Recap / The Owl House S1E12 "Adventures in the Elements"

"Magic is everywhere!"

Eda: You wanna learn a second spell?
Luz: With all my heart.
Eda: Then you have to learn from the island.

Original air date: 7/18/2020 (produced in 2019)^note First aired in Turkey on 4/17/20 and Russia on 6/7/20.

Production code: 110

Luz needs to learn a second spell so she won't be put into the baby classes at Hexside, and on a trip into the mountains she ends up getting Amity's help in learning it. Meanwhile, King borrows a magic potion Eda made to bring his toys to life.

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Tropes:

• Ad-Break Double-Take: Eda says to Luz, "You angered the Slitherbeast" at the end of Act 2 and again at the beginning of Act 3 after the commercial break.
• Ambiguous Situation: While it's stated that the twins found out about the library incident with Otabin in "Lost in Language" and are trying to make up for it, it's unclear if they told Amity what really happened with her diary and that Luz didn't really know what they were up to and was actually to stop them from stealing it.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Eda rubs Luz's head to congratulate her for learning a new spell. Edric then mimics it with Amity, much to her annoyance.
• Animate Inanimate Object: Eda uses a potion to bring vegetables to life so they'll cook themselves, which King borrows to bring his stuffed animals to life.
• Armor-Piercing Response: When Luz points out she only knows the light spell:
  Eda: And whose fault is that?
  Luz: Yours.
  Eda: Ha! Yep, got me there.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: In their first appearance, it would be hard to classify Ed and Em as anything but bullies who tormented Amity. Here, it's shown they do have a more loving side for their younger sister as they help her try and master a new spell as an apology for the library incident.
• Big "YES!": Luz gets one of these when she and Eda arrive at the Knee.
• Birthday Episode: Downplayed. The episode just so happens to take place during Hooty's birthday, but no one actually cares.
• Black Comedy: Eda animates some vegetables to make them cook themselves. They immediately flee in terror.
  Eda: Why do I always think that's gonna work?
• Blatant Lies:
  • Amity says that Azura Book 5 was just "fine". Luz holds up some fanart Amity left in the book to point out that she's clearly underselling it, which Amity burns on the spot.
  • Luz rather unconvincingly lies about knowing one more spell when Amity points out she needs to know at least two if she wants to get into the standard classes.
• Call-Back:
  • At the start of the episode, Owlbert drags in trash from the human world through the portal door, just as he did in "A Lying Witch and a Warden" when Luz first follows him into the Boiling Isles.
  • In "The Intruder", Eda guessed Luz could learn magic the way earlier witches did, which turned out to be drawing runes. Here, Eda builds on that by going to where witches first learned magic.
  • Edric and Emira have been extra protective and nice towards Amity after the "library incident" in "Lost In Translation". Also, Luz loaned Amity the fifth book of the "Good Witch Azura" series in that episode and meets up with her at the beginning of this one to get it back.
  • This is a follow-up to "Something Ventured, Someone Framed", when Luz's ban on Hexside is lifted and she becomes a student there.
  • One of the toys that King brings to life is the Beefy Bob action figure from "Hooty's Moving Hassle".
• The Cameo: Morton, Tiny Nose, and the Eyeball-Eating Prisoner are seen when Luz is tracking down Amity in the market.
• Character Development: Continuing from her previous appearance, Amity has started to mellow out and become more understanding towards Luz. Even after Luz accidentally drains her wand, Amity doesn't hold it against her, understanding that Luz didn't know its charge was limited. This is comparable to other instances where Amity would lash out at Luz for stuff far beyond the latter's control.
• Comically Small Bribe: King gets Hooty on his side by making him a new body... which takes the form of a crudely drawn humanoid body getting added to the front door of the Owl House.
• Contrived Coincidence: Amity just happens to be training in the same location as Eda brings Luz to.
• Crisis Makes Perfect: Amity spends the episode practicing a fire spell with a training wand that does most of the work for her, and is caught flat-footed when Luz burns the wand out. When she needs to free Eda, Emira, and Edric in the climax, she manages to cast the spell herself with a bit of effort.
• Department of Redundancy Department: The cover of the brochure for the baby class says: "The Baby Class... for babies."
• Double-Meaning Title: Luz has an adventure "in the elements" in a place with cold, snowy weather. She also learns how magic comes from the natural elements of the Isles.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Amity doesn't hold a grudge against Luz for stealing her wand and burning out the charge, evidently recognizing that Luz didn't know it had a limited charge.
  • Luz also doesn't seem to hold anything against the twins for the Frame-Up they put her in.
• "Eureka!" Moment: When Luz casts a light spell into the night sky, a constellation appears that forms a light glyph. Luz then realizes that the glyphs appear in nature when she catches a snowflake, allowing her to learn the ice glyph.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Eda takes Luz to the Knee, which is the knee of the deceased giant that makes up the Boiling Isles.
• Exorcist Head: The teddy bear turns its body without turning its head when King says it can't have any snacks.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: After being teased by Eda and Luz in the kitchen, King runs outside and slams the door behind him. It takes three tries before the door stays closed.
• Fire-Forged Friends: After Hooty helps King destroy the dolls that turned on King, the two are much closer, at least until Eda ruins the moment.
• Fire/Ice Duo: Amity and Luz are both practicing elemental magic, Amity learns fire and Luz learns ice.
• Forced Sleep: Eda knocks out the slitherbeast with a sleep spell once she has the chance.
• Foreshadowing: When Amity is first shown using her training wand, there's a brief close-up of its blinking power indicator, hinting that its limited juice will be a plot point.
• Go Back to the Source: Eda takes Luz to the Knee of the Boiling Isles, a Place of Power where witches first learned spells from nature.
• Headphones Equal Isolation: Hooty is listening to music, unaware of King's stuffed animals performing a mutiny until they chuck him through a window.
• Humans Through Alien Eyes: Eda assumes that a coat-hanger is an earring.
• An Ice Person: Luz learns the ice glyph by seeing it in a snowflake, allowing her to create pillars of ice by drawing the glyph on the ground.
  • Edric and Emira are also seen using magic to manipulate snow when helping Amity train.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Emira assures Amity she doesn't need the wand to perform a fire spell. When Amity does it, Emira admits she didn't actually believe it would work.
• Instantly Proven Wrong:
  • When the slitherbeast sticks her, Eda, and Edric to a wall, Emira insists they'll be fine. Cue skeletons falling from the ceiling.
    Edric: Nope. We're gonna die.
  • Amity assures Luz that they can make a book club as long as they keep it a secret. Emira and Edric immediately yell that they overheard her and will tell everyone.
• Internal Reveal: Amity finally learns that Luz will be attending Hexside next semester, something that the rest of the cast has been aware of for the past several episodes.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: As Eda is cooking, she notes that she's having a "surprisingly peaceful domestic moment" and then wonders aloud when it will be ruined. Cue Luz screaming.
• Literal Metaphor: Eda says that the vegetables she has won't cook themselves... yet, because she hasn't used a potion to animate them.
• Literal-Minded: Luz asks Eda to make her disappear when she realizes Amity, Edric, and Emira are there. Eda says she can do it, but there's only a 60% chance of her being able to make Luz reappear.
• Luminescent Blush: Amity does this when Luz holds up her fanart, and again when Luz suggests an Azura book club at the end.
• Lured into a Trap: Luz gets the slitherbeast to chase her, leading it onto an ice glyph she set up in advance so she can launch it into the air with an ice pillar.
• Magic Wand: Amity practices spells with a "training wand" that comes precharged with magic, allowing witches to cast spells without having to put any effort in themselves. This helps them get the technique down without the strain of drawing on their own magic. This also allows Luz to cast using the wand, until she burns out the last of the charge.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal:
  • The stuffed animals turn against King for mistreating them in boot camp.
  • On a similar note, Hooty refuses to help King at first because King makes fun of him and calls him "desperate".
• Mundane Utility: Eda makes a potion to animate her vegetables and have them cook themselves, rather than put them in the pot by hand.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Luz burns out the charge in Amity's Magic Wand in a misguided attempt to learn magic like her, making it useless when Amity needs to cast a fireball against the slitherbeast.
• Not Quite Flight: Luz decides to take herself and Eda home by creating an ice pillar below them at an angle to launch them in the right direction. While they're on a mountain. They're not in a hurry or anything—we don't even see how they landed. Emira decides she, Edric, and Amity can just walk back.
• No, You: King has a lame retort for the pull-string bear.
  Bear: Being without you is just unbearable.
  King: [throws the bear] Nyeah! You're unbearable!
• Organ Autonomy: One of Luz's tasks is to find Eda's glove... along with her hand still inside the glove, which apparently just randomly wandered off.
• Our Mages Are Different: Eda attempts to teach Luz a second spell by applying what she knows about the earliest witches to use magic. Their methods focused on connecting to nature, in contrast to modern witches who have a more scholarly focus. Ultimately, Eda's methods succeed, as Luz discovers the runes she needs to create occur naturally, which she calls a "gift" from the Isles.
• Pet the Dog: Edric and Emira are helping Amity practice to apologize for nearly getting her killed in the library.
• Place of Power: Eda explains that the Knee is a place of intense natural magic — in her words, "Where magical energy just flows" — so much that it historically drew the earliest witches as a site to practice magic. The Blight siblings choosing to train there supports this idea.
• Playing with Fire: In contrast with Luz learning an ice spell, Amity spends the episode learning how to do a fire spell. Her fire comes out pink, compared to orange when Eda and Luz (using the wand) cast the same spell.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The stuffed animals gain red eyes when they turn against King.
• Retired Badass: The Hexside pamphlet shows that Principal Bump founded Hexside by conquering the previous school and building his on the ruins.
• Scooby Stack: Amity pokes her head out from behind a rock. Then Luz does the same beneath her, without Amity noticing her until she does so.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Played for laughs after Hooty slaughters the rogue stuffed animals.
  Hooty: I will be haunted by my actions forever, hoot-hoot!
• Shout-Out:
  • One of the items in the human trash pile Owlbert brings in is a body pillow of Solid Snake.
  • The slitherbeast is a white, furry monster living in an icy land that freezes its victims to the wall of its cave, similarly to the wampa. It also resembles a white version of Wildmutt.
• Sizable Snowflakes: The snowflakes that Luz learns the ice glyph from are as big as her palms. Given the semi-mystical nature behind the snowfall in the first place (namely that it's the only time it snows the entire episode), it's implied that they only grew that large in the first place because the Isles wanted her to see the pattern.
• Tempting Fate: Luz happily points out that they're completely alone on the Knee. Cue a fireball nearly blasting her.
• Touché: Eda is impressed when Luz gets her to teach her a spell by using her own pride against her:
  Luz: You're the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles! How would it look if your apprentice got thrown into the baby class?
  Eda: Hmm, weaponizing my pride? Well played.
• Traveling at the Speed of Plot: Amity traps Luz in a magical prison then goes off to rescue Eda, Edric, and Emira from the slitherbeast. Luz spends several minutes in the prison before figuring out how to cast ice magic and letting herself out, after which she is able to reach the slitherbeast's cave and find the three before Amity.
• Turned Against Their Masters:
  • Played for Laughs when Eda animates some vegetables to make them cook themselves, only for them to flee in terror. They're later seen dumping her cooking utensils off the cliff in triumph after Eda has left with Luz.
  • King's stuffed animals turn against him after he animates them, then puts them through boot camp.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Luz explains her plan for dealing with the Slitherbeast in an inaudible whisper, and is executed without any issues.
• Wax On, Wax Off: Eda has some weird approaches to teaching Luz magic, such as tasting snow and smelling moss. However, she explains that she can't teach Luz magic the normal way because Luz can't do that kind of magic, and Luz is able to learn a new spell once she takes the lesson seriously.
• We Need a Distraction: Luz taunts the slitherbeast so it will chase her while Amity frees the others.
• Wild Magic: Eda describes the kind of magic Luz can do as this, since it occurs naturally as opposed to the way modern witches cast it.

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"I will be haunted by my actions forever. Hoot hoot!"

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