Chapter 52: No Dancing Around
Art by Crash X Fusion: Where there is anger, there is always pain underneath.
Gus' anger reaches a boiling point; Luz and Lilith follow a lead while Amity contemplates a potential future as a wild witch.
Tropes that appear in this Chapter:
- Adaptation Expansion: The trials Malphas had Luz undergo are shown, such as the man-eating books and the paper dragon.
- Adults Are Useless: Rather that do anything about their students hurting each other, the principal of Glandus High encourages their behavior.
- Amazon Chaser: Mattholomule is left amazed by Luz's cambion strength after seeing her fell a tree just by punching it.
- And This Is for...: After Amity learns it was Bria who mugged Levi, she breaks Bria's nose over her knee in his name.
- Anger Born of Worry: With a bit more thought on the matter Gus' anger towards Amity actually stems from his anger towards Jenny, as he's afraid the former Blight is using a love potion to keep Luz under her influence.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Even though Amity's nameless now, Edric and Emira make it clear they still consider her their baby sister. They also ask that she see them and Geist whenever she wants.
- The Beastmaster: Amity manages to calm a rampaging Slitherbeast down, somehow able to sense how scared it was.
- Berserk Button: Bria presses Luz's "Amity" button by calling her a "Blight skank". In "full circle" fashion, Amity pushes Bria's buttons by calling her a coward.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Boscha restrains the pixies going after Willow by using a type of goo to stick them to the lockers.
- Mattholomule takes a stand against his bullies by freeing Luz's captive friends, then attacking Bria to save Luz.
- Big "WHAT?!": Lilith lets one out when Amity tells her she wants to be a wild witch. It almost makes Lilith crash her staff while they're in the air. Lilith later shares one with Luz when Malphas admits he was messing with them.
- Call-Back:
- Boscha states her saving Willow is her returning the favor for Willow saving her from the werewolf.
- Luz brings up the Owl House getting vandalized by Glandus students in "The Book of King".
- Malphas mentions the library incident in "Heart to Heart", thanking Luz for helping Amity clean up the mess.
- This is the first time someone else calls Amity "Little Miss Perfect" since Luz stopped using the term in "Regretful Decisions"note . Gus using it parallels how he started acting like Luz, but worse.
- During the Hard-Work Montage, Luz and Lilith try to banish a ghost using salt, a trick that was shown in "Somhaim Tales of the Boiling Isles".
- Eda mentions how she stole Stan's car and used it to escape the cops. And remember when she mentioned muggers could do much worse than steal someone's stuff in "The Conjuring Conflict"? She was speaking from experience.
- Eda also tells Amity the same reasons why she was unable to finish school, which she told Luz in "Here Comes the Tutor".
- The term "Glandus trash" is used again, this time by Mattholomule, who was called this by Bria in "Domino Effect".
- Amity calms down the Slitherbeast the exact same way Puck did in "Blighted by the Light".
- The Cameo:
- Bangles and Zepher are seen in the flashback with Bria before they jump Levi.
- Boscha briefly appears to save Willow from the pixie attack.
- Principal Bump and Ms. Traveler are briefly seen being informed of Amity's current situation, as are her siblings.
- The former is later one of the people Luz and Lilith confronts about overdue library fees along with Tibbles and Warden Wrath.
- The Keeper of the Looking Glass Ruins only shows up after the Glandus trio has already been taken care of.
- King only appears at the end of the chapter when Luz, Amity and Lilith return home, getting just one line in.
- The Shadowy Secret Expozers are seen having a meeting when Eve shows them the diary that she got from Malphas.
- Whoever the Glandus trio talks to and summons Tito, who makes his debut.
- Cassandra Truth: Luz keeps trying to warn Gus not to trust Bria, Gavin and Angmar based on her recent troubles regarding Glandus students but because of Bria insulting Amity to get a reaction out of Luz, Gus stubbornly ignores her due to his grudge against the former Blight.
- Continuity Nod:
- The Distant Prologue shows Levi wearing a Bard track uniform. It was pointed out in "Double, Double, Tutor and Trouble" that he studied in this track before being mugged and dropping out of Hexside.
- As Amity exits the principal's office, Luz is reading a brochure on the Beast Keeping track so she'll know what she'd be studying when she joins it.
- Edric and Emira bring up their moving in with their uncle last chapter.
- Amity still has her fishing job from "Unemployment Filing".
- Luz figures out it was Bria and her friends who got Gus and Mattholomule in trouble for shoplifting four chapters ago.
- Pleasure Island and the petrification ceremony are brought up, both as reasons why everyone's forgiven Amity for her past actions.
- Crazy-Prepared: On the off-chance the Thians' witch smuggling operation is discovered, they and their crew will sail away from the Boiling Isles and become pirates.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Glandus trio enhances their magic with the Galdorstones to capture Lilith and push Luz into a corner. Mattholomule freeing Amity and Gus allows them to turn the tables on them, with all three of them being knocked out by the end of the fight.
- Damsel in Distress: Bria has Angmar restrain Amity with vines after Matt brings her to the Looking Glass Ruins. Later Lilith is restrained this way to distract Luz so she'll lose against Bria.
- Defiant Stone Throw: To show Bria he's no longer following her orders, Matt chucks a whole stone pillar at her right before she finishes Luz off.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Now that Amity's no longer expected to follow through on Odalia's plans for her future, she's trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life. At first she decides on being a wild witch and traveling between realms while exploring with Luz, but a talk with Eda encourages her to not choose something right away and to take her time to decide.
- Destination Defenestration: Discussed. Mattholomule mentions that after his dad had an affair, his mom threw him out of a window.
- Distant Prologue: The chapter opens up on Levi's mugging at the hands of Bangles, Zepher and Bria a few months back.
- Distressed Dude: The moment Gus refuses to hurt Amity, Bria tells Angmar to ensnare him with his plants so she can use him as bait for Luz along with Amity.
- Double-Meaning Title: The chapter's title references how Gus keeps avoiding talking about his anger towards both Amity and Jenny and foreshadows Tito's appearance at the end.
- The Empath: Amity calms the Slitherbeast down after sensing how scared he was.
- Fantastic Racism: Bria calls Luz "human trash" during their battle in the Looking Glass Graveyard.
- Flashback: The chapter opens on Levi's mugging, then later shows how Goonla came to the Boiling Isles, and Jenny leaving Gus home alone to escape arrest.
- Food as Bribe: To get the kids to behave as Lilith read to them, Luz gave them all candy.
- Foreshadowing:
- Gavin's issues with his father have more meaning here than they do in canon.
- Something drove the Slitherbeast out of its cave, but what?
- The person who orders Tito to punish Bria at the end has an interest in getting revenge on Lilith.
- Forgiveness: Gus finally lets go of his grudge against Amity and forgives her for spying on Luz for Lilith.
- The Gadfly: As Amity lists off everything she could do together with Luz in the future if they could travel between realms, Eda stops her by asking if she's really that eager to marry her daughter. Cue full-faced Luminescent Blush.
- The Ghost:
- Odalia and Geist are brought up by the Blight twins. Amity brings up Alador while working with Levi.
- Nicole's listed as part of Eda's generation of witches.
- Puck is mentioned by Luz, who tells Gus about her and Amity's friendship with him.
- Bo's brought up as the reason Mattholomule's following Bria's orders.
- Brian is mentioned by Bria, along with someone called "The Boss".
- Given Name Reveal: Mrs. Pricklethorn, which is the name of Hexside's Plant track teacher.
- Graceful Loser: Luz accepts Malphas getting one over on her as it means the debts she and Eda racked up for Bonesborough Library have been paid off. The same can't be said for Lilith, who's left stunned.
- Grew a Spine: With Amity and Gus to boost his confidence, Mattholomule frees them and fights back against Bria and her friends for hurting Luz and threatening Bo.
- Hard-Work Montage: Luz and Lilith go through one while undergoing Malphas' trials; categorizing the man-eating books, clearing out the book worms, taming the paper dragon, reading to the children, making a librarian ghost pass on, and collecting late fees. They complete everything, Malphas admits he tricked them into doing his chores but agrees to give Amity her job back and wave Luz and Eda's fees as a reward.
- Heel–Face Turn: Gus stops acting like a jerkweed to his friends and seeks to make up for his actions towards them.
- Hidden Depths: Luz references Tom Sawyer, which implies she's read Mark Twain.
- Honey Trap: This was pretty much the definition of Perry and Jenny's relationship, as he was forced to fall in love with her.
- I Lied: Once Luz and Lilith have completed his trials, Malphas casually admits he just had them do his chores and that he would've rehired Amity either way.
- Immediate Sequel: This chapter picks up the day after the previous two.
- In Spite of a Nail: Luz still goes through Malphas' trials and gets Amity her job at the library back (which she thanks her for with a kiss on the cheek) and Mattholomule stands up to Bria, choosing his friendship with Gus over her.
- Internal Reveal:
- Willow informs Gus on everything he missed from the group chat.
- Amity tells Principal Bump, Ms. Traveler and Levi about her nameless state and the former two agree to inform her teachers about it.
- The twins advise Luz and Amity about them staying with Geist at his bar.
- Luz, Amity and Lilith encounter Bria, Gavin and Angmar and learn about Gus hanging out with them.
- Gus learns about the Glandus students vandalizing the Owl House and about Puck.
- Eda tells Amity about her curse forcing her to drop out of school.
- It's All About Me: Gus believes that Boscha only saved Willow for the attention (obviously not true since there wasn't anyone around to see her do it) and that Luz only forgave Amity because she drugged Luz with a love potion, which makes those under its influence only focus on the one who gave it to them. The latter is later revealed to be how his mom won over his dad.
- Jerkass Realization: Gus finally realizes how his grudge towards Amity is straining his friendship with Luz.
- Karma Houdini: Jenny is proven to be one, as she drugged Perry to spend his life focused on her and later escaped to the human realm to avoid punishment.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- All of Malphas' trials are chores he didn't wanna do, so he had Luz and Lilith do it not to convince him to rehire Amity but to get back at Luz for all the chaos from her past visits. Luz admits he got her good.
- Bria, Gavin and Angmar get knocked out by Luz, Gus, Amity, Lilith and Mattholomule and locked up for trying to get Gus to hurt Amity, using the Galderstones to injure Luz and threatening Bo. Bria is later left to be punished at Tito's hands.
- Literal Metaphor: Two are mentioned, and they both involve Mattholomule and throwing:
- After his father had an affair, his mother actually threw him out of the house from a window.
- Bria literally threw him under a bus to impress the top students of Glandus High. This was why his mom had him switch schools.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Luz visits Dolly's house to collect overdue library fees but finds the house empty and assumes nobody's home. She doesn't learn that Dolly's not around anymore.
- Love Potion: Deconstructed. Jenny used these to make Perry return her feelings for him. However, they're extremely illegal and she left him and Gus to evade capture from the Emperor's Coven for it.
- Luminescent Blush: Amity's whole face turns red when Eda asks her if she's planning on marrying Luz in the future.
- Makes Us Even: Boscha uses a potion to save Willow from the pixies, saying they're now even for the save from the werewolf (Skara's) attack.
- Mentor Archetype: Per Lilith's request, Eda decides to talk with Amity about what to expect if she decided to become a wild witch.
- Nasal Trauma: Amity breaks Bria's nose over her knee as part of her And This Is for... moment.
- Noodle Incident: The Shadowy Secret Expozers took a case from Malphas once; they had to catch a taxidermy beast causing trouble at the library.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Mattholomule tells Gus that his spiteful behavior is making him sound like Boscha.
- Obviously Not Fine: Lilith quickly sees that Luz is angry about her argument with Gus when she gets to the library and tries brushing it off.
- Once More, with Clarity: Averted. While it's shown who jumped Levi, we're spared from observing just how brutally they attacked him.
- Pet the Dog:
- Edric and Emira make it clear they still consider Amity family, not dipping into their usual teasing and telling her she's welcome to visit them whenever she can.
- Luz and Lilith go through Malphas' "trials" to get Amity's job back because with everything she's given up, she deserves at least one of those things back.
- Point of Divergence: To "Through the Looking Glass Ruins": With Amity having already lost her job at the library, Luz steals another employee's ID so she and Lilith can get into the Forbidden Stacks. They discover Philip Wittebane's diary has already been checked out (Eve having been the one to do so) delaying their portal-making plans and the trials they go through are Malphas' way of paying off the Clawthorne's debts rather than getting Amity her job back. Meanwhile, Amity gets captured by Bria and her friends alongside Gus so they can get the drop on Luz only to get curb-stomped by them, Lilith and Mattholomule. Plus, Eda physically appears and plays a big role, Boscha also makes an appearance, Willow isn't injured by pixies and the Keeper of the Looking Glass Ruins is basically Demoted to Extra.
- Properly Paranoid: After the last two warnings Luz received from Glandus students, she has a reason to be on guard around the kids Gus has been hanging out with. Sure enough, they've only been hanging out with him so they could lure Luz into a fight she (supposedly) couldn't win.
- Punch a Wall: No, Punch a Tree; Luz aggressively does this repeatedly after Gus accuses Amity of drugging her until it falls over.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Luz gives Gus a brief one after rebuffing his attempt to check on her following his accusation.Luz: (sternly) I don't like this side of you, Gus. If you want to be a spiteful brat, be my guest. Sorry for bothering you and your new "friends".
- Rebuilt Pedestal: Remembering all the good Amity's done since the petrification ceremony helps Gus forgive her. From what Malphas says, it seems her involvement in the rescue effort on Pleasure Island did this for the parents of the kids she helped save.
- The Reveal:
- Goonla is the Gill-Man, AKA the Creature from the Black Lagoon. He lived in the Amazon River until a chase from human hunters (that resulted in him taking a spear to his arm) led him to the Black Lagoon, laced with Titan's Blood which sent him to the Boiling Isles. His mind evolved, he got his prosthetic arm from Dr. Bride and he had a fake coven seal placed on it.
- Mattholomule's parents argued a lot and he and his brother knew they'd get divorced, but their father had an affair before it happened. He eventually did forgive him when he took responsibility for his actions.
- Eda was also mugged as a teen, and she went through much worse than Amity did. She also drove Stan's car into the Grand Canyon and later salvaged it to use as a place to talk to Luz (who knows of her mother's experiences).
- Eda was 14 when she ran away from home.
- Bria was the "blue-haired" witch who attacked Levi with Bangles and Zepher (thus she knows them and Brian), and she's been forcing Mattholomule to do her bidding by threatening to go after Bo. She was also the one who broke Mattholomule's arm.
- Jenny forced Perry to fall in love with her through love potions (stating she was a potion tracker), and when she was busted she escaped before she could be captured.
- The name of the Plant track teacher is Mrs. Pricklethorn.
- Sequel Hook: Gus decides to take counseling with Ms. Traveler, the Shadowy Secret Expozers are now investigating Philip's diary, and someone allied with Glandus High is trying to take down Lilith in addition to Luz.
- Shout-Out:
- Luz stated that Malphas "Tom Saywer'd" her and Lilith when he tricked them.
- Eda mentions Sherlock Holmes and says he is a famous human detective, then wonders if it was actually the name of a mouse, referencing The Great Mouse Detective.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Camila is now wearing a Red Sox jersey and jeans she got from Eda.
- Slept Through the Apocalypse: The Keeper of the Looking Glass Ruins went to take a nap for a few hours, thus missing the whole battle with the Glandus trio.
- Spanner in the Works: Eve checks out Philip's diary hoping to crack the mystery behind his locket. However, she unknowingly stalls Luz's progress on creating a portal to the human realm.
- Stalker with a Crush: Jenny is revealed to be this, having been obsessed with Perry and going as far as to drugging him to love her.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Bria goes for the "Stealth Hi" when she first meets Luz.
- Take That!: The Love Potion trope is looked down on by both authors, and its use here is also a jab at the Harry Potter theory that Harry only loves Ginny because of them.
- Taking It Well: Luz is surprised to hear Amity got a C in an AP class due to setting someone on fire by accident and she isn't bugged by it. She credits it to no longer having to do extra work just to satisfy her parents.
- Talk to the Fist: The second Bria insults Amity, Luz decks her into the dirt.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Gus initially believes Amity did this to Luz so she'd forgive her. He later reveals this was how Jenny drugged Perry with Love Potions.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Malphas agrees to give Amity her job back since parents have backed off after she saved their children from the Coachman.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Bria and her friends were already shown to be this after getting Gus to shoplift and the former tries to keep Gus from forgiving Amity, even telling him to attack her using the galdorstone when he's given the opportunity.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The Book 2 teaser showed the scene where Luz and Lilith faced the paper dragon together.
- Underestimating Badassery: The Glandus trio don't take anyone from Hexside seriously, including Luz, her family and friends. This is what ultimately contributes to their downfall as Matt is now a Hexsidian. This really nails Bria as she knocks out Gavin and Angmar after Gus and Amity use illusions to disguise them as the former and Luz.
- The Un-Reveal: Whatever drove the Slitherbeast away from its home isn't revealed. Neither is whoever spoke to the Glandus trio at the end.
- Villainous Breakdown: Bria starts to lose it when Mattholomule attacks her, and it plays into her defeat after Amity calls her a coward.
- We Used to Be Friends: Mattholomule makes it clear he and Bria stopped being friends the moment she chose rising through Glandus' hierarchy over him.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: After hearing why Matt had to help Bria, Amity and Gus encourage him to stand up to Bria saying he's brave enough to do it.
- You Are What You Hate: Thanks to Mattholomule, Gus realizes he's the one who's hurting Luz now instead of Amity by holding onto his grudge.
- You Owe Me:
- The Clawthornes have had a massive debt piled up with Bonesborough Library for a long time. Malphas has Luz and Lilith pay it off by doing his chores.
- Since Malphas owed the Expozers a solid for getting rid of the Taxidermy Beast, he lets Eve check out Philip Clawthorne's diary.
