"No one wants to think they've wasted their life following the wrong person. You just gotta find something big to change their minds."
Luz: What is this place?
Hunter: You know exactly where we are, human. You got us trapped in the Emperor's mind!
Hunter: You know exactly where we are, human. You got us trapped in the Emperor's mind!
Original air date: 4/23/2022
Production code: 216
A magical mishap transports Luz and Hunter into a very twisted and nightmarish new mindscape of a familiar foe: Emperor Belos.
Full Recap
Luz wakes up and finds herself in a dimly lit corridor with huge paintings hanging on the walls, gasping upon noticing the painting in front of her. On the painting, it depicts Emperor Belos holding his staff while looming over her, King, Lilith, and Eda in her Owl Beast form. Below the painting, a plaque which says "Triumph Over Wild Magic" can be seen. Scared, Luz stands up and starts retreating, wondering where she is. Behind her, Hunter appears and accuses her of playing stupid, yelling at her for causing both of them to be trapped inside Emperor Belos' mindscape, which greatly shocks her. Luz finds it unbelievable that they really are in Belos' mind, so Hunter reminds her about what led to them being trapped here in the first place.
The scene cuts to earlier at the Night Market, where Hunter was on a mission to capture some criminals that he saw after he heard rumors that they are planning to invade Emperor Belos' mind with wild magic. He notices three suspicious figures in hoods nearby and follows them into an alley, finding them about to activate something on the ground.
Concurrently, Eda, Luz, and King were also at the Night Market, there to buy the witch's wool needed to fix Luz's cloak. While Eda knocked on the door, Luz and King proceed to communicate with each other via walkie-talkies. When the shopkeeper, Prim, finally opened the door, she showed Eda the oracle mark on her hand and informed Eda that, because Belos warned of the dangers of wild magic, she had joined the Oracle Coven and was no longer associating with wild witches like her. After she slammed the door shut, Luz angrily complained about Belos' lies and tyranny, causing Eda to remind her to pipe down. She then added that Belos has been in power for more than fifty years, and unless she can find proof that Belos is evil, the situation won't change. Sensing that Luz was dejected, Eda consoled her by saying that they will figure out something together, and as she walked away, Luz was saddened by how Eda was being treated, pondering how she could prove Belos was evil. King told Luz that nobody wants to follow the wrong person and encouraged her to find something big to prove herself, and just after he headed away, Luz noticed Hunter and followed him.
Right as Hunter was about to arrest the three suspicious individuals, Luz pounced on him from behind and both fell to the ground. Hunter was astonished, but quickly became frustrated when the mysterious figures escaped. During his heated confrontation with Luz, he accidentally stepped on a neon yellow vial dropped by one of the individuals on the ground. This activated the circles drawn earlier by the individuals, and both teleported into Belos' mind.
Back in Belos' mindscape, Hunter laughs at Luz for thinking that he'd help her prove that his uncle is evil, but she believes she can discover the truth herself. Right then, she notices that Belos' mindscape is very different compared to Willow's, and Hunter explains that mindscapes are reflections of their individuals, claiming that he had read a lot on this subject. Walking toward a painting of Belos guiding citizens away from a fire, he reveals that his family died because of wild magic; Belos took in the survivors of said magic and dedicated his life to the coven system, which is why he is so well-liked on the Boiling Isles. Hunter also claims that the sigils on people's wrist help protect them from themselves and make the Titan happy. At that moment, he observes another painting beside the current one, which depicts the moment when he inherited his mechanical staff. He proudly informs Luz that he's the youngest scout to become the Golden Guard, while also admitting that he never found out what happened to his predecessor, questioning why Darius is saddened in the painting.
As Hunter focuses on the painting, Luz is about to touch the painting she saw earlier when she hears a child sobbing nearby. She follows the source of the sound and finds a masked child figure sitting behind a pillar nearby, crying and becoming frightened by her presence. Luz hesitantly calls out Belos' name, right as Hunter does the same, and turning around, Luz finds a manifestation of Belos moving towards them. Hunter thinks that this is Inner Belos and kneels before him, asking for his assistance to help them return to the physical world. The figure stops in front of Hunter, and the child figure emerges from behind it, shaking his head and hands desperately at the duo. Luz looks at him with a puzzled expression when suddenly, the dark figure starts roaring and transforms itself, revealing multiple glowing eyeballs on its body. Sensing danger, Luz rushes forward and activates some fire glyphs, creating an explosion with blasts strong enough to send her and Hunter flying backwards. They crash through a wall and fall down to a dark void. Luz proceeds to take out a hover glyph and grabs on to Hunter, then activates it before they hit the ground, slowing down their fall, but they impact the ground face-first.
When they sit up, they find themselves in a strange place filled with dead trees that are covered in paintings, and Luz surmises that they are in Emperor Belos' real mind. Hunter finds that absurd and mentions the gallery above them, but Luz theorizes that those are made up of Emperor Belos' lies. Right then, Eda's voice calls out from Luz's walkie-talkie, asking where she is right now, also informing Hunter that his friend wants to talk to him. After hearing Flapjack's chirp from the speaker, Hunter immediately grabs the walkie-talkie and asks him if he's okay, but Luz takes the walkie-talkie back and reveals that they are inside Emperor Belos' mind. Shocked, Eda asks Luz if the Inner Belos has spotted them yet, which she confirms as the dark Belos, and Eda comments that there cannot be a second Inner Belos upon Luz's prompting. She warns Luz about the possibility of being devoured in Belos' mindscape, and King assures her that they'll find a way to get them out as soon as possible. As a parting message, Eda instructs Luz to not lose the walkie-talkie, and Hunter tells Flapjack that he will be home soon, while also whispering to him that he loves him, something Eda and King find cute.
Suddenly, they hear a sound of leaves rustling nearby. Not far away, the child figure from before emerges. Luz walks towards him, calling him kid Belos, thanking him for saving them earlier. The dark Belos starts shrieking, causing kid Belos to grab Luz's arm. Luz wonders if Kid Belos is Belos' sense of guilt, but Hunter denies this, claiming it's his sense of innocence. She thinks that kid Belos can keep them safe, and suggests to him that he can probably show them who Belos really is, to which he slowly nods. From somewhere, dark Belos shrieks once again, prompting Kid Belos to drag Luz away. He brings her over to a painting and jumps through it. Before Luz can follow suit, Hunter exclaims that she can't invade Belos' memories, but Luz retorts that it's a way to survive, and she pulls Hunter through the painting.
Back at the Owl House, Eda orders Hooty to lock down the house and instructs King to grab all the textbooks he can find as she prepares to make the return spell to save Luz and Hunter. Hooty proceeds to barricade all the windows, summon spiky plants, and latch the main door. Outside, Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf observe in the bushes. Raine wants to go into the house, but is stopped by Darius. Right then, they hear Hooty chatting with Flapjack. When he mentions Hunter, Darius immediately rushes forward, but Raine halts him. They then write on the ground to communicate with Darius and Eberwolf, telling them that they know how to get past Hooty.
Back in Belos' mindscape, Luz and Hunter follow Kid Belos through the memory: a part of Bonesborough during the Deadwardian Era. Multiple people have gathered in front of a stage, where Belos appears and gives a speech about their lives dishonoring the Titan, in addition to mentioning the destruction wild magic caused to his family. He then claims to have been shown the healing light which shines in nine hues, and then pulls an illusion of nine different lights, which amazes everyone. Suddenly, explosions start to go off, and Belos exclaims that he has been found by the wild witches ordering everyone to run. Luz and Hunter dash away, and when they stop, they witness Belos scolding an old Golden Guard for almost injuring him just now. He informs the Golden Guard that he will be going to the next town, telling him to "put on a bigger show" with the remaining explosives, so he ignites the fuse before following Belos into a building. Right then, kid Belos appears and picks up a sack from the ground before jumping through another painting, Luz and Hunter following in suit. Back outside, Luz declares that Belos was lying about being attacked, but Hunter justifies this by suggesting that Belos was perhaps using a special technique to get people to listen to him for the greater good. Suddenly, dark Belos' claw emerges from the memory, and Luz and Hunter quickly pursue kid Belos through another painting.
This second memory is at the Knee. Luz and Hunter follow kid Belos to a crowd of people standing in front of Belos. Behind him, a town has gone up in flames. Belos claims that wild magic caused that to happen, and tells everyone to imagine what it would do to them. He then professes that he can make their magic pure again, just like the Titan intended, so everyone holds out their wrist and let the Golden Guard tap on it to create a coven sigil. The sigils proceed to drain magic out of everyone, causing them all to collapse to the ground in agony. The past Golden Guard notices that they are still alive, although only barely, but Belos pays no mind and orders him to gather everyone's palismen as Luz and Hunter watch the memory in horror and dismay.
The duo then follow kid Belos out of the memory, and Luz barks that Hunter can longer deny that Belos is trying to hurt people, but Hunter — becoming increasingly angered — denies this, as he claims that Belos was perfecting sigil magic. Hunter chases down kid Belos, but before he can catch him, dark Belos appears from behind and tries to attack him and Luz. The duo immediately accompanies Kid Belos to another painting, and when Hunter hesitates, Luz whisks him into the memory.
Inside this memory, Luz is stunned to find out that Belos has already rebuilt the portal she destroyed before, and Hunter confesses to helping rebuild it. Right then, the Collector appears in an abstract shadow form. Belos asks if he can do anything for them, and they proceed to ask if the draining spell is ready, as they can't wait for the Day of Unity. Belos simply says that they will have their fun when that day comes. Both Hunter and Luz are baffled when suddenly, a projection of Hunter from the past rushes up to Belos. Hunter has the key he had just taken from Amity back at Eclipse Lake, and apologizes for disobeying Belos' orders. Before he can explain further, Belos immediately snatches the key away and orders him to leave. After Hunter departs, the Collector re-emerges and murmurs that they thought Belos would be mad at Hunter, but he replies that he won't be as Hunter does exactly what he is told, whenever he tells him that the Titan has big plans for him. The Collector thinks that Belos is having fun destroying the "things" he made, and he denies this, saying that it hurts when "he" chooses to betray him every time. Both Luz and Hunter are shocked to hear all this, especially Hunter.
The duo then comes out from the memory along with kid Belos. Luz believes that Belos is trying to wipe out all life in the Demon Realm with the usage of sigils, and Hunter walks away, unable to reply. Luz reassures him that he doesn't need to go back to the castle, but then, she notices another part of the mindscape that has various discarded and broken Golden Guard masks and staffs on the ground with paintings depicting what Belos did to Hunter's predecessors. Luz spots kid Belos nearby, standing inside a circle made out of a rope and various bottles of liquids, throwing a cracked Golden Guard mask into a fire. Luz immediately rushes forward to pull him away while Hunter stomps out the fire. Right as Luz wonders what kid Belos is doing, the dark Belos reemerges inside the circle and screeches at her and Hunter. All of a sudden, it warns the duo to get away from kid Belos, claiming that he is dangerous. Luz is shocked to see that "Inner Belos" is made up of various palismen, and Hunter suddenly realizes that instead of this figure, the real Inner Belos is the child who has been with them the whole time. Behind them, kid Belos starts crying, but it soon turns into maniacal laughter as he takes out a wooden sword and strikes the rope on the ground. This activates the circle and launches the bottles onto the figure. The rope then tightens around it, causing it to fall.
Kid Inner Belos proceeds to transform into an adult inner Belos in front of them, and glad that he finally caught the monstrous figure, he explains that they are all souls of the palismen whom he had killed before the figure fades away. Inner Belos then grabs a palisman and destroys it in front of Hunter, whom he thanks for helping to distract the figure; Hunter confronts Inner Belos about what he did to his predecessors and their family, realizing that the destruction by wild magic was a lie all along. Upon hearing that, Inner Belos' face turns cold, and he expresses disappointment that Hunter is starting to turn against him. He cryptically remarks that he, out of all the Grimwalkers, looked the most like "him", much to Hunter's confusion. Just then, Hunter gets dragged down into the ground, and Luz tosses her jacket to him so he can gain leverage. Despite her best efforts, he gets sucked into the ground along with her jacket, and Belos remarks that he was hoping that Hunter would last longer than the previous Guards. Enraged, Luz angrily spits that she will tell everyone about the Day of Unity, and lying about being able to talk to the Titan, but Belos calmly admits that the whole situation was prolonged, revealing himself to be a witch hunter. Luz is aghast at the idea that the people were being led by a witch hunter, though Belos tells her to not judge so quickly; he summons a picture frame from the ground, and shows Luz some scenes of herself meeting Philip Wittebane, indirectly admitting that he is, in fact, Philip himself. Luz is in denial about this revelation and breaks down in tears. Philip asks Luz to call him by his real name, but she can't bring herself to do it as scenes from when she addresses Philip play on the frame.
Back at the Owl House, Eda is frustrated that she can't successfully create a return spell, but without warning someone knocks on the door, and Hooty comes back with a bouquet of flowers from a "secret admirer". Thinking that the flowers are rigged, Eda tells Hooty to throw them away, but they then wilt causing the contents wrapped inside the petal to dissolve in the vase and create a yellow liquid. Eda picks up the note attached to the flowers, and is surprised to learn that the liquid is a teleportation potion to the mindscape. She rushes to the window to look outside just in time to see someone running away. Eda then notices that according to the note, the potion still needs a large power source in order to make it work, prompting King to grab Amity's glove. Eda is hesitant about using it, as Luz requires that last bit of Titan's Blood to get back home. However, King retorts that Luz will never make it back home if she can't even escape from Belos' mind in the first place.
Back in Belos' mindscape, Eda tries to reach out to Luz using her walkie-talkie, informing her that they will be pulling her and Hunter out. Unbeknownst to her, Luz has lost her walkie-talkie. Belos advances towards her, forcing her to retreat in fear. He informs Luz that perhaps they were destined to meet, but she barrages him with questions about Hunter instead. Belos informs her that Hunter was a "better version" of an old friend of his, and now because of Luz, he will have to create another Grimwalker. She can't understand why Belos is doing all this, and he simply mentions that he is trying to save humanity from evil. Unable to reach Luz, Eda tells her that she will start counting down soon. Luz snaps that Belos is the one who is evil, to which he replies that he can't reason with crazy, attempting to attack her with a bladed hand. Luz cowers in fear, but a thick wall made with vines suddenly bursts out from the ground and blocks Belos' blade - revealing Hunter - who has used Luz's plant glyphs to save himself. As Eda starts counting down, both Luz and Hunter rush towards the walkie-talkie. Right as Eda counts to one, the duo manage to reach the walkie-talkie on time, and Luz screams at Eda to activate the return spell right away. The spell then activates, successfully bringing the duo back to the Owl House.
At the Owl House, Eda and King are elated to have the duo back, and Eda asks Luz and Hunter if they are okay. While Luz sits expressionless, Flapjack flies towards Hunter, who realizes that Belos knows what happened. Knowing that he can't return to the castle, Hunter panics, takes off his cloak, and runs out of the house. Luz chases after him, but stops, and King and Eda both inquire about what happened. Luz turns to them as tears start to form in her eyes...
*Cue happy credits music*
The scene cuts to earlier at the Night Market, where Hunter was on a mission to capture some criminals that he saw after he heard rumors that they are planning to invade Emperor Belos' mind with wild magic. He notices three suspicious figures in hoods nearby and follows them into an alley, finding them about to activate something on the ground.
Concurrently, Eda, Luz, and King were also at the Night Market, there to buy the witch's wool needed to fix Luz's cloak. While Eda knocked on the door, Luz and King proceed to communicate with each other via walkie-talkies. When the shopkeeper, Prim, finally opened the door, she showed Eda the oracle mark on her hand and informed Eda that, because Belos warned of the dangers of wild magic, she had joined the Oracle Coven and was no longer associating with wild witches like her. After she slammed the door shut, Luz angrily complained about Belos' lies and tyranny, causing Eda to remind her to pipe down. She then added that Belos has been in power for more than fifty years, and unless she can find proof that Belos is evil, the situation won't change. Sensing that Luz was dejected, Eda consoled her by saying that they will figure out something together, and as she walked away, Luz was saddened by how Eda was being treated, pondering how she could prove Belos was evil. King told Luz that nobody wants to follow the wrong person and encouraged her to find something big to prove herself, and just after he headed away, Luz noticed Hunter and followed him.
Right as Hunter was about to arrest the three suspicious individuals, Luz pounced on him from behind and both fell to the ground. Hunter was astonished, but quickly became frustrated when the mysterious figures escaped. During his heated confrontation with Luz, he accidentally stepped on a neon yellow vial dropped by one of the individuals on the ground. This activated the circles drawn earlier by the individuals, and both teleported into Belos' mind.
Back in Belos' mindscape, Hunter laughs at Luz for thinking that he'd help her prove that his uncle is evil, but she believes she can discover the truth herself. Right then, she notices that Belos' mindscape is very different compared to Willow's, and Hunter explains that mindscapes are reflections of their individuals, claiming that he had read a lot on this subject. Walking toward a painting of Belos guiding citizens away from a fire, he reveals that his family died because of wild magic; Belos took in the survivors of said magic and dedicated his life to the coven system, which is why he is so well-liked on the Boiling Isles. Hunter also claims that the sigils on people's wrist help protect them from themselves and make the Titan happy. At that moment, he observes another painting beside the current one, which depicts the moment when he inherited his mechanical staff. He proudly informs Luz that he's the youngest scout to become the Golden Guard, while also admitting that he never found out what happened to his predecessor, questioning why Darius is saddened in the painting.
As Hunter focuses on the painting, Luz is about to touch the painting she saw earlier when she hears a child sobbing nearby. She follows the source of the sound and finds a masked child figure sitting behind a pillar nearby, crying and becoming frightened by her presence. Luz hesitantly calls out Belos' name, right as Hunter does the same, and turning around, Luz finds a manifestation of Belos moving towards them. Hunter thinks that this is Inner Belos and kneels before him, asking for his assistance to help them return to the physical world. The figure stops in front of Hunter, and the child figure emerges from behind it, shaking his head and hands desperately at the duo. Luz looks at him with a puzzled expression when suddenly, the dark figure starts roaring and transforms itself, revealing multiple glowing eyeballs on its body. Sensing danger, Luz rushes forward and activates some fire glyphs, creating an explosion with blasts strong enough to send her and Hunter flying backwards. They crash through a wall and fall down to a dark void. Luz proceeds to take out a hover glyph and grabs on to Hunter, then activates it before they hit the ground, slowing down their fall, but they impact the ground face-first.
When they sit up, they find themselves in a strange place filled with dead trees that are covered in paintings, and Luz surmises that they are in Emperor Belos' real mind. Hunter finds that absurd and mentions the gallery above them, but Luz theorizes that those are made up of Emperor Belos' lies. Right then, Eda's voice calls out from Luz's walkie-talkie, asking where she is right now, also informing Hunter that his friend wants to talk to him. After hearing Flapjack's chirp from the speaker, Hunter immediately grabs the walkie-talkie and asks him if he's okay, but Luz takes the walkie-talkie back and reveals that they are inside Emperor Belos' mind. Shocked, Eda asks Luz if the Inner Belos has spotted them yet, which she confirms as the dark Belos, and Eda comments that there cannot be a second Inner Belos upon Luz's prompting. She warns Luz about the possibility of being devoured in Belos' mindscape, and King assures her that they'll find a way to get them out as soon as possible. As a parting message, Eda instructs Luz to not lose the walkie-talkie, and Hunter tells Flapjack that he will be home soon, while also whispering to him that he loves him, something Eda and King find cute.
Suddenly, they hear a sound of leaves rustling nearby. Not far away, the child figure from before emerges. Luz walks towards him, calling him kid Belos, thanking him for saving them earlier. The dark Belos starts shrieking, causing kid Belos to grab Luz's arm. Luz wonders if Kid Belos is Belos' sense of guilt, but Hunter denies this, claiming it's his sense of innocence. She thinks that kid Belos can keep them safe, and suggests to him that he can probably show them who Belos really is, to which he slowly nods. From somewhere, dark Belos shrieks once again, prompting Kid Belos to drag Luz away. He brings her over to a painting and jumps through it. Before Luz can follow suit, Hunter exclaims that she can't invade Belos' memories, but Luz retorts that it's a way to survive, and she pulls Hunter through the painting.
Back at the Owl House, Eda orders Hooty to lock down the house and instructs King to grab all the textbooks he can find as she prepares to make the return spell to save Luz and Hunter. Hooty proceeds to barricade all the windows, summon spiky plants, and latch the main door. Outside, Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf observe in the bushes. Raine wants to go into the house, but is stopped by Darius. Right then, they hear Hooty chatting with Flapjack. When he mentions Hunter, Darius immediately rushes forward, but Raine halts him. They then write on the ground to communicate with Darius and Eberwolf, telling them that they know how to get past Hooty.
Back in Belos' mindscape, Luz and Hunter follow Kid Belos through the memory: a part of Bonesborough during the Deadwardian Era. Multiple people have gathered in front of a stage, where Belos appears and gives a speech about their lives dishonoring the Titan, in addition to mentioning the destruction wild magic caused to his family. He then claims to have been shown the healing light which shines in nine hues, and then pulls an illusion of nine different lights, which amazes everyone. Suddenly, explosions start to go off, and Belos exclaims that he has been found by the wild witches ordering everyone to run. Luz and Hunter dash away, and when they stop, they witness Belos scolding an old Golden Guard for almost injuring him just now. He informs the Golden Guard that he will be going to the next town, telling him to "put on a bigger show" with the remaining explosives, so he ignites the fuse before following Belos into a building. Right then, kid Belos appears and picks up a sack from the ground before jumping through another painting, Luz and Hunter following in suit. Back outside, Luz declares that Belos was lying about being attacked, but Hunter justifies this by suggesting that Belos was perhaps using a special technique to get people to listen to him for the greater good. Suddenly, dark Belos' claw emerges from the memory, and Luz and Hunter quickly pursue kid Belos through another painting.
This second memory is at the Knee. Luz and Hunter follow kid Belos to a crowd of people standing in front of Belos. Behind him, a town has gone up in flames. Belos claims that wild magic caused that to happen, and tells everyone to imagine what it would do to them. He then professes that he can make their magic pure again, just like the Titan intended, so everyone holds out their wrist and let the Golden Guard tap on it to create a coven sigil. The sigils proceed to drain magic out of everyone, causing them all to collapse to the ground in agony. The past Golden Guard notices that they are still alive, although only barely, but Belos pays no mind and orders him to gather everyone's palismen as Luz and Hunter watch the memory in horror and dismay.
The duo then follow kid Belos out of the memory, and Luz barks that Hunter can longer deny that Belos is trying to hurt people, but Hunter — becoming increasingly angered — denies this, as he claims that Belos was perfecting sigil magic. Hunter chases down kid Belos, but before he can catch him, dark Belos appears from behind and tries to attack him and Luz. The duo immediately accompanies Kid Belos to another painting, and when Hunter hesitates, Luz whisks him into the memory.
Inside this memory, Luz is stunned to find out that Belos has already rebuilt the portal she destroyed before, and Hunter confesses to helping rebuild it. Right then, the Collector appears in an abstract shadow form. Belos asks if he can do anything for them, and they proceed to ask if the draining spell is ready, as they can't wait for the Day of Unity. Belos simply says that they will have their fun when that day comes. Both Hunter and Luz are baffled when suddenly, a projection of Hunter from the past rushes up to Belos. Hunter has the key he had just taken from Amity back at Eclipse Lake, and apologizes for disobeying Belos' orders. Before he can explain further, Belos immediately snatches the key away and orders him to leave. After Hunter departs, the Collector re-emerges and murmurs that they thought Belos would be mad at Hunter, but he replies that he won't be as Hunter does exactly what he is told, whenever he tells him that the Titan has big plans for him. The Collector thinks that Belos is having fun destroying the "things" he made, and he denies this, saying that it hurts when "he" chooses to betray him every time. Both Luz and Hunter are shocked to hear all this, especially Hunter.
The duo then comes out from the memory along with kid Belos. Luz believes that Belos is trying to wipe out all life in the Demon Realm with the usage of sigils, and Hunter walks away, unable to reply. Luz reassures him that he doesn't need to go back to the castle, but then, she notices another part of the mindscape that has various discarded and broken Golden Guard masks and staffs on the ground with paintings depicting what Belos did to Hunter's predecessors. Luz spots kid Belos nearby, standing inside a circle made out of a rope and various bottles of liquids, throwing a cracked Golden Guard mask into a fire. Luz immediately rushes forward to pull him away while Hunter stomps out the fire. Right as Luz wonders what kid Belos is doing, the dark Belos reemerges inside the circle and screeches at her and Hunter. All of a sudden, it warns the duo to get away from kid Belos, claiming that he is dangerous. Luz is shocked to see that "Inner Belos" is made up of various palismen, and Hunter suddenly realizes that instead of this figure, the real Inner Belos is the child who has been with them the whole time. Behind them, kid Belos starts crying, but it soon turns into maniacal laughter as he takes out a wooden sword and strikes the rope on the ground. This activates the circle and launches the bottles onto the figure. The rope then tightens around it, causing it to fall.
Kid Inner Belos proceeds to transform into an adult inner Belos in front of them, and glad that he finally caught the monstrous figure, he explains that they are all souls of the palismen whom he had killed before the figure fades away. Inner Belos then grabs a palisman and destroys it in front of Hunter, whom he thanks for helping to distract the figure; Hunter confronts Inner Belos about what he did to his predecessors and their family, realizing that the destruction by wild magic was a lie all along. Upon hearing that, Inner Belos' face turns cold, and he expresses disappointment that Hunter is starting to turn against him. He cryptically remarks that he, out of all the Grimwalkers, looked the most like "him", much to Hunter's confusion. Just then, Hunter gets dragged down into the ground, and Luz tosses her jacket to him so he can gain leverage. Despite her best efforts, he gets sucked into the ground along with her jacket, and Belos remarks that he was hoping that Hunter would last longer than the previous Guards. Enraged, Luz angrily spits that she will tell everyone about the Day of Unity, and lying about being able to talk to the Titan, but Belos calmly admits that the whole situation was prolonged, revealing himself to be a witch hunter. Luz is aghast at the idea that the people were being led by a witch hunter, though Belos tells her to not judge so quickly; he summons a picture frame from the ground, and shows Luz some scenes of herself meeting Philip Wittebane, indirectly admitting that he is, in fact, Philip himself. Luz is in denial about this revelation and breaks down in tears. Philip asks Luz to call him by his real name, but she can't bring herself to do it as scenes from when she addresses Philip play on the frame.
Back at the Owl House, Eda is frustrated that she can't successfully create a return spell, but without warning someone knocks on the door, and Hooty comes back with a bouquet of flowers from a "secret admirer". Thinking that the flowers are rigged, Eda tells Hooty to throw them away, but they then wilt causing the contents wrapped inside the petal to dissolve in the vase and create a yellow liquid. Eda picks up the note attached to the flowers, and is surprised to learn that the liquid is a teleportation potion to the mindscape. She rushes to the window to look outside just in time to see someone running away. Eda then notices that according to the note, the potion still needs a large power source in order to make it work, prompting King to grab Amity's glove. Eda is hesitant about using it, as Luz requires that last bit of Titan's Blood to get back home. However, King retorts that Luz will never make it back home if she can't even escape from Belos' mind in the first place.
Back in Belos' mindscape, Eda tries to reach out to Luz using her walkie-talkie, informing her that they will be pulling her and Hunter out. Unbeknownst to her, Luz has lost her walkie-talkie. Belos advances towards her, forcing her to retreat in fear. He informs Luz that perhaps they were destined to meet, but she barrages him with questions about Hunter instead. Belos informs her that Hunter was a "better version" of an old friend of his, and now because of Luz, he will have to create another Grimwalker. She can't understand why Belos is doing all this, and he simply mentions that he is trying to save humanity from evil. Unable to reach Luz, Eda tells her that she will start counting down soon. Luz snaps that Belos is the one who is evil, to which he replies that he can't reason with crazy, attempting to attack her with a bladed hand. Luz cowers in fear, but a thick wall made with vines suddenly bursts out from the ground and blocks Belos' blade - revealing Hunter - who has used Luz's plant glyphs to save himself. As Eda starts counting down, both Luz and Hunter rush towards the walkie-talkie. Right as Eda counts to one, the duo manage to reach the walkie-talkie on time, and Luz screams at Eda to activate the return spell right away. The spell then activates, successfully bringing the duo back to the Owl House.
At the Owl House, Eda and King are elated to have the duo back, and Eda asks Luz and Hunter if they are okay. While Luz sits expressionless, Flapjack flies towards Hunter, who realizes that Belos knows what happened. Knowing that he can't return to the castle, Hunter panics, takes off his cloak, and runs out of the house. Luz chases after him, but stops, and King and Eda both inquire about what happened. Luz turns to them as tears start to form in her eyes...
*Cue happy credits music*
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- Ambiguously Related: Several of Belos' memory portraits show his brother in a relationship with a red-headed witch with yellow spell circles (just like Eda) who also appeared pregnant, though whether or not they're meant to be an ancestor of the Clawthorne family goes unsaid.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: A demon tries to solicit teeth from Hunter in the Night Market, only to realize he's the Golden Guard, at which point the demon tries to deny everything by saying he wouldn't trade teeth because it's illegal and unsanitary.
- Artistic License – History: The flashback to Belos proselytizing presumably takes place sometime in the late 1600s based on extras from "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" reappearing, but the Golden Guard uses a friction match, which were invented in 1826. Presumably, the Boiling Isles were ahead of the curve. A type of matches were invented in 1680 by Robert Boyle, but did not look recognizeably stick-like and were highly dangerous to use.
- Awful Truth: Twice over.
- Hunter finds out that not only is he the latest in a long line of of disposable clones, the ideals he dedicated his life to were a complete lie. This reveal completely breaks him, and he suffers a panic attack almost immediately after Eda pulls him and Luz out of Belos' mind.
- Luz learns that Belos is actually Philip Wittebane and that her trip to the past helped give him the tools necessary to both take over the Boiling Isles and put in motion his plans to enact genocide on the population of the Demon Realm. She appears to handle it slightly better, though she's obviously on the edge of tears as the episode ends.
- Bait-and-Switch: At first it seems like the child Belos is the manifestation of Belos' guilt or some other emotion, while the Inner Belos is the monster that's chasing Hunter and Luz throughout his mind, but the child turns out to be the Inner Belos in disguise, while the monstrous one is really the embodiment of the Palismen souls he's consumed, and is apparently trying to rescue them by stopping the Inner Belos.
- Batman Gambit: Because the house was heavily locked with Hooty on high alert, taking him out without alerting the residents was no simple matter, and neither was sneaking past him to deliver the teleportation spell to Eda. Raine goes for the mundane trick of disguising the potion as a bouquet of flowers, knowing that even Hooty wouldn't question something so innocent.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Luz vows to find evidence that Belos is an evil fraud, but the awful truth is much more than she bargained for. To a lesser extent, near the beginning of the episode she wonders why people blindly follow him despite him telling Blatant Lies. Near the end of the episode, she learns that she fell for his scam as Philip more easily than the locals. She even spent most of the episode trying to prove to Hunter of all people that his uncle is a fraud, but never did she realize how personal and horrifying the truth really is for him, like being one of many expendable Grimwalkers, which almost gets Hunter killed by Belos following the revelation.
- Beneath the Mask: Even in his own mind, Belos/Philip is not as kindly or benevolent as he thinks he is. The pristine and golden portraits of the mindscape that Luz and Hunter first stumble into are revealed to gloss over a much more twisted and barren mindscape, with the much more cruel and ugly memories beneath. When the Collector accuses Belos of making Grimwalkers just to kill them and claims he enjoys doing so, Belos verbally denies it while smiling fondly to himself, belying that while he tells himself that he's hurt every time the Golden Guards "betray" him, deep down he enjoys killing them. Disturbingly, a combination of his sheer intolerance of magic and his inability to actually care about anybody besides himself means that Belos seems honestly incapable of understanding that he's not the good guy in this story, despite all the atrocities he's committed and plans to commit.
- Big Damn Heroes: Just before Belos is about to kill a paralyzed Luz, Hunter manages to block his attack using the plant and ice glyphs found in Luz's jacket.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: That little kid Belos that was leading Luz and Hunter through Belos's mind wasn't helping them at all. It was just using them to get rid of the Palismen monster that had been plaguing Belos's mindscape, and was actually adult Belos in disguise.
- Bittersweet Ending: Luz and Hunter manage to get out of Belos's mind safely with some new information, but Luz is clearly deeply shaken by The Reveal of who Belos really is, and Hunter, realizing that Belos knows that the two of them were in his mind and that he can't return to the castle, flees from the Owl House in a panic. Even worse, King and Eda use up what's left of Luz's Titan blood to save her and Hunter.
- Body of Bodies: The shadowy creature chasing Hunter and Luz through Belos's mindscape turns out to be an amalgamation of the souls of the palismen that Belos has consumed, their anguished faces protruding all over its body.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Regarding whether or not the last of the Titan's Blood should be used for the teleportation spell, Eda is hesitant because it's Luz's only hope of returning home. King counters this by saying it's pointless if Luz doesn't live long enough to return home.
- Break the Cutie:
- Luz is left in tears after Belos reveals that he and Philip Wittebane are the same person and thus her actions in the past played a role in allowing his rise to power, before gleefully rubbing salt in the wound.
- After discovering that Belos lied to him the whole time about everything and knowing he can't go back to the castle, Hunter has a mental breakdown and runs away horrified by the experience.
- Broken Pedestal:
- Over the course of the episode, Hunter discovers that Belos doesn't care about him at all, lied to him about their past, and killed his past incarnations once they refused to help with his schemes or outlived their usefulness to him. He's horrified by all this and after returning to the physical world, rips off his cloak in horror before fleeing into the forest.
- While she had already come to the realization that Philip Wittebane was a jerk, Luz is devastated to learn that he and Emperor Belos are one-and-the-same, collapsing to her knees in shock as Belos mocks her over her refusal to believe it.
- The background portraits in Belos' mindscape imply that he felt this way about his brother. A few of them as young kids showed them playing witch hunters and carved witch hunting masks together. And then when Philip saw him holding hands with a witch, Philip was so enraged that he killed him for it, seeing it as a betrayal of their childhood dreams and values as witch hunters. He also claims that it hurts "every time he chooses to betray me."
- Call-Back:
- Luz sees a portrait that shows Belos seemingly triumphing over Eda (as the Owl Beast), Lilith, Luz and King.
- In "Reaching Out", we learn that talk is going through the Emperor's Coven about how the Day of Unity might not be as benevolent an event as Belos is trying to sell it as, which is proved correct here.
- When Luz refuses to believe he's Philip Wittebane, Belos mockingly assumes Philip's form and shows her a flashback of their encounter from "Elsewhere and Elsewhen", revealing he's known who Luz was all along.
- The trap the inner Belos sets for the Palismen creature has several bottles of the same elixir Eda uses to keep her curse at bay.
- Much like Camila's confrontation with Jacob Hopkins back in "Yesterday's Lie", Luz also refutes a fellow human's self-righteous justification for their callous actions against demons in the bigoted belief that they're inherently evil. The circumstances are more harrowing and not in her favor, however.
- Cain and Abel: The background portraits in Belos' mindscape reveal that he was very close with his brother until the latter befriended witches (and even married one), so Philip killed his brother in a Duel to the Death.
- Central Theme: Ignorance Is Bliss vs the Awful Truth. As King puts it in the beginning, no one wants to think they wasted their entire life on a lie. And the three main characters of this episode all face this challenge.
- For Hunter, he happily lives in the comforting lies of Emperor Belos, defending his uncle's clearly evil actions to illogical extremes. But as he explores deeper into Belos's memories, the harsh truth that Luz is trying to show him completely breaks Hunter and he ultimately flees in terror.
- For Luz, she thinks that unveiling the truth about Belos would be easy to do, believing that it would break Belos' hold over the populace. She gets more than she bargains for when her attempt to convince Hunter works far too well, and then learns that Belos is actually Philip Wittebane, whom she's helped and idolized. Luz ironically can't accept this awful truth, wanting to go back to the comforting lie of the noble Philip in her imagination.
- For Belos himself, he truly believes that witches and demons are inherently evil, and refuses to see any other viewpoint. Since his plan for witch genocide took centuries to perfect, Belos' beliefs are ironclad and immovable since he doesn't want to believe he wasted centuries of his life for the wrong cause. His mindscape also reflects how he constantly lies to himself in his head, and how his real memories are in shambles with portraits of happier times with his brother clawed out.
- Chekhov's Gun: As Hunter is sinking into the floor of Belos's mind world, Luz tries to pull a Take My Hand! by giving him a sleeve of her coat to hold onto while she tries to pull him out, but it doesn't work, and Hunter is sucked in along with the coat. This is what allows him to escape and pull a Big Damn Heroes moment to save Luz; he uses the glyphs that are in the coat pocket to create a wall of plants that break through the floor and allow him to re-emerge, and blocks Belos's attack on her.
- Circling Monologue: As he reveals his identity as Philip Wittebane, Belos circles around Luz and mocks her refusal to believe it, transforming his inner self into Philip's form and conjuring his memories of their chronologically-first meeting from "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" as proof — showing he's known who Luz and Lilith are all along and played them for fools.
- Clones Are People, Too: Belos's murder of the previous Golden Guards for "betraying him" is depicted as an evil act, with the Collector even accusing him of enjoying doing so. Later, Luz tries to save Hunter despite hearing of his origins. Also, Hunter's panic attack upon returning to the physical world is played sympathetically.
- Continuity Nod:
- Luz once again wears Eda's old Grudgby uniform.
- Luz and Eda are in the Night Market to buy witch's wool, to repair the damage Luz's cape suffered in "Yesterday's Lie".
- Hunter's cloak still has the old Golden Guard patch stitched on the back.
- Luz's trip inside Willow's mind back in "Understanding Willow" gets mentioned a few times due to the similar circumstances.
- When Hunter looks at the portrait of the Day he became the Golden Guard, he notes that Darius seems upset. Darius had mentioned in "Any Sport in a Storm" that the previous Golden Guard had been his mentor.
- When Belos reveals to Luz that he's Philip Wittebane, he mockingly calls Luz "Luzura", which she had used as an alias during her trip to the past in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen".
- Contrived Coincidence: Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf are performing their memory teleportation spell in the Night Market at the same time Eda and Luz are there to pick up witch's wool to repair Luz's cape. Luz spots Hunter on his way to interrupt the former and the two wind up getting sent into Belos's mind instead.
- Cool Shades: Hooty is wearing these when he hears a knock at the door. They lose their tint when he says the second half of this quote.Hooty: Inopportune interruption, eh? (gruff voice) I'll handle this!
- Copied the Morals, Too: It's implied that part of why Belos's Grimwalkers keep betraying him is that they're too good of a copy of his brother, possessing a greater internal morality than Belos that leads to them turning against him once they realize the full depth of his plans.
- Cowboys and Indians: The portraits in background of Belos' real mindscape depict Philip and his brother playing witch hunt, with Philip as the witch hunter and his brother as the witch. This game ended up becoming very real with Philip growing up to be a real witch hunter and his brother getting killed for becoming friends with a witch.
- Creepy Child:
- Belos's supposed inner self hides its face behind a blank wooden mask.
- The Collector gives off this vibe (despite being around since the days of Philip Wittebane), being playful and speaking in rhyme, while at the same time gleefully talking about Belos possibly killing Hunter, and relishing what will happen at the upcoming Day of Unity.
- Cry Laughing: Played for Horror. When the Inner Belos' true nature is revealed, his Crocodile Tears devolve into Evil Laughter just before he activates his trap to destroy the Palismen beast.
D-G
- Darker and Edgier: Easily one of the darkest episodes in the series. The setting involves Luz and Hunter traversing the nightmarish realm that is Belos's mind and obtaining their own traumas from the discoveries they make: Luz learns that she indirectly helped a genocidal maniac while Hunter learns that he comes from a long line of disposable puppets. The B-Plot is just as heavy as Eda and King rush to find a spell to save the kids from Belos's mind before it's too late. The episode ends with Eda and King using the last of the Titan Blood to pull the kids out (costing Luz her way home), Luz entering a Heroic BSoD, and Hunter having a severe and extremely realistic panic attack before bolting out of the door.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The monster chasing Luz and Hunter throughout Belos's mindscape turns out to be the souls of the Palismen that Belos consumed, and it was trying to warn them not to trust the real Inner Belos, disguised as the young boy in his mindscape.
- Deadly Euphemism: At the end of the first memory that Luz and Hunter visit, Belos is shown telling the then-current Golden Guard to "put on a bigger show" when asked what to do with their remaining stockpile of bombs.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: As to be expected of someone raised in the 1600s, Philip Wittebane saw the Witches and Demons of the Boiling Isles as nothing more than evil monsters to be exterminated despite all the evidence that they're as morally complex as humans are, becoming a witch hunter and eventually enacting the Day of Unity plot to carry out a genocide on them, and he doesn't understand why Luz — someone from the 21st century, with a love of fantasy and knowledge of the horrors of the 20th — would be horrified and disgusted by this.
- Didn't Think This Through: Luz, upon seeing Hunter in the Night Market, immediately tries to interview him on Belos in the hopes of getting some proof that he's evil. Hunter believes that Belos is his uncle, and idolizes him. He even lampshades it once they're trapped in Belos's mind and she explains herself.
- Disproportionate Retribution: A couple of these:
- When Hunter accuses Luz of trapping them in Belos' mind, he assumes that Luz is playing dumb and intended for this to happen, even though he was the one who accidentally stepped on the vial and activated the spell and Luz just wanted to ask him some questions and unknowingly stopped Raine, Darius and Eberwolf from entering Belos' mind in the first place. While it's understandable that he's angry at Luz for ruining his mission, he had no right to lash out at her, since it's clear that she couldn't have known about the mindscape infiltration plan.
- Belos takes on an extreme version of this when he explains that he kills every Grimwalker who doubts, questions, disobeys, or "betrays" him, though he claims that it pains him to do it.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- Belos killing and hiding the bodies of countless people of a similar physiological profile (his Grimwalkers), whom he tried to groom to be a Replacement Goldfish to someone close to him in his past (whom he also killed), is not so different from the M.O. of some Serial Killers.
- On that note, Belos trying to groom individuals into being a Replacement Goldfish for his brother (that he killed for "betraying" him), all of whom he treats like family yet expects perfect obedience from, then kills them when they question or disobey him, is eerily reminiscent of Domestic Abusers who end up killing their victims. (As many Domestic Abuse victims end up being killed by their abusers, usually for disobeying, trying to leave, or failing to live up to the abuser's rigid standards.)
- Even though Belos is Obviously Evil to Luz and in general, Hunter keeps denying this and makes excuses for his behavior even though Belos' memories prove his deceptive and fraudulent nature. This is ironic because Hunter is shown to be abused emotionally and presumably physically by him, is completely obsessed with his "uncle's" approval, and is afraid of letting him down or being replaced. Victims of Domestic Abuse may often try to justify their abuser's actions and may keep the abuse to themselves out of fear of losing them as their loved ones, and refuse to confront the idea that the abuser is a bad person by painting them as a total saint, even if they don't consciously realize it.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Quite literally. Back in "Understanding Willow", it was so easy for Eda to take people out of other's minds that the show actually makes a joke out of it. But since she's lost all of her magic, doing so is now presented as a frantic race against time, and even with Raine providing the potion she needs, it still costs her all of Luz's remaining Titan's Blood.
- Dramatic Irony:
- While Eda never sees who gave her the potion to get Luz and Hunter out of Belos's head, the audience knows that it's Raine working with Darius and Eberwolf.
- We also get a smaller example when Hunter tells Luz those using wild magic got hurt, and Belos helped the witches use magic the right way. We, as well as Luz, learned in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" that the Boiling Isles was actually better than it is today when wild magic was legal, and as he learns later, Belos manipulated the populace and corrupted their culture to cement his rule.
- Philip Wittebane's backstory can be seen in the background of his real mindscape and tell the story of how he went from a sweet child to a bitter, vengeful man who ended up killing his brother over the fact he fell in love with a witch. Yet Luz and Hunter never notice them because Kid Belos lures them to memory portraits showcasing his exploits of tricking and murdering witches before unveiling the truth behind the Day of Unity. All while the two children are arguing of who Belos really is.
- Duel to the Death: A few background memories in Belos's mindscape indicate his brother ended up romancing a witch, which enraged Philip, and he fought him in a knife fight where Philip ended up murdering him. The expression on his brother's face shows he really didn't want to fight Philip.
- Ear Ache: A painting in Belos's mind implies he cropped his own ears to blend in with the witches. Judging his expression, the process must've been very painful.
- Engineered Heroics: Belos had the first Golden Guard undertake a False Flag Operation and blame it on wild witches so that he could look like a noble hero saving the townsfolk from their attack, gaining their support and making it easier to convince them to join his coven system. When it didn't work to his satisfaction, he blew up the entire town.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Downplayed. Based on the imagery of Philip's interactions with his brother, he did genuinely care for him, but his love eventually became twisted to the point where he killed him. Hunter and his predecessors were all created as copies of this loved one, but whether Belos truly cared for them deep down is highly suspect; he claims that it hurts him when they always eventually betray him, but his tone and expression when claiming this seem to imply otherwise.
- Evil All Along: The little boy inside Belos' mind seems harmless and helpful, but later reveals himself to be the real Belos.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Belos doesn't seem to get why Luz would see his Final Solution plans for the witches and demons of the Isles as a bad thing. Or why the Grimwalkers always betray him. Or why his original brother betrayed him.
- Evil Laugh:
- The Collector frequently laughs with childlike glee at the thought of all the Witches and Demons dying on the Day of Unity.
- Just before revealing himself as the true Inner Belos, the child Belos' apparent sobbing changes to sinister laughter.
- Exact Words:
- Luz asks Kid Belos to show her and Hunter who Belos really is. Kid Belos obliges, but never shows them who Belos was: Which happens to be Luz's idol Philip Wittebane.
- Belos told Hunter that wild magic wiped out everyone in their family, that "everyone knew too much and got themselves hurt." It wasn't the wild magic that hurt them, though; it was that they learned what Belos really planned to do with wild magic.
- Expendable Clone: The Golden Guards are artificial creations Belos makes known as Grimwalkers, and every time one of them turns on him, he destroys him and creates a new one. A hall of broken masks indicates that Belos has worked his way through many Grimwalkers.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Philip had short hair and his brother wore his hair in a ponytail during childhood. They had switched their hairstyles when they reunited on the Boiling Isles, signifying how the time since they were separated had warped Philip's love for his brother into obsession while his brother unlearned their community's witch-hunting ways.
- Extreme Doormat: This seems to be the number one criteria for surviving as a Grimwalker. The second they start to question or disobey Belos, he casually destroys them and creates a new one.
- Fake Memories: The dark corridor that Luz and Hunter end up in initially has fake memory portraits that paint Belos in a more positive light than what actually happened. When they fall through into his real mindscape, they see the true portraits.
- False Flag Operation: In a flashback, Belos makes it look like he's being attacked by wild witches trying to keep him from spreading his message from the Titan, while he's actually having a previous Golden Guard set off explosives.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Played for Drama. Belos has killed every single Golden Guard who's ever served him for "choosing to betray" him. However, we see in some of his true memories that he would become enraged at them over every minor misstep, from one past Golden Guard accidentally almost hitting him with explosives during their False Flag Operation, to Hunter bringing him the portal key missing some Titan's Blood, which the Collector reveals they half-expected him to kill Hunter for on the spot. And despite Belos greeting Hunter warmly in his mindscape, when Hunter tearfully asks what happened to the other Golden Guards, to their "family," this alone is enough for Belos to decide to cut his losses and dispose of Hunter right then and there. It seems simply making mistakes or questioning Belos is enough to warrant a death sentence for his Grimwalkers.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: The dynamics of the Coven Rebellion trio: the Abomination master Darius (Fighter), the bard Raine Whispers (Mage), and the sneaky and speedy Eberwolf (Thief).
- Final Solution: Belos is actually Philip, a witch hunter from the 1600s who wants to "save humanity from evil" by killing every witch in the demon realm.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- When Luz looks around at Belos's mindscape, she notes how different it looks from Willow's, such as the lack of trees. Hunter thinks it's just because the mindscape differs from person to person, but barely more than a minute later they tumble through one of the walls and end up in Belos's real mindscape, which is represented by a forest (although a barren one). Also, Luz is shown touching the painting of the events of "Young Blood, Old Souls" in the fake hallway, yet it's shown to be completely solid instead of a Portal Picture.
- At first, the Creepy Child that Luz and Hunter follow around seems scared and weepy. As they move from memory to memory, the child becomes much more playful. Just before Luz and Hunter learn the monstrous form is not the real Inner Belos, the child's seeming weeping morphs into sinister laughing.
- When Belos tells Hunter that "out of all the Grimwalkers, [he] looked the most like him", he says it in past tense. Not three seconds later, he tries to murder Hunter on the spot, having already written him off as a lost cause for finding out the truth.
- Flawed Prototype:
- Belos spent a while perfecting sigil magic, which in prior iterations drained witches on contact, implicitly fatally the first few times.
- In-universe, Belos considers the previous Grimwalkers before Hunter to have been flawed because they weren't blindingly obedient to him and always eventually turned against him, and also notes Hunter is a better physical copy than any of them were. However, it's implied that it's more like they were too good a copy of the original and Copied the Morals, Too.
- Flowers of Romance: Subverted when Raine leaves a bouquet of flowers in front of the Owl House under the guise of it being from a secret admirer of Eda's. While they do have feelings for Eda, it's really just a convenient way for them to sneak her the potion she needs without blowing their cover.
- Foreshadowing:
- One of the portraits shows Kid Philip and his big brother playing witch hunters as a mob of actual hunters stand behind them. This builds up to Belos flat-out calling himself a witch hunter and how it ties to his ultimate endgame.
- The child Belos keeps stealing random things for no apparent reason, suggesting he has a more defined will than the monstrous apparition of Belos that has been chasing them. Additionally, despite Luz asking him to show who Belos really is, he noticeably avoids any memory portraits of his life as Philip Wittebane, only showing the crimes of Belos instead. Sure enough, he's the real deal.
- When Luz theories that the child Belos is his repressed sense of guilt, Hunter mocks her for thinking so, claiming that Belos has never done anything worthy of being guilty about. As it turns out, this is completely correct, but only because Belos is absolutely insane and genuinely feels no guilt for the multiple atrocities he's committed, as showcased in the flashbacks the inner Belos leads them to. Luz also asks if the 'child' Belos can show them what Belos is really like and it silently nods. As it turns out, at his core, Philip/Belos is little more than a little child recreating his make-believe games of hunting witches and demons in reality, with lethal consequences now.
- Kid Belos' wooden mask bearing a resemblance to Emperor Belos' own hints at the fact that it's both the inspiration for his current look, as well as the fact that Philip's motivations for hunting witches are rooted in his steadfast childhood beliefs that they are evil monsters. Him clearly treasuring the mask is also a hint towards his genuine love and fondness for his brother, based on their childhood memories of playing together. Additionally, he never takes off the mask, signifying that he's refusing show anything that makes him look vulnerable or weak, setting up for the fact that he's feigning tears to gain Luz's sympathy.
- The previous Golden Guards all have the same voice as Hunter, setting up the reveal that he's just one of many Grimmwalkers Belos created.
- The "monster" was only openly hostile to the heroes when child Belos is present, indicating that they are not what it is after.
- The monster briefly assuming a form with "a thousand glowing eyes" hints at its true nature as an amalgamation of hundreds of Palismen souls.
- It's debated in the episode if it's possible for one individual to have more than one inner self, although such a thing has never been definitively proved. Sure enough, the "monster" and the "child" prove to be amalgamations of the Palismen Belos has absorbed and Belos' real inner self respectively.
- When Luz tosses the sleeve of Eda's letterman jacket to Hunter to try and pull him to safety, it's shown that the pockets are filled with glyph papers as several are sent flying just before he grabs it. He ends up using them to save himself and protect Luz shortly afterwards.
- Fully Automatic Clip Show: Played for Drama. When Luz can't bring herself to call Belos "Philip" out of the horrified realization that she helped his rise to power, he proceeds to taunt her by playing all his memories of her calling him that name during her trip to the past in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen".
- Freak Out: After escaping Belos's mind, Hunter is hit with the realization that his entire life is a lie, that he can never go home, and that the man who he's dedicated his life to is a genocidal maniac who has killed every single one of a long line of clones that Hunter is just the latest iteration of. His response to this is to have a severe and horribly realistic panic attack, during which he tears his Golden Guard cloak off and runs off into the woods.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- The paintings in the background
show the tragic story of Philip and his brother. The two grew up in a witch-hunting town with dreams of being witch hunters themselves. At some point Philip and his brother met a witch, and while the brother was fascinated by magic and greeted the witch with friendliness, Philip feared the witch and cowered when meeting them. Years pass and the two brothers as young adults end up on the Boiling Isles. The brother meets a witch and falls in love with her, and even conceives a child with her. Philip, meanwhile, has been studying the Isles and is disgusted by the denizens, and begins experimenting with Glyphs and Palismen, carving Glyphs into his skin. At some point he goes out of control and becomes a monster but is rescued by his brother via Cooldown Hug. Assumingly much later — as Philip is shown with a beard — the brother introduces Philip to his wife, but we see Philip is hiding his knife during this meetup. Philip attacks the two, and ends up having a knife fight in a burning area with his brother. Philip kills his brother, but the witch chases him away with magic. Philip continues researching magic, collecting ingredients for his Portal Door, searching for the Collector, and writing his journal while killing Witches and Demons for their Palismen — around the time Luz and Lilith met him in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen". Philip finally changes his hair, cuts his ears to points using the same knife he killed his brother with, dons a mask similar to the one his brother once carved for him when they were children, and becomes Belos. - The significance of it is unclear, but on the portrait that shows Philip's brother's dead body, his corpse appeared to be posed similarly to the way the Titan itself is laid out.
- The paintings in the background
- Friendly Address Privileges: Played for Drama. After revealing that he's Philip, Belos asks Luz to call him by his real name just to rub it in her face that she helped his rise to power.
- Given Name Reveal: Hunter's Palisman Flapjack is named on-screen for the first time.
- Godzilla Threshold: Eda and King are forced to use the last of the Titan's Blood on Amity's glove in order to complete the potion needed to rescue Luz and Hunter, despite knowing full well that the blood is the only chance for Luz to return home. Problem is, Eda can no longer cast the spell she used to get Luz in and out of Willow’s mind, nor do they have time to find an alternate power source.
- Gone Horribly Right: Luz manages to convince Hunter that Belos is indeed evil, but only after Hunter is completely traumatized by the Awful Truth regarding the fate of his predecessors and his status as a Grimwalker. Then Luz herself gets to learn that she was also tricked by Belos a long time ago, and her aid was the most useful for the Emperor's goals.
- Good All Along: While the monstrous being chasing Luz and Hunter is initially assumed to be the Inner Belos, it turns out to actually be the souls of the Palismen he's consumed, trying to warn Luz and Hunter that the real Inner Belos isn't to be trusted.
H-N
- Hated by All: Apparently the reason the witch hunter started calling himself Belos was because "Philip" had a problem of being run out of too many towns.
- He Knows Too Much: After Luz and Hunter escapes from Belos's mind, Hunter knows that Belos will kill him after learning the truth about himself and what he did to the previous Golden Guards, so he has a panic attack and runs into the wilderness.
- Here We Go Again!: After revealing the truth about Hunter, Belos remarks that his predecessors have always turned against him eventually.
- Heroic BSoD:
- Luz is reduced to horrified tears when Belos reveals that he's Philip, desperately denying that it's true. When Eda asks what she saw, she just gives a Thousand-Yard Stare.
- Hunter is horrified to learn the truth about himself, and runs out of the Owl House in a panic.
- History Repeats: Apparently, the Grimwalkers always eventually turn against Belos, and if the damaged memories of Belos's brother are accurate, the original person whom they're based on turned against him too.
- How We Got Here: The episode starts with Luz and Hunter already in Belos's mind, with a flashback showing how they ended up in there.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Belos/Philip is, or at least was, human, yet he's more evil than most if not all of the other antagonists to date, planning to wipe out all life in the demon realm to "save humanity from evil", not getting how evil that makes him.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Hunter mocks Luz for being easily scared by a monster with "a thousand glowing eyeballs", then jumps and screams when Eda says "Boo" through Luz's walkie talkie.
- While Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf are spying on the Owl House, Darius stops Raine from blowing their cover upon seeing Eda is in distress. Upon learning that Hunter is in danger, Darius is the one who needs to be restrained.
- Identity Breakdown: After all the horrible things Hunter learns about Belos and himself—that he's pretty much nothing more than another sacrifice in a long line of clones—he is utterly devastated and runs away.
- I Heard That: In a recent memory, Luz and Hunter are talking to each other when the memory Belos says "I can hear you". The two of them are momentarily startled, thinking that the memory is somehow cognizant of them, but it turns out he was referring to the Collector.
- I Know Your True Name: Or rather a significant alias. Belos calles Luz "Luzura", which was the alias she used when she and Lilith met Philip Wittebane, proving that they are one and the same.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: When a demon at the Night Market offers to trade teeth, he discovers that he's making this offer to the Golden Guard. He then hastily claims that he wouldn't trade teeth, since it's illegal.
- In Medias Res: The Cold Open shows us Luz and Hunter already inside Belos's head. How they got there is explained shortly after.
- In the Hood:
- The three people who try to break into Belos's mind spend the entire episode in hooded cloaks and never speak a single word. While it's never actually said who they are, it's incredibly obvious to the audience that they're Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf.
- Belos is shown with a hood at multiple points. It goes with his sinister true nature.
- Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: After having spent the entirety of "Any Sport in a Storm" trying to prove that he was worthy of wearing the symbol of the previous Golden Guard, Hunter throws his entire cloak off in the midst of a panic attack now that he knows it represents nothing but lies.
- Internal Reveal:
- Luz finds out that Belos is in the process of rebuilding the portal door, something the audience already saw at the end of Season 1.
- While the audience learned that Emperor Belos is actually Philip Wittebane at the end of "Elsewhere and Elsewhen", Luz and Hunter now find out as well.
- Interrupted by the End: Luz is about to tell Eda and King the awful truth about Belos... then it cuts immediately to the cheerful, happy closing theme.
- Interspecies Romance: Evidentially Luz and Amity were not the first human/witch couple, as several of Belos's memory portraits show that he murdered his brother for falling in love with a witch, with some implication that a child, possibly one of Eda's own ancestors, was born from the relationship.
- I Reject Your Reality:
- Despite claiming to know a lot about mindscapes, Hunter is initially in denial about how the memories in the initial hallway were false and that Belos is really an evil tyrant and a liar. Luz is also horrified and refuses to believe Belos is Philip, which he sadistically mocks her over.
- Belos reveals that he genuinely believes that witches and demons are evil, thus justifying his actions as necessary. The memory portraits depicting his backstory with his brother (and later his response to Luz's claim that he's evil) show that Belos doesn't take it well when people suggest otherwise.
- Ironic Echo: Belos says "Can't reason with crazy" when Luz rightfully calls him evil, just like Luz said to Eda when the latter claimed that cheaters do in fact prosper because she was the star player of Hexside's grudgby team back in "Wing it Like Witches".
- Irony: Luz notes in the first half of the episode how Obviously Evil Belos is and expresses surprise at how nobody else can seem to understand how he's lying to and manipulating the populace with falsehoods, but within Belos' mind, she also winds up manipulated by him into doing his bidding the exact same way he did last time — by appealing to her caring nature and manipulating her into doing what he wants until she realizes too late he has an ulterior motive, showing how skilled at deceiving others Belos actually is, to lead Luz around even when she knows he's untrustworthy.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: Luz and Hunter end up in the mind of Emperor Belos himself.
- Kick the Dog: Belos clearly enjoys confronting Hunter and Luz with the horrible truth and savors their reaction.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Upon being compromised by Hunter, the rogue coven heads decide not to engage him and instead break off rather than continue with the plan. They could easily take him out since they outnumbered him, but they’d risk giving themselves away.
- Legacy Character: It turns out that the Golden Guard isn't just a title passed down throughout the ages; Hunter himself is the latest in a long-line of Grimwalkers Belos had created in the image of his human brother, one that Belos had every intention of killing and replacing during their Inevitable Mutual Betrayal.
- Living Shadow: The Collector can communicate with Belos in a shadowy form despite being Sealed Evil in a Can.
- Lockdown: Hooty invokes this at Eda's behest, bringing metal shutters down over every window of the Owl House, and putting multiple locks over the front door, with Hooty himself to dispatch any trespassers and give no quarter. This forces Raine to have to trick Hooty into delivering the teleportation potion, since they can't personally give it to her without risking a hostile confrontation.
- Meaningful Background Event:
- In Belos's true mindscape, a series of damaged memory images can be seen in numerous background shots that seem to tell a story of Belos as a child and someone who looks a lot like Hunter: they end up in the Demon Realm, the Hunter-like person befriends and/or falls in love with someone that young adult Belos hates, Belos confronts him with a knife, and then Belos is seen looking at the knife with a red splatter on his face and a body lying in on the ground.
- Other portraits show that the glyphs on Philip's arms seen in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" are actually scars he cut into his flesh with the same knife, and one painting showing Philip/Belos clutching the side of his head in pain while again holding the same knife seems to indicate that he cropped his own ears to hide his human identity.
- If you look closely at the town that was destroyed in the memory where Belos indoctrinates witches into his coven system, the buildings visible resemble the ruins seen on the Titan's knee, indicating that Belos was the one who created them.
- Mental World: Much like with Willow, the Emperor's true mind is portrayed as a forest, although here the trees are all dead and decaying to show just how old and twisted he is.
- Metaphorically True:
- Warden Wrath mentioned in "Reaching Out" that the Day of Unity would "unite them with the Titan".
- When Luz tries to show him Belos' true nature, Hunter responds with a combination of this and Insane Troll Logic, latching onto the most benign details he can find while ignoring the more disturbing ones:
- When shown a memory of Belos faking an attack by wild witches in order to paint himself as a hero, Hunter objects that it's merely a "special technique" to help get his message across. That technique has a name - False Flag Operation - and is generally agreed to be highly immoral and deceitful.
- When he's shown another memory, of Belos' sigils grievously harming a group of witches, he protests that Belos was obviously still perfecting the sigils. Belos admits the sigils "need work", but implies that this is because they're not causing enough harm.
- Belos claimed that wild magic claimed everyone in his and Hunter's family, that "they knew too much and got themselves hurt." What he doesn't reveal is that their "family" consisted of magical clones of his brother whom he killed for befriending witches, whom Hunter is the latest copy of, and that what they learned "too much of" was Belos's real plans for the Boiling Isles.
- Military Alphabet: Played for Laughs. Luz refers to Eda as "Echo Delta Alpha" while she and King are playing around on walkie talkies. King (not being familiar with the concept) thinks that she's speaking in Spanish and tries to respond in kind.
- Modified Clone: Despite implicitly being based off of Belos' brother, Hunter clearly has witch ears instead of human ones. Belos' words also hint at there being some level of physical variation between him and the other Grimwalkers.
- Moral Myopia: It turns out that Belos hates witches and magic-kind, and everything he's done has been with the intent of destroying them to "save humanity from evil"... and he achieved this by magically extending his life, creating the coven system and his own theocratic regime to organize magical society to his liking (and by extension turning it into a World of Jerkass), making a deal with an Obviously Evil eldritch entity, creating and destroying various replicas of his brother because he could, and presumably countless other atrocities to do it. Simply put, he couldn't have been capable of destroying magic without using magic.
- Morality Pet: It's shown multiple times that Hunter cares very deeply for his palisman Flapjack, telling him "I love you", uncontrollably shaking when the husk of a bird palisman crumbles in his hand, and is visibly horrified when Belos destroys the soul of a bird palisman in front of him.
- Murder in the Family: It's strongly implied that the close companion Belos is trying to replace with Grimwalkers (like Hunter) was Philip Wittebane's brother, whom the portraits in his mindscape imply he killed... just as he killed every other Grimwalker who "betrayed" him.
- Never My Fault:
- Hunter is the one who set off the potion that trapped him and Luz inside of Belos's mind, though he initially blames Luz for it.
- Belos once again feels that he's in the right and anyone who disagrees with him is crazy or wrong. He views his brother befriending witches (and possibly marrying one) as a personal betrayal, and blames the Grimwalkers he created for "betraying him" when evidence suggests that at least some of said betrayals were simply just questioning him, like he does with Hunter in this episode, and the rest were the Grimwalkers realizing how evil he really was. The Collector even lampshades this when he gets mad at Hunter for defying orders in a flashback to just after "Eclipse Lake" (despite having brought him the portal key, if damaged), saying that they think that Belos enjoys destroying the clones, and while Belos denies it, his small grin hints otherwise.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Luz unwittingly botched Raine's plan to invade the Emperor's mind by walking into Hunter for an interview, trapping both of them in Belos's mind while Eda flounders to find them a way out. Subverted since one could argue the information is more important to Hunter, so he can get away from Belos and his lies, plus Luz, since she knows more about Philip from meeting him and his journal, and in general both since they will both be major parts to taking him down. In addition, her distracting Hunter allows Raine and their co-conspirators Darius and Eberwolf to escape without blowing their covers.
- Belos shows Luz some memories from the past where she and Lilith helped Philip, aka him. Luz has to realize that they played an important role in his rise to power. She doesn't take it well...
- "Not So Different" Remark: Luz spends most of the episode wondering how the Boiling Isles denizens could possibly trust or believe in Belos. Belos relishes revealing at the end that she fell for his lies as "Philip" more easily than most Boiling Isles residents did.
- No, You: When Belos proclaims that he's trying to "save humanity from evil", Luz fires back with, "No. You're evil."
O-R
- Obliviously Evil: Belos/Philip seems to honestly believe his claims to be working for the good of humanity as a witch hunter, despite the people of the Boiling Isles being no more evil than humans are, at least before he arrived and corrupted the culture, with Luz calling him out on it.
- Oblivious to His Own Description: When Luz rejects Belos's viewpoint that he's wiping out evil, he dismissively remarks 'can't reason with crazy' before trying to behead her.
- Obviously Evil: From Luz's perspective, the fact that Belos is a tyrannical liar seems as plain as the nose on her face, but since everyone has had 50 years to get used to his reign, no one will believe her without solid proof.
- Oh, Crap!: Hunter gets a brief respite after escaping the Emperor’s mind, which is cut very, very short when he’s reminded the Emperor knows and will have his head for it, and must leave before the Emperor’s Coven captures him.
- Papa Wolf: Darius is revealed to be one for Hunter. Even though his face his covered, his reaction to hearing Hunter was trapped in Belos's mind was extremely emotional. Especially when he cautioned Raine against helping moments before he found out about Hunter being in danger too.
- Platonic Declaration of Love: Hunter tells Flapjack over the walkie that he loves him, something Eda and King hear on the other side and are charmed by.
- Portal Picture: As was the case in "Understanding Willow", the portraits within Belos' mind can be entered in order to view the memory they represent. This property also gives away the fact that the ones seen early on in the hallway aren't an accurate depiction of past events because when Luz touches one, it's completely solid.
- Reality Has No Subtitles: Averted. In a first for the series, King's attempt at speaking Spanish is given an English translation.
- Removed from the Picture: All of the memory photos of Philip's childhood have his brother's eyes scratched out. It isn't until the episode gets to photos of his adulthood that the audience gets a good look at his face and sees that he looks just like Hunter. It's hinted that this is an extension of Philip denying the happier times they shared together as family on Earth, until he meets him again on the Boiling Isles and now recognized him as an 'enemy who betrayed him', hinted to be a coping mechanism to deal with the fact he violently murdered his beloved brother over his own bigoted views and secretly keeps trying to justify the act to himself. As an extension of that, he refuses to refer to him as his brother as all, merely an 'old friend' that he hopes the Grimwalkers will become a 'better version' of.
- Replacement Goldfish: Hunter is merely the latest in a long line of "Grimwalkers", made in the image of someone Belos knew, Belos having killed the previous ones for "betraying" him.
- The Reveal: The episode confirms numerous plot threads that had been foreshadowed prior.
- Hunter and all the prior Golden Guards are artificial constructs Belos created, known as Grimwalkers, and he killed all the prior ones once they "betrayed" him. The Grimwalkers are also based on his brother.
- Not that it wasn't already obvious, but it's completely confirmed that all the talk of the dangers of wild magic was completely fabricated by Belos just to trick people into joining his cause. This is also true about Belos and Hunter's "family" being destroyed by wild magic; there was no family at all.
- "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" already made it obvious, but this episode explicitly spells out that Philip and Belos are one and the same. He had to change his name after "Philip" got run out of too many towns. Philip/Belos isn't also just a human, but a witch hunter.
- It was hinted in the prior episode, but this episode also shows Darius (although with his face obscured by a hood) as a member of the rebellion with Raine, as well as Eberwolf.
- In terms of new reveals, it's shown that Belos and the Collector are both working together in regards to the Day of Unity. In addition, the Collector is seemingly sealed either inside or under the Titan, and the Day of Unity is a major step to their freedom.
- After several episodes of ambiguity regarding the Portal Key, it is finally revealed that Hunter did indeed bring it to Belos (who was angered by the loss of the Titan Blood within).
- Belos, unlike Willow, is fully conscious in his mindscape, understandably so since his memories aren't damaged and he's probably still awake. He can project himself into his own mind and take on anything that dares to intrude.
- Whilst it was hinted at before, this episode confirms that Belos was aware of the Stable Time Loop that Luz accidentally created in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen", and part of the reason he spared her during their first encounter and remained so hands-off in regards to her and the Owl House denizens was that he needed her to perpetuate the loop and grant him access to the final of the four glyphs he needed to perpetuate his plans back when he was Philip Wittebane. Now that he's confirmed that she's closed the loop, he has no problems trying to straight-out terminate her after she remains opposed to his plans.
- Rewatch Bonus: The previous episode implying, and this one outright confirming, that Darius is working with Raine and Eberwolf in rebelling against the Emperor gives this to "Any Sport in a Storm". Darius never planning on forcibly inducting the Emerald Entrails into the Emperor's Coven because "we already have enough recruits as it is", and intending to just drop them off at Hexside, makes even more sense knowing he isn't really loyal to the Emperor at all. This also fits with how contemptuous he was of Hunter's Blind Obedience and Extreme Doormat behavior to Belos—especially after we learn that all the previous Golden Guards (including the one prior to Hunter, who was Darius's mentor) were killed for defying the Emperor (which this episode reinforces by stating that Darius looked sad at Hunter's coronation as the new Golden Guard)—and why Darius was So Proud of You when Hunter finally Grew a Spine to stand up to him.
- Rewind Gag: When Luz interrupts Hunter's explanation of How We Got Here to tell her own side of the story, we see all the events up to that point playing rapidly in reverse behind her.
- Rhymes on a Dime: The Collector, although it's more of a preference than strictly necessary. At one point they also bemoan the difficulty in rhyming "unity" and give up.
S
- Sadist:
- The Collector accuses Belos of making Grimwalkers solely for the purpose of killing them, since he's killed every single one before Hunter. Belos denies it, claiming that their deaths were a necessity he took no pleasure in, but does smile at the Collector's accusation. The Inner Belos also clearly enjoys rubbing the truth in Luz and Hunter's faces as a Kick the Dog moment, savoring their horrified reactions.
- The Collector themselves can count given how they express eagerness in Belos kickstarting the Day of Unity which would guarantee the suffering and annihilation of everyone in the Boiling Isles.
- Sadistic Choice: King suggests using the last drops of the Titan blood in order to activate the spell but Eda is hesitant to use it because it would take away Luz's only chance of getting home. Her son retorts that not using it will ensure that Luz won't be able to come back to any home.
- Say My Name: After revealing to Luz that he is (or was) Philip Wittebane, Belos invites her to call him by his real name. Luz, deep in denial, refuses, but behind her, the memory portrait of the events of "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" plays out a Supercut of all the times Luz referred to Philip by name during that episode.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Still reeling from the Awful Truth he has just learned, and realizing that Belos knows he and Luz were in his mind and will try to kill him if he returns to the castle, Hunter flees the Owl House in a panic after Eda frees him and Luz from the mindscape.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Collector is apparently sealed away in/under the Titan, and Belos has made a deal with them that they'll be freed on the Day of Unity via the Draining Spell.
- Self-Serving Memory: Played with.
- Belos's outer mindscape is a very demonstrably literal one, full of painted portraits that positively depict his past glories and achievements — such as one dedicated to the creation of the coven system, where joyful witches are crowding around him in gratitude — but he can't completely hide the truth of what really happened; Hunter is confused by how sad Darius looks in the portrait of his coronation as Golden Guard. One titled "Triumph Over Wild Magic" is an utter lie, told to bolster his ego: it depicts Belos towering over Luz, Owl Beast Eda, King and Lilith as they cower in fear, while in reality Luz broke his mask, destroyed the portal, saved the others from petrification, and forced him to salvage what he could to rebuild an incomplete and damaged portal door.
- Once Luz and Hunter manage to break through into the subconscious and enter the individual memories themselves, it becomes clear that however fondly Belos presents them and thinks of his own actions in them as perfectly necessary, he's a charlatan, a tyrant, and a genocidal murderer.
- Serial Killer: Since Clones Are People, Too, Belos's modus operandi of creating, killing, and hiding the bodies of countless Grimwalkers as Replacement Goldfish to his deceased brother, whom he also killed in rage for "betraying" him (implied to be for marrying a witch), is not so different from how some serial killers create a pattern of seeking out people who remind them of someone they were close to or feel wronged by, and end up killing them. The Collector even accuses him of creating so many Grimwalkers just to destroy them, and accuses him of enjoying it. Belos denies this, but with a smirk on his face.
- Shadow Archetype: Belos is this to many major characters.
- To Eda: The trap that Inner Belos springs for the Palismen Monster utilizes a series of potions that looks an awful lot like the elixirs that Eda uses to keep her curse in check. This draws an uncanny parallel between the Palismen Monster and the Owl Beast, Eda and Belos needing a special form of mental magic (Eda ingesting sleeping nettles, Belos getting Luz and Hunter's help) in order to gain control of their more beastly halves. But whereas Eda learned to live alongside the Owl Beast, having had the curse thrust upon the both of them unwillingly, Belos's condition was self-inflicted and he seeks to purge himself of the problem entirely, destroying countless innocent palismen in the process.
- To Lilith: The background paintings in Belos' mindscape reveal that Philip had a similar relationship with his brother as Lilith had with Eda: They were close as kids and shared a childhood dream (joining the Emperor's Coven for Lilith and Eda; becoming witch hunters for Philip and his brother), then they later grew to resent and betrayed their sibling just before a fated duel (Lilith with a curse, Philip with a knife). However, while Lilith didn't mean to permanently curse Eda, rightly blamed herself, and dedicated her life to trying to fix her mistake, Philip did mean to kill his brother, blames said brother for his own murder ("it hurts every time he chooses to betray me"), and doesn't make Grimwalkers to try to have his brother back, but as an "improved version" of his brother. Lilith also tried to persuade Eda to fulfill their childhood dream of her own free will for years, while we see that Philip never cared about his brother's or subsequent Grimwalkers' wishes or free will.
- To Luz: They're two humans who stumbled into the Boiling Isles, but while Philip was horrified by the existence of witches and demons as a witch hunter, the magic-loving Luz was ecstatic and longs to be a witch herself. Philip also stumbled into a friendly world whose kindness and beauty he refuses to see, while Luz was initially horrified by how scary and unfriendly the denizens were but learned to see the beauty and kindness beneath. Belos also turned the Boiling Isles into a World of Jerkass through his own reign, while Luz helps bring out the best in others. Belos is also dedicated to destroying the Boiling Isles, while Luz is determined to save it.
- To King: In the first season, both were self-proclaimed rulers of unknown origin who "ruled" over their domain as tyrants, and told Blatant Lies about their past. However, King was a Small Name, Big Ego who honestly believed his claims about his past due to being indulged by Eda (who just wanted him to be happy), while Belos is a Villain with Good Publicity who wilfully deludes himself and knows deep down he's a charlatan and a fraud. King also always cared about those close to him even when he believed he was a tyrant, and became a better person once he learns the truth of his past. Meanwhile, Belos always considered those around him expendable and the past rewritable. King and Belos also both feel angry at a relative (King to his dad, Belos to his brother), but while King still wants to mend bridges and bond with his lost relative, Belos just wants to make a "better version" of his lost relative as a subservient Grimwalker.
- Ship Tease: Raine delivers Eda the ingredients of the transportation spell as a bouquet of pink tulips, which in flower language means "perfect lover".
- Shout-Out:
- When speaking over the radio to King, Luz begins her message with "10-4, Demon King."
- Link and Saria can be found on one of the portraits.
- The episode is a subversion of The Cell: in both of them, the protagonist, a female, enters the mind of a serial killer to learn his secrets and discovers he has two split personalities: a child (the killer's "good", innocent side), for whom she feels sympathy, and a monster (his sadistic, twisted side and the dominant personality) that terrifies her. Subverted because Belos has no goodness or innocence in him; he disguised himself as a child to lure Luz and Hunter into helping him to kill the "monster". The latter, in turn, wasn't Belos' "monstrous" side, but an amalgam of the souls of the poor palismen he consumed, and probably was trying to warn Luz about the "child".
- Hunter has a lot in common with Hordak. Both are clones brainwashed into serving abusive creators who demand perfection and treat them as disposable tools. (Also, both Hunter and Hordak befriend and respect young women who are treated condescendingly even by their friends. Even their names start with the same letter!)
- Sibling Murder: The pictures in the background tell the story of what happened to Belos's brother. Among others, there's a painting of Philip looking enraged at his brother holding hands with a witch, then a painting of him approaching the couple with a knife behind his back, another of him facing off against his brother in the midst of a fire, and finally, a painting of the brother's corpse silhouetted by fire, and a blood-splattered knife in the foreground with Philip's face reflected in it.
- Significant Double Casting: All of the Grimwalkers seen share Hunter's voice due to their status as clones.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Belos has created countless Grimwalkers to make a Replacement Goldfish to his deceased brother... whom he killed, and he claims that "it hurts every time" they "choose to betray" him as well. The Collector accuses Belos of creating the Grimwalkers just to kill them, and of enjoying it. It's strongly implied that, deep down, part of the reason he creates and kills so many Grimwalkers is to continue to "punish" his brother by proxy for his original "betrayal."
- Spanner in the Works: Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf nearly get into Belos's mind, but Hunter manages to stop them just as their ritual is nearly complete. Luckily for them, Luz acts as one for Hunter in turn, as her attempt to interview him on Belos allows the co-conspirators to get away, while the duo are accidentally sent into Belos's mind, which leads to Hunter learning the truth about who he is and what kind of person Belos really is.
- Suddenly Speaking: Outside of the Bat Queen, palismen aren't normally shown to be capable of human speech. However, when it's revealed that the beast inside of Belos' mind is actually a fusion of the souls of the countless palismen he's devoured over the ages, one of them cries out in an attempt to warn Luz and Hunter that the child they're with is actually the inner Belos.Get away from him. Danger! Danger! Run!
- Super Cell Reception: Luz is somehow still able to use her walkie-talkie to communicate with Eda and King even trapped deep within Belos's mind.
T-Y
- Take My Hand!:
- Luz tries a variation of this as Hunter is being sucked into the floor of Belos's mindscape after the latter reveals himself to them; she takes off her coat, holds one sleeve, and passes it Hunter's way so he can grab the other one. It doesn't work, and Hunter gets pulled in along with the coat, but the coat is what ends up saving him.
- Eda offers a hand to Hunter, but he rejects it due to him having a serious panic attack after discovering many Awful Truths about himself and Belos.
- Taken for Granite: One of the only discernible memory portraits of the past Golden Guards shows that Belos killed him by petrification.
- Title-Only Opening: The second episode in the season (after "Elsewhere and Elsewhen") to only show the show's title.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Hunter discovers that he's a Grimwalker created by Belos to replace an "old friend", as are the rest of the Golden Guards. The poor kid very understandably doesn't take this well, to say the least.
- The Un-Reveal: Although we learn a lot in this episode, it still leaves some important questions unanswered, like how the Collector ended up trapped under the Isles, or how exactly the portal plays into Belos' plans for the Day of Unity.
- Unexpectedly Dark Episode: Easily the single most nightmarish and traumatic episode of the series; the absence of the opening theme even builds up to such.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Even though he still takes the key holding the Titan Blood from Hunter, Belos doesn't even thank the boy and grimly orders him to leave. If anything, he's more upset that he disobeyed him regardless of the results, and this episode reveals why; disobeying the emperor means Hunter is capable of betraying him, and he's had a problem with the previous Golden Guards doing that.
- Unusual Euphemism: After the umpteenth failed attempt to rescue Luz and Hunter from Belos's mind blows up, Eda shouts, "Bones, dirt, and muck!" Her frustration and tone imply that these are heavy profanity on the Boiling Isles.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Played With. Luz believes that kid Belos is the manifestation of Belos' guilt, but it's revealed to be ploy by Inner Belos to trick them into helping them silence palismen monster. However, memory portraits in Belos' real mindscape suggest he really was once a sweet and happy kid, but that kid is long gone, twisted and hollowed out by his anti-witch beliefs as exemplified by the soulless eyeholes of the mask Inner Belos wears.
- Varying Competency Alibi: Implied. Luz and Hunter view Belos' memories and witness the atrocities he's committed. In denial, Hunter tries to justify it, but his logic gets increasingly thin, with him trying to explain Belos' blatant attempt at murdering several witches as being merely him trying to perfect sigil magic. However, it's clear they both know that there is no way someone as smart as Belos would make such a mistake if murder wasn't the goal.
- Villain Has a Point: When Luz is aghast that the people of the Boiling Isles have been tricked into serving a witch hunter all this time easily, Inner Belos tells her that she has no room to be judgmental and gleefully reminds her how effortlessly he manipulated her when he was Philip. Luz is utterly devastated.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Hunter and most of the witches admire Belos and love him as their rightful ruler while he plans their demise.
- Visual Pun: Hunter mentions how he heard "Whispers of an attempt to invade the emperor's mind" at the beginning of the episode. As he's saying this, one of the perpetrators (who is quite clearly Raine Whispers) is shown on screen.
- We Need to Get Proof: Luz's objective this episode is trying to figure out Belos' endgame and prove he's evil. She tries to question Hunter, then takes advantage of being trapped in the Emperor's mindscape to learn the truth. Sadly, she gets what she wanted, as she learns Belos' plans but also ends up discovering Hunter's origins and that she helped Belos by showing him the light glyph and giving him the chance to contact the Collector, leaving her devastated.
- We Used to Be Friends: The paintings in Belos' true mindscape show a story where, as children, Philip and his brother used to be close, but when said brother eventually grew to like witches and even fell in love with one, Philip was outraged and then killed him.
- What You Are in the Dark: The entire episode is this for Belos, taking place inside his mindscape with only the isolated Luz and Hunter privy to his true thoughts and intentions towards others.
- Surprisingly, despite everything that's been demonstrated from both his present and past self as 'Philip', his true nature is even worse than he's demonstrated before, being a genocidal Witch Hunter whose acts of benevolence or Hidden Depths towards others are revealed to be mere fabrications he puts on to control or mislead those around him, and Belos honestly thinks nothing of killing, hurting or destroying however many people it takes to realize his insane ambitions. Notably, the Inner Belos could have stopped the duo from finding this out at any point, but deliberately led them around from memory to memory whilst it gathered the preparations it needed to excise the Palismen beast from Belos' mind for good, explicitly exposing Belos's incriminating memories to them because he was planning on dealing with the pair of them once the beast was gone.
- There are several memories within Belos' mindscape that could have drawn conflicting sympathies from Luz and Hunter, namely how he was raised as a witch hunter in a Puritan society and how he felt abandoned and betrayed when his brother disappeared into the Demon Realm and was later discovered to have fallen in love with a witch. Yet, Inner Belos doesn't take Luz and Hunter to those memories because they portray him as emotionally weak and fallible, which threatens his image as an all-powerful, all-knowing crusader of justice who is "selfless" and "self-sacrificing" for a higher purpose. Because he refuses to elaborate on his true past, he makes it easier for Luz and Hunter to see him as simply evil.
- Wham Episode: Belos reveals to Luz that he's Philip and a witch hunter. Hunter, realizing that Belos knows that they were in his mind, and that the previous Golden Guards (who were all Grimwalkers like he is revealed to be) were killed when they disobeyed him, flees from the Owl House in a panic. Eberwolf is apparently working with Darius and Raine against Belos. Belos has some kind of deal with the Collector, who is sealed below the Isles and will get their freedom on the Day of Unity, and the sigils are actively dangerous to anyone who has one. And of course, Luz stirred up a hornet’s nest invading Belos’ mind, and now he wants heads for this.
- Wham Line:
- In Belos' memories, the Collector inadvertently reveals the true purpose behind the "Day of Unity".Collector: To you, who strays so far from home! To me, who's trapped beneath these bones! We'll play forever, me and you! When you paint the land IN NINE BRIGHT HUES!
- In response to a genuine, teary-eyed question from Hunter, Belos utters a line that confirms that Hunter is a Grimwalker, that there have been many, many Grimwalkers before him, and that they were made to look like someone else — plus the fact that it's said in past tense providing Five-Second Foreshadowing to the fact that Belos has already written him off as a lost cause.Belos: What a shame. Out of all the Grimwalkers, you looked the most like him.
- "No one ever said being a witch hunter was easy", showing just how deep the lies go, and confirming that Belos's intentions with the Boiling Isles are even more horrific than first thought.
- In Belos' memories, the Collector inadvertently reveals the true purpose behind the "Day of Unity".
- Wham Shot:
- As the Collector introduces himself, he makes a cryptic rhyme about Belos' true plan and then morphs his shadow form to show exactly what he means: the annihilation of witches in the Demon Realm.
- While the reveal that there have been other Golden Guards before Hunter had already been made, it doesn't hit home just how many there were until Hunter and Luz find a hallway full of broken masks and memories of dead Grimwalkers.
- Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: When the Collector speculates that Belos creates so many grimwalkers just to destroy them and accuses him of enjoying it, Belos claims that it hurts "every time he chooses to betray" him.
- The Witch Hunter: Belos aka Philip reveals that he is one and intends to kill every witch in a single strike on the Day of Unity.
- With Us or Against Us: Belos has been hammering down how the Titan will mercilessly "punish" those who don't take part in the coven system. This results in many of Eda's night market acquaintances joining covens while casting her aside to stay in the Emperor's good graces.
- Windows of the Soul: The Child Belos' wooden mask obscures his face and has only two black holes where his eyes should see out of. Whilst it's representative of Luz's inability to perceive his real nature and intentions underneath the facade he puts on, everything that's shown in the flashbacks about Philip/Belos' life and the portraits that chronicle his gradual separation from his brother and transformation into Belos, it's not a far reach to say that Philip's soul is a black void.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Belos pretends to be a child in his mindscape so Luz and Hunter will follow him around, distracting the Palismen amalgam while he gathers the materials needed to banish it. He even plays up his helplessness by startling at various things and hiding behind Luz's legs.
- Wrong Genre Savvy:
- Luz believes that Belos is the standard Evil Overlord who only craves power and authority in the Boiling Isles. She finds out his plan is actually the genocide of all witches and demons, with the Emperor persona being nothing more a ruse from The Witch Hunter.
- Belos himself falls into this. He thinks that he's the hero of a Dark Fantasy story, a witch hunter fighting against the dark forces of the demons and witches of the Isles in order to "save humanity from evil", even if he has to become something other than human himself. He's really the Big Bad and Knight of Cerebus in a more light-hearted horror-comedy fantasy story that has Luz as the protagonist, and the witches and demons of the Isles are far from inherently evil.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Belos quickly takes advantage of Luz and Hunter's presence inside his mind by manipulating them into helping him destroy the Palismen creature.
- You Are Not Alone: Deconstructed. After seeing how distraught Hunter is after learning that Belos has been lying to him his entire life, Luz tries to reassure him, and offers to let him stay in the Owl House. However, Hunter is extremely paranoid on a good day, he's only known her for a few weeks, during which they were enemies, and he's just received the news that his life and everything he's ever worked for is a lie. Instead of taking Luz's offer and staying after Eda pulls them out, he flies into a blind panic and runs off into the woods.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Throughout most of the episode, Hunter just refers to Luz as 'human'. However, when they're escaping Belos's rampage near the end, he finally calls her by her first name in desperation.
- You Can't Go Home Again:
- Since Eda had to use the last Titan's blood to save Luz (and Hunter), Luz now has no means to build her own portal, and only the slim hope that she could use the original, now that she knows it's been rebuilt.
- At the end, Hunter has a panic attack after discovering his entire existence and everything he believes in is built on a mountain of lies, and Belos now knows he knows and will destroy him for it, meaning he can never return to the castle. He rejects the cloak of the Golden Guard in fear and runs off into the wilderness.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Belos decides to kill Hunter and Luz, the former because he knows the truth and isn't likely to keep serving him, and the latter because the Stable Time Loop she's part of has since passed.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Apparently, when Belos absorbs a Palisman, he's actually eating its soul, and they all exist inside his mindscape, which is the apparent source of his affliction, or at least why he can't control it. With Luz and Hunter's unwitting help, he captures the Palismen amalgam and destroys it, seemingly eliminating his Power Incontinence in the process.
"He knows. He... he knows we were in there! I can't... I CAN'T GO BACK!"
