Another hour-long episode taking place here on the Top 12 Countdown to kick off the last official week of the year. In fact, numbers 7, 6, 5, and 4...yeah, this is where the next few posts in the next few days are going to kick my ass and we begin with one of them taking the number 7 spot in the countdown. So, coming in at number 7, knowing that there were only two episodes for this series and still wishing there should’ve been more, it’s The Owl House with “For the Future”. One of the two last specials that came out this year alone.
So, where we left off after the events of “Thanks to Them”, you have Luz and her friends taking refuge in the human world after the demon realm gets turned to shit thanks in part to Belos attempting to commit witch-o-cide for the Day of Unity before getting flicked like a bug by the Collector, who then turns the Boiling Isles into his toy box and also holding King hostage after making a deal with the deity to be his play pal, in short, the demon realm got turned upside down thanks in part to Belos and later the Collector, and also Luz by accident and Luz and the others plot their return and save the demon realm, only for Belos, his remnants, after being taken out in a snap by The Collector, stow away to the human realm and hamper the kids’ plans.
With the previous episode started with Luz and her friends’ side of the story with them running off to safety and taking refuge in the human realm for a few months residing at the Noceda household with Camila and Vee, you have this episode starting with King and Eda’s side of the coin with the Boiling Isles going from a dystopian type of feeling after what was supposed to be a genocide taking place at the hands of Belos with the draining spell to now becoming The Collector’s playroom with everything being turned into an imaginative world and the witches that were caught in the crosshairs being turned into puppets. Yeah, the show is not kidding when it comes to them wanting to go for the whole world-ending theme since the end is nigh for this episode when it first came out.
And right off the bat with the start of the episode after that cold open with Luz waking up to the same realm that she came across in “Yesterday’s Lie” where you have Luz hearing the muffled voice in the background. And a lot of questions surrounding that scene when the episode first came out back in January. Ranging from who the voice was to why was Luz even there without everyone else in attendance, but ended up being dragged out by Amity and telling that everyone did make it out, it’s just Luz had to feel somewhat like she’s been knocked out or something before waking up by hearing a sound somewhere in the realm between portals.
But besides that, once Luz gets pulled out by is where the race to get The Collector and stop Belos is a go for everyone, despite that they just now see what had happened to the Demon Realm courtesy of The Collector. Especially when seeing the landscape from the cliff and later going through the town square of the Boiling Isles when seeing everyone as puppets becoming playthings for The Collector as part of King’s proposition to play a game of Owl House for the Celestial Being that should keep things in check. Though, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in that one scene with Camila seeing King with her saying “ay que lindo”, similar to Luz’s first meeting with the would-be titan in the first episode.
Didn’t take long for the reunion between friends once they came across Mattholomule, sorry, Matt Holomule since that name had to be spaced apart, him alongside Skara and Barcus and made their way to Hexside where the rest of the students and Principal Bump taking refuge from the Day of Unity and now having to hide from the agents that The Collector sent out to become the being’s playthings despite the loss of few of the students and most of the teachers from Hexside becoming victims to the transformation after getting caught. So, it looks like the folks who around the later part of Season 2, after having the school being invaded by the Emperor’s Coven, rather the soldiers, being led by the head of the Illusion Coven, trying to force everyone to have that mark attached to their arms for the Day of Unity to become victims of the draining spell, you have them being warned about everything that is about to come regarding the Day of Unity and you’d think that they would have the chance to rebel against Belos...get sidelined. But they knew on what they were doing when facing against The Collector’s agents...right after one of their own got caught and transformed into a puppet. Other than that, reunions between everyone who had taken refuge at Hexside and Luz and her friends who had taken refuge in the human realm. Hell, you have that small scene with Amity being reunited with Edric and Emira before the reunion had to be cut short when Luz and the others are being summoned by the person who is in charge of the group.
And of course, it’s freaking Boscha. She, along with a random student being served as her right-hand lackey who looks like Kikimora...that because it is Kikimora once she revealed herself to Luz and Camila later in the episode. I mean, that was blatantly obvious that the person who would stand aside Boscha during this whole shit would be Kikimora, who, mind you, got pushed aside by Belos on the Day of Unity, only does this for shits and giggles. That, and also wanting to create her own empire. I mean, come on, we all knew that was her the moment we saw her standing next to Boscha. At least she got what she deserved by the end of this episode with the other kids landing a bit on her and her abom-atron, of course, led by Boscha at the behest of Amity. Oh yeah, let's get to that little confrontation. Because while you have Luz and Camila taking on Kikmora with little to no resources to fight...
You have Amity taking on Boscha. Oh yeah, we have drama, folks. Especially in the middle of a world-ending event. This confrontation pretty much boils down to Boscha being upset over the fact that Amity left her group and to go be with Luz, Willow, Gus, and Hunter. And if we're going to be honest, I think Amity did have the right to change camps and I don't know if you even want to call it a “friendship” to begin with. I mean, it was at first but that was mostly because Amity at the start of the series was this pompous, organized individual who always excelled at magic and was seen a few times hanging with the popular crowd but that was before finding out that she was a byproduct by her parents, primarily Odalia. Alador also but he did have that turnaround by the end of the second season when deciding that he was getting tired of Odalia’s bullshit. Yeah, I’m saying that Boscha was a toxic individual. Granted, she did have a bit of a change of heart thanks to Amity helping Luz and Camila to defeat Kikimora, but with the way she usually put down certain students, primarily Willow and one time Luz and Gus in “Wing It Like Witches”, but bottom line, in my opinion, she’s quite a toxic individual. Hell, she made herself the leader without everyone casting a single vote but even if there was a vote, people would be scared to vote for someone who is not her. Had to get it out of my chest because fuck her.
We get to some sentimental scenes with this episode. Starting with Luz and Camila when hiding in retreat mode when taking on Kikimora where you have Luz continuing to beat herself down with the damage she caused regarding everything months ago that might’ve doomed everyone in the Demon Realm and in this scene, you have Luz beating herself down once more because of everything that went out of control. And you have Camila comforting her daughter and saying that she didn’t mess anything up and telling her that’s a part of life where you’re going to mess things up and that’s alright. Especially when she found a vlog of Luz declaring that she would not make a return to the Demon Realm for good once the whole situation with Belos and The Collector blows over from the last episode because of fears that she’ll mess up even more. But Camila makes sure that what Luz said about what she wanted to do once the issue is done won’t be the case because you have her apologizing to her daughter for wanting to be someone she is not, that being the whole thing with Luz being sent to summer camp to be normal and confessed that she doesn’t want to do that. This causes Camila to reveal her nerdy side to Luz, her actual side because mind you, in the previous episode, you have that little dream sequence with her feeling the pressure from a few people in public and the principal of Luz’s school about Luz’s behavior despite that she was only being herself. Her being bullied and having to deal with the pressure of being a single mom since Manny’s passing. Camila apologizes to Luz for be too protective and it is at that point where Luz’s palisman egg decides to hatch because that is something that Luz wants and that is to be understood. But it’s not just Luz and Camila who had their come to Jesus moment...
You also have Willow and Hunter with Gus also there when being caught in the crossfire. Willow also had her moment that needed to be comforted upon returning to the Boiling Isles with the thoughts of her dads and the concern for their wellbeing. You have her trying to be helpful whether it’s setting up camp at the Owl House or at Hexside to help some people with their troubles, which includes Luz when trying to find a way to get to the archive house where The Collector is by having the memory photo from her head extracted. And you noticed the red flag earlier in the episode with Willow as she starts to succumb to stress, as seen with a few weeds starting to grow from the floor out of nowhere. And...yeah, she lost all control when coming across with Boscha after seeing Hunter being upset because of a picture of Flapjack that was given to him from Luz’s head and also him being a grimwalker that made him a walking target for Belos is when all hell break loose courtesy of Boscha when deciding to take a walk for herself.
You have to give mad props to Hunter for comforting Willow because ever since infiltrating Hexside by becoming a member of Willow’s flying derby team in “Any Sport in a Storm” and especially joining sides in “Labyrinth Runners” and “Clouds on the Horizon”, the one person who Hunter understand the most, aside from Luz even though those two have a brother/sister dynamic, is Willow. And I know that this pretty much fanning the flames for the Huntlow shippers (people who ship Willow and Hunter), but you have to give Hunter a lot of credit for him to comfort Willow after being unable to control her magic and seeing her beating herself down and calling herself “half-a-witch”, the chains had to come off for Hunter to say to her, “No. Stop it. Stop calling yourself that. Stop beating yourself down. You can’t continue to hold it. You have to let it go.” Saying to Willow that she had to let go. She can’t continue to hold her emotions at a time of crisis because she’s worried about her family. She’s worried about her friends. She’s feeling the pressure upon returning to the Demon Realm that she tries to hold her emotions and shifts her attention to helping others but in the end, she ends up letting it go. Enough to create an opening for Hunter, Willow, and Gus to make an escape courtesy of Hunter’s newfound powers to teleport with the memories of Flapjack residing in his heart. Cheesy, but hey, something has to be done.
And, okay, yeah, the moment that might’ve made the ship canon, even though it wasn’t actually confirmed by the show with this scene at the end of the episode and also the epilogue scene at the end of “Watching and Dreaming” but they were a lot of Huntlow that were celebrating as if they just won the Super Bowl just because of that one scene with Hunter and Willow locking fingers and the blush on their faces. Knowing that this was the second-to-last episode of the series, let them celebrate.
Aside from everything regarding Luz and the others, you have everyone else with them doing their part in this episode. You have Belos on the verge of possible collapse on his way to reach The Collector, ready to possess the celestial being if he’s going to commit genocide on every witch in the Demon Realm, and him seeing a vision of Caleb as a ghost as if Belos’ conscious is haunting him for everything he had done, that includes killing his own flesh and blood just because he was sliding into Evelyn’s DMs. Yeah, I did say that and I apologize. Of course, him wanting to possess The Collector was a no-go, so possessing someone and manipulating The Collector is the next thing up, and, of course, it’s Raine that Belos possessed. Like, seriously, what did Raine do to deserve this?
Eda and King finally reunited after months of King being The Collector’s play date that almost feels like he’s pretty much the kid’s babysitter with King sneaking his way out of the castle and going into where Eda and Lilith are with King sneaking one person or being that fell victim to The Collector, that being ends up being Hooty if anyone was wondering. Talking about how to come up with an idea to down The Collector and viable information coming from King after reading that bedtime story for the celestial being and apparently, convincing The Collector isn’t going to be an easy task to make the being to stand down and turn everything back to normal. Causing both King and Eda to brainstorm to get The Collector to be on their side to fix the damages, while at the same time, worrying about Luz’s wellbeing. Not knowing that their conversation is being eavesdropped by The Collector and Belos in Raine’s body. And you know when watching this episode that Belos will stop at nothing until he gets what he wants.
And now, I know that I missed a few, so I apologize, we get to the end where we get the moment we’ve been waiting for since Season 2 and that is the hatching of Luz’s palisman. And to some people, no surprise on what Luz’s palisman is going to resemble once it hatches. Some people thought it would be an owl like Eda’s. Some thought it would be a bat. Some would think that it would be an otter. But alas, it’s a snake that becomes Luz’s palisman. I mean, take a look at the logo. Tell me that you don’t see the resemblance or the clue that was shown on the show’s logo. But other than that, Luz finally got her palisman and just in time for the finale to take place at the end of the episode.
Where you have both The Collector and Belos in Raine’s body seeing what they’re seeing as Belos’ manipulation of The Collector is working in his favor. Especially when seeing Luz, who The Collector is not too pleased because he knows that with Luz returning, it would make King crawl back to her and Eda, mostly Luz because of their strong bond throughout the series. And thus, it’s genocide o’clock with The Collector snapping his fingers to end the episode to leave it with a cliffhanger. And we’ll get to “Watching and Dreaming” later in the countdown.
But besides that, “For the Future” was an interesting episode in what is the set-up for the show’s finale knowing that this is the second to last episode because of that shortened third season being divided into three sets of specials. It was a good episode and again, I apologize for leaving certain stuff out like Odalia almost getting sent packing by Belos, only for him to take over Raine’s body. So close to doing the fandom a favor. The comfort for Luz with Camila and Willow with Hunter and Gus were the highlights for this episode with those two, knowing that we’re in the endgame, they need a pick-me-up when getting ready for the final battle between Luz and the others and Belos. And out of those two, I know that Luz was the highlight because she thought she messed up and continued to beat herself down, only for her mom Camila to comfort her and tell her that messing things up is a part of life and apologize for falling into pressure to make her into someone she is not, it’s Willow that I have to consider this a highlight. Since the whole thing began and eventually returning to the Demon Realm, you know that she was holding her emotions and one little mishap from Boscha made things out of control and you have to hand it to Hunter for comforting Willow and telling her that it’s alright to let go.
Aside from that, it was an interesting episode and other than that, you have to see what The Collector can do and you can see how much of a threat that he is, especially after King reads him a bedtime story and later tells Eda that convincing the celestial being won’t be an easy task, setting up a difficult task for the main cast for the finale. And, of course, the person who had it easy in the convincing game with The Collector was Belos to created the high-stakes tension for the finale, which I’ll get to later in the countdown. And, again, apologies for leaving out a few moments in the episode, knowing that it was the holiday season, things can get a little sloppy. So apologies for that.
This wraps up the number 7 spot on the Top 12 Countdown of the year 2023. What do you think about this episode? Should it be higher, lower, or stay put on your list? Put it in the comments below as we prepare to go into the Number 6 spot of the Top 12 Countdown. Which episode and series will be taking the sixth spot? Find and see sometime tomorrow. Follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, and BlueSky for updates and behind-the-scenes stuff. And y’all should know the drill by now...
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