Who is the Girl Pretending to Be Luz? The Answer Might Surprise You!

The Owl House Season 2, Episode 10 Review

We all knew that this was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier to watch. When Luz chose to stay in the Boiling Isles rather than go to “normal camp”, she did so without telling her Mom the truth. The fear of disappointing her Mom remained her biggest fear for a long time, and once she destroyed her only means of returning to Earth, all she wanted to do was find a way back. Not out of a desire to return home, but just so she could let her mom know she was alright.

Unbeknownst to Luz, Camilla Noceda remained unaware of the fact that Luz never went to “reality camp”, and the show made it clear that someone was doing that on purpose. Firstly, there were the fake letters. Secondly, we saw the fake Luz that took the real one’s place. Who was this imposter and why was she keeping Luz’s mom in the dark. This episode sees us get this answer as Luz has a bittersweet reunion with her Mom.

The Portal Is Complete! Sort of.

After learning that the key to the portal had Titan’s blood in it the entire time, Luz and the rest of the Owl House are able to build a rudimentary portal. Having done that, Luz dives inside in order to return to Earth and let her Mom know she’s alright. However, it doesn’t work like they want to.

For whatever reason, the portal’s unstable, instead bringing her to this in-between realm with oozing black liquid. While there, Luz discovers that while she can’t touch anything, she can use reflections to observe and communicate with people on the Boiling Isles and on Earth. So, she hops over to Earth to talk to her mom…only to discover the imposter in her place.

Vee the Sad Shapeshifter

A month ago, AwestruckVox from TheRoundtable on YouTube speculated that Luz’s doppelganger wasn’t an enemy. And it turns out, he was right! This other Luz isn’t an enemy in the slightest. However, she is, in fact, a demon from the Boiling Isles. And not just any Demon, but a shapeshifting Basilisk.

If you recall in Season one, a greater Basilisk attacked Hexside and tried to drain everyone inside of their magic. However, they’re supposed to be extinct. And rather than merely being in hiding, this episode reveals the truth. This young Basilisk, dubbed Number Five, or Vee, was brought into existence by Emperor Belos in order to study her kind’s ability to drain magic. Several of them escaped, and when Luz entered the Boiling Isles back in the beginning, she escaped to Earth where she ended up taking Luz’s place. In other words, she’s the one who’s been pretending to be Luz, but not out of malice.

Oh, and her true voice is done by none other than Michaela Dietz, AKA the voice of Amethyst from Steven Universe!

A Good Foil to Luz

Right away, Vee establishes herself as a good foil to Luz. Whereas Luz is weird, expressive, and fearless, Vee is softer and far more submissive. While Luz starts out powerless but still learns how to use magic, Vee hates fighting. And while Luz wants adventure and excitement in her life, all Vee wants is a life free from persecution.

However, the biggest difference between the two? Vee is far more socially outgoing, having made friends with the kids that Luz would’ve met at camp. Even Luz was surprised by this, calling into question just how much of an outcast she was on Earth. Was she picked on so badly that it ended up jading her to living on Earth? Vee even calls her out for giving up the loving home that she had, while Luz is all too quick to accept Vee living in her place if it means not telling her Mom the truth.

The Wittebane-Gravesfield Connection

After establishing who Vee is, Luz helps the Basilisk find some of the stuff Eda left on her trips to Earth to recharge her magic. By doing so, we end up learning something big: EDA IS STAN PINES EX-HUSBAND!!!!

But seriously, we learn that Luz’s hometown and the Boiling Isles may have a stronger connection than what we previously thought. As we uncover the town’s history, we see this statue of two young men. One of them looks an awful lot like Phillip Wittebane, while the other is very similar to either Emperor Belos or Hunter. In addition, it’s revealed that around four hundred years ago, the town was destroyed when a Witch took two young brothers. Again, implied to be Phillip and someone else.

If Belos is indeed connected to Phillip somehow, then this just adds another piece to the puzzle for us to solve. However, that gets put on hold, as Vee’s taken captive by a local conspiracy theorist whose ideas about demons and witches are so far off, I felt dumber after hearing them.

Long story short, Luz has to contact her mom directly and fesses up to everything, helping Camilla to save Vee. And despite it all, Camilla gladly accepts Vee into her home, letting her live with her for the time being.

A Bittersweet Moment

It’s at this moment, though, that things take a bittersweet turn. Camilla finally lets all the fear she’s now experiencing come out. First, she was afraid that the camp worked too well, but now that’s been replaced by the fact that her daughter’s living in another dimension that’s far more dangerous than Earth. And those fears are then compounded when Luz reveals her initial decision to stay in the Boiling Isles. In other words, Luz was right to be afraid about her Mom’s fears.

The situation gets worse when Eda and the others have to pull her out due to the portal becoming unstable. As a result, Camilla makes Luz promise that when she finds a way back home, she’ll stay there, thinking that her daughter ran away because of how she treated her. Luz has no choice but to accept, leaving her with the prospect of having to lose something she holds dear in the future. She can return to Earth and her mom, but go back to being an outcast with no friends. Or she can break her promise to her mom and remain in the Boiling Isles where she’s now far happier. The final shots of the episode say it all: Luz is guilt-ridden by this.

Though, to be honest, Luz shouldn’t feel bad.

Luz Will Find A Way

It was due to the collapsing portal, but Luz likely never got the the chance to tell her mom the full details of her time in the Boiling Isles. Of how she’s made so many new friends, grown as a person, and even got a girlfriend. In other words, she’s gotten everything she lacked on Earth. But Camilla doesn’t know this, so she inadvertently guilt-tripped Luz about everything. However, given how she came to accept the truth about both her daughter’s, I think Camilla would understand if she knew just how happy Luz had become.

At the same time, I’m not convinced that Dana will end the series with Luz having to choose between staying on Earth or the Boiling Isles. Knowing Luz, she’ll find a way to bridge the two together. As far as we know, Belos is already doing that, but for potentially more sinister reasons. While I may be looking to the future, though, it doesn’t make this moment any less of a tearjerker. In fact, this whole episode was a tearjerker.

With The Owl House now on vacation until further notice, we won’t know what happens next for some time. Until then, the only thing we can do is pressure Disney into giving the show the fourth season it deserves.

I Give “Yesterday’s Lie” a 5/5

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