History Recap / TheOwlHouseS2E18LabyrinthRunners

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Sadly, since Gus is a prodigy, some of his classmates have tried to take advantage of him in the past in order to coast by via having him do their work for them, which they got by pretending to be the lonely kid's friend. One of the reasons he likely bonded with Willow is because, being in different tracks, he could tell that she ''wasn't'' looking for someone to do her work for her.
** Even though Hunter has seen clear proof that Belos is evil and a liar that never really cared for him, some part of him still ''wants'' to believe that it's true. This is sadly TruthInTelevision with people who have escaped abusive situations in the past; that kind of conditioning takes time to overcome, if ''ever'', and since it's been maybe forty-eight hours at best for Hunter, it's understandable that he's still not fully over it. He's also seen having another panic attack at the thought that Belos is still after him, and is clearly still traumatized from "Hollow Mind".
** Willow mentions wanting to have interrogated a coven scout about the Owl House, but laments doing so would draw unwanted attention, to which Amity tells her was a good call.
** While the Emerald Entrails were willing to trust Hunter after saving him, Bump and the other teachers are still mistrustful of him until Willow speaks up for him. This is to be expected, as he was a highly-ranked member of the same organization currently threatening their students, not to mention the fact that Hunter himself once had several students kidnapped after lying to them.
** Hunter tries to use his former authority as the Golden Guard to get Graye and his men to stand down but while one of them does state that Hunter is still technically their boss, Graye points out that Hunter is currently a runaway and doesn't have any real authority anymore.

** Hunter previously going out of his way to help the Emerald Entrails and familiarising himself with Hexside in his attempts to scout talent for the Emperor's coven gives him both a location he feels safe at to hide in after he flees in a panic from the owl house -- it being heavily implied Belos had controlled so much of his life prior to that that he had ''literally'' nowhere else he could go-- as well as allies who will stand by him in his current crisis, aided by the fact that the threat involves them all as well.

* MindRape: Graye attempts this on Gus, complete with Gus protesting about how painful the experience is, in order to discover the location of the Looking Glass Graveyard. Instead, Gus suffers a nasty bout of PowerIncontinence subjects ''Graye'' to a MindRape of his own, forcing him to relive his worst memorie and leaving him horribly traumatized.

** Severine, one of Graye's scouts, is harshly criticised by him on three occasions, for increasingly petty slights that aren't really her fault. The first two times, she just sighs, but the third time, she decides [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere she's had enough of his]] BadBoss tendencies and quits on the spot.

** Played straight with Hunter. When Gus remarks that his illusion-spell is still active, Hunter tells him to "un-spell it".

* BuffySpeak: Deconstructed. Graye uses words like 'mmph' and 'pow' to describe things, even though it greatly interferes with his ability to direct his subordinates.

* YourWorstNightmare: When Gus enters his HeroicBSOD in the climax, his illusion magic becomes so powerful that anyone who tries to get near him will get traumatized by their own worst memories. This is what puts Graye out of commission, and Hunter nearly suffers the same fate, but manages to quickly overcome those memories and is able to save Gus.

[[caption-width-right:350:''The point of a maze is to find its centre. The point of a labyrinth is to find your centre.'']]

* ADayInTheLimelight: For Willow, Gus, Amity, Hunter, and to a lesser extent, Principal Bump and the rest of the Hexside students and staff.

* TheCameo: Bria, Gavin and Angmar have a short appearance as part of Gus's illusions (though their faces are missing).

** There's a poster for ''Film/TheThing1982'' on the wall of Gus's illusory room, of all [[IncrediblyLamePun things.]]

* SpotTheImposter: When Severine disguises herself as Willow, she manages to fool Gus. Hunter, on the other hand, sees through her unconvincing act because he only knows the tough-as-nails Willow and Severine's act is far from that.

* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: The coven scout Severine, after spending the entire episode being Adrian Graye's ButtMonkey, quits the Emperor's Coven to return to the Tiny Cat Coven.

* TakeThisJobAndShoveIt: One of the scouts, Severine, has to put up with Graye's abuse and criticism throughout the episode. At the end of the episode when another scout starts ordering her around, she loses her patience and says her self-esteem has had enough though this rough year and quits the Emperor's Coven, declaring she is going back to the Tiny Cat Coven.

* IWantThemAlive: It’s pretty clear Emperor Belos ordered the Scouts to bring Hunter to him alive, but didn’t tell them why. One mook is about to use a lethal spell on him which leads the other mook to correct him to put him to ''sleep''. [[DramaticIrony Ironically]], bringing him to Belos would just result in Hunter's death ''anyway'', and in an arguably more painful manner too, and it's implied that Belos is only [[PragmaticVillainy ordering Hunter's capture]] because he doesn't want to broadcast the [[KillEmAll intent]] of his true nature by ordering his previous right-hand man killed without an explanation.

** Hunter previously going out of his way to help the Emerald Entrails and familiarising himself with Hexside in his attempts to scout talent for the Emperor's coven gives him both a location he feels safe at to hide in after he flees in a panic from the owl house -- it being heavily implied Belos had controlled so much of his life prior to that that he had ''literally'' nowhere else he could go-- as well as allies who will stand by him in his current crisis, aided by the fact that the threat [[KillEmAll involves them all as well]].

** [[DramaticIrony This also applies to Graye and his Coven soldiers]], who are attempting to brand every student in the school as per Belos's instructions, with themselves also having been branded, ''completely'' unaware of the truth behind the day of Unity and that everyone with a Coven sigil will be drained and killed by that point. They also aren't aware of the reason why Hunter ran away from the castle as the two scouts who recognized him think he got lost and offer to escort him back to Belos, completely oblivious to the fact that he ran away because the Emperor wants to ''murder'' him.

* MindRape: Graye is left horribly traumatized after Gus's illusion meltdown forces him to see his worst memories.

* PapaWolf: Bump and the Hexside teachers show just how protective they are of their students since they're willing to take on the Emperor's Coven and even a Coven head to keep them safe. It does take a bit a darker connotation at one point due to their suspicion of Hunter as they were considering trading him to Graye in exchange for the students safety. To their credit they are unaware that Belos wants to kill Hunter.

** It's implied that Belos wants Hunter alive so people won't question why he's suddenly ordering the death of one of his highly-ranked subordinates.

** Edric has officially joined the Beastkeeping and Potions tracks, and Emira is now in the Healing Track. Mattholomule is also in the Illusion track as well as the Construction one now.
** The Head Witch of the Illusion Coven is Adrian Graye, and he's an egotistical would-be director who nearly tricks the students at Hexside into joining Covens. Also, that Belos is aware of the multi-track students.

* RightHandVersusLeftHand: While Amity and Willow are on the same side they have trouble working together and get in each other's way several times.
* RuleOfThree: The first time the breathing exercise gets used in the episode, young Willow helps young Gus calm down after he gets trapped within his illusions. The second time it gets used, Gus helps Hunter come down from a panic attack after the latter learns that Belos is actively searching for him. The third time it gets used, Hunter tries to calm Gus down after he gets trapped in his illusions again, but because he hasn't quite got the hang of it, he sounds more like he's trying to whistle through an asthma attack, prompting laughter from Gus and breaking the illusions.

* SeriouslyScruffy: Being suddenly rendered homeless hasn't done Hunter's appearance any favors. He's ditched his Golden Guard getup in favor of his old Flyer Derby uniform under a dirty, tattered cloak, his eye-bags are even more pronounced, and the front lock of his hair is so dirty it looks like he's dyed it brown. According to Gus, he smells pretty bad as well. His living situation is not much better, a dirty old sleeping bag surrounded by stolen books and empty Hex Mix bags, tucked away in the corner of the old, closed down auditorium.

** Amity & Willow make a very ''Manga/SailorMoon''-esque pose after dispatching the coven scouts guarding the gym, complete with appropriately sparkly background and sound effect.

** Gus's PowerIncontinence is similar to whenever [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Aang]] enters his [[SuperMode Avatar State]], complete with blue glowing eyes and a mass sphere of pure blue energy surrounding himself.

* SpotTheImposter: When Severine disguises herself as Willow, she manages to fool Gus. Hunter, on the other hand, see through her unconvincing act because he only knows the tough-as-nails Willow and Severine's act is far from that.

** Even though Hunter has seen clear proof that Belos is evil and a liar that never really cared for him, some part of him still ''wants'' to believe that it's true. This is sadly TruthInTelevision with people who have escaped abusive situations in the past, that kind of conditioning takes time to overcome, if ''ever'', with it having been maybe forty-eight hours at best for Hunter, meaning that he's still not fully over it. He's also seen having another panic attack at the thought that Belos is still after him, and is clearly still traumatized from "Hollow Mind".

** While the Emerald Entrails were willing to trust Hunter after saving him, Bump and the other teachers are still mistrustful of him until Willow speaks up for him. This is to be expected as he was a highly ranked member of the same organization currently threatening their students, there's also the fact that Hunter himself once had several students kidnapped after lying to them.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich: In the beginning of the episode, Amity is discussing what's happened to Luz with Gus and Willow during lunch. When the bell rings to signal the next period, none of the three have touched the food in their lunch trays/boxes, which are still visibly piled to the brim. Gus' later gives his uneaten lunch to Hunter after noticing he hasn't been able to eat any real food lately.

* TraumaButton: A lot of are pressed this episode. Gus has issues with being deceived and his getting tricked by an illusion of Willow contributes to him shutting down from anxiety, Hunter has a panic attack at the thought of being returned to Belos and is tormented by what he saw in the emperor's mind and Graye's apparently gets pressed during Gus's MindRape of him, but it's unknown what it is.

* TrueSight: Downplayed. When Gus loses control of his illusion, he ends up with one glowing eye that can see through the illusion while his other, normal eye sees the illusion. However, it only lets him see through his own illusion, which leads to him getting tricked by Severine's Willow disguise.

* VictorGainsLosersPowers: After Graye is defeated by Gus's illusion magic dredging up his worst memories, Gus takes the mirror-shaped magical amplifier graye showed him for himself.

** While Principal Bump has managed to save several students it is not clear if the rest have been captured or escaped. Given that Graye is more interested in Gus's illusions than doing his job once they appear, in part because Gus has clearly been to the Looking Glass Graveyard, along with the greater crowd of students as the Scouts are forced to flee, it's implied that they may have just escaped.

** Back in "[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS2E5ThroughTheLookingGlassRuins Through the Looking Glass Ruins]]", the Looking Glass Graveyard Keeper mentions that illusionists have always protected the Galdorstones because "they were the least likely to use them for evil... probably". Here, we find out that the head of the coven wants to turn them over to Belos, proving that they were right not to make a blanket statement.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Graye is the head witch of the Illusions Coven, yet he is twice caught by surprise by Gus's illusion magic (the second time sending him into a near catatonic state).

** The Head Witch of the Illusion Coven is Adrien Graye, and he's an egotistical would-be director who nearly tricks the students at Hexside into joining Covens. Also, that Belos is aware of the multi-track students.

->''"Listen. Emperor Belos has been lying to everyone. The Day of Unity isn't about the Titan, or magic. It's much scarier than that..."''

* OutOfFocus: For the first time in the series, Luz, Eda and King are totally absent in this episode. Probably justified as the events of this episode might [[SynchronousEpisodes happen at same time]] as the events of "Edge Of The World".

----

* AbsenteeActor: The first episode of the series not to feature any resident of the Owl House, and the first not to feature Luz; however, she was mentioned and was shown on photographs.

* EveryoneHasStandards:
** At first, Bump is perfectly willing to let Graye help protect students from being forced back into a single coven. Once it's revealed to be a dirty trick, Bump makes it very clear that he is not going to stand by & just let something like this happen to his students.
** Boscha is shown to be just as horrified as the rest of the students when Graye tries to force an Abomination sigil on Gus.

** Back in "[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS2E5ThroughTheLookingGlassRuins Through the Looking Glass Ruins]]", the guardian of the Galderstones mentions that illusionists have always protected them because "they were the least likely to use them for evil... probably". Here, we find out that the head of the coven wants to turn them over to Belos, proving that they were right not to make a blanket statement.

*** Graye has been searching for the Looking Glass Graveyard for some time, wanting to gift the stones hidden there to Belos.

** When Gus sends most of the school into an illusion of environments that he's visited, Graye is rather fascinated by the illusion of the Looking Glass Graveyard once he stabilizes things. While it seems that he's more interested in the quality of the illusion itself, upon capturing Gus he reveals that he wants the stones hidden there as a gift for the Emperor, and since he's been unable to find it on his own he tries to interrogate Gus on it.

** Despite being the ''leader'' of the Illusion coven responsible for guarding the stones there, Graye has ''no'' idea where the Looking Glass Graveyard is, going so far as to MindRape Gus over it.

* BitingTheHandHumor: Considering [[Creator/DanaTerrace who]] voices her, what she has to deal with, and what she says when she quits, it isn't hard to guess that Severine is Dana's way of venting about Disney's [[ScrewedByTheNetwork less-than-stellar]] treatment of her and her show right under the Mouse House's nose.