Recap / The Owl House S2E10 "Yesterday's Lie"

Original air date: 8/14/2021

Production code: 210

Luz thinks she's found a way back home. But is she ready for what she'll find on the other side?

Full Recap

TBA...

---

Tropes:

• Accent Slip-Up: After seeing Luz, Vee loses Luz's affected voice and starts speaking in a high-pitched, slightly raspy voice.
• Acting Unnatural: Upon first meeting Camila while disguised as Luz, Vee tries to act casual, but ends up babbling some nonsense. Fortunately for her, Camila just assumes she's joking around because such a thing isn't exactly out of character for Luz.
  Vee: (disguised as Luz) Hello, fellow human! Um, skin's sure weird!
• Actor Allusion:
  • Given Vee is a basilisk, it's not Michaela Dietz's first time voicing an avid shapeshifter with a Dark and Troubled Past.
  • Vee's goth friend, voiced by Grey DeLisle, has a very familiar sounding leitmotif when they read Vee's fortune.
  • Given his role as The Night Owl in Regular Show, this isn't the first time Roger Craig Smith has voiced a smarmy bespectacled human antagonist with an overinflated ego who captures anthropomorphic creatures to exploit them for fame and fortune. Bonus points for Jacob being a museum curator, while the Night Owl runs his own personal museum in the Bad Future.
• All-Loving Hero: Luz quickly gets over the fact that Vee had taken over her life, helping her out of the trap, and sympathizing with her backstory. Likewise, Camila is nothing but kind to Vee after learning the truth, offering to let her stay as long as she likes.
• All There in the Script: The Void Between the Worlds is never named at any point during the episode, though the official soundtrack refers to it as the In Between Realm.
• And You Thought It Was a Game: Camila initially assumes that Luz is playing some kind of game when she tells Camila about the Boiling Isles and instructs her to rescue Vee. Camila starts to realize that Luz is being honest when she sees Vee's true form for the first time, even if it takes a few moments for it to fully sink in.
• Animate Inanimate Object: The paper Vee reads about Eda shows that she animated various books, pastries, and whatever else was nearby to get out of paying for food.
• Awful Truth: Neither Luz nor Vee want to let Camila know the latter has been taking the former's place for months, partly because they know how horrible she would feel as a mother to learn this. Vee is even willing to go back to life in a cage to spare Camila the pain of finding out, and Luz only resorts to telling Camila when she has no other choice.
• Bad Influencer: Jacob Hopkins is the Head of the Gravesfield Historical Society and a Conspiracy Theorist who believes that Demons and Witches are real (which is true) and that they are from Mars and have teeth-powered time machines (which is not true). While he claims that he does what he does to save humanity from an incoming invasion, one of the things he wants from revealing this information is to have his "account verified", implying that he mostly just does this for attention.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • When Luz appears in the mirror at the end of the Cold Opening, she looks disheveled and is enraged at the sight of Vee, seemingly setting up an angry confrontation between her and her doppelgänger. However, in the episode proper, Luz looks normal and her exclamation is immediately replaced with curiosity when Vee panics at the sight of her.
  • The Goth takes note of the strange look in Vee's eyes... but assumes she's wearing special contact lenses.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Part of it seems to be her apparent younger age, but Vee is noticeably more of a Cute Monster Girl than the basilisk seen in "The First Day", or the others seen in the flashback, the only one confirmed to have had moral quandaries about draining magic, and only replaced Luz because she was desperate to escape the Emperor's Coven.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Downplayed with Camila. When she sees Vee throwing out several of the things that Luz has an interest in, it's clear that she's worried Reality Check camp may have done too good of a job.
  • While Camila wasn't there to see it for herself, Vee has adopted a fatalistic attitude that causes her to (as Luz puts it) give up too easily because it's implied the Reality Check camp taught her to be "realistic". And according to her, reality dictates that her exposure to Jacob will lead to Camila discovering she's a basilisk and promptly rejecting her.
• Becoming the Mask: At first, Vee intended to find a place in the human world and only briefly disguised herself as Luz because it was the only human form she could think of on the spot. But Camila was so kind to Vee that she kept playing the role of Luz because she loved feeling safe and wanted. When Jacob catches her, Vee resigns herself to returning to life in a cage so Camila won't be endangered having to rescue or hide her, or have to learn her "daughter" the last few months was a fake.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Vee implies this of some of the other basilisks, after an entire lifetime of being experimented on and forced to feed until it was all they knew how to do.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • Vee's name is not a coincidence. Her real 'name' is "Number 5", and the roman numeral for the number five just so happens to be V.
  • When required to make a verbal agreement with Jacob, Camila sounds like she says "'Kay" in agreement, but probably said "¿Qué?", which is Spanish for "What?".
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Jacob Hopkins. When Vee talks to him for the first time while he is working at the museum, he comes across like a very friendly, upbeat and polite person who is just doing his job. However, it's revealed that he is an out-of-touch egotist who doesn't care if innocent creatures get hurt as long as he gets famous.
• Bittersweet Ending: Luz is able to help Vee and finally tell her mother where she has been this whole time, and Camila allows Vee to stay with her. But in doing so, Luz realizes just how much she has taken her mother for granted and how much her rash decisions have come to hurt those she loves. In an effort to apologize and comfort her mom, Luz ends up making a promise that when she manages to make a fully functioning portal, she will stay in the Human Realm for good. Upon returning to the Owl House, Luz is clearly torn up over the decision, as it may mean never seeing her friends in the Boiling Isles again, assuming that she can fulfill that promise given how much she has to lose by keeping it. Either way, whatever she does almost guarantees that she will break someone's heart.
• Buffy Speak: Luz calls the metal 'L' on the rope snare a "thingamabob" because she doesn't know the actual name.
• The Bus Came Back: Luz's mother Camila comes back as a major character this episode, discovering the existence of the Boiling Isles and helping Luz rescue Vee.
• Call-Back:
  • The In Between Realm that Luz spends most of the episode in was previously hinted at by Philip's notes in "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door".
  • Eda dumped her Hexas Hold'em cards in the Human Realm after the events of "Hooty's Moving Hassle".
  • Once again, "Luz" nearly gets vivisected.
  • The fact basilisks are supposed to be extinct is brought up again, but this time, it's shown Emperor Belos found a way to bring them back ala Jurassic Park in order to research their ability to consume magic.
• Came Back Wrong: Hinted by Vee, who confirms that basilisks went extinct a long time ago but were brought back through unknown means in order to study how they drain magic. She hints that some basilisks know nothing but how to feed partly because that's the only reason they were brought back, and only a few basilisks like Vee want to do other things besides feed. Though the fact that they were experimented on and forced to feed since they were revived may be part of it as well.
• The Cameo: Warden Wrath is seen taking notes on the basilisk experiments during Vee's flashbacks.
• Cassandra Truth: Camila first assumes Luz's story to be an elaborate game, but seeing a living basilisk convinces her of the truth.
• Caught on Tape: Jacob witnessed Vee's shapeshifting as Luz due to having placed a surveillance camera inside the old house.
• Conspiracy Theorist: There's one running the Gravesfield Historical Society. He's right that there are demons and another realm full of them, but what he's seen online about them has completely warped his view about what they want. Even Vee's explanations about what she is don't get through to him. A Freeze-Frame Bonus also shows that he's a member of the Flat Earth Society.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Some of the clothes Vee picked up in the wardrobe at the beginning are the same from the pilot episode.
  • Among the objects Luz has gathered for her portal is the creepy doll she picked up in the first episode.
  • The family photo seen in the kitchen was taken during Luz's "awkward hair phase".
  • Luz wears her witch's wool cloak when she travels into the portal.
  • Vee runs to the abandoned house where Luz followed Owlbert in the first episode.
  • When Vee reveals that she is a basilisk, Luz mentions having run into another basilisk before. It was mentioned then that basilisks were thought to be extinct. Vee confirms this to be true, but they were somehow brought back through unspecified means to study how they drain magic. They eventually all managed to escape, going on the run to avoid being captured again.
  • Jacob has a training wand, just like the one Amity used in "Adventures in the Elements".
  • Jacob learned all about witches by watching conspiracy theory videos on MewTube.
• Contrived Coincidence: The very same day Luz entered the Boiling Isles, a shapeshifting being on the run witnessed her helping out Eda's stall and realized there was another world she could hide from her pursuers in, sneaking through the Portal Door and assuming Luz's form as the only possible disguise she could think of when she was startled by Luz's mother following shortly after her, thus allowing Vee to smoothly transition into Luz's life by utter accident without Luz or Camila being aware of it.
• Covert Pervert: Once Luz realizes how the mirror world works, the first thing her mind goes to is if she could use it to see what Amity is doing. When a cube appears to oblige her request, Luz quickly shoves it back into the water and orders herself to stay focused.
• Creator Cameo: The barista is visually based on associate producer Rian Borland.
• Cute Monster Girl: It seems to at least partially be the fact that she seems younger than the others we see, but even in her full basilisk form, let alone her form in-between Luz and her normal form, Vee is noticeably cuter than the other basilisks we see in the flashback.
• Disapproving Look: Luz gives Jacob a sarcastic glare when he reveals his...er, "interesting" theory of Vee's origins, pressing her nose and inhaling like she's instinctively planning to lecture him on all the things he got wrong.
• Double-Meaning Title: The episode title could refer to either Luz's lie of being at camp, Vee's lie about who she is, or both.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Seeing Eda in her cursed form is what sparked Jacob's obsession in the first place, and he has no idea that the beast and the strange woman he bought the Hexes Hold'Em Cards from are one and the same.
  • Camila thinks it's her fault that Luz left for the Boiling Isles and wound up Trapped in Another World. As Luz tries to tell her before she's pulled back through the portal, her mother was never the problem and in fact is the only reason Luz is trying to get back home in the first place.
• Easily Forgiven: Luz and her mother rather quickly get over the fact Vee attempted to replace Luz and lived as her in their home for several months, sympathizing with her instead.
• Eldritch Location: The incomplete portal that Luz uses transports her to some sort of Void Between the Worlds. Luz is able to use cubes that float out of starry water to view things in either realm via reflective surfaces, like mirrors or phone screens.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Jacob correctly realizes witches and demons are real... but he thinks that they're "all sent from Mars to collect human teeth to power their time machine".
• Escaped from the Lab: Vee and some other basilisks (including the one seen in "The First Day") escaped from the Emperor's Coven, and she is desperate not to go back.
• Exposition Cut: When Luz starts to tell Camila about the Boiling Isles, the scene cuts to Camila having already arrived at the Gravesfield Historical Society. Given Luz's sense of urgency due to Vee being in danger, it isn't made clear just how much she told her mother outside of a basic overview.
• Failed a Spot Check: Luz contacts Camila through the closest reflective surface, which happens to be a docked smartphone. Camila mistakes it for a video call despite her not accepting the call or even touching the phone. She also doesn't seem to notice that Luz is wearing different clothing and has changed her hairstyle.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing:
  • When Luz is trying to follow Vee after seeing her for the first time, the cube leading to her shows up when Luz tries to calm down by telling herself to "count to five".
  • The snare hidden under the papers on the floor in the abandoned cabin can be seen briefly as Vee enters the house after fleeing from Luz's home.
  • Camila confirms she's a veterinarian just before seeing Vee, so you can guess it doesn't take long for Camila to deduce that Vee's animalistic qualities (scales, tail muscles, side-blinking eyes, etc) are way too detailed and realistic to be a costume.
• Flawed Prototype: Luz's portal door has a misshapen opening and dumps her into a Void Between the Worlds where she can see and communicate with individuals on either side via mirrors. It eventually breaks down altogether, melting and collapsing in on itself.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Camila and Vee find a rabbit trapped in a snare during the Cold Open, with Camila noting that it's the fifth she's seen this week. Similarly, the snare and camera in the abandoned house that the portal opens up to are also hints about Jacob spying. On a similar note, Camila is livid at the idea of someone (allegedly) setting traps for the rabbits and vows she'll beat the stuffing out of the culprit if she meets him. Towards the climax, Jacob (the aforementioned culprit) is beaten by Camila's chancla.
  • The news article that Luz dismisses as junk was actually written by Jacob.
  • When Vee asks the barista about magic, the barista asks if she's friends with "that witch-obsessed guy" who keeps leaving fliers.
  • Before Luz tests out her prototype portal, Eda warns her there are a lot of weirdos in the Human Realm. At first it seems to just be another example of the culture clash between the Human and Demon realms, but it makes more sense when it's revealed that she sold her Hexas Hold'em cards to the conspiracy-obsessed curator of the Gravesfield Historical Society.
  • While Vee walks through town, a Memorial Statue of two men in period outfits can be seen. The one on the right shares Philip's hairstyle, though neater than that of his silhouette in the diary entries.
  • As Jacob is ranting about the secret history of Gravesfield, he mentions a witch meeting two brothers. Their faces are smudged and both have short ponytails, making it hard to tell if either is meant to be Philip. The first brother seems to have a cardinal sitting on his shoulder, while the second is holding a piece of paper with a circle drawn on it, similar to Luz's paper glyphs.
  • Belos has been studying draining magic.
• Fossil Revival: Basilisks had been extinct for a long time, but somehow Belos and the Emperor's Coven brought some back as experiments to study their magic-draining powers.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Jacob is all too gleeful about dissecting Vee.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • A close look at the Noceda family fridge shows what looks like a Bisexual Pride flag magnet on it.
  • The curator's name is never said at any point in the episode, but an article he wrote in the paper reveals it to be Jacob Hopkins.
  • According to the aforementioned article, Eda apparently tried to use a Jedi Mind Trick to cut in line at the café.
  • A lot of lore and backstory for the two brothers, one heavily implied to be Philip and the other having the same nose as Hunter, can be seen throughout the episode in the background and on briefly shown book pages.
  • On the wall in Jacob's office, there's a framed certificate showing he's a member of the Flat Earth Society.
  • In the book's illustration of the two brothers, a cardinal can be seen on one's shoulder. This could be Hunter's future palisman.
• Freudian Slip: When Vee is revealing herself to Luz, she slips and calls Camila "Mom" before correcting herself. It's implied here that Vee calling Camila this is NOT just residue from Vee's method acting as Luz for months.
• Friend to All Living Things:
  • Camila's well-known love of animals is showcased again when she's shown to rescue animals from snare traps, and it's confirmed that she works as a veterinarian. When Camila encounters Vee's true form for the first time, she becomes visibly unnerved as she realizes that a strange mythical creature is real. However, when Camila sees how terrified and miserable the poor creature looks bound and gagged in a cage, then further learns Jacob intends to dissect her, Camila immediately resolves to rescue Vee.
  • Unlike the other basilisk we met in "The First Day", Vee does not enjoy feeding from living things; when she was forced to feed on the rats while being experimented on, you can see she does it at great distress and with tears in her eyes, and eventually she absolutely refuses to feed on and even protects the rats. The only time she will feed on magic is if it is in non-living things like enchanted cards or food.
• Funny Background Event: When Luz tells Vee to hide her ears before entering the café, a child behind Vee can be seen pointing before her mother drags her off.
• Gave Up Too Soon: Lampshaded by Luz, who calls Vee out on giving up almost immediately after Jacob catches her because he knows what Vee's disguise looks like (both because he could look for her even if she escaped and because she thinks that if Camila found out the truth it would be worse for her than if "Luz" simply disappeared) rather than continue to fight for her freedom or try to think of another way to avoid him once out.
• Glamour Failure: When she sees the real Luz in the mirror, Vee's eyes close horizontally and her voice changes back to her natural voice, and she later returns to her normal form when she panics.
• Glory Hound: Jacob seeks to find witches and demons solely so he can become famous. When he believes Camila is a government agent, he demands a verbal contract that she won't publish her "findings" before he does.
• Godzilla Threshold: When she first learns of Vee, Luz realizes that she's lucked out and her mother has no idea she ever left, and decides to exploit that by helping Vee maintain her cover. When Vee is captured and gives up on escaping, Luz realizes she has no choice but to let her mother know the truth.
• Gone Horribly Right: When Camila sees that "Luz" seemingly has little-to-no interest in her old hobbies, she worries if camp did too good a job. Played with is that it's not the real Luz.
• Goth Girls Know Magic: Downplayed. There is a goth that Vee met at summer camp, but all they do is a Tarot reading for Vee. That said, the Tarot reading is quite accurate — both Vee and Luz are running away from a past that is now catching up to them, and have regrets that may soon overwhelm them.
• Grass is Greener: Vee has more than bit of resentment toward Luz for running away from the good things in her life — a home and a mom who cared about her — things she never got to have as a basilisk.
• Gravity Screw: The gravity in the Void Between the Worlds points in two opposite directions depending on which realm's entrance you're closer to. Luz attempts to reach the cube leading to her mother on the ceiling, only for it to suddenly become the floor when she gets halfway there.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The mysterious witch who lured the two brothers (one heavily implied to be Philip Wittebane) into the Demon Realm. Assuming she existed at all, and wasn't just part of the 1600s witch scare. And assuming she had malicious intentions for bringing them along even if she did exist.
• Group Hug: Before she enters the new portal door, Luz gives a big hug to King, Eda and Hooty.
• Hero of Another Story: Vee is a Cute Monster Girl from a fantasy world who while on the run from an evil dictator ends up in the human world. Taking over the life of another girl, Vee learns to find happiness in being a normal human while at camp for eccentric teens, making her story the literal inverse of Luz's.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Jacob creates a cage with which to capture a demon. At the end of the episode, he ends up locked in the cage after getting slapped in the face with a shoe by Camila.
• Horror Hunger: Vee confirms that a lot of basilisks know nothing but their never-ending hunger for magic, but reveals that some of them don't like hurting innocents, or want to experience life beyond just endless feeding.
• How We Got Here: The Cold Opening has Luz finally meeting her imposter through her bedroom mirror; after the intro, we are shown what events had led up that moment.
• Hugh Mann: Vee's first encounter with Camila as Luz has her greet her as "fellow human" and comment on skin being weird; Camila just laughs it off as a joke. It's lucky for Vee that Luz is just the kind of human who would say weird things like that.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Jacob is 100% human, but compared to Vee, who is a literal monster from a realm of demons and witches, but just wants a place to belong where she's safe from the Emperor's Coven, it's easy to see who we're supposed to root for.
• Humble Goal:
  • Played for laughs with Jacob. His reason for wanting to expose the existence of demons to the world is so he can have his MewTube account verified.
  • Played for Drama with Vee, whose life was so horrible before she escaped the Boiling Isles that all she wants is a safe, stable, normal life and a place to belong like Luz had before she left it all, though Luz would argue that she didn't really have the last of those until she got to the Demon Realm, thus the one goal they both shared.
• I Just Want to Be You: Vee would love nothing more than to keep living as Luz. In fact, she calls out Luz on wanting to run, saying that Luz had "a mom who loved [her], a home, a life", and things that Vee never had, and it's actually made clear that Luz, who prefers life in the Demon Realm, would be perfectly fine with letting her do so indefinitely.
• I Know Your True Name: The cubes in the Void Between the Worlds will show the nearest reflective surface of anyone that Luz mentions, but it only works if she refers to their actual name, so her initial attempts to follow Vee by shouting "Luz Noceda 2.0" and "Doppelgänger" don't work while absentmindedly saying "count to five" when trying to calm herself down does.
• Indy Ploy: Subverted. When Jacob comes back intending to dissect Vee, Camila interrupts him by saying that the President just called. Luz urges Camila to keep going, but Camila admits that she doesn't have the imagination to make up a convincing lie on the spot, and just tells Jacob to back off.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Luz learns of the imposter who has taken over her life while she has been on the Boiling Isles.
  • Camila learns that Luz has been on the Isles for the past few months and the person she thinks is her daughter is a basilisk.
• Irony:
  • Luz is friendly, energetic, and outgoing, yet struggled to find friends in the human world. Vee is a shy, reserved, easily frightened basilisk disguised as a human, yet she easily befriended a group of human teenagers while at camp.
  • Alador and Odalia are Abusive Parents who are apathetic at best towards Luz, yet they allowed her and Amity's relationship to develop uninterrupted despite Odalia doing so reluctantly (and also because they're too busy licking the Emperor's boots to look into it). Camila is a Good Parent who would almost certainly like Amity, yet she ends up becoming a major threat to their romance completely unintentionally.
• It's All My Fault: Downplayed, but when Camila learns that Luz chose to stay in the Boiling Isles, after giving a brief What the Hell, Hero? she tearfully asks if life was so miserable with her that Luz felt the need to run away. She then pleads with Luz to come home and give her another chance, and promises it'll be different this time.
• It's Always Spring: Averted. While the trees haven't started changing colors yet, it's clearly approaching early fall in the human world, since almost everyone is walking around in long sleeves.
• Jedi Mind Trick: According to the paper Vee reads, Eda apparently tried to use this to cut in line in the human world, but failed.
• Kidnapped for Experimentation: Jacob pulls this trope on Vee, having been setting traps and eventually trapping her so he could expose the existence of demons and monsters.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: While Jacob is correct that witches and demons actually exist, he thinks that they're "all sent from Mars to collect human teeth to power their time machine" thanks to all the conspiracy videos that he's watched. Vee even lampshades after he reveals this that he doesn't really know anything about them.
• Lack of Imagination: Camila tries to stall Jacob by claiming she just got a call from the President, only to give up and admit she doesn't have the imagination to continue.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Camila ends up locking Jacob in the cage he stuffed Vee into.
• Last-Second Word Swap: When introducing herself, Vee nearly calls herself "Number 5" before going with "Vee".
• Magic A Is Magic A: The cubes in the Void Between the Worlds can show Luz anyone in the human or demon realms, but in order to make them appear there has to be a reflective surface (or multiple surfaces in the case of raindrops) somewhere near whom she wants to see and she has to say their real name out loud. The cubes fail to materialize on two different occasions, when Luz doesn't know Vee's name yet and when Vee has broken the only reflective surface in the room (which causes the cube Luz was using to break as well).
• Magic Eater: The episode establishes that basilisks can eat magic from other sources than just draining witches. Vee recharges by eating Eda's old Hexas Hold'em cards, and in flashbacks is shown draining demon rats. The ability is the whole reason the Emperor's Coven revived the species.
• Mama Bear: While Vee isn't her daughter, Camila instantly becomes protective all the same. She smacks Jacob with la chancla after he declares that he wants to dissect Vee, then puts him in the cage he trapped Vee in. When she learns from Luz that Vee is just a kid who was desperately looking for a safe place, Camila agrees to let Vee stay.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's unclear if the Hexas Hold'em cards the goth was using for their Tarot reading still have just enough magic that, while Vee can't detect it, was enough to get a scarily accurate reading for either Luz or Vee, if it was just a coincidence, or if the Tarot works in the Human Realm regardless.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • In the first episode, Camila gently tells Luz she needs to go to Reality Check camp because she needs to be "realistic". This episode, when Vee Gave Up Too Soon trying to escape Jacob and Luz urges her to keep trying, Vee sadly tells Luz that she's just being "realistic", and cuts off communication.
  • When Luz is being pulled away from Camila at the end of the episode, she cries out "not yet!", just like she did when Eda was being lifted up to her execution in "Young Blood, Old Souls". The two scenes are even visually similar, with Luz being vertically separated from a mother figure (only with the roles reversed).
• Meaningful Name: The curator's surname is "Hopkins", likely a Shout-Out to Abraham Van Helsing played by Anthony Hopkins in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Much like Van Helsing's portrayal in that movie, Jacob is seen by most characters as a nutty conspiracy theorist who is thrilled to find proof that the supernatural creatures he believed existed are real, and is all too eager to commit Van Helsing Hate Crimes.
  • Alternatively, it could be a reference to Matthew Hopkins, a particularly zealous historical witch hunter.
• Memorial Statue: A statue of the two men in 17th century clothing—later revealed to be Caleb and Phillip Wittebane—can be seen in downtown Gravesfield, establishing them as important people in the history of the town.
• Mirror Monster: The "in between" place Luz ends up in when she uses a faulty portal lets her communicate with both Earth and the Demon Realm, but only through reflective surfaces. She acts as a benevolent mirror monster to both Vee and Camila throughout the episode.
• Mirror Scare: Vee gets one when Luz returns to the human realm via reflections. Vee opens the closet door to get a shirt, and when she closes it, Luz has taken the place of Vee's reflection.
• Moral Myopia: Jacob. When Camila stops him from dissecting Vee, he protests that he's the "good guy".
  Camila: Yeah… a lot of bad guys say that.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Luz gets this twice. The first is when Vee gives Luz a What the Hell, Hero? speech, making Luz realize how much she's taken her mother for granted. The second is after Luz promises that she'll leave the Boiling Isles for good, now putting Luz on the path to being forced to decide between the place where she's miserable and the home she's made for herself.
  • Camila also has one at the end. While understandably mad at Luz for running away from home, she comes to the conclusion that Luz hated living with her because she pushed her away by restricting her creativity. She pleads with Luz that she will change once she gets back on Earth, failing to realize despite Luz spelling it out that she was never the problem.
• My God, You Are Serious!: Played for Drama. Camila thinks the whole situation Luz tells her about her daughter being in the Boiling Isles and Vee pretending to be her is an elaborate game… right up until she actually sees Vee in her regular form, caged up. She slowly realizes that Vee's appearance is way too realistic for a costume and Luz was not joking.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Jacob shares his name with the infamously zealous Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins.
• Never Going Back to Prison: Vee refuses to return to the Boiling Isles, where she will be caught and imprisoned by the Emperor's Coven as a science experiment. The very idea scares Vee so badly that she picks up a baseball bat, intending to smash the mirror in Luz's room.
• Nightmare Fetishist: The article that Vee reads on Eda using magic to make a scene at the cafe mentions that the only person who wasn't frightened by the display was a six year old girl named Polly Shulman, who was quoted saying that she wanted to invite Eda to her birthday party to "make everyone go crazy".
• Noodle Incident:
  • At one point Eda was apparently banned from a café for creating living croissants after she tried to pay for a drink with a live raccoon.
  • Eda got rid of all of her Hexas Hold'em cards by dumping them into the human world, only to then sell them to Jacob when he interrupted her.
  • How exactly Vee and the other basilisks escaped from the Emperor's Coven is never revealed.
  • Jacob had a brief encounter with Eda as the Owl Beast years ago.
• The Nose Knows: Vee can smell magic, which aids in tracking down one of the enchanted objects Eda left in the Human Realm.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: One of the friends Vee met at camp inadvertently guilt-trips Vee—and for that matter, Luz as well—when they read out a Tarot card claiming that while Vee may have made the decision to run away from an unhappy past, her regrets are catching up to her.
• Obliviously Evil: Jacob views himself as a heroic figure, uncovering a vast hidden conspiracy and revealing it to the world, even as he traps an obviously sapient and distraught Vee in a cage, mocks her by saying she'll be in one for the rest of her life, and even plans to dissect her while she's still alive, with it being clear that he's a Glory Hound in it for the fame and recognition. He even says "I'm the good guy here" when confronted by Camila, seemingly genuinely unable to see any fault in his actions, Camila even lampshading that "a lot of bad guys say that" before pummeling him.
• Ominous Obsidian Ooze: As Luz's experimental portal destabilizes and starts to collapse, it melts into a thick black ooze.
• Once More, with Clarity:
  • The opening of the episode has Luz give Vee a Mirror Scare and a "You!" Exclamation. The first part of the episode devotes itself to explaining how this happened.
  • We see Luz enter the demon realm from Vee's perspective, and how Vee decided to leave.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Camila is genuinely concerned when a disguised Vee shows little interest in the things that Luz loves, worried that she pushed Luz too far with camp.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Camila is heartbroken to learn that Luz chose to stay in the Boiling Isles, and makes her promise to stay with her for good once she finds a way home, unaware that Luz has built herself a life there, one infinitely more fulfilling than the one she had on Earth and never considered giving it up even after managing to find a way home.
• Plot-Based Photograph Obfuscation: Luz's father can briefly be seen in a family photo, but his face is covered by a glare from the light.
• Plot-Driven Breakdown: The portal starts to break down just as Luz is trying to explain why she stayed in the Demon Realm to her mother, so Eda, King, and Hooty start pulling her back per her previous instructions. The sudden urgency causes Camila to desperately extract a Reunion Vow from Luz, who agrees to keep her mother happy, even though she regrets it as soon as she's pulled back.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Though Vee's age in relation to Luz is unknown, her human form is identical to Luz due to pretending to be her for several months, yet the two are pretty much the exact opposite of each other. Vee longs for a stable home and is great with people, Luz longs for adventure and is terrified of basic human interaction. Their polar opposite attributes are even represented by their choice of hairstyle; Luz has Messy Hair, while Vee keeps hers under control with hair clips, and to top things off by the end the pair effectively become adoptive sisters.
• Poor Communication Kills: Much of the drama surrounding Luz revealing that I Choose to Stay and the subsequent Reunion Vow she has to make are a result of the fact that she doesn't get the chance to reveal a lot of the context behind her decision. Luz was initially strong-armed by Eda into helping her in exchange for the chance to return home and developed a bond with her as a result, which, mixed with the chance to learn magic, led her to stay in the beginning. Luz fully planned to return to the Human Realm once summer was over, but was forced to destroy the portal door to thwart Belos' plans with it. The fact that she's managed to build genuine friendships for presumably the first time in her life and even formed a romance while in the Boiling Isles are why she believes it was a good choice, but she can't reveal this to her mother before the portal starts collapsing, resulting in a lot of additional unnecessary emotional distress on Luz's part as she starts to worry about never getting to see her friends or her girlfriend again.
• Power Perversion Potential: Realizing she can use the cubes in the Void Between the Worlds to see anyone, Luz blushes and immediately thinks about Amity, before quickly backtracking, slamming the emerging cube back into the pool, and telling herself to focus.
• Proportional Article Importance: Subverted. When Vee is reading the newspaper clipping featuring an article on Eda, she initially reads the article on the other side of the paper which Luz dismisses as junk. Turns out later in the episode that it was actually written by Jacob.
• Rash Promise: As Luz is getting dragged back to the Boiling Isles, Camila forces her to promise that once she finds a way back, she has to remain on Earth. Luz agrees in the heat of moment so as not to upset her mother any further, but once she's back with Eda, King, and Hooty, it's made clear that she wishes that she hadn't said it since it would mean being separated from all her friends and her girlfriend.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Luz's mom, on two fronts.
  • Like the first episode implied, Camila enjoys Luz's creativity and imagination, and only wanted her to dial it back so as not to get in trouble at school. When "Luz" shows little interest in the things she used to love, Camila worries that she pushed her too far with camp. When Camila thinks Luz has called her to make up a wild story, she's relieved that Luz hasn't completely lost her creativity or imagination.
  • Despite being thrown head-first into a dangerous situation with a real-live demon, a crazy internet conspiracy theorist, and learning that her daughter is Trapped in Another World full of literal witches and demons, Camila tries to keep it together and handle the situation calmly. She rescues Vee, doesn't hold her impersonating Luz against her, offers to let her stay for as long as she needs, and while she gently scolds Luz for all she put her through, it's all very understandable given the stress and heartbreak of the situation.
• Reunion Vow: Played for Drama. Luz vows to Camila that she will never return to the Boiling Isles once she finds a way to leave. However, when Luz is pulled back through the portal, it's clear that she regrets saying it, because it would mean leaving the Owl House and her Found Family behind. Also, now that Camila knows what's really happened to Luz, all Camila can do when Luz vanishes is cry.
• The Reveal:
  • The impostor Luz is a basilisk named Vee, who escaped from the Emperor's Coven and fled into the Human Realm through the portal right after Luz entered the demon realm. She impersonated Luz to avoid getting caught and stuck with it because she liked having a place to belong.
  • Luz and Camila live in Gravesfield, Connecticut and the town has an unexpected connection to the Boiling Isles, namely it has a history with witches — including a legend of two brothers who were whisked away to another world by a witch. This leads to the revelation…
  • …that Philip Wittebane had a brother, who came to the Boiling Isles with him despite no mention of him having been made in the journal entries so far.
  • Eda's alias in the human world is Marilyn, which just so happens to be the same name as an ex-wife of one Stanley Pines.
  • Camila is confirmed to work as a veterinarian. Also, despite what some fans may have feared, she loved her daughter's creative side and didn't want to stifle it.
• Sadistic Choice: Luz has to make the choice between keeping her mother's promise to stay in the human realm when she gets back, where she would be miserable and would be breaking the hearts of Eda, King, probably Lilith, Amity, and all of her other friends, or remain in the demon realm where she would be happy but would be breaking her mother's heart.
• Saying Too Much: While talking with her mom about how far she has come after going to the Boiling Isles, Luz mentions that "staying was the best decision I ever made." This leads Camila to realize that Luz wasn't just Trapped in Another World (at least at first), she chose to stay there without telling her.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Name-dropped by the goth in their Tarot reading to Vee/Luz with Eda's Hexas Hold'em cards.
• Sequel Hook: Before Luz is pulled back to the Boiling Isles, Camila makes her promise that when she finally returns to Earth, she'll stay there. Jacob is still out there, even with the threat of the police coming after him.
• Series Continuity Error: Vee came across Eda and Luz in the market during the beginning of Episode 1, selling the working television set, and used the portal in the tent to get to the Human Realm. But Eda closed the portal after Luz tried to take her book back right before that, so Vee shouldn't have been able to use it^note unless she briefly swiped the portal key off Eda (despite Eda being highly visible in public and to audiences at the time) or the door opened up for her like when Eda came across it the first time, but these are highly unlikely nor how the event were portrayed from Vee's flashback.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Vee needs magic to transform properly, so after she is startled by Luz and returns to her true form briefly, she ends up stuck in a Little Bit Beastly form with her true form's ears, eyes, and spots on her face and wrists, forcing her to work with Luz to try and find something magical Eda left behind so she can get back to a human form.
• Shoe Slap: Camila strikes Jacob in the face with a sandal from her purse. When Jacob is next shown, he's locked up in the cage he made for Vee with a large welt on the side of his face.
• Shout-Out:
  • To come back to her world, Luz has to go through a door with a rope tied to her waist and held by Eda. That's basically how Carol Anne was rescued by her parents in Poltergeist (1982).
  • Luz covers for Vee's scream of shock at seeing her in the mirror by telling Camila that she was freaking out over Monster Slayer Academia spoilers.
  • A being adopting the name "V(ee)" due to being given the designation "Number 5" after being experimented on by a tyrannical government sounds like the backstory of the title character in V for Vendetta.
• Sinister Surveillance: Jacob has tracked down the fact that the abandoned cabin is the location of the portal to the Isles, and set up a spy camera inside it.
• Stepford Smiler: After getting pulled out of the portal, Luz can't bring herself to tell Eda, King, and Hooty that she promised her mom that she'll stay in the human realm once she finds a way back, so she lies to them that her mom can't wait to meet them instead. The pain of the hard decision she will eventually have to make clearly eats her inside and as a result can barely hold her fake smile.
• Super Gullible: Jacob instantly believes that Camila is from the government without any proof, and believes that the President would personally send a veterinarian to study a demon's anatomy.
• Tarot Troubles: When one of Vee's friends from camp gives her a reading using Eda's Hexas Hold'em cards, the third card they draw is a skeleton holding a chalice, which blatantly represents the Death card. The reading they give is also eerily accurate to not just Vee's situation, but Luz's. If you squint at it a bit, the reading could also be a match for the actual meaning of the Death card (Change).
  Goth: You're running from your past; from a previous life that was not kind to you. However, the guilt and fear you carry will eventually catch you in a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, that you won't be able to escape from.
• The Teaser: The episode's Cold Open follows Luz's impostor as she goes through her day, throwing out some of Luz's old gear and thinking out loud about her new life. Then she's surprised by the real Luz in a mirror.
• Teens Are Monsters: Played With but ultimately subverted in this one specific case. Luz, due to her own previous experiences, firmly and justifiably believes this to be true in the Human Realm and when she notices some teens using Hexas Hold 'Em cards, she assumes they'll be vicious bullies and urges Vee to approach with caution and be prepared to flee if things get rough. However, Vee reveals they're actually nice and she had befriended them at camp, leaving Luz completely flabbergasted.
• Tempting Fate: In the prologue, Vee looks in the mirror on Luz's closet and quietly reflects on how her living a normal life means a fresh start. Then she sees Luz herself in the reflection give a "YOU!" From here on, the domino effect that follows leads up to her eventually being outed as a basilisk by Jacob.
• That Came Out Wrong: Played for Drama. As Camila tells Luz how much she has grown, the latter accidentally lets slip that choosing to stay in the Demon Realm was the best decision she ever made. Camila doesn't take it well to say the least, as she immediately assumes that Luz left her because she was a bad mother, despite the latter assuring her "it wasn't you!"
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: While Jacob isn't a psychotic murderer per se, he is a delusional internet conspiracy theorist who shows almost sociopathic disregard for the feelings of a sentient creature he captured (who can think, feel, and talk like a person), whom he is almost eager to dissect alive. He also looks like a perfectly normal and reasonably attractive young man; not at all the stereotypical internet nerd or conspiracy nut usually portrayed in popular media.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: At the end of the episode, while the rest of the Owl House residents can only talk about what they are going to do when they meet Luz's mom, Luz herself can only stare into the middle distance now that she is burdened with her promise to stay in the human realm forever and leave her friends and found family behind.
• Tragic Intangibility: Luz communicates with her mother inside a portal door by projecting herself on a variety of reflective surfaces, including as a hologram-like projection from a car's headlights in the rain. The tragedy comes from the fact that this will be the last time they'll speak to each other for quite awhile, made worse by the fact that Camila is deeply hurt because her daughter actually chose to run away and stay in the Demon Realm than live with her.
• Trauma Button:
  • Vee, due to her time as an imprisoned test animal, panics both times she's trapped.
  • Vee panics and flees when she encounters the talking magical rats by the dumpster because it reminds her of the times she was forced to drain magical rats as a science experiment.
• The Unreveal:
  • Luz implies that Philip learned how to build a portal from someone, but doesn't elaborate on where he learned it or from who, if she even knows.
  • While we learn that Philip had a brother, what happened to him, and why he wasn't mentioned in the diary, aren't mentioned.
  • We never learn why exactly Belos and the Emperor's Coven wanted to study the basilisks and their magic eating abilities, or how they managed to revive the species at all.
  • We see a photograph of the Noceda family together, but a glare obscures the face of Luz's father.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
  • The employees at the coffee house don't seem phased that a weird lady tried to pay for coffee with a live raccoon, then enchanted the croissants, and said croissants turned the rats in the dumpster out back into glowing-eyed, intelligent, talking animals. Given what we see in the article about the incident, it's implied that they thought that she was some kind of performer and it was all a trick of some kind.
  • The goth sees Vee's strange eyes but assumes Luz just found some colored contacts and resolves to ask her about them.
• Uplifted Animal: A pair of rats were given intelligence and the ability to speak by eating some enchanted croissants Eda made while in the human realm. Unfortunately, they also seem to have become severely addicted to them.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Jacob is thrilled to find proof that witches and demons are real, and believes them to be vile monsters sent by Mars to collect human teeth to power their time machine, and is all too eager to dissect Vee while she's still alive.
• Verbal Backspace: When Luz asks for Vee's name, she starts saying "number five" before backtracking and saying "Vee". She also refers to Camila as "Mom" when talking to Luz before saying her name instead.
• The Villain Knows Where You Live: Vee's reason for not trying to escape Jacob's trap. She figures he knows her human disguise now, so even if she gets away he knows where she lives and can hunt her down, and Camila will either be in danger having to shelter "Luz" or learn the Awful Truth that her beloved "daughter" for the last few months has been an imposter, and Vee doesn't want to put Camila through that.
• The Voice: An eerie voice whispers things to Luz while in the In Between Realm. While it's most notable when it whispers "Noceda" (which shows up in the subtitles), encouraging Luz to call out for her mom, other eerie whispers can be heard via noise reduction. Who or what it is is never explained in the episode.
  Luz: Eda? King? Hooty? Can anyone hear me?
  The Voice: Yes.
• Void Between the Worlds: Luz's prototype portal drops her in a space between the two realms known as the In Between Realm (as termed by the soundtrack). It contains green jagged walls and two black ponds from which reflective cubes periodically emerge. The cubes allow Luz to communicate through reflective surfaces, corresponding to whomever she can name.
• Was Too Hard on Her:
  • At the start of the episode, Camila looks troubled seeing Vee (disguised as Luz) throwing out all the creative and supernatural things she used to love. This causes Camila to worry that the Reality Check Camp permanently changed her daughter; as we learn in season 3, Camila wanted Luz to learn to act "normal", to spare her the bullying Camila herself suffered, not become someone different.
  • Camila gets another moment when Luz lets slip that she chose to stay in the Boiling Isles. Camila worries that Luz was so unhappy living with her that she felt the need to run away, and begs her to come home, promising it'll be different this time and she'll encourage Luz's interests instead of trying to get her to act more normal. Luz responds that "it's not you; it never was". Luz hated her life on Earth because her Friendless Background caused her to be constantly rejected by her peers and feel like she didn't belong; if it weren't for Camila, Luz wouldn't be trying to find a way back at all.
• Weirdness Coupon: When Vee first disguises herself as Luz, she says "skin sure is weird!" to Camila. But seeing as how Luz is a Cloudcuckoolander and such a statement wouldn't be all that strange for her, Camila isn't fazed.
• Wham Episode: Luz manages to create a semi-functioning portal. The Doppelgänger of Luz turns out to be a basilisk like the one from "The First Day", who was brought back as a science experiment by the Emperor's Coven but managed to escape to Earth through the portal. Camila finds out about Luz being in the Demon Realm and forces her to promise to stay on Earth after getting back. The black muck that the portal collapses into also implies that whatever is wrong with Belos is due to his portal experiments instead of just wild magic like he claimed.
• Wham Line: Just before saying goodbye to her mother, Luz lets it slip that she considers staying in the Boiling Isles to be the best decision she's ever made. Camila then gives her own Wham Line when she asks Luz "You chose to stay there?" This accidentally lets Luz's true feelings show through and brings up that she has Conflicting Loyalty between the two realms (at least so long as her mom is on Earth). Though she gives a promise to Camila that she'll come back to the Human Realm for good as soon as she can, Luz instantly regrets it, uncertain if she would be able to fulfill such a promise given how miserable she was on Earth, and how happy she is in the Demon Realm.
• Wham Shot: Vee, in her disguise as Luz, blinks sideways with her eyes when Luz shows up in the bedroom mirror. This is used to show that Vee is not human, nor a witch.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Vee calls Luz out on the fact that despite having a home and a loving family, Luz chose to run away from it for what Vee sees as a petty reason. Though Vee also acknowledges that if Luz had stayed where she was Vee would have never escaped, and it's made clear that due to her time at camp Vee simply doesn't understand the primary reason Luz decided to leave.
  • This gets repeated when Luz accidentally says to Camila that she chose to stay, who is reasonably upset at the idea that Luz would rather live out some witch fantasy than live with her, though Luz never gets a chance to fully explain the actual situation and how Camila is the only reason Luz is trying to find a way back.
• You Are Number 6: Vee's real name is Number Five ("V" is also the Roman numeral for 5). She was forced to be part of an experiment to find out how basilisks eat magic.
• "You!" Exclamation: After using a cube to see that Vee has replaced her, Luz uses another one to find her room's mirror. When Vee closes the mirror, Luz replaces Vee's reflection and shouts "YOU!"
• Your Costume Needs Work: Subverted when Camila sees Vee's true form for the first time. She initially thinks that the basilisk is someone in a costume and starts to compliment it on being well made, but then trails off as she slowly realizes that it's too good to be a costume.
• Your Magic's No Good Here: Much like on Earth, Luz's glyphs don't work in the Void Between the Worlds. When Luz tries to use an ice glyph to get to the cube where she can see her mother, it glows briefly but is then seemingly consumed by the goop.

---