Review: The Owl House “Something Ventured, Someone Framed”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Gus’ reign as president of the Human Appreciation Society at Hexside is threatened by a new member, Mattholomule, who seeks to gain power by winning over the other members with fake human tools. The only way Gus sees to stop this is to bring Luz, a full blown human, in to show his credibility. Only problem is that the ban on her is still in full effect, forcing Gus to lie in order to convince her to come with him. Matt gets word of the ban an snitches on them, revealing himself to be simply power hungry and drama thirsty, eventually getting them all thrown in detention.

Little do they know that Eda has had a change of heart about letting Luz attend Hexside and meets with Principal Bump to negotiate dropping the ban, with his condition being Eda cleaning up the messes she left behind when SHE used to go there. Reluctantly, she finishes the work, only for Bump to see Luz, Gus, and Matt breaking out of detention and almost bans her again, but Gus admits he lied and takes on her punishment for her, losing his power at the Society, which Bump gives to Matt. Bump also tells Eda that Luz will be enrolled next semester and that he won’t be telling the Emperor’s Coven about this.

OUR TAKE

One episode to go before the break and it’s focused on…Gus? I mean, I guess since we’ve gotten one about Willow and at least a couple about Amity, it would make sense to give some focus to Luz’s other friend, though frankly I feel next to nothing for him as a character so I wouldn’t say I was chomping at the bit for an episode about him. And aside from getting some more applications of his “illusion” powers, one of which is just making a sentient clone, what we learn about him is that, like Willow, he seems pretty eager to lie to people in order to get around loopholes, but unlike Willow who got to just have her antics be brushed off (remember that she cheated on an exam that she wasn’t prepared for and then got to go into her chosen field anyway), Gus at least gets to keep his friend when he tells the truth, but still loses his role in his club to a guy who literally said that he only wanted power and drama.

And yeah, let’s talk about Mattholomule for a second. He had a pretty believable reason for being such a jerk before, saying that he was just anxious about being the new kid, but that gets tossed aside for him to say he’s just completely selfish and chaotic. I was just having a discussion with someone about whether Dio’s excessive cruelty in the first episode of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure made any sense, to which I responded that at least we see enough of his upbringing to tell us WHY he acts this way. Not so with Matt, who just turns out to be a douche for the sake of having a douchy character. Not saying that every character has to be super complex or sympathetic but we can at least do better than this.

Also going to put my foot down about the “Look Hooo’s Talking” kinda sorta after show. And I wouldn’t even say it really is one since it just piles on evidence that Disney is really trying to force the theorizing and speculation drive that fans had for Gravity Falls, Ducktales, and Amphibia and force it for fans of Owl House even when there’s barely anything to speculate on. Things in the show that should be blink and you miss it moments like Eda’s antics while in school or details about the world for fans to generate interest and curiosity over end up being pushed into the forefront with a magnifying glass as if they don’t expect their audience to be smart enough to find these things themselves so they have to scream at them “PAY ATTENTION TO THAT IT WILL BE IMPORTANT LATER”. I feel like I have all the guessing I could be doing be done for me so my mind never gives it a second thought, knowing that it will EXPLICITLY DISCUSSED if it’s so important. And I don’t think that’s a good move in the long run.