Chapter 83: How to Save a Life
Art by Crash X Fusion: What you seek lies in front of you, as does what you fear.
After learning Puck is alive, the Clawthornes and their allies race against the clock to stop the Inner Demon from using him to cause any more damage.
Tropes that appear in this Chapter:
- Abusive Parents: While not his father, the Inner Demon's interactions with Puck has shades of this.
- Apology Gift: As an apology for everything he's done since getting possessed, Puck gives Luz the portal key telling her to keep it out of Belos's grasp.
- Armor-Piercing Question: During Luz's face off with Demon-Puck when the latter claims that Puck is too far gone, Luz counters it by asking why he didn't kill Amity, Gus, and Willow when he had the chance. This caused Demon-Puck to hesitate.
- Big Damn Heroes
- Big "NO!": Right as Boscha steps over the roof, Luz stops her shouting one of these. Before Luz can apologize for everything, Demon-Puck shouts one which devolves into a Rapid-Fire "No!".
- Body Horror: In Hunter's Mind Rape, he's cornered by Belos who proceeds to take his monster form with all of Hunter's former friends, two of his current ones, his ex-boyfriend, the Clawthorne sisters, and his father figure's faces embedded into it, and with blood coming out of all their mouths.
- Broken Tears: Boscha sheds these after seeing the ashes of her home.
- But Now I Must Go: After everything he's done since being revived, Puck decides to leave the Boiling Isles once and for all. Luz wonders if that means she and Amity will never see him again, but he leaves without answering her.
- Calling Your Attacks: Luz dubs her and Boscha's Fire Punch Combination Attack the "Burning Hell Inferno".Boscha: (catching her breath) Is that... what you're calling it?Luz: ...for now.
- The Cameo:
- Horace and the Blight Twins are seen as illusions messing with people while Boscha travels through Hexside's halls.
- Willow appears in an illusion of Boscha bullying her and another with Amity and Gus when Skara suffers from the fear fog.
- Several other characters appear when the parties at Hexside are confronted by their fears besides the above characters; Belos, Nina, Slasher, Nicole, Bria, Darius, Emily and Yuki.
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: To deviate from her capability to forgive Puck, Luz asks him to explain how he came back to life.
- Content Warning: "The following chapter contains scenes that deals with heavy subject matter that could be triggering to some readers. Viewer discretion is advised.".
- Continuity Nod:
- Bo is shown a flashback of Mattholomule's encounter with Bria in "Domino Effect".
- Eda being assaulted and working as a burlesque dancer in the past are brought up by the illusion Eda.
- A Day in the Limelight: Puck's the driving force of the A-plot and Boscha's the star of the B-plot, both coming together and culminating in a face-off between the former against the latter and Luz.
- Demonic Possession: Ever since Puck's body reformed in the Forest of Fear, the Inner Demon has been possessing and using him to commit all his heinous deeds.
- Disney Death: As revealed with the deaths of the Coachman, Meteora and now Puck, death is temporary to a Fae but can damage their minds.
- Driven to Suicide: Ultimately narrowly subverted. The Inner Demon drives Boscha to commit suicide since her mother and boyfriend are in jail and convinces her that her friends don't care about her. She jumps off the roof at Hexaide, but Luz saves her at the last second and brings her to her senses.
- Elemental Punch: Both Luz and Boscha use fire punches as their finishing move against Demon-Puck.
- Face Your Fears: Demon-Puck uses knives in their duel but despite her PTSD acting up and her continuously getting cut, Luz fights on. It ends up inspiring Boscha to help her, the triclops standing up to both the Fae who hurt her twice and the mind demon who's been messing with her head.
- Fighting from the Inside: Camila tries several times to break Puck free of the Inner Demon's influence by reminding him of his friendship with Luz, and he eventually does resist the Demon long enough for Prof. Snope to send Ms. Traveler into his mind to purge the Inner Demon from it.
- Fighting Your Friend: Thanks to the Inner Demon, Luz has to fight Puck after she keeps Boscha from committing suicide.
- Forgiveness:
- At long last, Luz and Boscha finally apologize for all the crap they've done to each other and make peace.
- Averted with Luz and Puck: while they make amends for how things ended between them, both of them need time to see if she can forgive the latter for his actions under the Inner Demon's control.
- Subverted with Bo regarding Gavin and Angmar towards threatening her to get to Mattholomule, as that receives no resolution at the end of the chapter.
- The Ghost
- Glomp: Skara is quick to hug Boscha the second she sees she's okay and Cat & Angmar follow suit. Beck hugs her while leaking Tears of Joy, and Samwitch pulls her in for a hug that Boscha quickly embraces.
- He's Not My Boyfriend: Averted. Bo doesn't dismiss Demon-Puck's remark when he calls Matt her boyfriend.
- Horrifying the Horror: The Inner Demon can only scream right before Ms. Traveler forces him out of Puck's mind, the last thing we see of this scene being her eyes practically on fire.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Besides Ms. Traveler, Bo's eyes also glow icy blue when she confronts Gavin and Angmar about Matt once all the craziness is done.
- Immediate Sequel: After the flashbacks, this chapter picks up from right after Luz learns Puck's the Shapeshifter in the last one.
- Internal Reveal:
- The Clawthornes discover that Puck is alive and under the Inner Demon's control, informing Ms. Traveler and Kitsuni soon after.
- Skara, Amelia, Cat and Bo learn Hunter's friends with Boscha, Gavin, Angmar and Ukla and that he told them he's the Golden Guard.
- Lilith learns about Snope's past with the Inner Demon.
- Bo is informed about Matt being bullied by Bria, Gavin and Angmar and them threatening her to manipulate him.
- Dell and Gwen discover some of Eda's unsavory past.
- Luz learns from Puck that Eve's in the Human Realm, the Baron claimed the Coachman's soul, and that Meteora's no longer in the Demon Realm.
- I've Come Too Far: Twice Puck says he's too far gone to ever fix what he's done, both times because the Inner Demon tells him that.
- Jerkass Ball: Puck, a known Jerk with a Heart of Gold, has a grip on this due to the Inner Demon's control over him, taunting everyone he antagonizes throughout the chapter.
- Kick the Dog: Demon-Puck destroyed their portal door in front of Luz to break her spirit and hopes of bringing her friends home. It doesn't work as Luz was already working on her own door and it just gets Boscha to stand up to them.
- Lampshade Hanging: After deciding to expel Horace, Faust wonders to himself if he has a last name.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The Inner Demon if forcibly ejected from Puck's mind by Ms. Traveler, and
Word of God confirms he'll be out of action for a while, ending his reign of terror in the "Human Realm" Arc. - Locked Out of the Loop: Neither Puck nor the Inner Demon were aware that Luz was making her own portal door when Demon-Puck destroyed it.
- Manchild: Namedropped. Camila calls the Inner Demon one of these when she holds Demon-Puck back from going after Luz and Boscha, which helps them clock him off the roof. Eda also all but calls Faust one.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Upon being freed from the Inner Demon's control, Puck himself is remorseful for everything he's done since his revival.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Inner Demon falls for this twice. First, he has Puck reclaim Camila as his shadow only for her to encourage Puck to break free of his control, then he destroys Puck's portal in front of Luz to make her lose hope of bringing her girlfriend and her friends home but this leads to Boscha giving Luz some backup.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Ms. Traveler drives the Inner Demon out of Puck's mind, actually scaring him in the process.
- Once More, with Clarity: The chapter starts with a series of flashbacks, from Puck's death in "The Rescue", to his battle with Kitsuni. Specifically, the scene of Puck testing his portal door on Eve and stranding her on Earth, as mentioned in "Back to the Falls", is shown. We also see Puck knocking out Gus and Willow in "The Hunting Witch".
- Rapid-Fire "No!"
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: As Camila regains control of her shadow form and restrains Demon-Puck, she chews out the Inner Demon for being a disturbed manchild who torments children for kicks.
- The Reveal:
- After Puck's body turned to dust, said dust reformed in the Forest of Fear, where the Inner Demon took possession of Puck and fished out the portal key from the lake.
- Death in general is temporary for a Fae as long as their soul is intact. However, they can suffer Laser-Guided Amnesia, Sanity Slippage or it just takes longer. If the soul isn't intact, the Fae either doesn't come back or goes insane.
- Threatening Bo was actually Gavin's idea, not Bria's and Gus and Eileen were threatened as well.
- Eda is implied to have nearly committed suicide.
- Horace hasn't returned to Hexside since the Glandus War ended a week ago.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Subverted. Bo is about to go off on Gavin and Angmar for what they did to Matt, but Luz stops her as she doesn't want to play into the Inner Demon's mind games anymore.
- Sequel Hook:
- Bo obviously isn't going to be letting Gavin and Angmar off the hook for what they did to Matt anytime soon.
- Puck leaves the Boiling Isles for good: whether Luz and Amity will ever see him again is unclear.
- Now that Luz has the portal key, how long can she keep it a secret from Belos?
- Grimhilde claims Dr. Facilier's shrunken head for some reason.
- With the portal door complete, Luz, Eda, King, Lilith and Camila prepare to use the key to access the Human Realm.
- Shout-Out:
- The chapter title is that of the iconic song by The Fray.
- Demon-Puck calls Snope "Snoopy" when he meets him and the Clawthornes.
- Queen Mab, a character referred to in Romeo and Juliet, is a fallen Fae mentioned by Puck.
- The confrontation between Julia and the Inner Demon is reminiscent of the confrontation between Mary Poppins and The Antichrist in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, even taking some of Mary's dialogue from the comic.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: How Puck made his exit after making peace with Luz, leaving while her back was turned.
- Tears of Joy: Cat, Angmar and Beck all let loose with these as they glomp Boscha after seeing she's okay.
- Underestimating Badassery: The Inner Demon really didn't take Ms. Traveler as seriously as Inner Puck did, and he pays the price.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Faust doesn't show any gratitude for being saved by Eda.
- The Un-Reveal:
- How did Puck paralyze Boscha: did he use some paralysis method or did she actually freeze from fear?
- How did Demon-Puck summon fear fog into Hexside?
- Wham Episode: Puck is revealed to have been possessed by the Inner Demon since his revival and is nearly used to destroy Hexside along with several of Luz's friends, Boscha is saved from committing suicide and she & Luz apologize to each other for their past actions, Bo realizes that Gavin and Angmar messed with Matt, Puck gives Luz the portal key and informs her that Eve's on Earth before leaving the Isles permanently (but not without making peace with Luz and asking her to pass on an apology to Amity), Grimhilde claims the shrunken head of Dr. Facilier, and Matt finishes the portal door, so the Clawthornes prepare to use it to enter the Human Realm. Oh, and Faust expels Horace who's completely disappeared.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The parties who follow Boscha to Hexside are subjected to their worst fears or nightmarish revelations that Demon-Puck shows them:
- Skara and Bo have to face the Coachman in his dragon form. Separately;
- Skara experiences Amity, Willow and Gus becoming werewolves and maiming her, then Nicole having Boscha burn her, her father and Nina for being lycans.
- The Inner Demon makes Bo relive being captured by the Tarot Guild and reveals that Matt had been strong-armed by Bria, Gavin and Angmar under threat of harming her.
- Cat is pestered by sentient organs while Amelia has to run from Nina.
- Gavin, Angmar, and Ukla face Emily who cuts down Yuki with the former two also being lectured by Bria for "abandoning" her, and Gavin is told by Darius that he sees Hunter as a better son.
- Gwen and Dell witness their daughters mutilating themselves after hearing about Lilith chastise her mother while Eda mentions her experiences while living as a criminal.
- Hunter faces Belos's monster form which has the faces of Luz, Eda, Amity, Willow, Gus, Lilith, Boscha, Darius, Gavin, and Edric embedded into his body and all their mouths leaking blood.
- Skara and Bo have to face the Coachman in his dragon form. Separately;
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Used as an Armor-Piercing Question when Luz points out that Demon-Puck stranded her friends instead of just killing them on the spot.
