"Facing Grom means facing your worst fear, King. And I don't think Luz knows what that means yet."
— Eda
Original air date: 8/8/2020
Production code: 116
Luz experiences Grom, Hexside's version of Prom, and it's not what she expects.
Tropes:
- Aborted Declaration of Love: Amity's note asking Luz to be her Grom date shows that she was planning to (at the very least) reveal her feelings, but when Luz asks her at the end of the episode who the note was addressed to she deflects by saying that it's not important.
- Aliens Steal Cable: Thanks to Eda's portal door, King has discovered the Internet, including cat videos...and flat Earth conspiracy theories.
- Almost Kiss: Skara and her date were about to kiss until Gus opens the arena under the gymnasium for Luz to fight Grometheus and both of them get excited and rip off their tuxedo jackets to reveal their Grom jersey.
- Amusing Injuries: Hooty gets too close to Amity, so she throttles him off-screen. When next we see him, Hooty has an eyepatch and numerous bandages.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Apparently if you defeat Grom, you'll receive a crown/tiara.
- Animation Bump: The dance-fight against the monster is very fluid and fast-paced.
- Bait-and-Switch: It briefly looks as if Grometheus is going to turn into Eda, but instead it turns into Luz's mother.
- Battle Discretion Shot: When Hooty invades Amity's personal space, Amity raises up her fist, and the camera cuts to outside and we see Hooty's body shaking and hear Amity clearly beating the crap out of him. In the next shot, Hooty has an eyepatch and Instant Bandages.
- Beta Couple: Skara and her date prove to be this to Amity and Luz. Neither Skara nor her date show any hesitation or embarrassment from doing a Gromposal in public while Amity couldn't even muster up the nerve to ask Luz in private. Skara and her date are both extremely excited for Grom, especially the fight, whereas Luz and Amity both show a healthy amount of apprehension and fright.
- Big Red Button: Luz sees a button on a plinth and can't resist pushing it. It turns out to open an arena hidden under the gymnasium, where the Grom Royalty is supposed to face a monster.
- Bilingual Bonus: While texting her mom at the end of the episode, Luz tells her "Te extraño también," which means "I miss you too." The illusory version of her mother conjured up by Grom also peppers its speech with Gratuitous Spanish.
- Blob Monster: Grometheus is a shapeless black blob that can become whatever its victim fears and use that against them. If it's destroyed, it simply spends a year reforming until it's back to full strength.
- Brick Joke:
- Eda tries to point out a spider on the back of Luz's head, but Luz ignores it as she just thinks Eda is messing with her. Later, after offering to take Amity's place as Grom Queen, the spider crawls onto her face and freaks her out.
- Luz claims she got kicked out of her last school dance for showing up in an otter costume. Later, one of the outfits she considers for Grom is an otter costume.
- Butt-Monkey: The Snaggleback shows up again, and he's hung upside down from the ceiling to be used as a disco ball. This is during the decorating for Grom hours before it actually starts and he's left up there after it ends.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Amity wanted to ask Luz to Grom, but was too afraid of rejection. When Amity's worst fear manifests itself, it appears as a Luz-like humanoid that tears Amity's invitation in half.
- Cassandra Truth: Eda points out that there's a giant spider on Luz's head, which the latter dismisses as yet another joke of hers. Turns out that there actually is a giant spider on Luz's head, which later crawls on her face at the worst moment.
- Chekhov's Skill: At the beginning of the episode, Luz is shown to have learned another new spell, this time to grow plants. She uses this against Grometheus later.
- Combination Attack:
- Edric and Emira combine their illusion magic to form a single spell circle, summoning a giant illusion of Eda as one of Luz's fears.
- Luz and Amity defeat Grometheus by summoning an abomination and attaching a plant glyph to it. The abomination leaps into the Grom's mouth and a tree sprouts inside it, reducing it to sludge.
- Conveniently Interrupted Document: Grometheus just so happens to tear Amity's note in such a way that the piece Luz picks up has everything but her name.
- Crush Blush: Amity does this NUMEROUS times around Luz throughout this episode.
- Dance Battler: Luz and Amity defeat the monster with a ballroom dance-fight.
- Distracted by My Own Sexy: Upon seeing the giant illusion of herself that Edric and Emira cast, Eda takes a moment to admire it before realizing what Luz is up to.Eda: (entranced) Dang, I look great!
- Double-Meaning Title: Grom can be short for the monster that has to be fought, Grometheus. "Grom" is also short for "Gay Prom", and it's where we learn that Amity has a crush on Luz.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Luz receives a text from her mother saying she loves Luz's letters and Luz thinks she's just using a cute way to say texts. She has no idea or reason to believe that her mom is actually getting letters from someone pretending to be Luz. Whoever's written them didn't even get her name right the first time (they spelled it as "Lus" only to realize their mistake and crossed it out before spelling it correctly).
- Face Your Fears: The first step in defeating Grometheus, since it becomes what its opponent fears. It's still a dangerous Blob Monster that has to be physically destroyed after that.
- Feed It a Bomb: Luz slaps her plant glyphs onto Amity's abomination, which then leaps into the mouth of Grometheus. A tree then sprouts inside it, popping it like a balloon.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: The form Grometheus takes to tear up Amity's invitation clearly, but loosely matches Luz's silhouette. About a minute later, we see Luz is exactly whom Amity wanted to invite.
- Forged Message: Someone has been clearly sending letters to Camila under the impression that her daughter was writing them from summer camp.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Luz declares her excitement about being Grom Queen, Willow tells her it's not something people willingly sign up for. We find out why when it's revealed the Grom King and Queen have to fight the living embodiment of nightmares underneath the school.
- While Luz claims that her deepest fear is Eda thinking she's inadequate, her guilt and inability to reply when her mother texts her at the start of the episode is a clear hint at what her true deepest fear is.
- Amity's awkwardness around Luz along with her constant blushing gives a strong hint as to who she had been planning to ask to Grom.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Luz shows off (and, much later, wears) her otter costume, her upper lip changes from a human one to that of an otter's.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Played with; King happens to be standing over Luz's shoulder as he gives her advice about her mom. In other words, he's a literal demon at her shoulder. This is immediately lampshaded:Luz: The demon at my shoulder makes a good point.
King: Always trust a shoulder demon! - Green Thumb: Luz sees a new glyph in a petal that allows her to make plants grow.
- Hammerspace: Of the magical kind. After Grom, Amity puts her Grom Queen crown into a tiny hope chest half its width.
- Held Gaze: A rather super close one done by Luz and Amity as they start their Magic Dance to defeat Grometheus.
- Heroic BSoD: Luz manages to hold her own against Grom better than anyone had thought... that is until it reads her mind and transforms into her mother, performing an impression of her so reminiscent of her and of Luz's worst nightmare it sends her running from the school.Luz: I don't wanna be Grom Queen anymore! I give up the throne!
- High-School Dance: Alongside the dance, the Grom Royalty has to battle a monster underneath the school.
- I Know What You Fear: Grometheus is able to read minds and then shapeshift into that person's fears.
- Imagine the Audience Naked: King thinks Gus is going to suggest he do something like "Imagine everyone in their underwear" to help him overcome his stage fright, but Gus thinks that's gross.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Luz tells Amity she'll be her fearless champion, then immediately freaks out over a spider on her face.
- Innocently Insensitive: Due to her ignorance of the school’s customs, Luz congratulates Amity for being Grom queen, not realizing it’s the worst thing to be selected for because it entails fighting a nightmare creature that feeds off of fear, and Amity is already having a bad day from that as it is.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: When Gus tries to comfort King about his stage fright by telling him he needs to face his fears like Luz is doing now, they see Luz run out of the gym saying she can't face her fears while being chased by Grometheus.
- The Internet Is for Cats: King becomes interested in watching cat videos whenever WiFi from Luz's world comes through Eda's door.
- Interspecies Romance: Aside from the obvious example of Amity's crush on Luz, every single couple shown at Grom is a witch/demon pairing.
- Invincible Villain: No matter how many times it is defeated, Grometheus will never be truly killed or dead, as it will simply return the next year.
- Ironic Fear:
- King, someone who loves attention and adoration, suffers from stage fright.
- Willow is shown at the end of the episode to be afraid of ladybugs, an insect that protects plants.
- Irony: After Luz finds out that Amity is afraid of being rejected by someone she wanted to ask to the dance, she comforts her by offering to go with her to Grom instead. This helps Amity, since it turns out she was trying to ask Luz herself.
- Lethal Harmless Powers: Luz using a plant-growing glyph to grow a massive tree inside the Grom, tearing it to pieces.
- Mama Bear: Eda is the first to be against the idea of Luz being Grom Queen, because there is no fun in seeing a kid getting eaten by a monster if it's "hers".
- Monster Clown: Amity's expository monologue about Grometheus is accompanied by freeze-frames of a past Grom Royal fighting it while it's in the form of a giant clown head. When Gus touches a piece of Grometheus after its defeat, it turns into a much smaller clown that sends him running and screaming.
- Mundane Utility: Luz is using Eda's portal door to charge her phone and get access to wireless Internet.
- Never Trust a Trailer: A trailer for the group of episodes that included this one showed a scene where Luz's mother enters the Boiling Isles through Eda's door. It's revealed in this episode to actually be what Grom turns into based on Luz's fear.
- Noodle Incident: Luz got kicked out of her last school dance for wearing an otter costume.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Hooty gets obnoxiously close to both Luz and Amity, with the latter covered in his feathers when she gets up to Luz's room. When Hooty does it a second time (despite her saying out loud what would happen if he did), Amity thrashes him for it.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Every time Luz's mother texts her to ask how she's doing at summer camp, Luz experiences a pang of guilt at the fact that she's been lying about her whereabouts.
- Oblivious to Love: Luz has no idea that Amity is in love with her. Upon realising Amity's fear of rejection, she asks Amity to go to Grom with her as a friend, unaware that she's the one Amity was afraid of being rejected by in the first place.
- Performance Anxiety: King gets stage fright when it's his turn to speak at the mic.
- Photo Montage: The episode ends with a series of photos all the kids took at Grom (which is then revealed to be the Snaggleback looking at a photo album).
- Playful Cat Smile: Luz makes this smile, or at least an otter version of it, when she considers wearing her otter suit to Grom.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Amity gets one off just before she and Luz face Grom together:Amity: Well, then, if that's settled, may I have this dance?
- Prom Is for Straight Kids: Averted. There's nothing to suggest that there would be a problem with Luz and Amity attending Grom together (beyond Amity's own insecurities) and two boys are shown dancing without comment.
- The Promposal: Early on in the episode, one is staged as a medical emergency, complete with a stretcher, two paramedics, and an actual beating heart as the note.
- Quirky Girl, Quirky Tux: Only four females are seen wearing tuxedos at Grom:
- Luz's Grom outfit is a tuxedo jacket coupled with purple tights, a pink tutu, and boots. This is by far the least weird thing Luz could have chosen to wear, as her last school dance had her wear an otter costume.
- Eda wears a dark brown tuxedo with a red shirt and yellow bowtie. Unlike Luz's, Eda's looks like a man's tux, as it’s among the human junk she happened to find.
- Skara wears a tuxedo like her date, but her tuxedo is white with a red shirt and white bowtie.
- Amelia, the tall green-haired girl in the Plant track usually seen in Boscha's posse, is wearing a light blue tuxedo.
- Reformed, but Not Tamed: Amity realized she needed to be a better person in a previous episode, but here she angrily calls a person ''she'' bumps into a "nitwit", only apologizing when she realizes it's Luz. She also nearly kills Hooty, who she refers to as a "bird tube", for annoying her, though this is Played for Laughs because Hooty has No Sense of Personal Space. At least she's working on it. Then again, her behavior in this episode likely stems from her having a really bad day due to the stress of having to fight Grometheus, among other things.
- The Reveal:
- "Grom" is where the Grom King/Queen must face Grometheus, the Fear-Bringer, in combat in order to protect the school and keep him from escaping.
- It 's revealed that Amity has developed a crush on Luz.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Downplayed. While Amity jumping to Luz's defense did serve a narrative purpose and allowed her to atone for allowing Luz to put herself in danger in the first place, it technically wasn't necessary to protect Luz since Eda was already about to take care of it.
- Ship Tease: Besides the note showing that Amity wanted to ask Luz to Grom, there are a few other moments that tease Luz x Amity, like how in-sync they are during their dance against Grometheus.
- Shout-Out:
- One of the weapons available for use against Grometheus is a Buster Sword.
- Alastor also makes an appearance on the weapon wall.
- So Proud of You: Eda applauds Luz for her bravery along with the other Hexside students at the end of the episode after Luz and Amity defeated the Grometheus and are crowned Grom Queens.Eda: Watch out for this human! Ah, you did good kid.
- Super Cell Reception: Averted. Luz is specifically shown to be getting signal and wi-fi thanks to Eda's portal door.
- Take That!:
- The moment King discovers a flat Earth conspiracy, Luz decides he's had enough Internet.
- One of Luz's fears is "jerks online who want to debate", which comes complete with a stereotypical fat, smug-looking, neck-bearded, fedora-wearing Internet troll sending her a text that reads "M'lady".
- Tempting Fate: Hooty asks while getting in Amity's face if she wants to hear his worst nightmare. He might as well have gotten a new one in Amity, who mercilessly thrashes him afterwards.
- Wham Episode: Luz learns a Green Thumb spell, Amity is confirmed to have feelings for Luz, making the former the first explicit same sex Love Interest of a Disney Protagonist in history, and someone has been writing letters to Luz's mother that are supposedly from Luz at camp.
- Wham Shot: Two:
- Luz asks who Amity wanted to ask to Grom, but she says it's not important and chucks aside the piece of paper that had the name written on it. The piece lands by the rest of the note and unfolds to reveal that it was none other than Luz herself.
- Luz's mom has been getting letters from someone pretending to be Luz at camp. Whoever's written them didn't even spell her name right before they realized their mistake, yet at the same time knows enough about where Luz should be to make the letters sound convincing.
- What Does This Button Do?: Luz sees a button on a plinth and presses it just because it's there, revealing the lair of Grometheus.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
- Among Luz's common fears are "jerks online who want to debate", "human souls trapped in cat bodies", and... milk ("I'm lactose intolerant!"). She also fears not being good enough to study under Eda and having to explain what she's been doing to her mother.
- Amity's fear is being rejected by Luz.
- Willow is afraid of ladybugs, which is ironic since ladybugs protect plants from aphids. Though, given what seagulls are on the Isles, it could easily stem from a fear of Boiling Isles ladybugs, not just ladybugs in general.
- Gus is afraid of clowns.
"Te extraño también, Mami. One day, I'll tell you all about this."
