Review: The Owl House “Escape of the Palisman”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Eda’s curse starts to manifest faster and stronger, forcing her to turn into her owl form even once taking her elixirs. King decides to exploit this by using beast-Eda to intimidate some kids on the playground, but ultimately decides Eda is more important when Animal Control almost captures her.

Meanwhile, Luz decides to take Eda’s Palisman, Owlbert to go see a “grudge-by” game when the bus leaves without her, Willow, and Gus, but ends up flying out of control and injuring Owlbert in the crash. He flees into the woods where he is protected by the Bat Queen, who herself was once a Palisman and now protects those who have fled abusive and forgetful masters. Luz completes some trials to prove her dedication, gaining back Owlbert’s trust and the Bat Queen’s respect.

Everyone returns home, with Eda being turned back by King doing funny stuff to make her laugh, but now she’s aware that the elixirs are no longer working.

OUR TAKE

With this crazy quarantine going on, you might think you at least have more time to watch more Owl House, right? Well, turns out this is the last episode before the show goes on a break of indeterminate length! Yeah, no one knows when the show will return to premiere its back nine, but with one and a half seasons still on the way, it’s really just a matter of time until we resume our journey in the Boiling Isles.

But before we socially distance ourselves from this show for the time being, let’s discuss this episode. And I gotta say, it’s not a great midseason finale to leave us on. There’s some progression on the kinda-sorta mystery of Eda’s curse, which seems to be the overarching plot of the season so far (next to Luz’s growing magical ability), but the most we get for it is that it’s getting worse, the elixirs don’t work anymore, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand Eda doesn’t particularly care how she got it or who she got it from. Which sure makes it super compelling for me to keep track of, boy howdy! Then again, the curse doesn’t seem to lead to that many bad things other than almost getting captured. You’d think it would tip off the authorities since Lilith definitely knows about the curse too and is on the hunt for her sister, but this show hasn’t been great at exploring far reaching consequences at the moment.

The more interesting bit of the episode that actually helps to elevate it above the others is Eda’s plot to get back Owlbert. I didn’t really expect Owlbert to be an actual character beyond being Eda’s staff, but it turns out he serves as a pathway to exploring a pretty cool bit of worldbuilding with the Palismans, who are kinda like Pokemon or personal spirit animals for witches. Luz going through trials does work as a test of her character to be kind to beings who she relies on, though I kinda wish Eda had been there to either defend her OWN ownership of Owlbert, or at least show us more about how he was made.

But that’s the first half of Owl House Season 1. No word yet on when the other half will be hitting the airwaves in these odd times, though hopefully it will be sometime before the end of the year. Until then remember to stay six feet away from others for awhile, unless you want to be cursed yourself!