Recap / The Owl House S2E6 "Hunting Palismen"

"I stayed here because I wanted to learn magic, right?! I wanted to be a witch, like Eda and Azura! But what does that even MEAN?! And I've read stories like this, the main character always has to return home! And what, did I expect to be a witch back in Connecticut?! ...Yeah. I wouldn't wanna be my Palisman either."

— Luz

Original air date: 7/17/2021

Production code: 206

It's Palisman Pairing Day at Hexside, but Luz doesn't match with a Palisman of her own and soon finds herself on an unexpected journey with a foe.

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Tropes:

• Actor Allusion: At least three to Hunter's voice actor being Zeno Robinson.
  • A bobble head of Remy from Big City Greens can be seen in Hunter's room.
  • Hunter's new Palisman being a red bird may be a reference to his role as Hawks in My Hero Academia.
  • One of the Palismen that's surrounding Luz looks like a Shiny Mew, which is a reference to Goh from Pokémon Journeys whose Goal in Life is to capture Mew.
• Ambiguously Related: The Golden Guard's real name is revealed to be "Hunter", and he's also Emperor Belos's nephew. But it's unknown if he's biologically related to Belos or not. When Hunter was talking with Belos and suggests researching wild magic, Belos reminds him that wild magic destroyed their family, and the two of them are all that's left. However, when talking to Luz, he reveals that neither he nor many of his ancestors could use magic, and he didn't think he had a future in the Boiling Isles until Belos took him in. This could mean Hunter is an orphan from a magic-less family, or he's a member of Emperor Belos's family that couldn't use magic. In any case, Hunter's blood relation to Belos is unclear.
• Animal Motif: All of the bonded Palismen symbolically match up with their new owners. Willow gets a bee, Gus gets a chameleon, Boscha gets a crab, and the kid who just wants to make it to graduation gets a sloth.
• Anti-Villain: Hunter is shown to be loyal to Belos due to the Emperor having adopted him and granted him a means of practicing magic, and once he and Luz start working together they almost become Fire-Forged Friends. Hunter even lets slip his intense interest in studying wild magic when fascinated by Luz's glyph spells, though he scolds himself for letting his guard down. In the end, while he does turn on her to take the Palismen to Belos, her lamenting having trusted Hunter makes him feel guilty enough to let her go with the Palismen.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Luz gets asked a few of these throughout the episode.
  • When she goes to get a Palisman at the ceremony, Luz says she wants to be a witch. Nothing happens, because "become a witch" isn't a specific-enough goal. Principal Bump then asks Luz "what do you hope to accomplish with your magic?" Luz replies it's to get home to her mom... but then, both Gus and Boscha ask Luz if she'll keep studying magic on Earth, or if she can even cast magic there. Luz admits she didn't think that far ahead.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • When Luz sees the Golden Guard is a seemingly normal witch kid, she leans really close to his face... then roughly slaps him to wake him up.
  • After Luz returns the Palismen, the red cardinal Palisman tells the Bat Queen that he's found a partner. Cut to Luz's room, where the window opens... and it's Eda and King. They stole a log of palistrom wood for Luz to carve her own Palisman. The red cardinal finds Hunter and becomes his Palisman.
    Hunter: I was... not expecting that.
• Being Good Sucks: Luz lampshades that she's too nice to let Kikimora assassinate the Golden Guard in cold blood, and wakes him up to warn him they need to move, fast.
• Berserk Button: Twice when Hunter suggests that Belos allow him to study wild magic to find a solution to his affliction, the Emperor responds in displeased gestures, especially the second time.
• Blatant Lies:
  • While "investigating" the crash of Hunter's airship, Kikimora tells one of the Emperor's Coven that Hunter has perished, using his empty helmet as proof.
  • When Hunter and Kikimora meet again near the end of the episode, Hunter claims that some travelers helped him back to the palace—though Kikimora silently spots Hunter's singed hair, partially cluing her in to what really happened.
• Body Horror:
  • The dragon-esque creature that Kikimora controls has a body comprised entirely out of fingers curved around into a vaguely draconic shape- as in fingers for limbs, curled together into the shape of a mouth, its tail etc. Just about the only part of it that isn't made out of fingers is its eyes and wings. The end result resembles Mr. Fingers from Goblins.
  • When Belos goes too long without Palismen, he mutates into Ominous Obsidian Ooze.
• Call-Back:
  • Eda uses the Bat Queen's skull whistle to set up Palisman Adoption Day. The Bat Queen grants her an extra favor because she likes the idea.
  • The Bat Queen offers some of the lost Palismen she was sheltering in "Escape of the Palisman" to the students of Hexside.
  • Gus states his wish is to become ambassador to the Human Realm and reconnect with giraffes. Giraffes were previously stated to have originated in the Demon Realm, but were banished to Earth for "being freaks".
  • Boscha states that her wish is to become a professional Grudgby player, recalling her talent at the sport from "Wing It Like Witches".
• Cassandra Truth: Hunter tries to assert his status as the Golden Guard to some mooks, but they refuse to believe him because he appears to be too young, lacks both the outfit and his staff, and his tattoo is dismissed as a fake. Luz doesn't help matters by refusing to give the staff back, which would prove his identity.
• Cerebus Call-Back: Back in "The First Day", Luz wanting to study all the tracks was presented as a good bit of rebellion against the repressive coven system. Here it's presented as a character flaw, because just wanting to study magic in general isn't a strong enough conviction to attract a Palisman, especially when she can't even answer what she'd even do once she learns all she wants to learn. By contrast, Viney from the same episode manages to attract a Palisman with her desire to open a veterinary clinic one day.
• The Chooser of the One: Normally, a witch would carve their own Palisman from the wood of a palistrom tree, but since those are becoming scarce, the Bat Queen brings abandoned Palismen to Hexside for the students to adopt. In this case, the students don't pick their Palismen; the Palisman chooses them based on what they want to do in the future.
• Close-Call Haircut:
  • As Kikimora struggles to overcome the knockout gas' effects, she starts shooting fireballs at Hunter and Luz. Despite barely being able to see, she singes the tip off Hunter's bang... which is how she eventually realizes he was the one who she was fighting against and that he let the captured Palismen escape.
  • When Hunter lets slip his desire to study wild magic, Belos transforms his arm into a bladed tentacle of black ooze and narrowly misses impaling Hunter's head with it, grazing his hair.
• Combat Tentacles: When Hunter suggests studying wild magic to find a cure, Belos transforms an arm into a spiked tendril and inflicts a Close-Call Haircut on Hunter as a warning.
• Conflicting Loyalties:
  • Luz is divided between her desire to become a witch in the Boiling Isles but never seeing her mother again with her desire to return to her mother on Earth but losing the ability to cast magic. This lack of conviction prevents Luz from getting a Palisman, since she can't decide what she wants.
  • While still loyal to Belos, Hunter desires to study wild magic, and chooses to keep the red cardinal Palisman rather than allow Belos to feed on it.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The Abomatons Emperor Belos purchased from Blight Industries back in "Escaping Expulsion" are now being used as guards in his throne room.
  • The abandoned Palismen from "Escape of the Palisman" become the main focus as alternatives to give Hexside students a Palisman due to the shortage on palistrom wood.
  • After Hunter tells Luz that she'll be locked in the Conformatorium, she comments that she already broke out twice (once in "A Lying Witch and a Warden" and again in "Young Blood, Old Souls").
  • Luz mentions that she knows what Belos does to Palismen, having seen him eat one back in "Agony of a Witch".
• Dark Lord on Life Support: Part of the reason behind Belos needing to consume Palismen is because if he goes too long without doing so, his body starts to melt into Ominous Obsidian Ooze.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Luz ends up failing to bond with a Palisman because of this. "I want to become a witch" is too vague a goal to be Palisman-worthy, and Luz realizes she has never actually thought about her future beyond that. In fact, none of Luz's current goals are long term. Eventually, she decides to wait on deciding her future, at least until she has a way home.
• Didn't Think This Through: The episode establishes this to be Luz's Fatal Flaw, and it occurs repeatedly throughout the episode:
  • She informs the Palismen that her goals are to become a witch and return home to her mother. As Principal Bump and Boscha point out, she hasn't thought about what she'll do afterwards, especially considering those goals are mutually-exclusive.
  • She uses a fire glyph to rocket the Golden Guard off his airship, without realising that he can just use magic to get back on, then brags about having escaped the Conformatorium twice before without considering that the Golden Guard might then choose to punish her some other way — like, say, killing her.
  • Having stolen the Golden Guard's staff, she propels herself up to a high place and taunts him about his inability to fly up to her. She doesn't consider that he might be able to follow her via more mundane methods, or what she should do in such a case — as the Golden Guard points out, she's too nice to shoot him, and has no means of escape from somewhere so high. By this point, he's able to lampshade how bad she is at thinking things through.
  • Luz agrees to an Enemy Mine with the Golden Guard in order to get the Palismen back, and even gives him back his staff, presumably thinking he'll pull a Heel–Face Turn. He doesn't, and this time Luz herself lampshades how she should've thought the alliance through more. Luckily it works out on this occasion, as Luz guilt-tripping him over it tips Hunter closer to a genuine Heel–Face Turn.
  • Discussed by the Golden Guard as Luz's Fatal Flaw. In a broader sense, it becomes apparent this is why she has no long term goals to inspire the conviction that would attract a Palisman.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: The Golden Guard whistles the theme to The Owl House while piloting an airship to steal the Palismen.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Belos mutating when going without Palismen for too long is reminiscent of a drug addict going through a withdrawal.
• Double-Meaning Title: "Hunting Palismen" is both Exactly What It Says on the Tin and alluding to Hunter's name.
• Double Think: Discussed. Luz has two goals: become a witch, and get home to her mother. Trouble is, the former is just vague enough that it's not worthy of a Palisman. Besides that, an Armor-Piercing Question from Boscha makes Luz realize that these two desires are (at the moment) mutually exclusive. If Luz goes home to Earth, she'll be back with her mother but unable to use magic. If Luz stays on the Boiling Isles, she'll probably become a witch but will never see her mother ever again. This causes Luz to realize that she hasn't really thought through her plans very well.
• Dramatic Irony: When Hunter approaches a couple of scouts without his mask, cape or staff, they unknowingly turn away the Golden Guard, one of the highest-ranking witches in the Emperor's Coven. Justified, as not many people have ever seen Hunter without his regalia, so these scouts don't know him from Adam.
• Ear Notch: Hunter has a piece of his left ear missing.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Principal Bump rejects Eda nicknaming him "Bumpy-poo".
• Enemy Mine: Hunter reluctantly agrees to work with Luz to screw over Kikimora, since it benefits both of them. At one point it looks like Hunter is gonna turn on Luz but decides not to, in the end the two seem to form a genuine friendship, with Hunter telling Luz his real name.
• Everyone Has Standards: Luz is fine with pulling sneak attacks on the Golden Guard, some of which could have killed him. It's very different, however, when Kikimora pulls a dirty trick to outright murder him when he's knocked out. Luz realizes she can't leave him like a sitting duck and smacks him awake, telling him they need to move.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Hunter scoffs when Luz claims that he owes her for saving his life. He says that it's her own niceness that did that, and kindness is a weakness. At the end, however, she got through to him, and he's pondering how his uncle needs Palismen to survive but one innocent Palisman trusts him.
• Evil Counterpart: Hunter turns out to be one for Luz. They both have a figure in their life who's more or less adopted them, have an inability to perform magic the normal way that they get around with external aid, and have an interest in Wild Magic. They even almost become friends in this episode.
• Evil Uncle: Belos is revealed to be the Golden Guard's uncle — or at least, Hunter calls him that.
• Evolving Credits: The intro is updated to incorporate Eda, King, and Amity's new looks.
• Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: After restraining Luz, Hunter gladly explains to Luz that his staff is the reason he was so easily able to return to the airship after getting rocketed into the distance by her fire glyph. Luz immediately exploits that knowledge by using an ice glyph to knock his staff off the airship, rendering him powerless.
• False Friend: As part of her not-thinking-things-completely-through Fatal Flaw, Luz assumes that she and Hunter have become Fire-Forged Friends by the end of their Enemy Mine, to the point where she gives him back his staff despite him asking if she's sure she should do that. After Kikimora is dazed by the knockout gas, Luz checks on the captured Palismen... only to notice that Hunter is aiming his staff at her back and charging up a magic attack. Luz accusing him of being this while lamenting trusting him, however, guilts him into letting her go while he holds off Kikimora.
• Flash Step: Hunter uses his staff to do this quite a lot, particularly in his battle with Kikimora.
• Foreshadowing:
  • A very subtle one — when Hunter's unmasked face comes into view, the red cardinal Palisman's eye goes very wide, as if shocked to see him, hinting that he's connected to their previous owner.
  • After Hunter discusses his desire to learn more about wild magic, the red cardinal Palisman starts nudging and rubbing up against him, setting up the reveal near the end of the episode that it had chosen him to be its partner.
  • A subtle clue for the next episode is that, of all the Coven Heads, Raine — the secret rebellion leader — is the only one who doesn't look proud or pleased to be at the gathering, instead grimacing slightly in discomfort like they'd rather be anywhere else.
• Given Name Reveal: After Luz states to the Golden Guard that he is essentially nothing but that name, he reveals his name to be Hunter.
• Grass is Greener: After Luz comments that Hunter has his life figured out for him while she's still struggling to do so, he responds that she actually has the luxury of being able to choose a future for herself while he would have had nothing had Belos not taken him in.
• Handicapped Badass:
  • Even when she's woozy and sluggish from getting hit with Luz's Knockout Gas, Kikimora still manages to struggle to her feet and launch several attacks on the duo, even scoring a few hits on Hunter despite him using Teleport Spam and mostly dodging or deflecting her attacks. It's heavily implied that neither of the duo would have had as easy a time escaping if she'd been fighting at full strength.
  • Principal Bump is revealed to be missing an eye and relies on his Palisman to compensate for it. Interestingly, despite him having a massive scar running down across one eye, it's perfectly intact, and it's the other eye on his unmarred side of his face that appears to be missing or stitched shut.
• Humble Goal: One of the students who lines up for a Palisman just wants to make it to graduation day, which results in him bonding with a sloth Palisman.
• Hypocrite: While fighting Hunter, Kikimora proclaims that attacking an official from the Emperor's Coven is treason even though she tried to assassinate Hunter, a member of the same coven and nephew to the Emperor, just an hour ago.
• Immediate Sequel: This episode is shown to begin the day after "Through the Looking Glass Ruins" ends, with Luz now keeping the echo mouse in her terrarium at home and Amity staying home from school in sheer embarrassment after kissing Luz in front of her house.
• Impairment Shot: Kikimora's vision is shown to be blurry as a result of the Knockout Gas, keeping her from clearly seeing Luz or Hunter. She can, however, see just well enough to witness Hunter's bang getting singed by her fire, allowing her to recognise him as her attacker later on.
• Instant Costume Change: Luz is in her pajamas, staring at the Echo Mouse in the hopes that it'll reveal more of the diary to her. Eda comes in to remind Luz to get ready for school. When Luz fails to respond, Eda tries to get her attention by saying that she'll miss out on getting her own Magic Staff if that's the case. Cue Luz zooming to the door in a blur, revealing that she's somehow already changed into her uniform when she arrives.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Boscha asks Luz if she can use magic in the Human Realm, especially since glyph magic is useless when outside the Boiling Isles, due to lacking enough environmental magic to draw upon. This causes Luz to realize that she hasn't really thought through her goals, especially since becoming a witch and getting home to her mother are mutually exclusive.
• Knockout Gas: Luz combines the fire and ice glyphs to make fog, and adds a plant that can induce sleep so the fog gains that property. As Kikimora and her dragon struggle to stay awake, she and Hunter cause it to crash by using a light glyph to make a beacon.
• Magic Hair: The Abomination Coven Head has Abomination goo for hair.
• Magic Staff: Besides the traditional staffs we see in this episode, Hunter's staff allows him to use magic despite lacking the ability to perform it normally.
• Makes Us Even: Subverted. Eda calls in the favor the Bat Queen owes her to set up Palisman Adoption Day, though the Bat Queen likes the idea so much that she grants her another favor.
• Merged Reality: Belos gives the Coven Heads a vision of the Demon Realm and Human Realm merging claiming it's a taste of what his plans will entail.
• Muggle Born of Mages: Hunter is a witch but innately lacks magic. His staff allows him to perform artificial magic like Belos.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Eda and King break into the Bonesborough Garden Club in order to steal a log of palistrom wood for Luz, and while we don't see it, the comments on how heavily guarded the wood is imply it was quite the adventure.
• Oh, My Gods!: Luz says "Holy Titan" when she sees Principal Bump take off Frewin for the first time.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Kikimora's dragon pet is made out of hands and fingers of various sizes.
• Pajama-Clad Hero: Aside from sporting her Hexside uniform for a few scenes, Luz spends the majority of the episode in her new pajamas.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Boscha loudly complains about having to get a "trashy hand-me-down" as a Palisman instead of making her own, but when she bonds with one she instantly falls in love with it and even blushes.
    • In a somewhat backhanded way, she also helps point out Luz's Fatal Flaw through pointing out how illogical it is for her to be a witch in the Human world, asking if it's even possible for her to do magic there (Which it isn't, as Luz found out first-hand, though Boscha doesn't know that.)
    • Surprisingly, she did not insult or laugh at Luz when she could not adopt any palisman.
  • Even though Belos needs Palismen magic to survive, Hunter decides to protect the one that bonds with him rather than turn it in to Belos.
• Power Parasite: The Coven System is apparently designed to siphon off as much magic as possible to help fuel the "Day of Unity". The magic that the coven members cannot use is seemingly siphoned into the medallions of the heads of the nine main covens, who then transfer it periodically to Belos.
• Punch a Wall: When Belos starts to destabilize, he punches a pillar in his throne room repeatedly until his body re-stabilizes, leaving it covered in black ooze.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Kikimora causes Hunter's airship to crash and sets her dragon on him in an attempt to assassinate him. She believes that it worked, only realizing otherwise at the end of the episode.
• The Resenter: Kikimora is shown to have an even more intense rivalry with the Golden Guard than she did with Lilith out of jealousy at how close he is to Emperor Belos, to the point that she secretly tries to assassinate him.
• The Reveal:
  • The Day of Unity will unite the Human and Demon Realms, and in the process, eliminate wild magic. The purpose of the covens is seemingly to sequester as much magic as possible before that happens. By extension, we finally see the nine Coven Heads of Emperor Belos's system, who also learn of Belos's plan.
  • Belos has to feed on Palisman magic to maintain his form. Without it, he loses cohesion and starts to melt, similar to an abomination but some sort of Ominous Obsidian Ooze. It's implied that he is getting progressively worse, to the point they have exhausted all of their reserves of captured Palismen.
  • Belos holds wild magic responsible for killing his family and afflicting the aforementioned curse upon him, hence his desire to stamp it out through the Coven system and, ultimately, the Day of Unity.
  • Frewin, the demon attached to Bump's head, is actually his Palisman. He uses it to augment his damaged sight.
  • While venting her problems to the Echo Mouse, Luz reveals that she lives in the American state of Connecticut.
  • The Golden Guard is seen unmasked, and his backstory is touched upon: his name is Hunter, and he's a witch born without the ability to innately use magic. He was found and adopted by Belos as his nephew. He also has an academic interest in Wild Magic, despite his uncle's plan to eliminate it in its entirety.
  • Palismen are carved from palistrom wood. However, the trees have become more rare and what's left is heavily guarded. Bump, working with Eda and the Bat Queen, arranges an alternative: having the Hexside students adopt one of the Palismen under the Bat Queen's protection.
• Revealing Injury: At the end of the episode, Kikimora notices that some of Hunter's hair is still singed, and realizes that he is the one she fought in her half-asleep state the night before. Ironically, she also gave him an actual injury when she first attacked him in her woozy state, but she couldn't see clearly enough to make out the details, and Hunter has it bandaged up by the time they meet again.
• Save the Villain: As she lampshades, Luz is too good a person to let Hunter be eaten by a dragon.
• Secret-Keeper: Given that doing so could land him in hot water for letting Luz take the Palismen, Hunter keeps Kikimora's assassination attempt against him a secret from Belos.
• Sequel Hook: In the end, after Luz fails to bond with a Palisman, Eda and King steal some palistrom wood for her so she can carve her own when she knows what she wants to do. Hunter also bonds with the cardinal palisman and chooses not to turn it over to Belos.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of the Palismen is a goose with a bell in its beak.
  • Hunter has a plushie of Sprig under his pillow and a statue of Remy on his shelf.
  • One of the Palismen looks like a Mew.
• Skull for a Head: When Belos's mask falls off as his body destabilizes, the shadow cast by his face looks skull-like.
• Stalker Shot: When Belos's body starts to destabilize, Hunter escorts him to his throne room, and when Kikimora tries to follow, Hunter stops her and tells her he can handle it, much to her frustration. After Belos tasks Hunter to find him more Palismen, the camera cuts to outside the throne room to reveal Kikimora eavesdropping on their talk and deciding to do something about Hunter.
• The Symbiote: Bump's palisman has this role, latching himself onto his head to help him see.
• Symbolism: After an episode of his mysterious affliction, Emperor Belos regains composure and puts a hand on Hunter's shoulder. But even as he gives Hunter rather gentle and assuring words, his still-slimy hand taints the boy's clothes with his dark slime. This gives the impression that whatever Emperor Belos's feelings for Hunter, their relationship isn't exactly a healthy one.
• There Was a Door: King is a little ticked that Eda had them climb up to Luz's room, which is not on the ground floor, rather than use the door.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: This works against Hunter when trying to get help from some scouts. Because Luz notes that he looks like an ordinary witch, the scouts refuse to believe that he is the Golden Guard.
• A Twinkle in the Sky: Hunter ends up shooting off into the distance this way after Luz slams a fire glyph onto his back.
• Uncatty Resemblance: Both Hunter and the red cardinal Palisman he bonds with have prominent facial scars.
• Unequal Rites: Belos claims that wild magic is responsible for his current condition, which is part of his motivation to eliminate it entirely through the Day of Unity, so it can be dispelled forever and he'll be cured. The Golden Guard, however, wants to study it and figure out how it caused this condition, but he's shut down each time.
• The Unreveal: While discussing Luz's glyphs, Hunter begins to talk about magic in the Savage Ages and starts to say that there's something about it most people don't know.... but then he cuts himself off and says he shouldn't be talking about it.
• Villain Opening Scene: The episode begins with a scene at Belos' castle as he presides over a meeting about the upcoming Day of Unity.
• What You Are in the Dark: Luz gives Hunter his staff back so that he'll be able to help fight Kikimora, despite him asking if she's sure it's a good idea to trust him with it. Once Kikimora and her hand-dragon are incapacitated, Hunter prepares to shoot Luz in the back and take the Palismen to Belos... but can't bring himself to do so and lets her escape while he holds off Kikimora. Later, the red cardinal palisman bonds to him and he opts to keep it a secret rather than let Belos eat it.
• "You!" Exclamation: This is Hunter's reaction when Luz wakes him up after the crash.
• You're Nothing Without Your Phlebotinum: When Luz refuses to return his staff and Hunter is forced to chase her on foot, it dawns on Luz that he can't use magic without it.
• Your Heart's Desire: Palismen bond with witches through a sincere desire. Luz fails to bond with one because she isn't sure of what she wants, while Hunter ends up bonding with the red cardinal out of a desire to understand wild magic.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Luz threatens to blast Hunter with his own staff, but he points out she won't kill him now if she wasn't willing to let him die in the first place.

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