English Dub Review: Once Upon a Witch’s Death “Wisdom Visits From the East”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Meg is visited by Inori, the Witch of Wisdom, while Faust is away on business.

Our Take:
Meg’s tear-collecting journey has now officially started on the right foot following her assistance with Granny Flare.  Regarding the previous two episodes, the series seemed to have found a narrative pattern where Meg spends each episode collecting these “joyful tears”.  Of course, whether it’ll wind up becoming too repetitive would highly depend on its execution, and so far, I’m coloring myself impressed that I haven’t dropped off this witchy venture yet.  This week’s episode would’ve been another misadventure involving Meg helping someone to collect a tear, but as it turns out, that wasn’t the case.
“Wisdom Visits From the East” strays away from the previous episodes’ introduced formula in favor of a minor detour or two.  One of them is a surprise visit from Inori, the Witch of Wisdom, who watches over Meg while Faust travels to North America to investigate the damage to the environment caused by humans.  While it may seem like a normal visit, this part of the episode was actually another opportunity to expand on the show’s world-building and themes, mainly Meg’s self-confidence being dampened by her curse and the magic affecting the world’s environment.  Along with Meg’s chemistry with Inori and the running gag involving the latter’s stinky feet, the episode offered a satisfying way of expressing its themes of death without resorting to the structure from the previous one.
The other detour involving the Otherworld Festival may be less effective than Inori’s visit.  However, it provides a harmless diversion from the show’s mature themes, opening the door for what’s in store for next week’s episode.  This is mainly due to the show’s introduction of a young, expressionless sage named Sophie Hayter.  Unfortunately, it seems that Meg doesn’t look too joyful towards this particular girl because the latter got promoted as a Sage despite them being the same age.  With Faust making Sophie the substitute for the festival’s ceremonial ritual, will Meg be able to restrain her massive ego towards Sophie until this important day?