History Recap / TheOwlHouseS2E16HollowMind

* MoralMyopia: It turns out that Belos ''hates'' witches and magic-kind and everything he's done is with the intent of destroying them "for humanity's safety"... 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.''

* NoYou: When Belos proclaims that he's "trying to save humanity from evil", Luz fires back with, "No. ''You're'' evil".

** 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 palismans he consummed, and probably was trying to warn Luz against the "child".
** Hunter has a lot in common with [[WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower Hordak]]. Both are clones brainwashed into serving abusive creators who demand perfection and treat them as disposable tools. (Also, both Hunter and Hordak befriend and respect young women who are treated condescendently even by their friends. Even their names start with the same letter!)

* RemovedFromThePicture: All of the memory photos of Philip's childhood has his brother's face 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.

* IKnowYourTrueName: While he's known it since Season 1, this episode marks the first time Belos says Luz's real name out loud. He later calls her "Luzura" in reference to the alias she used when interacting with Philip Wittebane.

** 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 dagger, and then Belos is seen looking at the dagger [[GoryDiscretionShot with a red splatter on his face]] and a body lying in on the ground.
** Other portraits show that the glyphs on Philip's arms seen in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" are actually scars he cut into his flesh with the same dagger, and one painting showing Philip/Belos clutching the side of his head in pain while again holding the same dagger seems to indicate that he cropped his own ears to hide his human identity.

** 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 dagger). 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.

* InTheHood: The three people who try to break into Belos's mind spend the entire episode in hooded cloaks and never speak a single word. While it's never actually said who they are, it's incredibly obvious to the audience that they're Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf.

* IKnowYourTrueName: While he most likely knew it since Season 1, this episode marks the first time Belos says Luz's real name out loud. He later calls her "Luzura" in reference to the alias she used when interacting with Philip Wittebane.
* IRejectYourReality:
** Despite claiming to know a lot about mindscapes, Hunter is initially in denial about how the memories in the initial hallway were false and that Belos is really an evil tyrant and a liar. Luz is also horrified and refuses to believe Belos is Philip, which he sadistically mocks her over.
** Belos reveals that he genuinely believes that witches and demons are evil, thus justifying his actions as necessary. The memory portraits depicting his backstory with his brother (and later his response to Luz's claim that he's evil) show that Belos doesn't take it well when people suggest otherwise.
* 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.

* InTheHood: Belos, at multiple points. It goes with his sinister true nature.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Luz, upon seeing Hunter in the Night Market, immediately tries to interview him on Belos in the hopes of getting some proof that he's evil. Hunter believes that Belos is his uncle, and idolizes him. He even lampshades it once they're trapped in Belos's mind and she explains herself.
* DisproportionateRetribution: A couple of these
** 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]].

* RemovedFromThePicture: All of the memory photos of Philip's childhood has his brother's face 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, 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.

* 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

* RemovedFromThePicture: All of the memory photos of Philip's childhood has his brother's face 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, 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.

* RemovedFromThePicture: All of the memory photos of Philip's childhood has his brother's face 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.

* CowboysAndIndians: The portraits in background of Belos' real mindscape depicts Philip and his brother playing witch hunt, with Philip as the witch hunter and his brother as the witch. This game ended up becoming very real with Philip growing up to be a real witch hunter and his brother getting killed for becoming friends with a witch.

* CowboysAndIndians: The portraits in background of Belos' real mindscape depicts Philip and his brother playing witch hunt, with Philip as the witch hunter and his brother as the witch. This game ended up becoming very real with Philip growing to be up a real witch hunter and his brother getting killed for becoming friends with a witch.

* IRejectYourReality: Despite claiming to know a lot about mindscapes, Hunter is initially in denial about how the memories in the initial hallway were false and that Belos is really an evil tyrant and a liar. Luz is also horrified and refuses to believe Belos is Philip, which he sadistically mocks her over.

* WindowsOfTheSoul: The Child Belos' wooden mask obscures his face and has only two black holes where his eyes should see out of. Whilst it's representative of Luz's inability to perceive his real nature and intentions underneath the facade he puts on, everything that's shown in the flashbacks about Philip/Belos' life and the [[MeaningfulBackgroundEvent portraits that chronicle his gradual separation from his bother and transformation into Belos]], it's not a far reach to say that Philip's soul is [[TheSociopath a black void]].

** The background portraits in Belos' mindscape imply that he felt this way about his brother. A few of them as young kids showed them playing witch hunters and carved witch-hunting masks together. And then when Philip saw him holding hands with a witch, Philip was so enraged that he killed him for it, seeing it as a betrayal of their childhood dreams and values as witch hunters. He also claims that it hurts "every time he chooses to betray me."

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: As to be expected of someone raised in the [=1600s=], Philip Wittebane saw the Witches and Demons of the Boiling Isles as nothing more than evil monsters to be exterminated despite all the evidence that they're as morally complex as humans are, becoming a witch-hunter and eventually enacting the Day of Unity plot to carry out a genocide on them, and he doesn't understand why Luz -- someone from the [=21st=] century, with a love of fantasy and knowledge of the horrors of the [=20th=] -- would be horrified and disgusted by this.

* FinalSolution: Belos is actually Philip, a witch hunter from the 17th century who wants to [[DeliberateValuesDissonance "save humanity from evil"]] by killing every witch in the demon realm.

* WhamEpisode: Belos reveals to Luz that he's Philip and a witch hunter. Hunter, realizing that Belos knows that they were in his mind, and that the previous Golden Guards (who were all Grimwalkers like he is revealed to be) were killed when they disobeyed him, flees from the Owl House in a panic. Eberwolf is apparently working with Darius and Raine against Belos. Belos has some kind of deal with the Collector, who is sealed below the Isles and will get their freedom on the Day of Unity, and the sigils are actively dangerous to anyone who has one.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: This episode confirms that Belos does genuinely care about Hunter and his predecessors, and it hurts him when they always eventually disobey him, but only because they are artificial copies of a person he was close with long ago (most likely his brother, based on the other portraits in the mindscape). However, as this is Belos after all, his care is questionable. From the imagery depicting what appears to be Belos killing his companion, his love for his brother is twisted.

* 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 it 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 on the spot. It seems simply making mistakes or ''questioning'' Belos is enough to warrant a death sentence for his grimwalkers.

Concurrently, Eda, Luz, and King were also at the Night Market, there to buy the witch's wool needed to fix Luz's cloak. While Eda knocked on the door, Luz and King proceed to communicate with each other via walkie-talkies. When the shopkeeper, Prim, finally opened the door. She showed Eda the oracle mark on her hand and informed Eda that, because Belos warned of the dangers of wild magic, she had closed up shop and joined the Oracle Coven. After she slammed the door shut, Luz angrily complained about Belos' lies and tyranny, causing Eda to remind her to pipe down. She then added that Belos has been in power for more than fifty years, and unless she can find proof that Belos is evil, the situation won't change. Sensing that Luz was dejected, Eda consoled her by saying that they will figure out something together, and as she walked away, Luz was saddened by how Eda was being treated, pondering how she could prove Belos was evil. King told Luz that nobody wants to follow the wrong person and encouraged her to find something big to prove herself, and just after he headed away, Luz noticed Hunter and followed him.\\

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The flashback to Belos proselytizing presumably takes place sometime in the late 1600s based on extras from "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" reappearing, but the Golden Guard uses friction match, which were invented in 1826. Presumably, the Boiling Isles were ahead of the curve. A type of matches were invented in 1680 by Robert Boyle, but did not look recognizeably stick-like and were highly dangerous to use.

* WhamLine: "No one ever said being a witch hunter was easy".

** The episode is basically a subversion of ''Film/TheCell'': the protagonist, a female, enters the mind of a serial killer to discover 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 palismans he consummed, and which was probably trying to warn Luz against the "child".

* ShoutOut: [[https://theowlhouse.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000000081462/r/4400000000000300018 Link and Saria]] can be found on one of the portraits.