With
how many episodes the series has now brought to life, I’m convinced that even
at its weakest, there will always be at least something worthwhile to take from
it. That’s what happens here where the
main plot may not be the best executed, but it still has enough good appeal and
benefits to the broader goals of the series.
The
standout character this time around is Gus, who in all honesty is the least
interesting of the major players, at least to me. He’s merely an excitable kid over the little
things in life which can be a little much after a while especially, as it lacks
the charisma and wit of other excitable characters like Luz. His conflicts are also far too simplistic to
be truly compelling. He runs a club at
Hexside honoring humans with his knowledge on their artifacts wildly
misinformed. One member, a new student
Mattholomule, challenges Gus’ appreciation of humans with his own artifacts
which, despite being clearly fake, have far more accurate descriptions. The club is impressed enough to consider him
the new president, and Gus feels threatened, though compared to other
conflicts in the series, it doesn’t seem to have much magnitude. For that, when Gus aims to protect his
president title by bringing in an actual human, Luz, in to show the club, it’s
hard to get fully invested.
That
said, an enjoyable lead like Luz getting involved does pick the story up
somewhat. Even after learning to appreciate
Eda’s teachings in Hexside’s first appearance, she seems to be in the right to
feel like the school’s a better place for Luz to learn magic. Honestly speaking, Eda really hasn’t
delivered on that lately other than one half-hearted lesson and trying to
convince Luz to do magic through dishonest unethical means. Anyway, other than Eda’s disapproval of
Hexside, a major thing holding Luz back from going there to help Gus is the
fact that she’s been banned from the school.
The ban, though, is dealt with in frankly the most idiotic way possible
with Gus claiming that it was lifted when it wasn’t. Him lying like this has major weak points in the form of consequences that are way too easy to see coming.
Obviously, if someone were to see Luz despite her disguised in a cowl,
or even that the wanted posters Gus stashed are missing, the gig will be up
almost instantly. Plus, there are bound
to be severe consequences that can come from breaking a rule like this that
most people would feel are simply not worth the risk. It doesn’t help that, again, this is for a
not so compelling cause on Gus’ end.
While
the basis for the plot is pretty weak, the episode makes up for it with its own
aspects that are legitimately charming and creative. Though it’s brought on through awkward
nervousness and feeble excuses, the Hexside tour Gus brings Luz on to cover his
tracks is a very nice scene. It allows
for interesting looks at what the school has to offer from extracurricular
activities to especially deeper looks at its many tracks. Gus’ track, the Illusionist track, really
stands out for its creative bits of how the students manipulate forms and
visions at their will. The look at this
track even brings legitimately charming moments from Gus and how he utilizes
illusion magic, mainly with a vision of himself taking notes while the real him
is busy. Such an amusing bit even comes
into play later.
As
the human club meeting draws near, focus on the rival for Gus’ president spot,
Mattholomule, becomes relevant. He
clearly falls into the one-dimensional mean character type, making for a not so
enjoyable antagonist, but to be fair, he has a little bit of depth to his
persona. His smug ways aren’t all there
is to him as he becomes genuinely worried about the club discovering that his
human artifacts are fake, making for some humanity within him. The same jerky tendencies are back at the
forefront when he discovers the human Gus brought in was banned, but his
vulnerability makes this realization meaningful to him. Even so, it’s practically sickening when he
sounds like he’s legitimately apologizing to Gus for being a jerk, and Mattholomule
rats Luz out and gets her thrown in detention.
That right there not only makes Mattholomule really detestable, but
highlights the glaring flaws with Gus’ whole plan that could have been avoided
if he considered what was worth it.
Another
creative element comes from this with a look at Hexside detention. Though Luz is used to it, she’s not used to
it consisting of a pit of monsters that trap students in mind controlling pods
just for being out of line. Luz even
says that this is going too far to be detention and is actually a death
sentence. Gus is quick to atone for
putting Luz in danger like this, so he deliberately gets himself and
Mattholomule thrown in detention to help her.
During the escape, there are some solid shows of character from everyone
in the detention pit. Mattholmule shows
he does have depth after all by helping guide Gus through the pit, even though
he gets trapped in a pod and mentally manipulated. Luz is upfront with Gus’ lie, and just when
you think she’s about to disown him as a friend, she shows great likability as
Gus explains himself. He says that he
was desperate to keep his club president position because it’s the only place
where he feels like he’s taken seriously.
Being an actually pretty young student moved up some grades who’s barely
noticed is also a huge factor to his actions.
That’s the heart and compelling understandable weight that’s needed to
make all that happened worth something.
The story would have been stronger if there were hints of this from the
start, but being here at all is fine too.
Best of all, Luz sees the humanity in the background to Gus’ actions and
is still on friendly terms with him.
Then they both escape detention with a legitimately awesome showing of
Gus’ illusion magic where several visions of him and Luz distract the
pods. The main plot might not be too
special, but it does have a well-constructed payoff, and that’s not even all.
This
whole episode is a fine example of a main plot and subplot going well
together. While they usually feel very
disconnected save for one little scene, here they both follow the common thread
of getting Luz to Hexside. Plus, the
subplot itself is very good, especially compared to the main plot. It allows for major character growth on Eda’s
part where even though she’s against Hexside’s teaching practices, she realizes
her teaching methods are very flawed too.
All it takes is seeing how much of a nuisance Hooty has become from her
teachings. It’s here where she puts
aside her opinions on matters and comes to the mature conclusion that Hexside
really is a better place for Luz to learn magic. Really making Eda stand out is all the work
she’s willing to put in to make it happen.
The head of the school, Principal Bump, is pleasantly surprisingly on
civil terms with Eda as they arrange for Luz’s ban to be lifted so she can
attend. However, given Eda’s records of
her days as a student, she has to spend the day going through all the acts of delinquency
she committed on the school in her youth and fix them. It’s hard work on Eda and she clearly doesn’t
enjoy it, but her putting up with things she doesn’t want to do brings even
more pleasing maturity. Plus, it’s a
solid reflection of what parenthood could be like. Then when Luz’s adventure
with Gus brings property damage and chaos, Eda is just as disappointed in her
as Bump is. In Gus’ favor, he willingly
takes the fall for what happened which is fair and accurate to the truth,
further aiding his own appeal as a character.
So the efforts to get Luz into school end up meaningful, and the main
players come to good conclusions for this particular episode. The plot is benefitted too with Luz getting
one step closer to becoming a witch, and from one statement from Eda, there may
be a break from the one witch-one coven setup coming.
For
one last good measure, we close the episode with a humorous montage of accounts
of Eda’s many incidents with the descriptions getting edgier with each new
one. I like to consider that a welcome
touch to a pretty good episode.
The
main plot here isn’t too compelling, but creative touches, an appealing
subplot, and all characters coming through in the end make any setback worth
it, especially for the long run.
B+
The Ranking
1. Lost in Language
2. The Intruder
3. Covention
4. I Was a Teenage Abomination
5. Witches Before Wizards
6. Something Ventured, Someone Framed
7. A Lying Witch and a Warden
8. Hooty’s Moving Hassle
9. Once Upon a Swap
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