The Owl House S2E16 "Hollow Mind" - TV Tropes

Luz wakes up and finds herself in a dimly lit corridor with huge paintings hanging on the walls, gasping upon noticing the painting in front of her. On the painting, it depicts Emperor Belos holding his staff while looming over her, King, Lilith, and Eda in her Owl Beast form. Below the painting, a plaque which says "Triumph Over Wild Magic" can be seen. Scared, Luz stands up and starts retreating, wondering where she is. Behind her, Hunter appears and accuses her of playing stupid, yelling at her for causing both of them to be trapped inside Emperor Belos' mindscape, which greatly shocks her. Luz finds it unbelievable that they really are in Belos' mind, so Hunter reminds her about what led to them being trapped here in the first place.

The scene cuts to earlier at the Night Market, where Hunter was on a mission to capture some criminals that he saw after he heard rumors that they are planning to invade Emperor Belos' mind with wild magic. He notices three suspicious figures in hoods nearby and follows them into an alley, finding them about to activate something on the ground.

Concurrently, Eda, Luz, and King were also at the Night Market, there to buy the witch's wool needed to fix Luz's cloak. While Eda knocked on the door, Luz and King proceed to communicate with each other via walkie-talkies. When the shopkeeper, Prim, finally opened the door, she showed Eda the oracle mark on her hand and informed Eda that, because Belos warned of the dangers of wild magic, she had joined the Oracle Coven and was no longer associating with wild witches like her. After she slammed the door shut, Luz angrily complained about Belos' lies and tyranny, causing Eda to remind her to pipe down. She then added that Belos has been in power for more than fifty years, and unless she can find proof that Belos is evil, the situation won't change. Sensing that Luz was dejected, Eda consoled her by saying that they will figure out something together, and as she walked away, Luz was saddened by how Eda was being treated, pondering how she could prove Belos was evil. King told Luz that nobody wants to follow the wrong person and encouraged her to find something big to prove herself, and just after he headed away, Luz noticed Hunter and followed him.

Right as Hunter was about to arrest the three suspicious individuals, Luz pounced on him from behind and both fell to the ground. Hunter was astonished, but quickly became frustrated when the mysterious figures escaped. During his heated confrontation with Luz, he accidentally stepped on a neon yellow vial dropped by one of the individuals on the ground. This activated the circles drawn earlier by the individuals, and both teleported into Belos' mind.

Back in Belos' mindscape, Hunter laughs at Luz for thinking that he'd help her prove that his uncle is evil, but she believes she can discover the truth herself. Right then, she notices that Belos' mindscape is very different compared to Willow's, and Hunter explains that mindscapes are reflections of their individuals, claiming that he had read a lot on this subject. Walking toward a painting of Belos guiding citizens away from a fire, he reveals that his family died because of wild magic; Belos took in the survivors of said magic and dedicated his life to the coven system, which is why he is so well-liked on the Boiling Isles. Hunter also claims that the sigils on people's wrist help protect them from themselves and make the Titan happy. At that moment, he observes another painting beside the current one, which depicts the moment when he inherited his mechanical staff. He proudly informs Luz that he's the youngest scout to become the Golden Guard, while also admitting that he never found out what happened to his predecessor, questioning why Darius is saddened in the painting.

As Hunter focuses on the painting, Luz is about to touch the painting she saw earlier when she hears a child sobbing nearby. She follows the source of the sound and finds a masked child figure sitting behind a pillar nearby, crying and becoming frightened by her presence. Luz hesitantly calls out Belos' name, right as Hunter does the same, and turning around, Luz finds a manifestation of Belos moving towards them. Hunter thinks that this is Inner Belos and kneels before him, asking for his assistance to help them return to the physical world. The figure stops in front of Hunter, and the child figure emerges from behind it, shaking his head and hands desperately at the duo. Luz looks at him with a puzzled expression when suddenly, the dark figure starts roaring and transforms itself, revealing multiple glowing eyeballs on its body. Sensing danger, Luz rushes forward and activates some fire glyphs, creating an explosion with blasts strong enough to send her and Hunter flying backwards. They crash through a wall and fall down to a dark void. Luz proceeds to take out a hover glyph and grabs on to Hunter, then activates it before they hit the ground, slowing down their fall, but they impact the ground face-first.

When they sit up, they find themselves in a strange place filled with dead trees that are covered in paintings, and Luz surmises that they are in Emperor Belos' real mind. Hunter finds that absurd and mentions the gallery above them, but Luz theorizes that those are made up of Emperor Belos' lies. Right then, Eda's voice calls out from Luz's walkie-talkie, asking where she is right now, also informing Hunter that his friend wants to talk to him. After hearing Flapjack's chirp from the speaker, Hunter immediately grabs the walkie-talkie and asks him if he's okay, but Luz takes the walkie-talkie back and reveals that they are inside Emperor Belos' mind. Shocked, Eda asks Luz if the Inner Belos has spotted them yet, which she confirms as the dark Belos, and Eda comments that there cannot be a second Inner Belos upon Luz's prompting. She warns Luz about the possibility of being devoured in Belos' mindscape, and King assures her that they'll find a way to get them out as soon as possible. As a parting message, Eda instructs Luz to not lose the walkie-talkie, and Hunter tells Flapjack that he will be home soon, while also whispering to him that he loves him, something Eda and King find cute.

Suddenly, they hear a sound of leaves rustling nearby. Not far away, the child figure from before emerges. Luz walks towards him, calling him kid Belos, thanking him for saving them earlier. The dark Belos starts shrieking, causing kid Belos to grab Luz's arm. Luz wonders if Kid Belos is Belos' sense of guilt, but Hunter denies this, claiming it's his sense of innocence. She thinks that kid Belos can keep them safe, and suggests to him that he can probably show them who Belos really is, to which he slowly nods. From somewhere, dark Belos shrieks once again, prompting Kid Belos to drag Luz away. He brings her over to a painting and jumps through it. Before Luz can follow suit, Hunter exclaims that she can't invade Belos' memories, but Luz retorts that it's a way to survive, and she pulls Hunter through the painting.

Back at the Owl House, Eda orders Hooty to lock down the house and instructs King to grab all the textbooks he can find as she prepares to make the return spell to save Luz and Hunter. Hooty proceeds to barricade all the windows, summon spiky plants, and latch the main door. Outside, Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf observe in the bushes. Raine wants to go into the house, but is stopped by Darius. Right then, they hear Hooty chatting with Flapjack. When he mentions Hunter, Darius immediately rushes forward, but Raine halts him. They then write on the ground to communicate with Darius and Eberwolf, telling them that they know how to get past Hooty.

Back in Belos' mindscape, Luz and Hunter follow Kid Belos through the memory: a part of Bonesborough during the Deadwardian Era. Multiple people have gathered in front of a stage, where Belos appears and gives a speech about their lives dishonoring the Titan, in addition to mentioning the destruction wild magic caused to his family. He then claims to have been shown the healing light which shines in nine hues, and then pulls an illusion of nine different lights, which amazes everyone. Suddenly, explosions start to go off, and Belos exclaims that he has been found by the wild witches ordering everyone to run. Luz and Hunter dash away, and when they stop, they witness Belos scolding an old Golden Guard for almost injuring him just now. He informs the Golden Guard that he will be going to the next town, telling him to "put on a bigger show" with the remaining explosives, so he ignites the fuse before following Belos into a building. Right then, kid Belos appears and picks up a sack from the ground before jumping through another painting, Luz and Hunter following in suit. Back outside, Luz declares that Belos was lying about being attacked, but Hunter justifies this by suggesting that Belos was perhaps using a special technique to get people to listen to him for the greater good. Suddenly, dark Belos' claw emerges from the memory, and Luz and Hunter quickly pursue kid Belos through another painting.

This second memory is at the Knee. Luz and Hunter follow kid Belos to a crowd of people standing in front of Belos. Behind him, a town has gone up in flames. Belos claims that wild magic caused that to happen, and tells everyone to imagine what it would do to them. He then professes that he can make their magic pure again, just like the Titan intended, so everyone holds out their wrist and let the Golden Guard tap on it to create a coven sigil. The sigils proceed to drain magic out of everyone, causing them all to collapse to the ground in agony. The past Golden Guard notices that they are still alive, although only barely, but Belos pays no mind and orders him to gather everyone's palismen as Luz and Hunter watch the memory in horror and dismay.

The duo then follow kid Belos out of the memory, and Luz barks that Hunter can longer deny that Belos is trying to hurt people, but Hunter — becoming increasingly angered — denies this, as he claims that Belos was perfecting sigil magic. Hunter chases down kid Belos, but before he can catch him, dark Belos appears from behind and tries to attack him and Luz. The duo immediately accompanies Kid Belos to another painting, and when Hunter hesitates, Luz whisks him into the memory.

Inside this memory, Luz is stunned to find out that Belos has already rebuilt the portal she destroyed before, and Hunter confesses to helping rebuild it. Right then, the Collector appears in an abstract shadow form. Belos asks if he can do anything for them, and they proceed to ask if the draining spell is ready, as they can't wait for the Day of Unity. Belos simply says that they will have their fun when that day comes. Both Hunter and Luz are baffled when suddenly, a projection of Hunter from the past rushes up to Belos. Hunter has the key he had just taken from Amity back at Eclipse Lake, and apologizes for disobeying Belos' orders. Before he can explain further, Belos immediately snatches the key away and orders him to leave. After Hunter departs, the Collector re-emerges and murmurs that they thought Belos would be mad at Hunter, but he replies that he won't be as Hunter does exactly what he is told, whenever he tells him that the Titan has big plans for him. The Collector thinks that Belos is having fun destroying the "things" he made, and he denies this, saying that it hurts when "he" chooses to betray him every time. Both Luz and Hunter are shocked to hear all this, especially Hunter.

The duo then comes out from the memory along with kid Belos. Luz believes that Belos is trying to wipe out all life in the Demon Realm with the usage of sigils, and Hunter walks away, unable to reply. Luz reassures him that he doesn't need to go back to the castle, but then, she notices another part of the mindscape that has various discarded and broken Golden Guard masks and staffs on the ground with paintings depicting what Belos did to Hunter's predecessors. Luz spots kid Belos nearby, standing inside a circle made out of a rope and various bottles of liquids, throwing a cracked Golden Guard mask into a fire. Luz immediately rushes forward to pull him away while Hunter stomps out the fire. Right as Luz wonders what kid Belos is doing, the dark Belos reemerges inside the circle and screeches at her and Hunter. All of a sudden, it warns the duo to get away from kid Belos, claiming that he is dangerous. Luz is shocked to see that "Inner Belos" is made up of various palismen, and Hunter suddenly realizes that instead of this figure, the real Inner Belos is the child who has been with them the whole time. Behind them, kid Belos starts crying, but it soon turns into maniacal laughter as he takes out a wooden sword and strikes the rope on the ground. This activates the circle and launches the bottles onto the figure. The rope then tightens around it, causing it to fall.

Kid Inner Belos proceeds to transform into an adult inner Belos in front of them, and glad that he finally caught the monstrous figure, he explains that they are all souls of the palismen whom he had killed before the figure fades away. Inner Belos then grabs a palisman and destroys it in front of Hunter, whom he thanks for helping to distract the figure; Hunter confronts Inner Belos about what he did to his predecessors and their family, realizing that the destruction by wild magic was a lie all along. Upon hearing that, Inner Belos' face turns cold, and he expresses disappointment that Hunter is starting to turn against him. He cryptically remarks that he, out of all the Grimwalkers, looked the most like "him", much to Hunter's confusion. Just then, Hunter gets dragged down into the ground, and Luz tosses her jacket to him so he can gain leverage. Despite her best efforts, he gets sucked into the ground along with her jacket, and Belos remarks that he was hoping that Hunter would last longer than the previous Guards. Enraged, Luz angrily spits that she will tell everyone about the Day of Unity, and lying about being able to talk to the Titan, but Belos calmly admits that the whole situation was prolonged, revealing himself to be a witch hunter. Luz is aghast at the idea that the people were being led by a witch hunter, though Belos tells her to not judge so quickly; he summons a picture frame from the ground, and shows Luz some scenes of herself meeting Philip Wittebane, indirectly admitting that he is, in fact, Philip himself. Luz is in denial about this revelation and breaks down in tears. Philip asks Luz to call him by his real name, but she can't bring herself to do it as scenes from when she addresses Philip play on the frame.

Back at the Owl House, Eda is frustrated that she can't successfully create a return spell, but without warning someone knocks on the door, and Hooty comes back with a bouquet of flowers from a "secret admirer". Thinking that the flowers are rigged, Eda tells Hooty to throw them away, but they then wilt causing the contents wrapped inside the petal to dissolve in the vase and create a yellow liquid. Eda picks up the note attached to the flowers, and is surprised to learn that the liquid is a teleportation potion to the mindscape. She rushes to the window to look outside just in time to see someone running away. Eda then notices that according to the note, the potion still needs a large power source in order to make it work, prompting King to grab Amity's glove. Eda is hesitant about using it, as Luz requires that last bit of Titan's Blood to get back home. However, King retorts that Luz will never make it back home if she can't even escape from Belos' mind in the first place.

Back in Belos' mindscape, Eda tries to reach out to Luz using her walkie-talkie, informing her that they will be pulling her and Hunter out. Unbeknownst to her, Luz has lost her walkie-talkie. Belos advances towards her, forcing her to retreat in fear. He informs Luz that perhaps they were destined to meet, but she barrages him with questions about Hunter instead. Belos informs her that Hunter was a "better version" of an old friend of his, and now because of Luz, he will have to create another Grimwalker. She can't understand why Belos is doing all this, and he simply mentions that he is trying to save humanity from evil. Unable to reach Luz, Eda tells her that she will start counting down soon. Luz snaps that Belos is the one who is evil, to which he replies that he can't reason with crazy, attempting to attack her with a bladed hand. Luz cowers in fear, but a thick wall made with vines suddenly bursts out from the ground and blocks Belos' blade - revealing Hunter - who has used Luz's plant glyphs to save himself. As Eda starts counting down, both Luz and Hunter rush towards the walkie-talkie. Right as Eda counts to one, the duo manage to reach the walkie-talkie on time, and Luz screams at Eda to activate the return spell right away. The spell then activates, successfully bringing the duo back to the Owl House.

At the Owl House, Eda and King are elated to have the duo back, and Eda asks Luz and Hunter if they are okay. While Luz sits expressionless, Flapjack flies towards Hunter, who realizes that Belos knows what happened. Knowing that he can't return to the castle, Hunter panics, takes off his cloak, and runs out of the house. Luz chases after him, but stops, and King and Eda both inquire about what happened. Luz turns to them as tears start to form in her eyes...

*Cue happy credits music*

• All for Nothing:
  • Luz destroyed the portal door in "Young Blood, Old Souls" explicitly to keep Belos from using it, stranding herself in the Demon Realm for real as a result. Not only has Belos since rebuilt said portal and is poised to use it anyhow, but extracting Luz and Hunter from his mind uses up the last of the Titan's Blood Luz needed to make her own portal, nullifying her previous effort. Even worse, her only way home is now in Belos' Supervillain Lair.
  • On another note, Eda and King using up the Titan's Blood Amity collected to save Luz and Hunter renders the heroes' expedition in "Eclipse Lake" (which already a "Shaggy Dog" Story back then) entirely pointless in hindsight.
  • As for Hunter, everything he has done until now amounts to naught after he learns his whole life has been a lie and Belos preemptively cuts him loose thereabouts. Most notably, he discards his Golden Guard cloak, which he spent all of "Any Sport in a Storm" proving himself worthy of, during his panic attack at the end of the episode.
• Ambiguously Related: Several of Belos' memory portraits show his brother in a relationship with a red-headed witch with yellow spell circles (just like Eda) who also appeared pregnant, though whether or not they're meant to be an ancestor of the Clawthorne family goes unsaid.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: A demon tries to solicit teeth from Hunter in the Night Market, only to realize he's the Golden Guard, at which point the demon tries to deny everything by saying he wouldn't trade teeth because it's illegal and unsanitary.
• Artistic License – History: The flashback to Belos proselytizing presumably takes place sometime in the late 1600s based on extras from "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" reappearing, but the Golden Guard uses a friction match, which were invented in 1826. Presumably, the Boiling Isles were ahead of the curve. A type of matches were invented in 1680 by Robert Boyle, but did not look recognizeably stick-like and were highly dangerous to use.
• Awful Truth: Twice over.
  • Hunter finds out that not only is he the latest in a long line of of disposable clones, the ideals he dedicated his life to were a complete lie. This reveal completely breaks him, and he suffers a panic attack almost immediately after Eda pulls him and Luz out of Belos' mind.
  • Luz learns that Belos is actually Philip Wittebane and that her trip to the past helped give him the tools necessary to both take over the Boiling Isles and put in motion his plans to enact genocide on the population of the Demon Realm. She appears to handle it slightly better, though she's obviously on the edge of tears as the episode ends.
• Bait-and-Switch: At first it seems like the child Belos is the manifestation of Belos' guilt or some other emotion, while the Inner Belos is the monster that's chasing Hunter and Luz throughout his mind, but the child turns out to be the Inner Belos in disguise, while the monstrous one is really the embodiment of the Palismen souls he's consumed, and is apparently trying to rescue them by stopping the Inner Belos.
• Batman Gambit: Because the house was heavily locked with Hooty on high alert, taking him out without alerting the residents was no simple matter, and neither was sneaking past him to deliver the teleportation spell to Eda. Raine goes for the mundane trick of disguising the potion as a bouquet of flowers, knowing that even Hooty wouldn't question something so innocent.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Luz vows to find evidence that Belos is an evil fraud, but the awful truth is much more than she bargained for. To a lesser extent, near the beginning of the episode she wonders why people blindly follow him despite him telling Blatant Lies. Near the end of the episode, she learns that she fell for his scam as Philip more easily than the locals. She even spent most of the episode trying to prove to Hunter of all people that his uncle is a fraud, but never did she realize how personal and horrifying the truth really is for him, like being one of many expendable Grimwalkers, which almost gets Hunter killed by Belos following the revelation.
• Beneath the Mask: Even in his own mind, Belos/Philip is not as kindly or benevolent as he thinks he is. The pristine and golden portraits of the mindscape that Luz and Hunter first stumble into are revealed to gloss over a much more twisted and barren mindscape, with the much more cruel and ugly memories beneath. When the Collector accuses Belos of making Grimwalkers just to kill them and claims he enjoys doing so, Belos verbally denies it while smiling fondly to himself, belying that while he tells himself that he's hurt every time the Golden Guards "betray" him, deep down he enjoys killing them. Disturbingly, a combination of his sheer intolerance of magic and his inability to actually care about anybody besides himself means that Belos seems honestly incapable of understanding that he's not the good guy in this story, despite all the atrocities he's committed and plans to commit.
• Big Damn Heroes: Just before Belos is about to kill a paralyzed Luz, Hunter manages to block his attack using the plant and ice glyphs found in Luz's jacket.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: That little kid Belos that was leading Luz and Hunter through Belos's mind wasn't helping them at all. It was just using them to get rid of the Palismen monster that had been plaguing Belos's mindscape, and was actually adult Belos in disguise.
• Bittersweet Ending: Much more bitter than sweet, bordering on a Downer Ending. Luz and Hunter manage to get out of Belos's mind safely with some new information, but Luz is clearly deeply shaken by The Reveal of who Belos really is, and Hunter, realizing that Belos knows that the two of them were in his mind and that he can't return to the castle, flees from the Owl House in a panic. Even worse, King and Eda use up what's left of Luz's Titan blood to save her and Hunter.
• Body of Bodies: The shadowy creature chasing Hunter and Luz through Belos's mindscape turns out to be an amalgamation of the souls of the palismen that Belos has consumed, their anguished faces protruding all over its body.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Regarding whether or not the last of the Titan's Blood should be used for the teleportation spell, Eda is hesitant because it's Luz's only hope of returning home. King counters this by saying it's pointless if Luz doesn't live long enough to return home.
• Break the Cutie:
  • Luz is left in tears after Belos reveals that he and Philip Wittebane are the same person and thus her actions in the past played a role in allowing his rise to power, before gleefully rubbing salt in the wound.
  • After discovering that Belos lied to him the whole time about everything and knowing he can't go back to the castle, Hunter has a mental breakdown and runs away horrified by the experience.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Over the course of the episode, Hunter discovers that Belos doesn't care about him at all, lied to him about their past, and killed his past incarnations once they refused to help with his schemes or outlived their usefulness to him. He's horrified by all this and after returning to the physical world, rips off his cloak in horror before fleeing into the forest.
  • While she had already come to the realization that Philip Wittebane was a jerk, Luz is devastated to learn that he and Emperor Belos are one-and-the-same, collapsing to her knees in shock as Belos mocks her over her refusal to believe it.
  • The background portraits in Belos' mindscape imply that he felt this way about his brother. A few of them as young kids showed them playing witch hunters and carved witch hunting masks together. And then when Philip saw him holding hands with a witch, Philip was so enraged that he killed him for it, seeing it as a betrayal of their childhood dreams and values as witch hunters. He also claims that it hurts "every time he chooses to betray me."
• Call-Back:
  • Luz sees a portrait that shows Belos seemingly triumphing over Eda (as the Owl Beast), Lilith, Luz and King.
  • In "Reaching Out", we learn that talk is going through the Emperor's Coven about how the Day of Unity might not be as benevolent an event as Belos is trying to sell it as, which is proved correct here.
  • When Luz refuses to believe he's Philip Wittebane, Belos mockingly assumes Philip's form and shows her a flashback of their encounter from "Elsewhere and Elsewhen", revealing he's known who Luz was all along.
  • The trap the inner Belos sets for the Palismen creature has several bottles of the same elixir Eda uses to keep her curse at bay.
  • Much like Camila's confrontation with Jacob Hopkins back in "Yesterday's Lie", Luz also refutes a fellow human's self-righteous justification for their callous actions against demons in the bigoted belief that they're inherently evil. The circumstances are more harrowing and not in her favor, however.
• Cain and Abel: The background portraits in Belos' mindscape reveal that he was very close with his brother until the latter befriended witches (and even married one), so Philip killed his brother in a Duel to the Death.
• Central Theme: Ignorance Is Bliss vs the Awful Truth. As King puts it in the beginning, no one wants to think they wasted their entire life on a lie. And the three main characters of this episode all face this challenge.
  • For Hunter, he happily lives in the comforting lies of Emperor Belos, defending his uncle's clearly evil actions to illogical extremes. But as he explores deeper into Belos's memories, the harsh truth that Luz is trying to show him completely breaks Hunter and he ultimately flees in terror.
  • For Luz, she thinks that unveiling the truth about Belos would be easy to do, believing that it would break Belos' hold over the populace. She gets more than she bargains for when her attempt to convince Hunter works far too well, and then learns that Belos is actually Philip Wittebane, whom she's helped and idolized. Luz ironically can't accept this awful truth, wanting to go back to the comforting lie of the noble Philip in her imagination.
  • For Belos himself, he truly believes that witches and demons are inherently evil, and refuses to see any other viewpoint. Since his plan for witch genocide took centuries to perfect, Belos' beliefs are ironclad and immovable since he doesn't want to believe he wasted centuries of his life for the wrong cause. His mindscape also reflects how he constantly lies to himself in his head, and how his real memories are in shambles with portraits of happier times with his brother clawed out.
• Chekhov's Gun: As Hunter is sinking into the floor of Belos's mind world, Luz tries to pull a Take My Hand! by giving him a sleeve of her coat to hold onto while she tries to pull him out, but it doesn't work, and Hunter is sucked in along with the coat. This is what allows him to escape and pull a Big Damn Heroes moment to save Luz; he uses the glyphs that are in the coat pocket to create a wall of plants that break through the floor and allow him to re-emerge, and blocks Belos's attack on her.
• Circling Monologue: As he reveals his identity as Philip Wittebane, Belos circles around Luz and mocks her refusal to believe it, transforming his inner self into Philip's form and conjuring his memories of their chronologically-first meeting from "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" as proof — showing he's known who Luz and Lilith are all along and played them for fools.
• Clones Are People, Too: Belos's murder of the previous Golden Guards for "betraying him" is depicted as an evil act, with the Collector even accusing him of enjoying doing so. Later, Luz tries to save Hunter despite hearing of his origins. Also, Hunter's panic attack upon returning to the physical world is played sympathetically.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Luz once again wears Eda's old Grudgby uniform.
  • Luz and Eda are in the Night Market to buy witch's wool, to repair the damage Luz's cape suffered in "Yesterday's Lie".
  • Hunter's cloak still has the old Golden Guard patch stitched on the back.
  • Luz's trip inside Willow's mind back in "Understanding Willow" gets mentioned a few times due to the similar circumstances.
  • When Hunter looks at the portrait of the Day he became the Golden Guard, he notes that Darius seems upset. Darius had mentioned in "Any Sport in a Storm" that the previous Golden Guard had been his mentor.
  • When Belos reveals to Luz that he's Philip Wittebane, he mockingly calls Luz "Luzura", which she had used as an alias during her trip to the past in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen".
• Contrived Coincidence: Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf are performing their memory teleportation spell in the Night Market at the same time Eda and Luz are there to pick up witch's wool to repair Luz's cape. Luz spots Hunter on his way to interrupt the former and the two wind up getting sent into Belos's mind instead.
• Cool Shades: Hooty is wearing these when he hears a knock at the door. They lose their tint when he says the second half of this quote.

  Hooty: Inopportune interruption, eh? (gruff voice) I'll handle this!

• Copied the Morals, Too: It's implied that part of why Belos's Grimwalkers keep betraying him is that they're too good of a copy of his brother, possessing a greater internal morality than Belos that leads to them turning against him once they realize the full depth of his plans.
• Cowboys and Indians: The portraits in background of Belos' real mindscape depict Philip and his brother playing witch hunt, with Philip as the witch hunter and his brother as the witch. This game ended up becoming very real with Philip growing up to be a real witch hunter and his brother getting killed for becoming friends with a witch.
• Creepy Child:
  • Belos's supposed inner self hides its face behind a blank wooden mask.
  • The Collector gives off this vibe (despite being around since the days of Philip Wittebane), being playful and speaking in rhyme, while at the same time gleefully talking about Belos possibly killing Hunter, and relishing what will happen at the upcoming Day of Unity.
• Cry Laughing: Played for Horror. When the Inner Belos' true nature is revealed, his Crocodile Tears devolve into Evil Laughter just before he activates his trap to destroy the Palismen beast.

• Sadist:
  • The Collector accuses Belos of making Grimwalkers solely for the purpose of killing them, since he's killed every single one before Hunter. Belos denies it, claiming that their deaths were a necessity he took no pleasure in, but does smile at the Collector's accusation. The Inner Belos also clearly enjoys rubbing the truth in Luz and Hunter's faces as a Kick the Dog moment, savoring their horrified reactions.
  • The Collector themselves can count given how they express eagerness in Belos kickstarting the Day of Unity which would guarantee the suffering and annihilation of everyone in the Boiling Isles.
• Sadistic Choice: King suggests using the last drops of the Titan blood in order to activate the spell but Eda is hesitant to use it because it would take away Luz's only chance of getting home. Her son retorts that not using it will ensure that Luz won't be able to come back to any home.
• Say My Name:
  • After revealing to Luz that he is (or was) Philip Wittebane, Belos invites her to call him by his real name. Luz, deep in denial, refuses, but behind her, the memory portrait of the events of "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" plays out a Supercut of all the times Luz referred to Philip by name during that episode.
  • As Hunter runs off in a panic, Luz yells out his name as she tries in vain to stop him.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: Still reeling from the Awful Truth he has just learned, and realizing that Belos knows he and Luz were in his mind and will try to kill him if he returns to the castle, Hunter flees the Owl House in a panic after Eda frees him and Luz from the mindscape.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Collector is apparently sealed away in/under the Titan, and Belos has made a deal with them that they'll be freed on the Day of Unity via the Draining Spell.
• Self-Serving Memory: Played with.
  • Belos's outer mindscape is a very demonstrably literal one, full of painted portraits that positively depict his past glories and achievements — such as one dedicated to the creation of the coven system, where joyful witches are crowding around him in gratitude — but he can't completely hide the truth of what really happened; Hunter is confused by how sad Darius looks in the portrait of his coronation as Golden Guard. One titled "Triumph Over Wild Magic" is an utter lie, told to bolster his ego: it depicts Belos towering over Luz, Owl Beast Eda, King and Lilith as they cower in fear, while in reality Luz broke his mask, destroyed the portal, saved the others from petrification, and forced him to salvage what he could to rebuild an incomplete and damaged portal door.
  • Once Luz and Hunter manage to break through into the subconscious and enter the individual memories themselves, it becomes clear that however fondly Belos presents them and thinks of his own actions in them as perfectly necessary, he's a charlatan, a tyrant, and a genocidal murderer.
• Serial Killer: Since Clones Are People, Too, Belos's modus operandi of creating, killing, and hiding the bodies of countless Grimwalkers as Replacement Goldfish to his deceased brother, whom he also killed in rage for "betraying" him (implied to be for marrying a witch), is not so different from how some serial killers create a pattern of seeking out people who remind them of someone they were close to or feel wronged by, and end up killing them. The Collector even accuses him of creating so many Grimwalkers just to destroy them, and accuses him of enjoying it. Belos denies this, but with a smirk on his face.
• Shadow Archetype: Belos is this to many major characters.
  • To Eda: The trap that Inner Belos springs for the Palismen Monster utilizes a series of potions that looks an awful lot like the elixirs that Eda uses to keep her curse in check. This draws an uncanny parallel between the Palismen Monster and the Owl Beast, Eda and Belos needing a special form of mental magic (Eda ingesting sleeping nettles, Belos getting Luz and Hunter's help) in order to gain control of their more beastly halves. But whereas Eda learned to live alongside the Owl Beast, having had the curse thrust upon the both of them unwillingly, Belos's condition was self-inflicted and he seeks to purge himself of the problem entirely, destroying countless innocent palismen in the process.
  • To Lilith: The background paintings in Belos' mindscape reveal that Philip had a similar relationship with his brother as Lilith had with Eda: They were close as kids and shared a childhood dream (joining the Emperor's Coven for Lilith and Eda; becoming witch hunters for Philip and his brother), then they later grew to resent and betrayed their sibling just before a fated duel (Lilith with a curse, Philip with a knife). However, while Lilith didn't mean to permanently curse Eda, rightly blamed herself, and dedicated her life to trying to fix her mistake, Philip did mean to kill his brother, blames said brother for his own murder ("it hurts every time he chooses to betray me"), and doesn't make Grimwalkers to try to have his brother back, but as an "improved version" of his brother. Lilith also tried to persuade Eda to fulfill their childhood dream of her own free will for years, while we see that Philip never cared about his brother's or subsequent Grimwalkers' wishes or free will.
  • To Luz: They're two humans who stumbled into the Boiling Isles, but while Philip was horrified by the existence of witches and demons as a witch hunter, the magic-loving Luz was ecstatic and longs to be a witch herself. Philip also stumbled into a friendly world whose kindness and beauty he refuses to see, while Luz was initially horrified by how scary and unfriendly the denizens were but learned to see the beauty and kindness beneath. Belos also turned the Boiling Isles into a World of Jerkass through his own reign, while Luz helps bring out the best in others. Belos is also dedicated to destroying the Boiling Isles, while Luz is determined to save it.
  • To King: In the first season, both were self-proclaimed rulers of unknown origin who "ruled" over their domain as tyrants, and told Blatant Lies about their past. However, King was a Small Name, Big Ego who honestly believed his claims about his past due to being indulged by Eda (who just wanted him to be happy), while Belos is a Villain with Good Publicity who wilfully deludes himself and knows deep down he's a charlatan and a fraud. King also always cared about those close to him even when he believed he was a tyrant, and became a better person once he learns the truth of his past. Meanwhile, Belos always considered those around him expendable and the past rewritable. King and Belos also both feel angry at a relative (King to his dad, Belos to his brother), but while King still wants to mend bridges and bond with his lost relative, Belos just wants to make a "better version" of his lost relative as a subservient Grimwalker.
• Ship Tease: Raine delivers Eda the ingredients of the transportation spell as a bouquet of pink tulips, which in flower language means "perfect lover".
• Shout-Out:
  • When speaking over the radio to King, Luz begins her message with "10-4, Demon King."
  • Link and Saria can be found on one of the portraits.
  • The episode is a subversion of The Cell: in both of them, the protagonist, a female, enters the mind of a serial killer to learn his secrets and discovers he has two split personalities: a child (the killer's "good", innocent side), for whom she feels sympathy, and a monster (his sadistic, twisted side and the dominant personality) that terrifies her. Subverted because Belos has no goodness or innocence in him; he disguised himself as a child to lure Luz and Hunter into helping him to kill the "monster". The latter, in turn, wasn't Belos' "monstrous" side, but an amalgam of the souls of the poor palismen he consumed, and probably was trying to warn Luz about the "child".
  • Hunter has a lot in common with Hordak. Both are clones brainwashed into serving abusive creators who demand perfection and treat them as disposable tools. (Also, both Hunter and Hordak befriend and respect young women who are treated condescendingly even by their friends. Even their names start with the same letter!)
• Sibling Murder: The pictures in the background tell the story of what happened to Belos's brother. Among others, there's a painting of Philip looking enraged at his brother holding hands with a witch, then a painting of him approaching the couple with a knife behind his back, another of him facing off against his brother in the midst of a fire, and finally, a painting of the brother's corpse silhouetted by fire, and a blood-splattered knife in the foreground with Philip's face reflected in it.
• Significant Double Casting: All of the Grimwalkers seen share Hunter's voice due to their status as clones.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Belos has created countless Grimwalkers to make a Replacement Goldfish to his deceased brother... whom he killed, and he claims that "it hurts every time" they "choose to betray" him as well. The Collector accuses Belos of creating the Grimwalkers just to kill them, and of enjoying it. It's strongly implied that, deep down, part of the reason he creates and kills so many Grimwalkers is to continue to "punish" his brother by proxy for his original "betrayal."
• Spanner in the Works: Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf nearly get into Belos's mind, but Hunter manages to stop them just as their ritual is nearly complete. Luckily for them, Luz acts as one for Hunter in turn, as her attempt to interview him on Belos allows the co-conspirators to get away, while the duo are accidentally sent into Belos's mind, which leads to Hunter learning the truth about who he is and what kind of person Belos really is.
• Suddenly Speaking: Outside of the Bat Queen, palismen aren't normally shown to be capable of human speech. However, when it's revealed that the beast inside of Belos' mind is actually a fusion of the souls of the countless palismen he's devoured over the ages, one of them cries out in an attempt to warn Luz and Hunter that the child they're with is actually the inner Belos.

  Get away from him. Danger! Danger! Run!

• Super Cell Reception: Luz is somehow still able to use her walkie-talkie to communicate with Eda and King even trapped deep within Belos's mind.

• Take My Hand!:
  • Luz tries a variation of this as Hunter is being sucked into the floor of Belos's mindscape after the latter reveals himself to them; she takes off her coat, holds one sleeve, and passes it Hunter's way so he can grab the other one. It doesn't work, and Hunter gets pulled in along with the coat, but the coat is what ends up saving him.
  • Eda offers a hand to Hunter, but he rejects it due to him having a serious panic attack after discovering many Awful Truths about himself and Belos.
• Taken for Granite: One of the only discernible memory portraits of the past Golden Guards shows that Belos killed him by petrification.
• Title-Only Opening: The second episode in the season (after "Elsewhere and Elsewhen") to only show the show's title.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Hunter discovers that he's a Grimwalker created by Belos to replace an "old friend", as are the rest of the Golden Guards. The poor kid very understandably doesn't take this well, to say the least.
• The Un-Reveal: Although we learn a lot in this episode, it still leaves some important questions unanswered, like how the Collector ended up trapped under the Isles, or how exactly the portal plays into Belos' plans for the Day of Unity.
• Unexpectedly Dark Episode: Easily the single most nightmarish and traumatic episode of the series; the absence of the opening theme even builds up to such.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Even though he still takes the key holding the Titan Blood from Hunter, Belos doesn't even thank the boy and grimly orders him to leave. If anything, he's more upset that he disobeyed him regardless of the results, and this episode reveals why; disobeying the emperor means Hunter is capable of betraying him, and he's had a problem with the previous Golden Guards doing that.
• Unusual Euphemism: After the umpteenth failed attempt to rescue Luz and Hunter from Belos's mind blows up, Eda shouts, "Bones, dirt, and muck!" Her frustration and tone imply that these are heavy profanity on the Boiling Isles.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Played With. Luz believes that kid Belos is the manifestation of Belos' guilt, but it's revealed to be ploy by Inner Belos to trick them into helping them silence palismen monster. However, memory portraits in Belos' real mindscape suggest he really was once a sweet and happy kid, but that kid is long gone, twisted and hollowed out by his anti-witch beliefs as exemplified by the soulless eyeholes of the mask Inner Belos wears.
• Varying Competency Alibi: Implied. Luz and Hunter view Belos' memories and witness the atrocities he's committed. In denial, Hunter tries to justify it, but his logic gets increasingly thin, with him trying to explain Belos' blatant attempt at murdering several witches as being merely him trying to perfect sigil magic. However, it's clear they both know that there is no way someone as smart as Belos would make such a mistake if murder wasn't the goal.
• Villain Has a Point: When Luz is aghast that the people of the Boiling Isles have been tricked into serving a witch hunter all this time easily, Inner Belos tells her that she has no room to be judgmental and gleefully reminds her how effortlessly he manipulated her when he was Philip. Luz is utterly devastated.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Hunter and most of the witches admire Belos and love him as their rightful ruler while he plans their demise.
• Visual Pun: Hunter mentions how he heard "Whispers of an attempt to invade the emperor's mind" at the beginning of the episode. As he's saying this, one of the perpetrators (who is quite clearly Raine Whispers) is shown on screen.
• We Need to Get Proof: Luz's objective this episode is trying to figure out Belos' endgame and prove he's evil. She tries to question Hunter, then takes advantage of being trapped in the Emperor's mindscape to learn the truth. Sadly, she gets what she wanted, as she learns Belos' plans but also ends up discovering Hunter's origins and that she helped Belos by showing him the light glyph and giving him the chance to contact the Collector, leaving her devastated.
• We Used to Be Friends: The paintings in Belos' true mindscape show a story where, as children, Philip and his brother used to be close, but when said brother eventually grew to like witches and even fell in love with one, Philip was outraged and then killed him.
• What You Are in the Dark: The entire episode is this for Belos, taking place inside his mindscape with only the isolated Luz and Hunter privy to his true thoughts and intentions towards others.
  • Surprisingly, despite everything that's been demonstrated from both his present and past self as 'Philip', his true nature is even worse than he's demonstrated before, being a genocidal Witch Hunter whose acts of benevolence or Hidden Depths towards others are revealed to be mere fabrications he puts on to control or mislead those around him, and Belos honestly thinks nothing of killing, hurting or destroying however many people it takes to realize his insane ambitions. Notably, the Inner Belos could have stopped the duo from finding this out at any point, but deliberately led them around from memory to memory whilst it gathered the preparations it needed to excise the Palismen beast from Belos' mind for good, explicitly exposing Belos's incriminating memories to them because he was planning on dealing with the pair of them once the beast was gone.
  • There are several memories within Belos' mindscape that could have drawn conflicting sympathies from Luz and Hunter, namely how he was raised as a witch hunter in a Puritan society and how he felt abandoned and betrayed when his brother disappeared into the Demon Realm and was later discovered to have fallen in love with a witch. Yet, Inner Belos doesn't take Luz and Hunter to those memories because they portray him as emotionally weak and fallible, which threatens his image as an all-powerful, all-knowing crusader of justice who is "selfless" and "self-sacrificing" for a higher purpose. Because he refuses to elaborate on his true past, he makes it easier for Luz and Hunter to see him as simply evil.
• Wham Episode: Belos reveals to Luz that he's Philip and a witch hunter. Hunter, realizing that Belos knows that they were in his mind, and that the previous Golden Guards (who were all Grimwalkers like he is revealed to be) were killed when they disobeyed him, flees from the Owl House in a panic. Eberwolf is apparently working with Darius and Raine against Belos. Belos has some kind of deal with the Collector, who is sealed below the Isles and will get their freedom on the Day of Unity, and the sigils are actively dangerous to anyone who has one. And of course, Luz stirred up a hornet’s nest invading Belos’ mind, and now he wants heads for this.
• Wham Line:
  • In Belos' memories, the Collector inadvertently reveals the true purpose behind the "Day of Unity".
  • In response to a genuine, teary-eyed question from Hunter, Belos utters a line that confirms that Hunter is a Grimwalker, that there have been many, many Grimwalkers before him, and that they were made to look like someone else — plus the fact that it's said in past tense providing Five-Second Foreshadowing to the fact that Belos has already written him off as a lost cause.

    Belos: What a shame. Out of all the Grimwalkers, you looked the most like him.

  • "No one ever said being a witch hunter was easy", showing just how deep the lies go, and confirming that Belos's intentions with the Boiling Isles are even more horrific than first thought.
• Wham Shot:
  • As the Collector introduces himself, he makes a cryptic rhyme about Belos' true plan and then morphs his shadow form to show exactly what he means: the annihilation of witches in the Demon Realm.
  • While the reveal that there have been other Golden Guards before Hunter had already been made, it doesn't hit home just how many there were until Hunter and Luz find a hallway full of broken masks and memories of dead Grimwalkers.
• Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: When the Collector speculates that Belos creates so many grimwalkers just to destroy them and accuses him of enjoying it, Belos claims that it hurts "every time he chooses to betray" him.
• The Witch Hunter: Belos aka Philip reveals that he is one and intends to kill every witch in a single strike on the Day of Unity.
• With Us or Against Us: Belos has been hammering down how the Titan will mercilessly "punish" those who don't take part in the coven system. This results in many of Eda's night market acquaintances joining covens while casting her aside to stay in the Emperor's good graces.
• Windows of the Soul: The Child Belos' wooden mask obscures his face and has only two black holes where his eyes should see out of. Whilst it's representative of Luz's inability to perceive his real nature and intentions underneath the facade he puts on, everything that's shown in the flashbacks about Philip/Belos' life and the portraits that chronicle his gradual separation from his brother and transformation into Belos, it's not a far reach to say that Philip's soul is a black void.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Belos pretends to be a child in his mindscape so Luz and Hunter will follow him around, distracting the Palismen amalgam while he gathers the materials needed to banish it. He even plays up his helplessness by startling at various things and hiding behind Luz's legs.
• Wrong Genre Savvy:
  • Luz believes that Belos is the standard Evil Overlord who only craves power and authority in the Boiling Isles. She finds out his plan is actually the genocide of all witches and demons, with the Emperor persona being nothing more a ruse from The Witch Hunter.
  • Belos himself falls into this. He thinks that he's the hero of a Dark Fantasy story, a witch hunter fighting against the dark forces of the demons and witches of the Isles in order to "save humanity from evil", even if he has to become something other than human himself. He's really the Big Bad and Knight of Cerebus in a more light-hearted horror-comedy fantasy story that has Luz as the protagonist, and the witches and demons of the Isles are far from inherently evil.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Belos quickly takes advantage of Luz and Hunter's presence inside his mind by manipulating them into helping him destroy the Palismen creature.
• You Are Not Alone: Deconstructed. After seeing how distraught Hunter is after learning that Belos has been lying to him his entire life, Luz tries to reassure him, and offers to let him stay in the Owl House. However, Hunter is extremely paranoid on a good day, he's only known her for a few weeks, during which they were enemies, and he's just received the news that his life and everything he's ever worked for is a lie. Instead of taking Luz's offer and staying after Eda pulls them out, he flies into a blind panic and runs off into the woods.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Throughout most of the episode, Hunter just refers to Luz as 'human'. However, when they're escaping Belos's rampage near the end, he finally calls her by her first name in desperation.
• You Can't Go Home Again:
  • Since Eda had to use the last Titan's blood to save Luz (and Hunter), Luz now has no means to build her own portal, and only the slim hope that she could use the original, now that she knows it's been rebuilt.
  • At the end, Hunter has a panic attack after discovering his entire existence and everything he believes in is built on a mountain of lies, and Belos now knows he knows and will destroy him for it, meaning he can never return to the castle. He rejects the cloak of the Golden Guard in fear and runs off into the wilderness.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Belos decides to kill Hunter and Luz, the former because he knows the truth and isn't likely to keep serving him, and the latter because the Stable Time Loop she's part of has since passed.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: Apparently, when Belos absorbs a Palisman, he's actually eating its soul, and they all exist inside his mindscape, which is the apparent source of his affliction, or at least why he can't control it. With Luz and Hunter's unwitting help, he captures the Palismen amalgam and destroys it, seemingly eliminating his Power Incontinence in the process.