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After not seeing much of Willow and Gus so far, we get an episode focused on Willow which takes a nice casual detour, highlighting the colorful world of The Boiling Isles and what it has to offer. Riding high on new found confidence, Willow tries to find her place, prove to herself that she’s on the right track, and give us a fun episode showing new sides to many characters. It’s less about the mythology with “Any Sport in a Storm” and more about the inner growth.
The episode begins with Hunter attempting to sew a Golden Guard patch onto his cape, but he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. His palismen sits on his shoulder watching . He hears a knock on the door and is handed a letter from Belos informing Hunter that his duties are keeping him busy. As such, Belos is leaving Hunter to lead the Coven Heads as a test.
At the castle, the Coven Heads are seen leaving, bumping Hunter aside as they walk by and ignore him. Raine gives Hunter a glaring look and Terra moves them along. Hunter looks dejected.
Hunter walks into the room and asks what’s going on. Darius and Eberwolf are among the few still left in the room. Darius says he decided to reschedule the meeting and shoos Hunter off to go do arts and crafts. Darius notices the patch on Hunter’s cape and grabs it off him with his abomination magic. He makes fun of the poor sewing work until he realizes it’s the old Golden Guard sigil he sewed on. Darius tells Hunter he doesn’t deserve to wear it. Hunter asks how he can earn the title and Darius says he can find new recruits for the emperor’s coven. Hunter agrees to do it and Darius comments about how Hunter is good at doing whatever he is told to do in a belittling manner.
Willow is seen exercising in a training montage about using her plant magic. She is self motivating and pumping herself up and her choice to go down the plant magic path. At school it’s club fair day. Willow hears a commotion and sees Luz and Gus run around the corner being chased by a locker that has come to life. Willow casts a spell and vines tie it down. They talk about the clubs and Luz tries to get Willow to join the Azura book club with her and Amity. Willow tells her she’s interested in Flyer Derby and she’s going to start building a team at the club fair.
Willow sets up her booth while Luz recites Azura lines dramatically from her own booth. Boscha complains to Luz about the art on the cover and the writing. Amity arrives at Luz’s booth, out of breath. She tells Luz the author of Azura is doing a book signing today. Luz is very confused and Amity says she expected her to be more excited. Luz thought the author was human but Amity then questions how else would she have gotten her books. Luz asks the same. They then question if the author can travel between realms.
Hunter sneaks into the club fair event and wonders if he can recruit people there. He fails to get any real interest when he approaches students. Hunter grows upset that no one is interested and accidentally bumps into Puddles, a griffin.
Willow tries her best at recruitment when Professor Hermonculus wishes her luck. He’s overseeing club approvals this year and isn’t convinced Flyer Derby is worth investing in. He tells her he’ll only approve the club if she steps down as the captain. He appears upset at Willow because she dropped his abomination class and Gus quickly comes to her defense. The Professor tells Willow if she can get a team together for a friendly game after school, and they win, maybe he’ll approve the club. She doesn’t seem too hopeful since Luz and Amity are busy and she doesn’t know where to find good players in such a short time.
Just then she sees Hunter flying by, being chased by Puddles. Willow grabs Hunter out of the sky with her vines and asks him to join. Willow and Gus assume he’s a new student and Gus seems skeptical about him. Hunter tells them his name is Caleb Jasper Bloodwilliams and he just transferred there. He rejects Willow’s initial offer saying he has his own mission, but takes a pamphlet before stomping off. He sees that the pamphlet says the club will attract the best and the brightest. Now Hunter is suddenly interested. She tells him he can help attract people by showing off his flying moves. Gus warns Hunter not to mess it up for Willow because she had a hard year and is really trying to make the club work.
As Amity and Luz go to the book signing, they ponder about the author and if she’s related to Philip or if she has her own portal. Luz theorizes maybe it’s Eda all along keeping a secret. Amity stops them before they get too deep into their theories. They arrive at the store, only to find the signing has been canceled.
Willow stands before a crowd of kids trying to get their interest while Hunter flies around above showing off his moves. The crowd goes wild. Willow speaking to herself is hopeful having “Caleb” will help her get the club approved. At the same time Hunter says to himself that maybe Willow will join the Emperor’s Coven. Willow shows “Caleb” the people she recruited so far and they all seem to be failing at putting on a good first impression. Hunter storms off and Willow chases after. He calls them pathetic. Willow tells him to give them a chance but he says where he’s from chances have to be earned. He tries to walk off, but Willow uses her magic vines to pull him underground and directly onto the field. This time he sees the recruits and they puts on a better second impression. Willow asks if he still thinks they’re pathetic and he looks off embarrassed.
Luz and Amity sit outside the bookstore dejected. Amity hears a noise and spots what looks like the author. The mysterious figure runs off and the two follow in pursuit.
Hunter calls Darius and informs him that he found new recruits for the Coven. The team gets ready to face off against the Professor and his own team. Using teamwork they score and Hunter cheers Gus on. Willow and Gus help Hunter score and in the end they win. The Professor agrees to approve the club and he asks for a team name. Hunter comes up with the Emerald Entrails and they love it. They all cheer, take a selfie and exchange pleasantries. Hunter then reveals his true intentions and offers them to join the Emperor’s Coven. Their faces all drop and all of them scream “What?!” He reveals his true name and that he’s the Golden Guard. Suddenly scouts appear and Hunter tells them he didn’t ask them to come. They reveal Darius sent them to get the recruits.
The team is all locked away in a cell. Hunter tells them all the great (not so much) perks of being in the Emperor’s Coven. He sounds a bit unhinged. They tell him none of them want to join. Gus says that friends don’t stab each other in the back. Hunter says in the Coven they do all the time! Willow questions herself for making such a bad call about Hunter. Darius collects the kids and gives Hunter his cloak back. After remembering what he had to do in training after recruitment, he begins questioning if he made the right choice for his new friends.
Luz and Amity chase after the author, casting spells and abominations to try to slow her down. The cloaked person counters with spells and evades capture. They continue guessing the true identity of the author. They eventually catch up and realize it was Tiny Nose, also known as Tinella Nosa, in a wig who is working for Tibbles, the con man. Mattholomule is also there and panics upon seeing Luz. Tiblles tells the two he found a box of books washed up on shore which slipped through from the human realm. He tried to make a profit off them, but had no luck. Only one person bought the books. Amity blushes. We now know the author of the books is human after all. Slightly disappointed, Amity comforts Luz who rests her head on her shoulder.
Hunter chases after Darius on his ship. The kids attempt to rescue their palismen which were taken from them, but Darius casts abomination spells to stop them as he scrolls through social media. Hunter lands on board distracting Darius. The kids escape over the side of the ship. Darius realizes it was just an illusion spell. The kids take over the controls of the ship, grab their palismen and run off once they crash land. Darius casts another spell and threatens the group. Willow fights back with plant spells. Darius is about to strike them when Hunter jumps In front. He tells Darius he was wrong and they aren’t fit for the emperor’s coven. He also tells Darius he’s unfit to wear the Golden Guard sigil. Hunter tells Willow and her friends to go.
Darius notices Hunter made friends with the kids and questions disobeying him. Darius’s composure suddenly shifts and says it was about time he made friends outside of the castle. Hunter asks if he’s going to tell Belos about what happened. Darius counters by asking if he’s going to tell Belos about his secret palismen he has. Darius says Hunter would make his predecessors proud and tosses his cape back. It begins to glow purple and the stitching looks perfect. Dairus says he can use a sewing lesson.
As Luz and Amity walk home, Amity asks if Luz is upset. Luz says the author may be human, but so is she. She says it’s nice to be reminded you don’t have to be a powerful ancient witch to make something special. Amity says it was fun coming up with their own theories and it was almost as if they were making their own stories. Luz then gets the idea that the Azura Book Club should also be a writing club.
The two then notice Willow, Gus and the group walking back. Willow is on her phone and comments about how Hunter is a slow typer. He is now on social media and friends with her. Luz asks the group if they missed anything. Willows tells the two that they had their first win as the Emerald Entrails. Willow shows them the victory selfie. Luz and Amity gasp seeing Hunter in the image and scream “What?!”
That was a fun episode, with lower stakes. It was surprising to bring Hunter back into the fold by having him meet more of Luz’s friends. I was expecting the two of them to face off in some way but they didn’t even interact in the entire episode.
Willow is coming into her own confidence. Despite questioning herself over her decision to trust Hunter initially, she found the strength inside her to help her team successfully escape capture. Plus she recruited a really strong team and won in their first attempt!
Hunter also came into his own confidence. After growing up around such menacing figures in the Coven, he never really has had the opportunities to interact with other kids, especially in a fun manner. The last time he interacted with kids his age led to the epic battle between Amity and Hunter. I still love that sequence! There were fun moments in the game and hearing his appearing and disappearing sound effects brought me back to that big battle. We keep seeing him begin to think for himself, questioning his upbringing, keeping his palismen, and even going against Belos by not telling him the truth about what happened with him and Darius. That also shows that the coven isn’t completely on his side. We’ve seen Kikimora going against Belos too. Fear can only control those in the coven so much it seems!
Interesting that we didn’t see any Eda or King in the episode as it is rare we don’t see all of the main characters in episodes. The focus on Willow and Gus was a fun side story. It didn’t really push the whole momentum of the series forward, but it was a fun reminder of these great characters in the universe.
I wasn’t surprised to see that the author was human all along. No one else really seemed to know the author in the realm aside from Amity. Plus the rationale makes sense. Tibbles is a known con man so attempting to make a profit off the human books was in line. Eda would have done the same!
Hopefully next week we get some bigger mythology focused reveals. As it is still early in the second half of the season, we can have these fun episodes without feeling like we’re missing any truly big reveals. Next week’s episode is titled “Reaching Out” and is described as Amity wants to prove herself to her father. Luz thinks she’s found the perfect way to do it: underground witch duels.
The Owl House Season 2 airs Saturday mornings on Disney Channel. New episodes can be streamed on Disney Now.
