How to Do a Double Subversion, By The Owl House

The Owl House Season 2, Episode 17 Review

I don’t know if it was planned or not, but this week saw Amphibia and The Owl House give us a two-part combo of trauma. Three parts if you count the low-key horror show of last week’s “Hollow Mind.” That episode confirmed fans worst fears about the Day of Unity. In addition, it proved that another theory about Emperor Belos was also true. As traumatic as that was, though, it only gets worse. After subverting our expectations about King earlier in the season, this week pulled a brilliant double subversion. We thought we were wrong about King; now it turns out we were right!

A Nightmare Coming for the Boiling Isles

Picking up right after the events of ‘Hollow Mind’, Luz is thoroughly broken by what she saw. She’s horrified that Belos plans to wipe out the Boiling Isles, moreso due to her role in unknowingly helping him. Lilith’s aghast at how Belos used her to carry out his plans of genocide. What’s worse, the Day of Unity’s a week away and they have no idea how to stop it. They don’t even know who to ask for help.

Then, a hope spot surfaces when Hooty coughs up the letter from the being who looks like King. It turns out, it’s from a group of warriors far from the Boiling Isles that believe King is one of them. Thinking they can kill two birds with one stone, Luz, King, and Hooty all set out to meet these people.

What I really liked about this is the fact that it expands the world of the show beyond the Boiling Isles. We already knew the Demon Realm was filled with other dead Titans that Demons called home. However, I don’t think many of us expected to actually see them, let alone travel to one. Needless to say, fanfic writers will have a field day with this stuff.

King’s People Found?

Using a magical portal on the finger of another Titan, the trio travels to the other side of the Demon Realm, to the same Titan from the vision of the Owl Beast. There, they meet an entire culture that looks and dresses like King. Sadly, the demon voiced by Kevin Richardson that we thought might be King’s Dad isn’t his Dad. However, the man believes that King’s Dad was one of their number. Their entire people is a society based around hunting and killing Titans, who they claim to be evil.

For a moment, things start to look up. King finds the sense of belonging he always wanted, and Luz thinks she’s found allies to help stop Belos. Then the second half of the episode comes around, and the subversion, then double subversion begins.

In a conversation with the leader of the Titan Trappers, Bill, Luz learns two horrifying facts. Firstly, the Trappers God is actually the Collector that is working with Belos. Secondly, she learns from Bill’s description of the last Titan, the one the Collector wants dead, is spot on for King. King…is a Titan. A baby Titan.

Brilliant Double Subversion

This is the double subversion I was talking about before. Initially, fans speculated that King might actually be a Titan, or the Titan of the Boiling Isles. However, the show seemed to throw that out the window in “Echoes of the Past”. Now, it got double-subverted by revealing the fan theories were right all along. It was a brilliant misdirection and left me genuinely caught off guard. Well played, Dana Terrace.

Any fan satisfaction we may get, though, is moot, because of what it means. King is the last Titan, meaning that he may truly be alone in the world. Worse, there’s an entire culture that wants him dead, and their god works with Belos. Since King’s blood could be valuable, that makes him a target. Even if he does survive all this, his ultimate fate is no less unsettling. Should he grow to the size of the Boiling Isles Titan, he will eventually die, his body becoming a new island for Demons and Witches to call home. It’s the circle of life, but also very disturbing.

Nothing is the Same Anymore

If last week didn’t make this clear, this week’s episode makes it apparent. The status quo Of The Owl House is now gone. Emperor Belos is now determined to stop the Owl House residents from foiling his plans, as he sends his Coven to arrest anyone inside the house. In other words, Luz, King, and Hooty might not even have a home to go back to.

With only a week left before the Day of Unity, we should expect the rest of the season to occur at a breakneck pace. Luz needs to tell anyone who will listen to her that they’re all in danger. Whether people will believe her is another matter, but she has to try. Otherwise, the home she’s come to love so much will be wiped out.

And they say animation is for kids.

I Give “Edge of the World” a 5/5

Also, shout out to Chris Houghton, the voice of Cricket Green on Big City Greens, for voicing Bill.

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