"Hollow Mind" is the thirty-fifth episode of the Disney Channel animated series, The Owl House. It premiered on April 23, 2022, and is sixteenth episode in the second season.
Synopsis[]
A magical mishap transports Luz and Hunter into a new mindscape...and this one is a twisted nightmare.
Plot[]
Luz wakes up to find herself inside a mysterious gallery with portraits of Emperor Belos. Hunter is with her too, and according to him, they are inside the Emperor's mind, and he blames Luz. As explained in a flashback, Hunter was searching the Night Market for a group of witches plotting to invade the Emperor's mind while Luz, Eda, and King are looking to by some witch's wool to fix Luz's cape. Unfortunately, no one is willing to help or sell them any wool because of Belos' propaganda against wild magic. Luz hates that everyone is blindly loyal to Belos and wants to prove that everything he has told them is all lies. However, nobody is willing to risk change unless they are really convinced. When she spots Hunter in the market, she goes after him for answers. She catches him while trying to arrest the witches trying to invade the Emperor's mind. The three hooded witches escape, and Hunter ends up setting off the spell that takes them into Emperor Belos' mind, which makes him the one who got them inside Belos' mind.
Once inside, Luz sees this as an opportunity to find out the truth about Belos. However, the Emperor's mind seems different compared to Willow's. Instead of trees, it's a corridor of paintings; Hunter, having read about mindscapes, states that mindscapes reflect the individual. Hunter takes Luz's accusations about Belos as nothing more than nonsense. He strongly believes that his uncle is good person who dedicated his life to protect all of witchkind from wild magic. While looking around, they meet what appears to be the inner Belos, but as a child. Suddenly, another inner Belos figure with multiple eyes appears and attacks Luz and Hunter. They end up falling through the walls and through a black void before landing safely in the middle of a creepy deteriorating forest. This is Belos' real mind, and that gallery was made of all the lies he tells. But this does not convince Hunter, and believes they are being punished for probing Belos' inner self. Suddenly, they are spooked by Eda, King, and Flapjack on a rabbit walkie-talkie that Luz had earlier. Luz tells Eda about their situation, and Eda promises to get her out. When asked if they encountered the Inner Belos, Luz asks back if a person can have two inner selves. Such a thing is unheard of for Eda but recalls stories of strong emotions manifesting. In the meantime, Luz and Hunter have to do their best to avoid getting caught by the Inner Belos otherwise they will be devoured by his mindscape and be dragged down into his subconscious forever.
Eda, King, and Flapjack hurry back to the Owl House, lock the whole place down, and start work on making a return spell. But since Eda has no magic, it is going to be difficult. Little do they know that the three cloaked witches from earlier, who are in fact Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf, have followed them, and are set to help save Luz and Hunter from afar.
Finding Kid Belos, Luz suggests this may be the Emperor's sense of guilt, which Hunter finds unlikely, rationalizing it must be a form of innocence and pure intentions. Suddenly, as the Inner Belos starts chasing them, Kid Belos leads them into one of the Emperor's memories. In the first one, they see Belos preaching against wild magic, before explosions set by what seems to be a younger version of the Golden Guard are masked as the work of wild witches; Belos scolds him for nearly taking his head off. As they exit the memory, Hunter tries to make up excuses for his uncle's actions.
In the second memory, Belos' scare tactics had succeeded and had convinced several witches to allow themselves to be branded with coven sigils. The sigils cause them to become catatonic, leaving Belos disappointed as he ordered the Golden Guard to collect their Palismen. As Luz and Hunter exit the memory, the latter stubbornly rationalizes that Belos was misremembering, even contradicting himself about the facts of how mindscapes work.
In the third memory, Luz is shocked to discover Belos in possession of the Portal. They watch the memory unfold and learn that Belos is working with a mysterious shadow figure called the Collector, and learn the Day of Unity will bring about a draining spell that will wipe out all life in the demon realm. The Collector then hid as Hunter returns with the Portal key. After sending his nephew away, the Collector teased Belos about making copies of Hunter just to destroy them, and that Hunter is the latest version. Belos calmly defends that he simply tells Hunter that Titan had big plans for just so he'd follow orders and that it hurts every time Hunter chooses to betray him.
This realization finally shatters Hunter's beliefs. When they leave the memory they discover a forest of shattered Golden Guard masks, masks of the previous Golden Guards. Suddenly, Kid Belos uses all the items he had collected from the memories to create a trap for the monstrous Inner Belos. Luz and Hunter realize "Inner Belos" is actually the souls of all the Palismen he absorbed, and the child Belos is the real Inner Belos. As the collective Palismen are restrained, Kid Belos morphs into the Emperor himself, and he darkly greets them.
Hunter confronts Belos for his lies but the Emperor expresses his disappointment, remarking that out of all the grimwalkers, Hunter bears the closest resemblance to "him", before dragging him down to his subconscious, despite Luz's efforts to save him. Infuriated by his actions, Luz threatens to tell everyone about the Day of Unity and about how he has been lying about the Titan for years. Belos is not unshaken by her threats and reveals more about himself. He is actually a witch hunter, and is none other than Philip Wittebane. Luz refuses to believe it but it is true.
Meanwhile, Eda has failed to create return spell to bring back Luz and Hunter. But she unexpectedly receives a gift from a "secret admirer". It is the Teleportation potion into the mindscape. But it needs a big power source, and the only thing they have is titan blood from Amity's glove. There is not much left, but in order to save Luz they have to use it.
Back inside Belos' mind, Belos has Luz cornered as he goes on telling her what happened to him all those years ago. He had to change his name after he was run out of all the towns. And Hunter is actually a grimwalker, who in a way is a replica of an old friend he once knew. When Luz asks why he is doing all this, Belos tells her that, as a witch hunter, he will do whatever it takes to save humanity from evil. Luz disagrees, and tells him the only evil is him. Belos in response tries to attack Luz, but Hunter, who had escape from the subconscious using the glyphs in Luz's jacket, shows up to save Luz. Together they escape Belos's mind and return to the Owl House, both shaken up by everything they have seen. Hunter is the most shaken of all as everything he knew about Belos and himself was a lie. Knowing what Belos might do to him, he rips off the Golden Guard cloak and runs away in panic, followed by Flapjack. Luz tries to stop him, but he has already fled. Eda, King, and Hooty wait to hear what Luz saw.
Cast[]
- Sarah-Nicole Robles as Luz Noceda
- Wendie Malick as Eda Clawthorne
- Alex Hirsch as King, Hooty
- Zeno Robinson as Hunter
- Matthew Rhys as Emperor Belos
- Alex Lawther as Philip Wittebane
- Fryda Wolff as The Collector, Kid Belos
Additional voices[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- It was hinted in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen" that Belos was Philip Wittebane, which is officially confirmed in this episode. Not only that, but he is also revealed to be a witch hunter.
- In his mind, there are torn portraits of him and a person who looks like Hunter, confirming that Philip has a brother and Hunter is supposed to be a grimwalker of him.
- Hunter is revealed to be a grimwalker, and there were others before him.
- Philip says that Hunter and the previous grimwalkers are made out of someone he knew.
- The past Golden Guards before Hunter were revealed in the dark truth events of Belos's memories, as well as glimpses of their fates in the frames that were located in a section of his mindscape that serve as their graves above their broken masks.
- Philip being a witch hunter could be why Belos may have named his grimwalker "Hunter".
- Hunter says Luz's name for the first time.
- Darius and Eberwolf are both revealed to be apart of Raine Whispers' rebellion against Emperor Belos.
- Darius was also hinted to care about Hunter, from the way he acted after he heard Hooty mentioning the Golden Guard being in trouble to Flapjack. As well as Hunter mentioning Darius being sad in one of the memory frames in the gallery.
- The introduction is cut short again.
- The hidden code is found in one of the memory trees when Kid Belos sets off his trap. Translated, it says "Skies".
- Luz brings up the events of "Understanding Willow".
- Hunter reveals his Palisman's name to be "Flapjack".
- Child Belos' wooden sword resembles the one which Cubbi Gummi owns and uses against Ogres and other enemies.
- A number of things are revealed in this episode:
- Belos and a previous golden guard have been destroying towns to make it look like wild witches were attacking them.
- The Coven Sigils are shown to drain people.
- Belos never talk to the titan, he's been talking to the Collector who plans to free on the Day of Unity.
- This is the last time Hunter wears the Golden Guard suit and cloak.
International premieres[]
- April 24, 2022 (Canada)
- June 17, 2022 (Belgium, the Netherlands)
- July 4, 2022 (Portugal)
- July 30, 2022 (France)
- August 6, 2022 (Germany)
- August 7, 2022 (Israel)
- August 22, 2022 (Italy) (Premiere on Disney+)
- September 5, 2022 (Latin America, Brazil)
- September 8, 2022 (United Kingdom and Ireland)
- September 12, 2022 (Poland)
- September 21, 2022 (Japan)
- September 26, 2022 (Bulgaria, Romania)
- March 15, 2023 (Spain) (Premiere on Disney+)
External links[]
