Chapter 121: Coming Off a Little Shystream
Art by Crash X Fusion: Her recovery begins. Hopefully she stays on that path.
Emily's time living with the Shystreams is given some exposition.
Tropes that appear in this Chapter:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Although annoyed that Zee and Emily tag-teamed to defeat him in the Bloball game and Zee can now work with Emily to mess with him, Cross can't help himself from smiling since he can see that Emily's starting to enjoy herself.
- Adaptational Backstory Change: Apple is shown to have lived in the Boiling Isles years before she joined Verosika's posse in Helluva Boss.
- All for Nothing: A fear that pops up throughout the chapter. Aside from Emily's lingering doubts about what she did to secure a future she can no longer achieve, the most prominent example is Hendrick, who had several interests he wants to pursue but because each one is part of a different coven, he's worried choosing one would mean being stuck in that specific coven, so he wasted his time in Titanwood joining cults.
- All-Loving Hero: Hendrick notes that Lindsay befriends jerks and bullies very easily, having gotten his old bully Jerky Turley to turn over a new leaf, helped Danny become a bit nicer during his class presidency campaign, and even came across a pitbull demon that she ended up having a tea party with.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- Lindsay says that Sarah mentioned something about unstable molecules concerning her transformations into Madstream. This implies that like Nina, Lindsay's DNA could be unstable from her body shapeshifting into another form.
- A flashback shows Emily flying on a broomstick only to be reprimanded for it by Margo, and she pulls it off again in the present but wonders how she did it.
- Atrocious Alias: To avoid revealing herself in the farmer's market, Emily introduces herself to Bloom & Colt's friend Mrs. Crissy under the name "Mildred Tracks". She continues using the name when she meets Jackie up until she reveals her identity to the rest of Lindsay and Jackie's friend group.
- Bait-and-Switch: After seeing how wealthy Tabrella is to the point of giving away diamonds and using them in the clothing she designs, Emily seems ready to write her off as a Spoiled Brat. She soon finds that Tabrella is more down to Earth and wishes to focus on her passions and raise her daughter Katie, and hearing her douche of an ex abandoning them leads to Emily transferring her hatred to him.
- Berserk Button: Being reminded of Mel in any way angers Emily greatly now, so when she hears that Hendrick joined the Melvins, she lashes out at him for worshipping that psychopath.
- Big Bad Friend: Downplayed. Gavin ends up serving as the chapter's antagonist by trying to attack Emily during her date with Lindsay Frieday night, but he doesn't do much before Lindsay tears into him for what he did.
- Big Damn Kiss: Downplayed. As thanks for Cross' heroics at both Tibilias Bay and in saving Emily, Lindsay kisses him on the cheek. It gives him enough confidence to attempt asking her out, but Hendrick interrupts them.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Lindsay gives Gavin one after he ticks her off with his "Emily doesn't deserve her" statement.
- Big Sister Instinct: For all of her teasing towards Cross, Zee still cares about her little brother as she had been worried about his "volunteer work" with the Emperor's Coven due to her awareness of the Coven System's dogma.
- Big "WHAT?!":
- Out of curiosity, Lindsay asks Hendrick what coven he's in when Emily questions it; he says none and following a Double Take, Lindsay lets one of these out.
- Andrea draws one of these out as long as she can after meeting Emily.
- Bridal Carry: Tracy and Andrea arrive at the Cortland home with the former carrying the latter in her arms.
- Call-Back:
- The chapter opens up with a Flashback to Emily entering Glandus High to a cover of "Prince Ali", bringing back how Mel used Jafar's reprise while exposing Emily as the Golden Guard in "Brawl Night, Part 2".
- Boris' fake coven sigils are brought up for the first time since "The Ballad of Eda, Part 1". Apparently, he also made replaceable peel-on stickers which Hendrick has been using to avoid being arrested for not joining a coven.
- When talking with Zee, Emily recalls what her personal hell was like and how Cross saving her from Mel was why she learned about his dragon form.
- In "A Coven Day Disaster", Lindsay mentioned wanting to learn Plant and Healing magic if multi-tracking were an option at her school. As Hendrick reveals to Emily, she's already gotten a head start learning how to do so.
- Previously in "Rings of Power";
- Lindsay told Emily that by following her ambitions, her actions could unintentionally hurt people. Here, she comes to learn that by not preventing the siege on the Owl House, Kay could've been one of the victims of Craig's forces.
- Gavin was part of the portion of LOWTH who attacked Emily while Lindsay was hanging out with her, thwarting Lindsay's progress in helping Emily. Here, he does the same thing during their date, and he ends up sinking their chances of ending up together.
- Additionally, Gavin tells Emily that she doesn't deserve Lindsay, something Cross had told her when he confronted her in the Emperor's castle in order to protect Lindsay. While Cross has since learned to trust Emily and Lindsay can take care of herself, Gavin hasn't.
- Calling Your Attacks: During the Bloball game, Zee shouts "Surprise attack!" every time she and her teammate assault their opponents.
- Character Development: When her stay at the Shystream home first began, Emily worked her fingers to the bone doing chores around the farm to prove herself useful. Lindsay and her family would encourage her to take breaks and interact with other people, which allow her to find people who know the kind of indecisiveness she's experiencing with her future. She comes to learn of the ramifications her acts of revenge led to and due to Gavin's intervention, she concludes that she's not ready to develop any romantic relationships until she sorts her issues out.
- Chick Magnet: Cross pretty much falls into this between Lindsay's attraction to him, and Donna & now Tabrella thinking he's handsome.
- Commonality Connection: Emily finds common ground with Zee, Tabrella, and Hendrick, as all of them feel uncertain about their futures either due to unforeseen circumstances or indecisiveness.
- Continuity Nod:
- The moment Andrea meets "Mildred", she mentions seeing Luz wearing Amity's necklace earlier that Toesday and believing they eloped.
- When advocating for Emily to her friends, Lindsay brings up Emily saving her as the Golden Guard on Coven Day.
- Emily unintentionally remembers throwing Gus off of Glandus' roof.
- When Emily asks Lindsay out on a date, the cyclops recounts their kiss in "Resolutions".
- Emily lists all three times she's abused palismen to Lindsay.
- A Day in the Limelight: Emily's the star, and Lindsay is her co-star. The chapter focuses on their side of the previous week as Emily works on the Shystream Farm and gets accustomed to socializing with other people.
- Death Glare:
- Lindsay gives a super effective one to Jojo after Emily blows up at Hendrick and she goes to check on the illusionist. She later gives one to Gavin because of what he says to Emily.
- Luz gives one to Emily upon seeing her hold Kay, which leads to Emily excusing herself.
- Distracted by the Sexy: The moment Emily sees Lindsay's new hero outfit, she blushes hard and can't stop drooling. In the end, Emily bolts from Lindsay's room because she's unable to look away from her crush otherwise.
- Dramatic Irony: As Emily panics over going on a date with Lindsay, she says that Nina probably isn't having any dating problems. This is likely happening before or during the triple date, where Nina would be dealing with Donna crashing her date with Lambi.
- Dude, Where's My Reward?: After seeing Lindsay hug Cross goodbye, Zee asks for one as well which Lindsay provides.
- Everyone Can See It:
- Defied once. Zee questions if Emily and Cross like each other romantically, and Emily tells her they were simply colleagues in the Emperor's Coven. After a few seconds, Zee accepts her answer.
- Played straight twice with Lindsay's crush on Cross; Tabrella announces to their friends that Lindsay likes him and after their date goes wrong, Emily gets Lindsay to admit she like-likes him after saying she knows how she really feels.
- Excellent Judge of Character
- Expy:
- For characters from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic;
- Tabrella is officially stated to be one of Rarity due to her interests in fashion, the clothing she makes is Gem-Encrusted, and her family palisman, Percy, is a gender-flipped Persian cat resembling Opal. Katie is also based off of Sweetie Belle.
- Lindsay and Toto's older brother Hendrick is based off of Zephyr Breeze, Fluttershy's little brother, with the added mooching traits from Francis of Malcolm in the Middle.
- Duke Edbeaton is based off of Prince Blueblood.
- Billy Bob Cortland, Jackie's brother, is based off of Big Mac, Applejack's brother.
- Mrs. Crissy and Egburt Jr are based off of Miss Prissy and Egghead Jr. from the Foghorn Leghorn Looney Tunes shorts, and Lucky is based off of the Barnyard Dog, being a victim of Cluckington's bullying as kids like the dog was a victim of Foghorn's pranks.
- For characters from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic;
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- After Aunt Dorothy explains to Emily how Hendrick is a slacker, she says she wouldn't be surprised if he came back home a week earlier than he said he would. Lindsay doesn't think much of it, then Hendrick chooses that moment to knock on the door and prove her wrong.
- Tracy, suspicious of Emily after meeting her, accuses her of planning to eat Lindsay, to which Emily retorts she's not a cannibal. A bit later, Emily confesses in a game of Truth or Dare that she had to eat her tail as a kid.
- Forgiveness: Subverted. Emily cannot bring herself to forgive Eda for cursing her as a child, but that doesn't stop Emily for apologizing to Eda for attacking Luz. On top of that, Luz (though wanting to be better than Emily) refuses to even humor the idea of trusting her and believes she's going to turn on Lindsay eventually.
- Freudian Slip: Lindsay lets slip to Emily that Katie is Tabrella's daughter, not her sister.
- Gasp!: Lindsay reacts this way when she hears that the tail she saw on Emily in her personal hell ended up being used for food to feed herself.
- The Ghost:
- Boris is indirectly mentioned by Hendrick, who got some fake coven sigil stickers from him.
- Discord is brought up for the first time since "Mischief Gathering", this time being namedropped.
- Given Name Reveal:
- Lindsay and Jojo's older brother is named Hendrick, or Henry for short.
- Tabrella's last name is revealed to be "Diamanto".
- Hard Truth Aesop: No one can be certain their future will turn out the way they want it to. Throughout the chapter, people show that they aren't all that confident in what they hope to achieve; Emily doesn't know what to do now that she's tarnished her reputation, Zee is considering flunking out of school so she doesn't graduate and get forced into the Coven System, Tabrella doesn't know if she wants to follow her dreams or raise Katie, and Hendrick avoided joining any covens because he didn't want to decide on just one that had a specific profession he wanted to have.
- Hate Sink: Duke Eadbeaton, a pompous royal who made Tabrella pregnant and abandoned her and their child by joining the Emperor's Coven, where the scouts came to see him as a conceited asshole.
- Heartfelt Apology: After coming to terms with how her actions stemming from her hatred toward Eda could have caused fatal harm to Luz and Kay, Emily decides to apologize to Eda for targeting her daughter and doing nothing to prevent the siege. Eda appreciates this and understands that Emily will never forgive her, but gives her another apology for giving her the boiling pox curse.
- Heroic BSoD: After Emily and Lindsay return home from their date, Emily goes into her room and violently wrecks the place to get rid of all the negative emotions she had been bottling up when Gavin brought up all of her past misdeeds. Through it all, she's crying and when she's finished, she starts cleaning up the mess.
- Hidden Depths: Being fully aware of the Coven System's dogmatic way of how things are done in the Boiling Isles, Zee admits she would rather intentionally flunk out of school than join the Beast Keeping Coven.
- How Dad Met Mom: As a way to get Emily to relax during her break on her first day working for them, Bloom and Colt regale her with the story of how they met, got together, and had their kids.
- I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: Implied. Emily goes against dating Lindsay because of how things between her and Glinda ended, as it gives off the impression that she doesn't just fear hurting Lindsay but that they stop being friends altogether.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Emily and Lindsay had hoped to make their date memorable for each other. When things go south, Emily puts Lindsay's happiness first and encourages her to hook up with Cross.
- Insecure Love Interest: Emily further displays herself as one towards Lindsay and vice versa due to their nerves towards their date.
- In-Series Nickname: All of Tabrella's friends call her "Tabby", and Jackie usually calls Apple "Apps".
- Internal Reveal:
- Cross informs Emily about Hunter coming through on getting him out of his deal with Adrian.
- Zee gets Emily's side of how her brother's excursion to the Underworld went, and she learns that Emily knows about their Dragon Ancestry.
- Lindsay tells Cross that she knows he was also the Golden Guard.
- Emily met Tabrella, Andrea, and Tracy in addition to Jackie after Lindsay introduced her to them.
- Emily learns from Andrea that Nina's now attending Hexside and joined the cheer squad.
- Emily tells Lindsay that Cross has a mutual crush on her to encourage her to ask him out.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- After learning about how Duke Eadbeaton knocked up Tabrella and cut all contact with her so he wouldn't have to help her raise Katie, Emily hunts the prick down and stabs him to death.
- Back in "The Gold Hexperience", Emily sabotaged Donna and Nina's relationship by informing Donna of Nina's past atrocities. Here, Emily's chances with Lindsay sink because of Gavin bringing up Emily's own atrocities.
- Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: Zee invokes this by leaving Cross alone with Lindsay as the latter gets soda brew, talking with Emily in the meantime.
- Love Cannot Overcome: Though having a strong, caring attraction towards Lindsay, in the end Emily is unwilling to become a couple with her if there's a chance she'll hurt her like she has everyone else once close to her.
- Luminescent Blush: Zee's constant flirting and compliments keep resulting in Emily having these. Emily also heavily blushes when she sees Lindsay wearing her new superheroine outfit.
- Mama Bear:
- Aunt Dorothy is Bloom's surrogate mother, and seems very protective of her considering she shot Colt in the foot for knocking Bloom up before marrying her.
- Parodied with Luz, who shows an extreme protectiveness over Kay after seeing Emily hold her, due to her grudge against Emily. The illusionist even notes how Luz would have strangled her for even being near "her child who she's watching over for her family".
- Moment Killer: After Lindsay kisses him and Cross tries to ask her out, Hendrick enters the kitchen and startles them. He then proceeds to shake hands with Cross, who is internally groaning about losing his chance.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After hearing how the Clawthornes and Amity found Kay and that she was in the Owl House during the siege, Emily experiences an overwhelming flood of guilt as she comes to see that her grudge against Eda and allowing Craig and the Boss to go through with their act of revenge nearly resulted in the Death of a Child, and she breaks down crying while holding Kay.
- My Suit Is Also Super: Veronica and Sarah design Lindsay's new super suit so that it stretches out when she transforms into Madstream, thus fitting both forms of her body.
- Noodle Incident: Lindsay's friends mention dealing with Discord in the past once.
- Ocular Gushers: Andrea sheds these after hearing that Emily isn't hopeful of the possibility that she can make amends with Nina, Tito, and Glinda after what she did to them.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Lindsay lets out a Big "WHAT?!" after learning that Hendrick hasn't joined a coven.
- Tabrella, Tracy, Andrea, and Jackie are stunned that Emily has returned and is now working for the Shystreams as their farmhand.
- Emily panics after seeing Luz's Death Glare due to her holding Kay when Luz and Eda came to pick up Kay after the IFWOT, retreating into a bathroom.
- Lindsay has another one when her parents decide to give her The Talk before her first date with Emily.
- Once More, with Clarity: Several things from throughout the week are more fleshed out; Emily first meeting Zee and Jackie, and Luz and Eda being more tired after the IFWOT on account of running into Emily while she, Lindsay, and Tabrella were babysitting Kay and Katie. Plus, it turns out the reason Emily was nervous around Luz when she came to the Shystream farm in "Brooken Home" was because of the latter event, where Luz and Eda found Emily holding Kay and Luz did not take it well.
- Positive Friend Influence: Ms. Traveler notes that Lindsay, her family, and the Drakescale siblings have become this to Emily, and they're enough of a support group to help her become a better person without Ms. Traveler's help.
- Red Mage: Hendrick tells Emily that Lindsay has been learning healing and plant magic to help her tend to her beasts, hoping that St. Epiderm will approve of multi-tracking soon so she can further her knowledge.
- The Reveal:
- Bloom's mother died when she was an infant and her father wasn't around, so she was raised by Aunt Dorothy. She and Colt met at a county fair and got married after having Hendrick out of wedlock. They lived in Metropelvis until Lindsay was born; afterward, they moved back to the farm and later adopted Jojo.
- Colt came from a rich, modest family and is an alumni of St. Epiderm.
- Apple now works for the Cortlands.
- Zee's dragon form is revealed to have blue scales.
- Jackie has a baby sister named Blossom.
- After escaping the riot during the Bonesborough Brawl, Andrea and Tracy hid out in Hexside's gym locker room for the entire lockdown all weekend.
- In a moment of desparation, Emily ate her tail to avoid starving prior to the Tarot Guild finding her.
- Emily was asked by Lindsay and Tabrella to help babysit Katie and Kay on Wednesday.
- Tabrella is confirmed to be a constructionist like her parents, and her Goal in Life is to be a fashion designer.
- Katie is confirmed to actually be Tabrella's daughter, and not her sister. Her ex-boyfriend, Duke Eadbeaton, walked out on them and joined the Emperor's Coven to keep Tabrella from contacting her.
- Alastor is still in the Boiling Isles, and he & Ms. Traveler have been observing Emily throughout the week.
- LOWTH filled in Lindsay on the stuff Nina told them about when they hung out with Edric at Geist's bar.
- Lindsay seems to have told LOWTH about Madstream, so when Veronica and Sarah created her supersuit, Sarah made it with elasticity in mind so that it'll stretch when Lindsay transforms.
- Lindsay's already started learning different kinds of magic to aid her in treating beasts.
- Danny was even more uptight than he had been up until now, but Took a Level in Kindness thanks to Lindsay, which led to her joining the student council with him.
- Secret-Keeper:
- Upon learning that Andrea is friends with Nina, Emily desperately requests that she not tell Nina she's back, and Andrea agrees.
- After Tabrella became pregnant with Katie, her parents sent her away to a private location and covered it up by pretending her mother was the one having a baby, with her friends coming to check on her. When Felicia came across the truth, Jackie forced her to keep the secret as well.
- Sequel Hook:
- Zee's dragon form is given some buildup to its full reveal.
- Tabrella decides to give Amity a chance in spite of the propaganda against the Fae.
- Hendrick still hasn't joined a coven and it may bite him in the ass sooner than he thinks.
- Emily and Lindsay may have ended up coming to the conclusion that them being together is unlikely to happen, but Emily tells Lindsay to follow her heart and keep fighting for Cross's.
- Emily will be holding off on dating again until she's become a better friend first, but if her interactions with Zee are any potential hints, she'll have someone to ask out when she's ready.
- The deal with the "watcher" and why she's interested in Emily.
- Shipper on Deck: After Emily decides that she and Lindsay wouldn't work out with the illusionist being the way she is now, she encourages the cyclops to get together with Cross so her friends can be happy. Lindsay even highlights that Emily's shipping the two together.
- Shipping Torpedo: Gavin ends up sinking Emily and Lindsay's chances as his bringing up her worst actions makes her realize she's not ready for a romantic relationship, especially after how her last one ended because she was an abusive girlfriend.
- Ship Sinking: Emily and Lindsay's romance culminates with their first date and things go well, until Gavin intrudes and brings up all of Emily's past misdeeds in a horribly misguided attempt to "protect" Lindsay from her. After he's driven away and Emily calms down, she becomes afraid that she'll hurt Lindsay eventually and admits to her that they're not a good match.
- Ship Tease:
- Zee repeatedly and shamelessly flirts with Emily from the moment they meet, constantly making her blush as a result. The Drakescale sister hears out Emily about her crimes and insecurities and shares some of her own, then showcases part of her dragon form to Emily along with offering to show off her full form in private. The two later gang up on Cross while playing Bloball with Emily laughing in a way that Zee admits she likes.
- Cross and Lindsay clear the air about the former serving as the Golden Guard while working for the Emperor's Coven, and Lindsay decides to thank Cross for his heroics with a peck on the cheek. For this, Cross finally works up the nerve to ask her out, but Hendrick's intrusion ruins his chance. The next day, Tabrella mentions Lindsay's crush on Cross out loud to their friends and Emily, which flusters her. Finally on Frieday night after their date, Emily point blank asks the cyclops if she likes the hybrid and when she shows doubt due to Donna asking him out, tells her about Cross's crush before telling her to not give up on him.
- Shout-Out:
- The Distant Prologue has the Glandus students sing a parody of "Prince Ali".
- Emily having a unique laugh and being complimented over it by Zee makes light of the first romantic moment between Ling and Ting-Ting.
- Alastor, Julie, Emily, and Lindsay sing "Jolly Holiday" with altered lyrics.
- A lot of the expies from MLP: FIM have moments like their basises:
- Lindsay's friends bemoan dealing with someone named "Discord" once, which Lindsay doesn't complain about.
- Jackie and Tracy show that they have a competitive rivalry not unlike that of Applejack and Rainbow Dash's that's been prominent since mid-Season 1 in "Fair Weather Friends".
- Andrea says that she and Jackie are distant cousins, a connection that was hinted between Pinkie Pie and AJ in "Pinkie Apple Pie".
- Andrea says she has a Pinkjoy Sense that allows her to tell when things are off. This brings to mind the "Pinkie Sense" first seen in "Feeling Pinkie Keen".
- The Talk: Bloom and Colt come to the realization that they never gave Lindsay this and decide to give her the rundown before she and Emily go on their date. By the time they're done, Lindsay is left red-faced and shocked to her core.
- Tears of Remorse: Emily sheds these once she sees that her not stopping the siege on the Owl House could have resulted in Kay's blood being on her hands had Craig and his forces killed Luz's family, including her.
- These Hands Have Killed: Emily knows she has a lot of blood on her hands and keeps her farming gloves on at all times. This is brought forward to her mind as she is initially against holding Kay because this could corrupt her, but she dismisses this as an issue so long as she leeps the gloves on.
- Thousand-Yard Stare:
- Emily sports this when dared by Andrea and Tabrella to reveal what the worst thing she's ever eaten is.
- This is Lindsay's reaction after her parents finish giving her The Talk.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The scene of Emily and Zee laughing together from the previous chapter's teaser is shown here.
- Troubled Fetal Position: Emily ends up in this position while freaking out over messing up on her date with Lindsay.
- True Companions
- The Un-Reveal: Who is that watching Emily at the end of the chapter, and why is she intent on making Emily miserable?
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Duke Edbeaton gets killed by Emily in his debut chapter. Given how big a douchebag he is, he will not be missed.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- When Andrea asks Emily what her tail tasted like when she had to eat it, Lindsay, Jackie, Tabrella, and Tracy shout at her for doing so.
- Gavin makes another attempt at keeping Emily and Lindsay apart, telling the illusionist that she doesn't deserve Lindsay. This causes Lindsay to savagely chew him out for intruding on their time together again and acting like he knows what's best for her. Because of this, Gavin flies away in regret over what he did.
