Chapter 95: The Grim Goblin Strikes
Art by Crash X Fusion: You know the old saying: if you can't join 'em, beat em!
With the Grim Goblin still a threat, Luz and Amity decide to take him down. Meanwhile, Eve works on the Goblin case herself as she learns the dark truth about him.Tropes that appear in this chapter:
- The Ace: Peter is mentioned to be the top student of St. Epiderm's abomination track.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- Amity's Aura Vision acts up again, this time from looking at Eda after Luz asks if she and Raine are dating again.
- The Goblin warns Eve that "the Day of Unity will never come to pass." What this means going forward is rather nerve-wracking.
- Big Damn Kiss: Downplayed. Before Raine and Star leave, Eda kisses Raine on the cheek, much to their surprise. It makes Luz ask her mother if she and Raine are back together.
- Blatant Lies: Eda and Raine emerge from the Owl House's basement claiming that Eda was helping Raine pack. Eda adjusting her dress and hair plus their shared blush tells a different story.
- Breaking Old Trends: This chapter officially ends the Breather Episode dynamic for the main characters that's been occurring since the beginning of the arc.
- Brain in a Jar: Whatever happened between Staggertarious and Vitimir resulted in the former becoming one of these.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Miss Mantis is seen again since "Hexing Out for a Hero".
- The Surreal Serial Killers return since "Masks Off".
- Archibald Corduroy makes an unexpected return since "Northwest Party Crashers".
- But Now I Must Go: Raine, now back to full strength, leaves the Owl House to go into hiding and begin rebuilding their rebel cell. Star, having felt a lack of purpose, decides to go with them.
- Call-Back:
- The Goblin's last three attacks (the Coven Day parade, SSE and LOWTH in Metropelvis, and St. Epiderm) in conjuction with his destroying the precinct get him labeled "Public Enemy #1".
- Peter turns out to be the artist who beat Luz in the Covention art show all the way back in "Witch's Duel... or Don't", and the piece in question is seen again. It's even lampshaded.Amity: Wow... talk about a complete callback.
- Alador sees Amity for the first time since their interaction in "Prelude to War: Part 2", before the Glandus War and her disappearance.
- Amity returns to Blight Manor for the first time since leaving to rescue Luz with Puck in "The Reveal". After everything she's gone through since that day, she no longer considers it home.
- Amity reunite the Monster Fighters Club, the monster-busting team Luz created in "Have a Little Hex with my Friends", in order to investigate Gibson's home, but Viney's the only member who doesn't join them.
- The Cameo:
- Larry is one of the injured people from the Grim Goblin's attack on Bonesborough's coven precinct in the beginning.
- Severine wakes up Emily before they go to a scout meeting led by Abel.
- Hunter, Gwen, Dell, Steve, and Hikari are seen watching the news story covering the debut of BIG.
- Emily's petrified parents are shown to her by Graye as motivation not to fail him again.
- Commonality Connection: Sioux and Veronica both feel like they have to protect Donna and Eve because they failed to do so before, keeping their respective friends away from the danger by taking it on themselves.
- Connected All Along: Not only is Staggertarious acquainted with Prof. Redback and Jane, he turns out to be Sarah's father.
- Continuity Nod:
- Emily is still recovering from her last encounter with the Grim Goblin, evident by the bandages on her face.
- Peter invites Luz and Amity to his charity art show, meant to raise money for repairs following the Goblin's attack on St. Epiderm.
- Kyle continues to act flustered around Ukla following "The Obligatory Beach Day!"
- Luz's goth phase is mentioned when she sees that Gus is now going through one.
- Crush Blush: Eda and Raine have these when thinking up an excuse for what they did in the basement the previous night, then Raine blushes when Eda kisses them goodbye, and Eda has to hide another one when Luz asks if she and Raine are back together.
- Dramatic Unmask: The Goblin kidnaps Eve and unmasks himself in front of her, showing his true identity: Teri.
- Expy: Meg and Grip of the Bard Coven are both parodies of Gwen and Trent, Meg being an artist who had relationship issues in her youth and Grip being a guitarist who was in a band with Napoli.
- Expy Coexistence: Luz and Amity list several characters who are similar to fictional characters in the Human Realm, noting the Grim Goblin being like the Green Goblin, the Shadowy Secret Expozers being like Mystery Inc. is mentioned again, and Dusty is a lot like Ash Ketchum. They soon agree it's best not to think about it.
- Extremely Protective Child: Before Luz and Amity go to save Eve from Teri, Amity warns Gibson to stop hanging around her father.
- The Ghost: Viney is only mentioned before the investigation at the Oscorne residence, Barcus saying she's probably with Emira.
- Given Name Reveal: Staggertarious' last name is "Atos", on account of his being Sarah's father.
- Goth: Because of his grief over what happened in the Human Realm, Gus goes to Eve for advice on being a goth. The next day at school, he's now sporting an altered uniform that's mostly black, along with a new hairstyle that mixed urban with metal.
- Grew a Spine: Having had enough time to reflect and learn how toxic their relationship was, Glinda stands up to Emily and officially breaks up with her.
- Internal Reveal:
- Luz and Amity meet Peter, Sarah, Minerva, Roxy, and the Oscornes for the first time. Amity also encounters Danny for the first time.
- Eve comes clean to the SSE about how she disappeared, and where she and Luz's friends have been.
- In the Hood: Raine and Star both don cloaks with hoods in order to conceal their identities while traveling, as do Steve and Hiraki.
- Jaw Drop: Luz and Amity share one upon seeing Gus as a goth.
- Lampshade Hanging
- The Leader: Upon reuniting, the SSE name Eve as their new leader in solving the mystery of what happened to the previous Exposers and bringing Teri to justice.
- Multi-Part Episode: This continues the multi-part chapter leading up to "Reaching Out".
- Mythology Gag: Downplayed. Matt struggling to keep himself together over something happening to Steve mirrors the Moringmark comic, "Bard"
. - Never My Fault: As Glinda tells off Emily, she points out how the latter hurts everyone around her, including those who were once their friends. Emily responds that it's their fault, causing Glinda to cringe.
- Noodle Incident: At the Coven Day parade, Danny was in a port-a-potty during the Goblin attack. It got knocked over, so Riley had to keep him invisible so he wouldn't be seen.
- Not Me This Time: When Danny saw the charity art show in ruins, he instantly accuses Luz of the damage; Alador is quick to clarify that the Grim Goblin was responsible.
- Once More, with Clarity: This chapter details how Luz and Amity got injured facing off against the Grim Goblin.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Eda and Raine seem to have had sex the night before Raine and Star leave. Acorn nearly announces what they were doing and Amity (the only one who can understand her and currently sees Eda as a mother figure) cuts her off before she finishes her thought.
- Potty Emergency: Danny and Riley kept disappearing during Goblin attacks because Danny has stomach issues and Riley had to escort him to the bathroom.
- Precision F-Strike: Boscha drops one the second she sees Gus's new look.
- Putting the Band Back Together: The Shadowy Secret Expozers come to stop the Grim Goblin after hearing he kidnapped Eve. While they've got their own lives away from each other now, they reunite for one last mystery in order to stop Teri, nominating Eve as their leader since the case is personal for her and she keeps the team together.
- The Reveal:
- Teri is the Grim Goblin, an alternate personality that manifested when Eve disappeared, which he blames her friends and the Emperor's Coven for.
- The Oscornes are Hellborn demons from Hell itself, descended from before Belos took power.
- Gavin has the ability to create portals using abomination matter, which he can use to teleport objects.
- The identities of BIG are revealed to be Alburno, Venoma, Scarmeron, Skrap, Thunder, Joana, and Le'Belle.
- Alador hasn't been helping Prof. Snope with curing his siblings since he became Coven Head.
- Danny has stomach problems that result in constipation which Riley has been helping him with by leading him away to the bathrooms, hence why they always disappear before the Goblin shows up.
- Adrian Graye is Walter Wildes of the previous Shadowy Secret Exposers, which was a stage name.
- Sarah is the daughter of Staggertarious, who's actually been reduced to a Brain in a Jar. He's friends with Professor Redback and Jane, and asked his daughter to deliver a message to Luz which she has yet to do.
- Peter is the artist behind "Corndog on a Plate", the art piece that beat out Luz's back at the Covention art show.
- Sequel Hook:
- Raine and Star have now gone off to rebuild the rebellion.
- Teri has vanished as the Goblin took control of him in order to escape capture.
- Series Continuity Error: Amity claims when meeting the St. Epiderm students at Peter's art show that that's the first time she's ever met such students, but she had already met Donna and Kyle back in "The Return of the Witchlings"note .
- Ship Tease: Cross shows signs of reciprocating Lindsay's feelings for him when he tells Emily she's pretty, a fact Emily also agrees with.
- Shout-Out: Several are made to Total Drama:
- Grip, an expy of Trent, shares his name of a team from Action, the Killer Grips (of which Trent was briefly team captain).
- Grip and Napoli were in a band in the past, like how Trent and Harold were members of the Drama Brothers.
- Meg (whose name comes from Gwen's voice actress, Megan Fahlenbock) was friends with Judd and Le'Belle until she had a falling out with each of them. This refers to Gwen's disastrous friendship with Courtney (Le'Belle's basis) and relationship with Duncan (Judd's basis).
- Napoli mentions seeing someone named Mosquita, which is drawn from Harold and Leshawna's relationship.
- All the members of BIG are made up of expies of characters who were on the Villainous Vultures in All-Stars.
- Split Personality: The Grim Goblin turns out to be this for Teri.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Amity is disgusted by how Gibson didn't just take Teri to be treated when he knew he was the Goblin.
- Synchronous Episodes: This chapter is part of the set of chapters that overlap with each other, but is set during the week before Nina and Donna's counseling sessions in the previous two chapters.
- Unexplained Recovery: The Surreal Serial Killers return despite the Emperor's Coven arresting them and their classmates in "What is it Good For?"
- Unknown Rival: Cross seems to become one for Emily, as Graye begins encouraging his apprentice to step up or be overshadowed by the boy.
- The Un-Reveal: Who threw the smoke bomb and retrieved the Grim Goblin?
- Wham Episode: Teri is revealed to be the Grim Goblin (who's a Split Personality) and ends up escaping capture, the SSE reunites to stop Teri and name Eve as their leader, Luz and Amity confiscate a trunk full of clues from Gibson on the previous SSE and have it delivered to Vanessa, Adrian Graye is revealed to be Walter Wildes and begins pitting Emily against Cross, Glinda breaks up with Emily, Gus becomes a goth, Sarah is instructed to deliver a message to Luz from her father, and Raine and Star leave the Owl House to start up a new rebellion, with some implications that Raine got back together with Eda.
- Wham Line
- Wham Shot: After waking up, the MFC begin looking for Teri, only to find Gibson buried under rubble instead.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The plotline regarding the mystery solvers takes inspiration from several Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episodes, such as "Mystery Solvers Club State Final", "The Night The Clown Cried" and "The Art of Darkness".
