Chapter 43: Unemployment Filing
Art by Crash X Fusion: Now, insolent little youth...Prepare to DIE!
The Clawthorne family struggles to make some money so while Amity goes to find work, Luz experiences how tough it is to make fast cash.
Tropes that appear in this Chapter:
- Adaptational Explanation: Lilith doesn't have any money to spend because her funds were from the Emperor's Coven, so her credit card was frozen leaving her broke.
- Adaptation Name Change: The Cerberus from Hercules is named Spot here.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- It seems as though the crocodile has followed Capt. Hook to the Boiling Isles despite his claims that he slayed the beast. It turns out to be Amity casting an illusion.
- Just when it looks like Eda's about to be arrested by a coven guard, she happily greets him, revealing it's Larry.
- Batter Up!: Amity shifts some abomination goo into a bat to hit Capt. Hook with.
- Beware of Vicious Dog: Spot at first is vicious to Luz until she tames him. He still acts aggressive towards Pain and Panic.
- The Bus Came Back: Levi Thians appears for the first time since "Blighted by the Light" last season.
- Call-Back:
- Amity brings up her and Levi being mugged early on in the last book and Levi dropping out to support his family.
- For the first time since Luz stopped using it, the term "Little Miss Perfect" is used in reference to Amity, by Amity herself no less.
- The Cameo:
- Viney and Emira briefly appear meeting up for a date with each other while Luz is being chased by Spot.
- The Golden Guard is seen on the Emperor's ship attempting to capture the pirates.
- Puck's shadow appears near the end after finishing a task for the Baron.
- The Coachman is shown at the end of the chapter.
- Cassandra Truth: Captain Hook refuses to believe Amity's statement about Peter Pan being dead and his body turning to dust.
- The Cavalry: Levi and the wild witches ambush the pirates, giving Goonla and his crew the numbers to fight back.
- Crush Blush: Viney's response to Emira flirting with her.
- A Day in the Limelight: Amity's the star of the A-plot, with Levi getting some focus as a result.
- Death Glare:
- Amity shoots one when she sees the Golden Guard.
- The moment Pain and Panic tell Luz they can't pay her, she fires a very piercing one at them.
- Downer Beginning: The chapter opens on Amity crying and leaving Bonesborough Library right after she got fired.
- Dude, Where's My Reward?: Luz goes through near hell trying to catch Spot and is understandably pissed when Pain and Panic admit they can't pay her for helping them. Hades pays, but with some kind of token, aggravating Luz further that he didn't even bother to pay with snails.
- Epic Fail: All Pain and Panic were supposed to do was take Spot for a walk and they somehow lost him in the Demon Realm.
- Failed a Spot Check: Some of Goonla's crew members cast looks of suspicion towards Amity that she doesn't notice.
- Fate Worse than Death: Pain and Panic thought being Spot's chew toys was bad, Hades decides to make them his ex-wife's kid's playthings as punishment for losing Spot.
- Firing Day: Just look up at Downer Beginning: Malphas had to fire Amity because parents don't feel safe with her being around their kids.
- Foreshadowing: Given Pain and Panic's reactions to Hades' punishment, his kid is not someone you'd be eager to meet.
- The Ghost:
- Puck is constantly indirectly mentioned by his alias, Peter Pan.
- Luz mentions she talked to Bill again to learn what the Pines were up to.
- Belos and the Blight family are brought up.
- Malphas the Master Librarian is mentioned by Amity (initially incorrectly as Dryfus.)
- Barcus is mentioned by Luz when she thinks of a way to subdue Spot.
- Luz mentions Eris when she tells Hades he's not the first god she's met.
- Hades mentions that he has a daughter.
- Got Volunteered: King is forced to go with Amity while she works on the Thians' boat: he only agrees so long as Luz gives him a week's worth of leftovers and does nothing to help Amity as she works.
- Hidden Depths: Seeing as Luz knows about "Cujo", it's implied that she's a fan of Stephen King.
- I Lied: Pain and Panic only hired Luz to find Spot for them so the beast wouldn't make chew toys out of them.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite the different circumstances, Lilith and Hooty still become friends obtaining all the ingredients needed to make a scrying potion offscreen. When the girls and King return home, they find Lilith treating Hooty's fire bee stings.
- The Pines twins still battled zombies and have explored Ford's bunker and faced the shapeshifter.
- Internal Reveal:
- Luz learns about the Pines Twins discovering Ford's hidden bunker.
- Eda, King and Lilith learn what happened to Levi while Luz is informed that he dropped out of school.
- Amity tells Levi about her mugging. He also learns she now holds disdain towards the Coven system.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Goonla only acts hard on Amity because he's stressed over his company possibly being bought up, not because he has something against her.
- Lampshade Hanging: We don't get an answer on how Captain Hook and Smee (or the Coachman) came to the Demon Realm or what happened to Neverland and Tinker Bell.
- Locked Out of the Loop:
- Levi and his father's crew had believed Amity was still in support of the Coven System, hence their initial distrust in her.
- The kids are really surprised to return home to find Lilith and Hooty are now friends and question when it happened.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Luz reacts accordingly when she realizes the dog she was hired to find is a Cerberus.
- Amity can't believe her eyes when she sees Capt. Hook in the flesh.
- Hook is horrified when the crocodile seems to appear before him and passes out.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: As Peter Pan always came back no matter how many times Hook believe he killed him, he refuses to believe Amity's claims that he died at someone else's hands.
- Papa Wolf: Goonla's first priority when the pirates attack is to tell Levi to take his sister and Amity below deck.
- Pet the Dog: Amity mentions Malphas didn't want to let her go from her job; he just had no other choice.
- Point of Divergence: The events of "Separate Tides" go in a very different direction: the bounty collector, although still attempting to scam Eda, gives the Clawthornes the money for their bounties because he fears Luz. And since the Selkidomus hasn't been seen for weeks, everyone decides to find different ways to make money; Amity goes to work on the Thians' fishing boat with King watching her (with Salty being Adapted Out), Luz tracks down a lost dog named Spot (who turns out to be a Cerberus belonging to Hades) and Eda, at Larry's suggestion, becomes an anonymous informant for the Emperor's Coven feeding information to him that can be used to protect the citizens. On top of that, Eda doesn't learn and use the light glyph by the end of the chapter while Amity loses her job at the library much earlier.
- As Bill told Luz, Mabel was the one who raised the dead at the party celebrating Gideon's downfall in "Scary-oke".
- The Reveal:
- Captain Hook and Smee followed Puck to the Boiling Isles, obtained a new crew made up of witches and demons and have acquired witch's staffs.
- Levi and his father, Captain Goonla, have been smuggling wild witches out of the Boiling Isles and trading them off to other ships to travel to other lands out of the Emperor's grasp.
- Hades married, had a kid, got divorced and became co-ruler of the Underworld.
- Larry tells Eda that while the muggings have died down, people are now disappearing in broad daylight.
- Two more things about Levi: his unhatched sibling is a girl and one of his muggers had blue hair, which makes Amity realize they weren't the same thugs who jumped her.
- Lake Lacuna has become a dumping ground.
- A Scar to Remember: Levi now has a scar on the arm that was broken during his mugging.
- Sequel Hook:
- That token Hades gave Luz just might come into play later.
- What the Baron wants with Camila's glasses is anyone's guess.
- Shout-Out:
- How many Disney characters debut in this chapter? Let's see:
- First, there's Captain Hook, accompanied by Smee with a new crew of pirates aboard the Jolly Roger II (referencing how the original ship was destroyed in Return To Never Land) with Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys and Neverland being mentioned.
- Then Hades, Pain and Panic (the baddies of Hercules) appear before Luz with Pain and Panic using the same little boy forms they used on Herc in the movie.
- And finally, the Coachman from Pinocchio appears at the end of the chapter putting up posters for Pleasure Island.
- The song for this chapter is "Revenge Will Be Mine" from Once Upon a Time.
- At one point Luz calls Spot "Cujo", the same name as the Stephen King book and its titular character.
- How many Disney characters debut in this chapter? Let's see:
- So Proud of You: King happily brags about finally making a rebel out of Amity after she admits she did the right thing by helping with the smuggling.
- The Stool Pigeon: At Larry's suggestion, Eda becomes an anonymous informant for the Emperor's Coven feeding him info he'll give to his superiors so they can split the reward money.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Pretty much King's reaction to Hooty having a new friend.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Amity fighting the pirates of Hook's crew was shown in Book 2's teaser.
- Trauma Button: Hook hasn't forgotten the crocodile, so the mere sound of an alarm clock will make him panic.
- Unfazed Everyman: Hades is surprised that Luz isn't impressed with him.Hades: You do realize that you're in the presence of a god, right?Luz: You're not the first I've met. Tell Eris that Luz said hi, by the way.Hades: Ugh, kids these days. They can never be pleased.
- Villain Song: Hook gets one with the inclusion of "Revenge Will Be Mine".
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Seeing that she always transforms in times of stress, Luz focuses and manages to summon her cambion wings, effectively starting to learn how to control her alternate form.
- We Will Meet Again: Before retreating, Hook namedrops this as a warning to Amity.
- Wham Episode: Captain Hook and Smee have traveled to the Boiling Isles along with the Coachman, Larry informs Eda about a pattern of kidnappings, Puck's shadow steals Camila's glasses for the Baron, and Luz starts to gain control over her cambion form while Hades believes she could be useful to him one day.
- Wham Line:
- Levi stating one of his muggers had blue hair.
- When Capt. Goonla questions who's robbing his ship, the culprit responds with this:
"Your worst nightmare. For you and your crew are at the mercy of... Captain James Hook!"- King looks in a barrel and tells Amity there's someone inside.
- Wham Shot:
- The description of the two head pirates pretty much should give away their identities before you finish reading them.
- Puck's shadow giving the Baron Camila Noceda's glasses.
- The black gloved hand putting up a poster for Pleasure Island.
