Recap / The Owl House S1E3 "I Was a Teenage Abomination"

"Hey, wait. I know how we can both get what we want. Make me your abomination. I'll get you a good grade, and you can get me into magic school. It's fiendishly clever."

— Luz

Original air date: 1/24/2020 (produced in 2019)

Production code: 103

Luz sneaks into the local magic school to help a friend and makes a new enemy in the process.

Full Recap

TBA...

---

Tropes:

• Alpha Bitch: Amity is introduced as an arrogant bully who mocks Willow for her ineptitude with Abomination magic.
• The Bet: Eda and King have a bet over who makes the better teacher. If Eda loses she has to wear a Dunce Cap and stay in the shack, if King loses he starts going by an Embarrassing Nickname. Eda points out that she's won dozens of similar bets while King hasn't won a single one, but King ends up winning—initially.
• Break the Haughty: Eda actually loses a bet to King, and seems to realize this happened partially because she was simultaneously dismissive of Luz while also telling her of somewhere else she could learn magic. At the end, she makes sure to make it clear she is proud of Luz and is fine with Luz's new friends stopping by to also help her with magic.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Willow is shy and kind, but get her mad and she can turn any nearby plants into deadly constricting vines. Only realizing she's hurting you can snap her out of the berserk state she is in, and that's presumably if she realizes.
• Bittersweet Ending: Luz is banned from magic school, but Willow and Gus promise to visit and teach her magic, along with Eda. She accepts that for now. And Willow got transferred to Plant Magic class, which she’ll excel at.
• Blob Monster: Abominations are vaguely-humanoid masses of goop that obey the witch who conjures them.
• Call-Back: In the previous episode, Luz wonders, "Or should I be like a bad girl Chosen One with black nail polish and a mysteriously drawn attitude? 'I act like I don't care, but I secretly do.'" Here, she meets someone who matches that profile to a "T": Amity Blight.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Luz tries to help Willow get a passing grade on her assignment. It nearly leads to Luz getting dissected, and Willow getting detention. In addition, Luz gets banned before she can learn much magic. Subverted when Willow remains top student.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The "slime ball" Eda gives to Luz at the beginning turns out to be a seed, which Willow uses to magically grow into giant vines. Eda herself even states that it would be important.
  • Eda mentioning salt being a garbage worm's weakness, which is what they use to stop Prince Jr from rampaging.
  • Luz teaches Gus what a high-five is. He later uses it to knock over a few abomination pots to distract Principal Bump so Luz can escape.
• Color-Coded Wizardry: The uniforms at the witches school seem to be color-coded according to what kind of magic the students specialize in. Amity and Willow wear Orchid to indicate that they are on the Abomination Track. Later, when Willow switches to plant magic, her uniform turns Green. There are seven other colors, later revealed to be: Red (Bard), Orange (Beast Keeping), Yellow (Potions), Blue (Illusion), Indigo (Healing), Purple (Oracle), and Brown (Construction).
• Comically Missing the Point: At the end of the episode, Eda affectionately pats Luz on the head and tells her she's proud of her. Gus, who learned of the human gesture of high-fives from Luz, politely informs Eda that high-fives are done with the hands, not the head.
• Culture Clash: This and future episodes demonstrate that Eda doesn't understand the concept of a hug, expressing confusion by it multiple times. (In a future episode, she even calls it "the parallel arm thing".) Since Willow and Gus, who are also from the Boiling Isles, both give Luz hugs when they see her again, it's unknown if it's just Eda who doesn't understand it, or if Willow and Gus learned about hugging from Luz and it's not a typical Boiling Isles gesture.
• Debut Queue: Willow, Gus and Amity make their first appearances in this episode, along with Principal Bump.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Played for Laughs. Eda's reaction to Luz vanishing into a school that she considers a place of "blind obedience" is not that different from a parent finding out their kid vanished in a forbidden place.
• Dramatic Drop: Amity drops her textbook when the abominations teacher announces that Willow is the new top student.
• Dunce Cap: King makes Eda wear one with "Shame" on it as part of winning the bet.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Boscha, Skara and Eileen make brief appearances during the class scenes. Bo and Cat can be seen during the cafeteria scene.
• Education Mama: Willow's parents apparently wanted her to enroll in the abominations course because they think that it would lead to better opportunities for her.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Willow is called "Half-a-Witch Willow" by her classmates.
• Everyone Has Standards: When their teacher threatens to give everyone extra homework if the next abomination is a failure, Amity stands up and volunteers to show hers, in her typical arrogant language. Even so, she thinks it's unfair to punish everyone when she has done the work and can prove it.
• Everyone Knew Already: Principal Bump was well aware of who and what Luz really is since he says he wanted to see what "she's" made of, not "it" like Amity says. It doesn't help when Willow outright confirms it by bringing out the list of ingredients used to make her.
• Extreme Omnivore: The garbage worm, as the name suggests, swallows junk until it gets too fat too move and is killed by salt from the ocean hitting it.
• Evolving Credits: The credits updates Willow in her green school uniform.
• Faux Horrific: This is Eda's reaction to Hexside when she realizes Luz has found her way there.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Note that Willow refers to her parents as "my parents" and not "my mom and dad," which foreshadows the fact that she has two dads.
  • Willow's uncontrollable rage after Amity insults her hints at just how much repressed anger she has towards Amity.
• Greater Need Than Mine: Willow stays behind to cover Luz's escape because she expects the principal to treat a human who sneaked into the school much worse.
  Luz: I'm not leaving you.
  Willow: I may get detention, but you'll get dissected... so go!
• Green Thumb: While Willow's skill in making abominations is severely lacking, she has an amazing aptitude for plant-based magic, creating multiple giant vines out a single small seed.
• Heroic Bystander: When Luz nearly gets dissected, Gus knocks down several abomination barrels to distract Principal Bump and give Luz a chance to run.
• Idiosyncratic Cultural Gesture: High fives are revealed to be a foreign concept on the Boiling Isles, though Gus quickly gets the hang of it.
• I Have No Son!: King declares this to Prince Junior before pouring a barrel of salt on him.
• Instant Costume Change: When Willow changes classes, she spins around and magically changes her uniform from pink to green.
• In-Series Nickname: After meeting Augustus, a young boy who acts as head of Hexside's Human Appreciation Society, Luz notes that she knows an Augustus from the human world as well, who goes by Gus. This Augustus immediately happily adopts the human nickname as his own as well, and indeed goes by "Gus" for the rest of the series.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Amity refers to Luz as "it" when she exposes her.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Amity isn't wrong when saying that Willow can't afford another failure, as Willow sadly acknowledges before they make it to school. Also, she knows that Willow is cheating because she saw the girl's project beforehand, which was just an eyeball in sludge. She gets vindicated when the principal chases Luz out of the school.
• Karma Houdini: Willow is never apprehended for cheating with her assignment, and actually gets to keep her top student star despite everyone knowing about it in the end.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: The Abominations 101 teacher has an abomination which is beige-colored, contrasting the purple-colored abominations of his students.
• Meaningful Name: Abomination, the name used for the purple tar monsters summoned, means something that causes disgust or hatred.
• Miracle-Gro Monster: The garbage worm grows every time King feeds it dog biscuits until it is fully grown. When King dumps a barrel of salt into its mouth, it reverts to a tiny larva.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Gus is blown over when Luz teaches him how to do a high-five.
• Not Helping Your Case: Amity is completely correct that Willow cheated on their assignment. She makes a scene in the cafeteria shaking Luz, asking what she is. Their Sadist Teacher sends her to the office, suspecting her of sabotaging Willow's project.
• Offscreen Teleportation: After getting the top student badge, Willow turns around to find Amity and is left confused since Amity was on the other side of the hall a moment ago.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Willow gets this when Amity points out she didn't have a full abomination before class and will be watching her.
  • Eda has this reaction when Luz goes missing at the school and is attending class.
  • King gets this when he realizes that he's run out of treats for the now garbage worm..and it's still hungry.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Luz smears herself in abomination goo and manages to pass herself off as one despite her obvious fleshy bits making her look nothing like an actual abomination.
• Persona Non Grata: Luz is banned from the magic school when the principal finds out she was faking being an abomination.
• Pet the Dog: Amity volunteers to show off her abomination so that everyone else isn't punished for their shoddy assignments.
• Poke the Poodle: As a punishment for losing the bet, King makes Eda wear a Dunce Cap. When he concedes, she calls him Mr. Wiggles in turn.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is based on I Was a Teenage Werewolf.
• Promotion, Not Punishment: Principal Bump is so impressed by Willow's plant magic, he doesn't care that she cheated on her class project (which is a bit moot as he gets her to transfer classes), ran away from him when confronted, or seized him with vines and pinned him to the ceiling.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Eda gets this when she realizes that Luz went to the wizarding school, meaning she loses the bet with King.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Principal Bump learns from Amity that Willow cheated on her assignment. Ostensibly, Willow doesn't get punished because she has never done well on the abomination track. He notices Luz's ears and starts examining her, threatening to dissect her after she misunderstands the word "lie". Even so, when she escapes he settles for banning her and putting up a Wanted poster while transferring Willow to the plant magic track.
• School Is for Losers: Eda hates the Wizarding Schools in the Boiling Isles, being a drop-out due to her contempt for authority and what she considers the "pointless busywork" of its curriculum.
• Shoo the Dog: Luz doesn't want to leave Willow for Taking the Heat for the chaos at school. Willow picks her up with her vines and boots Luz out of the doors, so she gets away.
• So Proud of You: Eda is impressed that Luz is already banned from the magic school after one afternoon.
  That's my girl! ...Ah, baby's first "Wanted!" Poster.
• Spotting the Thread: Principal Bump gets suspicious of the abomination when Luz misinterprets the term "lie" and starts babbling about chemical trails. However, he's implied to already know the truth when he says he had to see her for himself, not "it".
• Stating the Simple Solution:
  • The whole episode is about Luz trying to learn traditional magic at a regular school, by auditing as an abomination. Because she's human and helps a classmate cheat on an assignment, she gets banned before even getting to enroll.
  • Amity tries to show off her abomination so that the teacher won't punish everyone with extra homework. He shuts her down because he wants to save the "best" for last.
• Status Quo Is God: Luz doesn't attend magic school, because humans aren't allowed and she's on the lam for being an intruder. With that said, Gus and Willow can visit the Owl House and share their lessons with her.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Just after Willow sneaks Luz into the school to pose as her abomination, Gus literally bumps into her while reading a magazine about humans, and this conversation happens.
  Gus: Willow, you would not believe humans.
  Willow: (Glances nervously at the pot Luz is hiding in) Humans? I haven't seen any, what?
• Tastes Like Friendship: King "trains" the garbage worm simply by feeding it dog biscuits. However, as soon as he runs out of biscuits, the worm turns on him.
• Teacher's Pet: The abominations teacher dislikes most students except for Amity, though seeing Willow's fake abomination quickly changes his favor to her.
• Tongue-Out Insult: After Amity bullies Willow and prepares to head for school, Luz makes her distaste known by sticking out her tongue.
• Unequal Rites: Willow's parents seem to have something against plant magic. She enjoys it and is very good at it, but they insisted she enroll in a completely different course.
• Varying Competency Alibi: Inverted. After Willow cheats on her Abominations 101 homework by having Luz pretend to be an Abomination in front of the teacher, Amity quickly realizes something isn't right when Willow is given her top student badge, as she knows the other witch is extremely unskilled in Abominations and couldn't possibly have made something that good only hours after Amity saw the pile of goo that was her real homework.

---