"A Lying Witch and a Warden" is the first episode of the Disney Channel animated series The Owl House. It premiered on January 10, 2020.
Synopsis
Luz, a self-assured teenage girl, accidentally stumbles upon a portal to a magical world where she befriends a rebellious witch, Eda, and an adorably tiny warrior, King. In order to get home, Luz must help them with a mission.
Plot
Luz is a creative and expressive girl, but this causes trouble at her school. After an incident with her book assignment involving live snakes, her mother, Camila decides to send her to a Reality Check Summer Camp to straighten out her wild imaginative personality. While waiting for the bus to pick her up, a little owl takes her favorite book, The Good Witch Azura. She chases the owl to an old rundown house in the woods where she is immediately transported to a tent filled with weird stuff. The owner is a strange-looking lady who closes the portal behind her when Luz tries to get her book back. The lady reveals herself as Eda the Owl Lady, who happens to be a powerful witch who sells human stuff. She takes her back to her stand, and offers Luz to buy something, like rubber clogs, a deodorant roll, or a TV. Eda becomes impressed with Luz when she gets the TV working, attracting more customers. However, authorities show up and declare both Eda and Luz under arrest. However, Eda gives the law enforcer the slip and flies away with Luz on her magic Owl staff.
Luz learns from Eda that she is in a world called the Boiling Isles, where every myth humans have is caused by a little of their world leaking into theirs including giraffes ("Bunch of freaks!"). They arrive at Eda's home, the Owl House, and meets her little furry "roommate", King. Eda then brings up the reason why she brought Luz to her home. King was once a mighty king of demons until his Crown of Power was stolen many years ago by the Warden Wrath. Now it remains locked away behind a magical force field that only a human can breakthrough. Since Luz is a human, Eda and King ask her to help them get King's crown back, and in return Eda will send her home. Seeing no choice, Luz complies and accompanies them to the Conformitorium, where people are imprisoned for being unsuitable for society.
Luz and King sneak to the top of the tower, where they meet a lot of inmates who have been imprisoned for being different and do not fit in. Luz feels sorry for them, because she can totally relate. Luz and King later regroup with Eda and find where King's crown is being kept. Luz passes through the force field and retrieves the crown, which turns out to be a kid's meal crown and possess no great value whatsoever, except to King. Before making their escape, they are captured by the Warden Wrath who unexpectedly asks Eda out on a date. She rejects Wrath and fights him with King while telling Luz to leave. Luz then comes back, releases the inmates and helps Eda defeat Wrath. After returning to the Owl House, Eda opens the portal so Luz can return home. However, after everything she has been through, Luz feels like she does not belong there and decides to stay and be Eda's apprentice. Eda accepts, on the condition that Luz has to work for her. Afterward, Luz texts her mother that "camp" is going to be great.
Cast
- Sarah-Nicole Robles as Luz Noceda, Azura
- Wendie Malick as Eda Clawthorne
- Alex Hirsch as King, Hooty, Conformitorium Guard, Glidersnake
- Elizabeth Grullón as Camila Noceda
- Roger Craig Smith as Warden Wrath
- Grey DeLisle as Katya
- Dana Terrace as Tiny Nose
Additional Voices
- Keith Ferguson as Principal Hal, Monsters
- Arin Hanson as Eye-Eating Prisoner, Monsters, Guards
- Eden Riegel as Fairy
Gallery
Trivia
- In 2024 the pitch pilot for the series was uploaded online. It was essentially the first episode of the series, but contained numerous differences:
- Camila does not appear in the pilot with Luz giving her presentation, not to her principal, but to her geometry class, much to her embarrassment.
- Amity Blight was to be introduced. She was initially a "foreign exchange student" at Luz's school who, after standing up for her to bullies, tells her that she is leaving, with Luz giving her a crudely drawn picture of the two of them as friends. Luz follows her into the old dilapidated house after Amity accidentally drops her passport and leaves the key in the hole.
- The Boiling Isles initially had a "No Humans Allowed" sign, but this is not the case in the final show.
- Instead of being chased by one of the Emperor's guards, Luz is chased by the Boiling Isles customs agent who upon realizing that the passport she has is not hers, transforms into a terrifying monster.
- Instead of breaking into the Conformitorium to get King's crown back, they break into Hexside, which is actually not named in the pilot.
- Eda has the ability to transform into an owl willingly.
- Lilith Clawthorne was to be introduced as the strict principal of Hexside. She also had the ability to willingly transform into a giant bat monster.
- Luz's relationship with Amity becomes complicated when the former sees the latter scoff at the drawing and throws it into the trash, much to Luz's disappointment. Later, Luz shares the drawing with Eda who thinks it's beautiful. Amity later seems to show intrigue with Luz after seeing her escape and get rid of Lilith.
- The fight at the end of the episode is between Luz, Eda, and King, against Lilith, ending with Eda using her key to send Lilith to another world. Lilith loses her hand, which King keeps for himself, and Luz is forced to break the key to trap Lilith, giving the initial reason why Luz stays in the Boiling Isles.
- Eda was actually going to be working for the Emperor, with the gem on her chest being a way for him to keep track of her. The episode ended with Eda being coerced by one of the Emperor's soldiers into cooperating with brining Luz to him.
- Willow Park, or at least an earlier version of the character, also appeared in the pilot, albeit in a cameo.
- Although this episode premiered in 2020, it was produced in 2019 according to the credits.
- This episode completed production on July 15, 2019.[1]
- While the episode is canonical, as it features the basic set up, there are a couple of inconsistencies that fail to match with the rest of the series:
- It is somewhat implied that having a minor quirk or interest (such as writing fan fiction or eating one's own eyeballs) is frowned upon by the establishment. However, later episodes do not seem to lend much focus on this. Not to mention that the series reveals much stranger characters.
- King is highly addicted to wanting to wear a crown. However, following this episode, he no longer seems to have an interest in wearing one.
- This episode implies that both Eda and King are equally considered wanted fugitives. Later episodes show that King is of no consequence as much as Eda is.
- The theme song is not featured in this episode.
- This episode was released early on DisneyNOW and YouTube a few hours before its television premiere.
- Luz and her mother speak their native language a couple of times in this episode, which is Spanish. When Luz's mother sends her off to camp and when Luz meets King.
- "Cuídate mucho, mija. ¡Qué te vaya bien!" translation "Take care of yourself, girl. Good luck!"
- "¡Ay, que lindo!" translation "Oh how cute!"
- In the Russian release, the episode is re-titled "Liar Witch and Guard Raj".
- When Eda creates a spell circle, the first code is revealed on the bottom of the screen: "T-OO", which translates to "Two".
Allusions
- The title is a play on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
- The Burger Queen cardboard crown is a play on Burger King, which also gives away cardboard crowns.
- Luz's gory death act during a play is similar to Judy Hopps' act from Zootopia.
- A hat resembling the one worn by Dipper Pines can be seen among the items on Eda's market stall.
- The Conspiracy Prisoner's appearance is based on series creator Dana Terrace's self caricature.
Goofs
- In the original airing in Canada, when Luz says "Eda, are you okay?" "Eda" is silenced.
- After Eda's head gets cut off and lands in Luz's hands, she is missing her left ear.
International premieres
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