In season two, episode seven of The Owl House, “Eda’s Requiem” Eda fears empty nest syndrome and joins a anti-coven rebel group led by an old flame.

This was a gorgeous episode. The sound, the animation, and even the storylines were woven together into an almost epic-like episode that is perfect for properly introducing the bard coven and what master-level magic can do in this world. In addition to furthering the overarching plots of The Owl House — Belos’s big mysterious plan for both the Boiling Isles and the human realm, King’s mysterious past, various character arcs, the mystery of trans-dimensional transportation between a magical world full of witches and Connecticut, and so on — there’s still a large amount of fantastic worldbuilding and delightfully entertaining new characters popping up in this second season. Usually, it’s the middle seasons that start to drag a bit, but so far The Owl House has just been getting better and better.

I love that an episode dealing with Eda’s fear of her kids one day leaving her ends with a cheeky heartwarming bait and switch and some Eda backstory that’s purely wholesome and not rife with underlying tragedy for once — finding baby King was more a King backstory and had the underlying sadness of something having happened to King’s dad for him to end up mostly alone. The surprise horror at the end of the episode is just something I’ve come to expect with season two episodes now. In retrospect, the brands witches get when they join a coven, which they are forced into doing by law, secretly being a way to literally control people is so incredibly obvious that I feel like kicking myself for not even entertaining the idea before.

The covens heads we meet in this episode are just great. Make no mistake, Darius and Eberwolf are probably not-so-great people, but they are so entertaining, especially paired together. There’s something delightfully ironic about a character so concerned with the appearance of things specializing in magic that’s about controlling messy purple goop. I didn’t even expect to see any of these characters so soon, let alone Raine Whispers. I had figured that Raine was just a namedrop for a future episode.

Raine’s great. The fact that they’re the head of Bard Coven despite being absolutely terrible at giving speeches even when the speech is just a pep talk between two people is both hilarious and inspiring. I am personally ashamed to have once thought would betray Eda after seeing what her curse does to anything magical. Now, I’m worried for them. Clearly, their free will was stolen but what else did Kikimora do when she activated the coven brand? Are they just trapped inside a thorny caccoon until Belos needs them for his obviously evil ceremony or can they still walk and talk on command? Does it suck up a witch’s magic? Whatever it is, I’m sure Eda will be appropriately horrified and guilt-ridden should she ever find out what happened to them.

At least I have the nice — if not kind of mean — twist regarding what King wanted to talk to Eda about to fall back on. I’m kind of surprised that King’s legal surname wasn’t Clawthorne this whole time, but the scene was beyond heartwarming and that’s all that matters. Everyone knows the King and Luz are Eda’s kids, even Raine knew and all they saw a single photo of them together, now it’s just official on King’s part.

Also, we get a glimpse at King’s dad. Maybe. It’s either his dad, a relative, or a member of his species who probably served under his father. Either way, it’s someone who at least recognizes the symbol on King’s pendant. Now, how long will it take for that person to get to King and finally answer some questions?

The Little Things

• Bard track is my new favorite track but that’s probably just my years of strings training coming to the surface
• If Eda and Raine weren’t a thing, they should be by the end of this show
• Coven heads are Powerful
• Darius is my favorite but Eberwolf is a close second
• How many followers does Eda have?
• “Why are you like this?”
• Darius thinks Alador is a hack

Episode 6 Episode 8