"Today, we capture Eda, once and for all."
Lilith: Maybe you are stronger than me, but that made me work smarter! I became sharp, crafty!
Eda: A lapdog for a tyrant!
Eda: A lapdog for a tyrant!
Original air date: 8/22/2020
Production code: 119
In the Emperor's Castle, Lilith is having a conversation with Kikimora. She promises with Kikimora that she will capture Eda soon.
The next day, the Emperor's Coven, led by Lilith, attempts a raid on the Owl House to capture Eda; they are utterly beaten and humiliated by Hooty. Eda laughs at their attempt and brags about how nothing and no one can get the better of her, except maybe her curse. As if on cue, the curse suddenly begins taking over Eda's body. While Luz and King deal with the Owl Beast, Eda finds herself in a dreamscape recreation of the night she was cursed. When she sees the shadowy figure, she voices annoyance with the continued mystery and demands that the shadow reveal its face. Before she could get a good look at the unknown individual who cursed her, she awakes to Luz and King with numerous empty bottles of elixir covering the floor. The curse, having continued to become stronger, partially darkened Eda's gem. Luz worries for her, but Eda reassures Luz to not be so worried and sends Luz off to school.
The students of Hexside are being taken on a field trip to the Emperor's Castle. At first, Luz doesn't intend to go, given how much trouble the Emperor's Coven had caused Eda, but she changes her mind when Willow and Gus reveal to her that the Emperor is in possession of a magical hat that can cure any curse.
Upon arrival at the castle, the students are led on a tour by Kikimora, who educates them about Emperor Belos and how he and the Boiling Isles came to be where they are today, as well as showing them many of the rooms in the castle and many priceless objects that belong to the emperor. Luz notices Lilith is about to meet the emperor, so she breaks from the group and follows Lilith. She sees Lilith enter the emperor's throne room and peeks in through the keyhole. She sees Lilith promise to him that she would capture Eda as soon as possible, or she'll be kicked out of the Emperor's Coven.
As the Hexside field trip group is leaving, Luz stays behind so that she could get the hat. As she is about to make her way to the relic room, she is met with Willow and Gus who reveal that they had found out about Eda’s curse from notes that Luz had left unattended and wanted to help Luz get the hat. Together, they pass the guards and enter the relic room. While trying to steal the hat, they are discovered by Lilith and Luz is captured. Lilith sees this as just the weakness she needed that she could exploit against Eda. Lilith orders Willow and Gus to notify Eda about Luz being captured.
Once Eda receives the message that Lilith captured Luz and is challenging her to a witches duel, she immediately thunders into the castle in a more extreme display of magic than she has ever displayed in the known past.
During a trade of insults in the midst of the duel, Lilith accidentally reveals that she was the one who cursed Eda. While Eda and Lilith are fighting, Luz manages to break free from the magic bubble put around her by Lilith. Lilith laughs as she points out to Luz that the bubble was for her protection, and then proceeds to knock Luz off the bridge and down into the pit of spikes below. Eda saves Luz, at the cost of her using up all her magic and transforming into the Owl Beast. Before succumbing to the curse, she gives Luz her last words and sends Owlbert to save Luz.
Eda, now transformed into the Owl Beast, is captured by Lilith. Lilith captures Owlbert as well and tells Luz "Go back to your world. This one's ours." Luz returns to the Owl House, where she is then happily greeted by Hooty and King, the latter asking what happened to Eda. Luz then bursts into tears, with both Hooty and King comforting her, as the episode ends with "To be continued...".
Tropes:
- Aesop Amnesia: A mild one with Eda. Similar to episode four she again hides details about her curse (it's getting worse, as she needs more elixir to turn back and more magic to keep it at bay), even though this could severely endanger Luz and King.
- All for Nothing: Luz's attempt to save Eda ultimately fails. The Healing Hat is destroyed and Lilith informs her it's just a piece of junk so it wouldn't help anyway. Even worse, her failed attempt at stealing the hat gives Lilith the opportunity to capture Eda who, in her efforts to save Luz, uses up her magic and succumbs to her owl-beast form. Even if Luz didn't try to steal the Healing Hat, there's nothing stopping Lilith from simply grabbing Luz on the way back to Hexside.
- Always Someone Better: What stemmed Lilith to curse her sister; she was always mad that Eda was stronger and better in casting magic, thus making her spit out the Wham Line in anger. Even in the present, despite Lilith having grown to the leader of the Emperor's Coven, Eda being handicapped by her curse, and using Luz as a human shield, Lilith is still unable to best her sister in a straight-up fight.
- And I Must Scream: Eda describes being in her cursed form as a Fate Worse than Death, and it seems that part of it is that when she's in the curse form, she continually relives her being cursed, unable to do anything but relive the moment that she was cursed in the first place, oblivious to what her body's doing, futilely trying to find out who cursed her and why.
- And Then What?: Willow and Gus reveal they found Luz's plans to steal the Healing Hat in her notebook. They then ask her "What Were You Thinking?" She had forgotten to create an alibi for returning to the bus, so Gus uses his illusion powers. They say they'll help her so she doesn't get caught.
- Animation Bump: The whole episode shows a lot more fluid movements than before but it really kicks it up a gear during Eda and Lilith's fight.
- Answer Cut: In the last scene, King asks a mournful Luz, "Where's Eda?" Cue the credits, which show the Emperor's Castle.
- Anti-Magic: Witch's wool repels powerful spells, and witches use it to make cloaks. Eda is making one to protect herself from the Emperor's Coven, but decides to make one for Luz instead, leaving it on the table next to King's cake.
- Aside Glance: Lilith does this to the viewers after taking out Willow.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: After seeing Hooty ravaging the Emperors Coven Eda gives a genuine compliment to the House Demon showing that she does care about him despite his overbearing traits.Eda: Hooty, ah you're a thorn in my side. But you always dig your way into my heart.
- Badass Boast: Eda gives one during her fight with Lilith.Lilith: It's sad to see you slowing down, sister. Tell me, is it the curse?
Eda: Maybe it is the curse. But then how pathetic are you, that you can't best me at my worst?! - The Bad Guy Wins: Lilith successfully defeats and captures Eda, and Luz is forced to retreat.
- Bathos: At the very end of the episode, Luz trudges back to the Owl House and finds King popping out of a cake just before the final gut punch of him asking where Eda is.
- Batman Gambit: A darker one; Lilith uses Luz as a bait for Eda, knowing she would come to save the girl.
- Battle Aura: Eda is so enraged by Luz being taken hostage that she cuts loose, wreathing herself in a golden aura of magic so intense that she appears as a silhouette with glowing yellow eyes. Eda's aura also briefly takes on the form of an owl.
- Beware the Silly Ones:
- Hooty beats Lilith and her squad of soldiers effortlessly while dancing and playing with them.
- Eda herself as well. Despite the kooky and apathetic demeanor she's displayed all season, when Eda fights seriously against Lilith, she makes it clear that her claim of being the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles is no idle boast.
- Boring, but Practical: How Hooty takes out the Emperor's Coven members who have come for Eda. He just stretches underground and closes the gap faster than they can get any spells off and smacks them around with his stretched out form. He decimates everyone save Lilith who misses a shot that brings a tree down on herself.
- Break the Cutie: This episode proved to be a real blow to Luz. She's captured by Lilith and forced to watch as her mentor succumbs to her curse just to save her, then Lilith dismisses her as unimportant. Luz silently walks back to The Owl House, breaking down after King asks where Eda is.
- Brick Joke: King makes a cake and has Eda put him in it to jump out of right as Willow and Gus arrive with knowledge of Luz being held hostage. When Luz finally returns home the following morning, he pops out and has to catch his breath.
- Broken Pedestal: Whatever respect they had left for Lilith completely vanishes for Luz and Eda upon learning that she was the one who cursed Eda.
- Cain and Abel: We learn that Lilith was the one who cursed Eda out of jealousy.
- Call-Back:
- Luz initially thinks that Emperor Belos wants to capture Eda because he has a crush on her. This is a reference to the first episode, where it was established that Eda is a Dude Magnet, and that those who fall in love with her can go to quite extreme lengths to get a date with her.
- It's been shown that high fives aren't a normal gesture on the Boiling Isles, so when a disguised Luz gives one to a member of the Emperor's Coven, he looks at his hand in confusion.
- At the end of "Wing It Like Witches", Lilith vows to return to capture Eda with reinforcements, and both Eda and Hooty respond that they'll be waiting for it. Everyone makes good on their word at the beginning of this episode.
- The Caper: After Willow and Gus agree to help Luz steal the Healing Hat for Eda, Luz, being Luz of course, eagerly begins to invoke this.
- Casting a Shadow: One of Eda's attacks is to conjure several shadowy apparitions of Hooty to restrain Lilith before a fire attack.
- Class Trip: The main plot of the episode gets set in motion when Luz attends a field trip to the Emperor's Castle.
- Cliffhanger: Eda's curse takes her over completely after she exhausts her magic saving Luz, Eda and Owlbert are captured by Lilith, and Luz ends the episode crying, distraught over what just happened. The last thing viewers see is Luz completely heartbroken and the words "To Be Continued" over a black screen.
- Close-Call Haircut: When Eda shows up at the Emperor's fortress after Lilith captures Luz, Lilith's gloating is cut short by Eda hurling her staff at her and narrowly missing her head, clipping her hair and punching a crater into the castle wall behind her.
- Coincidental Dodge: When Lilith blasts at Hooty, he ducks down to look at a leaf, thinking that it's a bug. Her blast hits a nearby tree instead, which then topples over onto Lilith herself.
- Continuity Nod: Amity's leg is still broken from the end of "Wing it Like Witches" and because of that she is absent from the field trip.
- Cowardice Callout: After Lilith abruptly uses a captive Luz as a Human Shield in the midst of her and Eda's duel when the latter gains the upper-hand, Eda calls her a coward for the dirty move. To Eda's credit, Lilith has shown in the lead-up to the duel that she's willing to use dirty moves and low blows when desperate to get what she wants. Lilith doesn't seem fazed by her sister's callout, focusing on forcing Eda to expend her magic.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Hooty absolutely clobbers a group of Emperor's Coven goons Lilith leads to attack the Owl House.
- Willow and Gus try to attack Lilith with a plant arm and an illusion double, respectively. She easily tosses both aside.
- Eda's rematch with Lilith makes abundantly clear that Lilith stands absolutely NO chance against her sister in a straight-up fight, with Eda utterly dominating the battle until Lilith starts using Luz as a Human Shield. Even then, Lilith is still unable to land any substantial hits on Eda and only wins due to Eda burning through enough of her magic that she can't hold off her curse.
- Darkest Hour: The Healing Hat is destroyed note , Eda uses up her magic to save Luz which results in her succumbing to her curse, Lilith captures her sister along with Owlbert, and Luz is forced to retreat back to the Owl House with no way of getting Eda back.
- Dark Lord on Life Support: Hinted at with Belos, who eats Palismen to sustain himself and is seemingly attached to what appears to be the literal heart of the Boiling Isles.
- Deal with the Devil: Belos has promised Lilith that he will heal Eda's curse so long as Lilith brings her in. While Lilith believes, likely out of desperation, that Belos can and will remove the curse, Eda is not so convinced and knows full well that what Belos truly wants is to have Eda under his thumb one way or the other.
- Death of Personality: Eda fully succumbs to her curse, and any semblance of her is gone.
- Double-Meaning Title: Or triple, in this case.
- Luz — the agony she goes through in trying (and failing) to find a cure for Eda's curse, then watching Eda succumb to said curse, and breaking down in tears, likely guilt-ridden.
- Eda — learning that it was her own sister that cursed her as a child, succumbing to her curse, and then being captured.
- Lilith — the pressure and fear she goes through when Emperor Belos makes an Implied Death Threat if she fails to capture Eda. It's also implied that she feels regret for cursing Eda.
- Downer Ending: Luz returns to the Owl House just as King pops out of a cake, broken upon seeing Eda succumb to the curse as she breaks down crying.
- Do Wrong, Right: Gus and Willow tell Luz that stealing from the Emperor is dangerous, and downright treason. So they're going to help her pull it off a "borrowing" instead since she can't do it alone.
- The Dreaded Pretend Tea-Party: Hooty has already made short work of Lilith's guards, but really does want to play. The guards end up forced to play tea party as Hooty's prisoners. Luz shudders at the sight.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The Golden Guard has a silent cameo in Belos' throne room.
- Establishing Character Moment: Emperor Belos is introduced heavily breathing and then breaking a Palisman to consume its magic through his eyes, which revitalize him. Then he tells Lilith of the conditions needed to lift Eda's curse, namely forcing Eda to join the Emperor's Coven, before reminding her of the consequences of failure. All of this establishes Belos as a ruthless ruler who won't take no for an answer, and yet is also afflicted with a curse not unlike Eda.
- Fate Worse than Death:
- Eda nonchalantly plays this straight by saying that being trapped in her cursed form is much worse than simply dying.
- The Emperor makes being banished from his coven this. The way he threatens Lilith, "You do know what happens to covenless witches, do you?" makes it clear he's not bluffing.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Luz peers out the window at her departing class, she sees what looks like her turn around and smile right in the direction of the window. This implies that whoever is creating the illusion of Luz with her class is somewhere nearby the real one to know where and when to make the illusion look. Sure enough, Willow and Gus are right behind her, the latter being the one casting the illusions of the three below.
- Foreshadowing: Amity's only line is to tell a picture of Lilith to "Shut up". Now if only the real Lilith actually took the advice.
- Glass Smack and Slide: One of the coven guards slams into the Owl House's kitchen window from Hooty smacking him around, then slides off.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: Two teenagers and a preteen manage to sneak through the Emperor's Castle using nothing but low level magic and disguises without anyone being aware of their presence until Luz accidentally sets off the security in the relic room.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Eda uses all her magic to save Luz, at cost of succumbing to her curse.
- Hidden Depths: King reveals that he's good at baking and decorating. He works on a cake for Luz from a mix, and plans to surprise her with it.
- Hope Spot: The kids actually grab the hat as well as try out a few relics. Then Luz activates the security system by accident, alerting Belos to their presence, and Lilith blasts a hole in the wall, right where they are. Gus and Willow try to use their powers to protect Luz, but Lilith swats them aside and then shoos them on her staff to deliver a message to Eda.
- Hostage Situation: Lilith grabs Luz and has Willow and Gus fly to Eda to tell her about it, forcing Eda to travel to the Emperor's Castle to rescue her.
- Human Shield: Lilith uses Luz as a literal human shield to stop Eda from using any attacks on her during their duel.
- Implied Death Threat: Belos gives one to Lilith when he threatens her with losing her place and getting thrown out of his Coven if she continues to fail to capture Eda.
- Innocently Insensitive: The Hexside students wish Lilith good luck when she goes see the Emperor, not aware that she's going to get chewed out for failing to capture Eda. Then again Kikimora requested it so it's more of a Stealth Insult.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Eda proudly tells Luz that she has had no problem with her curse for a week, and then feathers suddenly sprout all over her body, moments before she starts to transform into her owl form.
- Insult Backfire: Lilith mocks Eda for being slowed down by her curse. Eda immediately turns it back on Lilith by saying that it only makes her look more pathetic for being unable to defeat her even with that handicap.
- Jumping Out of a Cake: King bakes a hollow cake to jump out of when Luz returns home. He's nearly out of breath when he finally does it because Luz takes a lot longer than he had expected.
- Kick the Dog: After capturing Eda in her owlbeast form, she cruelly tells Luz that Eda is with her "real" family.
- Last Chance to Quit: Once Lilith has captured Eda, she allows Luz to go free, not viewing her as any real threat and simply telling her to back to her own world where she belongs.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: With Luz's life threatened, Eda completely foregoes any banter this time around and shows us just why she’s known as the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles.
- Literal Metaphor: As Eda describes Luz as someone who "bites off more than she can chew", she holds up a picture of Luz partaking in an Eating Contest.
- Loophole Abuse: Subverted. Gus says that stealing from the Emperor is illegal. "Borrowing," however, isn't; as long as Luz returns the hat then she'll be in the clear. It turns out that Belos doesn't care about loopholes, and recognizes that Luz is human when she trips the security system.
- MacGuffin: The Healing Hat.
- Magic Eater: Emperor Belos cracks open a Palisman and absorbs the magic inside to rejuvenate himself.
- Mama Bear: Eda gets dangerous when she learns that Lilith has Luz in her grasp, easily outmaneuvering Lilith at every turn. Lilith has to use Luz as a Human Shield to even the odds.
- Morality Pet: Both Eda and King admit that Luz is this for them, since the day she arrived. Eda even thanks her for being in her life before succumbing to her curse.
- Mordor: Downplayed with the Emperor's Castle, which at night is a foreboding, dark place with a tower constantly spewing flame and ash. When the Hexside students arrive, however, it's a bright, white tower with no fire that looks relatively inviting despite the giant triangular pit, so they make an effort to keep up appearances.
- Multi-Part Episode: As promised with "To Be Continued", this is connected with the second part, "Young Blood, Old Souls". Sadly, unlike most kids' shows these days, the air dates for each are a week apart.
- Mundane Object Amazement: King refers to a box of cake mix as dark magic.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Poor Luz. All of her actions in this episode are motivated entirely by wanting to save Eda from her curse, but she ends up inadvertently making things worse for Eda:
- Not only does staying behind in the Emperor's Castle to steal the hat when the rest of the school leaves turn out to be All for Nothing, since Lilith destroys the hat anyway, but this gives Lilith the chance to capture her and use her as a hostage to draw Eda out, which wouldn't have been nearly as easy if Luz had left with her classmates.
- She literally does this when Lilith puts her inside a barrier bubble to trap her inside and use her as a shield. After Luz pops it to break free, Lilith explains that the bubble was used to protect her, and since Luz is free, Lilith drops her off the bridge to endanger her so Eda would get distracted.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Somewhat subverted. When Eda arrives to save Luz, Belos does not engage her directly, instead choosing to simply sit back and watch as Eda and Lilith duel. This isn't to say he could not fight if he wanted, more so than he was delegating this task to Lilith. He is also there to make sure Lilith won't get any ideas about losing or conceding the duel.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Eda has one when she says she hasn't been affected by the owl beast curse in weeks...right before feathers sprout out of her. Cue her calmly saying "Uh oh." before completely transforming.
- Luz has one when she realizes that Belos knows she, Willow and Gus are trying to steal the Healing Hat.
- Lilith has one after letting her Wham Line slip.
- The Omniscient: Belos somehow knew what Luz, Willow and Gus were up to inside his castle, speaking to them telepathically before the vault is sealed by metal doors.
- Once More, with Clarity: That strange silhouette with the large eyes who cursed Eda? It's Lilith with her large glasses.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Early on, Eda is shown wearing a yellow scarf while inside the Owl House in the morning—Eda wouldn't be the type of person to wear something like a scarf indoors. Later, we find out that she was only using it to hide her darkening gem from the others.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Eda means business when she doesn't say anything cheeky to Lilith.
- On a more subtle note, even the normally loud-mouthed and tonally oblivious Hooty looks genuinely concerned and doesn't say anything when Luz returns home despondent, and silently reaches out along with King to comfort her.
- Pass the Popcorn: The Emperor watches with mild amusement as Eda goes toe-to-toe with Lilith.
- People Puppets: Hooty sticks himself into the hood of an Emperor's Coven member and uses him to attack the others.
- Propaganda Piece: In-universe; Kikimora's tour teaches that Emperor Belos brought order to the Boiling Isles by establishing the Coven system. This is illustrated with a mural depicting him holding a beaming orb above a crowd cheering in reverence. Later in private, Belos threatens Lilith with banishment from his coven and the punishment that entails for any further failures to capture Eda, with cuts back to the mural overlaid with the sounds of screaming.
- The Reveal: Who cursed Eda? Her own sister.
- Rewatch Bonus: Watch episode 4's ending again after realizing who cursed Eda.
- Saying Too Much: Lilith angrily blurts out that she was responsible for cursing Eda just to get one over on her sister, then hurriedly tries to cover by claiming to have the cure if Eda will just hear her out.
- Shoo Out the Clowns:
- Hooty doesn't speak after the Cold Open and the tea party scene. He also doesn't say anything weird when Luz returns home.
- Amity's only scene is to show her with a broken leg (from the previous episode) in her bedroom. Good thing too because she wouldn't want to be there when shit hits the fan...
- Willow and Gus are sent to the Owl House via Lilith's staff to send a message to Eda before disappearing from the episode.
- King going out to make a cake and doesn't appear until the very end.
- Shout-Out: The cake mix King uses advertises "no soggy bottoms".
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Lilith pleads with Eda that the Emperor will heal her curse, Eda responds thusly.Eda: Don't believe everything that bonehead tells you. He doesn't want to heal me, he wants to control me.
- Silent Credits: Because of the episode ending on a cliffhanger, the credits are rolled over a shot of Emperor Belos's castle with the only sound being the sound of the flames surrounding it, and a heartbeat.
- Special Edition Title: No joke. Luz is definitely not in the mood for an afternoon stroll. The end credits after the whole heartbreaking chapter just has silence with Belos's beating heart and castle in the background. It all fits the mood very well.
- Stress Vomit: Implied. When Luz sees Belos consume a Palisman during his talk with Lilith, she gasps in shock before covering her mouth with both of her hands and running offscreen.
- Threat Backfire: Luz warns Lilith that Eda will come after her if she tries anything, but that's exactly what Lilith wants.
- To Be Continued: The final scene of the episode, replacing the normal credits. Sorry, Luz. No afternoon stroll for you.
- Totem Pole Trench: At one point, Luz, Gus, and Willow pull this off by pretending to be another member of the Emperor's Coven. In a twist, they form a centaur-like stack with Luz as the head and Willow and Gus providing the legs.
- True Companions: Willow and Gus are willing to aid Luz in "borrowing" the Healing Hat once they read her notebook and realize why she needs it.
- Unseen No More: After a whole season of anticipation, we finally see Emperor Belos in person.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Luz was initially going to skip the field trip altogether until Willow and Gus tempted her with seeing the Relics and she read the Healing Hat's description.
- Vagueness Is Coming: According to Kikimora, Belos's plans are dependent on something called "The Day of Unity", which is drawing near, and the Emperor's Coven is stepping up their efforts to capture witches that don't join Covens, Eda in particular being a focus, for something related to that day.
- Wham Episode: Eda fully succumbs to her curse... a curse brought upon by her own sister.
- Wham Line: The bombshell as to who cursed Eda:Lilith: You always thought you were better than me! That I could never beat you in anything!
Eda: I am better than you.
Lilith: THEN WHY WERE YOU SO EASY TO CURSE?! - Wham Shot: The mysterious figure entering a young Eda's room being Lilith.
- Would Hurt a Child: Lilith does not have any qualms in putting Luz in danger if it'll make Eda angrier and accelerate her curse.
- You Have Failed Me: Very nearly played straight. Belos is none too pleased with Lilith's repeated failure to capture Eda after promising him a month prior that she would succeed. He then Lilith gives until twilight to get the job done and warns that the next failure will be her last one.
- You Monster!: Luz delivers a well-deserved one to Lilith after she forces Eda to completely succumb to her curse just to save Luz.
"And Luz...Thank you...for being in my life."
