Chapter 124: Expect the Unexpected
Art by Crash X Fusion: Let's take names and kill some ass.
As everyone comes to terms with Emily's return and prep for the worst, the newly-appointed Silver Sentry gets down to brass tacks.
Tropes that appear in this Chapter:
- An Aesop
- Ambiguous Situation: The CAT's are unsure of why Belos would need the Draining Spell, as he claims to want to protect the Boiling Isles but the spell would kill them. They're also uncertain if Ulrich is lying to them about the spell.
- The Big Damn Kiss: To cement their becoming a couple, Nina and Lambi share their first kiss.
- Big Damn Reunion: Bria is reunited with her parents, who accept her current mutated state. Asi is also reunited with his father.
- Breather Episode: The chapter is meant to show everyone having a calm Sunday morning to recover from the crazy Saturday prior (and in some cases, rest of the week).
- The Bus Came Back: Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter return after debuting in "A Coven Day Disaster", happily reuniting with Bria.
- Call-Back:
- The chapter opens up similarly to "Hexing Out for a Hero", showing Luz and Nina's mornings following some recent changes.
- Adrian warns Kikimora that while she's gotten her wish to return to the Emperor's castle, she could easily lose that privilege again should she make another attempt on Hunter's life.
- Boils keeping files on people is lampshaded again, as he reveals he has a file on Emily.
- Cliffhanger: Korn and the Cerberus Sisters deal with an octopus monster, Teri approaches Cross for help, and Beel tells Luz that he knows where to find Perry.
- Continuity Nod:
- The band Napoli, Grip, and Hugh were in were one of the bands Slasher produced.
- Tito shows himself to be the captain of the S.S. Nidonna, having been aware of Nina's feelings towards Donna.
- Beel assumes an attack was actually the Emperor's Coven conducting a False Flag Operation again.
- It's noted again that Horace doesn't have a last name.
- A Day in the Limelight:
- The majority of the chapter is dedicated to Emily, having faked her re-dedication to the Emperor's Coven so she could take down the Tarot Guild. This allows Hunter, Hardy Boils and his boys some time to shine.
- Nina and Donna are shown dealing with the news about Emily; Nina talks to Tito and spends time with Lambi, Donna talks with Eda about her, Cross and Lindsay keeping rescuing Emily a secret from her.
- Deconstruction: Of the Romantic False Lead. Nina tells Lambi during their third date that she doesn't believe she has feelings for Donna anymore, and that Lambi represents everything Nina saw Donna to be like in the past. With how much Donna has proven she isn't the person she thought she was, Nina decides to move on from her old attraction and dedicates herself to Lambi, making the ram-horned girl a proper Love Interest and Nina's official girlfriend.
- Empty Nest: After Lilith brings Blazer to her parents' home, Gwendolyn and Dell can't help but wonder if it's because she misses Hunter since he went back to the castle. While Lilith does indeed miss him, she's helping Blazer because she happened to be the only person around who could.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Raine refuses to allow the Parks, Gus, and Viney membership into the CAT's: letting Star work with them doesn't mean they should let anymore children join the rebellion, and Gilbert and Sully need to watch over their daughter and Gus rather than leave them alone. It's their way of not repeating what happened to Perry, as confirmed in the next chapter.
- As much as Emily is furious with Luz for not keeping her promise to keep Sonya alive, she knows the Tarot Guild is the reason for their issues and hones her anger into taking the Guild down.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The whole chapter occurs over Sunday/Scumday morning.
- False Flag Operation: Apparently, Beel thought Mel's attack was staged by Belos in order to make everyone more loyal to him and the covens. Luz soon sets the record straight.Luz: No, Mel was just a crazy goddess bitch.
- Fantastic Racism: Awassi shows herself to be bigoted towards lycans, saying that Nina's "one of the good ones" because she's dating Lambi in a condescending tone, asks Nina to stay out of sight during the Titan service so nobody gets nervous, and shows relief that Slasher won't be attending after he was exposed as a werewolf. This leads to Nina avoiding the service altogether.
- Foreshadowing: While the rest of BIG doesn't react to Emily's ranting about dealing with the Clawthornes, Barbara flinches at the end of it.
- In-Series Nickname: As the Shystreams see Cross off after his visit, Hendrick calls him "Criss-Cross Applesauce".
- Internal Reveal:
- All of Luz's friends and the Smith siblings learn that Amity's returned to the Isles.
- Luz and Boscha then inform their friends all about the former's promise to Emily regarding Sonya and the latter facing Nicole, who wanted her to kill Emily. They also learn about the Alchemist taking Luz, Willow, Nina, Donna, and Cross to the Yokai Realm.
- Cat informs Amity about Jamila and her being part human.
- Nina lets Tito in on what happened the previous day and as a result, Tito realizes that Bria was experimented on by Sonya.
- Emily meets Barbara and learns that she's replaced Skrap in the Boiling Isles Guardians.
- Emily tells Hunter about Pretty and that she had met Kay during her stay with the Shystreams.
- Donna meets the Shystream family for the first time.
- Donna hears out Cross and Lindsay about saving Emily, learns that Cross had also been a Golden Guard stand-in, that Gavin attacked Emily during her date with Lindsay, and about Emily returning to the EC to save Hendrick. Donna also learns that Tabrella, Andrea, Tracy, and Jackie knew about Emily as well.
- Nina admits to Lambi that she's an atheist.
- Scabrina tells Skara and Slasher that she knows Slasher and Calypso aren't her real parents.
- Luz meets Beel for the first time and learns that he's Thorax.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Even if she was acting, Emily is right about a few things; Hunter shouldn't have brought in the Shadowy Secret Expozers to the castle to investigate a murder in spite of his motives, BIG should be doing their jobs instead of focusing on commercials and merchandising, and with the Tarot Guild having known she was staying with the Shystreams, she had to leave them for their safety.
- Karmic Death: After throwing countless witches into the Boiling Lake, Quakus suffers this very fate at Emily's hands.
- Karmic Jackpot: Kikimora basks in getting to be back in the castle after bringing Emily back.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: After agreeing to take down the Tarot Guild's forces by raiding their bases, Hunter and Emily team up with Boils and his boys to wipe them all out to force the ringleaders into hiding.
- Luminescent Blush: Lambi blushes when Nina wraps her tail around her during their date, and both flush when Lambi tells Nina she's easy on the eyes.
- Morality Pet: Emily confesses to Hunter that Kay has become one to her, as she doesn't want to relapse into her old ways and cause pain to those who don't deserve it like she would have with the gillchild.
- Properly Paranoid: Since Emily knows that the Tarot Guild infiltrated the Emperor's Coven, odds are any food she's given is poisoned so she has Pretty smell it just in case.
- Relationship Upgrade: Nina and Lambi become an item in this chapter, Nina saying she's gotten over Donna and is devoting her love to Lambi.
- The Reveal:
- Some of the musicians signed with Slasher's company are trying to end their deals due to his exposure as a werewolf.
- Napoli and his band were one-hit wonders and signed under Slasher's label.
- For bringing Emily back to the castle, Belos has allowed Kikimora to return with her and Pugsley now serving as Adrian's assistants.
- Emily is only acting like she hasn't gotten over her grudge against the Clawthornes to fool any Tarot Guild infiltrators within the Emperor's Coven. She also guesses the Guild tipped Kikimora and Pugsley off about Hendrick.
- Gibson doesn't seem to know that Arthur and Destiny were part of the Tarot Guild.
- Jak was left at the orphanage by his parents three years ago.
- Napoli is a Level eight master of Bard-Kai Do, thus proving he's powerful enough to be a Coven Head.
- Sunny is currently filling in for Calypso as Head Witch.
- Sequel Hook:
- Luz plans on taking down the Inner Demon soon, while King and Hooty start setting up defenses in case Emily decides to storm the Owl House.
- Lilith lets Blazer stay with her parents and decides to look into getting her own place.
- Gibson swears retribution against Alador for ending their partnership, and it's going down on the Day of Unity.
- Amity and Alador sit down for that long overdue talk about Amity's half-fae status.
- Donna decides to discuss Gavin attacking Emily at the next LOWTH meeting.
- Teri approaches Cross asking for his help, while Emily decides to hunt down the Grim Goblin next.
- Beel tells Luz that Terra is responsible for what happened to Perry, and she asks him to tell her everything.
- Ship Tease: For Licross. Cross is both surprised and relieved to hear from Lindsay that Emily decided the girls were better off as Just Friends. Lindsay, on the other hand, seems to be getting a bit more affectionate as she hugs Cross goodbye again before he takes his leave.
- Shout-Out: The song "You're Moving Out Today" by Carol Bayer Sager plays while Hunter, Emily, Boils and his boys are hunting down Tarot Guild members.
- String Theory: Emily has a revenge board for the Tarot Guild she keeps invisible under her bed at the castle to track any leads she has on them.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Emily doesn't like Hunter because he's Luz's friend and Hunter doesn't like her because...well, she's Emily. Nevertheless, the illusionist doesn't trust anybody else in the Emperor's Coven to help her take down the Tarot Guild and asks for his help; after some convincing from Flapjack, he agrees.
- Tempting Fate: As he leaves the Shystream farm, Cross tells Elio that things just might work out. As soon as he says that, he finds his best friend in a bush wanting his help.
- Throw the Dog a Bone:
- With Slasher being a member of his coven, Napoli offers his protection to the Brookes until Calypso is back on her feet.
- After hearing about what her mother said to Nina, Lambi decides to ditch Titan service and go on a date with Nina.
- Lindsay assumes keeping Emily safe has earned her an immediate dismissal from LOWTH, but Donna doesn't kick her off the team as she did what they were supposed to do as heroes; help people.
- Underestimating Badassery: The Violet Dragons don't see Napoli as anything more as an overconfident nerd. Only when he kicks their butts using Bard-Kai Do do we all see that he truly has mad skills.
- The Un-Reveal:
- Say Belos is serious about keeping the Isles safe. Why use the Draining Spell, or is someone else going to use it?
- None of the Guild members that are questioned explain why they can't give up the Producer's identity. Did Terra do something to them?
- What was in Boils' file on Emily?
- Is Teri in control when he approached Cross, or is the Grim Goblin pretending to be Teri?
- How long has Beel known that Terra has Perry, and why did he wait until now to tell Luz?
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Emily drops Quakus to the Boiling Sea before he gets any establishment.
- Welcome Back, Traitor: Emily's not so much a traitor as she is a Nominal Hero, but her return to the Emperor's Coven is only a cover for her manhunt against the Tarot Guild.
