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Elsewhere and Elsewhen
When a series has a lot going on, it’s best for it to pace itself by having its episodes focus on singular given topics instead of trying to cram things in all at once. For the most part, this show knows how to do that very well, and this particular episode is no exception. It’s one to further develop the lore of the show by looking into the history of the main setting and the major game-changing truths it comes with.
It follows Luz back to focusing on making a new portal door, no doubt feeling a little hopeful about her promise situation after the events of the last episode. The major point of concern is that despite following all of the steps of the old portal’s creator, Philip Wittebane, her last portal did not yield the same results. The only other clue she gets from watching more of his diary entries is that he got help from a mysterious being known as The Collector. While The Collector’s identity is unknown, the audience is at least aware of the name. The credits of “Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door” highlights said character as the hooded moon figure who caught the Owl Beast and turned it into the curse long ago. This can be considered the first point of concern on the matter, and more of them arise as the episode progresses. Anyhow, Luz believes that at this point, if she’s ever going to make progress on the portal, her best option is to seek Philip Wittebane himself and talk to him. In the spirit of the magical wonders of the Boiling Isles, she learns of time pools that serve as portals to different time periods, this world’s own take on time travel.
Once Luz learns about the time pools, she takes full advantage of the discovery by trying to find them. To help her along the way, she gets help from someone known to be extremely keen on finding time pools, Lilith. After a long absence from the spotlight after bringing her own special flair to the main dynamic at the start of the season, she returns in full swing with this episode. She’s revealed to have taken up a job at a museum which fits her keen interest in history, her happiness making it clear that she’s truly where she belongs. At the same time, she also has a rival who drives her to come up with a more exciting exhibit, touching upon her well-established competitiveness. Luz’s talks of time pools get her interested in trying to track them down, and through intricate resources and sense of navigation, they do just that. All the way, the experience turns out to be a good bonding experience for Luz and Lilith. Their interactions and shared interest in history are full of charm coming from them simply being together and working off each other. It’s also a welcome contrast to their past dynamic considering Lilith’s villainous ways from her first appearances. At this point, she’s more than made up for them and has changed a lot for the better, none of which would have happened without Luz’s presence.
Once they find the time pools, it isn’t long before they uncover the one leading to Philip Wittebane’s time, which is where the real time travel begins. This era is said to be full of wild witches who allegedly lived in an age called the Savage Ages. However, the setting is the practically the same as it is in present day, but with medieval dialects and costumes, accentuated by period-appropriate background music. As for their use of magic, the citizens simply use different forms of magic at once to go about their lives, and clearly aren’t savage at all. This should be taken as one of the clearest signs of Emperor Belos’ claims of how magic should be used being nothing more than propaganda.
This feeling later intensifies once Luz and Lilith finally meet Philip Wittebane himself. First impressions present him as a decent, soft-spoken human protective of his research and finding it hard to get along with the Boiling Isles locals. When two of them are shown messing with his stuff, Luz is quick to stand up for him. Then when she reveals to Philip that she knows of The Collector, he allows her and Lilith to come along on his current expedition.
The idea of Luz meeting another human who had lived in the Boiling Isles is very exciting, and she perfectly captures that feeling of what is practically a very rare circumstance. However, the story shows that impressions of such a moment can be very mixed. At first, Luz and Philip appear to bond very well over a common interest in the place they’ve ended up in. They’ve even learned the same kind of magic through glyphs. Though while Luz had found all of hers in the span of a few months, it took Philip years to uncover them. In fact, Luz even reveals to him how she came up with her famous light glyph which he didn’t know about. While these moments make Philip seem like a legitimately good guy, Lilith can’t help but feel a little skeptical about him, which is also fitting for someone they just met. These feelings grow as their quest to find a supposed portal ingredient leads them to the head of the Titan, a hallowed territory of the Boiling Isles most would not trespass upon. She notices how Philip constantly says what Luz wants him to say and is always one step ahead. There’s even a puzzle lock at a door containing what he’s after that’s mostly complete. Luz grows suspicious too when she notices Philip write down how he couldn’t save his companions before he even loses them. The reason behind that discovery reveals itself shortly after.
Behind the door to the alleged portal ingredient is a frightening creature whom Philip intended to offer Luz and Lilith as sacrifices this whole time. In other words, Philip Wittebane is a treacherous, self-centered deceiver who isn’t even fond of witches to begin with. He just focuses on his goals to the point where he casually disposes of anyone who joins him like it’s nothing. It’s a major contrast to Luz who believes that it’s not worth going through with anything if it means hurting people, something she demonstrates here through her words. Still, Philip goes about his business and digs up the ingredient he was looking for all while Luz and Lilith are attacked by the monster to distract it while he does his thing. Then he just leaves them to more destruction once he has it, sealing the deal of him as someone who should not be trusted.
Out of the treachery is more proof to the newfound heart between Luz and Lilith. From listening to an earlier historical anecdote from Lilith, Luz is able to tame the beast and get it as an ally. They then use it to track down Philip and attack him into at least revealing how that ingredient he got applies to the portal door. Disappointingly for Luz’s goal, it turns out that what he got was for a completely different purpose. As a result, Luz is left without answers, but courtesy of Lilith, Philip gets a punch in the nose that later disfigures his face. With the discoveries of this adventure through time, there’s more uncertainty to how things are going to go. Not only does Luz still have no clear answers on how to make a better portal, but the source of the best information she has is a flat-out jerk. It’s not clear how she’ll move forward with the portal now, but it’s good that she’s still left with good heart from Lilith to reassure her. After all, developments to this world are great, but it’s the character dynamics that make the series and therefore leave things hopeful despite everything.
Unbeknownst to the protagonists though, the end of the episode brings one more dose of lore development regarding Philip himself. As if him turning out to be an insensitive jerk wasn’t bad enough, there are a lot of concerns surrounding his true identity. Within a secret lair, he expresses great disdain towards witches, not helped by what happened during his latest encounter leaving him with a gruesome mark. This isn’t all though, as he’s revealed to have glyphs drawn all over his body, prompting a violent flare-up he calms by consuming the energy of severed palismen. If this sounds familiar, this practice is in line with something typically seen of Emperor Belos, and the connections to him don’t stop there. With the mysterious object he obtained, he summons The Collector whom he expects to help him live long enough to see something through. As he talks, his voice starts to overlap with that of Belos, which is a very strong fit since the two have very similar voices already. The big takeaway is that these moments connect to a huge reveal that Philip Wittebane is actually Emperor Belos. He has apparently taken on dark practices such as this to not only live long enough, but change his entire species. Not only that, but it begs even more questions on exactly how The Collector would help him. Plus, since Philip ultimately became Belos, how was the original portal made, did he really want to return to the human realm, and why didn't he use it when it was finished? In any case, Philip’s disdain toward witches does go well with how hard Belos rules over the Boiling Isles and commands how magic should be used. Some could say that Luz and Lilith caused his disdain, but moments throughout the episode made it clear that these bad feelings always existed. In other words, he would have come to this conclusion regardless of this episode. That said, it does make sense out of the previous episode where Belos claimed to be looking forward to meeting Luz, as if he knew that she would meet him in the past. The big mysteries of this show clearly thicken with this episode which make it stand as a real highlight.
As Luz has this whole adventure with Eda’s sister, it’s fitting that this episode has a subplot that also majorly involves Eda’s family. In fact, it’s another standout element for this episode, and the show as a whole through emotion and character development. It has a strong connection to a major moment of Eda’s past where she attacked her dad, Dell, when her Owl Beast curse enacted, severely injuring him. As shown in a previous episode, this moment left a major scar of guilt for life to the point of leaving her family behind. Even now, despite coming to terms with her curse, Eda just can’t help but blame herself for this moment, even with details that prove the act to be beyond her control. As is often the case in real life, Eda finds that she can’t avoid her past forever, for Dell just happens to have shown up to finally talk with her. For a while, Eda pulls off several clear, obvious, and awkward stunts with the intent of avoiding seeing Dell. Despite their humorous portrayal, knowing the emotional weight behind Eda’s actions makes these moments stand out more.
While the feeble attempts to avoid her dad threaten to be too drawn out, it turns out to not be the case. They do not last long, and Eda ends up running into Dell almost immediately after attempting to sneak away. Even when she still has a chance to, with Dell seeming to admit defeat in talking to her in what’s obviously the umpteenth time, Eda accepts that she can’t escape this.
She sits herself down, and just as has often been the case throughout the series, communication proves beneficial in the healing process. On Eda’s end, she lets out how much she feels she doesn’t deserve her father’s forgiveness because she can see how badly her attack hurt him. Dell used to be well-known for carving palismen, but that became impossible due to his injuries, and that’s not easy for someone to live with. However, Dell’s real lament is how bad Eda took her actions which, again, she couldn’t help because of the curse that also wasn’t her fault. She had gotten up to innumerable hardships after that day, and Dell is saddened by how she didn’t let him or anyone else help her. Still, he accepts Eda’s feelings on how she feels she doesn’t deserve his forgiveness, but does have one request for her. He just wants his daughter to put the past behind and move forward. The way for Eda to do it he has in mind is somewhat symbolic. While he can’t make palismen anymore, he has helped to regrow trees that contain the wood used to make them. He offers a seed for one of the trees to Eda, supposedly to help replant the forest, so it can start anew. Liken that to the idea of Eda leaving the past behind. Because she’s grown and changed so much, she shouldn’t have to burden herself with the memories of the mistakes she’s made no matter how bad they were. As a result of these inspiring words, Eda is left touched and somewhat relieved, like the big weight of guilt has been lifted all from talking with her dad instead of running away. This has got to be one of the hardest things for anyone of any age to do, but it shows that the results are worth it. With moving music, staging, and voice acting to compliment the scene, the long-awaited moment between father and daughter delivers on great quality and execution.
Like the entire series, this episode has a lot going on, but manages to make everything work. There’s notable growth in the characters, the world they live in, and the story they’re part of. It brings welcome reveals to enhance everything and invest the audience going forward, and presents it in an emotionally powerful way. The fact is, this episode is practically demonstrative of how this series knows what makes truly great work of media.
A+
Fan Art
Series Ranking
1.
Knock,
Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door
2.
Enchanting Grom Fright
3.
Eda’s Requiem
4.
Follies
at the Coven Day Parade
5.
Yesterday’s Lie
6.
Agony of a Witch
7.
Elsewhere and Elsewhen
8. Hunting Palismen
9.
Echoes
of the Past
10.
Escaping
Expulsion
11.
Understanding Willow
12.
Lost in Language
13.
Adventures in the Elements
14.
The Intruder
15.
Covention
16. Keeping Up A-Fear-Ances
17.
Eclipse Lake
18.
Through
the Looking Glass Ruins
19.
Young Blood Old Souls
20.
Separate Tides
21.
Escape of the Palisman
22.
Wing it Like Witches
23.
The First Day
24.
I Was a Teenage Abomination
25.
Witches Before Wizards
26.
Something Ventured, Someone Framed
27.
A Lying Witch and a Warden
28.
Sense and Insensitivity
29.
Hooty’s Moving Hassle
30.
Really Small Problems
31.
Once Upon a Swap
The next Owl House review is about Hunter going undercover to Hexside where he encounters Willow and joins her in a sports team.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Amphibia Halloween special, "The Shut-In."
If you would like to check out other Owl House reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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