Review: Star vs. the Forces of Evil “Demoncism; Sophomore Slump“

Let the hindering “Love Triangle” begin!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

“Demoncism”

The episode begins when Star deciding to take a shot at platonically hanging out with Tom. That is until Pony Head shows up and being the loud gossip-girl of sorts, she ends up spilling the beans about a secret that Tom trusted her not to tell Star that he’s partaking in a “Demoncism” ritual and not knowing what happens in these rituals, they decide to visit Pony Head’s Ex named “Seahorse” who’s literally a talking purple Seahorse who once had anger issues long before his Demoncism, but now works at a magical cellphone/mirror store within Mewni. And comedically takes a while before they do get answers from Seahorse who comically behaves like an emotionless tech support machine. After following the directions to a remote location within a Mewni forest, Star learns that Tom’s goal is to extract the rage that’s in his body and being the “Prince of the Underworld” that’s no small feat as the first two seasons established that his anger issues often end with fiery destruction.

Star expresses concern that this ritual could potentially strip Tom of his individuality but Tom assures Star otherwise. As the ritual begins, Tom experiences intense pain while removing the rage that’s within him causing a forest fire in the process with Star having to rescue Tom but all she can do is hold him tight since her Wand doesn’t affect the bonds that restrain him. The next morning, Tom wakes up and is told by the Demoncism elder in charge that although one demon got removed, He has to start a “13 year plan” since he has thousands more of those tiny angry demons within him, but with some encouragement from Star that he made an effort to change, he turns down the plan and the episode awkwardly ends with the two holding hands, much to Pony Head’s dismay.

“Sophomore Slump”

The story begins this time at Marco’s neck of the woods on Earth. As Marco’s sophomore year begins, It’s clear that Marco has now become a little too attached to the cape he earned in Scent of a Hoodie and frequently clings to the adventurous experiences he had with Star along with the events of “Battle for Mewni” which begins to negatively affect his social life in subtle ways, and even gets on Jackie’s nerves. So to try and fix this, Marco decides to take Jackie out on a date, which leads to a funny scene where Jackie decides to free a helpless Lobster out of a fancy restaurant and put it in the ocean.

After the two randomly commit a crime you’d normally expect from a member of PETA, Jackie notices mid-hug that Marco didn’t really take off the cape and hid it in his hoodie which becomes the impetus for her to calmly break off their relationship before it causes them both misery in the long run, but still wants to remain, friends. And surprisingly, for a scene that’s intended to be a heartbreaking moment, I kinda liked how the writers maturely approached this because it’s exactly like Jackie to consistently never wish any ill-will upon anyone for better or worse. With the help of Marco’s parent’s, they persuade the school principal to transfer him to Mewni by using the “foreign exchange program” as a loophole and before leaving earth, The episode ends when Marco receives a few parting gifts from his friends who all give their apologies for their previous behavior, and after finally giving a respectable farewell to his loved ones, Marco leaves through a dimensional portal that sends him to the outskirts adjacent to Butterfly Castle.

Our Take.

“Demoncism” felt like it was structured in the style of storytelling you’d expect from an episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer where the feelings, metaphors, and angst that adolescent’s deal with are approached with either some fantastical or horrific supernatural twist. And in Tom’s case, his desire to deal with his “inner demons” was quite literal. And after the awkward hand-hold, It makes you wonder if Star & Tom will further rekindle whatever chemistry they had after Club Snubbed.

As for “Sophomore Slump” My only minor gripe is that we didn’t see a lot of Marco & Jackie’s relationship enough for me to be invested in them as a couple other than Jackie briefly mentioning they only dated for “3 Months”. I also really liked how Jackie maturely approached the breakup without getting angry or batshit crazy like how most female cartoon characters negatively approach the subject (I’m looking at you C.J. from Regular Show!). I have no clue what’s going to happen next for Marco, but the bigger question should be how will he react to seeing Star with a semi-reformed Tom?

As usual in most cliche “love-triangle” stories, when you think one relationship obstacle is gone, another one meticulously takes it’s place just to keep the rabid shippers & fandoms guessing. Because at this point, it feels like Tom’s minor change solely exists as a road-block just to delay the possibility of Star & Marco from being a couple of any sort.

Score
7.5/10