An Enchanting Grom Fright on The Owl House
The Owl House Episode 16 Review
From the moment we saw this image of Luz and Amity in the trailer for the second half of Season One, fans have been hyped for the episode “Enchanting Grom Fright”. I kept seeing fan art of Luz and Amity in their Grom outfits on Twitter and Instagram, and was just as excited as everyone else was. And when the time came and “Grom Fright” aired, it lived up to the hype. And Disney may just have its first confirmed LGBTQ+ main character.
What is Grom, Anyway?
It’s almost time for one of the biggest social events of the semester at Hexside: Grom Night. On the surface, it seems like the Boiling Isles version of Prom, with dates and music and dancing. However, this is still the Boiling Isles, so it means there’s a dark twist to it. It turns out, the event gets its name from Grometheus, or Grom for short. It’s this shape-shifting monster held underneath Hexside that tries to escape every year. So Principal Bump created the dance, and the person crowned King or Queen has to fight the creature back. It’s only made harder since Grom can read minds to turn into a person’s biggest fear. And this year, Amity’s been chosen to be Grom Queen, something that terrifies her.
Considering how, when we first saw her, Amity came off as someone extremely confident in her abilities, seeing her so frazzled is surprising, especially for Luz. As a result, Luz volunteers to fight Grom in her stead, which demonstrates how far their relationship has grown since they first met. Whereas Amity once saw her as a nuisance, here she’s willing to accept help from Luz.
It doesn’t pan out as well as they hope, and both of them end up fighting Grom.
Facing Your Fears: Luz
While it may be set against a high-school dance, the main theme of “Grom Fright” is learning to confront one’s own fears. That’s by far one of the hardest things a person can ever do in their life, and some people are never able to. And Luz and Amity both have some big fears. While Luz manages to handle her more mundane fears (cats with human faces, milk, and jerks online), the whammy is seeing her face her worst fear: confronting her mom. AweStruckVox, you were right!
I think we knew that Luz would eventually have to tell her mom the truth that she’s not at that lame camp and in another dimension. The fear of disappointing one’s parents is something most people have to go through at least once in their lives, and Luz has to do it in the worst way possible. Grom sadistically turns itself into a monstrous version of Luz’s Mom and talk about how heartbroken and disappointed she is in her for lying to her. As a result, the normally confident and self-assured girl starts to fall apart.
If I could give Luz any advice right now, it would be this: don’t let the fear of disappointing your mom hold you back. She needs to be honest with her and tell her the truth and how she’s made so many friends and been so happy in the Boiling Isles. Parents may not always approve of their child’s choices in life, but if they truly love them, they’ll understand how happy they are and respect their decisions. If not, then it’s their loss.
Facing Your Fears: Amity
But what of Amity’s fear, though? Amity said that her biggest fear was something super embarrassing, something she doesn’t want anyone to know. It turns out she wasn’t lying. This episode all but confirms that Amity’s developed romantic feelings for Luz. The signs have been there for a while, now: Luz is normally the kind of person Amity would not associate with. Yet for one reason or another, she keeps being intrigued by her and taking an interest in her. Heck, Amity flat out admits that she admires how fearless Luz seems to be despite being a human who shouldn’t even be in the Boiling Isles.
The big reveal, though? When Amity faces down Grom to protect Luz, we see what Amity’s biggest fear was: asking Luz to go to Grom with her and being rejected. As outsiders looking in, we know that Luz would never do that. But for Amity, that’s about as scary as it can get. Fortunately, both of them face their fears together, and give us this gorgeously animated dance sequence in the process.
Simply breathtaking to look at!
An Enchanting Grom Night
This may be my favorite epiosde of the series thus far. “Grom Night” had shipping fuel, character development, superb animation and music, the whole nine yards! I am so glad that I’m reviewing this series as it comes out!
Lumity ship fuel aside, this episode ended with a big surprise, and an even bigger mystery. Someone has been sending letters to Luz’s mom addressed from Luz. Poorly written letters, I might add, that sound nothing like what Luz would say. The question is, who’s writing them?
Right now, I’ve got two theories about this: Eda’s been leaving those letters behind when she sneaks over to Earth so that Mrs. Noceda doesn’t realize that her daughter’s not at camp. The other theory is that the camp’s been sending them, which waves a lot of red flags in my eyes! Either way, for the moment, it looks like Mrs. Noceda knows nothing about what her daughter’s up to. But we know that Luz plans to tell her one day, so that’s enough for me.
So in conclusion, this episode was awesome and you guys need to watch The Owl House. Now for some Grom Photo’s!
I Give “Enchanting Grom Fright” A 5/5
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At first; I didn’t think it was Eda. I like Awestruck Vox’s idea that it was going to be a big story point. But hearing you and my brother explain the logic; it seems like it would be Eda.