The Belos-Wittebane Connection Was Totally Right!

The Owl House Season 2, Episode 11 Review

When we learned that Amphibia and The Owl House would be airing the back half of their final seasons together, I came up with a plan. Saturday’s, I would post about Amphibia; Sundays would be for The Owl House. However, that plan just went off the rails because I cannot keep quiet about the new episode of The Owl House. Ever since we learned about the existence of Phillip Wittebane, fans speculated if he has some sort of connection to Emperor Belos. In this week’s episode, “Elsewhere and Elsewhen,” it’s all but confirmed the two are connected! The Belos-Wittebane Connection is real, people!

Personal Inadequacies in the Clawthorne Family

In the wake of her first attempt to create a new portal to the Human Realm, Luz is stumped by her failure. She followed Phillip’s Diary to the letter, yet it still failed. She’s not the only one who’s feeling like a failure, though. After moving back in with her parents, Lilith’s got a new job as an assistant curator at a local museum. However, meeting her Indiana Jones-style mentor, Flora D’Esplora, makes her feel like a huge failure. Thinking they can both help each other out, Luz proposes they seek out these mystical time pools to travel back to the past to learn more about Phillip Wittebane.

Meanwhile, Eda’s dealing with her own inadequacies, but of an entirely different nature. Turns out, her Dad came to visit, causing her to freak out. She still feels guilty about attacking him as the Owl Beast years ago. In addition to maiming him, it also ended his career as the Boiling Isles premier Palismen-carver, something she hasn’t forgiven herself for. After a, frankly, sad attempt to get out of it, she and her Dad meet anyway, and Eda confronts the trauma she’s been avoiding for almost two decades.

Thankfully, Dell Clawthorne doesn’t hate her daughter in the slightest for what she did, like any good parent should. What matters is that they can still be there for each other. If anything, he’s found new purpose growing back the trees needed to create Palismen.

Anyway, onto the meat of the episode: the Belos-Wittebane Connection!

The Savage Ages Are a Lie

Throughout the entire show, we’ve kept hearing people say how the Coven System is great for the Boiling Isles. That the time before that was chaotic and wild and uncontrollable. However, most of us took that with a grain of salt, with it likely being propaganda on Belos’ part. This episode basically confirms that Belos is, at best, exaggerating how bad things were; at worst, he’s lying.

As Luz and Lilith see, far from being a time of chaos, the pre-Coven Boiling Isles are fairly nice. People use whatever magic they want with no negative repercussions, and the whole place seems far pleasant than the present-day. Either there’s something that we’re not seeing here, or more likely, Belos has been lying the entire time to maintain control.

This is a tactic used by many repressive regime’s in fiction and real life. A sole dictator comes to power and manipulates the people into believing that their way is what’s best for everyone. They cement that control even further by rewriting history to suit their own needs, thus ensuring the next generation will grow up believing their lies. This only makes what Belos is doing even more sus in the end.

But that’s nothing compared to what we learn about Phillip himself.

Phillip Wittebane’s a Total Jerk

Luz and Lilith actually meet Phillip Wittebane in their trip to the past, and at first, he seems to be everything his diary makes him out to be. He’s an outcast human in another world, yet also wise, scholarly, and a total badass with magic. Yet the more the two spend time with him, the more he doesn’t seem to be what he says.

I have to praise Dana and her team for the subtle build-up throughout the episode. He continually compliments and praises the two throughout their journey, but Lilith notices that something is off about him. Having worked under Belos for years, she recognizes all the signs of emotional manipulation. Then, there’s the fact that his bag has a Palismen and the fang of a Witch that previously helped him out.

In the episode’s big twist, we see Phillip’s true colors: rather than the sagely hero, we get a sociopathic conman who manipulated people into doing dangerous jobs for him, and then left them to die in the process. That, and he acts so smug about it in the process, like he’s better than anyone in the Boiling Isles. He deserved getting socked in the face by Lilith. But the story doesn’t end there.

The Belos-Wittebane Connection

Since the first mention of Phillip Wittebane, fans speculated that he’s somehow connected to Emperor Belos. This episode, though, all but confirms it.

Firstly, there’s the way he calls the people of the Boiling Isles savages with their free use of magic. Sounds like something Belos would hate? Secondly, there’s the reveal of how he uses magic. In a dark reflection of what Luz can do, he carved glyphs onto his arm. However, this act seems to be destroying his body from the inside out. The only thing that can stop it is taking the magic from a Palisman.

The evidence all lines up: Belos is really Phillip Wittebane. The Belos-Wittebane connection is real. He’s somehow lived far past what a normal human could be capable of. And judging by what he says at the end of the episode, the Day of Unity is going to be much more than what he claims it will be.

This episode managed to reignite my excitement for The Owl House, just like last week’s episode of Amphibia did for that show. In short, I’m looking forward to the next few months as we watch all this awesome new animation. This is going to be amazing!

I Give “Elsewhere and Elsewhen” a 4.5/5

Stray Observations

• So did Phillip leave his brother to die beforehand?
• It’s nice to know that the tower in the Owl House once belonged to her Dad.
• They invited Steve to Lilith’s party. Steve Rules!
• We should know who Flora’s a shoutout to!

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