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After last week’s big relationship developments between Luz and Amity (and Gus becoming more confident in his path!) The Owl House decided to head in a different direction. In a way which ultimately felt natural, there was no immediate discussion between Luz and Amity in regards to the kiss on the cheek which occurred last week. For a split second, it felt like a cop out, avoiding the elephant in the room. Instead I found myself enjoying the way the series set it up to slowly continue building throughout the season. Everything doesn’t have to be explored instantly, as has been the theme with the season. Everyone is learning on the fly and figuring everything out in their own time.
Instead, this week we had the series dive even deeper into the mythology, pulling back the curtain back on a mysterious adversary. It felt similar in the way which the series eventually handled Lilith’s ultimate growth in the right direction. Will the end result be the same here? The signs are there, but only time will tell.
“Hunting Palismen” begins with Belos announcing that the mysterious Day of Unity approaches. All of the coven leaders are present to get a glimpse of the future. Belos wants to fuse the realms and eliminate wild magic. Belos winces and cries out in pain. Golden Guard walks him to his chambers to regroup. Belos transforms, punching a wall with black ink splattering with each punch. Golden Guard presents a staff which Belos breaks in half and absorbs the power of a palismen. Belos needs more and tasks Golden Guard with getting him more. All the while, Kikimora eavesdrops just outside the door.
At the owl house, Luz has kept the echo mouse, setting up a glass home for him. She asks him to cough up more from the journal, but he continues sleeping. Eda tells her she should be heading to school and that they’re getting their staffs today. Luz suddenly bolts past Eda to the door, telling her to hurry it up all excited. At school Luz asks where Amity is. Willow said she’s staying home today. Luz, slightly sad with the reality of her absence, says that it makes sense. Principal Bump, with Eda alongside him, tells the kids they’re about to receive their witch’s staff. They’re about to meet their palismen. They’re told they can be your friend and a powerful tool. We learn that Principal Bump’s palisman Frewin helps him see. His unmistakable red head covering suddenly turns into a palismem and we see he’s only got one good eye.
Eda tells the students that traditionally young witches carve their own staffs from a branch of the Palistrom tree, but they’re rare these days. Instead they do palismen adoption days. Bat Queen presents a bunch of cute palismen and they approach the students. Luz finds them adorable, obviously. Each of these palismen haven’t had homes in years and want to find a connection. All the students have to do is kneel before them and state their deepest wish. A like minded palismen will come to them and join them. Bosha (there she is!!) complains that she wants her own palismen and not one that is passed down. Willow goes first and bonds with a critter, becoming her staff. Upon seeing the success, Bosha goes next and gets herself a crab staff, how fitting! Gus says he wants to be an ambassador to the human realm (and giraffes). The whole class gets their staffs and Luz goes next. She states that she wants to be a witch. None of the critters bond to her. She’s told it needs to be an emotional connection, so she tries again. She says she wants to get home to her mother. Still, no palismen join her. Her classmates then begin to ask if she’s gonna keep learning magic in the human realm and question if it will even work there.
At home Luz has a momentary crisis of identity. If her time in the Demon realm is only temporary, what is she doing? “Did I expect to be a witch back in Connecticut?” Eda and King outside the door overhear Luz questioning herself. They give each other a look and head out of the house. Suddenly a red bird palismen jumps out of Luz’s bag. She tells him she’ll bring him home and rushes off.
She goes inside the palismen pen and says she’s not leaving until one of them becomes her palismen. As she grows tired trying to bond with the palismen, suddenly the pen is lifted off the ground with Luz still inside. She tells the palismen she thinks they’re being kidnapped and they all cower in fear. She uses a glyph to grow a vine to climb up where Golden Guard is driving the getaway vehicle. Luz uses a fire glyph on him, knocking him out of the ship. Just when she thinks he’s gone, he appears back on the ship. He uses magic to tie Luz up. She notices her shoes scuffs up the floor and distracts Golden Guard by asking how he got back on the ship. He tells her he used his staff. Catching him off guard, she uses an ice glyph to knock the staff out of the ship. Just then a dragon-like creature attacks the ship, leading it to crash.
Luz wakes up to the bird palismen untying her. She hears Kikimora telling a coven guard that Golden Guard is gone. She holds his mask, telling the guard that it is all that remains. She orders the guards to get the rest of the palismen back. As the guards leave, we see that the dragon which knocked them out of the sky is actually her pet and it was all intentional. She tells the dragon to finish the job. Luz looks worried at the injured Golden Guard unconscious on the ground. With his mask now gone, Luz is surprised to see Golden Guard is so young and that he could be one of her fellow students. She slaps him awake and tells him what’s going on. He asks why he should believe her when suddenly the dragon approaches. They avoid getting caught and sneak off.
They come upon a town we haven’t seen before. Latissa is a spooky place. Luz is in awe of being in a different town than she’s used to. Still holding his staff, she tells him the least he could do for saving him is tell her his name. He ignores her request and approaches the guards in town. He shows his coven tattoo and they don’t believe he’s being honest and brush him off. He asks Luz for his staff to prove it is really him and she pulls back. He chases her through town. Luz uses an ice glyph to launch herself up to the roof. She taunts Golden Guard to use a levitation spell, but realizes he’s powerless without his staff. He parkours his way up the side of the building. Almost slipping as he holds on to the top of the building. Luz threatens him with the staff but Golden Guard sees through her bluff. They spot Kikimora in the distance in town and Luz tells Golden Guard they should work together to get the palismen back. He agrees to a temporary truce.
They plan their next move. Luz draws glyphs on the side of the building and tells Golden Guard how she plans it all to work. He picks up on her plan to create a smoky mist as she’s explaining and Luz is surprised. He says he’s never seen glyphs before but they are similar to the magic in the Savage Ages. We’re getting more info into the glyphs and their magic! Golden Guard starts to tell Luz more, but catches himself, saying it’s restricted information. She says she’s never spoken to anyone other than Lilith in the Emperor’s Coven and asks him what made him join. He sighs and says she was right about him being a powerless witch. He didn’t think he’d ever have a future “in a world like this.” Hmmmmmm. Interesting choice of words. He continues, saying that Belos then found him and gave him a staff with artificial power and said the Titan had big plans for him.
They get distracted by the bird palismen and Golden Guard gets agitated, saying they’re dangerous because they’re made from wild magic. Luz tells him it’s harmless. In town, Kikimora prepares the palismen for transport and they get ready to use the spell. They mask up so they don’t get affected by the smoke created by the glyphs. She gives Golden Guard his staff back and activates the glyphs. Kikimora and the dragon get drowsy while flying. Luz and Golden Guard trail Kikimora, the dragon and the palismen riding on his staff. Kikimora and the dragon crash land. Luz and Golden Guard land and Luz runs over to make sure the palismen are all safe. She gives the palismen her cape for warmth when she notices Golden Guard standing behind her with his staff powered up. Luz tells him she thought he might be a good guy but instead he’s just Golden Guard.
Golden Guard pulls his mask down and powers down the staff. He tells Luz that his name is Hunter. Just then, Kikimora casts a spell and it hits Hunter. Kikimora says she can’t see who it is but she’s going to get them. Hunter holds his ground against her, getting some good blows in. In one blow, Kikimora’s whistle necklace falls off her and Luz grabs it. Kikimora returns a blast and manages to singe Hunter’s hair. She tells Luz and Hunter what they’re doing is treasonous but she still doesn’t know who she’s battling. Luz manages to avoid getting hurt in the scuffle by Hunter protecting her from Kikimora’s blasts. Luz gets on the dragon’s back and blows the whistle. She flies off with the palismen as Hunter knocks Kikimora out cold. Hunter glares at Luz’s direction as she flies further off.
In the morning Principal Bump tells Bat Queen that all the palismen are accounted for, but he’s unsure where the dragon came from. Bat Queen senses the red bird has finally found someone after all this time. She tells him to fly to the student who they struck a bond with.
At home, Luz, exhausted from the events of the night, collapses on to her bed. She tells a picture of her mom that everyone got a palismen but her. Luz says maybe she wasn’t meant to have one. Just then, Eda appears on the window ledge with King, who cries out in a hilarious moment that they could have used the door! Luz asks what they were up to and Eda tosses a piece of Palistrom wood on her bed! Now Luz can make her own staff. Full of glee, they reveal they stole it from the Bonesborough garden club. Luz is speechless. Eda tells Luz that once she knows what she wants, they’ll start carving. Luz says she’ll think about it, saying she finds it hard to picture her future without her mom. Eda tells her there’s no rush and that they have her back. She thanks Eda and King and puts the piece of wood in her bag, clutching it closely.
Back at the Emperor’s castle, Belos scolds Hunter for coming back empty handed. Hunter tells Belos if he knew how wild magic affected him, he could do a better job helping him. Belos curse shifts his arm into a spear which shoots towards Hunter, missing him as a warning. Hunter apologies for speaking out of turn. Belos tells him that his outbursts are painful as much as watching Hunter fail. OUCH!
In the hallway, Kikimora is surprised to see Hunter alive, playing coy about her role in all of his misadventures. Hunter taunts her and as he walks off, she notices his singed hair. Be careful Hunter! She’s on to you! In his room, Hunter sits on his bed and repeats to himself that he could help if he knew more. Just then, he hears chirping. The bird palismen chose him! Reflexively, he tells the bird he shouldn’t be there. The bird then turns into a staff, surprising Hunter. He looks out his window worried, staff in hand.
A fitting title for the episode in the end with the reveal of Golden Guard’s name! Hunter is a perfect name to the newly revealed face. I’m glad to see Golden Guard expanded on and not just a bratty kid as we’ve known him to be up to this point. There’s potentially some good in him, even if right now it’s misguided. He wants to help Belos in return for giving him the life he has now, but he’s not able to without more information. In some ways it’s similar to Lilith. They both want to help another person. Hunter wants to repay Belos and Lilith wanted to make up for the curse she put on Eda. They also both want to learn more therefore question things more as they continue to learn. Could he also eventually become an ally?
My thoughts that Golden Guard could be the son of Belos seem to be completely wrong, as I expected. There still has to be a reason why a kid like Hunter, with no magical powers in the Demon Realm, was chosen by Belos and granted a staff, giving him magic. The way Kikimora tries to take him out of the picture in her attempts to take his place as the Emperor’s favorite only shows how important he really is. Belos also gives him a chance even after he fails at the task he was given in this episode. There’s still something here that we haven’t learned about yet, but I’m certain we will find out in due time.
The line about Hunter noticing similarities between the glyphs and something he read about is interesting. There’s still more to learn about the glyphs and something for someone to look into more. Perhaps when Lilith returns she could research it more, as she would be ecstatic to learn about the similarities and any more information about the glyphs. Maybe Hunter will look into it himself too in his attempts to help Belos. Whatever he does next, he has to be careful. Kikimora is onto Hunter after noticing his singed hair. I’m certain she’s going to use it to her advantage rather than flat out expose him to Belos.
Eda and King were adorable getting the Palistrom wood for Luz. They’re such a tight family now, always willing to do what is necessary to help each other. Stealing the wood too was the cherry on top as it is completely in line with their characterizations thus far.
After a stretch of episodes without her, we finally got to see and hear from Bosha! All of the Palismen are adorable and the ones which bonded with the students were fitting for each individual student. I loved seeing Principal Bump’s real form and that we got to seeBat Queen again! I really enjoyed the fake out with the bird palismen. It was made to seem like he was going to Luz after the events of the night, when instead it was Eda and King on her window ledge.
If you didn’t pay attention to the opening titles, Amity’s new hair is reflected in her sequence! It was sad she didn’t show up at school after the kiss. Amity would fall back into her old ways after such a big step forward, deciding to avoid talking about what took place by skipping school, even on such an important day. She probably has a lot of emotions going on inside her. That is if we are to assume that’s why she’s not at school. She could have very well been kept home by her mother for rebelling with her hair color and everything else she’s done to push back against her parents. In the end it was a fitting tease to wait for their next moment a bit because there is a lot of Lumity to still unpack. Holding it back a bit will only help build the anticipation of them growing even closer.
Only a few episodes left in the first half of the season, and there are still a bunch of scenes in the trailer which we haven’t seen show up in an episode yet! Bring it on!!
The Owl House Season 2 airs Saturday mornings on Disney Channel. New episodes can be streamed on Disney Now.
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