Review: The Owl House “Adventures in the Elements”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Luz eagerly awaits her first day at Hexside, but learns from Amity that she needs to know two spells before her placement exam, otherwise she’ll be put into a “baby class”. She rushes to Eda to learn something new, so they go to The Knee, an area on the Boiling Isles on the knee of the creature that the residents live on which apparently has far better means of tapping into the island’s magic, though Eda’s methods of teaching seem to be a bit more eccentric than helpful. Eventually, Luz gets fed up and tries to use Amity’s training wand, but accidentally attracts a creature that takes Amity, her siblings, and Eda away. In order to save them, Luz learns to connect with the island’s magic, figuring out to use magic with snow and learning her second spell.

Meanwhile, King tries to raise an army of stuffed animals that soon overtake him, so he begs Hooty to help get rid of them so Alex Hirsch can talk to himself for awhile, which he is admittedly quite good at.

OUR TAKE
Huh, another episode of a Disney Channel show where the main character has to do weird stuff in order to learn a new thing. Also, this episode was leaked several months ago! Yeah, back in April, this aired on Turkish television and got out to the world at large. Fans weren’t exactly sure which number episode it was, though theorized it couldn’t be that far from episode 10 since Luz still wasn’t at the magic school yet. So, while everyone who couldn’t wait has probably already seen this awhile ago, now WE get to finally talk about it because it is legally accessible now. And it is certainly not an insignificant episode either, as it lays the groundwork for Luz’s further knowledge of her magical ability. It doesn’t feel quite as organic or gradual as how Anne is learning stuff over on Amphibia, but I’ll wait until this first season is over to really start comparing the two.

Eventually, I think Luz is really gonna need to stop making messes and cleaning them up as if it excuses her. Not that she shouldn’t be able to make mistakes, just that it seems like she gets off a bit too easily for my taste. Still, it’s cool, pun intended, to see her learning how to handle ice and snow in addition to her light ability. She’s slowly but surely gaining a repertoire of spells that she will likely build up and grow over time, especially once she starts attending Hexside starting next episode. Though one thing I am definitely appreciative of is how she’s starting to lose patience a bit with Eda, showing that they are able to come into conflict even though they do come together and resolve things by the end.

It’s a weird thing to want more conflict between characters because you need that conflict to be based in their personalities and views while also finding ways for them to overcome them later. I guess I’m more saying that I could do with more of Luz and Eda becoming clearer with their differences in ideology, though maybe we have that coming down the line. The message that forms from the first letter of this season’s episodes, “A WITCH LOSES A TRUE WAY”, might have something to do with that, although this message is kind of an awkward sentence. It’s deliberately vague and we likely won’t know exactly what it means until the final episode, but I’m reserving judgement of all of that until we get there.