Recap / The Owl House S2E21 "King's Tide"

"Goodbye, Boiling Isles..."

"Children of the Isles, for too long, our world has been home to an insidious pox. A corruption that defiles the Titan's blessings. But today, that changes. United with the Titan, and the power of the eclipse, we shall wipe out wild magic forever. Paradise awaits!"

— Emperor Belos

Original air date: 5/28/2022

Production code: 221

The Day of Unity begins, and the only way to stop it may be to unleash a different catastrophe.

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Tropes:

A-E

• All-Encompassing Mantle: When the Collector first emerges from the shattered remnants of the mirror, they are clad in a voluminous glowing blue cloak adorned with sun and moon emblems.
• All for Nothing:
  • Terra and all the Coven heads who supported Belos in exchange for becoming royalty in the new world are rewarded by having their magic drained like every other witch.
  • Kikimora being dismissed by Belos was all that was needed for her to realize that she was never important to him in the first place.
  • King's father sealed the Collector away (and is implied to have died from it) to protect King from becoming their plaything, only for King to have to release the Collector and agree to be their playmate to save everyone.
  • Belos himself has practically won with the Day of Unity going off without a hitch, and he manages to get back to the Human Realm. But he ends up losing his human form thanks to Luz, and the Collector ends up ruining his plans (and Belos himself) at the very last minute. Now Belos is stuck as living slime in the Human Realm, unable to enjoy the world he longed for, and he's left with the knowledge that the witches are still alive in the Demon Realm.
• Always a Bigger Fish: After being freed, the Collector easily splats Belos with a single finger poke.
• Always Save the Girl: Raine will do anything to protect Eda, including using their last ounce of strength to remove her sigil arm to prevent her being consumed by her curse interacting with the Draining Spell. (Even if it means she'd be Forced to Watch as they die in her arms and she'd be the Sole Survivor of the Apocalypse How.)
• Amazing Technicolor Population: The Collector has blue and orange skin, appropriately enough.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear if the Draining Spell affected Hunter more slowly than the others with sigils because of his lack of magic or if he was just powering through it.
• Amputation Stops Spread: Since Eda's body parts are detachable, Raine saves her from the Draining Spell by removing the arm the Bard sigil is on, allowing the curse to consume it but leaving the rest of her unharmed.
• An Arm and a Leg: Raine removes Eda's arm with the sigil to keep the combination of the curse and the Draining Spell from consuming her, causing it to merely consume the severed forearm.
• Animation Bump: A few scenes, particularly when the kids are fighting the mutated Belos, have noticeably smoother animation.
• Appropriated Appelation: This episode reveals that Amity's "Mittens" nickname comes from how Alador used to create Abomination mittens for her as a kid. Notably, Amity herself didn't realize that this was where it came from until this episode.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Subverted. Alador gets fed up with Hunter's backseat driving while he's trying to fly the airship and snaps at the boy, asking if he really wants to get back to Belos and referring to him as the Golden Guard. Rather than shut Hunter up, this only makes him mad and kickstarts an argument between everyone.
  Alador: Very eager to return to Belos, eh, Golden Guard?
  Hunter: At least I never built him an ARMY!
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Eberwolf has been a Troll and a menace to Darius in all of their appearances since "Eda's Requiem", but the moment their life is threatened by the other coven heads, Darius surrenders to ensure their safety.
• Back for the Finale: Many minor and background characters make appearances in the Day of Unity crowd, like the wild witch Raine first rescued in "Eda's Requiem".
• Backseat Driver: While Alador is trying to fly everyone to the Skull, Hunter starts pulling controls and believes he could get them there faster with his piloting skills. This quickly gets on Alador's nerves and leads to everyone arguing, though he's given permission to help out after things calm down.
• Backstab Backfire: Belos reneges on his deal to free the Collector from their prison. When King frees them himself, the Collector expresses their displeasure by splattering him against the wall.
  The Collector: Say, you wanna play tag? [pulls Belos over to him] I'm "it".
• Bad "Bad Acting": While King is tricking the Collector into saving the Boiling Isles, he speaks awkwardly and when he gets the kids to join in with convincing the Collector about how great "Owl House" is, their reactions are incredibly forced. Somehow, the Collector still falls for it. Ironically, King's much better acting when describing the game in the first place does draw the Collector's suspicion, because he's already been burned by Belos and suspects the same of King. King agreeing to free him seems to alleviate that.
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • A Zigzagged example occurs with Philip's plans to use the draining spell to kill every witch on the Isles. Once it's activated, it is totally impossible to shut off or avert, and both Luz and Eda's attempts to stop it fail, Luz at best ensuring that Philip will also become a victim of his own scheme. The heroes technically fail to avert Philip's victory in the end, and it is ultimately only through King unleashing the Collector that a massive loss of life is averted — and even then, only through the Collector using their godlike power to alter the spell's parameters to end it early, showing that there was no earthly force or method the heroes could have used to undo his plans themselves.
  • King releases the Collector to save the people of the Boiling Isles, but now they're left at the whims of a Mad God with seemingly limitless power, and turns the Isles inside out.
• Bare-Handed Blade Block: The Collector casually stops Belos's attempt to slash Luz and the others by catching it between their fingers, quickly establishing just how large the power gap is between them and everyone else.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • The entire season has been about Luz wanting to return home and later hoping to introduce her friends (and girlfriend) to Camila. She succeeds at both of those goals by the end of the episode, but the downside is that she and her friends are now stranded on Earth with no portal while King, Eda, and everyone they care about are trapped on the Boiling Isles, left to the whims of a maniacal god.
  • Gus has always wished to visit the human realm, but when his wish finally comes true in the form of escaping the Collector, he's too distraught to enjoy any of it and just ends up breaking down sobbing.
  • Philip desired to activate the Draining Spell and immediately return home to Earth once more to resume his identity as 'Philip Wittebane'. He does activate the spell, but them Luz brands him with a Sigil in a desperate attempt to force him to turn it off, which he can't, ensuring that he too would become a victim of the same plan he so thoroughly calculated to leave none of its targets alive. He also does get to return to Earth at the end...as a fist-sized splatter of living goo after the Collector punishes him for his betrayal, his centuries of planning having come to nothing in the end and Philip having no way to achieve his ambitions anymore, all thanks to his own hubris coming back to bite him at the last moment.
• Berserk Button: Belos, while in his monstrous form, tries to invoke a Shapeshifter Guilt Trip so Hunter will hesitate from attacking him... but the moment he lays eyes on Flapjack, he goes ballistic, rearing up on his back legs to kill Hunter.
  Belos: CALEB?!
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Hettie Cutburn puts up the least amount of antagonism against the rebellion, but brings the fight to a close by smugly and silently throwing a scalpel towards Eberwolf's throat and holding it there with magic.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Luz's friends, particularly Willow and Gus, show this towards King, with Willow soothing him after he wakes up from a nightmare and Gus trying to keep him out of the kids' battle with Monster Belos.
  • King inverts it and shows Little Brother Instinct towards his surrogate big sister Luz, and the other kids to a lesser extent, by letting go of her hand and knocking her and the others through the portal to the human realm, sparing them from whatever the Collector has in store for the Isles.
  • Hunter channels his into Gus. He eats with and fistbumps Gus while on the airship, shields him from debris, saves him from Belos by picking him up mid-Flash Step and dragging him out of harm's way, and after they become trapped on Earth and Gus has a breakdown, Hunter keeps a protective arm wrapped around his shoulders when they show up at Camila's house.
  • The others show their Little Sibling Instinct to Hunter in turn as he slowly begins to succumb to the Draining Spell. Gus and Willow shield him protectively when they're cornered by Belos, and let him lean on them once he becomes too weak to stand.
• Big Damn Heroes: Right as Belos is about to squash Luz, he's caught in a tangle of vines. The camera pans over to Willow, Gus, Hunter, Amity and King, who subsequently join the fight.
• Bittersweet Ending: Heavy, heavy emphasis on the bitter. While King's deal with the Collector saves the Boiling Isles from the Draining Spell, now there's a mad godling wanting to play "Owl House" with the people of the Isles running around, meaning a Bizarro Apocalypse is imminent, and King makes a Heroic Sacrifice that ends with Luz, Hunter, Willow, Gus, and Amity trapped on Earth with no way back to the Isles, due to the portal having taken extensive damage from the Collector’s handiwork. Luz does at least get to introduce some of her friends—including her girlfriend—to Camila, but all five escapees are traumatized and have no way of knowing what's happening to their friends and families on the other side. And on Raine and Eda's side, while the latter manages to survive the curse and Draining Spell, she loses her right hand in the process. Meanwhile, a piece of Belos, seemingly still alive, hitches a ride on his nephew, meaning his return is all but guaranteed.
• Bizarro Apocalypse: The Demon Realm is in for one, what with King having been forced to unleash an extremely immature Reality Warper with Blue-and-Orange Morality to save its inhabitants from a genocide.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Belos tells the Collector that he's "just realized" he only has enough Titan Blood to open the Portal Door, and not enough to free the Collector. He later outright admits he just doesn't want the Collector sharing his knowledge with anyone else.
  • Belos's Gaslighting attempt to manipulate Hunter has him accuse the latter of 'hurting him' when he only wanted to help the young boy. Not only has he previously demonstrated that this was very clearly not the case, Hunter is the only one in the fight who doesn't directly attack Belos, instead taking a supporting role shielding others from debris or using his Flash Step abilities to move them out of danger.
  • After seeing that the Collector is free, Belos hurriedly tries to take credit for freeing them and acts like he fulfilled their deal after all. This gets him splattered against a wall by the Collector.
• Blood Magic:
  • Belos uses the last of his Titan's blood to activate the portal to Earth.
  • Subverted when the Collector's deal with Belos involves using the Titan's blood in the portal key to free him, which Belos reneges on because he needs it for the portal and wasn't planning on honoring the deal anyway. When King offers to free the Collector, he asks if the Collector needs some of his blood to escape from his prison, as the Titan Trappers had suggested, but all he actually needs is for King to pull him out.
• Blowing a Raspberry: Upon being summoned after Belos' betrayal, the Collector blows a raspberry at what they assume to be the Emperor but is actually King.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Collector only cares about games, and doesn't have any remote interest or concern in the Draining Spell killing everyone, having even given Belos the information for how to accomplish it in exchange for freeing them to play. King has to trick them into saving the population of the Boiling Isles by inviting them to play "Owl House" and saying they need lots of players, prompting them to end the eclipse early. As for Belos reneging on the deal, the Collector decides he’s not worth it, and just smashes him against the wall instead of torturing him. Fittingly, their natural skin color is literally blue and orange.
• Bolivian Army Cliffhanger: The draining spell is foiled, but the Collector is free to use the Boiling Isles as their personal playground, and Luz, Amity, Gus, Willow, and Hunter are trapped in the Human world.
• Bookends:
  • The titles of the first and last episodes of season two feature the word "tide".
  • King's first scene in the season (barring The Teaser) had him latched onto Luz while telling her that he'll never let her go or return to Earth. His final scene here has him deliberately letting go of her hand before blasting her through the portal door.
  • There's a subtle one to the mid-season finale, "Yesterday's Lie": said episode has Camila crying in the rain after Luz disappears and thus, they're separated again. This episode (and the season as a whole) ends with the Noceda's reuniting, but Luz is now the one on the verge of tears as she and her companions stand in the rain.
  • A bittersweet one to "Young Blood, Old Souls". In the previous season finale, Luz was stranded in the Boiling Isles after the portal door's destruction. Here, it's indisposed yet again and Luz finds herself back home, but this time with her friends stranded with her.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Luz shouts "spicy toss" while attacking Philip with a fire spell, just like Eda used to back in season 1.
• Breath Weapon: Vitimir expels some kind of green gas from his mouth during his fight with Darius, although it's unknown if it's inherent to his demon kind or from potions magic.
• Broken Tears: After realizing they're trapped in the human realm with no way back and no way of knowing if their families are even alive, Gus bursts into tears and collapses onto the ground. While he has calmed down by the time the kids arrive at Camila's house, he's still hugging himself and trying to stand as close to Hunter as he physically can.
• The Cake Is a Lie: Belos was never going to free the Collector, and even throws away the mirror so no one else can learn magic from them either.
• The Cameo: Anne Boonchuy herself is shown in an online article at the end.
• Call-Back:
  • Hunter was shown in "Hunting Palismen" flying an airship. In this episode, he tries to take over piloting the ship from Alador, resulting in the two getting into a fight, which piles onto the stress everyone is under while they try to avert the Day of Unity.
  • Eda assures Lilith that she'll be safe while masquerading as Raine by saying "With this spell declared".
  • Luz's plan to trick Philip with an invisible branding glove to brand a sigil on him is similar to the illusion-disguised branding trick Graye tried to pull in "Labyrinth Runners".
  • Raine mentions the promise they made to Luz last episode just before they remove Eda's arm to spare her from the Draining Spell.
  • When King releases The Collector, the mirror used to communicate with them completely splits down the middle, looking identical to the one in possession of the Titan Trappers. This suggests that it isn't the first time the Collector has been sealed away, or unleashed by a Titan.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You:
  • Luz invokes this with Belos when he starts to petrify her by pointing out how much the Human Realm has changed since he left, claiming he'd need a guide to navigate his way in the modern world.
  • Most of the population of the Boiling Isles is spared only because King convinces the Collector they're all necessary to play a really good game.
• Cassandra Truth: Luz points out that no-one in the human realm will believe Belos's boasts about eradicating a realm of demons, not helped by the fact he's dressed several centuries out of date and won't be taking any physical proof with him, leading to most people considering him absolutely crazy — which is completely correct, but for the wrong reasons.
• Cerebus Call-Back: Dairus told Raine in "O Titan, Where Art Thou" that they're a terrible actor. Funny at the time, but unfortunately for the CATS' plan, Terra Snapdragon thought the same thing.
• Chekhov's Classroom: At the beginning, after Willow manages to break up the arguing between Amity, Alador, Hunter, and Gus via a snack break, she tells an impressed King that there's always a way to help, you just have to look for the right opportunity. He takes these words to heart, and later finds his own opportunity by making a deal with the Collector to save his friends and everyone else on the Isles.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The rune from the island in "Echoes of the Past" that King carved into his collar tag at the end is revealed to be a rune that masks King from the Collector's sight.
  • After Luz calls him Belos, he interrupts her and makes it clear he prefers his real name 'Philip'. Later, when Luz is pleading to not be petrified, she calls him Philip. This convinces Belos to let her live.
• Chekhov's Skill: Eda's detachable limbs from her curse becomes this, as it allows Raine to save her from the interaction of the Draining Spell and curse by pulling Eda's forearm off, allowing the Coven Sigil to consume the detached limb without otherwise affecting Eda.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Besides betraying the Coven Heads that expected to be made royalty after the Day of Unity, Belos also unsurprisingly backstabs both Kikimora, whom he callously tells to go find a hole to wither away in, and the Collector, dropping their mirror off a bridge to keep them from teaching anyone else their magic. This bites him in the ass when Kikimora helps King free the Collector in retaliation, who then gets their own revenge by effortlessly splattering Belos into goo. It therefore turns into a hefty dose of Laser-Guided Karma when Luz 'betrays' her own 'deal' with Belos in order to brand him with a Sigil.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: Downplayed. By branding Belos with a sigil and taking away his magic, Belos reverts to his true from, shown to be the monstrous state the Palisman souls took within his mindscape in "Hollow Mind". This form is much bigger, stronger, and capable of freely using his shapeshifting to form weapons to attack Luz and her friends with. However, he can't cast any of the spells he had access to in human form, which made him virtually untouchable in battle. Luz and her friends could never have stood against him at his full power, but as a raging beast they're able to hold him off long enough for King to free the Collector, who then easily splatters Belos.
• Coincidental Broadcast: Camila happens to be reading a news article about Anne Boonchuy's time in Amphibia when her own daughter returns from another world.
• Company Cross References: To Disney's Amphibia near the end, when Camila has a story about Anne Boonchuy being missing in a "frog land" up on her tablet.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Raine gets upset when Eda tells them not to worry about her taking their place, as her habit of hiding her problems is what led to their breakup.
  • Belos refers to his and Luz's battle in "Young Blood, Old Souls".
  • While fighting against Philip, Luz shouts "Spicy toss!" while using a fire glyph, just like Eda used to do when using fireball spells in season 1.
  • Philip notes that it took him years to figure out glyph combinations, almost as if the Titan was trying to keep that knowledge from him. He expressed a similar thought about the glyphs themselves back in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen".
  • Terra refers to her first encounter with Eda and Raine, an event chronicled in "Them's the Breaks, Kid".
  • When seeing that there's a storm on the other side of the portal, Gus has to assure everyone that it's safe since rain boils on the Boiling Isles.
  • Vee makes her third appearance after "Yesterday's Lie" and "Reaching Out".
• Control Freak: Overlapping with My Way or the Highway, Belos/Philip keeps trying to force Luz to fit into his worldview, even trying to petrify her before her quick thinking and appeal to his Glory Seeker tendencies changed his mind. Even as he's devolved into his monstrous form, he's screaming to Luz about how they don't belong on the Isles.
• Crossing The Burned Bridge: After betraying and discarding the Collector in the most callous way possible, Belos is forced to backpedal when the Collector is freed and makes it clear that they are not pleased with him.
• Crush Blush: Hunter's cheeks flush red when Willow saves him from falling.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Luz faces Emperor Belos once again. It is clear from the first moment that he is just playing with her.
  • The first thing the Collector does on being freed is send Belos/Philip flying with a light poke, causing him to splatter into a puddle of goo.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Luz and her friends throw everything they have at Belos in his monstrous form. Despite lacking magic in his monstrous state, his physical durability is such that he just keeps coming after them, and his shapeshifting weaponry eventually has them dead to rights despite their resistance. Still, they last much longer than they ever could have if he had access to his powerful magic.
• Cutting the Knot: After being convinced of stopping the draining spell, the Collector simply opts for removing the conditions that keep the spell active, which means that he literally pulls the moon out of the way, ending the eclipse that sustains the spell.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: The Collector reveals that King's father was the one who imprisoned them, to prevent them from "playing with" King, and it's heavily implied that King's father sacrificed himself imprisoning the Collector to protect King from them.
• Dark Reprise: The soundtrack that plays when the Collector is ripping the Boiling Isles apart and the kids are fleeing to the portal is a slowed-down, percussion-heavy orchestral version of the show's main theme.
• A Day in the Limelight: After King spent the previous episode and much of this one mostly not being able to help his friends (except for getting Alador to make a Heel–Face Turn), he is finally able to utilize his connection with the Collector and status as a Titan to free them from their prison, and convinces them to save everyone else on the Boiling Isles.
• Deal with the Devil:
  • Luz offers to be Belos's guide in the modern human world, in exchange for Belos sparing her friends. But it is soon revealed that Luz is the devil in this case, tricking Belos into dropping his guard so she can brand him with a coven sigil.
  • King agrees to free the Collector so he can stop the Draining Spell.
• Deer in the Headlights:
  • Hunter completely freezes up and doesn't attack Belos when the latter comes close to him.
  • Belos fittingly gets this once the Collector appears before him, trying to cautiously back away from them and weakly claim that he upheld his end of the bargain since the Collector's now free anyway. The fact he doesn't even bother attacking to defend himself serves to illustrate the Collector's power, as it's made clear it would be a fruitless attempt regardless, and his only hope for survival is to weakly beg for mercy.
• Didn't See That Coming: Philip never could have anticipated that someone other than him would/could free the Collector, even if no one other than him, Luz, and Hunter should even know they exist, as the only method likely to free them comes from a species that is apparently extinct, and Philip had already expended the remaining Titan's blood in the key to power the portal door.
• Didn't Think This Through: Twice, Belos/Philip is informed that his plan to eradicate witches and return to the human world as a witch-slaying champion isn't as thought out as he'd like to think.
  • First off, he doesn't seem to have any plans to take anything from the Demon Realm with him when he returns to Earth, nor has he tried to catch up on how Earth has changed since he left via the human artifacts that end up in the Isles. Luz even notes that someone dressed like he is ranting about demons and witches would come across as a crazy person.
  • He also never designed a way to stop the Draining Spell once it became fully active, apparently never considering that he might be given a sigil somehow despite having a branding glove just carelessly lying around, so once Luz (not realizing this, and hoping to force him to stop the spell to save his own life) brands him with an Emperor's Coven sigil, he's at the mercy of the spell same as every other witch and can only lash out at Luz in anger.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Implied with Raine. After saving Eda from being consumed by her curse interacting with the Draining Spell, they succumb and collapse into her lap, and she can only cradle them helplessly as the Draining Spell sucks their life away. Given that the Collector stops the eclipse shortly thereafter, they presumably survive, though it hasn't been confirmed yet - especially with the Collector now giddily tearing the Boiling Isles apart.
• Disability Immunity:
  • Hunter being a magic-less Grimwalker seems to blunt the effect of the Draining Spell on him. Long after every adult save Kikimora has been rendered unconscious, Hunter is still standing and is even able to use magic through Flapjack, though he eventually collapses towards the end, cradling his arm in pain, showing that he too would have eventually succumbed in the end.
  • Also applies to Eda and her curse. Thanks to her body parts being able to come apart, Raine simply removes the arm with the Bard sigil which ensures that the Draining Spell can't destroy her without it.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Once again, the pile of bones and masks of former Golden Guards whom Belos killed and discarded resembles the mass grave of the victims of a Serial Killer.
  • Belos using a Shapeshifter Guilt Trip to try to talk Hunter down from attacking him, by claiming that he's trying to help him, is a manipulation tactic many domestic abusers use to try to keep their victims in line, especially if they start fighting back.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Inverted; Belos insists on being called "Philip" when Luz uses his assumed name.
• Do Not Call Me Sir: The Collector reacts negatively when King addresses them as "Mr. Collector," calling him boring for using such a formality.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Belos learns the hard way that betraying and mocking an alien Physical God does not end well.
• Door-Closes Ending: The Stinger ends with the Earthside end of the portal door being closed by Belos' remains.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap:
  • Alador's Abomaton remote only works at close range, meaning Amity and the others have to get in close in order to shut down their attackers instead of simply turning all them off at once.
  • Belos getting branded with a coven Sigil cuts off his access to his immense magical abilities, but his shapeshifting in his monstrous form still makes him an overpowering threat to the kids regardless, just one they can put up more of a fight against.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Philip has no idea that a living Titan still exists and is nearby, so he is caught completely off-guard by King unleashing the Collector, allowing them to enact physical retribution against Philip when he arrogantly believed they couldn't touch him, fueling his petty mockery of the Collector as he unashamedly broke his promise with them. He gets turned into a smear on the walls without even getting an explanation of how they escaped their prison.
  • The audience sees part of Belos hitch a ride on Hunter into the Human Realm, all but confirming the Emperor isn't through yet. But the kids are none the wiser.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • After being cast aside by Belos and beginning to fall victim to the draining spell, Kikimora helps King to speak to and free the Collector to get her revenge against Belos.
  • Ditto for the Collector, who sends Belos flying into a wall upon being freed.
• Enemy Mine: After being cast aside by Belos after everything she’s done to earn his favor, Kikimora decides to help King free the Collector from his prison so he can end the Draining Spell, all so she can get revenge on Belos.
• Empathic Environment: When Luz and her party arrive on Earth, it's raining cats and dogs. This reflects the collective group's sense of helplessness, defeat, and uncertainty at whether they (excluding Luz) will ever get back home. For good measure, Gus breaks down crying from the scope of it all.
• The End... Or Is It?: A piece of Belos makes its way onto Hunter as he escapes to the Human realm, implying that he survived The Collector's blow.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Luz branding Belos/Philip is under the assumption that he'll stop the Draining Spell to save his own life. Unfortunately, Belos never thought that he'd need a way to stop the spell, so he simply devolves into his monstrous form and attacks her in a rage.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Belos, once again. He's convinced Luz's sense of reality has been warped by the "monsters" on the Boiling Isles. Even when he's reduced to a monstrous form, he still bellows at her that they don't belong on the Boiling Isles.
  Luz: I'm not like you!
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Belos clearly never had any intention of freeing the Collector, trying to justify it initially by saying that he needed the last of the Titan's blood to return home, before admitting to the cosmic child that he also wants to keep them from teaching anyone else their powerful magic. This bites him in the ass when King frees the Collector to stop the Draining Spell, and the Collector reduces him to a splatter on the wall as payback.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Odalia called coven scouts to report the airship Amity, Alador and the former's friends took as stolen for abandoning her in the previous episode.
  • There was really no need for Philip to so openly mock and belittle both Kikimora and the Collector once he had no further need of their services beyond his innate desire to spurn them for being magical beings. This bites him firmly in the ass afterwards, as his naked contempt towards them both convinces Kikimora to bring King to the Collector, who King then frees to foil the Draining Spell and stop Belos.
• Evil Versus Evil: Kikimora helps King release the Collector not out of any change of heart, but because she wants revenge against the Emperor for rejecting her. Likewise, the Collector splats Belos against the wall for refusing to free them.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: Belos and the Collector become a somewhat complicated example once they turn on each other. King turns to the dangerous and amoral Collector because they aren't actively seeking the death of everyone in the Demon Realm like Belos. However, Belos's Draining Spell still would have missed any witch that without a sigil, non-humanoid demons, and anyone living outside the Boiling Isles. The Collector is a potential threat to every living thing in the Demon Realm, if not the physical existence of the dimension and others beyond it. In short, King traded the certainty of one apocalypse for a strong chance of an even greater one, not that he knew any better at the time.
• Exact Words: When Belos/Philip tries to convince Luz to leave the Boiling Isles to their fate and come away with him, he pleads that he "do[es]n't want to see another human life destroyed by this world." It's heavily implied he's referring to his "old friend"/brother whom he killed for Going Native. When Luz refuses, he tries to petrify her on the spot, belying his Self-Serving Memory.
• Extradimensional Emergency Exit: The kids escape through the repaired portal door in order to escape the Collector tearing apart the very ground beneath their feet. Unfortunately, the door runs out of power right after King blasts Luz though, leaving her, Amity, Willow, Gus, and Hunter trapped on Earth for the foreseeable future.

F-I

• Fatal Flaw: For all of Belos/Philip's centuries of careful planning, what does him in is his own smug arrogance and pride. In particular, his inability to comprehend that other people might be half as smart or resourceful as him, or know things he doesn't. It never occurred to him that any of his followers might learn about the Collector, nor that Luz might know more about combining glyphs or present-day Earth than he thought, despite her teaching him the light glyph in the first place (in the Stable Time Loop) or her being a modern-day resident of Earth while he's been away for centuries. This allows Kikimora to lead King to free the Collector, and Luz to outsmart and brand Philip with one of his own sigils.
• Finger Poke of Doom: As soon as they are freed, the Collector proceeds to casually block Belos's scythe-arm with their fingertips before poking Belos into a wall.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Luz uses this argument on Belos, telling him about how much the world has changed during his time in the Demon Realm and that no one would believe his claims of destroying wild magic, saying he'll need a guide to help him.
• Flash Step: Hunter performs this to get Gus away from Belos during the fight against the emperor, though this is about the only contribution he's able to make as the draining spell slowly weakens him.
• Forced to Watch: While Belos is Not Quite Dead, Hunter still does get to see The Collector brutally and casually splatter him against the wall.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the opening, King's collar gets a close-up when he awakens in the void, and the Collector still is unable to perceive him. In the climax we learn that the rune on the collar, instead of being his name, protects him from the Collector's gaze.
  • Graye's trick with the illusion-hidden branding glove in "Labyrinth Runners" turns out to foreshadow Luz's gambit to trick and defeat Belos, both plans hinging upon the target willingly stepping into close contact and offering their hands to the deceiver for them to brand them with a Sigil against their knowledge. Whereas Gus was able to see through the deception from the side, thanks to his manipulations and callousness towards those who've served him faithfully, Belos has no such outside party who can prevent him from getting branded himself.
  • The Palisman amalgamation within Belos' mind turns out to have been In-Universe foreshadowing of what he truly looks like underneath his Glamour of a normal human being.
  • When Kikimora delivers "the Golden Guard" to Belos, she tentatively asks if she could have the position of his "right hand" and Belos bluntly tells her he'd sooner cut off his whole arm than suffer such a situation. In order to save Eda from the combination of her curse and the draining spell, Raine rips off her right forearm and allows the curse to decay the whole thing whilst sparing the rest of Eda. Eda also jokingly removed her right arm in front of Raine earlier in the episode, which Raine uses to save her.
  • In "O Titan, Where Art Thou", the main reason why Raine wasn't filled in on the situation by Darius was that they're a bad actor and had to be kept in the dark for the whole charade in "Eda's Requiem" to be believable. The plan to corrupt the draining spell fails because Terra manages to see through Raine and inform Belos about any possible sabotage.
  • In "Any Sport in a Storm", when Hunter is scrambling to come up with an alias, Flapjack whistles something to him that causes him to blurt out the name "Caleb". In this episode, Belos shouts that same name at the top of his lungs when he sees Flapjack in Hunter's hands, confirming not only that his brother's name was Caleb, but that Flapjack used to belong to him.
• Freaky Electronic Music: The Collector's proper introduction features a noticeable use of synth when the soundtrack up to this point in the series had stuck to traditional instruments. It immediately gets across just how alien he is within the scope of the story.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • A number of background characters can be seen in the crowd shots of the Day of Unity, revealing what Covens they're in.
  • A bit of Philip's Power Tattoo can be seen peeking out from his sleeve as he petrifies Luz, showing that the glyph carvings cover both arms at least.
  • A number of images of the memory paintings from "Hollow Mind" flash by when Gus is calling up Belos/Philip's worst memories — specifically, the ones relating to Philip's betrayal, murder and then 'resurrection' of Caleb as a Grimwalker.
  • It's subtle, but King's shadow is still visible when his collar is hiding him from the Collector.
  • There's a news article about Anne Boonchuy on Camila's tablet.
• From Bad to Worse: Releasing the Collector was a seriously bad idea, but he was the only being who can stop the Draining Spell. While he obliges, the Collector afterwards decides to revel in destruction and remaking of the Boiling Isles, and Luz and co barely manage to escape with their lives.
• Gasp!: Eberwolf audibly gasps when Belos switches up the positions among the Coven Heads before the draining spell starts.
• Given Name Reveal: The sight of Flapjack makes Belos roar "CALEB?!" very heavily implying that his original owner, and therefore Belos' brother and the Grimwalkers' template, was named Caleb.
• Glad You Thought of It: King tells the Collector about an awesome game called "Owl House", but pretends to be sad because they need a whole island's worth of players and the Draining Spell will soon finish off the people of the Isles. The Collector then suggests that they can stop the spell if freed, while King acts as if he didn't expect them to say that.
• Glamour: Before he plans to head to Earth, Belos/Philip uses his magic to hide the band of rot on his face.
• Glamour Failure:
  • Much like last episode, Eda's gold tooth is still visible while disguised as Raine.
  • Before heading to Earth, Belos/Philip disguises the band of rot on his face, but it starts to fray once he grabs Luz during their duel, and when she calls him out on his hypocrisy on how he's barely human himself anymore despite all his talk of "protecting humanity", it fully fails.
  • Being affected by the Draining Spell strips away all of Philip's magic, leaving him nothing to maintain his human form. He quickly mutates into a monster like the Palismen amalgam in his mental world, and can only briefly restore his human face to confront Hunter, with it being hinted that this is what he really looks like without the use of magic to maintain his self-delusions of still being a natural human.
  • King's medallion makes him invisible to the Collector, however his shadow can still be seen and the Collector can sense his presence.
• Glory Seeker: Belos/Philip expects to be rewarded and praised for his actions in the Boiling Isles as a self-proclaimed "Witch Hunter General", oblivious to how modern-day humans largely no longer fear magic or witches like they did in his day. Luz exploits this to get close enough to brand him, telling him that if he spares her and her friends, she'll be his guide to modern-day Earth and provide proof of his tales so he won't be written off as delusional.
• Godzilla Threshold: Since Belos is way too powerful and the draining spell is active, freeing the Collector is the only option left, even if it means subjecting the people of the Isles to an even more powerful god.
• Going Native: Philip writes Luz off as corrupted beyond saving due to the influence of the Boiling Isles, since she's befriended the locals and acclimated to their customs. It's heavily implied that he killed his brother Caleb for similar reasons.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: During their fight, Belos gives Luz a small scar over her left eyebrow.
• Goo-Goo-Godlike: King convinces the Collector to stop the draining spell by proposing they play the best game ever, but they need everyone in the Boiling Isles if they want to play, prompting them to shift the moon with one finger before terraforming the environment. Also when the Collector is released, their clothing resembles a child's onesie pajama suit.
• Got Me Doing It: During their fight, despite having abandoned the identity of "Emperor Belos" and the pretence that he can "talk to the Titan", Philip sincerely blames the long-dead behemoth for the struggles he had deciphering and learning to utilise glyphs, dryly noting that he feels like the Titan didn't want him to have its powers. This shows that underneath his pretence that he's still the same human being who came through the portal in the 1600s, despite his best efforts, Philip's centuries in the Demon Realm have changed him, both mentally and physically, which informs his sincere desire to leave it immediately once he's accomplished his goals.
• Graceful Loser: After Terra Snapdragon smugly thwarts the CATS' attempt to stop the Day of Unity, then realizes the draining spell will kill her, she sadly asks Raine if Belos' promise of Paradise was a lie. Raine would have been well within their right to gloat or berate her, but instead, they just sadly shake their head, showing sympathy for her despair and regret over her Pyrrhic Victory, implying Raine did believe in Belos' paradise at some point.
• Growling Gut: Gus' stomach growls after the palismans present the gang with a crate of food on the airship.
• Guile Hero: Since Luz doesn't stand a chance against Belos, she convinces him to spare her by pointing out that he will need a guide in the modern human world. When they shake hands on it, she brands him with one of his sigils using a nearby branding glove she'd turned invisible. This way he will have to stop the draining spell or be drained as well. Unfortunately, Belos can't stop the spell regardless, so all Luz succeeds in doing is thoroughly pissing him off and leading to him trying to kill her however he can before the spell kills him.
• Gray Rain of Depression: Luz and the others arrive in the Human Realm in the midst of a downpour during the night, and having lost the only way to the Boiling Isles, can only make their way towards Luz's house.
• Hat Damage: During the fight between the Coven Heads, Darius ends up slashing off the top of Vitimir's hat.
• Headbutt of Love: Before Eda goes off to take Raine's place in the Draining Spell, she and Lilith share a moment together that ends with the sisters performing this action, knowing that it might be the last time they see each other.
• Heroic Sacrifice: When it's clear that the only way to escape is through the portal, Luz tries to remain behind, both to keep the portal stable long enough for the others to get through, but also to try to rescue Eda and the others. When the Collector begins dragging King to him, King performs his own sacrifice by using his sonic scream to knock Luz through the portal just as Amity, Willow, and Gus are coming to get her, sparing them and Hunter from the Collector's wrath.
• History Repeats:
  • Just like "Young Blood, Old Souls", Belos dismisses one of his supporters who ends up betraying him at the last minute because of this behavior: Lilith saved her sister from the owl curse whereas both Kikimora and the Collector end up betraying him.
  • Just as Philip betrayed his brother by hiding a knife behind his back before killing him, Philip is himself betrayed when Luz hides a branding glove behind her back while offering to make a deal with him. Philip even seems to silently recognize the parallel, noting that Luz is hiding her hand, but Luz renders the glove invisible to sell the ruse.
  • When Luz refuses to join him in going back to Earth and leaving the Demon Realm behind, Philip chooses to petrify her rather than let her spend the rest of her life in the Boiling isles, out of sheer rejection of the idea of the human and demon world co-existing on any level. The memory portraits from "Hollow Mind" that he remembers when Gus forces him to experience his worst memories make it clear that a similar situation and outcome occurred between Philip and the man in the portraits, implied to be Caleb, his brother.
  • Like in "Yesterday's Lie", Luz is forced into a position where she has to give up staying on the Boiling Isles for the sake of her own safety. Unlike Camila, Amity (initially) convinces her to come with the others so they can escape through the portal and avoid the Collector's restructuring.
  • Like in "Agony of a Witch", somebody Luz loves expresses gratitude that they knew while sacrificing themself to save her.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Luz offers a deal with Philip to spare her friends in exchange for teaching him about how Earth has changed in his absence, offering to shake on it to seal the deal. When Philip agrees, she marks him with a branding glove she rendered invisible with a glyph, causing him to be affected by the Draining Spell. She tries to use this as leverage to get him to end the spell, not realizing that even he can't turn it off once it's active.
  • Belos callously dismisses Kikimora's attempts to earn his favor, which makes her all too willing to screw him over when the opportunity arises. Having listened in on his talks with the Collector, she knows the Collector can stop the Draining Spell and leads King to them, allowing King to free the Collector in exchange for stopping the Draining Spell. This ends badly for Belos, who had earlier reneged on his deal to free the Collector in exchange for the Draining Spell.
• Horrifying the Horror: Belos, a religious extremist who seeks the genocide of all witches and demons, murdered countless denizens and Golden Guards over the many centuries, and turned himself into a Transhuman Abomination by consuming so many Palisman souls that he turns into a horrifying monster whenever he loses control of his magic, is revealed to be utterly terrified of the Collector because they are the only being more powerful than him. Seeing the Collector freed from his prison after he had already double-crossed them elicits a massive Oh, Crap! reaction from Belos as the latter tries to save himself with a weak lie. The Collector simply reduces him to a smear on the wall, and that's a lucky break compared to what he would've gotten if the Collector really were mad at him.
• Hourglass Plot: The season started with Luz trapped in the Boiling Isles trying to find a way home to her mother. The season ends with her home, but Hunter, Amity, Willow, and Gus are now trapped on Earth with her and unable to go home anytime soon.
• Hypocrite: Luz lampshades Belos/Philip's hypocrisy when he insists he doesn't want to hurt another human, pointing out that for all his claims of "protecting" humanity, his abuse of magic has rendered him barely human. The fact that he tries to petrify her immediately afterward proves her point.
• I Gave My Word:
  • After Raine removes Eda's arm to save her from the Draining Spell, they tell her that they promised a special kid they would look after her.
  • King reluctantly agrees to stay behind and forces Luz to leave him because of the deal he made with the Collector.
• Immediate Sequel: This episode takes place right after the events of "Clouds on the Horizon".
• Immortal Immaturity: The Collector is described as a child from the stars, and both acts and looks like an actual kid, despite King's father being personally responsible for sealing them away, making them extraordinarily old.
• Impairment Shot: After the airship crash, we see through King's eyes as he's carried around, with significant amounts of time passing as he drifts in and out of consciousness.
• Innocently Insensitive: Amity unintentionally forces Luz into the same scenario of when she promised Camila she'd stay with her after returning to the Human Realm. However, Amity was just keeping Luz from trying to go find Eda as the Collector begins disassembling the Titan's skull for their game, thus risking her life for a rescue mission she's guaranteed not to return from.
• Insistent Terminology: When Luz asks Belos if he wants to be known in the human realm as "Emperor of the Witch Hunters", he quickly corrects her, saying it's "Witch Hunter General".
• Internal Reveal:
  • Eda and the CATS find out too late that Belos knew about their plan and put a stop to it.
  • Everyone in the Boiling Isles, including Kikimora and the rest of the Coven Heads, finally learn too late that Belos had been lying to them and that the Day of Unity is a trap.
  • Luz finally gets to introduce her friends (and her girlfriend) to her mother, though not under the circumstances she had in mind.
  • It's heavily implied that Gus experienced Belos' worst memories with him, and made the connection that Hunter is a a Replacement Goldfish for the "old friend"/implied brother that Belos killed, given Gus' shocked expression and meaningful glance at Hunter once he snaps out of it.
• Irony:
  • Terra ignoring Eda's and Raine's warnings. As a consequence, she becomes the first victim of the draining spell.
  • Belos dismissed Kikimora as unimportant to his goals... and so she spites him and helps King by helping to release the Collector, who smashes him against the wall in return.
  • King's father sealed the Collector away to keep them from "playing with" King. King frees the Collector and convinces them to save the residents of the Boiling Isles by offering himself as a playmate.
  • Belos believes he could just simply dress up as Philip Wittebane when he first entered into the Boiling Isles and return to the Human Realm as if nothing happened. Belos ends up returning as a small, monstrous goop that is unrecognizable as a human being.
• Irrevocable Order: The Draining Spell can't be stopped once active, even by Belos, which bites him when Luz manages to brand him in the hopes of forcing him to stop it or die himself. Only the Collector has the power to do so, and only by physically moving the moon so as to break the conditions of the spell.
• I Should Have Done This Years Ago:
  • Terra says her biggest mistake was letting Eda and Raine live all those years ago. She ends up eating those words once the Draining Spell takes effect and nearly kills the two before her, feeling nothing but shock before passing out once Raine tells her the Emperor lied, meaning the very people she dislikes and just prevented from stopping the Draining Spell could've saved her life.
  • Though unspoken, it's made very clear this is Philip's sentiment towards all his magical and non-human 'allies', and he takes great pleasure in mocking the few of them he sees on his way out of the demon realm for how little they matter to him, and how he wants nothing more from them but to leave them all behind to rot and die. The only reason he hasn't done this before was the length of time needed to extensively set up his Final Solution and exit strategy, and he's positively giddy at the chance to finally be rid of them all.
• It Has Been an Honor: Right before King lets go of Luz's hand and knocks her through the portal, he tells Luz that he's so glad to have had her as a big sister, indicating that he's not sure he'll ever see her again or even if he'll survive staying with the Collector at all.

K-O

• Kick the Dog:
  • Off-screen, Odalia's final act of spite towards her daughter was to snitch on her party and to report their airship as stolen.
  • Once they've served their purpose, Belos goes out of his way to let both Kikimora and the Collector know how little he thinks of them, and how much pleasure it's giving him to screw them both over and leave them to rot. Whilst neither are the best morally speaking, this still serves to mark Philip as being worse than either of them at his core. Fittingly, this display of petty vindictiveness towards his allies winds up biting Philip squarely in the ass once Kikimora helps free the Collector, leaving Philip helpless towards his due comeuppance.
• Kid with the Leash: King is the only one who has any influence on the Collector, and who can actually free him. He uses that influence to save Luz and her friends when the Collector wants to "play" with them like he did with Belos.
• Lap Pillow: As their last action after saving Eda from the Draining Spell, Raine lies down and places their head onto Eda's lap.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: King's idea to get the Collector to stop the Draining Spell by telling him that they need the people of the Isles to play a game called "The Owl House", and what the kids say about it once the Collector stops Belos, seems to be in part a reference to the show and its IRL fans, like Willow saying that she plays it every day, or Amity saying that the memories last a lifetime. Heck, King even saying that they need "an island worth of players" is a nod to how a show like "The Owl House" requires numerous characters in order to work.
• Leitmotif: The scene where Raine saves Eda's life by tearing off her arm has an orchestral version of "Eda's Requiem" playing in the background.
• Literal-Minded: The Collector figures that in order to play "Owl House" — the rules of which have yet to be explained to him — they'll need an actual owl house, so he begins reshaping the Isles to make one.
• Ludicrous Gibs: The Collector flings Belos' mutated form into a wall, causing his Blob Monster form to splatter into green slime — likely the only way such a brutal fate could have been justified on a kid's show.
• Lunacy: The Draining Spell was timed to this specific date because it relies on the moon being as close as possible to the site it's cast at. The Collector decides the simplest way to stop it is to move the moon away to end it prematurely.
• Mad God: The Collector is revealed to be an entity overpowering every other being so far witnessed on the show, casually dragging the moon out of orbit just by pointing at it. They also don't seem to comprehend how destructive and horrific their actions can be, getting angry at King for hanging on to Luz while she cries.
• Make Way for the New Villains: Once the Collector is free, he casually reduces Belos to a literal stain on the wall—though the latter isn't necessarily down for the count.
• Man Behind The Curtain: The Collector's true appearance was teased as a tall, intimidating figure, but his default form is a child-sized human-looking figure. Still, his powers are beyond frightening and he's quite Ax-Crazy.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!":
  • Beginning with Terra, every branded witch slowly begins to freak out as they realize what exactly Belos' spell is actually doing to them. They all attempt to flee the scene, but Belos had ordered the Abomatons to keep them inside with a barrier to keep them within optimal range of the Draining Spell.
  • Belos manages to be visibly aghast when he sees the Collector is freed, even in his One-Winged Angel form. This is an expression that follows on the faces of everyone else present when the Collector proceeds to casually poke Belos, rocketing him into the nearest wall at high speeds, splattering him into paste, before giggling over Belos being 'too slow'. Then he invites the others to join in the game of tag.
• Meet the In-Laws: Amity is notably the only one of the kids who is standing up straight when Camila opens the door at the end of the episode, and her body language clearly indicates that she's trying to make a good first impression on her girlfriend's mother despite the hell she and the others just went through.
• Mercy Kill: Philip decides that Luz's view of reality has been warped beyond repair by being around witches and convinces himself that he's doing her a favor by putting her out of her misery, though it's clear he simply doesn't want to keep anyone who disagrees with him alive. Luckily, Luz's quick thinking saves her.
• Mercy Lead: The Collector offers this to Luz's group when he decides to play tag with them, figuring they're probably as slow as Belos, who he just splattered into a wall. King steps in to save his friends and to focus the Collector on ending the Draining Spell.
• Mind Rape: Gus uses Graye's Amplifier Artifact to force Belos to relive his worst memories.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal:
  • Kikimora, who has always been deeply devoted to Belos, is spat upon by him for attempting to earn his favor and simply told to go find a hole to die in, feeling no obligation to so much as indulge her. Thus, she has no problem helping King to find the Collector's mirror, openly admitting that she will enjoy watching her former boss get his butt kicked.
  • The Collector repays Belos for his deceit by nearly killing him swiftly and brutally, and even then Belos' survival comes more from his unique state of being than any act of mercy on the Collector's behalf.
• My Way or the Highway: Philip demonstrates how extreme his Control Freak attitude really is when he tries convincing Luz to go through the portal door with him and leave the Boiling Isles for good. Despite framing it as a genuine desire not to harm a fellow human, when she refuses to go with him and calls him out on his hypocrisy, he chooses instead to petrify her as an act of mercy since she's been corrupted by the witches, showing he's so set in his belief that humans don't belong in the Boiling Isles that he'd rather kill anybody who won't accept his way is the 'correct' one. The memory portraits from "Hollow Mind" that he flashes back to when Gus forces him to relive his worst memories make it clear that this isn't the first time such a situation has happened.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Luz successfully brands Belos with the sigil, hoping to blackmail him into undoing the Draining Spell. Unfortunately for her, Belos doesn't know how to reverse it and instead, he transforms into an unstoppable rage-filled monster that nearly kills Luz and her friends.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: An actual Puritan Witch Hunter, Matthew Hopkins (who would've been a contemporary of the Wittebanes), claimed the title of "Witchfinder General" for himself, very similar to Belos' desire to be named "Witch Hunter General". Just like Belos, he entirely made this title up for himself.
• Non-Protagonist Resolver: Both Luz's group and the CATS essentially fail at stopping the Draining Spell; at most, the former simply makes it so Belos will be killed by it as well. The day is instead "saved", for the time being, by the Collector on King's behalf.
• No Ontological Inertia: The Collector ends the eclipse early to cease the Draining Spell and Hunter, who was previously barely able to stand anymore from its effects, immediately recovers and is able to run to the portal door without difficulty.
• Not Helping Your Case: Luz calls Belos a hypocrite, saying that he wants to "save humanity" even though he's barely even human himself anymore. To further prove her point (and further destroy Philip's) the streak of Palisman goop once again takes over Belos's face.
• Nothing but Skulls: There's a place in the Skull absolutely filled with the bones, especially skulls, and masks of the previous Golden Guards, showing that Belos never even bothered to bury them properly, just merely chucked their corpses down into the darkness to rot in a pile. There are also a lot more bones and masks than were shown within Belos' mindscape, showing how he didn't bother to keep track of how many of them he actually killed.
• Not So Above It All: Luz insulting Philip's outdated Colonial garb actually gets to him, convincing him to hear her out about being his guide for the modern world. Similarly, despite abandoning his pretence of being able to speak to the deceased Titan, he nonetheless talks about it like he believes it's still alive in some capacity, blaming it for the issues he had understanding and using glyph magic. This showcases not only Philip's utter inability to accept his own failings and flaws, but also how the years in the Boiling isles have changed him, despite his pretensions of remaining the same human witch hunter he used to be.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Philip insists to Luz he's trying to protect humanity (including her) from witches and demons, but when she tries to stop him, he almost petrifies her on the spot. The only thing that stops him? Her pointing out that returning to Earth in centuries-outdated attire and no solid proof that witches or demons even exist means that he won't be believed or remembered as a "Witch Hunter General" like he wants. Proving that underneath it all, he's just a Glory Seeker.
• Not Quite Dead: It is implied that Belos is still alive since some of the goo clung onto Hunter, still moving. In The Stinger, this goo falls on the forest shack door and slams it shut.
• Now, Let Me Carry You: In both this episode and the previous one, Luz and her friends have mostly tried to keep King out of the fighting to protect him, with him clearly sad and frustrated that he couldn't be a better help to them. At the end, he's finally able to save them and everyone else on the Boiling Isles from Belos by freeing the Collector, convincing him to stop the Draining Spell and spare the kids, and staying behind on the Boiling Isles, even expressing that he's glad he could protect Luz before knocking her into the portal.
• Obliviously Evil: The Collector doesn't appear to be knowingly malicious, only showing interest in games and becoming upset when Belos refuses to let them out and play. Them brutally turning Belos into a stain on the wall might be them giving him a form of payback for refusing to honour their pinkie swear, or it might just be that the Collector really was playing with Belos and that's the normal outcome to the kind of games they so enjoy. When they're finally set free, the Collector gets excited to play "Owl House" with King and starts warping reality to set up for the game, regardless of the obvious horror on Luz's face as she desperately tries to keep King with her.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Eda when Belos suddenly changes the positions of the Coven Heads, which leads to her being surrounded by Terra Snapdragon and Adrian Graye instead of Darius and Eberwolf.
  • Kikimora when she realizes that Belos has no more use for her.
  • Lilith and Raine have this reaction when the Abomatons confront them.
  • Eda again when she realizes that the other Coven Heads were onto her all along and expose her.
  • The smug Coven Heads (especially Terra) have their own when they finally realize that there won't be a "Paradise" for them. Unfortunately, it's too late for them.
  • Once the crowds at the Day of Unity start to feel the effects of the Draining Spell, they panic and attempt to flee, only for the Abomatons to block the exit.
  • Philip's confident attitude goes out the window when he realizes Luz has successfully tricked him and branded him with a Sigil, as he has no way to turn the draining spell off and can no longer use his considerable magical might. Luz in turn gets once when Philip devolves into his true monstrous form and starts rampaging against her, almost destroying the portal door in his attempts to kill her.
  • Belos has another moment of this when the Collector is freed, as he’s now at the whims of a Cosmic Entity he just betrayed and the only one more powerful than him.
• One-Winged Angel: After being branded, Belos loses his mental focus over his shapeshifting and mutates into what is now his real form, the monstrous and insanely powerful creature shown in "Hollow Mind". He does manage to regain enough focus to shift his face back into his human look to try a Shapeshifter Guilt Trip on Hunter, but the sight of Flapjack causes him to again lose himself in anger as the monster he is underneath his pretensions of humanity.
• The Only One: Justified. The Draining Spell targets only magical beings who are branded with Coven Sigils. As Amity, Willow, Gus, and King aren't branded, Hunter is branded yet lacks magic, and Luz is neither magical nor branded, they are immune/resistant to the Draining Spell's effects, making them the only ones who can stop the Emperor. That said, they're still kids going into a fight against an adult. By the end of the battle, they would have lost the fight with a more experienced and stronger opponent if King hadn't unleashed the Collector, who is so strong despite their childlike demeanour that Belos himself is like a helpless child before them. If anything, this trope highlights how much they're on their own in this one, while everyone who can possibly help them is dying all around them.
• Outdated Outfit: Belos ditches his Emperor's garb for the colonial era suit he wore as Philip. Luz needling him about how outdated his clothes actually are ends up being the first crack in his armor that allows Luz to convince him that he doesn't know what the human realm is like after being stuck in the Isles for so long.
• Out of the Frying Pan: Belos is (seemingly) killed and the Day of Unity is stopped before any witches can be fully drained. Unfortunately, the Collector was freed in order to accomplish this, and they start transforming the Boiling Isles into their new playground immediately after.

P-S

• Perspective Magic: When the Collector stops the Draining Spell, they do so by putting their finger on the moon and dragging it out of the way like a mouse dragging a file on a computer screen, and with as much comparative effort.
  Collector: (casually moving the moon to the side) Boop!
• Pet the Dog: Downplayed. When Belos captures Luz, he makes a genuine offer to send her back home, pleading he doesn't want to kill a human. However, once she insults him in response, he immediately decides to petrify her, showing that ultimately, what matters most to him is his perceptions of how humanity should be, not how they actually are, and he'll do anything to 'correct' their wrongdoing, rather than allow them to make their own choices that run counter to his beliefs.
• Pietà Plagiarism: The last we see of Eda is her cradling Raine's head in her lap as the Draining Spell slowly kills them and the other Coven heads.
• Pinky Swear: In a opportunity to save Luz and her friends, King pinky swears to The Collector to free them and play their game of "Owl House".
• Please Wake Up: When King is slipping in and out of consciousness, Hunter can be seen attempting to rouse Darius on the Coven Head platform to no avail.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Defied. At the start of the episode while the kids are on their way to the Head to save Luz, Hunter and Alador get into a shouting match over the latter's ability to pilot the airship. Gus proceeds to yell at Hunter for distracting the pilot, and Amity, wanting to get to Luz as fast as possible, joins them all in shouting over each other. Their Palismen interrupt the fight by dragging over a crate of food, and everyone decides to just eat something instead of bickering over nothing.
  Amity: Look... We're all exhausted and terrified. Let's focus our energy on helping Luz instead of fighting each other.
• P.O.V. Cam:
  • After the ship crash-lands, we're briefly shown everything from King's perspective as he slips in and out of consciousness.
  • When King steps in front of the Collector's mirror, we see from the latter's point-of-view to show how King's medallion made him invisible to the Collector.
• Pragmatic Villainy: To Belos' credit, he knows letting out the Collector would not have been a smart move, because his idea of games is complete chaos and destruction, not to mention the Collector’s knowledge of powerful magic is dangerous if other witches had access to it. He also begrudgingly accepts Luz's point that simply heading back to Earth without knowledge of how society now functions and claiming to be a Colonial-era witch hunter who saved them all from monsters and witches without a shred of proof will only get him labeled as insane, convincing him to spare her life in exchange for her knowledge of Earth and her backing up his stories.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: The Collector to Philip/Belos, right before subjecting him to a Finger Poke of Doom that splatters him against the wall.
  The Collector: Say, you wanna play tag? I'm "it".
• Properly Paranoid: When Luz offers to seal her deal with Philip by shaking hands, he silently notes her hiding one behind her back. She shows the empty hand as a show of good faith, convincing him to go along with the gesture. Then she brands him with the Branding Glove, made invisible by a glyph. Though unsaid, it's implied that he was suspicious of her actions because the situation reminded him of his own betrayal of Caleb, shown in a memory painting in "Hollow Mind" and which he flashes back to when Gus makes him relive his worst memories, with Philip approaching Caleb with a knife behind his back. This makes Luz's actions a further dose of Laser-Guided Karma.
• Psycho Knife Nut: Hettie Cutburn forces Darius to stand down by holding a scalpel to Eberwolf's throat.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Philip arguably succeeds in both of his main goals to some extent — although far from how he intended. His draining spell fails, and the Collector smashes his body to goop; however, now the Collector is free to use the Boiling Isles as his personal playground, which could easily result in its destruction. Secondly, Philip does return to the Human Realm... as a fragment of his former self, totally unrecognizable as human. Whether he will stay in his stunted form remains to be seen.
• The Quisling: Like Odalia, Belos has told the Coven Heads that they'll be royalty after the Day of Unity, with all of them save Darius, Eberwolf, and Raine buying it.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Collector is a Mad God and Reality Warper with glowing red eyes and yellow sclera. Notably, their eyes glow red when they splatter Belos/Philip into a wall, mock him as "too slow," then remark that Luz and her friends look slow too and offers them a Mercy Lead. When they see King, their eyes stop glowing and they look genuinely pleased to see him.
• Red Sky, Take Warning: The sky turns red when the eclipse reaches totality, signalling the draining spell activating and the slow death of everyone on the Boiling Isles. It's unclear if this is a side effect of the spell or if it's normal for an eclipse in the demon realm.
• Reality Warper: The Collector can move the moon just by pushing it aside with his finger and begins warping the Boiling Isles into a playground at the end of the episode.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Luz gives Belos a very accurate and well-deserved one when he says he doesn't want to kill another human.
  Luz: You're such a hypocrite. You talk big about saving humanity. But after everything you've done, you're barely human yourself.
• Red Herring:
  • Apparently, it was hinted the CATTs had a traitor in their ranks, but that was not the case. Terra was just that smart to figure out what they were up to. She just didn't know Darius was behind it.
  • So what did the portal have to do with the Day of Unity? In a direct sense, nothing; Belos' goals for each were completely separate. He just needed the portal completed first because it'd be much harder to develop it further as the Mayor of a Ghost Town, and he planned to betray his promise to the Collector as soon as the draining spell was activated, meaning it'd be a bad idea to stick around, even with the Collector sealed away. Philip's sheer hatred of the demon realm being so strong, it's made clear that he also didn't want to spend a second longer on the Isles than he had to, the only reason he delays leaving the instant the draining spell is active being his twisted interest in Luz, the only other human on the Isles.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves:
  • All the other Coven Heads know about The Purge but are convinced that they will be spared. When they realize the truth, it's already too late, and only the Collector's intervention saves their lives.
  • The Collector themself gets one over on Belos after his betrayal. When Belos tries to claim that he fulfilled his promise to them because they're now free, the Collector pokes him on the head, which launches him into a wall and splatters him into a pile of goop.
• The Reveal:
  • A number of minor and background characters can be seen in the Day of Unity crowd shots, revealing their Covens.
  • Amity's "Mittens" nickname comes from how Alador used to create Abomination goo mittens for her as a kid.
  • Belos also promised the Coven Heads that they would be royalty after the Day of Unity, just like with Odalia.
  • Apparently the reason that Belos knew to look out for the plot to stop the Day of Unity was that Terra was suspicious of Raine.
  • The Collector taught Belos much of his powerful magic beyond the Draining Spell.
  • Belos/Philip is familiar with Flapjack, as when he sees Hunter using him, he immediately drops any pretense of caring for the boy in favor of murderous rage.
  • Belos' brother's name was Caleb, and he was Flapjack's original owner.
  • Kikimora was spying on Belos and the Collector, and claims that he's neither Witch or Demon, but a "child of the stars".
  • Belos has been storing the bones and masks remains of the past Golden Guards in the Skull. And there are a lot of them.
  • The Collector confirms that King is the son of the Titan of the Boiling Isles, and the rune he carved onto his collar made him invisible to the Collector.
  • The Collector also reveals the Titan of the Boiling Isles was the one who sealed them away, and did so to protect King from the Collector "playing" with him.
• Rule of Symbolism: When Luz wants Belos to shake on their deal (Luz will be Philip's guide to the modern world in exchange for sparing her friends' life), she offers her left hand. Left-handedness is traditionally seen as a sinister clue to the character's actual motives and sure enough, she uses the handshake to brand Belos with a sigil, condemning him to die on the Day of Unity unless he stops the Draining Spell.
• Save the Villain: No matter how bad the Coven Heads are, the whole intent of sabotaging the Draining Spell is to save even their lives.
• Say My Name:
  • Luz calls Belos "Philip" as a desperate attempt to appeal to him while she's nearly fully petrified.
  • After spotting Flapjack while attempting to pull a Shapeshifter Guilt Trip on Hunter, Belos suddenly becomes livid and shrieks "Caleb".
• Scars Are Forever: Even when Philip hides the band of rot on his face using magic before heading back to Earth, the initial scar caused by Lilith's punch during the Stable Time Loop still remains.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • When the witches and Coven Scouts realize that they are about to be drained, they try to escape. Unfortunately, the Abomatons don't let them, and they're the only other magical beings not affected by the Draining Spell.
  • The minute the Draining Spell is activated, Philip teleports himself straight inside the Titan's skull where he's reconstructed the portal door, activating it with all the remaining Titan's blood in the key to leave the Demon Realm in minutes, pausing only to dispose of the Collector's mirror into the deepest darkest hole he can find nearby. If not for Kikimora arriving with the 'Golden Guard', Philip would have left before anybody realized what the spell was actually doing, showing both his confidence that the spell couldn't be stopped, and underscoring his disgust at being forced to remain in the Demon Realm for so long, downright eager to leave now his work is finally being achieved without staying to enjoy the fruits of his labour.
• Self-Proclaimed Knight: Philip expects to be made "Witch Hunter General", similar to self-proclaimed "Witchfinder General" Matthew Hopkins and essentially a position on the same level of Postmaster General or Attorney General in the British colonies, for his actions in the Isles as part of his Glory Seeker nature. His correction of Luz when she gets it wrong implies that he's wanted to be called that for a while.
• Season Finale: Of Season 2.
• Serious Business: As implied in the previous episode, the Collector does not take pinkie swears lightly, apparently considering them a binding promise of comparable importance to a blood oath. They reduce Belos to a stain on the wall for refusing to honor their pinkie swear and forcibly drag King away from Luz when it looks like he's about to go back on his.
  The Collector: You pinkie swore!
• Sequel Hook: A glob of Belos' remains drops onto Hunter's clothes as he races to the portal to Earth. It then closes the door to the shack at the end of the credits.
• Shadow Archetype:
  • Philip is a human who came to the Boiling Isles and learned to use glyph magic like Luz, but while he loathes the Isles and abused magic to eradicate all life within them, Luz loves the Isles, respects glyphs as a gift from the Isles, and wishes to protect and live happily with the denizens. His Significant Wardrobe Shift into his old Colonial garb and hairstyle also belies that he hasn't changed at all from his time in the Isles, while Luz's Adrenaline Makeover shows how much she's grown and changed during her time there.
  • The Collector is a child tyrant much like King used to be before his Character Development. But while King was a Small Name, Big Ego and a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who talked big about being a feared tyrant but genuinely loved Eda and Luz, the Collector is a Mad God who only cares about playing games and thinks nothing of tormenting and eradicating any and all living beings for their own amusement.
  • Likewise, the Collector and Luz are two child outsiders who stumbled into this realm and initially see it as a kind of playground. Luz is initially an Ascended Fangirl who's thrilled to learn a realm of witches and demons exists, and sees the Boiling Isles as a preferable alternative to summer camp where she can make friends and have fun adventures until it's time to go home. While she genuinely loves the denizens of the Boiling Isles, the Season 1 finale was a wakeup call where she realized the realm isn't all fun and games and people can get hurt or killed as a result of her actions (since Eda got arrested and almost executed to protect Luz, then Eda and Lilith both lost their magic and were rendered destitute) and felt she Must Make Amends. For now, the Collector seems like an Obliviously Evil Mad God who just sees the world as their personal playground and most living beings as playthings, seemingly oblivious to the genuine fear and harm they're causing others.
• The Shadow Knows: Although the Collector can't initially see King, a keen-eyed viewer will be able to see that his shadow is still visible.
• Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Belos attempts to pull one on Hunter in an attempt to kill him, but the sight of Flapjack ends up ruining it.
• Shared Universe: At the end on Camila's tablet there's an article about a girl lost in a frog world with a photo of Anne Boonchuy, confirming that the two shows share the same Earth.
• Ship Tease: Willow and Hunter continues to be teased, with Hunter blushing after Willow catches him in midair, and after the ship crash-lands, King sees Hunter showing concern for her and holding her hand to help her up. As Belos attempts to attack the kids just before the Collector steps in, a Freeze-Frame Bonus shows that, similar to Luz and Amity who try to shield each other, Willow also attempts to do the same to Hunter. When Hunter is weakened in the aftermath of the canceled Draining Spell, it's Willow he's leaning on for support.
• Shout-Out: This isn't the first time a Disney protagonist has been unwillingly thrown through a Portal Door into the human world, then frantically re-opened it only to find nothing on the other side.
• Significant Name Shift: Luz calls Belos by his preferred name Phillip when she's pleading not to be petrified. This convinces Belos to let her live.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: Now that the Day of Unity has finally arrived and Belos no longer needs to pretend to be the benevolent ruler of the Boiling Isles, he's traded in his priestly Emperor garb for the clothes he wore as Philip, even tying his hair back in the same way. Luz calls him out on this, pointing out that his clothing isn't really appropriate for the modern era, and will only help in him getting labeled as a crazy person if he goes about ranting about killing witches and demons whilst dressed as a British colonialist. It also reflects how, despite all his discoveries and inventions and the power he accumulated as Belos over the centuries, Philip hasn't changed one bit from the person he came to the Boiling Isles as, or rather, he's refusing to accept that he has changed at all.
  Luz: Sure, sure, 'Witch Hunter General' but... those aren't really a thing anymore. No one's gonna take you seriously if you start ranting about the demon realm. Not to mention a fashion sense like that? (Both Philip and Luz take a look at Philip's colonial garb)... yikes, my dude.
• Silent Credits: The end credits are once again replaced with a rolling shot. This time, it's the abandoned shack in the Human Realm that is linked to the portal entrance. The door is open, with rain and thunder outside. The last second of the credits sequence has the door slam close as bits of goo drip from the ceiling.
• Sins of Our Fathers: After seeing Flapjack with Hunter, Belos becomes violently enraged and shrieks "Caleb", the name of the man Hunter is presumably a clone of and whom Belos still hates for whatever happened between them, willing to extend said animosity towards Hunter for so much resembling him alongside Flapjack despite having made him to be the 'ideal version' of Caleb. In contrast, the Collector describes King's father as a bully but doesn't appear to harbor any ill will for the Titan's son.
• Smug Snake: Belos/Philip is at his most despicable this episode. He treats allies and enemies with equal disdain, casually betrays and discards everyone who ever helped him, smugly assumed no one would ever grow wise or thwart his plans (like Kikimora spying on him, or Luz learning how to combine glyphs), and didn't think through many key details in said plan. In particular, he never implemented a way to stop the Draining Spell once started since he assumed he'd never be affected, had no plan for if he got branded with a coven sigil despite having a branding glove lying around, and assumed no one would ever learn of his pact with the Collector. Naturally, he is Hoist by His Own Petard due to the people he underestimated and details he overlooked.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Belos/Philip keeps his polite mannerisms up when he callously betrays both the Collector and Kikimora to their faces, his voice even being tinged with genuine happiness over getting to finally cut ties with his magical associates, and he never raises his voice even as Luz's remarks about his being 'barely human' anymore obviously upset him and he decides it's best for her to be petrified slowly than to remain living in her delusions. However, this goes fully out the window once Luz brands him and he loses control over his plans, his body and his emotional state, turning into a growl from his sheer rage towards Luz, despite being capable of speaking with his normal voice otherwise.
  Monster Belos: We. Don't. Belong here!
• Spanner in the Works: Kikimora and King throw a monkey wrench in Belos' plans with the former telling King about the Collector and the latter making a deal with said Collector to fix everything. This worked a little too well, unfortunately.
• Special Edition Title: Just like the previous episode, the end credits show the old shack that linked the portal entrance to the Boiling Isles, with the door staying open for a few seconds before finally shutting.
• Stealing the Credit: Upon seeing that the Collector is free, Belos hastily tries to take credit for it in an attempt to avoid his wrath. It doesn't work.
• The Stinger: At the end of the Silent Credits, some pieces of Belos' goop come dripping down onto the shack's floor and the door, closing it right up.
• Stunned Silence:
  • When the Collector casually splatters Belos against a wall with a Finger Poke of Doom, Luz and the others are so shocked that they can't even properly react until King shows up to save them from being his next "playmates".
  • Luz and company share another one at the end of the episode upon the realization that they have been locked out of the Demon Realm.
• Summon Bigger Fish: King frees the Collector so they'll stop the Draining Spell; they also save Luz's group from Belos by taking their revenge on him.

T-Z

• Taken for Granite: Belos inflicts this on Luz after she refuses his offer. The spreading effect being slow, Luz uses the opportunity to find something she can use against him and convince him that she'll show him how things have changed in the human world. However, when Philip decides to reverse the petrification to accept Luz's deal he does so in an instant, showing that he was intentionally prolonging the spell's effects both to hear Luz out and to watch her squirm.
• Taking You with Me: Since Belos doesn't know how to stop the Draining Spell, he attacks Luz after she brands him with a sigil, intent on killing her before the spell is completed. Even then, it's left somewhat ambiguous if he would turn the spell off if he could, or if he'd be willing to sacrifice himself to destroy the Boiling Isles out of sheer spite.
• The Cake Is a Lie: Belos unsurprisingly goes back on his word to free the Collector once the draining spell works. He initially claims it's because he "forgot" that he only had enough titan's blood left to active the portal to the human realm, but then admits that it's actually because he won't risk the collector sharing his powers with someone else, as it would defeat the purpose of his 400 year scheme to eliminate all magic life.
• Time Marches On: In-Universe, Luz points out that Earth has changed a lot since Philip was last there, and they don't really have "Witch Hunter Generals" anymore.
• Title Drop: King says the game he wants to play with the Collector is "The Owl House", the name of the show.
• Title Theme Drop: The main theme of the series can be heard twice in the episode: once at the start of Luz and Belos' fight, and again when the kids are escaping through the portal (the latter song is even appropriately titled "If We're Gonna Play Owl House..." in the soundtrack).
• Tragic Keepsake: Downplayed seeing as how neither party dies, but her old Grudgby jacket is all Luz has left of Eda after getting sent back to the human realm unwittingly.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • Philip's calm demeanor subtly changes when Luz calls him "barely human." Though he still speaks in a polite manner, his face is full of subtle fury (with his rotten scar reemerging from his glamour) and his first reaction is to turn Luz into stone, which he considers to be a Mercy Kill to a lost cause.
  • After Belos sees that the Collector is free and he tries to lie to them again by saying he did what he promised them, they tell Belos in a calm manner that they're not angry. The Collector then decides to "play tag" with Belos by bringing him closer to them and declaring themself "it" before poking Belos into a wall.
• Trying Not to Cry: When Luz goes home and her mother opens the door, she says "Hey, Mom. I'm back." It's with a smile on her face, but the tears welling up in Luz's eyes belies how she really feels.
• Uncertain Doom: Everybody who is left on the Boiling Isles is now at the mercy of the Collector who is eager to start "playing". There is no guarantee of survival. As for the Draining Spell:
  • Alador is last seen duking it out with Abomatons, while the Draining Spell is already active.
  • Lilith has the same problem as Eda, and it's unknown whether anyone removed her sigil arm like Raine did Eda's.
  • Speaking of Raine, removing Eda's arm seems to have caused the Draining Spell to overcome them more quickly, and the last we see of them is Eda cradling them in her remaining arm.
• The Un-Reveal:
  • Despite the previous episode making a big deal out of Luz sculpting her Palisman into an egg so it can choose what it wants to be, said Palisman doesn't hatch in this episode, so we don't see what it becomes yet.
  • Though understandable due to how close to the end they wind up in the human realm, it isn't clarified why exactly the portal door, which can be opened anywhere on the Boiling Isles, is connected to a fixed location in the human realm, or if said shack has any special meaning to the creators of the portal door.
  • When Gus uses his illusion magic to force Belos to relive his worst memories, a series of montages of the paintings in his mindscape flash by showing the white-haired man, implied to be named Caleb, and Belos/Philip's visceral reaction to seeing Flapjack implies that he used to belong to his brother, but nothing is outright said or shown of what happened between them.
  • Despite Odalia mentioning last episode that she was planning on finding "a more competent business partner" she never shows up in this episode, only getting a brief mention as having alerted the Emperor's Coven to Amity and the others advance on the Day of Unity, leaving it unknown what became of her after the Draining Spell started.
  • Even though the effects of both the Draining Spell and the curse have on Eda together are shown, it isn't revealed how Lilith had reacted to the same combination or if she managed to survive.
• Villainous Breakdown: Belos goes completely insane once Luz brands him with a sigil, losing control of his human form and becomes little more then a rampaging beast after transforming into his Blob Monster form. And it only gets worse after he sees Flapjack and Gus blasts him with his worst memories. For almost all of this breakdown, he is little more than a roaring monster, not even saying a word except in the briefest moments of lucidity. However, the brief moments where he does showcase control and talk make it clear that he's still got full mental control over himself even in this monstrous state — he's just so ragingly pissed at Luz that he's devolved into his worst instincts and impulses so long as it means killing her and her friends before the draining spell kills him.
• Villainous Rescue: King frees the Collector just before Belos would have slaughtered Luz and her friends, and he then proceeds to take revenge for the witch hunter's betrayal. The Collector also ceases the Draining Spell because King convinces him he needs the people it would kill for their game.
• Villain Has a Point: Inverted. Luz is able to save herself from being petrified by pointing out to Philip that if he were to return to Earth dressed like a British colonialist and claiming that he wiped out all life in the Demon Realm without any proof at all, people would likely dismiss him as a madman because the human world has changed so much in the centuries he's been gone, and humans don't generally believe in magic anymore. The look on Philip's face as she says this pretty much confirms that he never considered that at all and leads him to acknowledge that she's right, which allows Luz to spring her own trap and brand him with a Coven Sigil.
• Villain Respect: Belos compliments Luz's use of Glyph combos, saying she has an intuition for using them. When he has her at his mercy, he offers to let her go home unharmed.
• Villains Want Mercy: When the Collector shows up in their physical form Belos realizes that he's completely screwed and tries to downplay his betrayal from minutes ago by pretending that he released them just as promised. The Collector of course doesn't buy it and one-hit kills the Emperor with an effortless poke of his finger.
• Visual Pun: When the Collector destroys Belos, his monster form is sent flying to the other side of the room and splats. He is literally reduced to a stain on the wall.
• Weapons of Their Trade: Mason, the Construction Coven Head, uses a hammer against Eberwolf.
• We Used to Be Friends: It's implied that Eda was once friends with Darius, Alador, and Odalia when she sees a flashback of the adults as their younger selves.
• Wham Episode: Man, where do we even start?
  • Raine sacrifices Eda's sigil hand to save the rest of her from her curse's interaction with the Draining Spell.
  • King makes a deal to free the Collector and play "Owl House" with them if they stop the Draining Spell.
  • The Collector confirms that King is the son of the Boiling Isles Titan, and that his collar's rune keeps the Collector from seeing him.
  • The Collector seemingly killed Belos with barely any effort at all, but a piece of him made its way onto Hunter.
  • Luz, Amity, Willow, Hunter, and Gus all end up thrown through the portal door before it closes, trapping them on Earth.
• Wham Shot:
  • When King goes to the Collector's mirror, we see a glimpse of the Collector's perspective... and King is invisible to the godling.
  • The last shot of the episode is of the open door from the cabin the portal led to, only for some goop to drop onto the doorknob and slam it closed.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Principal Bump is never seen or mentioned despite vowing to protect his students from the Day of Unity. The only reference to him is when Eda imagines the younger versions of Raine and Lilith alongside Bump when he was a vice-principal. Though we later learned what happened to him in the later episode, "For The Future".
  • Speaking of which, none of the students from Hexside make an appearance at all, raising questions on where they currently are and how they're going to cope with everything post-Draining Spell and under the Collector's reign. Though just like above, we later learned what they were doing during the Day of Unity in "For the Future".
  • When Lilith, Derwin, Katya and Hooty are captured, Amber and Steve are curiously not among them.
  • When the Collector ends the Draining spell, we see the inhabitants of the Isles recover, but not Eda and the Coven heads.
  • The last we see of Alador is him trying to fend of the Abomatons when the Draining Spell takes effect on him. It is not clear if he gets captured or is able to escape.
  • Despite last episode ending with Odalia planning to find a new business partner, she never shows up in this episode, so it's unknown what her reaction would be to finding out that selling out her family and all of witchkind to become royalty was All for Nothing.
  • It's somewhat unclear if the Palismen for Willow, Gus, Amity and Hunter or Luz's egg were also knocked through the portal before it closed. We later learn that they were indeed knocked through the portal in the next episode "Thanks to Them".
• What You Are in the Dark: Belos' offer to return Luz back home to the Human Realm reveals the truths of both characters:
  • Belos practically won as the Draining Spell is irrevocable, the Collector and Kikimora are tossed out of his chambers, he's about to go home, and he easily subdues Luz despite her improved use of glyph magic. Belos has the chance to kill Luz right away and walk through the Portal Door with a flawless victory. Yet, his desire for human interactions and vindication of his actions causes him to plead Luz to choose the humans over her witch friends, claiming he doesn't want to see another human life destroyed. When Luz refuses, Belos immediately tries to petrify her for daring to claim he's wrong, but ends up relenting again as Luz exploits his need for human vindication to secretly brand him with a sigil. This cost him the clean victory he prepared for centuries.
  • Luz realizes that the Portal Door is her only chance to reunite with her mother just as she promised. Despite this, Luz rejects Belos's offer and calls him a hypocrite and inhuman, two of the things Belos hates to hear. Luz would rather die in the Boiling Isles saving everyone from certain death rather than taking a one-way ticket back to the Human Realm with the guilt of dooming the Boiling Isles to a madman's genocidal scheme.
• Within Arm's Reach: Belos just happens to throw Luz (whose mobility is severely limited due to being petrified) into the table with the Sigil Branding glove when she implies that his goals of being recognized as a valiant hero and slayer of demons by the modern world will only result in him being seen as a crazy person.
• The Worf Effect: Belos curb-stomps Luz when she fights him solo, and even when she brands him with a sigil to take away his magic, his monstrous form is still capable of overpowering her, Gus, Amity, Hunter, Willow and King all together once they join the fight, even if they are at least able to put up a little more resistance against him in his weakened state. However, as soon as the Collector is released, they instantly defeat the genocidal witch hunter by poking him into a wall.
• Would Rather Suffer: Belos mockingly tells Kikimora that he would rather cut off his arm than make her his right hand, let alone indulge her any further. Whether he's insulting her as an individual or just no longer hiding how much he hates her and every other witch, the point is the same.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Belos attempts this towards Hunter, briefly changing his face back to normal from his monstrous form in an ploy to confuse Hunter. He immediately drops the act, however when he finally notices Flapjack.
• Wrong-Name Outburst: When Belos spots Hunter with Flapjack, he becomes enraged, and screams out his brother's name instead of Hunter's.
  Belos: CALEB?!
• Years Too Early: While Belos does compliment Luz on figuring out glyph combos a lot faster than him, he still says that she's decades away from beating him as he has three and a half centuries of practice.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: The CATS' initial plan to sabotage the draining spell ultimately fails when Terra sees through Eda’s disguise.
• You Know Too Much: Belos refuses to free the Collector from their prison as he deems it too risky to allow their immense knowledge of magic fall into anyone else's hands —not to mention their immense power in the hands of a being with the attitude of a child is not something Philip wants unleashed in the world.
• You Shall Not Pass!: After their ship crashed, Alador stays behind to take on the rest of the Abomatons while Luz's friends go to help her.
• Your Worst Memory: Gus causes Belos to relive his worst memories, namely him killing his brother, causing him to scream in anguish and rage.

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"Hey, Mom. I'm back."

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