Owl House Spoiler Recap: Elsewhere and Elsewhen

This week’s episode of The Owl House was juicy with new reveals, an emotional reunion with Eda and her dad, and we finally meet Phillip Wittebane in “Elsewhere and Elsewhen.” It was jammed packed so let’s get started.

This was truly Lilith’s episode for so many reasons. While I do think Amity is the best-written character on the show, Lilith is quickly starting to rival her. She was never a full villain in season one but instead, an antagonist. Being an antagonist allowed Lilith to have so many complexities and really explore her as a victim of Belos’ machinations for the last two seasons. Lilith’s development hits one of the central themes of The Owl House which is allowing people to change despite their past.

Luz’s support is a big part of this too. In “Separate Tides,” it was important to see the beginnings of this relationship between Luz and Lilith. I had no doubt that Luz would forgive and accept Lilith because that’s just who Luz is as a protagonist. But part of that was Lilith had to work for it. She had to show her growth and make actual changes to her behavior. It’s an important step between the two that Lilith put in the work to gain Luz’s trust. People make mistakes. They should be allowed to grow and have a chance to make it right.

I adored seeing Lilith in her element in “Elsewhere and Elsewhen” and fully embracing her nerdy side. Maybe I’m biased because I am the cool, nerdy, asexual aunt like Lilith so I see a lot of her in myself. Bless my dear roommate who hears my rants about niche interests all the time. It’s rewarding to see Lilith’s growth over the course of the season since leaving the Emperor’s Coven. It’s also a nice touch that her character model is slowly transforming back into who she used to be. Her hair is curling like it did in her teenage years meaning she’s not straightening it anymore. The curls, like Lilith’s true personality, are coming out.

This space away from her troubled past and time to grow into her own is what allows Lilith to see clearly how Belos manipulated her. She’s immediately suspicious of Phillip Wittebane (who we’ll get to in a minute). He’s too good and far too nice, making her recall Belos giving her all the promises of saving her sister and never follow through with them. With this episode pretty much confirming that Phillip is Emperor Belos, it’s fascinating watching Lilith recognize his abusive behavior. While she still doesn’t connect the two men are the same, she’s savvy enough to warn Luz to be on her guard.

“Elsewhere and Elsewhen” continues to show why Lilith is a key figure into how Belos’ propaganda and misinformation works. As I discussed before in episodes like “Echoes of the Past,” Belos has controlled all the information channels and school systems for some time now. Even when Lilith and Eda were children, they were indoctrinated that wild magic is bad and Belos’ coven system was the proper way to use magic. Raised in this environment, Lilith is wary of the supposedly “savage witches” of the past. To her surprise, they’re perfectly friendly people who are respectful and kind to their neighbors. We quickly find out that Phillip is the problem. It appears he tricks these kind people and leads many of them to their demise. But he manipulates them by appearing weak and frail, a poor human stuck away from home. It’s evil especially knowing the citizens have loved ones lost forever. As Lilith learns more of the truth, the more she’s going to grow into a valuable ally in the fight against Belos.

Lilith punching Phillip was so satisfying to watch too. I could watch that moment on loop for an hour. Someone make a YouTube video of it.

Which brings us to Phillip.

I love that Phillip was an unreliable narrator the entire time. I just want to savor this juicy story beat for a while. The writers were great at making Phillip just vague enough up to this point. It allowed for some threads to be tied in with Luz by making their situations similar. It makes the viewer want to trust him because he’s the only source of knowledge we have at that point. Also, Luz is our only point of reference up to this point about humans in the Boiling Isles. It makes the viewer try and make similarities between the two.

What this crew does so well is showing how misinformation can be sewn into a narrative. From the get go, there were many possible red flags, the biggest being the missing brother. None of Phillip’s journal entries prior to “Elsewhere and Elsewhen” mentioned his brother despite learning about him in “Yesterday’s Lie.” We only see a peek of a drawing this week. But after revisiting that previous episode, the reveals this week make things come into focus more especially with the arrival of another character being Dell Clawthorne.

I’ll get to Dell and Eda in a moment, but first I want to discuss the connections between Dell and the missing Wittebane brother. I’m sure plenty of theories will spawn from this episode about whether or not the Clawthornes are descendants of the brother. They would be well supported. In “Yesterday’s Lie,” one image of the brother has a cardinal on his shoulder. We’ve seen cardinals already in the series, mainly with Hunter’s palisman. It deepens the mystery around Hunter, a witch unable to do magic. In “Elsewhere and Elsewhen,” we see Dell also has a cardinal palisman too, this one a yellow-orange color. There seems to be a growing connection between the missing Wittebane brother and the Clawthorne family.

The cardinal in the old books seems to be with the brother, not Phillip. This makes sense as Phillip is consuming palisman magic as he does as Belos. Perhaps the missing brother treasured palismens causing a split between the brothers. One settled in the Boiling Isles, started a family, and began a trade with carving palisman. This could have possibly become the Clawthorne family as Dell was a renowned palisman carver before his injury. He also has a great relationship with aiding the Bat Queen and urges Eda to continue the tradition by giving her a palistrom seed to grow a new tree. It looks like the other brother, Phillip, grew to hate palisman, consumed them for his own selfish deeds, and became a tyrant ruler.

There is also the possibility that Belos is a spirit or demon inside of Phillip. When he consumes the palisman at the end of the episode, Phillip’s voice melds with Belos’. Perhaps that’s why in last week’s episode, Terra said Belos is interested in meeting Luz despite having met her before. There could be two minds sharing Phillip’s body.

We’ll see in time if these theories are right or not. Still, there are far too many threads starting to weave the Clawthornes, Hunter, and the Wittebane brothers together that cannot be ignored.

Finally, I want to discuss the beautiful moment of Dell and Eda finally talking. Eda has come so far in her story that’s so strongly coded in the struggles of mental health. She’s learned to accept the Owl Beast as part of her life and even takes on a new harpy form to reflect it. Though, just because she’s made all of these strides, it doesn’t mean she’s okay with her past actions.

She still holds so much guilt over injuring her father, an event we witnessed in "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door.” It was a traumatic moment that caused her to run away from home and stay on the run all of these years later. When King asks why she’s avoiding her father, Eda stumbles with her answer. She first says it was the Owl Beast, but then she quickly says it was her. This is a huge step in her continued journey. While it was the curse that prompted it, she’s aware her guilt has kept her father at a distance. She’s scared to face that part of her past doing everything she can to hide.

Despite her efforts, she runs into her dad and finally talks to him. She doesn’t think she deserves forgiveness, which is a heartbreaking moment. The curse isn’t something she asked for and it wasn’t something she could control as a child. Still, she blames herself and doesn’t want her dad to let it go.

Dell is a great father because he clearly doesn’t hold the attack against her. He loves his daughter and wants to be back in his life. He even has an adopted grandson now in King, a truly sweet moment for them to share. If Lilith can find redemption, then the B-plot shares the theme of the episode as well. Eda is allowed to change and that means opening back up to the people in her life. Eda and Dell stayed away from each other out of love, but it wasn’t the right path. I hope now that we get more of Dell so that wound inside of Eda can finally start to heal.

I feel like I should have something to say that’s eloquent and well-written about the Collector, but I got nothing. There have been a lot of hints and possibilities this season about the nature of the Collector and their connection to the Day of Unity. The crescent moon that appears over the character’s face in “Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door” has appeared throughout the show. A notable location is King’s home in “Echoes of the Past” which is littered with moon iconography. It’ll be fun to go back through the show and see where all the hints for the Collector are hidden. But for the time being, all we can do is wait to see how they are.

Some random thoughts to round out Elsewhere and Elsewhen:

-Steve is the most wholesome character on this show. I love that he’s still friends with Lilith after she left the Emperor’s Coven.

-I can’t believe there’s a version of Dora the Explorer in this show with Boots being Flora D'esplora’s palisman. And it’s an extra nice touch that Flora’s voice actor, Eileen Galindo, is the voice of Mami in the show too.

-Eda telling her father about her son! I love King being a Clawthorne and Eda really is the best mom! King is so excited about meeting his grandpa too! It’s adorable!

-Seriously, Lilith punching Phillip is the best part of the episode. I loved it.

-It was a lot of fun seeing the Boiling Isles in the past. I hope we get to spend a little more time there.

“Elsewhere and Elsewhen” was an amazing new episode that raised more questions than answers. It was so much fun seeing Lilith and Luz team up. I can’t wait to see what comes next week.