Recap / The Owl House S2E7 "Eda's Requiem"

Original air date: 7/24/2021

Production code: 207

A special witch from Eda's past enlists her in a rebellion against the Emperor.

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Tropes:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The plants in Eda's and Raine's flashback are clearly CGI-animated.
• A Day in the Limelight: For Bard magic in general.
• Adoptive Name Change: King announces that he's taking on the Clawthorne name, to honor the witch who raised him.
• Affectionate Nickname: Eda calls Raine "Rainestorm".
• Armor-Piercing Question: Raine asking if Eda has kids after seeing the Grom photo of her, Luz and King startles Eda out of playing, and forces her to confront what's really been bothering her rather than throw her life away in the name of foiling the Day of Unity.
• Artificial Limbs: One of the St. Epiderm students competing in the Gland Prix is shown to have a prosthetic leg.
• Artistic License – Music: At one point, Raine plays a chord across all four strings of their violin with a bow. Violins are designed in a way in which you cannot play all four strings at once.
  • Additionally, Raine is shown many times making a pizzicato sound, which is achieved by plucking the strings, with a bow.
• The Bad Guys Win: Despite the resistance scoring minor victories by freeing imprisoned Wild Witches throughout the episode, the Emperor has the last laugh: almost all the BATT members are captured, with only Eda escaping, and as there are still nine Coven Heads, Belos' plans for the Day of Unity can still go ahead.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • After Eda unmasks Raine, the two angrily glare at each other like there's some kind of bad blood between them... but then Raine blushes and whines that Eda's embarrassing them in front of their crew, explaining to the surprised BATT members that they and Eda are old friends.
  • Eda arrives just in time to see Luz and King battling with another student. They cross the finish line, and Perry announces that the pair just won... fifth place. Luz explains that they were in the lead until King threw up mid-flight and caused them to crash.
  • It seems like King wants to tell Eda about leaving home, but the end reveals he actually wants to legally change his name so he'll share her last name, making him part of the family.
• Berserk Button: When Eda's boots (enchanted to lead Eberwolf and Darius away) kick mud over Darius's clothes, the Abomination Coven Head transforms into his part-Abomination form, and charges after Eda and Raine.
  Darius: Alright! No more playing around!
• The Big Race: The B-plot revolves around Luz entering the Gland Prix in the hopes of winning an interview so she and King can send a message to King's dad.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: King's list of father/son activities in his message are playing catch, baking cookies, and his dad catching him going on weird websites.
• Bridal Carry: Raine is revealed to be carrying Eda in their arms this way after the invisibility spell wears off.
• Brick Joke:
  • After their practice early in the episode, Luz admits that they had to end it after King threw up. Luz later tells Eda that they wound up in fifth place for the Gland Prix because King succumbed to motion sickness once more.
  • At first, Amber is put off by Eda jokingly referring to herself as BATT's mother, only to later come back around and cheerfully call Eda 'mama'.
• The Bus Came Back: The fan-fiction witch from the pilot (now revealed to be named Katya), is a member of Raine's rebellion. When she ends up back in the Conformatorium, she cries out, "Not again!"
• The Cameo: The winner of the Gland Prix is Gavin from "Through the Looking Glass Ruins".
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The only reason Raine isn't petrified for treason when their rebellious acts are discovered is because Belos needs all the Coven Heads for the Day of Unity, there's not enough time to find a replacement, and it doesn't matter to him if the Coven Head is willing.
• Cathartic Crying: Up until this episode, Eda has had pretty tight control over her emotions. Along with thinking that King wants to leave her when he finds his dad, she eventually loses Raine to Darius and Eberwolf. Before she returns to the Gland Prix to cheer Luz and King on, she hastily wipes away her tears and erases all emotion from her face to avoid suspicion. Near the end of the episode, it's revealed that King only wanted to legally change his last name to "Clawthorne" to honor Eda, the witch who raised him. This brings so much relief to Eda that she begins crying without restraint.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Eda's To-do list mentions "Burn old dress", which she replaced three episodes ago.
  • Eda has a photo of her, Luz, and King at Grom.
  • Katya's reaction to ending up in the Conformitorium is Oh, No... Not Again! as her introduction in the pilot had her already locked up there.
  • Both Luz and Eda use the invisibility glyph Luz invented in "Echoes of the Past".
  • During the race, Luz is wearing her grudgby uniform from "Wing it Like Witches".
  • One of the Glandus racers is Gavin. He ends up the winner.
  • The principal of Glandus is wearing an indigo stole, the same shade as Luz's hoodie. Indigo and white had been established to be the school's color's back in "Escape of the Palisman".
  • In her brief appearance, Willow is with her palisman Clover, which she received in the previous episode.
• Counterspell: At one point, Raine uses their Bard magic to disrupt a guard's spell circle, causing it to fail.
• Crush Blush: Happens several times between Eda and Raine.
• Cursed with Awesome: Eda and Raine try to weaponize the Dangerous Phlebotinum Interaction of Eda's curse and Bard magic to take out Darius and Eberwolf.
• Dangerous Phlebotinum Interaction: Eda's curse interacts badly with Bard magic, causing anything within range of the sound to slowly disintegrate.
• Defiant to the End: After they are revealed to be The Mole within the Coven System, Raine mocks Darius, Eberwolf and later Kikimora and shows no fear at the thought of being petrified. Unfortunately, Kikimora doesn't intend to let them off that easily and puts them into a Forced Sleep until the Day of Unity.
• Do Wrong, Right: Eda both rolls her eyes at the BATT and teases Raine for their shyness. That's because she's been an outlaw for longer and knows better ways to undermine the Emperor's authority. If you're going to raid the Coven guards, have an exit strategy! Always know how to hit the emperor and the guards where it hurts. When she starts contributing as a Resistance informant and prison breaker, she earns their respect.
• Dramatic Irony: Eda figures that she can never measure up to either of Luz or King's respective parents if they want to return to them. What she didn't know was, King never wanted to leave Eda: he intended to legally change his name to "King Clawthorne" and be adopted by her. As for Luz, she has never given any indication that she would cut Eda out of her life just because she can go home to her mother.
• Eaten Alive: Hooty ate the Echo Mouse whole in a flashback. Luz luckily managed to get it out offscreen.
• Empty Nest: Eda suffers from a premature form of this throughout the episode. Knowing that Luz will eventually return to the human realm and King is off searching for his birth family, Eda knows that one day they won't need her anymore and that she will be left all alone. When they realize that Eda has a family now, Raine chooses to pull a Heroic Sacrifice to allow her to escape capture, and by the end she finds out that King planned on changing his name and having himself legally recognized as a Clawthorne.
• Everything Is Online: Luz and King end up losing the race, but Eda tells King to just livestream his message to his father on Pentstagram instead, saying that "nobody uses crystal balls anymore".
• Fatal Family Photo: Inverted. Eda's photo of her, Luz, and King at Grom actually saves her life because seeing it leads Raine to call off their shared suicide attack.
• Fluorescent Footprints: One of Eberwolf's spells turns their eyes into spotlights that reveal footprints.
• Food as Bribe: In a flashback, Luz is seen luring the Echo Mouse out from its hiding place with a carrot, and it looks like Luz will get it to open up about the portal... but then Hooty eats it.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • The items on Eda's To-do list at the start of the episode includes "Check itchy boy" (for checking King for fleas), "Clean Hooty (?)" (question mark included) and "Burn old dress".
  • Upon close inspection, Amity is now wearing the eclipse-styled necklace she sports in the new opening, replacing her previous one.
  • The St. Epiderm principal has a Giraffe Palisman.
  • During the scene where Darius sends the BATTs to the Conformatorium, the lever that controls the cell door is flipped upward, meaning the cell is unlocked. It later turns out that Darius and Eberwolf are rebels themselves, and that they only staged the attack on the BATTs to save Raine and allow them to continue their efforts in secrecy.
• Funny Background Event: More like Funny Offscreen Event when Eda and Luz's crying is heard as Eberwolf watches the livestream. Darius tells them to shut the livestream off, but Eberwolf only turns up the volume.
• Fun with Acronyms: Raine's rebellion is called the Bards Against the Throne, or BATT for short. They wear bat masks just to drive the point home.
• Furry Reminder: In a flashback, Hooty swallowed up Luz's echo mouse, likely referencing the fact that the preferred prey of most owls is small rodents.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Eda and Raine plan to do this by using Eda's Magic Music to kill Darius and Eberwolf (which would kill Eda and Raine in the process). Raine calls it off when the picture of Luz and King falls out of Eda's hair, realizing Eda has a family to go back to.
  • When Darius catches them and Eda manages to grab a branch to keep them both from being dragged away, Raine lets go so Eda will have time to escape.
• Hold the Line: After sacrificing themself so Eda can escape, Raine faces off against both Darius and Eberwolf long enough for Eda to make it to safety.
• Hope Spot:
  • In the beginning, Eda getting a reaction from playing on the instrument that she finds in her trunk gets her to hope that her magic is returning. It turns out to just be her curse causing a negative effect.
  • Luz is shown in a flashback as luring the Echo Mouse out with a carrot, with it looking like she'll finally be able to get some information of the portal... then Hooty eats it. Of course, Luz is able to get him out.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Depressed at the idea that Luz and King would eventually leave her someday, Eda goes to a pub and drowns her sorrows in a juice box of Apple Blood.
• Inelegant Blubbering:
  • Crossed with Tears of Joy. After King reveals that he wants to have his name legally changed to Clawthorne, Eda breaks down crying, which in turn causes Luz to break down crying herself. While we don't get to see it, we can clearly hear Eda snorting and Luz sniffling, indicating both of them are crying rather snottily.
  • Discussed by King at the beginning of the episode, where he says that the second thing he's going to do upon meeting his dad is "ugly cry".
• Internal Reveal: Eda finds out from Raine that the Day of Unity is going forward as planned. Time will tell if she breaks this news to Luz.
• Irony:
  • Eda points out that the head of the Bard Coven being part of a rebellion against the Coven system is highly ironic.
  • Raine, head of the performance-based Bard Coven, has stage fright. Darius, head of the Abomination Coven, is a dirt-hating Neat Freak. Eberwolf, head of the Beast Keeping Coven, is themself a beast-like demon. One has to wonder if Belos is assigning these Coven heads on purpose.
• Literal-Minded: When Eda tells the BATT members "Mama's got a plan!", Amber protests "You're not our mom!"
• Logical Weakness:
  • Bard magic can control other people, but they have to be able to hear it to be affected. As soon as Raine compels two guards to march away, more show up with earmuffs.
  • The Day of Unity is dependent on all nine Coven Heads being present for the ceremony, so Raine destroying Darius and Eberwolf along with themself would at the very least delay Belos' plans until suitable replacements could be found, and at most, ruin them completely. Unfortunately subverted at the very end, when they discover that Belos needs all of them so much that he was never willing to risk losing anyone, and has Raine bound into subservience with their tattoo.
• Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: Played with. Eda willingly gives up her boots for Raine to enchant to lead Eberwolf and Darius away from them. They end up getting shredded and Eda spends the remainder of the episode running through mud.
• Lured into a Trap: After foiling several raids, Raine hears about another in the middle of nowhere and tries to stop it, only to realize too late that it is a trap to capture the troublemakers foiling the raids.
• Magic Music: Bard magic is featured prominently. It can create Anti-Gravity, slice through objects with sound, and inflict People Puppets.
• Make Them Rot: Bard magic when interacting with Eda's curse has this effect, radiating outward, turning everything grey and ashy, including Eda herself.
• Meaningful Echo: Played for Laughs somewhat. Raine tries to do this to Eda regarding the advice she gave them back in their school years, but they can't remember the exact words and have to paraphrase instead.
  Raine: A great witch once told me... something about punching fears in the face?
• No, You: When Raine in disguise publicly accuses the Emperor's Coven of weakening witches by limiting their magic with the forced coven system, one of the guards accuses them of blasphemy. Their response is, "Blasphem-YOU!"
• Oh, My Gods!: When Raine complains about being on camera, Darius remarks "For Titan's sake!" in frustration.
• Old Flame: It's heavily implied that Eda and Raine were romantically involved in the past, and they frequently Crush Blush around each other in the present.
• One, Two, Skip a Few: While exercising with Luz, King counts his reps by grunting "weh", then ending with a triumphant "ten thousand!" He's later seen cheating at push-ups by having Hooty help lift him.
• One-Winged Angel: Darius is able to turn himself into an abomination, while Eberwolf enhances their beastly features to a monstrous degree.
• Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: Eda overhears Luz and King discussing King's decision to "le-", which, in the context of their conversation, leads her to believe that King is planning on leaving Eda when he finds his biological father. At the end it turns out he wanted to le... gally change his name to King Clawthorne to officially become part of her family.
• Out of Focus: Luz is only seen as part of the B-plot, since the episode is mainly focused on Eda.
• Performance Anxiety: Raine turns into a stammering mess during the ceremony accepting them as the new head of the Bard Coven, eventually running offscreen entirely in embarrassment. Eda even lampshades it, wondering how they can be the Bard Coven head with stage fright. They do better when rebelling in disguise, but still finds the proposed script too flowery and blushes in embarrassment.
  Raine: You know I can't stand an audience.
• Portal Pool: Darius teleports the captured members of BATT through pools of his abominations.
• Power Stereotype Flip: Darius, head of the Abomination Coven whose magic is based around turning himself into sludge, is an Agent Peacock Dandy who can't stand his clothes getting dirty.
• Prehensile Hair: The hand atop Kikimora's head creates a spell circle with its finger.
• Pretender Diss: Darius does not care for Alador Blight's Abomatons and thinks the man himself is a hack.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: The Bards Against the Throne are a faction of Bard Coven members rebelling against the Coven System. Particularly, they rescue wild witches being apprehended by the Emperor's Coven and smuggle them out of Bonesborough and out of Belos' reach.
• Restraining Bolt: Coven tattoos don't just restrict the magic of those who have them, but those in the Emperor's Coven can use the tattoo to magically restrain problem witches. This is demonstrated on Raine by Kikimora, causing spiky tendrils of magic to spread from the tattoo and envelop them.
• The Reveal:
  • Even if the Palisman isn't of a flying animal, a witch can still use their Magic Staff to fly.
  • Eda can still use Bard magic, but only in a corrupted form that causes everything around her to slowly disintegrate.
  • The Day of Unity requires all nine Coven Heads to succeed... however, Raine learns that there is a difference between needing their participation and their cooperation.
  • We get the unexpected cameo of what appears to be King's father when he's shown watching his son's message on Eda's Pentsagram page. He doesn't appear to be much larger than a normal humanoid, and shares King's skull cap. King also reveals that he wants to officially and legally be known as King Clawthrone, recognizing Eda as his family.
• Sequel Hook:
  • When King is broadcasting the message to his father, a figure who looks like an older version of him is shown watching.
  • Raine being captured by Kikimora and being punished by being put into a deep slumber until the Day of Unity.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Luz and King want to win the Gland Prix because the winner will get an interview which will be broadcast across the Boiling Isles, giving them the best possible chance they'll make contact with King's father. Unfortunately King gets airsick mid-race and causes them to crash, costing them the victory. Eda livestreams King's message instead.
• Shout-Out:
  • Eda dubs herself an agent of chaos when introducing herself to the BATTs.
  • In a flashback, Hooty calls himself "the guardian owl of Ga'hoot".
  • The competition that Luz takes part in brings to mind the TriWizard Tournament, including being the odd one out.^note Though due to being the only human rather than being younger than the the other competitors.
  • The effect of Raine's coven brand spreading over their body and covering their face visually mimics the symbiote covering Peter Parker in the middle of the night, complete with lines cutting across the screen to transition into black.
• Sissy Villain: The effeminate Darius prioritizes his cleanliness over capturing rebels.
• Skewed Priorities: When Darius catches Raine, he tells them that they're going to pay for messing up his cape. Eberwolf has to remind him of Raine's actual offence, to which he adds, "And the treachery. Whatever."
• Smoke Out: One of the BATT conjures up a cloud of smoke to cover their escape.
• Suddenly Shouting: After his Berserk Button is pressed, Darius does this before he goes One-Winged Angel.
  Darius: All right... NO MORE PLAYING AROUND!!!
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • All the training in the world can’t get rid of stuff like motion sickness, especially if you're a child. King getting sick on Luz and making her crash is what costs them the Gland Prix.
  • Raine's use of insider information ends up tipping off their fellow Coven Heads that they have a traitor in their midst. Thus Darius and Eberwolf use this to set a trap.
• Take That!: Eda's remark that "nobody watches crystal balls anymore, it's all about streaming" is a not-so-subtle crack at networks putting more priority on streaming than regular television. Disney, tending to release episodes on DisneyNOW hours before they air on Disney Channel, is one example.
• Taking You with Me: Midway through Raine and Eda's attempts to destroy Darius and Eberwolf, they discover that the spell will kill them too if they keep it up. Both keep on going, content with their fates, but Raine puts a stop to it after seeing Eda's photo of Luz and King fall out of her hair and realizing Eda has people who need her.
• Tears of Joy: Eda cries when King reveals that he is legally changing his name to King Clawthorne.
• Terms of Endangerment: Darius refers to the traitor as "songbird" before finding out that it's Raine.
• Title Drop: Eda refers to her music as "Eda's Requiem" due to the effect it has on the surroundings.
• Took a Level in Badass: Katya has graduated from just doing food fanfiction, though she's still doing that on the side. She's become a full-on resistance member, and it's implied that Luz's positive influence helped her find that path.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Amber starts out resenting Eda, and only grudgingly accepting her input. But after they successfully free multiple wild magic users in one night, she gladly praises Eda.
• Troll: Eberwolf is revealed to be among those watching King's Penstagram stream, and Darius, annoyed at the sound of Eda and Luz getting weepy, snaps at them to shut it off. They turn the volume up to full.
  Darius: [disgusted] ...Why are you like this?
• Tsundere: Amber starts out scoffing at Eda's involvement with the BATT and irritably protests "You're not our mom!" in response to Eda jokingly referring to herself as the group's Team Mom, but after Eda helps successfully rescue several wild witches, Amber cheerfully calls out "Bye, Mama Eda!" as she leaves.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Downplayed; Raine is initially disdainful of Eda, despite her helping BATT to escape. The reason is that Eda is making them blush in front of everyone, and Raine is trying to look cool. They get over it when Eda reassures Raine they don't have to be tall and brooding.
• The Voiceless: Eberwolf speaks only in growls and snarls.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: King gets airsick twice while staff racing; the first time it happened completely offscreen, and Luz simply returns with her backpack filled with throw-up, while the second time it cuts to black as King gags.
• Wham Shot: As Eda broadcasts King's message to his dad, we see different people across the Isles watching it... and the last one shown appears to be King's father himself.
• Who Writes This Crap?!: When Raine introduces the Bards Against the Throne to Bonesborough, they're very reluctant to say the proposed script out loud because it's so flowery.
  Raine: Look at the Emperor's lackeys! Trying to uh... Do I really have to say this?
  Katya: We all agreed on the script!
  Raine: Trying to... mute the music of our hearts? [blushes in embarrassment and facepalms] Ugh...
• Worth Living For: As soon as Raine finds out about Luz and King ("Eda, do you have kids?!"), they immediately stop the plan and transport Eda's lute away, telling her that she can't give up her family for fear they'll abandon her.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: At first, the BATT is more of a liberation group, busting out as many wild witches as possible so they don't get broken in spirit or turned into stone. When they realize the latest raid was a trap, Raine changes the plan: kill Darius and Eberwolf so that the Day of Unity can't happen. They abandon that plan upon realizing Eda would leave her kids orphaned, insisting that it matters more if Eda lives.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Raine states that since Belos needs all the Coven Heads to complete his spell on the Day of Unity, if they take out Darius and Eberwolf, his grand plans will be stopped. The same applies if Raine can go into hiding with the wild witches. Of course, this episode is not even close to the end of the season, so did you really think Raine and Eda were going to succeed?
• You Have Failed Me: Kikimora doesn't take Raine's rebellion against Belos' plans that well, and thus puts them into a Forced Sleep until the Day of Unity.

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