, about a family!
-- The eldest is in charge, but is not the brightest so covers it up with bellicosity. That combination can't possibly lead to trouble.
-- Our protagonist is ambitious, ruthless, and smart. That combination can't possibly lead to trouble.
-- The youngest is dumb and violent. That combination can't possibly lead to trouble.
-- Fortunately, they're surrounded by good women, if only the boys will listen to their wisdom.
-- It's got a beautiful woman, but she's on the side of the law. Oh no! Surely she won't fall for the haunted bad boy.
-- The saintly friend wants nothing to do with the family's evil ways. I'm sure he won't be pulled in.
-- The copper sent to stop them is just as ruthless as they are. What nuanced levels of morality!
-- It's set in olden days so it can be "gritty" and "edgy" with it's violence.
All in all, I liked it better when it was called Ripper Street. I'll watch more, but only because my brother recommended it. If it ends up good, great for me. If it ends up bad, I can berate my brother for his poor taste. Also great for me.
This series gave me such a sense of comfort and contentment. Especially during this quarantine, and I cannot experience campus life myself.
