History Recap / TheOwlHouseS3E2ForTheFuture

* TheCameo: While she's wearing a mask, one of Boscha's guards appears to be a witch version [[WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}} Anne Boonchuy]], having the same hair and skin color as her, and wearing an outfit consisting of [[ColorMotif blue, green, and red]].

* PossessingADeadBody: Belos possesses what is implied to be an unfinished or deceased Grimwalker (the hand protruding from the ground appears to be rotting) to stabilize himself, but it barely lasts a few ''seconds'' after emerging before the flesh falls off the bones. What little essence he absorbed is barely enough to let him reach the Collector's castle, and it's blatantly clear that Belos is LivingOnBorrowedTime, barely able to threaten anybody if he's not possessing a host anymore.

*** Boscha's hair is longer and tied in a low, messy ponytail rather than a tight bun, she is wearing a mix of her school uniform and grudgby outfit, and has a headband with crabclaws, evoking her palisman.

* {{Determinator}}: Unable to cast magic cleanly anymore because of his unstable body, with said body falling to literal pieces and his mentality along with it, Belos' iron willpower is the only asset remaining to him that allows him to persist onwards and remain a credible threat. It's made clear he didn't have a concrete plan for ''how'' to actually enact his FinalSolution when he returned to the Isles, just the sheer determination to ensure his efforts weren't AllForNothing. He spends much of the episode desperately staving off his impending destruction by any means necessary, in [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen the sorriest state he's been seen in so far]], and only manages to reach the Collector's castle in the end by several strokes of luck. Yet his [[XanatosSpeedChess ability to adapt]] and prey off of his hosts means he still ends the episode in a position of power, discreetly manipulating the Collector against Luz and the rest when his [[HijackingCthulhu direct attempt]] failed.

* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Boscha was always TheBully at Hexside, but here, she's taken over as the leader of the remaining students residing there and proves to be pretty ineffective at it, and by the episode's midpoint, seems to have gone full villain, allying with Kikimora to enforce her rule on the school and knocking out and capturing the heroes to lock them in the detention pits. Ultimately, though, Amity is able to convince her to back down and rethink her actions via TalkingTheMonsterToDeath, and then she learns that Kiki was planning to betray her eventually anyway so she could build her own empire. This is enough to get Boscha to lead the other students in defeating her so Luz and co. can continue on with their mission to get to the Skull.

* ProperlyParanoid: After seeing The Collector and King fly off in Bonesborough, Hunter urges the Hexsquad to follow them as Belos is probably teying to reach The Collector. At first he's wrong, as while Belos journeys to the Skull, it's to gain a new body from a spare grimwalker. Hunter ultimately ends up being right when Belos reaches the Archive House, possesses Puppet Raine, and tries to possess The Collector only to fail and manipulate them again to take down the kids.

* MisplacedRetribution: Inverted. Luz blames herself for messing up her plan, even though it was only because Kikimora and Boscha ambushed her and her allies before they could impliment it.

** To a {{Downplayed}} extent, Belos himself falls into this too. He spends most of his screen time visibly rotting away and decomposing without a suitable host to drain from, to the point his mind and body are literally falling to pieces with the strain of it, ranting at hallucinations or ghosts of Caleb and the deceased Grimwalkers all alone in the woods and dragging himself across the ground when his legs fall off. If not for him finding a solitary Grimwalker corpse to drain a bit more sustenance from, he would have died without ever reaching the Collector or facing the heroes once more, and his attempt to directly possess the Collector fails, forcing him to once more rely on manipulating the Child from the Stars to use their magical might for his plans, as he's too weak to enact anything by himself without parasitically relying on others now.

* AndIMustScream: Being transformed into a puppet/toy subsumes the victim’s consciousness and renders their bodies into mindless zombies. At the very least, Hooty was able to regain his consciousness to be able to talk to the outside world, even if he's unable to move.

* CatharticCrying: Once the gang and Camila make it to the Boiling Isles, Willow tries to be strong for her friends. Camila tries to tell her that she shouldn't repress her feelings, but Willow insists that she’s the reliable one. However, as the journey progresses, Willow [[RepressionNeverEndsWell begins to lose control of her plant powers]] to the point where she accidentally encases herself, Hunter, and Gus in vines. When she begins to loathe herself, Hunter breaks free of the vines and rescues Willow. He and Gus then tell her that reliable people also need someone to rely on, and convince her to let her stress out. In a fit of InelegantBlubbering, she confesses that she misses her dads.

* DidYouThinkICantFeel: Part of the intent behind Boscha’s pleading to Amity was to make it very clear Amity leaving their friend group did upset her. Boscha may seem like an uncaring bully, but what this means is that she just processes her emotions ''very'' differently.

* ADogNamedDog: It's revealed that "Collector" is the name of the Collector's ''species'' rather than the one individual we’ve seen specifically.

* VillainForgotToLevelGrind: Compared to the Hexsquad becoming stronger, wiser, and more mature as bigger threats emerged, Boscha has remained the same bully she's always been and more or less uses the same old tricks and tactics. It's not just that she hasn't gone through the grinder, but she lost the motivation to do so. During their brief fight, Boscha wasn’t prepared for anything Amity could throw at her, so it's quite clear to Amity that her unwillingness to grow and adapt has only made her so predictable that Amity doesn't even ''need'' to fight her to win.

* VillainForgotToLevelGrind: Compared to the Hexsquad becoming stronger, wiser, and more mature as bigger threats emerged, Boscha has remained the same bully she's always been and more or less uses the same old tricks and tactics. It's not just that she hasn't gone through the grinder, but she lost the motivation to do so. During their brief fight, it's quite clear to Amity that her unwillingness to grow and adapt has only made her so predictable that Amity doesn't even ''need'' to fight her to win.

** While cleaning up the Collector's toys, Odalia wishes there was someone who could recognise her "potential".

** Who or what the glowing figure in the In-Between Realm that Luz saw is doesn't get addressed before the episode ends.

* RatedMForManly: Invoked and PlayedForLaughs. As Matt, Skara, and Barcus bring the Hexsquad back to the school, Matt tells them that, somewhere along the way of being in hiding for the past few months, he went from being "Mattholomule" to "''Man''tholomule", with a smug cheesy grin, referring to his new facial hair. The other kids just give him exasperated looks while Camila can't help but giggle. The end credits show that he drew the facial hair on.

* AssholeVictim: The Collector forces Terra to play Eda the Owl Beast for their Owl House role-play games, pestering her to get Eda's character right before turning her into a puppet for annoying them. They also made Odalia into their surrogate mother, which is more or less a glorified maid forced to clean up the Collector's mess. Given that Terra and Odalia are horrible people who aided Emperor Belos and [[FinalSolution his Day of Unity plan]], they deserve it.

** "Making mistakes is part of living". Just because you stumble from time to time and [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom accidentally cause harm with your well-meaning actions]], doesn't mean that you are a terrible person for doing so and it also doesn't mean that you can't learn from said mistakes and grow from them.

* PetTheDog: Boscha is shown to rule Hexside with an iron fist, turning down every suggestion from the other students. However, the presence of the statue of Bump seems to imply that, like her fellow students, she respected him enough to honor his sacrifice.

* OutDamnedSpot: Belos starts seeing hallucinations of Caleb with a dagger floating above his head. He is angered by the dagger, seeing it as Caleb mocking him, and tries to destroy the specter. But Caleb and the dagger remain untouched while Belos wastes precious energy, causing his body to move slower and become more unstable. Eventually, Caleb is accompanied by specters of all the Grimwalkers that Belos has killed, by which point Belos has no more energy to fend off the ghosts of his past.

* ItsAllMyFault: After Kikimora's ambush and attack in the detention pit, Luz actually blames herself for it, claiming her plan to infiltrate the Collector's castle failed before it even began. This is what convinces Camila to talk to her about her not wanting to leave the Demon Realm.

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Edric told Amity that after she and Alador left Blight Industries, he and Emira managed to escape from the factory (and their grounding) to search for them, but are forced to retreat to Hexside after being cornered by the Collector's spies and Edric hurting himself afterwards.

* PowerOfFriendship: Hunter manages to teleport himself, Gus, and Willow to safety out of the school's detention basement. He first assumes it was because of this before Willow corrects him that it was "the Power of Flapjack".

* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: How Amity wins over Boscha. Instead of trying to defeat her former friend in a fight, Amity exploits the fact that deep down, Boscha wants Amelia and Cat saved.

** The fates of Alador, the [=BATTs=], and Steve following the Day of Unity are never given. What's more worrying is that there's still no answer to [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse Steve and Amber]] not appearing in "King's Tide".

** "Making mistakes is part of living". Just because you stumble from time to time and [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom accidentally cause harm with your well meaning actions]], doesn't mean that you are a terrible person for doing so and it also doesn't mean that you can't learn from said mistakes and grow from them.

** When infiltrating the castle, Belos briefly spies an aggravated Odalia, bemoaning her situation and [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor wishing she could have a chance to prove her worth]]. Belos rises behind her, commenting that his target will be "quite useful"... before immediately jumping into Puppet Raine's body.

** Gus is approached by Eyeleen, who asks him if human paper clips are suitable meat substitutes... only to find out they weren't.

** Willow and Hunter are both blushing while Hunter does a BridalCarry to save a falling Willow, later they are both seen blushing hard when they are holding hands after Willow thanks Hunter for helping her.

* DespotismJustifiesTheMeans: After Kikimora takes over as Boscha's DragonInChief, she interferes with all of Mattholomule's attempts as reforming their living conditions no matter how sensible his ideas are before eventually trying to arrest him for conspiracy to commit a coup, more concerned with starting her own empire with the Hexside students than maintaining a proper community.

** Belos' choice to return to the Boiling Isles and finish what he started being an impulsive snap decision in response to Luz's AccidentalTruth hitting him right in his emotional soft spot is emphasised here, as it's made apparent that he had ''no concrete plan'' for how he was specifically going to do that. Without a host to drain from, he's visibly and mentally falling apart, spending much of his screen time literally falling to pieces and ranting at hallucinations of Caleb and the past Grimwalkers that [[NeverMyFault their fates are not his fault]], to the point he would have perished if he hadn't luckily found a single remaining Grimwalker corpse in his old cave hideout, something his dialogue makes clear was a long shot he was gambling on. Without that, he would have perished alone without ever confronting the heroes once more time. Even that doesn't do more than sustain him long enough to reach the Collector's [[OminousFloatingCastle tiara castle]], and it's revealed he was hoping to try and [[HijackingCthulhu possess the Collector themself]] to use their powers for his own gain, an ''extremely'' risky move that fails very quickly once they wake up, forcing him to fall back on his old tactic of manipulating a gullible innocent once more.

* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Boscha was always TheBully at Hexside, but here, she's taken over as the leader of the remaining students residing there and proves to be pretty ineffective at it, and by the episode's midpoint, seems to have gone full villain, allying with Kikimora to enforce her rule on the school and knocking out and capturing the heroes to lock them in the detention pits. Ultimately, though, Amity is able to convince her to back down and rethink her actions via TalkingTheMonsterToDeath, and then she learns that Kiki was planning to betray her eventually anyway so she could build her own empire, and this is enough to get Boscha to lead the other students in defeating her so Luz and co. can continue on with their mission to get to the Skull.

* HolyHalo: The Collector's new castle floats above the Titan's skull, shaped like a spiked tiara, evoking the image of a halo. It both references how the Titan was an object of worship for the isles, and the very first episode of the show. In "A Lying Witch and a Warden", the goal was to reach the crown of a Titan. Now the goal is yet again to reach the Titan's crown, albeit the stakes are much higher.

* IJustWantToBeLoved: It turns out that this is Luz's true deepest wish (and in hindsight, the main reason why she run away to the Demon Realm in the first place). For most of her life, she felt she couldn't connect with people, especially with her mother, because of her weirdness, and she believed that she could just bring misery to everyone around her just by merely existing. But once Camila assured her that's okay to make mistakes, and that she was wrong about forcing her to suppress her quirks out of a misguided, yet genuine desire to protect her from the same hardships she went through in her youth, Luz finally realized that the only thing she ever wanted in her entire life was to be understood and accepted for who she was. This in turn caused her Palisman to awake from her egg, revealing herself as a snake-like shapeshifter.

* LaResistance: The Hexside students who avoided the fate of most of the rest of the Isles of being turned into puppets have been hiding out at the school. It's subverted, though, because while Luz and co. ''want'' to lead the kids to be this by finding a way to stop the Collector and rescuing everyone who's been made a puppet, the school's self-proclaimed leader, Boscha, is refusing to mobilize any effort to do so. Her "plan" is to just keep residing in the school and avoiding the Collector's scouts indefinitely, justifying it with a defeatist attitude that trying to stop him will just get them captured too. What's more, she won't even listen to Matt's and Jerbo's suggestions to at least make the school more livable, thanks to "Miki" (Kiki) getting in her ear.