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Who doesn’t love a good backstory. This week’s The Owl House slows things down to give us a deep dive into the past of Eda and her first time meeting Raine. This episode was a wonderful way to show the history of Eda and Raine, but also offered a fun glimpse into the lives of the adults we know today when they were kids themselves. Even with the trip into the past, we still got a fun little insight into the present which helped launch the rest of the season forward.
The episode begins as Luz is attempting to finish glyph combos she found in Philip’s diary. Most of her attempts fail. Eda doesn’t like how much Luz is thinking about Philip, who she calls a creep. Luz exclaims that she misses her mom, pulls her hoodie over her head and curls on the ground. Eda offers to tell a story and Luz instantly perks up. Luz grabs King in her lap while Hooty wraps around the two as they await story time. Eda begins to tell the story of how she met Raine.
Eda and Lilith practice facts about magic and its history as they walk to school ahead of tryouts for the Emperor’s Coven. The two begin to imagine their futures together if they both get into the Coven. As they arrive at school we see younger versions of many of the adults when they were students at Hexside.
The principal suddenly appears, giving out detentions and suspensions to the students for minor infractions. A younger Principal Bump, then the Vice Principal, asks if he’s being too harsh. He tells the Principal he has too many over the top rules. Lilith and Eda attempt to sneak into the school using magic to avoid the Principal but before Eda can get inside she is caught. Eda slams the magical opening shut to protect Lilith.
In the Principal’s office, he asks if Eda knows why he keeps her around. He pulls out books full of records of all the misdeeds she has done over the years. It has given him insight into the minds of depraved children. He notices in her file that she’s going to try out for the Coven with Lilith. He then threatens to expel her, making her unable to audition with Lilith. She begs him and tells him she’ll do anything to avoid expulsion.
The Principal informs her of the Instructing Future Witches of Tomorrow event which needs a representative from the school to attend. He tells Eda she will be able to stay at the school if she comes back from the event with a blue ribbon. If she fails, she will be expelled and he will also have to find a new vice principal, tasking Bump to go with her.
In line to get into the Event, Bump gives Eda a stress toy. He tells her any time she feels the urge to cause chaos to squeeze it. She squeezes it and it pops. Bump prepares Eda for what to expect at the event and tells her to be ready. They enter the building and it’s a ghost town. It’s quiet and people are falling asleep. Terra Snapdragon suddenly enters using her plant magic, waking up everyone. She will serve as head proctor for IFWOT. She looks at the banner with the name and tears it down, using plant magic to make a new name: Helping Enhance Coven Knowhow. Welcome to HECK! She calls for the start of the event.
Eda goes to the first booth which is about trust. Eda volunteers to do a trust fall. Her partner is a pile of goo. She falls through him and makes it appear as if she died using magic. When she reveals her trick, they all look at her disapprovingly.
Eda drinks from a cup and regrets coming. She tosses the cup in disgust when suddenly magic stops it from spilling. A young Raine appears and refills the cup, sending it back to Eda’s hand. Raine uses sound waves and bard magic to change the flavor of the drink and Eda is delighted. They lament about how boring the event is. This is the third event Raine has been to and it’s always the same. While Raine tells their story, Eda uses magic to become a skeleton again and Raine gets a hoot out of it. Eda notices Raine has blue ribbons and Raine tells her they are from last year. Raine says if she sticks with them maybe Eda can get one of her own. They exchange names and shake hands.
The two have a blast together doing different activities and tasks. The two kick a grudgeball around and Eda asks why they come because they’re not like the other kids. They reveal that tuition for school isn’t cheap but if they do well, they get a scholarship. Eda shares why she’s there and gets down a bit saying she’s doing it for her sister. The two share a sweet moment together.
At the awards ceremony, Bump sits in the stands squeezing a stress toy. Eda smiles at him and he seems more relaxed. Terra appears and congratulates the students as almost everyone of them has earned a ribbon. Eda and Raine hold hands. Terra suddenly bursts out saying there was nothing challenging about the challenges they went through. She says before it’s time for ribbons there will now be one last activity. A giant shrub maze comes up and around the students. Terra declares it a game of Covens vs Wilds. The badges they all have will tell them if they’re a Coven witch or a Wild witch. Eda gets Coven, Raine gets Wild. Coven witches have twenty minutes to capture every Wild witch. If they succeed then everyone on their team gets a ribbon. Wild witches will get a ribbon if they put on a good show. She declares that any use of magic is allowed.
The game begins and kids begin casting magic on one another. Eda hides out when other Coven kids ask her to team up. They plan to go after Raine since they’ve been coming for years and have some of the strongest magic. If they take them out first, the rest should be easy. Eda stutters and before answering, the other kids carry her off to enact their plan.
Terra watches with glee when Bump informs her she’s violating safety guidelines and child safety acts. She tells him she makes the rules. Terra then notices there’s only one Wild witch left. Raine runs through the maze. Most of the Coven witches are down for the count. Eda and the other two watch as Raine knocks out another Coven witch. When Raine’s guard is down, the two kids fire a spell, knocking them down. Just as they’re about to capture Raine, Eda uses a spell to float the kids away. Terra is intrigued by the development and expects them to have a one on one fight. The onlookers begin to chant “fight”. Bump is now squeezing four stress toys.
Eda and Raine charge at one another. As they’re about to crash into each other, they instead fist bump. Then begin dancing together. They launch a spell cast together directly at Terra, who deflects it with vines. With a strand of Terra’s hair sizzling, she approaches the two with a frown on her face. She suddenly begins to laugh maniacally. She says feisty witches make the best leaders. She tells Raine she especially likes them but she can’t reward disobedience and is about to poison them, when a guard informs her that’s illegal. Instead, she informs everyone that no one gets a ribbon this year. Everyone begins to boo. Bump approaches and says how proud he is of Eda, but they’re both going to get kicked out of school. Terra overhears that Eda might be expelled and says that someone like Eda needs to be nourished. She says she’ll let Principal Faust know how impressed she was with the two of them. Bump faints.
Back at school Eda finds Lilith at lunch. She begins to tell her about the event when Lilith’s watch alarm goes off. She runs off for a study group. Eda tells her they’ll talk later, but once she heads off, Eda looks upset. She takes a sip of her juice and calls it gross. Just then someone offers to trade drinks with her. Raine sits across from Eda. Eda gets all worried they lost their scholarship but Raine tells her they wanted to transfer anyway. The two trade juice and Raine asks for the rundown on the place. Raine takes a sip of Eda’s juice and reacts to the terrible juice as Eda tells all about the school.
Back in the present, Eda says after that, the two were inseparable. Luz, King and Hooty have all fallen asleep in her lap. She looks at them lovingly. Eda picks up a sketch of her and Raine together and looks out in the distance saying she hopes Raine will be okay.
At the Emperor’s Castle, Terra approaches Raine who is also looking out into the night sky. Terra tells them they were shocked when they found out Raine was the one causing trouble for the Coven, but says look at them now. Raine says they wish the headaches they’ve been getting would go away. Terra tells them to keep drinking their tea and they’ll forget all about the pain. Raine whistles into the tea Terra hands them, then takes a sip. Terra watches with an evil grin as Raine drinks the tea. She tells them to have a good night and walks off.
Raine stands up and cracks their neck. They tap on a brick beside them which moves aside. A tiny abomination walks out from behind and hands them a letter. It shows a diagram for a draining spell. It appears to be a plan for the event Belos is planning. The diagram shows the draining spell channels power through nine powerful witches during the eclipse. It also mentions a door is being moved. Raine asks the abomination if there’s a way to counter it. The abomination hands Raine a note saying “Owl Lady”. Raine tells the abomination they’re not putting her in danger again. Awwwwww. They say they’ll figure something else out. Raine whistles and the letter breaks apart into the wind. The abomination walks back into the wall and the brick covers the hole again. Raine says to the sky that they promise they’ll keep Eda safe.
I absolutely loved that we got to see how Eda and Raine first met. They had an instant connection, bonding over making the best of a dull situation they both found themselves in. Eda and Raine both share a sense of confidence, with a deeper vulnerability. Eda is strong and smart, but her love for her sister holds her back a bit. Raine is powerful and clever, but their need to keep a scholarship made them have to work differently.
It was interesting to see that Terra has had an influence on Raine long before the present situation. Terra was a lot to handle back then, and still is so now. I was fascinated seeing that Raine has been tricking Terra with the tea. I wonder if the headaches are more of a side effect of Raine altering the tea rather than the tea having an effect on Raine. We see that Raine still has control and still is plotting against the Coven and Belos. Terra thinks she has them fooled, when in fact it’s the other way around.
I honestly didn’t expect to get an episode like this with such a short amount of episodes left to get to the bigger moments and mythology of the series. I loved being able to see the younger versions of the adults. Even from tiny details, it was easy to see how they became who they are today. It was a delight getting to see Eda and Raine interact in their younger days. We got a lot of back story about them from their recent interactions but this helped show how long of a bond they’ve had and how much they truly care about one another. Each one of them is trying to help the other without having to get the other involved. It’s loving and heartbreaking all at the same time.
I loved how excited Luz, King and Hooty got when they found out it was about to be story time and a story about Eda and Raine. They all really are a family who loves each other. Luz is still going through a lot, as seen when she lost her cool for a moment, but Eda knows her well enough that she knew she had something that could cheer her up instantly.
It’ll be interesting to see how Raine is able to take advantage of their situation and learn more about Belos and his plans. Raine has someone on the outside (or maybe even the inside???) working to help out. We’ve seen a few characters with powerful abomination skills who could be working with Raine. I wonder how long they’ll wait to reveal the person behind them. There’s only so many episodes left in the season! It’s been such a delight getting to soak them all in and theorize about what is still to come.
If you are behind or want to rewatch the new episodes of the second half of season two, it was just announced that the first five episodes of Season 2B will be released on Disney+ April 27!
The Owl House Season 2 airs Saturday mornings on Disney Channel. New episodes can be streamed on Disney Now.
