Chapter 69: That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles
Art by Crash X Fusion: Gonna need some apple blood to forget what happens next.
The Owl Family's relaxing movie night is threatened when Camila asks big questions about the past.
Tropes that appear in this Chapter:
- Adaptational Explanation: Luz's red beanie, which she gains in Season 3, turns out to have been bought for her by Amity.
- Adaptational Late Appearance: The unnamed blonde girl with a pink streak is introduced right before "Eclipse Lake" takes place, a very strong contrast to her being seen in the beginning of the series.
- Adaptation Expansion: A few tidbits of Camila's past are given; her family lived in Rhode Island after migrating in the 70's, she met Manny in high school and they got together in community college.
- Affectionate Nickname: Abigail called Camila "Camil" and requested that she be called "Gail".
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: After getting drunk one night, Eda and Sandra went to the latter's home where they slept with each other. While Eda wants to talk about it, Sandra's too ashamed that it happened to try.
- Bait-and-Switch: Boscha and Tom are surprised when they tell Athena about their kiss and interest in dating and she accepts it with no hesitation. Then once Boscha has left the house, Athena tells Tom it's time for a serious talk.
- Beware the Nice Ones: The second Willow is alone with Nina, she warns her that while Willow's giving her a fair chance, she will not be merciful if she goes after any of her loved ones again. It actually scares Nina so bad, it forces her to re-evaluate the opinion Emily had on Willow and question if she's the true alpha student of Hexside with Luz as her head soldier.
- Bitch Slap: Once the truth comes out about Camila's death, she smacks Lilith so hard it knocks her to the ground.
- Bridal Carry: For the first time since their date at the Socket, Luz does this with Amity since she was taking too long to say goodbye to Kay before they went to school.
- Broken Pedestal: Camila loses all respect for Lilith upon learning she accidentally murdered her, angry that she's been sleeping in the same room as her killer the entire time she'd been living in the Owl House. The revelation also shatters the bits of respect Lilith had regained from Amity, something she is fully aware of.
- Broken Tears: In response and succession to the confession and arguments:
- Luz runs off to her room crying when she sees Camila's afraid of her and declares she doesn't need her in her life;
- Amity collapses to her knees and silently sobs in the hallway after telling Lilith to leave;
- Hooty has a breakdown when Lilith leaves and she herself cries and finds herself comforted by the Baron of all people.
- Call-Back: The fallout that occurred after Boscha and Nicole took revenge on Luz in "Everything's Gone Wrong" is stated to be the reason Luz developed an animosity towards witch hunters.
- The Cameo:
- Mattholomule appears during a flashback when Eda was sneaking out after sleeping with his mother.
- Donna, Tina, and Veronica are shopping together while Luz and Amity are having their shopping date.
- Lilith bumps into the Baron after leaving the Owl House.
- Gwendolyn is the first one Lilith meets after arriving at her house.
- Abigail's daughter appears at the end of the chapter, trying to talk to her mother while she's having a breakdown.
- Cheer Up Episode: In response to what happened to Luz and Amity in the war, Ms. Traveler advises Eda help them unwind and she decides on a movie night at the Owl House to do co.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: Deconstructed. Camila has only lived in the Boiling Isles for around (maybe less than) two weeks and she's struggled to become accustomed to the chaotic life the Clawthorne family has. She's also frantic with how Luz has accepted it in spite of everything she's gone through and it results in Camila saying it's not a normal life to have, which strains her relationship with Luz as a result.
- Connected All Along: Camila had been friends with Abigail Gates back when she and Manny lived in Gatesfield. She later reveals this to everyone along with the fact that Abigail is Luz's human godmother, a fact that shocks everyone, especially Eda and Luz.
- Continuity Nod: The movie the Clawthornes, Amity and Camila watch is The Thing (1982), which Eda became a fan of when she first visited the Human Realm.
- A Day in the Limelight: Camila is given some focus thanks to the Flashback B-Plot down below.
- Declaration of Protection: Willow gives Nina one so ominous, it scares the werecat into behaving and not to cause trouble for her school, her friends or her girlfriend.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Lilith leaving, tasking Eda with making sure to care for Amity and promising to send money from her job when she gets it brings to mind a parent leaving their family and promising to pay child support to their spouse.
- Downer Ending: Hunter insults Gus when they talk and Gus tries to tell him Belos isn't as heroic as he believes, Boscha is confronted by something, Camila confronts Eda about Angel's death which leads to Lilith's confession and moving out with Camila insulting Luz when she reveals Abigail Gates, a witch hunter, is her human godmother. The chapter ends on Abigail gorging on pills and in the middle of a traumatic breakdown.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Abigail's daughter shows up in the last scene.
- Everybody Knew Already: It seems Lilith knows that Amity truly does look up to Eda as a mother figure over her now: she just didn't want to admit it.
- Flashback B-Plot: Part of the chapter focuses on Camila's time in Gatesfield from when she and Manny moved there to when she left with Luz.
- Foreshadowing: Eda calls out Clarice for being part of the Violet Dragons street gang, who would later show up as minor villains.
- Freak Out:
- As Eda and Camila argue over Abigail being their daughter's godmother, Luz begins breaking down because Camila named a witch hunter as her family and didn't even know it.
- Amity is on the edge of one from learning Lilith killed Camila, Luz has (as far as she knows, might have) a witch hunter for a godmother, and Camila practically just called her own daughter a freak. It's subverted thanks to King comforting her.
- Get Out!: Camila tells Lilith this twice after she slaps her to the ground upon learning how she died.
- The Ghost:
- Amity brings up Odalia during her session with Ms. Traveler, who tells her to recommend the twins see her to discuss their own issues on the matter of their mother.
- Emily Tricks is constantly brought up, her actions and influence on everybody due to the war still lingering. Notably, Gus compares her to Belos in that they manipulate everyone around them to accomplish their goals.
- While Gus and Hunter talk about the latter following Belos' orders, Hunter brings up the Weird Sisters while explaining his visions.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Camila admits to Eda that she's jealous of her relationship with Luz, that she got to see her grow up and that she probably can't call her her daughter. Eda tells her not to think on it because it doesn't matter.
- Honor Before Reason: The only reason the Shadowy Secret Expozers didn't inform Luz about their investigating Philip is because they put their pride first and were afraid other mystery solvers would catch wind of their investigation. Luz lambasts them for this, confiscates their research and prototype portal door, and tells them that anything human-related will be given to her from here on out.
- How Dad Met Mom: In the flashback of when Camila met Abigail, Camila told her neighbor that she met Manny in high school and they went steady during community college.
- I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: Amity starts off with this when she agrees with Maya over Luz being angry with the Shadowy Secret Expozers not telling her about their portal research.
- If Only You Knew:
- Amity briefly wonders if Philip is connected to Belos, but Luz dismisses it since Philip lived centuries ago and just because he's human doesn't mean there's an immediate connection. Both canon and past chapters have proven that they're more correct than they realize right now.
- Jacob Hopkins believes that Angel died from a wild animal mauling her and Abigail made up the Owl Beast as a coping mechanism for her trauma. Imagine how he'd react if he knew it really was a witch.
- In Spite of a Nail: Lilith ends up moving out of the Owl House and takes up residency with her parents.
- Internal Reveal:
- Boscha tells Hunter about her experience with Fae, thus he learns about Puck giving her her scar.
- The Shadowy Secret Expozers inform Luz and Amity about Eve going missing and their investigating Philip through his journal.
- Gus informs Hunter about his father being in the rebellion and that Luz told him Belos is a human. To get Gus to understand his uncle's motives, Hunter tells him about his visions.
- Eda tells Luz that her leather jacket belonged to Angel.
- Luz informs Camila about Eda's curse and they learn about what happened to Angel from Eda's side of what happened in Gatesfield. As a result, Eda learns Camila knew Abigail and Luz's ensuing breakdown leads to everyone else in the Owl House learning about it.
- Lilith ends up confessing to Camila's death in front of their family.
- Eda informs Camila of Luz's hatred of witch hunters stemming from the Heiron's revenge plot against her and everything leading up to Lilith saving her in the Forest of Fear.
- It's All My Fault: Just as Eda previously feared, Lilith fully blames herself for Angel's death when she learns of it as she cursed Eda and trying to capture her led to her excursion to the Human Realm and her Accidental Murder of Camila. It ultimately cements her decision to leave the Owl House as she has too much blood on her hands.
- Lack of Empathy: Maya demonstrates a clear case of this as her hatred towards Lilith leaves her blind as to why Luz would forgive her for causing Camila's death and she doesn't seem to listen to Luz's reason for doing so.
- Last-Second Word Swap: As Luz is talking about one of the Choco-keets mascot's victims, she has to alter what their fate was since Kay was close by.
- Luminescent Blush: Amity does this when Luz says she enjoys being carried bridal-style by her.
- Mood Whiplash: Movie night at the Owl House manages to lift everyone's spirits... but the moment Camila pulls Luz into the kitchen to talk about her tabloid article on Eda leads to all hell breaking loose and tearing the Noceda's apart. As Luz said, Camila picked the worst possible time to bring it up.
- Mundane Utility: Amity creates a baby seat for Kay using her abomination goo early on.
- Must Have Caffeine: Justified. As she'd been kept up all night due to Kay's crying, Amity is quick to make a cup of coffee.
- Mythology Gag: Luz is gifted with the beanie that her pilot design wore and that she started wearing in "Thanks to Them".
- Nails on a Chalkboard: Eda resorts to this to get all the parents' attention at the PCA meeting since they won't stop complaining about Nina.
- Never My Fault: Abigail may regret what happened to Angel, but she never understood her bullying and refusal to listen to her about Eda made her just as responsible for her death as the Owl Beast.
- Eda however initially subverted this by blaming herself for what happened, but it's double subverted since she took to blaming the Owl Beast then the Gates family for what happened. However, it's subverted again as she has accepted and admits there's nothing she can do to change that now.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Camila's decision to interrogate Luz about the tabloid causes her to call in Eda for confirmation, which leads to an argument about who's really at fault for Angel's death, Luz's breakdown which brings everyone else into the kitchen to speculate, Lilith admitting she accidentally killed Camila who demands she leave on the spot, Camila's statement about Luz not being normal creating a rift between them, and Amity almost completely falls apart from all the bad news.
- Noodle Incident:
- The mascot of Choco-keets cereal was sent to rehab, escaped, and offed fellow mascots to eliminate the competition.
- King once pirated a movie and seems to have gotten in trouble for it.
- Now What?: Seeing Baron Samedi after leaving the Owl House, Lilith asks if Camila will pass on now that she knows the truth about her death. The Baron simply chuckles and doesn't give a real answer to the question.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: While chewing out Lilith, Camila says it's her fault Luz couldn't grow up as a normal girl. This hurts Luz deeply and Camila's following attempts to persuade Luz about Abigail being a good person leads to Luz transforming and Camila reacting to her cambion form in fear.
- Point of Divergence: Philip's diary (now a journal) wasn't damaged by echo mice. Rather, its pages were deliberately damaged as if someone didn't want the information in it to be discovered.
- Propaganda Piece: The term is namedropped by Hunter when he learns that Captain Coven comics have become this to exacerbate Fae Awareness. Boscha tells him it's not surprising as the comics were already propaganda.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: While the Clawthorne-Noceda family has gone through more drama, there's still good news: Luz now has a portal door ready to test and thanks to the notes from the SSE, she knows where to go to find Titan's Blood: Eclipse Lake. Of course, we know, or rather, can guess how that goes...
- Rejected Apology
- Related in the Adaptation: The human doppleganger of Amity is now Luz's godsister.
- Repression Never Ends Well
- The Reveal:
- Camila and Manny were neighbors of the Gates siblings and Abigail told Camila about what happened to Angel after they moved to Gatesfield. Jacob Hopkins told her the whole story but he believes Angel was killed by a wild animal.
- After coming to an agreement with the Construction and Emperor's Covens, Cain is sentenced to perform manual labor under Ulrich's watch as punishment for his involvement with Glandus High.
- Lilith hasn't heard back from Flora after applying for the museum job.
- Eda and Sandra ended up sleeping with each other sometime ago after getting drunk.
- The Big Bad Wolf is real and he's a werewitch, the same werewitch who the Owl Beast saved Donna from. An infamous sadist, he's been inactive for a decade so the EC thought he was dead and had no reason to hunt him down.
- Slasher has a personal history with him, and he feared he was the one who kidnapped Skara.
- Luz has developed aichmophobia, the fear of sharp objects, as a result of all her experiences with blades in the war. She recently had a panic attack over giving herself a small cut with a knife by accident.
- The SSE have constructed a portal door after salvaging and deciphering some of the journal's notes. The reason they didn't tell Luz was out of paranoia and their wanting to figure things out on their own.
- Eda has a chess set she never got around to selling and Lilith knows about the game because Belos taught her how to play to improve her strategic mindset.
- Luz has been collecting tabloid articles that she keeps in a box under her bed, including one about the Owl Beast in the Gatesfield Reporter.
- She got the article on Gatesfield from Dipper 2 years ago, since they look up legends and myths whenever she visited.
- Joseph took the mantle of Director Gates from his father in the time before the Nocedas moved to town.
- G.B. Gates had many occupations and was one of the many humans who were led to the Demon Realm by a stranger. He and a few people escaped using a portal and later vanished, with a legend saying he went back to finish off witchkind.
- Eda mentions that she had been hunted down by the Huntsclan before they were destroyed.
- Camila reveals that she named Abigail Luz's godmother and planned to keep in touch after their move. As it turns out, Abigail told Camila to move after Luz was born because of her belief that Gatesfield wasn't safe to raise a child.
- Abigail is a mother with her own daughter, the blonde, tan doppelganger of Amity from canon.
- Riddle Me This: Rupert seems to have a knack for giving riddles that don't make any sense.
- Sequel Hook:
- Luz and Nina are being set up for a Sitcom Arch-Nemesis rivalry now that the latter is a Hexside student and the former sees her as a threat to her "bad girl" title.
- Now that Lilith's revealed she murdered Camila and left the Owl House, there's no telling how she'll have to handle the Baron on her own.
- Shopping Montage: Luz and Amity have one after school, shopping for essentials for Kay and generally enjoying themselves after finally catching a break to relax like kids again.
- Shout-Out:
- Luz calls Nina "Garfield" while arguing with her in class.
- Lambi uses the term "Crash" when supporting the idea of a study group with the rest of the Abomination track students.
- Rupert Colt, the new Beast Keeping groundskeeper at Hexside, is an expy of Rubeus Hagrid.
- The tabloids Luz has been collecting have the following headlines:
- Shovel Talk: Once Willow's alone with Nina, she scares her into submission so she won't misbehave at Hexside.Willow: (darkly) I'm just going to make myself clear. You've hurt the people that I care about and I don't take that kindly. Especially after what you did to Amelia and Gus.
(Nina backed away, her instincts screaming at her to run, but she couldn't muster the willpower.)
Willow: I've agreed to be civil toward you due to your current situation. But if you give me a reason to drop the civil act, like if you go after Gus again or you dare to hurt my girlfriend, Faust and the Emperor's Coven will be the least of your concerns… okay?
(Her tone is both sweet and dark, and Nina's irises dilate while her heart beats quickly in a panic.)
Nina: (gulps nervously) I-I'll be good. - Significant Wardrobe Shift:
- Tom is now wearing a black t-shirt with phoenix designs, navy-blue pants and gray boots, replacing the tattered clothes and cloak he'd been wearing before.
- Now that Nina's a Hexside student, she wears the school's Beast Keeping uniform albeit with ripped sleeves and torn boots to accommodate for her claws.
- Sweetheart Sipping: Luz and Amity share a Boiling Isles boba tea (with eyeballs for boba) during the Shopping Montage.
- Wham Episode:
- The Owl family is fractured by the revelation of Eda killing Angel which leads to a heated argument from Camila over her friendship with Abigail and the fact that she named her Luz's godmother. Lilith confesses to Camila's death, leaves and moves in with her parents, the girls' friendship with the Shadowy Secret Expozers is left as on the rocks after learning they've been researching Philip and confiscate their notes and prototype portal door, and because Camila insulted Luz's life and showed fear towards her, Luz declares she doesn't need Camila in her life and Eda advises her to give Luz some space for the time being.
- Elsewhere, Gus and Hunter have their talk about Hunter's actions but it goes south when Hunter won't consider Gus' statement about the visions being convincing illusions and Hunter storms off after saying Perry deserves to be imprisoned for rebelling against his uncle.
- Boscha (who told Athena about her and Tom considering a relationship) is kidnapped by something.
- Nina officially starts attending Hexside as a student as per the terms of her probation.
- What If?: Discussed. Lilith's confession leaves Amity, Eda and King wondering what would've happened had Luz grown up in the Human Realm, if Camila never died or she'd been raised by Abigail as a witch hunter. Luz tells them to not give it any thought as despite the problems, she's happy with her life and that they're her family.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Luz gets seriously pissed at the SSE when she learns they have a portal door and have been investigating Philip, as Eve was probably kidnapped because of what she knew about them.
