The Owl House: Yesterday’s Lie Review
Yesterday’s Lie dealt a big emotional blow as Luz has to finally face her mom and what that means for her present and future. The reflection realm is representative of this situation as Luz is “reflecting” on her choices and their impact by directly facing the consequences.
Before dealing with her mom Luz has to first face the existence of her “doppelgänger”. After a year of referring to them as “creepy Luz”, we discovered how untrue that title was as Vee turns out to be a pure creature who wants the same thing as Luz, a place to belong.
Luz and Vee both felt trapped. Luz felt trapped by societal expectations influenced by views of her quirks and passions, she was going to be sent to a camp that would encourage pushing away those qualities and conforming more to what society expects. Meanwhile Vee was literally caged in the sense that she was created (brought back) only to be held in captivity to be studied. Both felt trapped in a path being dictated by others and acted to break away from it and find a sense of belonging. For Luz that was the Isles and for Vee that was with Camila.
Luz didn’t only choose to stay in the Boiling Isles because she wanted to avoid camp but also because, “Us weirdos have to stick together”. She felt like she finally found people who’d be more understanding and accepting of her and a world that embraces her passions. A sense of belonging. Despite this that does not change the fact that she did run away from her life at home as Vee emphasizes. Vee tells Luz that she resents her for running away but is grateful that she did. Vee doesn’t see why Luz would run away because of the good things Luz did have, but it allowed Vee to take advantage of the situation to gain belonging from what Luz left behind.
While it’s amazing that Luz found what she did, it’s an important reminder to not take for granted what she had before and still had the potential to gain. We see that while Luz is afraid of the social interaction in the human realm, Vee isn’t and the kids actually embrace her weirdness. It shows that even away from the Isles there’s still an opportunity to find people who will love and embrace you for who you are. While Luz got along with Gus and Willow right away there were some like Amity where things weren’t as easy. Luz kept trying, and eventually Amity grew to love and embrace Luz for who she is both shows Luz she is capable of not being made fun of and receiving that love but also that social interactions that are more challenging at first can be worked through and good can be found in them. But her past negative social experiences in the human realm bring her insecurities back to the surface and make her see that social potential as not being a possibility in that setting.
This episode also shows how caring Camila is. Actions like driving Vee she thought was Luz to camp, embracing Luz’s story even if she doesn’t believe it at first, and how when Vee was clearing out Luz’s stuff and says its due to what she learned from camp Camila’s reaction to this is one of sadness and regret. This feeling comes into play again when she hears Luz say staying on the Isles was the best decision she could’ve made.
It’s a challenging scene to process because while we know how much the Isles have given Luz, helped her, and staying was not to hurt her mom, Camila immediately blames herself and neglects Luz’s perspective.
Invalidating her passions “trying to live out some witch fantasy”
The first aspect of this exchange is Camila asking Luz if she chose to stay to try to live out “some witch fantasy”. She puts Luz’s passions in the form of blame, again invalidating the importance of them to her. While we saw her express regret earlier in the episode, this moment is a reminder of how Camila doesn’t fully understand the significance of Luz’s passions in her life and how they help provide a sense of belonging and happiness that she struggles to find. This showed how Luz and Camila need to talk things out more.
The line “Did you hate living with me that much” really hits
First she blames Luz then herself. This could come from a place of general self blame or there could be more involved in the line with the potential of Camila dealing with a divorce in the past which could expand that self blame to how others view her because no matter how hard she tries everyone leaves.
But as Luz says Camila was never the reason she made the choice she did. While her mom wanted to send her to camp her choice to stay came from seeking a feeling of belonging. She sees belonging with her mom as she has been trying so hard to get back to her but she also sees belonging in the Isles especially as it’s a place she can more actively express and stay true to herself. She just wants for her mom to understand that and love her for who she is, weirdness and all.
While it’s clear that Camila loves and wants what is best for Luz, that protective instinct and insecurity causes Camila to not fully take in Luz’s perspective and continue to feel pushed to dictate Luz’s path, not allowing her to make her own choice. This was a moment of emotional extremity so while Luz did promise to stay when she gets back to the human realm hopefully in the future they can have another discussion or experience that shows Luz being fully honest about how important what she found in the Isles is to her and in return Camila can be more open in recognizing that importance and give Luz more freedom to make her own choices.
Theories are running wild again. We got more background on the history of Philip and more insight into the possible history of Belos and Hunter.
Last episode one of my noted possibilities is Belos could be a failed Grimwalker because of eye color difference and appearance damage, the introduction of brothers makes me think there’s more chance he’s Philip as I noted as a second possibility. The brother thing can explain the eye color and as I’ve said after prior episodes, the damage could be due to aging stuff or effect of wild magic. Another aspect of the Philip possibility is all the acknowledgment of both Belos and Philip experiencing loss and with the introduction of a brother it’s another factor in that as Eda’s mom mentioned only one human so it’s a high possibility the brother lost his life early on.
With this new knowledge and imagery, Hunter most likely a clone of one of the brothers. Similar looking hair pieces on the statues and Little Rascal can be seen in the image of the brothers in the book. He was either created by Belos or Philip if Belos is not Philip as a means to handle loss and accomplish the necessities with The Day of Unity. The symbol on the Gravestone sign also shares similarities to The Emperor’s Coven Crest creating more ties between Belos and the brothers.
Random things I loved seeing
Fans became obsessed with the beta character designs. I’ve honestly probably seen more art with their beta designs than the actual show designs and I’ve even done beta Amity art. So after all of that hype it was so cool to see Luz’s beta design referenced in this episode.
Fans of the show Gravity Falls also probably noticed how the photo of younger Eda signed Marylin could potentially be a reference to Stan’s ex wife Maylin as the name, descriptors, and general story seem to fit in line with Eda. This mixed with Dana having previously worked on Gravity Falls, Alex’s involvement with the show, and previous easter eggs from other shows like Amphibia are all signs that there is a high possibly that this is the case.
I loved seeing more of Camila and her relationship with Luz tested after how much build up there was to this moment. I also loved how this episode reminded us that despite Camila’s actions of wanting to send Luz to camp and not fully recognizing her perspective at points, she still really cares about Luz, will be there for her, and wants what is best for her. Both want what is bet for Luz. While they currently have differing perspectives on what that is, hopefully they can come together in the end to find a place where everyone is happy. But we definitely have more angst coming before then as this was supposed to be “the happy part of the season” so I’m very excited but totally not prepared for what’s coming next.
