Recap / The Owl House S2E12 "Elsewhere and Elsewhen"

"History's supposed to be exciting, after all!"

Eda: Hey, nerds! How was your nerd quest? You find that dead nerd?
Luz: Layin' it on a little thick there, Eda, but yeah, we found Philip.
Eda: Whoa, seriously?
Luz: Yeah. He stunk.

Original air date: 3/26/2022 (produced in 2021)

Production code: 212

Luz and Lilith set off on a journey for (and through) the ages to gain more information about Philip Wittebane, but Philip soon turns out to not be the nice guy Luz believed he was. Meanwhile, Eda receives an unprecedented visit from her father.

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Tropes:

• Ad-Break Double-Take: The scene where Lilith is grabbed by the beast behind the door is repeated after the show comes back from break.
• Adventure Archaeologist: Flora D'splora is a "bad girl explorer", capable of snaring a passing beast with a whip and instantly taming it.
• Age of Reptiles: Luz is quickly able to confirm the time pool exists by peaking into one and seeing the equivalent of the Mesozoic Era in the Boiling Isles, a volcanic landscape complete with dinosaur- and ammonite-like creatures.
• All for Nothing:
  • Other than learning Philip's true character, the trip back in time accomplished absolutely nothing and costs Luz a quarter of her remaining Titan's Blood for the trouble. Due to a Stable Time Loop, nothing that occurred in the past has any effect on the present that it didn't already have. Philip took the Collector for purposes other than perfecting the portal, so they can't find the Collector in the present and it wouldn't help Luz make a portal even if they did. Furthermore, he refuses to share his knowledge of the portal with Luz unless she agrees to more dangerous tasks, so Lilith just punches him in the face. Ultimately, the trip just explores a bit of Belos' backstory, and Luz and Lilith don't learn the connection.
  • Subverted for Philip since Luz and Lilith did help him to get the mirror he was looking for.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • There are some hints that the present-day Belos managed to figure out the Stable Time Loop, and deliberately made sure that Luz and Lilith would go back in time to complete it by sending Flora to give Lilith her box of stuff, including the device for detecting time pools, but it's not confirmed. It also ties in to Terra's Suspiciously Specific Tense last episode, as this would be, in a temporal sense, the first time Belos met Luz.
• Ambition is Evil: Discussed. When Luz tries to tell Philip that she understands his desire to get home but it doesn't justify him hurting other people, Philip doesn't care.
• Appropriated Appelation: When Luz finds the portal to the Deadwardian Era, a passing witch questions why her head is sticking out of the sand, asking if she's some kind of "crab maiden". Luz immediately embraces the title and later uses it as part of her story when meeting Philip.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: A cryptid known as Twigfoot appears briefly in Eda's book of urban legends as a one-off joke. It looks exactly like Bigfoot except it has twigs for legs.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Luz and Lilith initially think Philip is just an inquisitive and humble explorer, but eventually find he's a self-centered backstabber and conman willing to kill his companions to get what he wants.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: When Luz calls Philip out on tricking them and thinks that he would say "it was destiny", Philip chuckles and nonchalantly proclaims, "I was going to say: 'inevitable'".
• Body Horror: Philip turns out to have tattooed glyphs onto his right arm at least, and it causes his arm to bulge and twist dangerously. He uses Palismen to stabilize it.
• Brick Joke: Upon finding the location of the time pools, Lilith trips over what she assumes to have been a rock. Upon finding out exactly where the time pools are in said location, she starts peaking her head in to multiple periods, including one the goes a few minutes ago. It is here she finds out she was that rock as she trips her past self.
• Broken Pedestal: Luz loses a lot of admiration and respect for Philip once it became clear he was willing to leave his companions to die, or even outright kill them, for the sake of his own ambitions.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Lilith makes her official return after her brief cameo in the previous episode.
  • After nothing but a brief mention by Kikimora in "Eclipse Lake", Steve makes his first onscreen appearance since his introduction back in "Sense and Insensitivity".
• Butterfly of Doom: Lilith mentions "the bloody fly effect" when the listing the possible dangers of time travel to Luz.
• Career-Ending Injury: Eda and Lilith's father Dell used to be the greatest palisman carver on the Boiling Isles until Eda attacked him as the Owl Beast, permanently ruining his dominant arm and eye.
• Casting Gag: Flora D'splora is essentially an older Dora the Explorer and is voiced by Eileen Galindo, who also played the role of Dora's mother.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Played for horror. Philip maintains a completely nonchalant attitude towards Luz and Lilith's fates after he tricks them into being attacked by the Stonesleeper as a distraction, having already written in his diary that he was the sole survivor before the door even opened, and otherwise ignoring them in favor of getting what he wants, even mocking Luz for being so gullible to walk into his trap and making it clear he'd always seen through her paper-thin lies, but played along until he was in a prime position to make off with his goal.
  Luz: I know you wanna get home, but nothing is worth hurting people! (They barely dodge the Stonesleeper's tail)
  Philip: Oh, I disagree. Was nice making a catspaw out of you. Good luck with your 'Crab Castle' or whatever. You witches come up with the worst lies.
• Chekhov's Lecture: Lilith mentions that Stonesleepers are ticklish behind their ears. When Luz recognizes the guardian of the Collector as one, she uses that knowledge to subdue and tame it.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Stonesleepers. One of them turns out to be the monster guarding the mirror in the Titan's Skull.
• Chromatic Arrangement: Luz and Lilith find Philip being bullied by two brothers, Green Fang and Red Fang (who also both wear corresponding-colored clothes), who mention a third unseen brother called Blue Fang.
• Contrived Coincidence: It's awfully convenient that Flora returned the box of Lilith's things with the device for detecting time pools in it right before she and Luz would need to use it...
• Conveniently Interrupted Document: The echo mouse shows a portion of Philip's diary at the beginning. It shows what seems to be two people next to Philip, but they're scribbled out. It cuts off right as he starts describing something monstrous in their path. It's later made apparent the two figures were Lilith and Luz.
• Continuity Nod:
  • When reading up on the Portal Door, one of the notes on Luz's board reads "buy Amity a new glove", as the current one holds all her Titan's Blood. Eda's Grom photo of her, Luz, and King from "Eda's Requiem" is also on the board.
  • When Eda tries disguising herself as her sister, she wears Lilith's old season 1 outfit that had been left in the Owl House since "Separate Tides".
  • Luz and Lilith encounter Philip at some point after his trip to Eclipse Lake.
  • Luz once again uses the name "Luzura", from "Lost in Language".
  • When talking to Philip about glyph patterns, both mention that they learned the ice glyph by seeing the pattern in a snowflake.
  • The Stonesleeper was first mentioned via a Freeze-Frame Bonus in the earlier episode "Eclipse Lake", where their lungs were stated to be an ingredient for something called a Grimwalker.
• Deal with the Devil: The ending shows Philip attempt to summon the Collector, and it's implied he made an unholy pact with them.
• Dirty Coward: Philip is revealed to be deceitful and manipulative, acting like he's in control of over everything... only to cower in fear before a monster he knows he cannot hope to defeat by himself.
• Dramatic Irony: When the echo mouse reveals that Philip was looking for the mysterious Collector, Eda remarks that she's never heard of such a person, completely unaware that the Collector is the one who imprisoned the Owl Beast in the scroll used to curse her.
• Easily Forgiven: As much as Eda doesn't think she deserves it, Dell has long forgiven her for what the Owl Beast did to him. He tells her it was obviously an accident, and she would never have wanted to hurt him. He encourages her to let go of the past and move on with her life.
• Evil All Along: Philip, who initially presents himself as a Nice Guy, turns out to be a bigoted, manipulative sociopath who uses everyone who travels with him as a sacrifice to the traps he encounters and writes his diary passages to paint himself in the best possible light. And that's before the ending implies that he eventually becomes Emperor Belos.
• Evil Counterpart: Philip turns out to be one to Luz in this episode. They're both humans that ended up trapped in the Boiling Isles and seek to find a way home. But while Luz is kind and empathetic, and loves the Isles and only seeks to return home to reunite with her mother, having even found love with a witch, Philip is manipulative and selfish, willing to sacrifice his "companions" at the drop of a hat if he thinks it will benefit him. Philip even notes that it took years for him to track down the glyphs, almost as if something was trying to keep him from finding them, while Luz found all four in a matter of weeks.
• Exact Words: Philip's entry on his search for the Collector claims that they will "tell him what [he] needs to complete his mission". Contrary to what Luz understandably assumed, he wasn't necessarily referring to his mission to create the portal.
• Expy:
  • Lilith's rival is Flora D'splora, who is an adventurer with a bob haircut, an affinity for animals (though more violent about it), and wields a whip with a purple monkey Palisman (complete with a yellow tip on the end of its tail just like Boots). Luz remarks that she "has questions about that name". She's even voiced by the actress who played Dora's mother.
  • A cryptid known as Lenderman appears briefly in Eda's book of urban legends as a one-off joke. He looks exactly like Slenderman except he lends things to people.
• Extreme Omnivore: In the Titan's Skull, Luz mentions to Philip that her mother apparently had to stop her from eating puzzle pieces when she was a kid.
• Eye Scream: While it's not explicitly said considering that Dell's scar stretches over his eye and that it is shut the entire time we seem him, it's implied that the Owl Beast also clawed his eye out.
• Fantastic Fantasy Is Mundane: Possums are apparently considered a "ridiculous" cryptid in the Demon Realm that "no one believes in".
  Luz: Those are real.
  Eda: Yeah, sure kid.
• Fantastic Racism: Subverted. At first, it seems that Philip is a victim of this, much as Luz once was. But as the episode progresses, it becomes more apparent that those bullying him are doing so for different reasons, and he's the one who holds a deep hatred towards witches. However, he didn't know Luz was a human training to be a witch.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing:
  • Luz notices Philip writing in his journal about a beast lurking behind a door that kills his two companions. A few seconds later, Lilith manages to open the door and is grabbed from within by the Stonesleeper.
  • Just before Philip starts absorbing a palisman at the end of the episode and switches over to Belos' voice, a cloak resembling the one that Belos wears can be seen hanging up.
• Fluffy Tamer:
  • Flora D'splora leaves Lilith's party by lassoing a random passing griffin and riding it off.
  • By remembering what Lilith said earlier about Stonesleepers, Luz is able to tame the one in the Titan's Skull.
• Fold the Page, Fold the Space: Referenced. In the pages on time pools in Eda's book of urban legends, it tells the reader an easy way of explaining how they work is by using a folded piece of paper as a diagram.
• Foreshadowing: Quite a number toward Philip being both not as good as he claims and eventually becoming Emperor Belos.
  • The Red and Green Fang brothers note that their brother Blue Fang went missing on an adventure with Philip, as did his palisman. His journal notes that Blue Fang's strength will prove an asset in his adventures, and when Luz goes to check on Philip, we see a palisman and a blue fang in his bag.
  • When first entering Bonesborough, Luz witnesses a witch casually use magic to help another, including healing their arm in a sling. When she meets Philip, his leg appears injured. While at first that can be chalked up to the apparent discrimination he faces, it's later revealed he was faking, probably to elicit sympathy or underestimation.
  • Philip spent years trying to learn the glyphs and didn't even learn all of them, complaining bitterly that the the Isles seemed to be trying to hide the glyphs from him. Luz sees the glyphs as a gift from the Isles, and the Isles in turn appeared to actively demonstrate the ice glyph to her back in "Adventures in the Elements".
  • Despite having even more knowledge of glyph combinations than Luz does, being able to teleport himself and others across significant distances, Philip makes no move to defend himself against the Red and Green Fang brothers before Luz steps in.
  • Lilith mentions how Philip's way of flattering Luz feels uncomfortably familiar, which makes a lot of sense with the implication at the end of the episode that he's actually Belos since she served under the latter for 30 years.
    Lilith: The confidence, the compliments, he says everything you want to hear. It feels... uncomfortably familiar.
  • In the episode's beginning, the section of Philip's diary that Luz is reading comes with an illustration of him and his companions standing before a door to the Collector, with the companions' silhouettes being scribbled out and obscured. However, height-wise both figures line up with Luz and Lilith, and are eventually revealed to be them, the duo having time-traveled back to meet Philip and gain information about the portal-making process and getting roped into helping him in turn. Their obscured visage also points towards the falling out that occurs after Philip leaves them for dead, as Philip is utterly nonchalant towards their survival or demise, but takes personal offence towards them for attacking him in retribution for his actions. It also counts as In-Universe foreshadowing, with the visage of a monster's mouth behind the door indicating that there's a dangerous beast awaiting them, but sadly the diary cuts off before Philip spells that out and Luz is too charmed by meeting a fellow human on the Isles to realize his intentions for them.
  • When Luz and Lilith first arrive in the Deadwardian Era, they ask every local Bonesburough resident if they've seen a human by his description, only to be told no. As Luz lampshades, it seems unlikely that a single human living in their midst would be that unremarkable. Luz later learns that he's a Jerkass charlatan who disdains witches and demons when he doesn't casually manipulate and sacrifice them for his own ends, making it clear why most locals pretend not to know him.
  • Likewise, when Luz and Lilith first arrive, they're taken aback by how friendly, helpful, and polite everyone in Bonesburough is, since most residents in the present day can be pretty rude at best, downright murderous at worst. As we later learn, Philip is a massively ungrateful jerkass who puts his ambition before people, making it clear that his reign as Emperor Belos later corrupted the local culture.
  • One relating to the Stable Time Loop mechanics of the time pools. Lilith first discovers them when she ends up tripping over her future self's head sticking out one of the pools, showing that whatever time-travel shenanigans occurred when moving backwards in time will always be revealed to have occurred by the present. This ties into Belos' plans for Luz, as he specifically told her through Terra that he was anticipating their 'first' meeting, which is revealed here to be where Luz gave Philip the missing fourth light glyph he needed to fully unlock wild magic.
  • Similarly, the helmet that Luz takes from the knight's corpse as a disguise is already missing in the present day when she and Lilith first arrive at the beach.
  • Once Luz picks up a drawing of Eclipse Lake from Philip's diary, she notices a drawing of a person that looks almost identical to Hunter next to Philip right before Philip himself snatches the drawing back and says that it's private.
• Forgot About His Powers: Eda is so panicked about her father visiting that she completely forgets about the invisibility glyph combo that she used in the previous episode and tries to use a Paper-Thin Disguise to sneak out instead.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • The pages on Twigfoot, Lenderman, and possums in Eda's urban legend book all have text which only appears for a split second.
  • If one looks closely, when Lilith kicks the sand where she tripped, there's no rock there like she assumed, hinting at how it was actually her own head, having poked through a time pool.
  • Philip's nasal cut grows when he absorbs Palisman magic if one pays close attention.
  • Philip's teleportation array is only visible for a few seconds each time.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Somehow, Philip spent several hundred years' going from an eccentric human explorer to the Emperor of the Boiling Isles. He was still a nightmare before, in that he would leave his traveling companions to die, but he wasn't an all-powerful threat that could curb-stomp his own coven.
• Glory Hound: Philip has a tendency of writing himself as a hero who can single-handedly handle anything, even defeating a Stonesleeper, yet just barely was unable to save his comrades from death. When in actuality, Philip cannot actually fight, let alone defeat, any monster on his own, so he deliberately let his comrades become fodder for the dangers while he sneaks in and takes what he needs from his adventures.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Steve attends Lilith's party despite still being an Emperor's Coven member.
• Good Parents: When they talk, Eda tearfully asks Dell why he forgives her, and how he could. She clawed out his eye and ended his dream career. Dell offers a comforting hand on her shoulder. He says he forgives her because it was an accident, and she's his daughter before encouraging her to let go of the past and move on.
• Hairy Girl: A throwaway gag has Eda claiming that she has leg hair older than Luz herself is.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Luz and Lilith are able to tame the Stonesleeper within seconds due to scratching it behind the ears, whereas Philip has to dupe locals into getting eaten by it as a distraction every time he wants to enter the cave.
• Hero of Another Story: Dell tells Eda that he has been helping the Bat Queen with Palisman wood reforestation. They've been working together to handle the recent Palisman shortage.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Exactly why Philip was seeking out The Collector isn't made clear, just that it's not related to making a portal back to Earth.
• Hidden Depths: The final scene of the episode reveals that Philip, contrary to his Glory Hound writing and Dirty Coward tendencies, is unhinged enough to willingly ruin his body with Palismen and Glyph magic, as well as postponing his trip back to the Human Realm, all to personally see the end results of his then-unexplained plan involving the Collector.
• Hide Your Otherness: Luz uses a helmet to hide her round ears while in the past so nobody will realize that she's a human.
• Honorary Aunt: Luz outright starts calling Lilith her "Cool Aunt" in this episode.
• Hypocritical Humor: Eda mocks The Collector for having a "the" in front of their name, despite her own (frequently self-utilized) title of "The Owl Lady". Having said that, her wanted poster (visible in the background while she says this) simply says "Owl Lady".
• Identical Grandson: During Luz and Lilith's trip to the past, we see background characters who appear to be ancestors of Eileen and that girl from the Baby Class who stole Amity's hair band in "Through the Looking Glass Ruins".
• I'm Mr. [Future Pop Culture Reference]: Luz goes by the name "Luzura" while in the past, which is both the name of her Good Witch Azura OC and her Author Avatar in Ruler's Reach.
• Incredibly Lame Fun: Lilith's idea of an exciting new museum exhibit is one focused on old historical balusters (she does eventually seem to realize she's the only one who finds them interesting). This is also a Brick Joke when she and Luz go back to Deadwardian times and have some free time, so Lilith uses it to marvel at the balusters of the time period.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: After traveling back in time, Lilith cautions Luz that they need to be careful since they are in the "Savage Ages" and the locals might be dangerous. Immediately afterwards, they enter Bonesbourough and discover that the inhabitants of the past Boiling Isles are actually nicer than the present day ones.
• Irony: Back before Emperor Belos came to power, the Boiling Isles was indeed the beautiful fantasy world Luz always dreamt of. While it still has surreal elements, Bonesborough alone was practically a high fantasy utopia. It's only Luz's misfortune she was born too late to see it in its prime.
• It Only Works Once: Downplayed. While it is possible to use the time pools more than once, they're invisible, hard to find, shift every time the tide covers them, and require an extremely powerful source of energy to locate (in this case, Titan's Blood is used), giving Lilith and Luz only one shot to locate and use one. Lilith notes after the fact that the portals could end up halfway around the world, so they're not likely to find one even if they risked looking.
• It's All About Me: Philip is this in spades. He only cares about his own ambitions and discoveries and will casually use and discard anyone and everyone for even the most minor of gains. The cherry on top has to be when Luz and Lilith call him out on leaving them to die, then ask him how to make the portal like he promised... only for him to still offer an "exchange" where they'll hang around as his bodyguards until he needs a "sacrifice" again, and then he'll tell them what they want to know. Not only is he surprised when they don't go for it but Lilith punches him in the face, subsequently breaking his nose. As one can predict, he's deeply offended by this.
• It's All My Fault: Eda blames herself for going out of control, turning into the Owl Beast, and mauling her father Dell so badly the crippling injuries forced him into early retirement. Dell already forgave his daughter a long time ago and repeatedly attempted to reconcile with her, but Eda refuses to forgive herself and avoided contacting her father for more than twenty years out of personal guilt.
• Jerkass: Philip turns out to be this, tricking Luz and Lilith into being attacked by the Stonesleeper so he could dig up the Collector without being attacked.
• Living Dinosaurs: Or Living Dinosaur-Like Creatures. There's a live Stonesleeper living in the Titan's Skull, having apparently slept there for millenia. Considering they were mentioned as having organs needed for certain spells, it's probably a case of this as opposed to Last of Its Kind.
• Mama Bear: When Philip tries to manipulate Luz into undertaking even more dangerous tasks for knowledge of the portal, Lilith punches him in the face so hard that she breaks his nose.
• Manipulative Bastard: Philip uses Luz and Lilith to get what he needs, and is implied to have done the same many times before.
• Moral Myopia: Despite callously manipulating Luz and Lilith into becoming a sacrifice to the Stonesleeper, Philip is outraged when Lilith punches him in the face for it, and later calls witches "barbarians" because of that act.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Even when working with others would be more productive, Philip seems to actually prefer sacrificing people who try to help him for short-term gain, planning on doing so to Luz and Lilith despite them being nothing but helpful to him up to that point without batting an eye, solely because they're witches, or assumed to be in Luz's case.
• Museum of Boredom: Given a Perspective Flip. While Lilith is preparing a museum exhibit on Deadwardian-era staircase architecture, her scholastic enthusiasm is inhibited by self-consciousness that most people will think it's boring, and she wants an exhibit that will get enough attention to rub in Flora's face. Luz convinces her to change her topic to help her find the time pools; when her ulterior motive doesn't work out, she apologizes by taking her to interview a baluster artisan.
• Musical Spoiler: The background music in the final scene shifts to Belos' Leitmotif just before Philip is shown eating a palismen, confirming that the two of them are one and the same.
• Never My Fault: Philip/Belos is revealed to have this attitude in spades.
  • Luz and Lilith discover that most witches and demons from his time were more friendly and helpful than those in the present era, yet he looks down on them as barbaric. Luz and Lilith learn the hard way that this is because he casually manipulates and sacrifices local witches and demons to get what he wants all the time, yet when they rightly get mad at him afterwards (such as the Fang brothers of the missing Blue Fang brother, and Luz and Lilith) he dismisses them as inherently violent and barbaric.
  • Philip laments how difficult it is for him to learn the Isles' secrets, yet we see he casually mistreats, manipulates, and sacrifices the local residents on a whim for every minor gain. Maybe if he didn't alienate the locals so much, they'd help him learn more.
  • Belos also warns everyone against "the dangers of wild magic" in the present day, neatly glossing over how he tattooed glyphs onto his arm that caused his debilitating condition in the first place. It wasn't Wild Magic itself that was the problem, it was his own misuse of it.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Luz's overeagerness to return home, and delight in seeing another human, results in her not only giving Philip the final glyph he hadn't found yet but also allowed him to manipulate her so he can steal the Collector's mirror for his own nefarious purposes.
• Not Hyperbole: One of the time holes leads to a group of knights, one of whom claims he's going to party himself to death. When Luz returns to the present, she sees that same knight's skeleton giving two thumbs up, showing that he wasn't kidding.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: King asks Gwendolyn about Grandfather Dell and is informed that the Clawthornes are renowned for their palisman carving, something Dell had to give up because of the injuries he sustained from Eda in her Owl Beast form. Later, Hooty innocently asks Eda how her father got that scar over his eye while she is trying to hide, unaware that she caused it.
• Obfuscating Disability: Philip spends most of the episode pretending to have an injured leg, but when he betrays Lilith and Luz it turns out his "splint" was just a collapsible shovel.
• Overly Narrow Superlative: Lilith brags that some specimens she found in the time pools are "the oldest barnacles I've ever had on my head."
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Subverted. To try and escape having to face her father, Eda disguises herself as Lilith using a mop head as a wig while wearing Lilith's old dress and saying "dearest" a lot to mimic her formal speech patern. It doesn't work at all (especially since her real hair ends up showing through), but it's pathetically desperate enough that King and Gwen decide not to confront her about it.
  Gwendolyn: Does she seriously think I'm buying that?
  King: Just let her have this.
• Passing the Torch: Dell's been helping the Bat Queen replenish the Palistrom tree supply since retiring from carving Palismen and wants Eda to learn how to do so so she can pick up the trade one day.
• Plot Hole: In-Universe, Eda pulls out a book called "Top 10 Plot Holes of History" to show to Luz.
• Politically Correct History: Averted. While previous episodes demonstrated that Philip was a genius far ahead of his time, his Fantastic Racism towards witches, viewing them as barbarian sorcerers, is befitting an era when most people believed that all magic came from making a Deal with the Devil, as well as a general disdain for cultures different from their own.
• Portal Pool: The time portals are invisible pools which link to random points in time.
• Power Tattoo: Philip has a glyph combination tattooed on his arm. It seems to be permanently active, and he has to consume palismen to stabilize it, lest his arm go out of control.
• Pun: Time Pool is just one letter off from Tide Pool and, like tide pools, they form by the ocean at low tide. Luz and Lilith even pull out (ancient) sea life from them like one would tide pools.
• The Reveal:
  • Philip Wittebane and Emperor Belos are the same person. He used magic to prolong his life. His affliction also comes from glyphs that he's tattooed onto his arm, hence why he blames Wild Magic for his condition.
  • Lilith has gotten a new job at the Supernatural Museum of History. She's only an assistant but is thrilled about designing her first exhibit.
  • We get to see a Stonesleeper after they were shown in a book in "Eclipse Lake", which turn out to be prehistoric demons that turn to stone when asleep.
  • When Luz and Lilith travel back to Philip's era, we learn that the dangers Wild Magic posed in the "Savage Eras" are exaggerated at best, with early Bonesborough looking even more pleasant than the modern version, with the residents seeming far more amiable than their modern-day descendants.
  • Dell's injuries from the Owl Beast were even more serious than they seemed at first, forcing him to retire from carving Palismen. He's now helping the Bat Queen replenish the Palistrom forests. The Owl House is a former residence of his, he has a yellow cardinal Palisman, and he carved Owlbert together with Eda.
  • On a milder note, Lilith's palisman is seen detached from its staff for the first time.
• Rewatch Bonus: Checking out the introductory scene of him again after watching the episode confirms that the Red and Green Fang brothers pretty much had every right to be upset with Philip.
• Scars Are Forever:
  • In the final scene, the scar on Philip's broken nose grows longer when he absorbs Palisman magic, showing how it became the long, green gash that Belos has in the present.
  • Also, this episode reveals that Dell Clawthorne's scar (as well as the damage of his left hand) never fully healed.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Luz and Lilith travel back in time to find out from Philip himself how to construct a working portal door. Unfortunately, they find that Philip is actually a two-faced scoundrel who won't give up the formula without an incredibly high price, so they decide it's not worth it.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Luz and Lilith confront Philip after he left them to die, he tries to weasel his way out and continues to extort them. Lilith decides enough is enough and just punches him in the nose mid-sentence. And then has the Stonesleeper kick him in the face one more time as they're leaving.
• Spell My Name with a "The": Lampshaded by Eda regarding The Collector when they're mentioned in the diary.
• Stable Time Loop:
  • Luz reads a diary entry about Philip and two unnamed companions journeying to find the Collector. Luz and Lilith become those companions by virtue of knowing Philip is attempting to find the Collector.
  • When walking onto the beach, Lilith trips and kicks the sand in frustration, blaming it on a rock. Minutes later, we see that she tripped on her own head, sticking out of a time pool.
  • Luz take's the medieval knight's helmet to hide her ears when she and Lilith head back into the past, explaining why it was missing from his corpse when she first arrived on the beach in the present day.
  • The scar Lilith leaves on Philip's nose goes in the same direction as the green scar Belos sports, glowing green and expanding slightly when he absorbs the palisman essence.
• Stealth Pun: At the beginning while Luz does research, she looks at the echo mouse running on its wheel and says, "You and me both, buddy." They're both spinning their wheels.
• Taken for Granite: Stonesleepers, as the name suggests, turn to stone when they fall asleep. The one in the chamber inside the Titan's Skull seems to have managed to sleep for millennia this way.
• Teleportation: Philip has a complex glyph pattern that allows him to teleport across the Isles in an instant.
• Tempting Fate: After punching Philip in the nose, Lilith tells him to "stay mad". Given how he turns out to be Belos, it's safe to say that he did.
• Time Travel Episode: Most of the episode takes place during Luz and Lilith's trip to the Deadwardian Era.
• Title-Only Opening: The intro theme in this episode is considerably shortened to make room for the upcoming lore dump related to Philip.
• Tragic Time Traveler: Luz and Lilith wind up traveling back in time to the Deadwardian Era in order for the former to learn more about the first visitor to the Isles, Phillip Wittebane. Once they meet him, Luz tries to help him by revealing to him the Light Glyph, and generally keeps an optimistic belief that he might turn out to be good. Sadly, he turns out to be anything but: not only being willing to sacrifice Lilith to a beast, but wanting to eradicate the witches despite living among them. The duo aren't happy about their discovery, and they leave with their hands empty and, in Luz's case, a Broken Pedestal.
• T. Rexpy: The Stonesleeper has a very tyrannosaur-like body plan.
• Two Aliases, One Character: The ending, in which Philip is shown to feed on Palismans to keep a transformation at bay, strongly implies that he and Emperor Belos are one and the same. Further cementing this, as Philip summons the Collector his voice switches over to that of the present-day Belos.
• The Unfettered: Philip is willing to do anything to get home, even sacrifice innocent people. At the end of the episode, it's revealed that Philip is willing to even endure the gruesome side-effects of his curse, one that he actively inflicts upon himself, to personally complete a far darker plan that involves the Collector and longevity for the next four centuries.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Luz and Lilith help defend Philip from the Red and Green Fang brothers, and are generally completely pleasant and helpful towards him throughout their trek, Luz even showing him the light glyph, which he hadn't seen yet. He still decides to use them as sacrifices for the Stonesleeper without a second thought.
• Unreliable Narrator:
  • We see first hand that Philip's supposed exploits are in fact him covering up the various people he used and then abandoned to gruesome fates once he got what he wanted.
  • This also extends to Emperor Belos. He claims that the Savage Ages were Exactly What It Says on the Tin, but Luz and Lilith discover that society is largely identical to the present except without the prejudice against multiple styles of magic, suggesting Belos is projecting his own hatred onto a society that, at the time, he had no control over.
• Voice of the Legion: After Philip absorbs the magic of a Palisman he starts speaking in his normal voice as well as Emperor Belos' voice at the same time, in case there was any doubt as to who he really is.
• Wham Episode: Luz and Lilith travel back through time and meet Philip, only to discover that he is a manipulative jerk. He's also revealed to have tattooed glyphs onto himself, causing Body Horror that he deals with in the same way as Belos, implying that they're one and the same. Finally, he retrieves a mysterious mirror from the Titan's Skull that he calls "the Collector", which is the name of the being who trapped the Owl Beast. Rubbing the mirror creates a projection of a face with sun/moon motifs, and Philip intends for the Collector to aid him in his plans.
• Wham Line: When Philip's true colors are revealed:
  Luz: (reading off Philip's journal) "I single-handedly defeated the beast behind the door. Tragically, I... could not save my companions"? Philip, why did you bring us here?
  Philip: (nonchalantly) I needed a sacrifice.
• Wham Shot:
  • When Luz is helping collect the scattered pages of Philip's diary, she sees an image of him with someone else, presumably his brother. This person looks remarkably like Hunter, but Luz can't analyze it further before Philip snatches it away.
  • When Philip returns to his hideout, his sleeve gets jacked up, exposing the glyphs tattooed on his arm, which then bulges and twists dangerously, prompting Philip to treat it by absorbing a Palisman. Just like Belos does. The cut from Lilith's punch can also be seen growing as a result.
• What Year Is This?: Played with. When sticking her head through a time pool, Luz asks a passing woman what era it is.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: When Luz and Lilith find him, Philip's leg is bandaged and splinted, and he walks with such a prominent limp that Luz offers to make him a pair of crutches in exchange for information. As they're approaching the Collector's chamber, Philip suddenly hisses in pain and crouches down to clutch his leg, letting Luz and Lilith take the lead on opening the door. After The Reveal that he's actually been tricking them the whole time, he suddenly loses the limp entirely, and unwraps the bandage to reveal that the splint was actually a collapsible shovel he uses to dig up the Collector's mirror.
• Written by the Winners:
  • The time before Belos came to power and banned Wild Magic has always been described as the "Savage Ages", with Wild Magic running amuck and a time of anarchy, but when Luz and Lilith actually travel back to when Philip was in the Boiling Isles via the time pools, they find it's no worse than the modern Boiling Isles. Hell, given what we see of early Bonesburough, it might actually be better in some ways, implying that it was largely Emperor's Coven propaganda.
  • Philip's diary turns out to have a lot of things that should be taken with a grain of salt, with Luz even seeing him write that he "couldn't save" Luz and Lilith, when he was actually sacrificing them as a distraction.
• You Are Already Dead: Philip wrote ahead of time just as Lilith is solving the puzzle that he couldn’t save his companions. Luz realizes something is wrong, and she finds out that Philip is using them as a sacrifice to distract the creature behind the door.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • When Luz laments Philip being a Broken Pedestal, Lilith assures her that if a jerk like Philip can make a portal to Earth over the course of years, Luz should be able to do it in a fraction of the time.
  • Dell also tells Eda this. He says that she can't let her guilt about what happened to him affect their relationship, because he knows that she never would have consciously hurt him. Dell tells Eda he regrets that he couldn't be a father to her, because she kept pushing him away; he can't force her to be his daughter, but he's not going to give up on loving her. This, plus him gifting Eda with a Palistrom seed, convinces Eda to accept his forgiveness, and apologize for pushing him away.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: It's revealed that Philip frequently did this to any companion unfortunate enough to join him on his expeditions, such as the Blue Fang brother. He not only tricked Luz and Lilith into solving the puzzle and getting attacked by the Stonesleeper, but even after he got what he wanted and they were still dodging the beast and it would have been easy enough to teleport them with him to safety, he still left them to die since he felt he didn't need them anymore.

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"It doesn't matter. I just need to live long enough to see this through. And you're going to help me... Collector."

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