History Recap / TheOwlHouseS2E16HollowMind

* {{Irony}}: Luz notes in the first half of the episode how ObviouslyEvil Belos is and expresses surprise at how nobody else can seem to understand how he's [[ManipulativeBastard lying to and manipulating the populace with falsehoods]], but within Belos' mind, she also winds up manipulated by him into doing his bidding [[Recap/TheOwlHouseS2E12ElsewhereAndElsewhen the exact same way he did last time]] -- by appealing to her caring nature and manipulating into doing what he wants until she realises too late he has an ulterior motive, showing how skilled at deceiving others Belos actually is, to lead Luz around even when she ''knows'' he's untrustworthy.

* RemovedFromThePicture: All of the memory photos of Philip's childhood have his brother's eyes scratched out. It isn't until the episode gets to photos of his adulthood that the audience gets a good look at his face and sees that he looks just like Hunter. It's hinted that this is an extension of Philip [[IRejectYourReality denying the happier times they shared together]] as family on Earth, until he meets him again on the Boiling Isles and now recognised him as an '[[SelfServingMemory enemy who betrayed him]]', hinted to be a coping mechanism to deal with the fact he [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone violently murdered his beloved brother over his own bigoted views]] and secretly keeps trying to [[NeverMyFault justify the act to himself]]. As an extension of that, [[IHaveNoSon he refuses to refer to him as his brother as all]], merely an 'old friend' that he hopes the Grimwalkers will become a 'better version' of.

** Surprisingly, despite everything that's been demonstrated from both his present and past self as 'Philip', his true nature is even '''worse''' than he's demonstrated before, being a genocidal {{Witch Hunter}} whose acts of benevolence or HiddenDepths towards others are revealed to be mere fabrications he puts on to control or mislead those around him, and Belos honestly thinks nothing of killing, hurting or destroying however many people it takes to realise his [[FinalSolution insane ambitions]]. Notably, the Inner Belos could have stopped the duo from finding this out at any point, but [[UnwittingPawn deliberately led them around]] from memory to memory whilst it gathered the preparations it needed to excise the Palismen beast from Belos' mind for good, explicitly exposing Belos's incriminating memories to them because he was planning on [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness dealing with the pair of them]] once the beast was gone.

-->'''Collector:''' To you, who strays so far from home! To me, who's trapped beneath these bones! We'll play forever, [[BigBadDuumvirate me and you]]! '''[[FinalSolution When you paint the land IN NINE BRIGHT HUES!]]'''

* WhamShot: While the reveal that there have been other Golden Guards before Hunter had already been made, it doesn't hit home just ''how many'' there were until Hunter and Luz find a hallway full of broken masks and memories of dead Grimwalkers.

* TheVoiceless: Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf never speak on-screen in this episode due to needing to stay as stealthy as possible. Even Raine saying that they know how to get past Hooty is scrawled in the dirt instead of spoken out loud.

** Surprisingly, despite everything that's been demonstrated from both his present and past self as 'Philip', his true nature is even '''worse''' than he's demonstrated before, being a genocidal {{Witch Hunter}} whose acts of benevolence or HiddenDepths towards others are revealed to be mere fabrications he puts on to control or mislead those around him, and Belos honestly thinks nothing of killing, hurting or destroying however many people it takes to realise his [[FinalSolution insane ambitions]]. Notably, the Inner Belos could have stopped the duo from finding this out at any point, but [[UnwittingPawn deliberately led them around]] from memory to memory whilst it gathered the preparations it needed to excise the Palismen beast from Belos' mind for good, explicitly exposing Belos's incriminating memories to them because he was planning on [[YouHaveOutlivedYourusefulness dealing with the pair of them]] once the beast was gone.
** There are several memories within Belos' mindscape that could have [[SympathyForTheDevil drawn conflicting sympathies]] from Luz and Hunter, namely how he was raised as a witch hunter in a Puritan society and how he felt abandoned and betrayed when his brother disappeared into the Demon Realm and was later discovered to have fallen in love with a witch. Yet, Inner Belos doesn't take Luz and Hunter to those memories because they portray him as emotionally weak and fallible, which threatens his image as an all-powerful, all-knowing crusader of justice who is "selfish" and "self-sacrificing" for a higher purpose. Because he refuses to elaborate on his true past, [[NiceJobFixingItVillain he makes it easier for Luz and Hunter to see him as simply evil]].

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: The entire episode is this for Belos, taking place inside his mindscape with only the isolated Luz and Hunter privy to his true thoughts and intentions towards others. Surprisingly, despite everything that's been demonstrated from both his present and past self as 'Philip', his true nature is even '''worse''' than he's demonstrated before, being a genocidal {{Witch Hunter}} whose acts of benevolence or HiddenDepths towards others are revealed to be mere fabrications he puts on to control or mislead those around him, and Belos honestly thinks nothing of killing, hurting or destroying however many people it takes to realise his [[FinalSolution insane ambitions]]. Notably, the Inner Belos could have stopped the duo from finding this out at any point, but [[UnwittingPawn deliberately led them around]] from memory to memory whilst it gathered the preparations it needed to excise the Palismen beast from Belos' mind for good, explicitly exposing Belos's incriminating memories to them because he was planning on [[YouHaveOutlivedYourusefulness dealing with the pair of them]] once the beast was gone.

* ExactWords: Belos told Hunter that wild magic wiped out everyone in their family, that "everyone [[HeKnowsTooMuch knew too much]] and got themselves hurt." It wasn't the wild magic that hurt them, though; it was that they learned what Belos ''really'' planned to do with wild magic.

** The child Belos keeps stealing random things for no apparent reason, suggesting he has a more defined will than the monstrous apparition of Belos that has been chasing them. Sure enough, he's the real deal.

** The Child Belos' wooden mask bearing a resemblance to Emperor Belos' own hints at the fact that it's both the inspiration for his current look, as well as the fact that Philip's motivations for hunting witches are rooted in his steadfast childhood beliefs that they are evil monsters. Him clearly treasuring the mask is also a hint towards his genuine love and fondness for his brother, based on their childhood memories of playing together.

* MoralMyopia: It turns out that Belos ''hates'' witches and magic-kind, and everything he's done has been with the intent of destroying them to "save humanity from evil"... and he achieved this by magically extending his life, creating the coven system and his own theocratic regime to organize magical society to his liking (and by extension turning it into a WorldOfJerkass), making a deal with an ObviouslyEvil eldritch entity, creating and destroying various replicas of someone he was close to because he could, and presumably countless other atrocities to do it. Simply put, he couldn't have been capable of destroying magic ''without using magic.''

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum Just remember,]]'' ''[[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor if you look in the face of evil,]]'' ''[[DarkSecret Evil]]'' ''[[BreakTheCutie is gonna look right back at you.]]'']]

* UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode: Easily one of the more nightmarish and revealing episodes of the season; the absence of the opening theme even builds up to such.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: The paintings in Belos's true mindscape show a story where, as children, Philip and another boy--possibly his brother--used to be close, but when said boy eventually grew to like witches, Philip was outraged and then killed him.

* {{Lockdown}}: Hooty invokes this at Eda's behest, bringing metal shutters down over every window of the Owl House, and putting multiple locks over the front door, with Hooty himself to dispatch any trespassers. This forces Raine to have to trick Hooty into delivering the teleportation potion, since they can't personally give it to her without risking a hostile confrontation.

** For Hunter, he happily lives in the conforming lies of Emperor Belos, defending his uncle's clearly evil actions to illogical extremes. But as he explores deeper into Belos's memories, the harsh truth that Luz is trying to show him completely breaks Hunter and he ultimately flees in terror.
** For Luz, she thinks that unveiling the truth about Belos would be easy to do, believing that it would break Belos' hold over the populace. She gets more than she bargains for when her attempt to convince Hunter [[GoneHorriblyRight works far too well]], and then learns that Belos is actually Philip Wittebane, whom she's helped and idolized. Luz ironically can't accept this awful truth, wanting to go back to the conforming lie of the noble Philip in her imagination.

* CopiedTheMoralsToo: It's implied that part of why Belos's Grimwalkers keep betraying him is that they're ''too'' good of a copy of his friend/possible brother, possessing a greater internal morality than Belos that leads to them turning against him once they realize the full depth of his plans.

** On that note, Belos trying to groom individuals into being a ReplacementGoldfish for a close friend or brother (that he killed for "betraying" him), all of whom he treats like family yet expects perfect obedience from, then kills them when they question or disobey him, is eerily reminiscent of {{Domestic Abuse}}rs who end up [[MurderInTheFamily killing their victims]]. (As many DomesticAbuse victims end up being killed by their abusers, usually for disobeying, trying to leave, or [[YouHaveFailedMe failing to live up to the abuser's rigid standards]].)

* DuelToTheDeath: A few background memories in Belos's mindscape indicate a close companion of his who resembled Hunter, implied to be his brother, ended up romancing a witch, which enraged Philip/Belos, and he fought him in a knife fight where Philip ended up murdering him. The expression on the Hunter-like companion's face shows he really didn't want to fight Philip.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Downplayed. Based on the imagery of Belos/Philip's interactions with his old companion (very likely his brother), he did genuinely care for him, but his love eventually became twisted to the point where he killed him. Hunter and his predecessors were all created as copies of this loved one, but whether Belos truly cared for them deep down is highly suspect; he claims that it hurts him when they always eventually betray him, but his tone and expression when claiming this seem to imply otherwise.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Belos doesn't seem to get why Luz would see his FinalSolution plans for the witches and demons of the Isles as a ''bad'' thing. Or why the Grimwalkers always betray him. Or why his original friend/brother betrayed him.

* HistoryRepeats: Apparently, the Grimwalkers ''always'' eventually turn against Belos, and if the damaged memories of Belos's old companion are accurate, the original person whom they're based on turned against him too.

* LegacyCharacter: It turns out that the Golden Guard isn't just a title passed down throughout the ages; ''Hunter himself'' is the latest in a long-line of Grimwalkers Belos had created in the image of his human friend (implied to be his brother), one that Belos had every intention of killing and replacing during their InevitableMutualBetrayal.

* MurderInTheFamily: It's strongly implied that the close companion Belos is trying to replace with Grimwalkers (like Hunter) was Philip Wittebane's brother, whom the portraits in his mindscape strongly imply he killed... just as he killed every other Grimwalker who "betrayed" him.

** Belos once again feels that he's in the right and anyone who disagrees with him is crazy or wrong. He views his close friend/brother befriending witches (and possibly marrying one) as a personal betrayal, and blames the Grimwalkers he created for "betraying him" when evidence suggests that at least some of said betrayals were simply just ''questioning'' him, like he does with Hunter in this episode, and the rest were the Grimwalkers [[CopiedTheMoralsToo realizing how evil he really was]]. The Collector even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this when he gets mad at Hunter for defying orders in a flashback to just after "Eclipse Lake" (despite having brought him the portal key, if damaged), saying that they think that Belos ''enjoys'' destroying the clones, and while Belos denies it, his small grin hints otherwise.

** Hunter and all the prior Golden Guards are artificial constructs Belos created, known as Grimwalkers, and he killed all the prior ones once they "betrayed" him. The Grimwalkers are also based on a former companion of his.

* BaitAndSwitch: At first it seems like the child Belos is the manifestation of Belos' guilt or some other emotion, while the Inner Belos is the monster that's chasing Hunter and Luz throughout his mind, but the ''child'' turns out to be the Inner Belos in disguise, while the monstrous one is really the embodiment of the Palisman souls he's consumed, and is apparently trying to rescue them by stopping the Inner Belos.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: That little kid Belos that was leading Luz and Hunter through Belos's mind wasn't helping them at all. It was just using them to get rid of the palisman monster that had been plaguing Belos's mindscape, and was actually adult Belos in disguise.

* CryLaughing: PlayedForHorror. When the Inner Belos' true nature is revealed, his CrocodileTears devolve into {{Evil Laugh}}ter just before he activates his trap to destroy the Palisman beast.

** The monster briefly assuming a form with "a thousand glowing eyes" hints at its true nature as an amalgamation of hundreds of Palisman souls.
** It's debated in the episode if it's possible for one individual to have more than one inner self, although such a thing has never been definitively proved. Sure enough, the "monster" and the "child" prove to be amalgamations of the Palisman Belos has absorbed and Belos' real inner self respectively.

** [[https://www.reddit.com/r/TheOwlHouse/comments/ua2i0m/all_the_paintings_from_hollow_mind/ The paintings in the background]] show the tragic story of Philip and his brother. The two grew up in a witch-hunting town with dreams of being witch hunters themselves. At some point Philip and his brother met a witch, and while the brother was fascinated by magic and greeted the witch with friendliness, Philip feared the witch and cowered when meeting them. Years pass and the two brothers as young adults end up on the Boiling Isles. The brother meets a witch and falls in love with her, and even conceives a child with her. Philip, meanwhile, has been studying the Isles and is disgusted by the denizens, and begins experimenting with Glyphs and Palismans, carving Glyphs into his skin. At some point he goes out of control and becomes a monster but is rescued by his brother via CoolDownHug. Assumingly much later -- as Philip is shown with a beard -- the brother introduces Philip to his wife, but we see Philip is hiding his knife during this meetup. Philip attacks the two, and ends up having a knife fight in a burning area with his brother. Philip kills his brother, but the witch chases him away with magic. Philip continues researching magic, collecting ingredients for his Portal Door, searching for the Collector, and writing his journal while killing Witches and Demons for their Palismen -- around the time Luz and Lilith met him in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen". Philip finally changes his hair, cuts his ears to points using the same knife he killed his brother with, dons a mask similar to the one his brother once carved for him when they were children, and becomes Belos.

** To Eda: The trap that Inner Belos springs for the Palisman Monster utilizes a series of potions that looks an awful lot like the elixirs that Eda uses to keep her curse in check. This draws an uncanny parallel between the Palisman Monster and the Owl Beast, Eda and Belos needing a special form of mental magic (Eda ingesting sleeping nettles, Belos getting Luz and Hunter's help) in order to gain control of their more beastly halves. But whereas Eda learned to live alongside the Owl Beast, having had the curse thrust upon the both of them unwillingly, Belos's condition was self-inflicted and he seeks to purge himself of the problem entirely, destroying countless innocent palismen in the process.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: The entire episode is this for Belos, taking place inside his mindscape with only the isolated Luz and Hunter privy to his true thoughts and intentions towards others. Surprisingly, despite everything that's been demonstrated from both his present and past self as 'Philip', his true nature is even '''worse''' than he's demonstrated before, being a genocidal {{Witch Hunter}} whose acts of benevolence or HiddenDepths towards others are revealed to be mere fabrications he puts on to control or mislead those around him, and Belos honestly thinks nothing of killing, hurting or destroying however many people it takes to realise his [[FinalSolution insane ambitions]]. Notably, the Inner Belos could have stopped the duo from finding this out at any point, but [[UnwittingPawn deliberately led them around]] from memory to memory whilst it gathered the preparations it needed to excise the Palisman beast from Belos' mind for good, explicitly exposing Belos's incriminating memories to them because he was planning on [[YouHaveOutlivedYourusefulness dealing with the pair of them]] once the beast was gone.

* YourSoulIsMine: Apparently, when Belos absorbs a Palisman, he's actually ''stealing its soul'', and they all exist inside his mindscape, which is the apparent source of his affliction, or at least why he can't control it. With Luz and Hunter's unwitting help, he captures the Palisman amalgam and destroys it, seemingly eliminating his PowerIncontinence in the process.

** For Luz, she thinks that unveiling the truth about Belos would be easy to do, believing that would break Belos's hold over the populace. She gets more than she bargains for when her attempt to convince Hunter [[GoneHorriblyRight works far too well]], and then learns that Belos is actually Philip Wittebane, whom she's helped and idolized. Luz ironically can't accept this awful truth, wanting to go back to the conforming lie of the noble Philip in her imagination.
** For Belos himself, he truly believes that witches and demons are inherently evil, and refuses to see any other viewpoint. Since his plan for witch genocide took centuries to perfect, Belos's beliefs are ironclad and immovable since he doesn't want to believe he wasted centuries of his life for the wrong cause. His mindscape also reflects how he constantly lies to himself in his head, and how his real memories are in shambles with portraits of happier times with his brother clawed out.

* AmbiguouslyRelated: Several of Belos's memory portraits show his brother in a relationship with a red-headed witch with yellow spell circles (just like Eda) who also appeared pregnant, though whether or not they're meant to be an ancestor of the Clawthorne family goes unsaid.

* BaitAndSwitch: At first it seems like the child Belos is the manifestation of Belos's guilt or some other emotion, while the Inner Belos is the monster that's chasing Hunter and Luz throughout his mind, but the ''child'' turns out to be the Inner Belos in disguise, while the monstrous one is really the embodiment of the Palisman souls he's consumed, and is apparently trying to rescue them by stopping the Inner Belos.
* BatmanGambit: Because the house was heavily locked with Hooty on high alert, taking him out without alerting the residents was no simple matter, and neither was sneaking past him to deliver the teleportation spell to Eda. Raine goes for the most mundane trick of disguising the potion as a bouquet of flowers knowing that even Hooty wouldn't question something so innocent.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Luz vows to find evidence that Belos is an evil fraud, but the awful truth is much more than she bargained for. To a lesser extent, near the beginning of the episode she wonders why people blindly follow him despite him telling BlatantLies. Near the end of the episode, she learns that she fell for his scam as Philip more easily than the locals. She even spent most of the episode trying to prove to Hunter of all people that his uncle is a fraud, but never did she realize how personal and horrifying the truth really is for him, like being one of many expendable grimwalkers, which almost gets Hunter killed by Belos upon revelation and he runs away mortified.
* BeneathTheMask: Even in his own mind, Belos/Philip is not as kindly or benevolent as he thinks he is. The pristine and golden portraits of the mindscape that Luz and Hunter first stumble into are revealed to gloss over a much more twisted and barren mindscape, with the much more cruel and ugly memories beneath. When the Collector accuses Belos of making Grimwalkers just to kill them and claims he ''enjoys'' doing so, Belos verbally denies it while smiling fondly to himself, belying that while he tells himself that he's hurt every time the Golden Guards "betray" him, deep down he enjoys killing them. Disturbingly, a combination of his sheer intolerance with magic and his inability to [[LackOfEmpathy actually care about anybody]] besides himself means that Belos seems honestly ''[[ObliviouslyEvil incapable]]'' of understanding that he's ''not'' the good guy in this story, despite all the atrocities he's committed and thinks nothing of repeating again.

** Luz is left in tears after Belos reveals that he and Philip Wittebane are the same person and thus her actions in the past played a role in allowing his rise to power; Belos gleefully rubbing salt in the wound.

** Over the course of the episode, Hunter discovers that Belos doesn't care about him at all, lied to him about their past, and ''killed'' his past incarnations once they refuse to help with his schemes or outlived their usefulness to him. He's horrified by all this and after returning to the physical world, rips off his cloak in horror before fleeing into the forest.

** In "[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS2E14ReachingOut Reaching Out]]", we learn that talk is going through the Emperor's Coven about how the Day of Unity might not be as benevolent an event as Belos is trying to sell it as, which are proved correct here.

** Much like Camila's confrontation with Jacob Hopkins back in [[Recap/TheOwlHouseS2E10YesterdaysLie Yesterday's Lie]]", Luz also refutes a fellow human's self-righteous justification for their callous actions against demons on the bigoted belief that they're inherently evil. [[CerebusCallBack The circumstances are more harrowing and not in her favor, however.]]

** For Hunter, he happily lives in the conforming lies of Emperor Belos, defending his uncle's clearly evil actions to the illogical extremes. But he explores deeper into Belos's memories, the harsh truth that Luz is trying to show completely breaks Hunter into a psychological mess that no one could help him with despite their best offer.
** For Luz, she thinks that unveiling the truth about Belos would be easy to do, believing that would break Belos's hold over the populace. She gets more than she bargains for when her attempts to convince Hunter [[GoneHorriblyRight works far too well]], and then learns that Belos is actually Philip Wittebane, whom she's helped and idolized. Luz ironically can't accept this awful truth, wanting to go back to the conforming lie of the noble Philip in her imagination.

* ChekhovsGun: As Hunter is sinking into the floor of Belos's mind world, Luz tries to pull a TakeMyHand by giving him a sleeve of her coat to hold onto while she tries to pull him out, but it doesn't work, and Hunter is sucked in along with the coat. This is what allows him to escape and pull a BigDamnHeroes moment to save Luz; he uses the glyphs that are in the coat pocket to create a wall of plants that break through the floor and allow him to reemerge, and blocks Belos's attack on her.

* ContrivedCoincidence: Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf, are performing their memory teleportation spell in the Night Market at the same time Eda and Luz are there to pick up witch's wool to repair Luz's cape. Luz spots Hunter on his way to interrupt the former and the two wind up getting sent into Belos's mind, instead.

* DeadlyEuphemism: At the end of the first memory that Luz and Hunter visit, Belos is shown telling the then current Golden Guard to "[[LeaveNoSurvivors put on a bigger show]]" when asked what to do with their remaining stockpile of bombs.

** When Hunter accuses Luz of trapping them in Belos' mind, he assumes that Luz was playing dumb and intended for this to happen, even though [[NeverMyFault he was the one who accidentally stepped on the vial and activated the spell]] and Luz just wanted to ask him some questions and unknowingly [[SpannerInTheWorks stopped Raine, Darius and Emberwolf from entering Belos' mind in the first place]], even though its understandable why he was angry at Luz for ruining his mission, he had no right to lash out at Luz, since its clear that she couldn't have known about the mindscape infiltration plan.
** Belos takes on an extreme version of this when he explains that he kills every grimwalker who doubts, questions, disobeys, or "betrays" him, [[WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou though he claims that it pains him to do it]].

** Belos killing and hiding the bodies of countless people of a similar physiological profile (his grimwalkers), whom he tried to groom to be a ReplacementGoldfish to someone close to him in his past (whom he also killed), is not so different from the M.O. of some {{Serial Killer}}s.

** Even though Belos is ObviouslyEvil to Luz and in general, [[IRejectYourReality Hunter keeps denying this and makes excuses for his behavior even though Belos' memories prove his deceptive and fraudulent nature]]. This is ironic because Hunter is shown to be abused emotionally and presumably physically by him, [[WellDoneSonGuy is completely obsessed with his "uncle's" approva]]l and is [[YouHaveFailedMe afraid of letting him down or being replaced]]. Victims of DomesticAbuse may often try to justify their abusers actions and may keep the abuse to themselves out of fear of losing them as their loved ones, and refuse to confront the idea that the abuser is a bad person by painting them as a total saint, even if they don't consciously realize it.
* DramaPreservingHandicap: Quite literally. Back in "Understanding Willow", it was so easy for Eda to take people out of other's minds that the show actually makes a joke out of it. But since she's lost all of her magic, doing so is now presented as a frantic race against time, and even with Raine providing the potion she needs it still costs her all of Luz's remaining Titan's Blood.

** We also get a smaller example when Hunter tells Luz those using wild magic got hurt, and Belos helped the witches use magic the right way, though we as well as Luz in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" that the Boiling Isles was actually better [[WorldOfJerkass than it is today]] with allowing wild magic, and as he learns later Belos manipulated the populace and corrupted the culture to rule over the denizens.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Downplayed. Based on the imagery of Belos/Philip's interactions with his old companion (very likely his brother), he did genuinely care for him, but his love eventually became twisted, to the point where he killed the other. Hunter and his predecessors were all created as copies of this loved one, but whether Belos has any true care for them deep down is highly suspect; he claims that it hurts him when they always eventually betray him, but his tone and expression when expressing this seem to imply otherwise.

* ExactWords: Belos told Hunter that wild magic wiped out everyone in their family, that they "everyone [[HeKnowsTooMuch knew too much]] and got themselves hurt." It wasn't the wild magic that hurt them, though; it was that learned what Belos ''really'' planned to do with wild magic.

* FelonyMisdemeanor: PlayedForDrama. Belos has killed every single Golden Guard who's ever served him for "choosing to betray" him. However, we see in some of his true memories that he would become enraged at them over [[YouHaveFailedMe every minor misstep]], from one past Golden Guard accidentally almost hitting him with explosives during their FalseFlagOperation, to Hunter bringing him the portal key missing some Titan's Blood, which the Collector reveals they half-expected him to kill Hunter for on the spot. And despite Belos greeting Hunter warmly in his mindscape, when Hunter tearfully asks what happened to the other Golden Guards, to their "family," this alone is enough for Belos to decide to cut his losses and dispose of Hunter right then and there. It seems simply making mistakes or ''questioning'' Belos is enough to warrant a death sentence for his grimwalkers.
* FighterMageThief: The dynamics of the Coven Rebellion trio: the Abomination master Darius (Fighter), the magic music user Raine Whispers (Mage), and the sneaky and speedy Eberwolf (Thief).

** One of the portraits shows Kid Philip and his big brother playing witch hunters as a mob of actual hunters stand behind them. This would build up to Belos flat out calling himself a witch hunter and how it ties to his ultimate endgame.

** When Luz theories that the child Belos is his repressed sense of guilt, Hunter mocks her for thinking so, claiming that Belos has never done anything worthy of being guilty about. As it turns out, this is completely correct, but only because Belos is [[BlackAndWhiteInsanity absolutely insane]] and genuinely feels no guilt for the multiple atrocities he's committed, as showcased in the flashbacks the inner Belos leads them to. Luz also asks if the 'child' Belos can show them what [[BeneathTheMask Belos is really like]] and it silently nods. As it turns out, at his Core Philip/Belos is little more than a [[PsychopathicManchild little child recreating his make-believe games of hunting witches and demons in reality]], with lethal consequences now.
** The Child Belos' wooden mask basing a resemblance to Emperor Belos' own hints at the fact that it's both the inspiration for his current look, as well as the fact that Philip's motivations for hunting witches are rooted in his steadfast childhood beliefs that they are evil monsters. Him clearly treasuring the mask is also a hint towards his genuine love and fondness for his brother, based on their childhood memories of playing together.

** [[https://www.reddit.com/r/TheOwlHouse/comments/ua2i0m/all_the_paintings_from_hollow_mind/ The paintings in the background]] show the tragic story of Philip and his brother. The two grew up in a witch hunting town with dreams of being witch hunters themselves. At some point Philip and his brother met a witch, and while the brother was fascinated by magic and greeted the witch with friendliness Philip feared the witch and cowered when meeting them. Years pass and the two brothers as young adults end up on the Boiling Isles. The brother meets a witch and falls in love with her, and even conceives a child with her. Philip, meanwhile, has been studying the Isles and is disgusted by the denizens, and begins experimenting with Glyphs and Palismans, carving Glyphs into his skin. At some point he goes out of control and becomes a monster but is rescued by his brother via CoolDownHug. Assumingly much later -- as Philip is shown with a beard -- the brother introduces Philip to his wife, but we see Philip is hiding his knife during this meetup. Philip attacks the two, and ends up having a knife fight in a burning area with his brother. Philip kills his brother, but the witch chases him away with magic. Philip continues researching magic, collecting ingredients for his Portal Door, searching for the Collector, and writing his journal while killing Witches and Demons for their Palismen -- around the time Luz and Lilith met him in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen". Philip finally changes his hair, cuts his ears to points using the same knife he killed his brother with, dons a mask similar to the one his brother once carved for him when they were children, and becomes Belos.

* FromACertainPointOfView: Belos claimed that wild magic claimed everyone in his and Hunter's family, that "they [[HeKnowsTooMuch knew too much]] and [[WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou got themselves hurt]]." What he doesn't reveal is that their "family" consisted of [[ExpendableClone magical clones]] of his brother whom he killed for befriending witches, whom Hunter is the latest copy of, and that what they learned "too much of" was Belos's real plans for the Boiling Isles.

* GodzillaThreshold: Eda and King are forced to use the last of the Titan's Blood on Amity's glove in order to complete the potion needed to rescue Luz and Hunter, despite knowing full well that the blood is the only chance for Luz to return home. Problem is Eda can no longer cast the spell she used to get Luz in and out of Willow’s mind, nor do they have time to find an alternate power source.

* GoodAllAlong: While the monstrous being chasing Luz and Hunter is initially assumed to be the Inner Belos, it turns out to ''actually'' be the souls of the Palismen he's consumed, trying to warn Luz and Hunter that the Inner Belos isn't to be trusted.

* HeKnowsTooMuch: After Luz and Hunter escapes from Belos's mind, Hunter knows that Belos will kill him after learning the truth about himself and what he did to the previous Golden Guards so he has a panic attack and runs into the wilderness.

* IdentityBreakdown: After all the horrible things Hunter learns about Belos and himself--that he's pretty much nothing more than another sacrifice in a ''long'' line of clones, he is utterly devastated and runs away.

* {{Irony}}: Luz notes in the first half of the episode how ObviouslyEvil Belos is and expresses surprise at how nobody else can seem to understand how he's [[ManipulativeBastard lying to and manipulating the populace with falsehoods]], but within Belos' mind, she also winds up manipulated by him into doing his bidding [[Recap/TheOwlHouseS2E12ElsewhereAndElsewhen the exact same way he did last time]] -- by appealing to her caring nature and mindlessly following him into doing what he wants until she realises too late he has an ulterior motive, showing how skilled at deceiving others Belos actually is, to lead Luz around even when she ''knows'' he's untrustworthy.

* LegacyCharacter: It turns out that the Golden Guard isn't just a title passed down throughout the ages; ''Hunter himself'' is the latest in a long-line of grimwalkers Belos had created in the image of his human friend (implied to be his brother), one that Belos had every intention of killing and replacing during their InevitableMutualBetrayal.

** In Belos's true mindscape, a series of damaged memory images can be seen in numerous background shots that seem to tell a story of Belos as a child and someone who looks a lot like Hunter, they end up in the Demon Realm, the Hunter-like person befriends and/or falls in love with someone that young adult Belos hates, Belos confronts him with a knife, and then Belos is seen looking at the knife [[GoryDiscretionShot with a red splatter on his face]] and a body lying in on the ground.

** If you closely at the town that was destroyed in the memory where Belos indoctrinates witches into his coven system, the buildings visible resemble the ruins seen on the Titan's knee, indicating that Belos was the one who created them.

* MetaphoricallyTrue: Warden Wrath mentioned in "Reaching Out" that the Day of Unity would [[TogetherInDeath "unite them with the Titan"]].
* ModifiedClone: Despite implicitly being based off of Belos' brother, Hunter clearly has witch ears instead of human ones. Belos' words also hint at there being some level of physical variation between him and the other grimwalkers.
* MoralMyopia: It turns out that Belos ''hates'' witches and magic-kind and everything he's done is with the intent of destroying them to "save humanity from evil"... and he achieved this by magically extending his life, creating the coven system and his own theocratic regime to organize magical society to his liking (and by extension turning it into a WorldOfJerkass), making a deal with an ObviouslyEvil eldritch entity, creating and destroying various replicas of someone he was close to because he could, and presumably countless other atrocities to do it. Simply put, he couldn't have been capable of destroying magic ''without using magic.''

* MurderInTheFamily: It's strongly implied that the close companion Belos is trying to replace with Grimwalkers (like Hunter) was Philip Wittebane's brother, whom the portraits in his mindscape strongly imply he killed himself... just as he killed every other Grimwalker who "betrayed" him.

** Belos shows Luz some memories from the past where she and Lilith have helped Philip aka him. Luz has to realize that they played an important role in his rise to power. She doesn't take it well...

* ObviouslyEvil: From Luz's perspective, the fact that Belos is a tyrannical liar seems as plain on the nose on her face, but since [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror everyone has had 50 years to get used to his reign]], no one will believe her without solid proof.

* RemovedFromThePicture: All of the memory photos of Philip's childhood has his brother's eyes scratched out. It isn't until the episode gets to photos of his adulthood that the audience gets a good look at his face and sees that he looks just like Hunter. It's hinted that this is an extension of Philip [[IRejectYourReality denying the happier times they shared together]] as family on Earth, until he meets him again on the Boiling Isles and now recognised him as an '[[SelfServingMemory enemy who betrayed him]]', hinted to be a coping mechanism to deal with the fact he [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone violently murdered his beloved brother over his own bigoted views]] and secretly keeps trying to [[NeverMyFault justify the act to himself]]. As an extension of that, [[IHaveNoSon he refuses to refer to him as his brother as all]], merely an 'old friend' that he hopes the Grimwalkers will become a 'better version' of.

** "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" already made it obvious, but this episode explicitly spells it out that Philip and Belos are one and the same. He had to change his name after "Philip" got run out of too many towns. Philip/Belos isn't also just a human, but a ''[[TheWitchHunter witch hunter]]''.

** In terms of new reveals, it's shown that Belos and the Collector are both working together in regards to the Day of Unity. In addition, the Collector is seemingly sealed either inside or under the Titan and the Day is a major step to their freedom.

** The Collector accuses Belos of making grimwalkers solely for the purpose of killing them, since he's killed every single one before Hunter. Belos denies it, claiming that their deaths were a necessity he took no pleasure in, but does smile at the Collector's accusation. The Inner Belos also clearly ''enjoys'' rubbing the truth in Luz and Hunter's faces as a KickTheDog moment, savoring their horrified reactions.

* SerialKiller: Since ClonesArePeopleToo, Belos's ''modus operandi'' of creating, killing, and hiding the bodies of countless Grimwalkers as ReplacementGoldfish to his deceased brother, whom he also killed in rage for "betraying" him (implied to be for marrying a witch), this is not so different from how some serial killers create a pattern of seeking out people who remind them of someone they were close to or feel wronged by, and end up killing them. The Collector even accuses him of creating so many grimwalkers just to destroy them, and accuses him of ''enjoying'' it. Belos denies this, [[BeneathTheMask but with a smirk on his face]].
* ShadowArchetype: Belos is this to many major character.

** To Lilith: The background paintings in Belos' mindscape reveal that Philip had a similar relationship with his brother as Lilith had with Eda: They were close as kids and shared a childhood dream (joining the Emperor's Coven for Lilith and Eda; becoming witch hunters for Philip and his brother), then they later grew to resent and betrayed their sibling just before a fated duel (Lilith with a curse, Philip with a knife). However, while Lilith didn't mean to permanently curse Eda, rightly blamed herself, and dedicated her life to trying to fix her mistake, Philip ''did'' mean to kill his brother, blames said brother for his own murder ("it hurts every time he chooses to betray me"), and doesn't make Grimwalkers to try to have his brother back, but as an "improved version" of his brother. Lilith also tried to persuade Eda to fulfill their childhood dream of her own free will for years, while we see that Philip ''never'' cared about his brother's or subsequent grimwalkers' wishes or free will.

** To King: In the first season, both were self-proclaimed rulers of unknown origin who "ruled" over their domain as tyrants, and told BlatantLies about their past. However, King was a SmallNameBigEgo who honestly believed his claims about his past due to being indulged by Eda (who just wanted him to be happy), while Belos is a VillainWithGoodPublicity who wilfully deludes himself and knows deep down he's a charlatan and a fraud. King also always cared about those close to him even when he believed he was a tyrant, and became a better person once he learns the truth of his past. Meanwhile, Belos always considered those around him expendable and the past [[SelfServingMemory rewritable]]. King and Belos also both feel angry at a relative (King to his dad, Belos to his brother), but while King still wants to mend bridges and bond with his lost relative, Belos just wants to make a "better version" of his lost relative as a subserviant Grimwalker.
* ShipTease: Raine delivers Eda the ingredients of the transportation spell as a [[https://loosescrewslefty.tumblr.com/post/682297090202812416/those-goddamn-flowers-are-gonna-have-me-blushing bouquet of pink tulips which in flower language means "perfect lover"]].

** The episode is a subversion of ''Film/TheCell'': in both the protagonist, a female, enters the mind of a serial killer to learn his secrets and discovers he has two split personalities: a child (the killer's "good", innocent side), for whom she feels sympathy, and a monster (his sadistic, twisted side and the dominant personality) that terrifies her. Subverted because Belos has no goodness or innocence in him; he disguised as a child to lure Luz and Hunter into helping him to kill the "monster". The latter, on its turn, wasn't Belos' "monstrous" side, but an amalgam of the souls of the poor palismen he consumed, and probably was trying to warn Luz against the "child".

* SignificantDoubleCasting: All of the grimwalkers seen share Hunter's voice due to their status as clones.
* SinsOfOurFathers: Belos has created countless grimwalkers to make a ReplacementGoldfish to his deceased brother... whom he killed, and he claims that "it hurts every time" they "choose to betray" him as well. The Collector accuses Belos of creating the grimwalkers just to kill them, and of enjoying it. It's strongly implied that, deep down, part of the reason he creates and kills so many grimwalkers is to continue to "punish" his brother by proxy for his original "betrayal."
* SpannerInTheWorks: Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf nearly got into Belos's mind, but Hunter manages to stop them just as their ritual is nearly complete. Luckily for them, Luz acts as one for Hunter in turn, as her attempt to interview him on Belos allows the co-conspirators to get away, while the unlikely duo is accidentally sent into Belos's mind and leads to Hunter learning the truth about who he is and what kind of person Belos really is.

* SuperCellReception: Luz is somehow still able to use her walkie to communicate with Eda and King ''even trapped deep within Belos's mind''.

** Luz tries a variation of this as Hunter is being sucked into the floor of Belos's memoryscape after the latter reveals himself to them; she takes off her coat, holds one sleeve, and passes it Hunter's way so he can grab the other one. It doesn't work, and Hunter does get pulled in along with the coat, [[ChekhovsGun but the coat is what ends up saving him]].

* UsedToBeASweetKid: PlayedWith. Luz believes that kid Belos is the manifestation of Belos' guilt, but it's revealed to be ploy by Inner Belos to trick them into helping them silence palismen monster. However, memory portraits in Belos' real mindscape suggest he really was once a sweet and happy kid, but that kid is long gone, twisted and hollowed out by his anti-witch beliefs as exemplified by souless eyeholes of the mask Inner Belos wears.

* WeNeedToGetProof: Luz's objective this episode is trying to figure out Belos' endgame and prove he's evil. She tries to question Hunter, then takes advantage of being trapped in the Emperor's mindscape to learn the truth. Sadly, she gets what she wanted as she learns Belos' plans but also ends up discovering Hunter's origins and that she helped Belos by showing him the light glyph and giving him the chance to contact the Collector, leaving her devastated.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: The entire episode is this for Belos, taking place inside his mindscape with only the isolated Luz and Hunter privy to his true thoughts and intentions towards others. Surprisingly, despite everything that's been demonstrated from both his present and past self as 'Philip', his true nature is even '''worse''' than he's demonstrated before, being a genocidal {{Witch Hunter}} whose acts of benevolence or HiddenDepths towards others are revealed to be mere fabrications he puts on to control or mislead those around him, and Belos honestly thinks nothing of killing, hurting or destroying however many people it takes to realise his [[FinalSolution insane ambitions]]. Notably, the Inner Belos could have stopped the duo from finding this out at any point, but [[UnwittingPawn deliberately lead them around]] from memory to memory whilst it gathered the preparations it needed to excise the Palisman beast from Belos' mind for good, explicitly exposing Belos's incriminating memories to them because he was planning on [[YouHaveOutlivedYourusefulness dealing with the pair of them]] once the beast was gone.

** Belos himself falls into this. He thinks that he's the hero of a dark fantasy story, a witch hunter fighting against the dark forces of the demons and witches of the Isles in order to "save humanity from evil", even if he has to become something other than human himself. He's really the BigBad and KnightOfCerebus in a more light-hearted horror-comedy fantasy story that has Luz as the protagonist, and the witches and demons of the Isles are far from inherently evil.

* DramaticIrony: While Eda never sees who gave her the potion to get Luz and Hunter out of Belos's head, the audience knows that it's Raine working with Darius and Eberwolf.

** For Belos himself, he truly believes that witches and demons are inherently evil, and refuses to see any other viewpoint. Since his plan for witch genocide took centuries to perfect, Belos's beliefs are ironclad and immovable since he doesn't want to believe he wasted centuries of his life for the wrong cause. His mindscape also reflects how he constantly lies to himself in his head, and how his real memories are in shambles with portraits of happier times with his brother crawled out.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Luz becomes frustrated at the fact that everybody else in the Boiling Isles believes in Belos despite how [[ObviouslyEvil obvious]] it is to her that he's a tyrannical liar. Eda has to point out that Belos has been Emperor for 50 years and as a result, the majority of people in the Isles have spent their entire lives under his rule. Without concrete proof of his intentions, there's absolutely nothing Luz can do to break through their complete indoctrination, it's likely only because they are still impressionable kids that she managed to turn her friends and most notably Amity against Belos.
** At the same time however, Warden Wrath, Raine, Darius and Eberwolf demonstrate that even with 50 years of propaganda behind him, Belos can't ''completely'' mask his more [[ObviouslyEvil nefarious nature]] from others, especially if they actually ''know him'', as opposed to knowing of him in a second-hand manner like most of the denizens of the demon realm do, such as the Coven heads and the members of his coven. Despite Belos claiming that the Day of Unity is a good thing, several people are skeptical of his claims and are investigating on their own as to the truth of the matter, showing that even somebody as skilled in manipulating the masses as Belos is has his limits with how convincing he can be, especially since his plans involve fooling a large number of people at once, rather than a few select individuals.
** The reveal that Hunter is a Grimwalker, that Belos never really cared about him and now wants him dead, would, in a stable adult, be reason enough for a formal HeelFaceTurn. But Hunter is a 16 year-old, badly traumatized boy, whose entire life has just been ripped out from under him over the course of maybe an hour. In addition, there are [[AmbiguousDisorder several signs that he's autistic]]; if he is, that makes this whole situation '''even less manageable'''. It's not a surprise that, instead of joining the Owl House, he has a panic attack and runs off into the woods.

* GoneHorriblyRight: Luz manages to convince Hunter that Belos is indeed, but only after Hunter is completely traumatized by the AwfulTruth regarding the fate of his predecessors and his status as a Grimwalker. Then Luz herself gets to learn that she was also tricked by Belos a long time ago, and her aid was the most useful for the Emperor's goals.

** Luz believes that Belos is the standard EvilOverlord who only craves power and authority in the Boiling Isles. She finds out his plan is actually the genocide of all witches and demons.

* CentralTheme: Conforming Lie vs the Harsh Truth. As King puts it in the beginning, no one wants to think they wasted their entire life on a lie. And the three main characters of this episode all face this challenge.

** For Luz, she thinks that unveiling the harsh truth about Belos would be easy to do, believing that would break Belos's hold over the populace. She gets more than she bargains for when her attempts to convince Hunter [[GoneHorriblyRight works far too well]], and then learns that Belos is actually Philip Wittebane, whom she's helped and idolized. Luz ironically can't accept this harsh truth, wanting to go back to the conforming lie of the noble Philip in her imagination.
** For Belos himself, he truly believes that witches and demons are inherently evil, and refuses to see any other viewpoint. Since his plan for witch genocide took centuries to perfect, Belos's beliefs are ironclad and immovable since he doesn't want to believe he wasted centuries of his life for the wrong cause. His mindscape also reflects how he constantly lies to himself in his dreams, and how his real memories are in disarray and shambles, as if he doesn't want to go near them.

** For Luz, she thinks that unveiling the harsh truth about Belos would be easy to do, believing that would break Belos's hold over the populace. She gets more than she bargains for when her attempts to convince Hunter [[GoneHorriblyRight works far too well]], and then learns that Belos is actually Philip Wittebane, whom she's helped and idolized. Luz ironically can't accept this harsh truth, wanting to go back to the conforming lie of a heroic Philip in her imagination.