Entering the number six spot in the Top 12 Countdown of the 2020 season and we’re back to The Owl House where this time around, it’s a doubleheader in the form of two episodes to wrap up the show’s first season. Of course, it is a two-parter and because it’s law, because I said so, gotta combine the two episodes into one with this every countdown. And of course, this season finale of The Owl House focuses on the two characters, being Eda and Lilith, how and why Eda got her curse, and of course...the introduction of the big baddie of the show in Emperor Belos. Coming in with number six in the Top 12 countdown, it’s The Owl House with both “Agony of a Witch” and “Young Blood, Old Souls”.
The two episodes to wrap up the show’s first season and not gonna lie, the first season as a whole was one, big wild ride since it’s humble beginning back in January...okay, had to binge-watch back in...like around May and I gotta, this was a hell of a ride for the season. Especially when it comes to some episodes with a few made it to the list with “Understanding Willow” for example, which landed in the number eight spot. And now, into the number six spot with the two episodes in both “Agony of a Witch” and “Young Blood, Old Souls”. And those two episodes are wild rides to wrap up the show’s first season. Especially with “Agony of a Witch”.
Starting off with Lilith planning on heading out with her army of men, rather some of the emperor’s guards and thinks to herself that today is the day that she finally gets her sister, Eda, to join the emperor’s coven, whether she likes it or not. Yeah, like what happened each and every time you tried that, and look how that ended. What makes you so sure that today’s finally the day fate might give you a W for once? I mean you did that when surrounding the property and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. And look at how that happened.
Defeated. All the men that served the emperor...down like punk bitches. And not just defeated...defeated by Hooty. Hooty! The door guardian demon that been treated like the butt of the show for seventeen episodes. Seventeen! And now finally decided to have the episode to now have Hooty see what he can do...and uh...yeah, took down an army of men, lead by Lilith. Taken down like punk bitches with Lilith also defeated and now been told to head back to the emperor following the failed raid, if you want to call it that because there was no raid. Just them surrounding the area only for Hooty to come in and fuck shit up.
Of course, while that is happening, Eda cooking up something that could serve as a plot device with the witch’s wool, or what Luz describes as magic spaghetti. Again, serving as a plot device, probably to be used later on with “Young Bloods, Old Souls” when it comes to Luz. But for now, it’s Eda cooking up the wool just as Luz is heading out for a field trip, the field trip reveals to be a visit to the emperor’s castle. But not before talking about Eda’s curse that she had to suffer through throughout the season since “The Intruder” because the gem on her chest seems to get darker and darker by the moment. Mostly due to her using excessive amounts of magic that cause the gem to get darken as each moment passes, worrying Luz because of fears that if the gem continues to get darker and darker, that she’ll not only transform into an owl beast. But also loses her ability to control and becomes a mindless being. With Eda saying to Luz that there’s nothing to worry about and decided to not use too much of her magic which uh...let’s just say, that’s going to make her eat her words later on with the fight against Lilith.
Other than that, Luz, along with Willow, Gus, and the other students of Hexside make their way to the emperor’s castle. Of course, Amity is benched from the trip and of course, the episode. Well...two episodes because of a broken leg that she got from the grudgby match back in “Wing It Like Witches” against Boscha and her team. Amity’s out for the remainder of the episode and the next, which is featured in the countdown, with Luz and the rest of the school are taken on a tour of the castle. Coming across with Lilith, who looks really defeated and making her way to Emperor Belos, and for Luz to see a hat on display. The hat revealing to be a magic healing hat, which Luz has an idea to steal the hat to give it to Eda for her curse. But not before seeing the introduction of what is pretty much the show’s big baddie.
Emperor Belos, seen here sitting on his throne and exhausted after a night out at the bar and looking like he’s experiencing some health issues once Lilith enters the room and bow, pretty sure there’s no out of context for what I’m about to say next. That “say” being taking what is supposed to be a palisman that was ripped out from its staff, didn’t say whose staff it was, but whatever Belos was doing to that palisman...well...can be quite disturbing when Belos cracks the item open like an egg and absorbs the magic from it to make himself feel at least somewhat better. Yeah, that was probably hard to see if you’re a kid who’s watching it. Some because I feel like some don’t feel bothered but also can feel mentally scarred looking at it. Especially Luz, who seems to be disturbed over seeing what just unfolded until being caught by both Willow and Gus for sneaking away from the group and have to sneak their way back to the group without being caught and also ready to steal the hat for Eda...until getting caught by Lilith and holding Luz from ransom and have both Willow and Gus about Luz’s situation to Eda, using her human pupil as bait for Eda to come out of the house and make her way, not knowing what’s about to come waiting there for her to come.
Thus onto what appears to be probably my favorite moment of the episode, and that is, of course, the fight between Eda and Lilith, who is holding Luz hostage. And I gotta say, it did not disappoint. Don’t know if you want to call this the fight of the year, though the anime community may have a say on that. By the way, none of the anime series made the cut this year. Most of them are English Dubs from Adult Swim in the Toonami block. Other than that, the fight was amazing to see between the two sisters going at it. Gloves going off and attack one another while at the same time for Eda, preventing Luz from getting harmed because they’re at the drawbridge and what’s in the bottom...yeah, that ain’t water. Of course, not knowing that Eda is using way too much magic that she didn’t notice that the gem on her chest is getting darker and darker. Then, of course, the reveal on how and who cast Eda to be cursed. Rather who because the “how” and “why” portion of the revelation, that’s later on.
Yeah, so Lilith just went through a Freudian slip when trying to hold off against Eda’s attack and reveals that she was the one who cursed Eda. She betrayed her own sister in the middle of the night while she was sleeping. A lot of folks were surprised but some knew that it was going to happen, either looking at the trailer and putting the pieces together or seeing the photo from “Wing It Like Witches” with both Lilith and Eda in their Hexside days and connect the pieces from each moment with Eda confronting the shadowy figure who cast the curse onto her. Either way, Lilith was the one who cast the curse onto her own sister and it looks like she got her victory at last in capturing Eda after Eda saved Luz by sacrificing herself that resulted in her gem turned to black and becoming an owl creature yet again, this time losing all control and being a mindless being. Enough for Lilith to capture her and have Luz to retreat back to the Owl House, in sadness and defeat, to close out the episode. And if you think that the train stops here? Well...no. Two-parter. Gotta get the other one out of the way, and that is “Young Blood, Old Souls”.
And the episode began with somewhat of a strong start with King reading through the history of the Boling Isles and Belos’ origins, you could say worldbuilding and lore making when it comes to the start of the episode, with how the Boiling Isles came to be with the boiling sea and composed of a fallen Titan with other pieces of the bones scattered around the area and questioning where does the Titan come from? How did it fall? How did it die off? Is this an Attack on Titan? Yeah, I’m currently watching the fourth season of the anime. Putting it out there. With images on the book showing areas of the island and the sky view of the isles and of course, Belos himself and showcasing him as like the Jesus Christ of the wizarding world and can talk and communicate with the Titan. Would say something like comparing Belos to like a pope, but someone who is pretty much a demigod may be the decent choice of words to describe Belos. But Luz seems to be busy being upset over what happened with the previous episode and thinks that now is the time to rescue Eda from Belos. Thus donning the cape, made from witch’s wool that Eda was cooking up before her capture, and decided to take matters into her own hands.
Speaking of Eda, Lilith tried to maintain her now owl beast sister about what’s to come next with Belos. Thinking that with Eda here, Belos would heal Eda of her curse and for her to join the coven. Oh...Lilith, Lilith, Lilith...someone didn’t read the fine print upon joining the coven. Yeah, so after Eda is somewhat but not fully cured, only her getting her sense back, and to be taken somewhere else and telling Lilith...he ain’t healing Eda. Eda ain’t joining. Holy shit Lilith, you got played like a total fool for an entire season. The whole damn season! Her goal was to convince Eda to join the coven and when she finally captured her, healing her of her curse that she put onto her own sister...got fucked in her side of the agreement with Belos. That and also Belos’ little staff apparently isn’t your usual witch/wizard staff because that staff seems too technological with the wires and that bulb with the core in the middle. And also his goal for the moment, that is the portal to the human world. The same portal that Luz came through when she first came to the Boiling Isles. So obviously Belos wants to invade and conqueror the human world because according to him, the titan said so. That’s like with Bleach when Sosuke Aizen execute the invasion of the human world, of course, that landed him, Gin, Tousen, and the three Espadas (Starrk, Barragan, and Halibel) and their Fracciones to Fake Karakura Town but Aizen, everything is not going his way, decided to head out to the real world. If you read or watch the series, you already know how all of this ended. That’s like that but if Aizen were to invade the Human World because the Soul King said so. What the fuck?!
So everyone got word from the news, from the news reporter named Perry Porter, who happened to be Gus’s father, of the incoming purification ritual that includes Eda being purified, which I think it’s this show’s version of live execution with Luz looking through the orb at a stand and not happy over it and causes her to break one of the orbs and now must find a way to get into the castle to break Eda out, leading to both her and King to commit a crime enough to get them to the castle. And that of course, having them step on the grass with a sign that said keep off the grass. And that’s enough to be thrown into the slammer. The Boiling Isles justice system, folks! At least it’s better than ours.
Luz and King enter the prison and attacks the guards with most of her glyphs that she drew up for her long battle to free Eda and that caught the attention of Lilith, after watching what both Willow and Gus are doing though not bothering to go after the two and sets her eyes on Luz. Speaking of Luz, she did reach Eda but rather than accepting Luz’s help and make their way out, Eda handed the key to the portal for Luz to head back home to the human world for her safety as Eda is now taken up to the stage for her purification with Lilith coming in, holding King hostage, and just wanted to have a chat. That of course, failed because she did anger Luz over what happened to Eda with Luz going HAM on the woman despite Lilith just wanting to talk, probably following finding out that she got fucked over by Belos over the bargain, thus resulting in them to fallen past the portal door and landed at the human world. Luz is back home where the series began and it looks like Luz’s magic...yeah, doesn’t work in the human realm. Yeah, we all thought that Luz’s mom, Camilla, would be a tiny appearance but uh...didn’t get that. Hmm...next season maybe. Thus entering flashback mode.
Eda and Lilith used to get along and seems like they’re the best of friends growing up with the beginning of the flashback with Eda fallen with a scraped knee with Lilith performing a spell that may sound like healing magic but it’s more of the user of the spell shares the same pain as the person who got it. A plot device that could be used for later. Lilith wanting to join the emperor’s coven. It’s a lifelong dream of her’s to join and want to work alongside Belos to make the world a better place. However, come their Hexside days, because Eda is deemed as the most powerful witch in the isles, with only one spot opened for one of the two Clawthorne sisters, Lilith isn’t going to take things lightly and decided to play dirty. The dirty play being cursing her own sister in the middle of the night. Not knowing that later in the flashback, just as the two girls begin to duke it out, Eda decided to throw in the towel and not wanting to fight against Lilith and telling the coven to give her sister the spot. Well before transforming into the owl beast for the first time. So uh...yeah. Lilith didn’t even notice that Eda don’t want to join the Emperor’s coven but it was too late, the damage is already done, and can’t take anything back. Thus, Luz, King, and Lilith join forces, oh yeah, looks like Lilith will be betraying the emperor, her now-former boss, to save Eda from the purification.
Not knowing that he heard that the three were talking shit and have both Lilith and King to join Eda in the purification, leaving Luz to deal with Belos. And while both Willow and Gus hijack the event with Willow telling the crowd and Gus invading his father’s airwaves, telling everyone that maybe Eda shouldn’t be purified and that what Belos is doing is wrong. And everyone seems to be agreeing to the idea. I mean, this doesn’t spell like a possible revolution to happen at the Boling Isles and like go against Belos and possibly overthrow him. I mean, that would be crazy. While that is happening, Luz goes head-to-head against Belos and she did try anything to at least land a hit on the guy but...it’s Belos. He’s pretty much the show’s big bad as the series goes further on. And the cape that Eda made for Luz to wear to protect herself...yeah, didn’t do jack dickity dick. Though she did land a hit by causing some damage to the mask and…
Yep, got a peek of a face. We may go Naruto on this route if you remember reading the manga or watching the anime where you have the masked man known as Tobi, joining the Akatsuki after Sasori’s death and once Itachi died, a massive shift to happen on the guy and reveals to be “Madara” to everyone...until Naruto smashes the mask during the battle in the war and reveals to be Obito. We’re going to this route again with Belos and him under his mask, are we? Can’t wait for the fans in the theory section to probably rip each other apart over the whole thing. And the usual Disney staple when it comes to how many seasons a show can hold is at four and no more. Though it appears that Belos seems to be backtracking away and convinces Luz to hand over the portal to the human world and thus, looking like she has no other choice, have to give it away, apologizes to her mother that she’s now stuck in the demon world with no way out. Not knowing that once Luz handed over the portal and on her way up to rescue Eda, Luz may have lost her battle against Belos by handing over the portal but it looks like Belos may have lost the battle as well because Luz has various glyphs attached to the case and boom! Belos ain’t coming over to dinner at the human world but as a result, the same goes for Luz. She’s now trapped with no way back home. It was a noble sacrifice for Luz to pull and at least she did the right thing to prevent her home from getting harmed...for now.
Luz finally made it to the stage and stops the purification despite that Eda is about 50% covered in stone and unable to fly in her beast mode but back to 0% with her purification and was about to be corned by the guards...until Belos comes in and says that the titan tells him to let them go free...yeah...sure. Let’s go with that. Despite that, you’re probably now labeling them as criminals. Eda and King, yes. But Luz and Lilith, yeah...welcome to the club, you two! Regardless, the four made it back to the Owl House with Lilith making a sacrifice by using the spell and share the same curse as Lilith despite that Eda doesn’t have her magic anymore and have Luz to take over the mentor role. That and also the Lilith redemption arc after what she did all season long. And...okay, just to get this out of the way for once. We end the season with Belos not calling it quits on the whole human realm invasion idea and sends someone, a mysterious someone in the mask to watch over the four. Don’t know who that mysterious person is but...Season 2...maybe can cover who that person really is. But that’s not what I’m going for.
It’s this. That. This is what I’m talking about. Another way to get to the human realm and...it’s a portal. A fucking portal. Another fucking portal in another Disney animated series! Like… do the people over at Disney Television Animation have a portal fetish?! Is that what it is now?! Gravity Falls, Phineas and Ferb, Amphibia maybe...I don’t know, and now this?! Is this a trend? Is this now a trend over at the studio when it comes to any series from the production company? A fucking portal fetish?! Are they just running out of ideas?! Is that what is it?! Be original! Can you do that for once! Be fucking original! Lay off the portal trend! Why do I get the feeling that Big City Greens could follow suit in the future? Regardless, Belos ain’t stopping until he gets what he wanted and setting things up for what could be a very long road ahead. Thus wrapping up the show’s first season.
Oh man, what a freaking mouthful with these two episodes. I should probably make things short and simple just to wrap this puppy up short in the thoughts and reaction process. Going with “Agony of a Witch” because my freaking god, that was a roller coaster of a ride with the episode with probably my favorite scene of the episode being the fight between both Eda and Lilith and of course, the betrayal that followed suit. Sure, some people may have already guessed it before the episode but the shock factor didn’t go away and that’s something I like.
Whereas with “Young Blood, Old Souls”, the beginning of the episode did have some worldbuilding with the history of the Boiling Isles and the lore of the show, mostly with Belos and how he rose into power. That’s something to be interesting if you’re a fan of the show who likes to explore the show even further, the beginning of the episode was definitely something for you, and probably wishing for something more in the future. Where the rest of the episode, I mean it’s not on the same level as where “Agony of a Witch” left off, but it was something already. Exploring Lilith and Eda’s backstories and how and why Lilith cursed her sister after spilling the beans in the previous episode. Showing that Belos is not the type of person you don’t want to mess with. And of course, much like with Willow and Amity after “Understanding Willow”, it’s going to take some time for both Eda and Lilith to reconcile following what happened from their childhood to the events of “Agony of a Witch” and the lead up to Eda’s capture. Though, if you’re planning on doing a Disney series in the future...don’t follow the portal trend...just...just no. But out of the two, “Agony of a Witch” is a great episode out of the two episodes to close out the show’s first season but other than that, that’s it for the number six spot. A handful of words to say and Season 2, man...shit’s about to go down. And if you’re wondering about Grom because that’s what everyone is going to say...don’t worry...it’s a coming. It’s coming. We now have five more spots to fill before 2020 is over with.
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