Tear Jerker / The Owl House

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"Agony of a Witch" is an accurate title.

"Yes! This mama is ready for trauma."

—Luz Noceda, "Really Small Problems"

A show about a quirky and upbeat teenager, an owl-themed outlaw, a tiny monster and a sentient house doesn't sound so sad, right? You're dead wrong. The Owl House can be just as depressing as it can be frightening.

Season 1

Episode 1 - A Lying Witch and the Warden

• Luz clearly doesn't want to go to what appears to be a soul-crushing camp, but she's going anyway for fear of disappointing her mother. She even throws away her favorite fantasy book.
  • "Do you have any friends? Real ones. Not imaginary, or drawn, or reptilian?" Luz's response (or rather, lack of one) to her mother's question says it all.
  • The worst part is unlike other characters we've seen before who were like Luz (Mabel Pines, Star Butterfly, Reggie Abbott, Anne Boonchuy) all had somebody they were close to before their adventures began. Luz has no one.
• Whenever we see Luz get into trouble at school, she was trying to join a school activity ( the theatre, the science club, the cheerleaders). She tries to fit in, but her weirdness is clearly causing her a lot of trouble.
  • This is brought up in later episodes, where Luz tells in various point to Eda and her friends how much she worries at not being able to fit in in the magic world the same way she can’t fit in in the human world (like how she didn’t a good first impression at her school, or being kicked out from the prom for wearing an otter suit, etc.).
• The rhetorical question Luz asks Eda:
  Luz: Why does everyone think that being a weirdo is so bad?
• One quote from Tiny Nose fits perfectly here: "Self-doubt is a prison you can never escape from." Even worse? This can apply to Luz as a whole, especially with what happens later on...
• The ENTIRE episode as a whole becomes this because of "Thanks To Them". The silly book report gag that kicked off the entire series? That was Luz attempting to reach out to Camila, trying to help her process the shared grief of her father Manny's death.

Episode 2 - Witches Before Wizards

• Luz getting disillusioned during her first day exploring the Boiling Isles.
• Luz's reaction when Eda and King laugh at the whole 'chosen one' thing, made even worse due to later episodes implying that she suffered from bullying in the past. No one can really blame her for walking out because of that.
• Luz discovering that her quest was just a trap for Eda.

Episode 3 - I Was a Teenage Abomination

• Willow doesn't seem to enjoy school, based on her self-pep talk and the way she saunters along to get there.
• Willow's parents apparently forced their daughter to enroll in a course she hates.
• Amity is distraught beyond what is normal to lose her "top student" star and becomes obsessed with reclaiming it, suggesting that she suffers from a serious Inferiority Superiority Complex.
• Eda hiding in the garden shed and wearing her dunce cap.

Episode 4 - The Intruder

• King blaming himself for Eda's curse slipping out of remission.
  • Back in the first episode, Eda says that "King and I don't have much in this world". That combined with King's speech to Luz about not having many friends implies that King may suffer from abandonment issues or loss of a loved one. Worse yet, he sounds like he's on the verge of tears as he opens up to Luz about wanting to feel important so others care about him.
• At the end of the episode, Eda has a nightmare where she sees a shadowy figure who is apparently the person who cursed her, causing Eda to demand "Who are you?" Not only has Eda been cursed to turn into an owl monster unless she regularly takes her elixir, she either doesn't remember or doesn't even know who cursed her in the first place.

Episode 5 - Covention

• Amity's breakdown after she discovers that Lilith helped her cheat against her knowledge and she's thus made to look like a cheater in public. Mae Whitman really sells her anguish as she tells Luz how hard she's had to work to get where she is now and how she now fears her future is in jeopardy.
• The whole situation that Lilith and Eda are in. It's clear they still care about each other deep down, but are firmly entrenched in their opposite viewpoints that they can only be enemies.
• Eda tells Lilith her curse is getting worse and it won't be long until her elixir won't be able to stop it. But the question is was this the truth or a way to drop Lilith's guard?

Episode 6 - Hooty's Moving Hassle

• The Reveal that Willow and Amity were childhood friends who played together all the time, but that after Amity's prodigious magical talent was discovered, she suddenly stopped hanging out with Willow. A large motivator behind Willow wanting to prove her worth as a witch to Amity seems to be the hope that they can be friends again if she does.
  • It also puts Amity's angry breakdown three episodes ago in a new perspective, as in spite of their fractured relationship and Amity's highly questionable means of motivating her, Amity still genuinely expected better of her old friend than cheating to get ahead in class (which is the worst act possible to an obsessive work-a-holic like Amity), as that only makes the gap between them that much wider. One gets the impression that they both actually wish to be friends again, but the differing personalities that they've developed during their time apart makes it almost impossible for them to meet each other halfway to do so. In other words, it's not so different from Eda and Lilith's situation, minus the familial blood ties.
• Amity hanging out with her Girl Posse is just depressing to behold because there is absolutely no passion or enjoyment shown by Amity the whole way through. She is perpetually frowning, has a stoic disposition about everything that they are doing, and at their slumber party, she is seen just sitting by the window all by herself while the other girls play a game together. Amity may not admit it, but Willow wasn't the only one who suffered from the dissolution of their friendship. She may have become the best witch of her age group after leaving Willow behind, but at what cost?

Episode 7 - Lost in Language

• Amity's situation with her older siblings. It can especially hit home with anyone who has ever been the target of a bully who is considered cool and likable by others, whose bullying is usually brushed aside with claims that they're "just having fun with you" or "don't mean anything by it".
• Luz tries really hard to reconcile with Amity and genuinly wanted to be her friend throughout the episode but is seriously saddened when Amity denies that they're friends and takes it pretty hard when Amity yells at her to leave her alone for "annoying her" by being nice and offer to help with the library kids (even Amity herself sees she was overly and unnecessarily harsh). It gets worse later when Amity accuses her of being a bully due to the worst kind of misunderstanding possible without even bothering to hear out Luz's explanation.
  • Luz also seemed really excited at the prospect of being friends with Edric and Emira, she thought they were cool and could help her mend things with Amity, she was also having a lot of fun hanging out with them. So them attempting to steal Amity's diary and spread it around school, then taking pleasure in Amity's emotional outburst while not bothering to defend Luz from Amity's misconception about her before casually suggesting to just leave and go "goblin-tipping" once again leaves Luz feeling incredibly sad. They even had the nerve to invite her along after they literally just fought over Amity's diary and made Luz their Fall Guy.
• Some of Amity's diary entries can be pretty depressing, particularly one where she reveals that she doesn't want to be mean to other people but also feels she "can't show weakness", and another where she simply says "I wish I had somewhere to go."

Episode 8 - Once Upon A Swap

• Eda's no saint, yet her crimes are mostly fraud related when Lilith reads them off. So it's sad the authorities, including her own sister, treat her (though it's Luz in her body at the time) as a menace. Something Grunkle Stan can relate to.
  • Lilith begging Eda to join her, revealing that joining the Coven was a childhood dream for both sisters. What could've caused Eda's viewpoint to shatter yet Lilith still decide to stay?
    • Lily still thinks she's helping her sister rather than hurting her.

Episode 9 - Something Ventured, Someone Framed

• Gus admitting he’s had a hard time grade skipping and being younger than everyone else at Hexside.
• Luz finding out Eda's done so many chores to get her enrolled in the school and for a minute, she thinks her recent antics mean her mentor's done them for nothing. Thankfully, Gus tells Principal Bump the truth, but at the cost of being removed from the Human Appreciation Society.
  • One of these chores was cleaning off graffiti which changes to read "Mother, noooo!" as she tries to wipe it off.

Episode 10 - Escape of the Palisman

• Luz makes a My God, What Have I Done? look when she accidentally hurts Owlbert with her reckless flying. It gets worse when Owlbert actually becomes afraid of her.
• The Bat Queen was once a Palisman just like Owlbert, but was abandoned and discarded. And judging by the hundreds of Palismen in her care, this is a pretty common occurrence. It's no different than pets being abandoned and unwanted.
• It's confirmed that Eda didn't lie to her sister about the curse. In fact it's foreshadowed when Eda transforms during the day.

Episode 11 - Sense and Insensitivity

• Luz becomes disappointed in King twice: first, when he figuratively and literally trashes all of her ideas for their story, rewrites it using mostly his ideas, and claims it as his own at the writing contest. The second is when he asks for help in writing the sequel, reasoning that his writing is only good if it counteracts hers. Luz, already hurt and angry at King for his earlier actions, sees this as him only using her to write it. As such, she rightfully refuses to help and leaves.
• After he becomes a famous author, King tries to invite Luz to his Meet The Author convention but she silently and justifiably refuses. King is visibly hurt by this, only to mask it with anger.
• After the sisters beat up the scammer, Lilith admits that she was hoping Eda would join the Emperor's Coven on her own will if it means breaking her curse. For a moment, Eda considers it, but she turns her down, saying she'll find a way on her own.

Episode 12 - Adventures in the Elements

• Luz's impatience and worry that she might end up in the baby class causes her to dismiss Eda's lessons and steal Amity's wand to use magic. Eda is naturally disappointed in her but Luz calls her out on that she hasn't really learned anything from her.

Episode 13 - The First Day

• Due to a misunderstanding, the Detention Track students think Luz didn't really want to be friends with them and was looking for a way to get out.

Episode 14 - Really Small Problems

• King misses Luz now that she has school to go to and even admits he will be alone once Luz goes back home. When Luz encounters Gus and Willow at the carnival and decides to hang out with them instead, he feels ignored. It only gets worse when he accidentally shrinks Gus and Willow with Tibbles' potion (which he wasn't sure about using on them), and Luz is unhappy with him when she finds out about it.

Episode 15 - Understanding Willow

• Amity impulsively burns the photo of her and Willow hugging, and she obviously feels incredibly guilty about the damage she caused to Willow's mind when the fire spreads.
• The visual of Inner Willow burning away the image of young Amity telling young Willow to leave. In place of young Amity's disdainful frown is a grown, regretful Amity, while the image of a sweet, tearfully brokenhearted young Willow is replaced with a bitter, resentful Inner Willow. This drives the point home how Amity's choice affected Willow many years in the making.
• We finally learn the reason why Amity ended her friendship with Willow. It wasn't because the former saw the latter as weak, as she claimed, but because Amity's parents blackmailed her to stop hanging out with her, under the threat they would use their social influence and various connections to prevent Willow from ever getting accepted into Hexside. It's implied it's a social class thing, and this happened on Amity's birthday after she invited Willow to her party when her parents didn't want her to.
  • The "friends" Amity usually hangs out with? Her parents chose them as "suitable companions", despite the fact that Amity herself despises them for being mean. They chose them because their parents work with them and so for years Amity was forced to hang out with people she hated while watching them be complete Jerkasses to the people she'd rather be friends with.
  • What makes it worse was that Amity decided to let Willow believe that severing their friendship was because of her issues with her magic after Willow brought it up instead of telling her the truth, not once defended Willow from her new "friends'" bullying her, and also put Willow down herself like in “Hooty's Moving Hassle” and “I Was A Teenage Abomination”. All three of these instances are because, as much as Amity wanted to be friends with Willow again and be kind to other people, she had a crippling fear of being seen as weak, both by her family and by everyone else on the Boiling Isles. This led to a lot of pain on both sides. Amity herself tearfully admits that Willow was never too weak to be her friend, and that it was the other way around instead.
• "Is it because I still can’t do magic? Amity, I-I'm sorry I got us in trouble at the beach. I just- I can't get the spells right." This perfectly illustrates Willow's long-time feelings of inadequacy, and the fact that Amity apparently ends their friendship over it only drives the devastation home. No doubt many viewers can relate, as contemporary parenting and education emphasize accomplishment over kindness and empathy.

Episode 16 - Enchanting Grom Fright

• Luz gets a text from her mom through Eda's portal and starts feeling guilty about not communicating with her more or telling her about the Boiling Isles.
• Part of the reason Luz wants to fight Grom is to prove herself to Eda, who doubts that Luz can handle it and worries for her if she were to try. The sad part kicks in when you realize that Eda was the first person to actually encourage Luz about her love of fantasy and was dedicated to helping Luz learn magic no matter the hurdle in her way. Luz is desperately looking for approval and assurance from the first person to actually believe in her and give her a chance.
  • By the end of the episode Luz considers that Eda was right to doubt her which given how close the two are is saddening.
• When talking to Luz in the woods, Amity reveals that her attempt to get Bump to let someone else fight Grom was shot down, leaving her stuck with it unless she could find someone to switch with her. Amity honestly seems to think that no one would want to take her place, and when Luz agrees to take her place, she clearly was not expecting her to do that.
  • Even worse? Amity is pretty much right. She has no real friends at school, she might be able to ask her siblings but there is far too much bad blood right now for her to be close to comfortable to try it, and her Girl Posse sure as heck aren't going to risk their necks fighting Grom for her.
• The form that Grom takes that proves too much for Luz to handle? Her mother who promptly starts tearing into her for lying about where she's been and staying in such a horror-filled place.
  • At the end of the episode, Luz is worn down from everything that she can't even enjoy her victory over Grom and can only dwell on her own misdoings and failures. Given how plucky and driven she normally is it is heartwrenching to see her just so near broken.
• Before Grom turns into her mom, one of the forms it takes is of Eda in her cursed form. That incident scarred Luz more than she let on it would seem. Even Eda herself hides her face in shame when she sees this.
• Amity is revealed to have developed feelings for Luz, but Cannot Spit It Out. The end of the episode has her staring out her window before putting the Grom Tiara in a box, obviously morose.
• Amity's deepest fear is shown when Grom tears up a note she had been carrying and Luz picks up one half to see it was an invitation to be Amity's date. Luz realizes that Amity was terrified of being rejected and consoles Amity but doesn't notice that the other half had her name on it. Amity's greatest fear was Luz rejecting her.
  • The form Grom takes when it tears up the note is a nondescript humanoid one that looks to be about Luz's and Amity's age. Amity didn't just fear being rejected but being rejected in such a harsh and cruel manner by Luz of all people.
  • Gets far, far worse when you realize why this would be so traumatizing to Amity. Her Abusive Parents' care makes it clear social standing is their top concern, her Girl Posse are not friends but socially acceptable associates her parents chose, she has had no true friends ever since she was forced to reject Willow and the only remotely positive connections she had in her life before meeting Luz were her siblings who were constantly bullying her and only recently started acting nicely towards her. Luz is not only her first real friend in years but the only positive connection she has in her life (almost certainly why she fell for her in the first place) and being rejected would have broken her.
  • A lesser case, but while Luz offers to go with Amity upon finding out about her fear of being rejected, she agrees to go as friends. While Luz didn't know about Amity's feelings toward her, one could look at it as Amity being friendzoned, though admittedly Amity does not seem upset by this and mostly just seems happy that she gets to go with Luz at all.
  • And to make things a bit worse: eventually, Luz will have to leave the Boiling Isles.
  • Dana Terrance posted a picture of Emira and Edric being stood up by their Grom dates, with Emira angry and crying over it.

Episode 17 - Wing It Like Witches

• It's Played for Laughs, but the poor school spirit gets no love.
• It’s mostly Played for Laughs, but Boscha’s bullying towards Luz, Willow and Gus, can painfully hit some nerves to someone, especially to those who were bullied in their real life.
• When Luz accidentally gets Willow and Gus hurt during her idea of training them, Willow scolds Luz for dragging them into such a dangerous situation. While she quickly forgives her near the end, it’s still heartbreaking to watch.
  Luz: Guys, let's try the Thorn Vault one more time.
  Willow: Not now, Luz. We're tired.
  Luz: But we're the underdogs, we have to stay upbeat and keep trying and—
  Willow: (starting to lose her temper) Luz! Not everything can be solved with a good attitude and a dope music soundtrack. We're going to lose. And no movie can help us against that. (storms off away from Luz) The game is off.
  Luz: (feeling guilty) Willow, wait!
  • What causes Willow to get mad at Luz? When Luz unleashes the Thorn Vault on them, it not only gets Gus’ flags broken, but also, causes Willow’s hair clip to get broken as well. The hair clip getting broken, however, is what enrages Willow the most.
    • While it’s just a hair clip and can easily get fixed, it symbolizes a friendship almost getting broken.
  • Luz, feeling guilty, tries to fix the hair clip and although she succeeds, she feels as if she has pushed Willow and Gus too hard.
  • To make matters worst, if you remember Luz’s time at the cheerleading tryouts, Luz wanted to do things her way and it drove her peers away. Now, she feels as if her actions have driven away her first true friends.
• The reason why Amity stopped playing Grudgby? She decided to switch strategies mid-game and while she managed to score, her teammates got hurt in the process. The sheer My God, What Have I Done? on Amity's face in the flashback is heartbreaking.
• While the ending showing Amity finding a found family in the Owl Crew is really heartwarming, realizing that when Luz and Eda eventually have to face the Emperor's Coven, Amity might have to choose between this new family (which includes her crush) and her life's goal of joining the Coven.
• It may be hard to feel bad for her after what she did, but Boscha's expression when her friends go to praise Willow is one of pure fear. She clearly ties a lot of her self-worth to her grudgby skills, so to have all her friends go to praise someone she hates for being good at the game obviously hits her very hard.

Episode 18 - Agony of a Witch

• Eda's curse is getting worse the more she uses her magic. She then tells Luz that if her gem fully darkens, she won't die but will instead be stuck in her Owl Beast form forever. She even says that's a Fate Worse than Death. Luz's teary-eyed expression sounds like a kid watching their parent slowly succumb to an illness.
• There is the sheer hurt and shock on Eda's face when Lilith reveals that she was the one who cursed her. Lilith then tries to explain that she could cure Eda, but Eda doesn't take it. This is essentially the equivalent of that scene from "A Tale of Two Stans".
  • The mere fact that Lilith cursed her own sister out of jealousy.
  • Lilith seems genuinely remorseful and shocked at herself when she blurts the truth out.
• Luz's plan to use the healing hat winds up becoming All for Nothing since it was destroyed. Not that it matters since Lilith tells her it was just a piece of junk anyway.
• While Eda is able to save Luz from Lilith, it causes her to use up all her magic and succumb to her curse, but not before her last words thanking Luz for being her apprentice as she slowly transforms.
  Eda: Alright kid, listen to me. I'm going away, and I don't know if I can bounce back this time. Watch over King, remember to feed Hooty...
  Luz: Please. No.
  Eda: And Luz... Thank you... for being in my life.
  • When Eda's eyes begin to slowly turn black, it almost gives off the vibe that Eda's welling up with tears.
  • After Luz gets back on the bridge she cries out for Eda, much like a little girl crying for her mother.
• Despite all she has done, Lilith dares to call herself Eda's "real family" to Luz's face.
• When Luz returns to the Owl House, she is greeted by Hooty and responds like she is still in shock but when King asks where Eda is, she completely breaks down and falls to her knees in tears, and the episode ends. It was even enough to provide the page image.
  • The shot of Luz slowly walking down to the Owl House, beaten and numb, is a very depressing contrast to the usual credits scene, which itself is absent from the episode.
• While it's a bit sad that Amity didn't get to go to the Coven, does she really want to be there upon learning the horrible things Lilith did?
  • There's also the way she tells the poster of Lilith to "shut up" in her brief scene in this episode. Quite ironic because Lilith blurting out that she cursed Eda just made everything worse.
• As a final insult, this all happens in her party of all days, the last scene is King jumping out of her cake only to watch her break down.

Episode 19 - Young Blood, Old Souls

• Luz finds Eda and tries to break her out of her chains, only for her magic to reflect harmlessly off the enchanted chains. When the chains shift into a cell as the platform rises, Eda has to push Luz away to make her let go before she's crushed.
• Luz and Eda stating their love for each other before Eda is petrified, and her having to force Luz to let go of the rising platform despite her desperately wanting to save her friend and mentor.
• Lilith comes to save Eda, only to see Luz kneeling in Heroic BSoD. Just as she says, "At least there's you, human." Luz turns to her, teary Death Glare, and unleashes a combo of glyphs on her, blaming her for getting Eda in this mess. Of course, Lilith is genuinely sorry but Luz has no reason to believe her and doesn't have anything to lose now. Luz tackles Lilith into the real world, where she plans to strand the two of them away from the Boiling Isles. King comes to help, meaning he would have gotten stranded as well. That's how mad Luz is.
  • Luz's rage at that moment is this because it carries a "loss of innocence" connotation. This isn't the Luz we know and love, with Eda about to be petrified, she's running on a combination of despair, rage, frustration and pure hatred. By that fight, she was a fullblown Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds out for blood.
• Lilith pins Luz down, who's struggling and tells her she ought to be the one petrified. There's a Beat, and Lilith admits that the apprentice is right. She lets Luz up, and gets in a Troubled Fetal Position.
• Turns out the glyph magic doesn't work in the human world, which means Luz will have to choose to either stay on the Boiling Isles or give up her dream of becoming a witch. She gives a final look into the woods in the direction of her home before heading back, making clear the path she's chosen.
  • It's actually much sadder than that, she didn't do it for her dream, she did it all for one person.
• Why did Lilith curse Eda in the first place? Because the two were going to duel for the only spot in the Emperor's Coven and Lilith, knowing how hard Eda trained, decided to use the curse just to get a leg up. Unfortunately, this was All for Nothing because 1) Eda just gave in and gave Lilith the position, and 2) she thought the curse would only last a day, not the rest of Eda's life, causing her to be ostracized. All this because she couldn't admit to Eda that she was Always Second Best, or ask her to throw the fight.
  • The Irony is that Lilith at any time could have found Eda, confessed about what happened and done what she could to heal the curse. While Eda would have been mad, and understandably so, she at least knows that Lilith is on her side instead of being a bully. Instead, the way things turned out, Eda thinks that her sister cursed her out of spite and deliberately goaded her owl form to come out. This probably gets clarified offscreen but still what a way to spend your last conscious moments.
  • Just to make it worse, Lilith finds out that Emperor Belos never intended to heal Eda's curse - all he wants from her is her portal door. All this time, Lilith was hoping to undo her terrible mistake, just to have her hopes dashed by the man she saw as the Big Good. Moreover, Eda repeatedly told her Belos was not what he seemed, but Lilith had to learn the truth the very hard way.
• When Eda transforms for the first time, she does so in front of a large crowd who proceeds to call her a monster and throw stones at her until she runs away. No wonder Eda initially kept the fact she was cursed from King and Luz. She likely thought they would react the same way!
• Belos reveals that he could curbstomp Luz at any time, but he's interested that Eda's apprentice came to save her and intuits she has the portal door. He then slowly petrifies Eda, who shielded her sister and King, and tells her "tick-tock, human". Luz is forced to agree, apologizing to her mother.
• Luz is forced to destroy the Portal Door to invoke a Pyrrhic Victory on Belos, stranding her in the Isles for the indefinite future. Considering Belos is trying to reconstruct the door, it may have only delayed his plans...
• Lilith reveals the sad truth about Eda’s curse—it’s gotten worse to the point that the Elixir isn’t going to work anymore, and uses the pain-sharing spell to share the curse between them. Who knows how much time Eda has.

Season 2

General

• Lilith's appearance in the new intro. At first, she looks angry and intimidating, as she was in the previous season, but then she is shown looking ashamed, and wearing scruffier clothes. She also holds up her hand in front of her, as if she doesn't want the audience to see her that way.
• After "Yesterday's Lie", the ending credits sequence updates to show Camila and Vee (now in her true form) gazing out the window as it rains. The placement of the raindrops and Camila's mournful expression makes it look like she's crying over her lost daughter.
• The coded message for this season is just a massive one for King as it reveals that the family member that he's been looking for has been Dead All Along.

Episode 1 - Separate Tides

• Luz tries to send another text and video to her mom, but finds she’s been unable to because she doesn’t have wifi or cell service without the door. While she’s doing so, she’s being a Stepford Smiler over it.
• When Luz is filming, King is clinging to her leg and refusing to let her return home.
• Lilith is depressed after what happened and losing her magic, and part of why she's so desperate to make the scrying potion is so Eda will know that she can trust her.
• After losing her magic and her reputation as the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, Eda is now living in poverty and is taking odd jobs and bounty hunts just to put food on the table, taking note of how there's so little witch food that Luz can digest.
• Lilith screaming at Hooty when he keeps insisting on helping her make the potion. The way his face just falls from Lilith's insult reminds the viewer there's a heart that can break under that weirdness.
  Hooty: Sorry, Lulu. I mean...sorry, Lilith.
• Throughout the episode, Luz holds a lot of guilt over the fact that Eda, without her magic, can barely get enough money to provide food for the Owl House. So much so, that she’s willing to hunt monsters (even peaceful ones) to get money.
  • When Eda tries to discourage her to kill the sea monster, Luz lays out every bad thing that happened to the former, since she arrived on the Boiling Isles. It took Eda pointing out the good things that came out of (helping Eda and King when for her they were just strangers, saving her from being turned into a stone, and reconciling with her sister) to snap her out of it.
• Though they are luckily able to find a way to fake its death when the Golden Guard demands that they kill it using King as a hostage, the sea monster turns out to be a mother that is only attacking in self-defense.

Episode 2 - Escaping Expulsion

• It’s heavily implied Amity minimizes her interactions with Luz, Willow and Gus because her parents have taken notice that her performance has taken a bit of a dip. Amity is sucking up to them as much as she can until they get off her back.
• Amity's parents force Principal Bump to expel Luz, Willow and Gus, claiming that they are concerned for Amity's wellbeing and education but they really want her to cut ties with them so she can focus more on her duties. And when Luz begs Amity to get them to see reason, the poor girl can only say, "I'm sorry."
• And how does Principal Bump react? He bawls like a baby, saying how much he actually misses their antics and is very reluctant to drive them away no matter how much he tries to hide it.
• It was already heavily implied that Amity dealt with some serious psychological and emotional abuse from her parents, but this episode flat-out confirms it with how much of a hold they have on the poor girl's life. Not only is she made to watch her friends get expelled simply for associating with her, but the necklace she wears is linked to Odalia's so that her mother can keep in telepathic communication with her at all times, usually to bark orders and reign her in when she steps out of line.
• Even after everything that Luz went through during the episode, Odalia still tries to go back on her deal with the girl, and though Alador makes her keep her word, it's more because Luz inspires Amity to be stronger, and he doesn't even seem to understand exactly why that is.

Episode 3 - Echoes of the Past

• King's complete meltdown after learning that his presumed life as the most feared King of Demons was just a childhood imprint. Alex Hirsch does an amazing job at making King sound so broken.
  King: Y- y-you're lying.
  Eda: I'm not.
  [She pulls the broken tip of his horn out of her hair and holds it out to him.]
  King: Ennh?
  [After a moment of hesitation, he takes it, and gasps as he finally remembers himself as a baby, "commanding" a group of stone statues.]
  King: My army?
  [The scene switches to little King catching and eating an insect.]
  King: My feasts...
  [It returns to the present day, with King in shock.]
  King: My life.
  [He throws away the horn with a yell.]
  King: NO! [voice breaking] K-keep that thing away from me! It's messing with my head!
  Luz: King... it's gonna be okay.
  King: [desperately] Y-you're all just makin' FUN of me like usual, right?! [He begins hyperventilating and sobbing.] No. No, no, no, no! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO! NO!
  [...]
  [Luz finds King alone on a log by the beach, and sits down next to him.]
  King: Eda was right, wasn't she? I was never "King" of anything. I'm nobody.
  Luz: You are somebody. And I love that somebody very much. I'm sorry I lied about what I believed.
  King: EVERYONE lied! And I was too caught up in the fantasy to realize it?! [He begins sniffling and crying, his eyes wet with tears.] I d' I don't know what to DO, Luz! I can't tell what's real and what's fake...
  [He puts his head in his hands despondently.]
• Something happened to King's father that caused King's egg to end up in the tower with only Jean-Luc to raise him. At the end of the episode, King decides that he's going to search for his father, but what will he find...
  • There's an understated moment in the vow to find him, as King mentions, "I'm not that old, it could be possible!" He wants to be with his father, but already understands there's a chance that, for all they know, whoever that father was could have either disappeared for good, or died.
  • King remembers hearing a roar during whatever happened to his father. If he's correct about what it means, one of the last things that his father did before disappearing was call out for his son.

Episode 4 - Keeping Up A-Fear-ances

• After the curse first emerged, Eda ran away from home because her mother was so obsessed with a 100% cure that she considered cutting the curse out. When she stumbled upon the portal, she ran into it with almost no hesitation.
• At the end of the episode, Luz sadly remarks how summer camp must be over at this point (clarifying she's been on the Boiling Isles for over three months now) and her mother must be missing her so much, really hammering home her increasing desperation to get back.
  • Making this worse? Camila doesn't even know anything is wrong yet because "Creepy Luz" is canon and is currently living the real Luz's life without Camila even realizing there's anything amiss.
• In their cursed forms, both Clawthorne sisters begin fighting each other, and Lilith attempts to strangle Eda. It may be due to primal instinct, but it might also be due to Lilith being angry at Eda for having more attention from their mother.
• After nearly succumbing to the curse for the first time, Lilith comes to realize just how much suffering she had subjected Eda over the past 30 years by cursing her, only furthering her guilt for her actions.
• Gwendolyn has come by at least once a year promising a "cure", causing Eda to push her away rather than get her hopes up. Lilith, meanwhile, is rather hurt by the fact that their mother visits Eda regularly, while Luz admits that she'd kill to see her mom and is flabbergasted when Eda sends Gwendolyn off on her staff.
• While Lilith is drowning her sorrows in ice cream, and seemingly getting drunk on it, she verbally takes out her pent-up bitterness on poor King, who’s still hopeful that he’ll find his dad.
  Lilith: Ha! Yeah, good luck with all that “Dad” stuff. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how dutiful you are, or successful you are… parents just won’t give you the time of day.
  King: (hugging his stuffed rabbit) Don’t listen to her, Francois! My dad won’t be like that!
  Lilith: (bitterly) Right. Your mysterious father, who didn’t even stick around to watch you hatch! Looks like you and I are in the same boat, King.
• When Gwendolyn tries to get through to Lilith while in her raven-beast form, Lilith actually starts to cry as Gwendolyn apologizes for her inadvertent neglect towards her.
  Gwendolyn: Lilith, you were always so self-sufficient… but I didn’t give you the attention you deserved.
  • And after the sisters are given the elixir and returned to normal, Lilith sobs when she heard her mother’s voice, but she felt so helpless and couldn’t regain control like Eda did.
• When Lilith decides to leave, Hooty takes it the hardest, turning into a crying mess. He has finally found someone that genuinely and unconditionally values his friendship and respects him and then they leave just as quickly. Not even Lilith's reassurance that they can be pen pals is enough to console him and make him feel better, since he doesn't even have hands to hold a pen with.
  • Lilith leaving in general. A good number of fans have started to warm up to her, and it's quite sad to see her go so soon.

Episode 5 - Through the Looking Glass Ruins

• The episode immediately kicks off with Gus feeling depressed over his botched attempt to help Willow out of a pixie-related problem by using his illusion magic. The situation went From Bad to Worse with Willow getting injured as a result, which Gus immediately blamed himself for. Though Luz attempted to help him feel better, and Willow sent a heartfelt message to him later, the incident only made him question how helpful he can really be since the only magic he knows is illusion magic.
• When talking to Amity about Philip's diary, Luz notes that her mother probably thinks that she's missing by now, so she has to find a way home as soon as possible. Of course, she doesn't know about her doppelgänger...
• Gavin is heavily implied to be suffering from Parental Neglect when he says his father would likely pay attention to him if he created a giant abomination. Later on, Gus creates an illusion of Gavin's father finally addressing him and it's enough to get him to ditch Bria. What's really important about this illusion is that if you look at it, it's literally Gavin with a large mustache. He doesn't even wonder about his looks except for his mustache, and just went with it. In other words, he doesn't even know what his father looks or sounds like because he just sees him that rarely!
• Luz manages to find the journal of the human that lived in the Isles... but it's been eaten. Luckily she later finds the creature that ate it, who can play it back, but still...
• When Luz accidentally gets Amity fired from the library, she attempts to apologize but is quickly silenced when Amity struggles to process. Amity then goes on to say she's become aware of how much of a difference Luz has made in her life, even to the point she's been making bold and sometimes stupid decisions because of her and she wishes she didn't. She's shocked to see Luz is just as heartbroken over the situation as she is, and when Luz confesses she does stupid things for Amity as well, she is unable to handle the situation and immediately heads home, leaving Luz struggling not to cry her eyes out.
  • Even more, what Amity says is that Luz makes her do stupid things, and given the scenario it's said in, it's not hard to guess that Luz might be hearing this partly as Amity wishing they'd never met. Remember that Luz has tried and consistently failed to make any friends back home, so this means she made some progress on the Boiling Isles only to screw it up again. Especially coming from a crush, that can't be an easy thing to hear. In fact, this could essentially be seen as a more painful version of what Amity said to her in "Lost In Language". The fact that she's trying to smile through it only makes it worse.
  • And this isn't like other scenarios where Luz plays it off and she learns a lesson at the end; she knows how much working at the library means to Amity, and as important as it is for Luz to find her way home, she offers to call the whole operation off several times because of Amity. When she snaps at the rat in the Forbidden Stacks, she recoils because she knows what she's just caused. Even if she does fix the situation, she starts off in a panic saying that she understands if she doesn't want to see her anymore. And as stated above, Luz thinks Amity hates her, and it breaks her heart.
  • Even deeper still, Luz stating that she does stupid things around Amity as well could be interpreted as Luz trying to confess her feelings to Amity despite thinking she hates her. If this is the case, Amity appears to shrug it off. We already know how Amity really feels, but try looking at it from Luz's perspective.
  • Not to mention Amity's termination in general. Malphas voicing his disappointment with Amity, the looks on all three of their faces as he's revoking her staff card, the fact that Amity is completely silent and can't even look at him...
  • To top it all off, Malphas's chill demeanor and campy speech mannerisms imply that he would've fetched Wittebane's diary for them and all of this heartache could've been avoided had they simply asked him.
• While played for laughs, Amity is clearly panicked and ashamed after she (cheek) kisses Luz and is met with silence, rushing back into the house mumbling to herself "Why did I do that?". Anyone that has performed a spontaneous act of love like that knows exactly what it feels like, especially when the love interest fails to immediately respond. It is likely that Amity took Luz's silence as a sign that she didn't reciprocate rather than simply needing time to process what had just happened.

Episode 6 - Hunting Palismen

• Amity is so freaked out by what happened with kissing Luz that she decides to stay home that day, even if it means missing out on getting a Palisman, because she can't deal with her feelings. Luz sadly admits that Amity not showing up makes sense when she asks Willow where she is.
  • Or, the fact that she dyed her hair purple rather than keep it green might have made her mother mad...
• Luz, unlike the other Hexside students, is unable to bond with one of the Palismen the Bat Queen provides: not because she's human, but because bonding with one requires stating their sincere long-term goal. It's at this point Luz realizes her fatal flaw of never thinking through her actions, saddened and feeling left out.
• Hunter is unable to perform magic without his Magic Staff, and while he's genuinely loyal to Belos because he gave it to him, even though he calls Belos "Uncle" he still has to tread carefully around him. That being said, he’s very determined to cure his uncle's condition however he can, even if he's so stubborn about wild magic.
  • Also, Hunter's explanation implies the Demon Realm is very unkind to powerless witches, stating that he didn't think he'd have a future without Belos. Now, remember how Eda is treated without her magic.
• Luz's reaction as the Golden Guard is about to betray her and steal the Pailsmen. She doesn't even sound angry when she speaks, just sad and tired.
  Luz: I thought you might have been a good guy, but I guess that was just wishful thinking. You're not my friend. Your just... the Golden Guard.
  Golden Guard: My name, is Hunter.
  • For his part, when Luz labels him as "only" being the Golden Guard. Hunter appears genuinely hurt by being thought of as nothing but his title.
• Despite everything he's done, it can't be denied that Belos obviously has some major regrets about his past concerning his family and Wild Magic - to the point that he won't even consider using it to save his own life.

Episode 7 - Eda's Requiem

• Eda feels some serious Empty Nest Syndrome through the episode, with King looking for his dad and Luz trying to get home to Earth and her mom. First, Eda just got Lilith back into her life, only for her to leave not long after. Now, the prospect of King and Luz eventually leaving means she’d be left alone with only Hooty for company.
• Eda overhears King talking, apparently about wanting to leave her, and avoids him for most of the episode. It's later revealed that he was really hoping to be legally recognized as a Clawthorne. Eda bursts into Tears of Joy at that, and Luz promptly follows suit.
• King was looking to win the race in order to get a news interview so he could try and find his father, only to end up losing because he got airsick.
• Eda reconnects with her Old Flame Raine, who's part of a rebel group that want to take the Emperor out. Only to have to (unwillingly) let Raine go, while Raine takes the fall for the failed mission. And that was only a few moments prior to when she tried to off herself via her cursed-induced music sequence to halt Darius and Eberwolf. The somber melody as everything in the vicinity is burnt & engulfed in ash...if it wasn't for the picture of Luz and King that accidentally flew away from Eda & Raine taking notice of it, Eda would have ended her own life.
  • On top of that, what ends up happening to Raine's group after Eberwolf and Darius capture them? They instantly get sent to the Conformatorium.
  • There's still clearly something still there between Eda and Raine, but Eda's bad habits to push away those she cares about cause Raine to break up with her on pretty bad terms, so Eda never expected to see them again. So when Raine takes the fall for Eda, it's clear to her that Eda just lost Raine for a second time, and based on the context of Raine's betrayal, Eda might never see them again.
• If the music plan had succeeded, Luz and King would've never seen Eda again with no idea of what happened to her.
  • Succeeding would also be Harsher in Hindsight since, later in the series, Darius and Eberwolf would side with Raine to stop the Day of Unity.

Episode 8 - Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Hooty's Door

• Eda is so affected by losing Raine in the previous episode that she's been determined to get stronger, to the point that she's using clothespins to keep her eyes open so she won't waste time sleeping.
• King starts the episode on a very depressing note. He is undergoing a crisis over who he actually is as he can't even find out what kind of demon he is even supposed to be. When Hooty can not tell him what kind of subspecies of demon he is, King finally loses it. Even as Hooty tries to cheer him up saying he should love himself, it's not working as King desperately wanted to know where he came from and was genuinely hoping Hooty could help him get answers. Hooty can only watch on with a saddened look as King spitefully remarks that maybe there is no one like him and he will live his whole life not knowing. Hooty then tells him genuinely distressed that he didn't want to make King mad, only for King to tear up, start crying and say that he is mad... at his father.
  King: He. Left me. ALONE! (Cue Traumatic Superpower Awakening)
  • It's more tragic when you realize that while Hooty was trying to make King feel better, he accidentally delivered another blow to his cherished identity as the King of Demons. Not only is he not an actual king, now he's technically not even a demon anymore.
• During Eda's Nightmare sequence, we get a series of dreams related to her history, and it's quite obvious she has PTSD from them. The first one gives us the answer for why, when Lilith brought up their father, Eda seemed sad. It's because, during one night before he left he accidentally triggered Eda's curse when he was about to go on a work trip. As a mark of the final night together for some time, he set off a party popper; This caused her to suddenly transform into the Owl Beast during which, the owl beast injured him and seemingly took one of his eyes out. This was one of the inciting incidents in her eventual running away, due to not wanting to hurt anyone else close to her.
  • Not to mention this would add a lot of guilt on Lilith’s conscience, as she indirectly was the reason why it happened.
    • Even worse, this was probably the moment Lilith realized that the curse wasn’t "just for a day" like she had originally thought.
    • It's quick but it seems even back then Lilith was still being overlooked by her mother. She tries to impress her mother with fancy napkin folding and Gwendolyn barely acknowledges she even said anything.
  • During the same sequence we see Raine break up with Eda. The curse caused Eda to distance herself from the people she cared for and Raine couldn't handle Eda hiding things from them. Eda's curse started to act up and she lashed out at Raine, ending the relationship on a less than pleasant note.
    • In the years since the breakup, Eda has realized that it was a mistake to push Raine away, and is begging her past self to "Let them help!". Unfortunately, the memory plays out how it happened in reality, forcing Eda to relive one of her greatest regrets.
  • Even sadder is, despite trying to put up a tough front as being thick-skinned, she reacts to the memory with a mixture of panic and heart-break.
    Eda: No, no, no, I hate this part...
• The Owl Beast’s backstory. That’s right, you heard it. It turns out that the Owl Beast isn’t a curse, but an actual creature from a different “Titan Island” trapped by a hooded figure into a scroll for unknown reasons, that somehow managed to reach the Boiling Isles, and put into Eda’s body by Lilith. So this makes it a victim of the curse as much as Eda, as it just wants its freedom back.
  • A very subtle and easy-to-miss one: You may think the owl beast taking over Eda's body and attacking her father in response to a firework set off by him was akin to a dog being terrified by fireworks. But if you pay attention you'll see the very same kind of fireworks was used by the hooded figure during the capture of the Owl Beast. Meaning it was less an animal being scared of noise and lights and more a trauma-induced panic attack.
  • When Eda tries to console the Owl Beast about its predicament, her "it's okay" is countered with a hostile screech, as though it's bitterly responding "NO! IT'S NOT OKAY!" One could imagine the Owl Beast must've been in a bad place to (initially) lash out at even a little sympathy.
• When the ride through the Tunnel of Love begins, Luz is utterly mortified and ashamed, and believes Amity is 'way too cool for this'. As such as she desperately tries to stop the ride and all the romantic imagery in it, and to get Amity out as soon as possible. Amity however, who was becoming genuinely flattered while smiling and blushing harder than ever, is distraught once she sees Luz start attacking and destroying everything romantic in sight. Her expression turns from shock to utterly heartbroken soon after, as she was starting to think that Luz wasn't interested in her and this was all a big misunderstanding. She tears up while stating that the idea of them dating is stupid to Luz's own shock...
  • What's really heartrending is how incredibly relatable all of this is. Luz being a socially awkward nerd thinks that Amity deserves a grandstanding romantic gesture and not some kind of cheesy romantic comedy nonsense. Meanwhile Amity, who is an emotional wreck and socially inept due to her upbringing, simply wants confirmation that her feelings are justified and is actually charmed by the simple romantic gesture, no matter how cheesy it is. They both feel like they don't deserve the other, thus both of them try not to act like a fool in front of the other, an effort which due to their aforementioned social challenges can be best described as an Epic Fail.
  • There’s also the fact that Luz is traumatized by the cheesy and cringy set-up of the Tunnel of Love, because back at home everyone made fun of her for her beyond-cringy antics, and Luz does not want to have to go through that again, heavily implying that crushes have rejected her before.
  • On the other side, remember how Amity's greatest fear was Luz rejecting her? Seeing Luz behave so uncouth in the tunnel likely causes her to relive the nightmare of Luz not reciprocating her feelings. Even her facial expression resembles the heartbroken face she makes when Grom took Luz's form and tore her note.
  • The way Luz acts when she's afraid to be made fun of could be read as implying on Earth she was bullied for not fitting in with other kids, which is unfortunately especially likely to be the case given that she's neurodivergent.
• With how all three scenarios played out, we see Hooty's complete and utter breakdown at the end of the episode. After everything he did trying to help his friends, believing he failed to help King find answers and worsened Eda's curse problem, he finally breaks upon thinking he may have ruined Luz and Amity's chance of being together. He cries uncontrollably while shouting how he has failed them all and is only a curse to them, breaking out of the house to avoid cursing it with his 'odious presence'. Anyone who ever tried to help someone else, only to end up failing likely empathizes with Hooty at the end.
  • Considering the level of his Freak Out, you have to wonder just how much Hooty's been affected by the irritation of others, and whether that rejection's been building up in the back of his mind and led to him having a meltdown.

Episode 9 - Eclipse Lake

• Seeing how desperate Hunter is to prove himself to Belos, especially considering the kind of man Belos is, is heartbreaking to say the least. The kid wants to be worthy of his uncle's admiration, but doesn't seem to realize just how toxic their relationship truly is, nor does he catch the implications of his role in Belos' plans.
  • Belos talking about the Human World for a moment, wistfully looking forward to seeing it again, brought on by Hunter's fascinated question about how rain there doesn't boil. The Boiling Isles is Giant Corpse Crapsack World that the native Witch and Demons evolved from...and even they hate this world where Everything Trying to Kill You is the norm.
• Although it's largely Played for Laughs, Hunter seems genuinely distraught that people think that his voice is annoying.
• Amity briefly expresses worry that Luz could have unforeseen complications from the common mold because she's a human, and they have no idea how it could affect her.
• The subtext of Willow’s remarks about seeing Amity more often than before: Willow hasn’t seen Amity that much since childhood, which was when their friendship just ended. It’s as if Willow thinks she’s dreaming that Amity is back in her life.
• When Eda, King, and Amity fall down a crevice, it's only thanks to Owlbert that they barely manage to keep from plunging to their deaths. However, the weight of all three on the staff causes Owlbert a lot of strain to the point he starts cracking in obvious pain. Luckily, he makes it out okay, but it was still a very painful thing to watch happen to the poor palisman.
• After Eda, King, and Amity leave, a semi-delirious Luz gets the Echo Mouse to reveal more information and learns about Fools Blood, which is dangerous, but since the others are listening to music and can't hear her, she desperately tries to reach her girlfriend to warn her but fails.
• Amity wants nothing more than to prove she's an awesome girlfriend to Luz, which unfortunately fills her with a lot of self-doubt and anxiety (especially since, according to Dana Terrace, Luz is her very first girlfriend). She struggles to interpret Luz's Tamagotchi messages, which at one point Hunter capitalizes on and translates one of them as "succeed or we're through". Amity has doubts, but the anxiety in her won't let her completely shelf the idea. It's only thanks to King that she remembers Luz would never be so cold, but the moment was still quite sad, and it made Amity feel like an idiot for thinking that.
  • In a rather subtle bit of writing, while Amity refers to herself as Luz's girlfriend multiple times in the episode, she never once says anything resembling the phrase "Luz is my girlfiend". It only serves to highlight that she doesn't consider herself to be Luz's equal in their relationship.
  • One could also interpret Hunter's thoughts as him projecting, given what kind of stress he's put under trying to win Belos' approval. With Belos putting enormous amounts of pressure on Hunter, it's likely he can't imagine being treated in any other way, which seems to be the case considering how willing he was to dig his own grave when he thinks he can't go back empty-handed.
  • Both of them show a result of dealing with their respective abusive parental figure. Amity, who just recently rebelled against hers shows that she's now projecting her feelings of insecurity over to Luz even though Luz loves her unconditionally. This is a girl who has done nothing but ensure that she pleases those of authority, she forgets that the one person she wants to show off to already knows how great of a person she is. In Hunter's case, Belos has put him on a pedestal and has shown to be uncharacteristically kind to him recently. Nevertheless, Belos, much like Odalia, has put a tremendous amount of pressure onto Hunter to perform. In fact, he believes he's being sidelined because of his previous failure, and while Belos says that he's meant for something bigger, Hunter hasn't been given any other reason to think otherwise.
• While the fight itself is really amazing, the circumstance that led to Amity vs Hunter is a tragic one. Hunter was about ready to call it quits when it's revealed Eclipse Lake dried up long ago, slowly driving him deep into insanity, but Amity attempts to show him some kindness and offer him a chance at redemption. Unfortunately, Hunter catches a glimpse of the portal key around Amity's neck, which he knows contains Titan's Blood, and immediately attacks Amity for it. After the fight, Hunter realizes he's at a clear disadvantage, forcing him to resort to threatening Luz. Amity surrenders the key, but not before cracking it to catch some of the Titan's Blood into her glove, and Hunter shows genuine thanks for it, for whatever it's worth.
  • Hunter is basically The Chew Toy of the episode, even if it's Played for Laughs half the time. From being constantly picked on by everyone for physical reasons to his very dismal outlook on life (which is heavily implied to be from Domestic Abuse), he seriously needs a hug.
  • On the topic of that outlook, he says that everyone has a use and if you don't "buh-bye". Hunter was raised with the belief that everyone is basically a tool and if you're not useful, you're disposable. We see all throughout the episode that he can't even imagine life being treated as sacred or love being unconditional, which gives an even deeper and more depressing look into his relationship with Belos.
  • Just the general fact that Hunter (a child, mind you) felt like such a failure that he was legitimately about to resign himself to death over it. Playing it for laughs doesn't make it any less sad. He even tells his own palisman to "find a better witch to be with".
  King: This is really bumming me out.
  • What makes it worse is that he didn't fail at all. Since he was told to remain in the castle, he could've just gone back home empty-handed and nobody would've said anything. But he's so blinded by devotion and his dark philosophy that it doesn't even cross his mind.

Episode 10 - Yesterday’s Lie

• The opening scene is this two-fold: The Imposter (aka Vee) is seen getting rid of all of Luz's things, her memorabilia, her toys, and even seemingly random junk that are actually items of great sentimental value. While from her perspective, Luz has been gone for months and apparently isn't coming back it's still hurtful that Vee would be so casual about getting rid of someone's stuff as part of starting a new life.
  • Then there's also Camila's reaction: she sees her fantasy-loving, creative daughter, throwing away all these things and shows genuine concern, especially when "Luz" cites her experiences at camp as being the primary motivator. Camila sent Luz to Camp Reality-Check to help rein in her more wild-side and now it appears that her daughter has abandoned everything she loved and believed in. Goes to show that Camila is a Good Parent who just wanted Luz to have friends and handle the real world, not stifle or get rid of everything that made her unique.
• After they rescue Vee, Luz thanks her mother for being cool about everything, but she suddenly breaks down and admits to Luz that she's barely holding it together after what she's learned. Imagine realizing that your child is stranded in a dangerous realm of demons and magic with no clear way to go back, and nothing you can do to help.
• As Luz was being pulled back to the Demon Realm, Camila forces her to promise to stay on Earth once she has a way home, which Luz clearly doesn't want to do as it would mean leaving behind her found family, her friends, and her girlfriend. Only time will tell whether or not she decides to release Luz from that promise so she can be happy.
  • Before that, when Luz accidentally lets it slip that she left the human world by choice, Camila is absolutely heart-broken and betrayed. While she at first angrily accuses her daughter of trying to live out a "witch fantasy", she then tearfully asks if Luz hated living with her so much that she'd willingly run away and continuously lie to her about her whereabouts, which mirrors Luz’s worst fear back in "Enchanted Grom Fright". What's worse is that Camila isn't wrong about Luz's initial motivations, but the instability of the portal meant that Luz had no time to properly explain that her motivations have changed.
  • While she is initially angry at Luz, Camila realizes that Luz must "hate living with" her. When Luz starts being dragged away, Camila desperately holds on to her hands, apologizes for pushing her away and promises that things will be different before begging her to come back, failing to fully comprehend even when Luz spells it out that the reason she hates living on Earth has absolutely nothing to do with her, as it's made abundantly clear that Camila is the only reason Luz is trying to find a way back.
  • As we learn in Season 3; sending Luz to camp was something Camila was pressured to do by the school, and something she was likely more nervous about than she let on in episode 1. Luz's texts and Vee's letters must have done a lot to reassure her. All this is completely shattered in one fell swoop by learning Vee was the one who went to camp, and her daughter decided to run away. It's little wonder she breaks down, and begs Luz to come home and give her another chance, the poor woman must think her daughter hates her, and thanks to the portal collapsing, she'll spend weeks, even months with that thought.
• Vee was created by the Emperor's Coven as a science experiment and just wanted a home and a place to belong, mimicking Luz out of sheer desperation to avoid capture, her "name" just being a stretching out of her numerical designation. Even after learning that she was impersonated by her, Luz still feels bad for her and tries to help her get magic so she can maintain a proper human form.
• When Luz sees Masha with the Hexas Hold'em cards, not realizing that Vee knows them from camp, Luz acts like things are almost certainly going to go south, saying things about "marking exit routes". What happened to her to make her anxious about basic human contact?
• Because of her past as a science experiment, Vee does not handle imprisonment well. When she ends up getting trapped by the curator in a cage, the poor girl starts hyperventilating in a panic while screaming to be let out.
• When Luz suggests coming up with a plan to get Vee out of the cage the curator trapped her in, Vee rejects it; since he knows what her disguise looks like, he could out her to Camila and cause her even more trouble than if "Luz" had just disappeared. When Luz says that Vee is giving up too quickly, Vee replies that she's being realistic, saying that it's okay since she's "used to living like this", even when she obviously isn't, and says goodbye before smashing the glass Luz is reflected in with her tail.
• While he's a Jerkass Know-Nothing Know-It-All Conspiracy Theorist, you can't help feel the tiniest bit bad for Jacob Hopkins. Years ago, he had a (presumably traumatic) encounter with Eda in her Owl Beast form thus learning that witches and demons are real. With no real expert to consult and his job as a curator giving him only limited historical knowledge to go on, he turned to the internet...and had what few facts he had twisted until he completely bought into the insane idea that they were from Mars to "steal human teeth to fuel their time machine".
  • When he voices his theory, not only does Vee have a reaction that makes her realize he doesn't actually know anything, but his voice almost cracks like he's relieved to finally have proof that he's not actually insane.
• Reality Check Camp turned out to be just a regular camp. Whatever they tried to do to make the kids act more normal clearly either wasn't as extreme as Luz thought it would be or simply didn't work. What 'did' happen is that Vee came back with friends. 'Weird' friends. Weird friends that would have understood Luz in a way nobody else around her did before coming to the Boiling Isles. Luz didn't have to run away in the first place to get what she ultimately wanted.

Episode 11 - Follies at the Coven Day Parade

• The episode begins with Luz trying to make a video to her mom about the Boiling Isles in the hopes that she can convince the older woman to let her stay. Unfortunately, it doesn't go well, and you can see her becoming more dejected with each scene.
  • The Oracle track student that is being thrown in the detention pit sheds tears out of fear while pleading Luz to help him.
• Luz's flashback to her promise to Camila is worded much more specifically, with Luz believing that staying with her mother means abandoning the demon realm entirely, along with everyone there she loves, and going back to a life and a world she hates, with there being no middle ground that would make everyone happy. What's worse is that it's likely that Luz is right about Camila's intentions with regards to that promise.
• We finally find out what happened to Raine. The head of the Plant Coven modified their memories to make them completely loyal to the Emperor and made them resent Eda for being a wild witch. For Eda, this is more than just losing a friend and potential lover. It's now become quite clear how far the Emperor will go to instill loyalty in his coven, including brainwashing.
  • Raine themself even sheds a Single Tear when they are forced to make Eda leave them again.
  • It wasn't just memories that were altered. Raine's whole personality got rewired into believing in the Emperor's ideals completely. Remember that Raine ran a resistance group to help out wild witches and now they're throwing the word around like it's a slur.
  • Eda tries to get through to Raine by playing a recording of their duet. It clearly triggers something... but Raine responds by blasting Eda away.
  • Just how much Raine has been forcibly changed because of Belos' ambitions. The last time they and Eda met, they got along great despite how things ended. Here, Raine bitterly tells her they haven't seen each other in years. And at the end while they let her go, they basically tell her to never come anywhere near them again. It's honestly surprising that Eda doesn't break down crying after all is said and done.
• Luz is so adamant about helping Kikimora because she's undergoing some Psychological Projection and hopes that if she can help the demoness with her problems, Luz can show that she can find a solution to her own problems with being torn between Camila and the Isles.
• Amity asks Luz about the video on the phone. She reassures her that she didn't see it, but Luz is understandably freaked out now as she still doesn't know what to say to Amity regarding the promise she made to her mother and the possibility that she may never see her again.
• While Eda sees it as another manipulation tactic, there is something in Belos' voice before he unmasks himself that implies he is ashamed of his face, and there must be some reason why he chose to wear a mask at all...
• Sure, Kikimora has done a lot of horrible things in the series and she does turn on Luz and Amity, but you can't help but feel sorry for her, even just a little bit. Kikimora constantly fears for her life, and she's already failed the emperor several times. Not to mention that the coven soldiers are just so coldly indifferent towards Kikimora, that they don't even offer to help her up after she trips, showing the relationship she has with fellow coven members is strictly-business. That's not even going into her panic that if she doesn't attend the reunion, her family will disown her. And after she turns on the girls thinking she’ll get her promotion, she shows many signs of regret in the end.

Episode 12 - Elsewhere and Elsewhen

• Lilith's old mentor Flora pays a visit, and Lilith becomes rather insecure as a result of feeling upstaged.
• We learn that Eda's father Dell used to be the best Palisman carver in the Isles, but after the Owl Beast injured his eye and dominant hand, he was forced to retire. When Eda finds out he's at the Owl House, she becomes so panicked to avoid seeing him out of guilt that she tries to pass herself off as Lilith, with her Paper-Thin Disguise being so pathetic that King and Gwen can't bare to call her on it.
• Luz admired Philip ever since learning about him, and to her, he was her hero—a legend who fascinated her. Finding out what a callous jerk he really is is just nothing short of devastating.
• Sure, Philip turns out to be a jerk, but it's not like it's completely out of nowhere. Apparently ripped from his own world and stuck in a scary, confusing place, full of... things that he's been raised to fear and seemingly forced to mutilate himself to find ways to protect himself. It's a wonder he's been able to keep his sanity.
• There's something all too sobering about seeing the Boiling Isles during the Deadwardian Era. It would be so easy to imagine the "Savage Age" of wild magic was a dark time of chaos and barbarity, and Emperor Belos's reign was somehow a necessary evil. But it's tragic to see that before Emperor Belos came along, everything was so idyllic in those days! Witches were peaceful and friendly, their wild magic was used to coexist and help one another, and everyone simply lived their lives. And to think, in a few years time, it would all be ruined when Emperor Belos came along and took it over, turning innocent wild magic witches to stone left and right.
  • Even more tragic, had it not been for Emperor Belos, the Boiling Isles wouldn't be the dog-eat-dog world it is today. And because of that, many lives in the present day might've been drastically different. Glandus's students wouldn't have been a callous survival-of-the-fittest types driven to bully one another. Lillith and Eda wouldn't have been pitted against each other, and thus, Lillith might not have ever cursed Eda or endangered their relationship. On that note, Eda's curse might not have alienated her from her parents. And assuming Amity's parents would've been different under alternate circumstances, Amity and Willow wouldn't have been separated by the belief that "Blights only befriend the strongest witchlings". In between, so many witches who favored wild magic would never have suffered. This speaks volumes of how Belos's reign has caused so much pain and suffering in the making.

Episode 13 - Any Sport In A Storm

• Hunter gets no respect from the Coven Heads in this episode. Although Darius warms up to him a bit in the end, at the beginning, they implicitly reschedule a meeting simply because Belos put him in charge for the day.
  • Raine at least pauses to spare Hunter a sympathetic glance, just before being led away by Terra.
• Hunter is so isolated in the Emperor’s Coven that he’s completely clueless about what normal teens his age are like, and actually views the Training from Hell as fun.
• After discovering why Hunter was there with her team, Willow descends back into her self-loathing persona, calling herself "half a witch", Hunter himself is distraught at hearing those words from her.
• If you still think Skara is anything like Boscha, she just wailed at the thought of being kidnapped from her family, showing her more sensitive side.
• Steve gets a surprisingly touching moment when he mentions that he hates his job in the Emperor's Coven, what he had to do to get there and now is beginning to regret the choices that led him there, implying in some ways that he might be Trapped in Villainy by both forces outside his control and himself not unlike Hunter who resonates with what Steve has to say regarding his conflicting loyalty.
  Steve: Steve is beginning to regret his choices.
  Hunter: [watching Darius fly away with Willow and the others] I think Hunter is, too.
• It's Played for Laughs, but Viney is extremely upset at the fact Jerbo is playing against her, to the point where she considers cutting ties with him, even though he was also as upset as her and also didn't actually know he was playing against her.
• On Darius' penstagram timeline is a post from rainey.day (presumably Raine) with two comments from theowllady; One calling them a nerd, and the other begging them to return her calls.
• When Hunter stands up to Darius to allow the team to escape, Willow has tears in her eyes. It's less about being mad at Hunter and more about being disappointed that it's not possible for "Caleb" to be on their team for at least another year.

Episode 14 - Reaching Out

• Edric shows some hidden insecurities throughout the episode, which probably hits hard for anyone with similar issues.
• Since he's never appeared or even been mentioned, most fans went with the assumption that Luz's father walked out of her life for one reason or another. As this episode reveals, he passed away some time ago. Ever since that day, Luz and Camila have made a little ritual where they spend one day together each year to honor his memory. While it's already a difficult occasion to go through, this one is especially hard since Luz and her mother are separated this time.
  • Luz's facial expressions as she slowly explains the importance of the day and how she twice assures Amity that it happened "a long time ago" and tries to make it as no big deal. When the two hear the chaos being caused by the mutated Warden Wrath, Luz collapses trying to get up and loses the ability to stand from being so emotionally exhausted.
  • The way she tries to play off not being able to stand as being "the old jelly legs" heavily implies that her almost naive optimism, sunny enthusiasm, and almost obsessive interest in fantasy are coping mechanisms that formed her personality.
  • There's also Amity's reaction: she is shocked that she didn't know something so important about her girlfriend. Her father might be an Absent-Minded Professor and her mother's a major Control Freak, but at least she has both of her parents. She also deeply regrets both her anger towards Luz earlier (even though it was justified) and unintentionally adding to Luz's difficulties throughout the day.
  • When she and Amity send some flowers tied to a makeshift balloon off a cliff, you can see on her face just how physically and emotionally tired Luz looks after everything.
  • The last scene shows Camila putting flowers by a window. While Vee does keep her company, she has to spend today, the day when she lost her husband, without her daughter.
  • Manny (the father) died when Luz was just a little girl, and ever since then, Camila never remarried, and Luz never received any form of step-dad.
• Amity wanted to enter the Brawl to prove herself to Alador, since he's in such an Absent-Minded Professor mode, in part because he's been so busy making Abomitons for Belos, that he doesn't even know that Amity and Luz have been dating for what is probably weeks at this point, but when he shows up at the Brawl right before she can defeat Warden Wrath, he's more mad that she skipped Coven tryouts.
• After Amity and Alador talk out the estrangement between them, both from Alador's work and his general apathy towards Odalia's treatment of their children, he goes in to try to hug his daughter. Amity instead settles for just taking his hand affectionately. It shows that, even if they are making some inroads with one another finally, they aren't quite there yet.

Episode 15 - Them's The Breaks, Kid

• The opening of the flashback showing Eda and Lilith walking to school together is both heartwarming and bittersweet, especially with the reminder that Lilith is going to ruin both their lives in just a few months.
• Eda is shown to not really have any friends at Hexside other than her sister, and quickly jumps on any deal Faust offers in order to stay at the school with her.
• It's shown that despite their rivalry in the present day, Alador was once friends with Darius, hinting that something happened between them that caused them to fall out. The same could apply to Odalia as well, since she was seen hanging out with them.
• Despite quickly bonding with each other, Raine and Eda are pitted against each other thanks to Terra.
• One of the students in the program states that his parents told him to come back with a blue ribbon, or not come back at all. And since Terra refuses to give out any ribbons...
• The main reason Eda's actually trying to get a ribbon and not get expelled is that she doesn't want to be apart from her sister Lilith, who she calls "her only friend." But when she gets back to school and Lilith, her sister has already made other friends and blows Eda off to be with them instead. The disappointment on Eda's face is clear to see. Thankfully, it turns out Raine transferred to Hexside, so she won't be friendless, but the earlier moment still stings.
• Raine actually has figured out what Terra is doing to them and has circumvented her potion, but refuses to contact Eda, even at the suggestion of their apparent co-conspirator Darius, because they want to keep her out of it. How much of their actions in "Follies of the Coven Day Parade" was an act to keep her safe?
  • Knowing Eda, she will try to get to them, so their intentions will likely backfire horribly anyway.

Episode 16 - Hollow Mind

• A small moment — when Hunter and Luz first disappear into the mindscape, Hunter drops Flapjack's staff. Flapjack then turns back into a bird, looking around sad and worried. From his perspective, his owner just up and disappeared.
• Hunter notes that during the memory picture of when he was given his staff, Darius looks sad and that he never found out what happened to his predecessor. 3 episodes prior, Darius revealed he and the previous Golden Guard were close friends; a fact that becomes much Harsher in Hindsight by episode's end when it's revealed that Belos is the one that killed him.
• As Eda continues to try and fail to get a working mindscape potion working, King quietly begs Eda for reassurance that things will turn out okay. At this moment, he's just a helpless little kid forced to grapple with the notion that his big sister figure might not return. For her part, Eda can't even respond either way.
• To save Luz and Hunter, Eda and King are forced to use the Titan's Blood as a power source for the potion to get them out of Belos' mind, possibly costing Luz her only way home.
• Hunter goes through A LOT in this episode:
  • Initially, he is singing Belos' praises and finding excuses to justify the latter's actions. As they watch more memories, however, Hunter starts realizing that Belos was lying about everything.
  • Shortly after entering Belos' true mind, he finds and picks up the husk of a bird palisman, only for it to crumble away as his hand shakes uncontrollably, obviously imagining Flapjack being in its place. This gets even worse later on when Belos plucks that very same bird's soul out of the mass of palismen he's devoured over the centuries and crushes it right in front of him.
  • Hunter mentions multiple times throughout the episode that he's done a lot of research about mindscapes and travelling through one's memories. Later on, after witnessing some of the dark deeds Belos committed in his past, he struggles to justify his uncle's actions to Luz, offering ideas like Belos remembering things wrong. He laments that no one really knows how mindscapes work, only for Luz to remind him that he does. Hunter responds with a resolute, "Well, maybe I'm an idiot!". The boy who prides himself in his knowledge of magic and the Boiling Isles would sooner doubt his own capabilities than believe his uncle is anything less than a good man.
  • He watches Belos and The Collector referring to his predecessors' deaths casually, as Belos has apparently killed so many other versions of Hunter that it doesn't mean anything to either of them. The Collector even asks Belos if he enjoys killing versions of Hunter over and over again. Belos claims he doesn't, but there's a notable pause where he's smiling, casting some doubt on whether or not he enjoys this.
  • When Belos confronts them, Hunter, visibly horrified, questions the latter's intentions. Belos responds by revealing that Hunter is a grimwalker. Belos basically told Hunter that he isn't even a real witch. Hunter has very little time to process this before Belos tries killing him.
    Hunter: What did you do to the other guards? To our family? It wasn't wild magic, was it?
    (Belos's casual smile turns to a frown; he reaches down and flicks Hunter's loose lock of hair; Hunter closes his eyes and flinches, tears forming)
    Belos: What a shame. (disappointed sigh) Out of all the grimwalkers, you looked the most like him.
    Hunter: (voice trembling) What?
    • Of note, this is the result of Belos' own actions that Hunter found out the Awful Truth, not something he went out of his way to find. He asked for immediate assistance with leaving the Emperor's mind to what he thought was him at the first opportunity and was reluctant to enter any of his memories until Luz dragged him into them to escape the Palisman monster. Inner Belos lead them into each incriminating memory of his past in order to gather the necessary ingredients to lay a trap to destroy the Palisman beast for good, exposing Hunter to his darker intentions, and when his devoted servant asked him — not even angrily demanding or anything, but begging him to provide a reasonable explanation for all that he's seen — the mad Witch hunter takes it as a sign that he's already starting to show the same signs of rebelling against him as the previous guards did, dismissively brushes off his pleas, speaks openly of his entire existence as an Expendable Clone without a care and then tries to near-literally put Hunter out of his mind, all for what he himself did to the boy. Hunter's reaction towards Belos was completely reasonable and still holds the hint of wanting to believe in his "uncle" despite all that he'd seen, and all Belos does to repay his genuine loyalty is dismiss him as unwanted, like Hunter had always feared, and then try to kill him with absolute contempt. 'Abusive' doesn't even begin to cover what Belos did to the boy he created and raised here, nor how monstrous his true nature underneath the lies is.
  • When Belos tries to kill Hunter by dragging him into the depths of his subconscious, Luz tosses him the end of Eda's jacket in an attempt to pull him to safety, begging him to hang on as he sinks to his apparent death with a look of desperation on his face.
  • Even after everything he's learned, and after Inner Belos tries to kill him, Hunter still looks conflicted over leaving with Luz. He and Belos share a Meaningful Look as the two kids escape, but Belos' face only shows contempt and annoyance toward his "nephew", as if viewing him as merely another failed experiment.
  • Hunter, realizing that Belos knows that he and Luz were in his mind, and that he can't go back to the castle, experiences a panic attack (and a realistic one at that) before running away from the Owl House. Eda tries to reach out to him and calm him down, but he's too scared to accept it.
    (Flapjack chirps and bumps up against Hunter's head; Hunter is unresponsive for a moment, then his eyes widen in horror)
    Hunter: He knows. H-he knows we were in there! (starts hyperventilating) I can't— I can't go back...!
    Eda: Kid, breathe.
    (Eda reaches out to him, but he recoils, tears his cloak off, and flees; Luz tries to run after him, but, likely realizing it's futile, stops)
    Luz: Hunter!
  • Despite working so hard to earn it in "Any Sport in a Storm," Hunter throws off his cloak in panic and disgust. It means nothing to him, now.
• Luz also experiences a lot; when Philip/Belos reveals his true nature to her, Luz is shocked and clearly in denial, especially when he shows her his memories of them meeting in order to rub it in her face. When she and Hunter escape Belos' mind, she can only sport a Thousand-Yard Stare, struggling to steel herself to say what happened.
  King: What the heck happened in there?
  Eda: Luz... what did you see?
  Luz: (stares at them looking as if she's about to burst into tears)
  • The storyboard version of this ending just makes it worse. Luz tries to reveal what happened, but she's too shellshocked by what she saw that she instead races into Eda's embrace and starts to cry.
• A Freeze-Frame Bonus in this shows some of Philip's backstory, where he had a brother who clearly was the template for Hunter and the other grimwalkers, and that the two were close, becoming trapped on the isles at the same time. Then the brother fell in love with a witch and they had a child together, causing Philip to fight and kill his own brother.
  • You can see the witch the brother was likely in a relationship with casting some kind of magic on Philip while the brother lies dead in the foreground.
  • The portraits of Philip's childhood days are heartbreaking because none of them depicted anything wrong with Philip. He was a happy, sweet child who adored his older brother and played many games with him. In fact, he seemed no different from Luz.
  • When Philip finally finds him, Caleb is clearly overjoyed to see his dear brother again, smiling as he embraces him and introduces his brother to his wife. What follows are the pictures of the brothers fighting each other and Caleb's death. Philip, having already undergone his Start of Darkness seeing his brother "betray" him, only glares angrily (and in one picture, sporting his familiarly-blue Glowing Eyes of Doom). Caleb, however, is visibly distraught and holding his hands up, seemingly still trying to reason with Philip who is actively trying to murder him. It ends with Caleb laying dead on the ground and Philip's Death Glare in the reflection of his dagger. Just seeing how genuinely happy Caleb was to finally see his brother again, only for said brother to immediately attempt to kill him for falling in love with a witch, can be quite tear-jerking.
  • A recently-revealed tweet showing clearer images of the portraits paints the whole story in even sadder detail. Caleb is shown to be apparently willing to aid his brother in their witch-hunting, apparently treated akin to a social gathering in Gravesfield, but when he actually found a real witch in Evelyn, he was instead fascinated by her. Philip's memories showing him apparently being entranced by the flames she conjures whilst he looks on in horror, but it's hinted that what Caleb is really looking at is Evelyn herself, looking past the proof that she's what they've been taught to hate and seeing a young beautiful woman. Notably, all of Evelyn's appearances have her face obscured, facing away from Philip or heavily shadowed, showing how he only ever saw her as an obstacle that came between him and his beloved brother and not a person like he did. A further portrait has Caleb willingly jumping through the Gravesfield portal door right in front of Philip, wearing his witch-hunting "hero" mask, apparently unable to hear his pleas for him to stop or uncaring, implicitly that last time Philip saw his brother on Earth. The portrait clearly showcases Philip's feelings of abandonment by his brother "turning" on him like that, unable to see that it was his own refusal to accept the unknown that drove them apart. Notably, every portrait past where Evelyn first appears has holes apparently burned into them, indicative of how hard Philip is throwing himself into his self-deluding narrative of how events really went, that he's damaging his own recollection of events.
    • The fact that the undamaged memory portraits in the actual episode are shown with fiery holes and slashes on his brother's eyes only makes the whole situation worse. Belos now refuses to even remember these genuine happier times with his brother, only focusing on the memory of how his brother "betrayed" him.

Episode 17 - Edge of the World

• Luz starts the episode still reeling from the revelation that Philip is Emperor Belos and that she was an Unwitting Pawn in his rise to power, clearly blaming herself for the horrific danger her second home is in. Even after managing to talk about what happened, the poor girl's clearly on the verge of a meltdown similar to Hunter's.
  Luz: We don't have time to take anything in; we have to stop Belos! I-I was a part of his plan! (sobbing) I-I-I fell for everything!
  Eda: King, Hooty, you know what to do.
  • Just the very fact that Eda has to inform the two that they "know what to do" brings up the implication that this has happened multiple times. How much has Luz broken down from blaming herself, especially due to "Agony Of A Witch"?
• Eda turns out to be blaming herself for Luz getting involved with Belos, since she was the one that brought Luz to the Isles in the first place. She holds herself together while the kids are in the room, but as soon as they leave, she stares blankly ahead for a moment, then bursts into tears.
• King has seemingly found his people and is getting along well with them... only for the Titan Trappers to turn out to be the hunters of King's real kind, Titans, of which King is apparently the last. Once the Trappers realize this, they waste no time in trying to sacrifice King to free the Collector.
  • After Tarak gets the news that King is a Titan, he seems genuinely heartbroken that the child he was starting to bond with is actually the enemy who he is duty-bound to kill.
  • And, as King takes another look at the Boiling Isles, what makes it even sadder is that he’s been living atop what could very well be his dead father the whole time.
  King: (sadly waves to the Boiling Isles) Um, hi...
• King revealing that part of why he wanted to find his biological family so badly was because he knew that Luz, who's basically his foster sister, will have to leave eventually.
• After he destroys the gateway to the Titan Trappers' island, Kings walks over to Luz, grips her pants leg, looks up at her with his eyes filled with tears and tells her he wants to go home.
• It's pretty easy to miss considering everything else that's going on, but when King asks Salty where the rest of his crew is, he admits that since he was no longer employed by the Golden Guard, his crew didn't bother to stick around and he admits that he even viewed them as his family.

Episode 18 - Labyrinth Runners

• No sign of Luz or the Owl House residents are physically seen in this episode, leaving their fates up in the air, especially after the ending of the previous episode.
• The episode starts with a flashback of a younger Gus having been taken advantage of by another student so he'd do his share of their assignment, leading him to have a panic attack where he creates illusions of the other student and his friend that berate him once he overhears the other student admitting that he didn't really care about Gus. Luckily it led to him meeting Willow, and her teaching him a breathing technique to help, but yikes.
• Since Hunter fled the Owl House, he's been living in the decommissioned Paranoratorium at Hexside, sleeping in an old, gross sleeping bag, eating food from trashcans, and wearing his old Flyer Derby outfit combined with pieces of his Golden Guard uniform under a dirty, damaged cloak that he likely stole from somewhere. Gus gives him his lunch, which is likely the first real food he's had in days, and once he ends up with the other students, the Blight twins note that he looks sickly. Not only has he had to process the fact that his entire worldview has been a lie, he's now homeless and on the run from the people he's dedicated his entire life to.
  • Taking a closer look at Hunter's little pile shows multiple books on Grimwalkers, including one that talks about their extinction. Hunter must have been desperate to learn what exactly he is, and it seems that there are no other Grimwalkers in the Boiling Isles to answer any questions he undoubtedly has.
  • It's subtle, but Hunter's body language has also changed. Pre-"Hollow Mind" Hunter was often playful, haughty and smug, and showed that in his exaggerated, expressive movements, poses, and facial expressions. Post-"Hollow Mind" Hunter on the other hand is completely different. He's often curled in on himself, with his shoulders hunched and his hands tucked against his chest, he smiles noticeably less throughout the episode, and in moments where he's under a lot of stress, he starts pulling on his own hair. Despite how he tries to keep himself together, it's obvious that "Hollow Mind" has left him badly shaken.
    • Another subtle example that crosses into Nightmare Fuel is Hunter's reaction to his life being threatened. When he's captured by two Coven-guards, he fights back hard, until one of the guards misinterprets an order from his partner and moves to "put him out of his misery." Hunter's reaction to this is to freeze completely. Even after the other guard clarifies with horror that he wanted his partner to put Hunter to sleep, he stares ahead like a deer in headlights without blinking or even breathing until he's hit with the sleep spell and passes out.
• Graye nearly tricks the multi-track students at Hexside into getting sigils by telling them that they're fakes meant to fool the people coming, with only Gus's quick thinking exposing the plot and keeping Edric from having all his non-illusion magic sealed off forever when he'd just joined his new tracks. If it wasn't for Hunter, Graye would then have forced Gus into the Abomination Coven as payback.
  • Mattholomule is also revealed to have joined the Illusions track, and is one of the most outspoken about hearing that he'd be forced to choose, even tearing off his new blue sleeves.
• When Graye tries to interrogate Gus by viewing his memories, and Hunter goes in to save him, he sees visions of, among other things, the trio of Glandus High students dancing around him mockingly, berating himself for being fooled again.
  • When Hunter enters the illusion to help Gus, his mind is flooded with his worst memories. Nearly all of them are from "Hollow Mind", but there's one hidden among them: Willow in a cage. Even though she's forgiven him, he clearly hasn't forgiven himself.
• Hunter's running away with Gus after successfully uncovering Severine's illusion of Willow, so Adrian has to use his illusions to stop him. What does he decide to conjure up? Why, Belos, of course. And it's realistic enough to make Hunter freeze in his tracks.
• Amity means well in this episode, but she's clearly overcompensating regarding her friendship with Willow, which she's only just recently repaired and is afraid of losing again, more than once attacking a Scout that Willow was clearly capable of handling.
  • Now, this adds another layer to their previous friendship—how much of Amity saying Willow was “half a witch” even true and not just because she was being blackmailed? It’s implied Amity did probably think that of Willow and showing Willow up became habit.
• When Gus and Willow hug Hunter near the end of the episode, he just stands there stiffly and asks in a meek voice what is going on. While the hug itself is heartwarming and Hunter's reaction is played for laughs, the sad thing is that he's so unfamiliar with physical affection that he doesn't even know what a hug is.
• Hunter admitting to Gus near the climax that although he now knows that Belos doesn't care for him in the slightest, and that everything he was told was a lie to keep him obedient, he still wants to go back to him — unfortunately Truth in Television for people who have suffered the same abuse as Hunter has.
  Hunter: It's... Hard. When you can't trust yourself. I spent my whole life believing I was doing something good, for someone good. But it was a lie... And some part of me still wants to believe in that lie.

Episode 19 - O Titan, Where Art Thou

• While The Collector may be an antagonist, when King encounters them in his dream, their excitement at no longer having to be alone, as well as their distress at King leaving can easily make a viewer feel sympathetic towards them, especially considering how genuine they seem to sound.
  Collector: Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! Don't leave!
• Luz, King, and Hooty come back to find that not only are there bounty posters for them everywhere, but that the Owl House was raided and completely emptied. Luckily Eda and Lilith managed to escape, but seeing the Owl House so barren is just haunting.
• When Lilith finds out that her nephew is a baby Titan, she delves into the same sycophantic mindset as when she thought that King might really be the King of Demons in "Echoes of the Past", only worse. King, who has undergone significant Character Development, is rather unnerved at her behavior and just wants her to treat him normally, even though he admits to Steve that he always thought that he wanted such devotion.
• King realizes that he doesn't want to be feared by anyone. Knowing that if he lives long enough he'll inevitably have a massive growth spurt in the future doesn't help.
• When Steve sees a pair of elderly female demons who are apparently a couple, he becomes rather distraught, implying that he has some problems in his romantic life.
• While having a mostly fun-looking day with Steve, King steals a few glances at the Titan, and at one point, lays down in a puddle in the exact same pose in which the Titan lies in the ocean. It's a deeply poignant image of King trying to connect with his long-lost ancestor - possibly his own parent.
• Eda, not wanting to tell Luz that she and Lilith can't come up with a plan, lies to her about it, simply because she wants them and King to have at least one relatively normal day. She's so desperate to protect them that she's even willing to turn herself in if it means that Raine will keep them safe.
• Eda finally gets a chance to talk to Raine, and it's as emotionally-charged and bittersweet as you'd expect.
  • Want to see it in full? Expect heartbreak.
  Raine: Captain, I thought I told you to- (gasp) Eda?!
  Eda: Please, just give me a minute. I'm not trying to stir trouble.
  Raine: You're wearing a stolen uniform.
  Eda: And I am working it! Listen, I don't know what you're hiding, but I do know that somewhere deep inside you still care about me, otherwise you wouldn't let me walk free at the Coven Parade. ...Raine, I know about the Day of Unity and the Draining Spell.
  (Raine's emotion shifts to sadness, looking away. They are not left unnoticed by Eda.)
  Eda: Nope! I-I saw that expression! It is that bad, isn't it? That's why I... (sighs) I need your help.
  Raine: There's no time for your schemes, Eda.
  (Raine attempts to end the call, but Eda stops them.)
  Eda: Wait! This is for my kids. They can't be around during the Day of Unity. Put them in a castle; bunker! Get them on an airship! I don't care! Just- just keep them safe! If you do, I'll give myself up right now.
• When Luz hears Eda trying to send her away by making a deal with Raine to turn herself in if they'll keep Luz and King safe, she's absolutely devastated and, not knowing about the lack of a plan due to the aforementioned lie, calls her out on supposedly not believing in her, leading to a big fight that attracts attention and gets them captured. Then, after Luz learns the truth in the cell, and sees Eda being carted off to be supposedly petrified, she outright begs Eda to fight back, even saying that she'll go with Raine without a fight if she does.
• When Luz is about to carve her Palisman, she gets cold feet, fearing that it won't like her, and that says something about Luz's self-esteem if she's afraid a Palisman she creates won't like her.

Episode 20 - Clouds on the Horizon

• The Collector seems genuinely worried that their Villainous Friendship with Belos is a lie and legitimately seems to appreciate it. It's just sad that the only person they seem to consider a friend doesn't have space for love in his heart and probably does plan to double-cross them simply for being a magical entity.
• Of all people, the beginning of the episode can elicit just the tiniest shred of sympathy for Philip/Belos. He's seen looking on at the active contraption he's created with the portal door with a slightly wistful and worried expression on his face, gripping the portal key with its remaining titan's blood in it tightly in such a manner that conveys that he's placing all his hopes and efforts on this working, on his 'mission' finally being completed and him being able to 'go home'. The Collector teasing him about how he might end up a Stranger in a Familiar Land from all the time that's passed gets him to noticeably violently react, lashing out with his mutated gunk arm to shut up the Collector despite the pointlessness of it and how it clearly affects him negatively to do so, showing that the Collector's words really touched a sore spot for him. Despite his monstrous actions and ambitions, on some level, Philip is truly homesick and wants to return to a world free of witches and demons... but he's too blinded by his Fantastic Racism to do that until he's killed everybody in the demon realm first. On some level, Philip truly fears the outcome of his excursion into the demon realm, worried that once he returns he'll be left alone in a world that has long moved on from him... and the viewer is well aware that these fears are very justified, but Philip's iron-clad devotion to his mission means he won't even consider turning back from his Final Solution, despite the possibility of it being All for Nothing once he returns.
• The Collector suggests making a new Grimwalker so he and Belos can have a 'third player', but Belos blandly refuses, saying he'll only create another once Hunter has been dealt with. However, he refuses to even refer to Hunter by name, simply calling him "the current one", while the audience is well aware that dealing with Hunter means murdering him. This sheer disregard for the boy's existence as a person, compared with how much Hunter used to adore Belos, is horrifyingly sad.
• The plan for stopping the Day of Unity is to use Eda's curse to interfere with the Draining Spell — disguising her as Raine and having her take their place on the altar. However, this plan requires her to get a Coven Sigil herself. She seems okay with it, despite everything, but it's still heartbreaking that in order to save the world, she has to give up wild magic for good, even if her curse means that she can't currently use it anyway.
  • The look on Raine's face as they watch her get her brand is one of pure regret. They know it's what needs to happen, but that doesn't make it hurt any less.
• Despite having had more time to process and learn about his true nature, Hunter is still miles deep in an identity crisis after learning he's a Grimwalker, and he refuses to tell Gus and Willow anything about it. When Luz tries to coax him into talking, he claims that he's still not even sure what he is, witch or human. All he knows is that he's a Replacement Goldfish for someone Belos made "disappear."
  Luz: I don't know what you three went through, but they seem to like you!
  Hunter: So I shouldn't worry about how they'd react, right? If that's the case, have you told them about helping Philip?
  Luz: (stunned silence)
  Hunter: Yeah... I overheard everything. Don't tell them. Please.
• Amity has a breakdown after she's grounded and Odalia breaks the Tamagotchi she's been using to communicate with Luz. Mae Whitman’s acting just makes it worse.
  Amity: (tearing up) The world is ending... no one will listen to us... and I just... I just wanna know that Luz is safe!
• The fact that Alador calls a disguised King “Mr. Scout”, which is pretty generic. Coven Scouts throughout the series are often portrayed as mere mooks who are rarely treated as people, and no one places a name and face on any of them. It only highlights that they’re just expendable tools to be used and discarded.
• Amity looks like she's on the verge of tears once she sees Edric and Emira being taken away after failing to sabotage Kikimora's ship.
  • What's even worse is that this is the last time all three of the Blight siblings will see each other before the Day of Unity and before Amity gets stuck in the Human Realm with Luz and their friends for the next several months.
• Odalia reveals that she knows about the Day Of Unity and is willingly going along with it, leading to her own family disowning her. It's bad enough that she was an abusive mother to Amity, but Amity just can't handle the fact that her own mother is outright evil.
  • Even worse, she doesn't even care and only gets upset when Alador damages her precious Abomatons. Afterwards she disowns her own family in return.
• Kikimora seemingly manages to escape with Hunter captive, but then it turns out that “Hunter” is actually LUZ, who has Gus disguise them as each other, both to protect him and to allow Luz to warn the resistance that Belos knows about their plans.

Episode 21 - King's Tide

• Before Eda goes to take her place in the Draining Spell she and Raine have a quiet moment together. Eda as usual tries to brush off Raine's worries with some of her usual swagger but Raine tells her not to tell them not to worry while brushing their hand against the Bard Coven sigil Eda gave herself. The two then just have a quiet moment staring at each other with Eda looking truly vulnerable with Raine.
  • Which is then followed up by Lilith running up to Eda in tears, barely able to even get the words out to give her a signal in case anything happens. Eda then gives her big sister comfort by reciting a spell for her promising to return. The two then share a Headbutt of Love before Eda leaves.
  • Eda even shares a quick but sweet moment with Hooty, who is clearly worried about her, giving him a kiss on the head. It really goes to show that despite Hooty's oftentimes overbearing personality Eda really does care about him and considers him a part of her family.
• Before Eda leaves she turns around one last time and sees an image of her carefree childhood days surrounded by her friend group, which included Alador, Odalia, Darius and Perry Porter, before transitioning between the happy past images of Raine and Lilith to their worried present day selves. It really drives home that Eda genuinely doesn't think she's coming out of this one alive and wants to look at two of the people she loves the most one final time.
• You can't help but actually feel sorry for Kikimora after she tries to help Belos. His response? To find a hole and wither away. Apparently, that’s all Kikimora can do at that point. She's beyond tired and has practically given up.
• When Eda's glamour is removed, she's angry but isn't outwardly upset even though failing means the end of the world. What breaks her is seeing Raine being dragged to their post among the Coven Heads.
• The Collector manages to evoke a little sympathy, especially as it's outright implied he's just a child with more power than he really should have; he's genuinely distraught that Belos goes back on their deal, showing he never really considered the Collector a friend like he had presumed, and can only helplessly call Belos a liar as he's tossed away like a piece of garbage. When he's found by King, the Collector sounds unusually morose, complete with a bag under one eye just to hammer his sadness home. It's really no surprise he latches onto King; he's that desperate for a real friend, especially since the little Titan freed him under the offer of a game.
• Although Raine manages to save Eda by removing her Coven sigil arm to keep the interaction of the curse and Draining Spell from spreading, Eda losing her arm is still pretty sad, especially since Raine didn't expect to survive at that point, meaning that they would have forced Eda to watch them die. This is made even worse by the fact that the whole thing is accompanied by an especially tragic rendition of "Eda's Requiem".
  Raine: I promised a special kid... I'd protect you.
• When Luz is slowly being petrified, she pleads with Belos to let her friends live, while she acts as his guide for the human realm, later crying while being unsure if she will live. Thankfully, Belos shows her some mercy after she calls him by his original name Philip.
• After their short rematch, Belos uses his mutated arm to capture Luz: and instead of killing her, he makes the offer to send her back to the Human Realm. The way he tells her how he doesn't want "another human's life ruined" by being trapped in the Demon Realm and deludes himself into believing that Luz's mind has been "warped" by the residents of the Isles.
• Gus uses his illusion magic to force Belos to relive the worst memories of him attacking and killing his brother, causing Belos to scream in mental anguish, before trying to crush Gus. Considering how it worked as shown in "Labyrinth Runners", Gus himself may have seen some of the memories as well, potentially meaning he's aware of Hunter's existential crisis.
  • The fact that the memory actually got an emotional reaction from Belos, from sad eyes to holding his head in agony. He had been a textbook sociopath prior to this, showing little to no emotions whenever he kills someone directly or indirectly, so the fact he cannot stand reliving his brother's murder and reviving him as a Grimwalker is really telling of how messed up Belos' mentality is.
• Belos makes a last ditch ploy to manipulate Hunter, morphing his face back into his human one and asking in a scared, confused tone why Hunter is hurting him. Hunter, terrified, screams back at Belos that he's lying, but by the tone of his voice, it's obvious he has to convince himself of that fact as well.
  Belos: Hunter! Why are you hurting me? I only wanted to help you!
  Hunter: You're- you're lying!
  • The worst part is, looking at the fight as a whole, Hunter is the only one who isn't directly hurting Belos, instead using his Flash Step abilities to play a supporting role by moving the others out of danger and shielding them from debris, making this particular accusation of Belos's a particularly cruel lie whose only reason is to exploit Hunter.
• Despite everything, Hunter used to adore Belos, and spent his entire childhood working for him and trying to find a cure for his curse. Just a week ago, Hunter had his entire worldview flipped upside-down, but those feelings of love and care aren't easy ones to just shake off. And then the Collector splatters Belos against the wall right in front of him. The look on Hunter's face is one of complete and utter horror.
• Alador, in pain from the effects of the draining spell but still fighting his own Abominations as he can, makes Amity take his remote and run away, despite her pleas for him to come with her. He gives her a kiss before sending her away, clearly aware that this might be the last time he sees her. Now, she's Trapped in Another World, with his survival currently being unconfirmed. They had just made up and started mending their relationship...
• It's easy to overlook, but when Gus, Willow, Hunter, Amity, and King arrive at the area where the coven heads are, Hunter can be seen trying to wake up Darius. What makes it even sadder is that this is the first time we see them together properly onscreen since "Any Sport in a Storm".
• Hunter is not as heavily affected by the Draining Spell as the others are, likely due to his lack of innate magic, but that doesn't mean it's not hurting him. As the sigil's magic starts to spread, he slowly loses control of his arm which is left hanging limp by his side, and later on, he's seen sweating and clutching his arm in agony. It's very obvious he's trying to hide just how much pain he's in, to the point that the others don't really notice until he's left unable to stand. Chances are if the spell was completed, he would have died along with everyone else.
  • If one thinks about it, just the fact that he even has a sigil in the first place. It implies that either Belos didn't intend for him or any of the other Golden Guards to survive the Day of Unity, only wanting to keep them around until it happened, or that he was planning to take his current Guard with him to the Human Realm where he would likely be an outcast because of his pointy ears (which are more prominent than what Belos did to his own ears).
• To keep Luz from trying to track down Eda as the Collector begins to rearrange the head of the Titan, Amity has to beg Luz with tears in her eyes to come with her, Willow, Gus and Hunter in order to escape through the portal door. It's both an unintended reminder to Luz's Rash Promise to Camila and a clear sign that Amity can't handle the idea of losing her again.
  • Try to picture exactly what's going through Amity's head right at this moment: she understands why the girl she loves wants to go find her mentor/surrogate mother because she doesn't want to leave behind her own family. Last she saw, the twins had been captured by their former mother and taken away to be imprisoned in their home while she had to leave her father facing down several abomatons just to get to Luz. Amity's well aware of what they're leaving behind, but there's nothing they can do for them now; the best thing they can do is leave for now and find a way back when they stand a better chance of beating the Collector.
  • If viewers look closely, Willow and Gus are just as worried and hesitant to leave behind their best friend and the Boiling Isles. It is possible that, just like Luz, the last time they saw their families was before they helped her rescue Amity.
• Luz tries to make a Heroic Sacrifice, using her plant glyphs to keep the portal open so her friends can get through before it collapses, in part because she wants to find Eda. King then makes his own Heroic Sacrifice by telling Luz that he's proud to have had her as a big sister before shouting the others through the portal before it fails completely.
  • You also realize that the way home is open right in front of her but she is willing to let her friends through while she stays behind. The last time she saw Eda was before she left to rescue Amity. That context explained in this post shows just how much Eda is a second mom to her to the extent that trading her for Camila is out of the question.
  • Of particular note is the dialogue leading up to King's sacrifice, which includes a heartbreaking Call-Back to Luz and Eda's "us weirdos have to stick together" mantra—established back in the very first episode and reiterated in "Young Blood, Old Souls", when Luz and Eda were first separated. This time, however, Luz loses all of her found family members rather than just Eda, and there's no clear way of rescuing them or even getting back to them again.
    Luz: We've gotta stick together. We've gotta stick together!
    King: (voice wavering) ...I'm sorry... not this time. But I can keep you safe.
    Luz: (eyes widening in realization) No...
    King: Luz, I'm so happy I had you as a big sister.
    (King takes a deep breath, then roars, launching Luz and the others through the portal)
• The only people who have survived the Collector's takeover for certain are Luz, Amity, Willow, Gus and Hunter, all of whom are now trapped in the Human Realm with Luz and Hunter having no access to magic, while Amity, Gus and Willow still can, but there’s no way back. The survivors are also completely separated from their families (aside from Luz) and the people they know and love, who are all stuck in the Boiling Isles with an insane god who has absolutely no issues with killing people.
  • The aspect is overlooked, but Gus' crying brings to mind about how he, in particular, always wanted to go to the Human Realm, but he can't enjoy his dream coming true because it's just been fulfilled in the worst possible way. He hasn't gone there, he's fled there. Now, not only is there no way back home, there's no obvious sign that home even exists anymore. Keep in mind, while the others are all well into their teens, Gus is only twelve years old. Nothing exemplifies this fact more than his bursting into tears and collapsing to the ground at the realization that he can't go back, and huddling into Hunter's side while hugging himself when the group arrives at Camila's house.
  • Hunter himself isn't doing much better either. Poor kid is trying his best to be there for the others, and keeps a protective hand on Gus's shoulder when they arrive at Camila's house, but judging from his Thousand-Yard Stare, and the sheer amount of trauma he's endured, it's very obvious he's due for a horrible mental breakdown soon.
  • Remember how in the previous episode, Luz promised Amity a date in the Human Realm without any looming threat or danger? They can have that date, and there (probably) won't be any imminent danger, but much like Gus and his dream of going to the Human Realm, they didn't want it to happen like this.
  • One has to wonder what goes through Camila's head seeing this. Her daughter's back... but she has a scar through the eyebrow and there are four other kids with her. All of them look like they've been through hell and have a Thousand-Yard Stare, and Luz seems too exhausted and drained to say anything more than a teary "Hey, mom. I'm back." Her maternal instincts would be screaming that something horrible happened. At least Anne was able to hide what happened in "True Colors" for a while, meaning her parents got to process the Andrias thing separately from their hitherto missing daughter suddenly returning from another world with unexpected guests; thanks to the glaringly obvious effects of what Luz and the strange new friends she brought with her just went through, Camila won't get that luxury.
    • A smaller one, but Luz's greeting being to declare that she's back, rather than that she's home; she's back with her mother, but it seems that in less than a year she's come to see the Boiling Isles as her home moreso than Earth.
• At the end of it all, our Owl Family (Luz, Eda, Lilith, Hooty and King) are all separated from one another without any way of meeting up with each other. Luz is back in the human world with Amity, Willow, Gus, and Hunter; Eda is still with the Coven Heads knocked out and partially drained; Lilith and Hooty are still trapped and there's no telling whether the Draining Spell and the curse affected Lilith worse then they did Eda; and King (for all intents and purposes) is trapped with the Collector as was the deal.
• The story on Camila's tablet about Anne will hit hard on fans of Amphibia, who are still bummed about the series finale, which was only released two weeks before this episode.
  • Speaking of, why would Camila (a rather down-to-earth woman) be interested in a story about Anne Boonchuy? Because Camila's daughter is (well, was) also Trapped in Another World. Reading about a girl who survived and came back fine probably gives her comfort, and maybe she thinks there could be a way to bring back her daughter. Maybe she even wondered if her daughter came back first.
  • This also adds context to Luz's actions in "Young Blood, Old Souls"... specifically, why she was willing to destroy the portal and trap herself in the Boiling Isles. Judging by the August 2022 calendar in "Reaching Out", the Human Realm went through an interdimensional war just two years ago. Luz, well aware that Belos is a snake and with no way of knowing that he legitimately had no intention of leading an invasion of the Human Realm, had to choose between possibly causing a repeat of the Frog-vasion—one that Gravesfield and, in particular, Camila would be right in the middle of—or letting her mentor die, which is a horrible choice to give a child, and it's no wonder she chose to do what she did—she would rather have been stuck in the Demon Realm than put the Human Realm through a repeat of that.
• After the episode, Dana posted a piece of artwork depicting Luz's inner circle after the episode. They are all exhausted, even Vee looks tired after bandaging the group up. They all fall asleep except for Luz and Hunter, who look like they haven't slept a wink. The name of the artwork says it all: "What Now?"
  • It's also been noted that while Hunter is wide-awake and fiercely angry, he's hugging Gus and Willow. Luz? She's not even acknowledging her girlfriend cuddling up to her. How badly is she blaming herself that she can't even hug Amity back?

Season 3

Episode 1 - Thanks To Them

• When Luz is getting some band-aids for the Hexsquad's injuries, the box has decorations that look like Eda, King and Hooty, a reminder of what she's lost.
• After arriving in the human realm, Luz and Hunter have a talk about their respective secrets — Luz about the fact that she helped Philip meet the Collector, and Hunter about the fact that he's a clone of a witch hunter who worked with Belos. Both of them are clearly still heavily affected by them, but are too scared to talk about them, because both of them are convinced that their friends would hate them if they ever were to find out the truth.
  • As for Hunter's identity crisis — during the montage of the Hexsquad in the human realm, Hunter — who has grown his hair out in the meantime — looks in the bathroom mirror to see flashes of Caleb and Belos staring back at him. This scares him so badly that he physically leaps backwards, and when Willow walks in to check on him, she catches him wildly chopping off chunks of his own hair.
    • Caleb's reflection also looks very different from the way he looked in Belos's mind. In Belos's memories, Caleb is almost always smiling, and looks healthy and full of life. The Caleb Hunter sees in the mirror has a Thousand-Yard Stare, eyebags that rival Hunter's in size, and shows signs of starvation, with sunken cheeks and protruding collarbones. Whether this is an accurate reflection of the real Caleb isn't clear, but if it is, Belos's childhood nostalgia has clearly blinded him to his brother's suffering.
• As the Time-Passes Montage ends with the attempts to make a portal having gone nowhere, Luz looks as if she's lost all hope of returning to the Demon Realm, distinctly looking at her still-unhatched Palisman egg and tearing out a sketch she made of Eda, King and the light glyph from her notebook. The fact that she's been Brought Down to Normal due to no longer being able to use the type of magic she worked so hard to learn and develop is crystal clear.
  • The sheer guilt that Luz feels about not only dragging her friends to the human world but also helping Philip find the Collector has been weighing down Luz to a near-breaking point the entire episode. Especially her rant in class, which was a thinly-veiled rant about how much she hates and blames herself where she outright screams everything would be better off if the hero (her) didn't exist. Really goes to show how low her self-worth has gotten.
  • To make matters worse, if one recalls all of the past events before "Hollow Mind", it makes Luz's ordeal even worse. It's possible that she's not just blaming herself for "helping" Philip find The Collector, she's also blaming herself for all the other times she's put her friends in danger and in trouble. Like the time she pushed Willow and Gus too hard back in "Wing It Like Witches", the time she got Eda captured in "Agony Of A Witch", and the moment she got Amity in trouble with her dad in "Reaching Out".
  • Then, all of this guilt is made even worse when Luz believed that her going to the Boiling Isles has caused her mother grief. It's no wonder the poor girl thinks people would be better off without her.
  • To make matters worse, when Luz sees the Art class room, she also sees an art teacher glaring at her. Apparently the teacher is still upset at Luz for all the incidents at school. To the Luz, the teacher and possibly the entire school faculty are just other lives she has ruined.
• As Luz meets two new kids in school, Luz mentions she knew a crusty old woman. She’s clearly talking about Eda and just wonders if she survived.
• A subtle but lingering indicator of Luz's mental state when she's back home is her Dull Eyes of Unhappiness. Even in moments where Luz perks up, there's a constant weight of sadness that looms over her whenever we see her. To see the girl we've known as a bright ball of energy pulled into this kind of depressive haze is gut-wrenching.
• Once upon a time Luz would be beyond overjoyed by the idea of doing couples cosplay of Azura with her girlfriend, but now she is depressed the whole time. Even when she initially perks up, it's over once she overhears a scene from the Azura movie playing in the background, where Azura confronts her Evil Former Friend, Lucy (who even looks like her, for Heaven's sake). Luz's sad reaction shows her guilt has gotten so bad she no longer sees herself as her hero but as the treacherous villain.
• During a conversation with Gus, we get a better idea of what Hunter's childhood was like. Apparently, he spent most of it training and studying, he wasn't allowed to be around any of the other scouts (meaning Belos was likely his only company), and he was only allowed to leave the castle for missions, which he would only be given during weekends. Hunter grew up completely alone, locked up in a castle with only his abuser for company, being fed constant lies to keep him obedient. No wonder he flourished so much in the human realm — this was likely the first time he got the freedom to do whatever he wanted with people who actually cared about him and his wellbeing.
  • In the same conversation, we see pretty clearly that Gus's outward enthusiasm and cheerfulness at being in the human realm is at least partially a front to distract himself from how much he misses his dad.
    Gus: It's good to see you happy. (smile dims) One of us might as well be.
  • Doubles as Heartwarming — Hunter is so un-used to love that when Luz tells him he's family now, he immediately starts to cry.
• In one scene, Luz is sitting at her mother's vet clinic watching over her Palisman egg and drawing different things it could become when it hatches. For a moment, it seems as though she's a step closer to her optimistic, bright eyed self from the beginning of the series. And then her monologue slowly shifts into a defeated, guilty rant against herself and her effect on others, ending with her wistfully looking at her drawings of Eda and King. For any viewer who's dealt with depression, this is a very common presentation wherein a person becomes mired in their own negativity, to the point of putting themselves down out loud without realizing it. When Camila walks in, Luz briefly panics but quickly brushes it off, implying that this isn't the first time she's had these sort of moments and she's becoming used to hiding it from her friends and family.
  Luz: Hmmm, what will you be, little palisman? A bird, like Owlbert? A cool bug? Maybe an octopus so we can hold hands? Maybe...Maybe, you'll never hatch. And I messed up your life too.
• Camila's nightmare is heart-wrenching, from Luz not being able to make friends to being blamed for her misbehavior. We see that no matter what, Camila is still proud of her daughter... which makes it all the more heartwrenching seeing others judging her for it. A shadowy figure pinpoints Luz's behavior on Manny's death. It's also implied that Camila had a difficult childhood herself and her decision to send Luz to camp was to avoid history repeating in every way. That backfired horribly, as was later revealed.
• When they run out of other leads to figure out the scroll, Vee is forced to suggest that they go back to the Gravesfield Historical Society despite her obvious trauma from Jacob nearly killing her there.
• Camila having buried being this world's equivalent of a Trekkie takes a much sadder note, once you notice one of the boxes in the closet is marked "Manny's Cosplay", indicating he was into it too. Combining it with the fact that we know she's been bullied as a child for her nerdy interests, it is possible that she has hidden this side of herself once he wasn't there to encourage her to not be ashamed of what she loves anymore and/or that she had to put it away because with his death her hobby became a source of too many painful memories.
• Luz's video diary. It turns out she's such an Azura fanatic partially because Manny gave her the first book shortly before his death.
  • The first clip is her optimism that the hospital by their new house is working better for Manny's health. Then the next clip is her with dark circles under her eyes and saying in a low, somber voice that she just went through the worst week of her life after he passed away.
  • Luz worked her hardest for her book report from episode 1 all in the hopes of proving to Camila that she could take her work seriously, and she was motivated to do it because she felt Camila was struggling to deal with Manny's passing. It really casts a dark overtone on the first episode; that silly book report gag that kicked off the whole plot was actually Luz's desperate attempt to reach out to her mom and help her process their shared grief over her father's death.
  • The last entry in her video diary has her confessing her decision to tell the others that she'll be staying in the Human Realm for good after the Halloween hayride... and she has tears in her eyes. She clearly doesn't want to leave the only friends she's ever made behind, but due to her promise to her mother, she feels that she has no choice... and even without that, given her misplaced sense of responsibility for everything that happened, it's likely she feels that it's for the best because she's a danger to them.
• The story told by Masha of the Brothers Wittebane is a sad tale thanks to the Dramatic Irony. As it turns out, Philip and Caleb were orphans and had to adapt to societal expectations in order to be accepted. The problem was that the societal expectation was witch hunting, which was referred to as an unsavory practice by Masha. When the witch Evelyn came into the brothers' lives, Caleb immediately jumped to the witch's offer with Flapjack... but not with Philip. Philip came later trying to save Caleb from what he perceived to be an evil witch, and the two vanished from human history. While the official tale ends with either a happy ending of the two brothers reuniting and living the rest of their days together, or Philip still chasing his brother to this day, both the Hexsquad and the audience know that the real ending is far worse.
  • It lends another layer of tragic sadness to Caleb's life, that he not only loved Philip, but did his best to raise him in the absence of their parents, only for his brother to get poisoned by the beliefs and practices of their time into seeing Witch Hunters as a good thing, and delusionally believed Caleb himself thought the same. When the truth inevitably came out upon their reunion in the Demon realm, Philip snapped and repaid everything Caleb did for him with murder, thereafter going on to try and distort the very being Caleb used to be into one which fit his 'ideal' vision of his brother, unable to accept he could ever be wrong, and doing whatever he could to erase Caleb's true nature.
• Belos possessing Hunter, while mostly Nightmare Fuel, is also heart-wrenching too. He is not only hurting Hunter by taking over his body, but by forcing him to fight his own friends.
  • Luz’s role in this confrontation is chock-full of this. While Luz tries to attack Belos, she tries to avoid hurting Hunter and Belos mocks her for this. But perhaps the moment that actually broke her at this time was when Belos reminds her of him accidentally helping him.
  • And when does he remind her? When he sees the rest of the Hexsquad and Camila coming to her aid. Meaning that he wanted to turn them against her.
  • Sarah-Nicole Robles did an amazing job voicing Luz’s guilt at this moment. Not just about the guilt over helping Belos, but also the guilt of putting everyone in danger.
  Luz: I didn’t mean to. I thought I was doing something good!
  • When Belos gravely injures Flapjack, Luz and her friends are shocked and heartbroken at the sight of one of their loved ones getting badly hurt.
  • To add salt to the wound, throughout the whole confrontation, Belos is smiling at the pain he is causing on what is possibly the fifth worst night of Luz Noceda’s life (First, being the night of her father’s death. Second, being Eda’s capture in "Agony of a Witch". Third, being the night when she realized she helped Belos. And the fourth being the moment when she is separated from King and Eda during the Collector’s reign).
• Flapjack's death scene is exceptionally tragic and cruel. Flapjack was Hunter's first real friend, and the first real positive thing he had in his life before he started to bond with the Hexside students: he was with him every step of the way through his journey to independence. Hunter spent most of Season 2 trying to keep Flapjack away from Belos to protect him from harm, only for his abusive "uncle" to mortally wound the palisman anyway when Flapjack tries to save him. And to make things even worse, Belos forces Hunter to deliver the fatal blow to the bird himself, with his own hands, when he's possessing his body. After Flapjack sacrifices his remaining life force to heal the wounds Belos inflicted on him, the poor boy is absolutely shattered with grief.
  Hunter: Hey guys... is everyone else okay?
  Gus: Actually... Flapjack-
  Hunter: Don't- Don't... (starts to cry) I already know...
  • "Time to go home, Flap."
  • When Belos maims Flapjack, he angrily declares "goodbye, Evelyn". He only did it to posthumously get back at the woman he blames — unfairly — for his brother's death. Shortly after, Belos visibly cringes when Luz correctly accuses him of stabbing Caleb/Hunter in the back first; it's pretty sad to realize just how pathetic and deep in denial Belos really is, desperately shoving down all the obvious guilt he feels over killing Caleb and projecting the blame on the entire Demon Realm just to cope with the knowledge he betrayed the only person he ever loved. It also adds a whole new layer to Belos constantly creating Grimwalkers based on Caleb like Hunter; he does it in the vain, desperate hope that he can make a version of his brother that isn't "brainwashed" and won't "betray" him, one that will act as Philip did back before they met Evelyn.
  • Hunter's Important Haircut is tragically undone whilst he's under Belos' Demonic Possession, his hair growing out back into the state it was in when he first arrived on Earth, making him resemble Caleb once more after he took such pains to distance himself from the identity of his progenitor. This is almost certainly due to Belos' will, intentionally molding Hunter into the image of Caleb down to even the smallest detail. Whilst ultimately a small thing compared to the emotional and physical damage he left on the boy, it underlines how utterly Belos refuses to see Hunter as anything other than another version of his brother, or allow him to become something other than he wants.
• It's fairly likely that Luz is still set on leaving the Demon Realm, and all of her friends, for good once everyone is saved. While her mother interrupted her attempted confession and is willing to join her in saving the Boiling Isles, and Amity and Hunter's reassurances imply that they both understood where Luz was going before Camila cut her off, none of the others are made aware of Luz's intentions (and nobody who does know- again, Camila at the very least- actually talks her out of her decision upfront). For all we know, the only reason Luz is even acting against her initial decision is because of Camila's insistence that it's their responsibility to help her friends, which she would likely interpret as being her responsibility, given how she misinterpreted her mother's advice to "learn from her mistakes"; once she fixes "her mistake", then she'll leave the Demon Realm forever, so that she doesn't keep ruining her loved one's lives with more mistakes. Unless Luz is convinced otherwise in the meantime, Camila may just be stalling the inevitable.

Episode 2 - For The Future

• After sending Luz and Co. off into the human realm, King is clearly heartbroken at the fact that this might have been the last time he spoke to Luz.
  King: (in tears) Goodbye...
• The Owl House itself is a hollow shell of what it used to be. None of the furniture has been returned since it was raided, several windows are smashed in, and the exterior is covered with insulting graffiti. It's a very far cry from the home we've spent two seasons getting to know.
  • When the Hexsquad visit Bonesborough and Hexside for the first time in months, the two out of three places we've all come to know and love aren't looking so hot either. Both places are covered in graffiti and broken down, similar to the Owl House. While Bonesborough is mostly abandoned (until the Collector and King go there to play the former's "games") due to the Collector turning a majority of the citizens into puppets, Hexside has become a temporary home for the students. However, the school is reduced to chaos as everyone struggles to stay alive and hidden from the Collector and are very unhappy with their current situation. In the market/cafeteria, they were even seen eating moldy food, as it was almost impossible to go out without being spotted by the Collector's spies.
• Despite the pep-talk from Amity in "Thanks to Them", Luz still intends on ultimately leaving the Demon Realm for good. Her self-loathing runs so deep that even though she now knows her friends don't blame her for what happened, she's still blaming herself.
  • The lead-up to this deserves mentioning, too. When Camila finds herself stepping into the Boiling Isles for the first time, she tries to offer Luz some legitimate compliments regarding the Demon Realm, even sincerely bringing up how inspirational the place would be for Luz's taxidermy, but Luz cynically brushes it off as her trying to be polite and, completely forthright, tells her that her mind hasn't changed and that she still plans on permanently leaving the Demon Realm once Eda and King are safe (in the process implying that she knew what her mother was trying to do when she interrupted her the first time). Camila's heartbroken expression afterwards really says it all; she's finally showing her daughter the support and acceptance that she's always needed, but Luz is so bereft of her former idealism and self-esteem that it no longer matters (at least, at first; she does gets better).
• The Collector is apparently the Last of His Kind just like King is, and while the other Collectors were apparently Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist-types that were willing to Final Solution worlds if the mortals fought back against being "preserved", it's still sad that they're all alone. King even notes how he and the Collector are a lot alike.
  • Speaking of, the Collector appears to have reservations about their predecessors. They scribbled out the entry detailing how their kind destroys mortals when they fight back. And when they spy on King, Eda, and Lilith talking about Titans cancelling Collector magic, sadness fills their eyes when the conversation turns to how the Collectors destroyed the Titans.
  • When King leaves to go visit Eda and Lilith, the Collector pleads with him to let him sleep with Francois because he Hates Being Alone, driving home how miserable the literal Child was trapped alone in an unbreachable prison with only one link to the outside world and companionship. It makes Philip intentionally casting the disk into the darkest reaches of the Titan's skull even crueler than it already was, because he knew that the Collector would hate that fate more than anything. While King still refuses to let him hold him, he agrees on putting him on the nightstand like he was watching over the Collector, just because of how sad the boy looks when he says he doesn't want to be alone.
• When Camila goes to Willow and Gus to ask for some advice on how to stop Luz from making a bad decision that will make a bad impact on her well-being (ie. stay in the human realm permanently), Willow and Gus recall the times they screwed up on their school assignments which sounds amusing at first, until Gus mentions his father, causing him to tear up and worry about his whereabouts.
  Gus: Oh, man. I hope he's okay.
• Hunter spends most of the episode in a cynical and unhappy mood (somewhat similar to Luz in the previous episode) and is eager to get to Belos asap. It's implied that he's putting on a facade to keep his mind off of Belos maiming Flapjack, and is grieving him still despite not showing it. But there are a few things in the Boiling Isles that remind him of his palisman, such as the red grass and there's even a random bird that looks similar to him!
  • At some point, he hears a twig snapping in the distance and instinctively tries to summon his staff, only to forget that he can no longer do that and groans in frustration at this realization.
  • When Willow gives him a photo of him and Flapjack from a previous Flyer Derby game, he can only look at the photo with a melancholic expression, which makes Willow think that she just made things worse for him. This leads to him, Willow, and Gus getting captured by Kikimora and this was before Hunter even got the chance for him to straighten things up. And when they end up in the Detention pit, Hunter laments about his current situation and wishes that his palisman was here to help.
    Hunter: (sitting in a Troubled Fetal Position) Oh, Flapjack... everyone's on edge and I don't know what to say. I wish you were here.
• Willow sees one of her dads as puppets of the Collector, and while she tries to put on a brave face, her repressed emotions eventually burst out to the point that she loses control of her Green Thumb magic and traps herself, Gus, and Hunter in vines.
  Willow: I can't control my own magic. I can't help my friends. Ugh, why have I been trying to be someone different? Boscha's right, I'll always just be... half-a-witch Willow.
  (Hunter glows yellow, bursts through the vines, and brings Willow out.)
  Hunter: (teary) You didn't make anything worse, you didn't do anything wrong, you guys mean the world to me, and I... I didn't know how to say that yet. Just please don't call yourself that ever again. You've been holding in a lot, haven't you?
  (Willow stares at Hunter with a surprised expression, then starts to cry.)
  Gus: Willow! Reliable people need someone to rely on too! Just let it out, we'll be fine!
  Willow: (begins sobbing) I miss my dads!
• When they find the memory picture of the teleportation glyph, the group marvels at how crystal clear it is. Back in "Understanding Willow", the photography teacher mentions that clearer pictures are of memories that evoke a strong emotional response, indicating that Luz is still feeling immense guilt over helping Philip.
  • It's quick, but Camila looks sad when she sees Luz's memory of Grom night—the one where Luz's hallucination of Camila appears. Likely, one of the kids explained the concept of Grom to Camila... meaning she thinks her own daughter's worst fear is her. If her speech about not wanting to push Luz away is any indication, this memory must hit a bad emotional chord in Camila.
• Despite being a horrifying, despicable villain still determined to see the end of the Boiling Isles, one can't help but feel pity for Belos as his body begins to decay and he starts hallucinating Caleb, and later the Grimwalkers, standing before him.
  • Unlike the countless folks he has confidently manipulated to his advantage, Belos comes across as deeply insecure when talking to Caleb, desperately justifying his actions when he sees the dagger hanging over Caleb's head and blaming Caleb for his predicament. He attacks the specter in blind rage, but it remains untouched while Belos begins convulsing in pain as his hand falls off. He collapses to his knees, head looking down as if he's begging for Caleb's forgiveness.
  • Caleb in Belos' memory portraits is depicted as always happy and loving to Philip, even when Philip has been cursed and is full of rage at Caleb's apparent betrayal. Here, Caleb looks foreboding and unforgiving toward Belos, with his sunken eyes and thin cheekbones emphasizing his dead look. The dagger floating above him doesn't help in manner. Whether it be his actual ghost or a hallucination, it's enough for Belos to think his brother is mocking him.
  • As Belos makes his way to the secret Grimwalker lab, he finds himself crawling through the piles of Grimwalker corpses he had thrown off the chasm, where all the 'failures' lie. As Belos catches his breath, he sees the ghosts of Caleb and the Grimwalkers all silently looking at him. Belos could only muster a weak shut up as he crawls forward, too tired to even justify his sins.
• Despite being paired with the reconciliation of Luz and her mother, Luz's underlying goal, to be understood, casts a retroactive tearjerker across the entire series. All her life she's been trying her best, but she can still detect, on some level, that the people in her life cannot understand her.
• By the end of the episode, Luz is still separated from Eda, King, Hooty, and Lilith. And while it also ends with things mostly and finally seeming to look up for her otherwise, it still remains uncertain as to what Luz's near future holds, with Belos still at large and having already re-obtained the means to act against her and the Hexsquad, and the Collector all but stated to now be coming for them.
• Boscha spends most of the episode as an antagonist and typical jerk, but she also gets more sympathetic the more you watch her. She's lost not only her friends to the Collector, but Amity has made it clear she's completely cut ties with her. Moreover, one of the credits stills shows that her disastrous first fight against the Collector's spies has left a mark on her as she's shown hiding in tears from another one in the credits as the others try to fight it, with Kikimora taking the opportunity to whisper in her ear. Despite her antagonism, Boscha is still just a teenage girl who lost a lot and fell victim to Kikimora's manipulation.
  • When the Hexsquad arrives in Bonesborough Town Square, a piece of graffiti can be seen on a wall in Boscha's signature color asking "Amelia! Cat! Where r u?" with three crying eyes, implying that Boscha at one point went out to look for her friends but couldn't find them.
  • In the flashback to when the Collector's spies attacked Hexside, after the spies take out Amelia and Cat, Boscha can be seen clinging onto one of the students taking her back to the school for comfort with a look of shock and fear on her face.
  • When Boscha begs Amity to come back so things can go back to the way they were before with Boscha as her Beta Bitch it is a reminder that she is a teenager. She isn't ruling an entire school with an iron fist out of greed but fear of being defenseless and alone. She is not happy with the way things are even if technically speaking she is in charge, she just wants to live and do normal teenager stuff.
  • Throughout the episode, it's clear that, unlike the Hexsquad or even some of the other students like Matt or Jerbo, Boscha hasn't grown at all. She's stayed the same petty, smug Alpha Bitch she was when she first appeared all the way back in season 1, making her seem rather pitiable in the fact that she was pretty much left behind by everyone else.

Episode 3 - Watching and Dreaming

• The episode starts with Eda, Luz and King trapped in their worst nightmares. Eda is stuck in a reality where she maimed her dad again rendering him blind and is seen as a wild beast by her mother and sister, King is shown the collection of skulls of his siblings in the lair of the Titan Trappers, with a nightmarish version of Bill preparing to sacrifice him too, and Luz is placed in the role of Belos in a reality where he won, and her friends each take turns reflecting her worst fears back at her. Amity tells her that she's just as bad as Belos, Willow blames her for the loss of her home, Gus calls her a hypocrite and tells her she's the reason he'll never see his father again, and Hunter breaks down as he tearfully asks why she gets to have a Palisman when he lost Flapjack trying to protect her.
  • It's subtle, but the only reason Luz was able to figure out she was dreaming was Amity misused "witch's battle" instead of "witch's duel" (and it's implied she did that on purpose). However, prior to that, Luz didn't have any issue with the "accusations" leveled against her by her "friends". Meaning that despite all the reassurances, Luz still feels like the villain for supposedly hurting her friends in some way.
  • From the outside it doesn't look much better. When Luz comes out of her trance, she finds King and Eda surrounded by puppets, King by those of Bill and Tarak, Eda by those of Lilith and her parents. Both of them are stuck deep in their respective nightmare worlds, with King whimpering and crying out in fear, and Eda frantically mumbling "I didn't mean it" over and over again.
  • In her nightmare, Luz is facing what she has been fearing since "Thanks To Them": her friends, including her beloved girlfriend, hating her guts for everything that has happened in her time in the Boiling Isles!
    • Hunter being added to the nightmare is even more gut-wrenching once viewers see his part. He was the first one to comfort Luz with her guilt after "Hollow Mind". Now, she feels like he blames her just as much since Flapjack's death.
• The Collector is shown in a more sympathetic manner as he's alone whilst Luz, Eda and King have fun even in the midst of his games. He explains that his siblings, the Archivists, told him to play with the Titans (implicitly to get rid of him), revealing that he did genuinely like the Titans and was well liked amongst the infant Titans, only to be sealed in the In-between Realm by King's father thanks to the threat of his power. He's shown as what he really is: a lonely kid who never had a chance to make genuine friendships or companionship with anybody.
  The Collector: I just wanted a friend who wouldn't lie to me, or trick me. But everyone's the same. King lied. Belos lied. Even they lied.
  Luz: Who's "they"?
  The Collector: The Archivists, my siblings. "Oh, let's play a game", they said. "Let's play Hide-And-Seek. You go down there and see if the Titans wanna play"! And so I played, and it was great! The baby Titans were the cutest, just like King, and they were all so welcoming! But the Archivists were scared of their power, so one by one, they disappeared, until there was one Titan left. And he thought I was the bad guy! He hid his egg from me and trapped me! But I showed all of them! Even when those trapper jerks started acting weird, even when Belos lied to me! I found King! I found the last Titan, and he's my friend now!
  King: (sympathetic) Collector...
  The Collector: I know it's just pretend; I don't care! I'll pretend as long as I want!
  • What's worse is that the baby titans all "disappear" because the Archivists were scared of their power. The only time the Collector's siblings paid him any attention was to brutally rob him of his new friends.
  • The Titan himself admits to Luz in the Void Between Realms he isn't proud of his actions back then. One has to wonder what sort of regret a being like that felt upon realizing his mistake, as hinted by the following line:
    The Titan: I was willing to do anything to protect my child, but... I attacked the wrong person, dragged the Collector down here for nothing.
  • Listen to The Collector as he admits that his friendship with King is just pretend: the poor kid sounds like he's going to burst into tears at any moment.
• During Raine's trek through the castle, they pass several bits of graffiti scrawled onto the walls. However, while the graffiti painted onto the Owl House was largely funny, the phrases painted on the walls here are heartbreaking, the witches of the Isles vandalized the castle writing out their pain and grief and betrayal, directed at the man they once trusted and worshiped.
  LIAR
  I'm Done
  I GAVE UP MY PALISMAN FOR YOU
• When Belos tries to attack The Collector with his possessed Titan powers, Luz protects The Collector but in doing so, is grazed and infected by Belos, which consumes her. This causes her to disappear into light like Flapjack, apologizing to Eda and King for being separated from them again as her light begins to fly away. Though she does fully recover after being gifted the Titan's power, at that moment Luz was dead. To nail the point home, The Collector, a godlike being, can't "fix" her.
  • To make it worse, Luz, upon seeing the fungus on her hand, is first caught off guard in a state of shock, and as it spreads, a look of horror and terror manifests itself on her face as she realizes she's going to die. A handful of mild yelps come from her, either from fear and terror or in pain. Though she manages to put on a smile before dying, its pretty clear she was afraid to die, and still can't withstand the emotional weight of being cut off from Eda and King, even after having endured it twice. And all Eda, King, and The Collector can do is watch as she perishes.
  • The orbs of light are shown passing by notable locations, including the Knee, Hexside, and the Archives. Considering that those three locations hold significant meaning (the first being where she learned the ice spell and became one with the elements, the second being where she studied magic and met her best friends, and the third being where all of said friends and loved ones are currently being held along with the other citizens), it's almost as if Luz is giving one final goodbye the only way she can.
  • When the orbs of light pass by the Archives, we can see Camila, still in puppet form, shedding tears. She knows she's lost her daughter.
  • Earlier in the episode it was established that the Collector doesn't understand how death works, thinking he can just fix anything if it breaks, like repairing a toy. This childlike naivete is quickly shattered when they're forced to confront the fact that this isn't fixable even with his supposed omnipotent power, and Luz is gone for good. First they turn around and worriedly ask Eda where Luz went, genuinely confused. Then they try telling her she can come out now, thinking she was simply hiding. Then they try to fix her, and panic when it doesn't work, reasoning that the Archivists aren't here and couldn't have taken her, so she should be fixable. Finally, they turn to Eda and ask again where Luz went... only for both Eda and King to go absolutely berserk and start attacking Belos. It's not until he trips and accidentally lets go of the last ball of light he was still holding in his hand that he realizes Luz is actually gone.
  • As awesome as it is to see both King and Eda go feral and pounce on Belos with everything they have, their Berserker Tears make it clear they're only doing this out of the overwhelming grief of seeing Luz die in front of them.
    • Imagine the sheer pain the two are going through right now; they had just been reunited with Luz after months of separation, only for them to lose her again.
  • And before all that, the Collector tried to "defeat" Belos by following the Owl House trio's example and showing Belos "kindness and forgiveness". Unfortunately, Belos used the opportunity to attack when his enemies' defenses were lowered and the Collector got to learn firsthand that while "kindness and forgiveness" is amazing and powerful, not everyone wants, needs, or deserves it. That’s twice the Collector has severely misjudged Belos.
• We get a sharp reminder of just how young the Collector is (by his own species’ standards) when they finally seem to realize the amount of danger they and their new friends are in. They beg Eda and King to run away, and when they see that their powers have stopped working and Belos's Meat Moss is climbing up their arms, they start to cry and panic in a way only an extremely stressed seven year-old can.
  The Collector: I don't want anyone else to go away! I don't want anyone else to go missing! (starts to cry) I'm sorry for everything! (looks down at his tears in his hands) What is this stuff...? Wh- why won't it stop?
• By the time Luz, King and Eda find Raine, they are almost entirely buried under Belos's Meat Moss, stuck against a wall, trying to keep their circulation going while weakly whistling "Eda's Requiem" to themself. When Eda drops down from the roof and runs towards them, Raine looks up, but they lost their glasses in the scuffle, leaving them practically blind and unable to recognize her. Thinking she's an enemy, all they can do is cry out helplessly and yell at her to stay away while desperately trying to pull free. Becomes heartwarming when Eda gently puts their glasses back onto their face before pulling them free.
• Belos' defeat is sad in a different way. Even after all the centuries of misery and pain he's spread, even after all the truly monstrous things he's done and multiple genocides he's attempted, seeing him reduced to a literal pile of mush and still having the gall to beg, no, demand, with absolutely no self-reflection, that Luz spare him purely because they're both human, is a truly pitiable sight. But in truth, he gave up his own humanity for it all. Even Luz, as much as she wanted to see the Collector splat Belos again, can't bare to look at him as he withers away. Eda, King and Raine, however, have no such problems.
  • Whether you believe that it was the last of the Titans will and spirit within her or Luz herself who summoned the rain, the fact that Luz HAD to let him die is probably the only thing she regrets about Belos in general. This is a girl who has spent a good portion of her life trying to understand everything and everyone she can and accept them, weird quirks, problems, species and all, and she just could not get through to this deluded lunatic. Belos may be wrong about being human now, but he was once, and Luz knows that. Much like Caleb before, she simply wasn't able to convince the Witch Hunter that he was in the wrong and what he was doing do himself in the process of fulfilling his "noble" goals. When she looks away when Belos goes from lying and appealing to her good nature to just demanding she help him lest she be an "evil" being like the witches he despises, showing no remorse or regret for his actions during what he should realize is his last chance to repent, it's clearly one of pity and regret. Ironically enough, for all his talk about saving the souls of humanity from evil, it was Philip who needed saving more than anyone. And he refused it to the point where not even Luz could help him change. She probably won't be shedding tears or anything, but that regret is probably going to linger in her mind a bit.
  • Despite setting up the past two episodes to explore Philip's backstory or the lore of Caleb and Evelyn, there is no mention of Caleb or Evelyn or even Belos' old name in this final episode. Not even from the Titan himself. At the end of his life, Belos, still refusing to open up or reflect on his actions, is completely alone, isolated from his own story and desperately clinging onto Luz as the only person that could give him some familiarity. He damned his and his brother's tragic tale to be lost to time, and he has only himself to blame.
• Luz's ascension is a somber moment itself. As Luz absorbs the last of the energy that the Titan offered, and knowing that his purpose is fulfilled, he begins to perish. With his passing, it marks the end of the Titan before the children of the Isles. All Luz can do is solemnly bow her head as she witnesses his passing without so much as a word, with the knowledge that the creator of the Isles and their denizens has passed on.
• When the Titan's spirit passes on, he takes glyph magic with him. Luckily, Luz and Stringbean are able to figure out a workaround, and King's powers reach the point of being able to generate his own glyphs by the Distant Finale.
  • As the Titan's spirit leaves Luz's body after the battle, King finally gets to meet his dad for the first—and very last—time.
• After Belos is defeated, the Collector leaves for space again, with King giving him Francois. Thankfully, the epilogue shows that he stops by again at least sometimes.
• Odalia not joining in the family reunion hug with Alador and her children. She gets no sympathy because of her earlier heinous actions, but it's still heart wrenching that she's not even relieved to see her kids be unharmed. She never actually cared about them and brought it on herself.
• This is also considered as a bittersweet heartwarming when Luz is mentioned to have spent much of her time, including her birthdays, helping to repair the Isles, so her friends all do their best to make her eighteenth birthday an awesome one in thanks.

Other

• Crossovers with Amphibia:
  • In the first crossover, Luz and Anne's joy over meeting another human Trapped in Another World and hopes of hanging out together are cut short as the portal back to the Boiling Isles begins to waver, forcing Luz and Eda to leave before they got stranded there themselves.
  • The crossover episode of Chibi Tiny Tales "The Amphibia House" ends with Anne and the Plantars being swallowed by a giant monster and the Calamity Box activating in its stomach, sending them back to Amphibia. While Anne breaking into tears over losing her friend is sad enough already, one has to assume that Luz thought said friend was eaten.

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