Eda finally caves.

Luz continues to complain that she wants to go to Hexside with her friends, but she’s still banned from even visiting the campus again.

Luz: Well, I would love to go someday. Better than unpacking boxes in the Eda Coven.

Eda: […] First off, it’s the Bad Girl Coven, and second off, I guess you don’t want in on the t-shirt order, huh?

Luz: I don’t care about t-shirts, Eda. I want to learn magic, and they teach that at Hexside!

After she has some space to mull it over, Eda concludes that if Luz wants to go that bad, she should support her. After all, she’s been at the Owl House for at least a few weeks now, and Eda hasn’t had nearly as much time and energy to teach Luz as Luz has to learn magic.

But that’s just the side plot. The main plot is about a power struggle in the Human Appreciation Society, and the desperate measures Gus takes to sneak Luz into school despite the still extant ban. He tells Luz that he got the ban lifted when all he really did was take down all the wanted posters and hope no one will recognize her.

And they also have to avoid these things.

Luz: That’s new.

Gus: Well, they kind of showed up after your last visit. They smell trouble. Literally.

Well, it’s still better than the soul-sucking creatures that have the added side effect of sucking away your happiness.

Gus did not think this through, as Willow reminds him throughout the episode.

But then again, there’s Mattholomule, a new kid intent on replacing him as president of the HAS.

Mattholomule: A human!

Gus: Not just any human – an expert human.

Luz: Yeah, I’ve been doing this for years.

Honestly, by the end of the episode, you’ll want to see this kid taken down a peg, too.

Eda: Been quite a while since I sat here, huh? I gotta admit, it’s extra weird without you yelling at me for picking fights or stealing.

Principal Bump: I can easily change that. What are you doing here, Edalyn?

Eda: I want to enroll my human Luz at Hexside. And before you get all judgy-

Bump: That’s not a bad idea.

He thinks of Luz more as a foreign exchange student, so he’s surprisingly open to the proposal.

Bump: But before I even consider that, there’s a lot to be answered for.

Eda: Oh, right, yeah. I heard all about that abomination incident.

Bump: Oh, I’m not talking about Luz. I’m talking about the necrotic experiments, the graffiti, the scams, the cheating, Ms. Jenkenmeier’s teeth…the trouble you caused when you were here, Eda.

But Eda’s made up her mind about this, so she proceeds to fix some of her decades-old messes for the sake of her human.

This is where we’re formally introduced to Gus’s brand of magic, illusions (funny enough, Ed and Em are also in the illusions track). This is another thing I prefer about Owl House over Harry Potter: They actually do interesting things with magic! Like Gus making copies of himself to take notes.

Luz: Wow, Gus. You’re good.

Gus: Yeah. I moved up a couple grades.

He is visibly smaller than all the other kids in his class…but we’ll circle back to that later.

Then Matt seemingly backs down from his challenge of Gus’s authority in the face of a prospective humiliating defeat and makes nice with him and Luz…

At least until the rest of the club is gone, when he rats out Luz.

Matt: Oh, boo hoo, I’m sorry, I’m the new kid, I want friends. Ha! No, I want power! And I want drama! And I got one of those right now.

So Gus figures that as long as he’s going to detention to try to save Luz, he might as well bring Matt down with him (by essentially pulling the fire alarm). And yes, this is the titular framing – of Matt by Gus.

Naturally, as soon as they get to detention, Luz chews Gus out for lying to her.

Gus: I was afraid. I acted stupid.

Luz: Yes, you did.

Gus: Being younger than everyone is hard. You’re overlooked, ignored. But at the HAS, I matter. I can make sure no one would ever get left behind. I didn’t want to lose that. I’m sorry.

As someone who skipped a grade (and was also frequently in advanced math classes), that was never my experience. Yes, some people remarked about my age, but the vast majority of people only paid attention to how smart I was. But I can’t discount that it might be the experience of some people.

I’m a bit torn about what would be the worse punishment: Getting sent to the Forbidden Forest and being in mortal peril, or being swallowed by this beastie and brainwashed into a more obedient student. I mean, at least this serves a purpose (and doesn’t involve mortal danger), and it seems the damage isn’t permanent. But overall, Hexside is a much better place with this thing out of commission.

Luz: This is part of the plan, right?

Gus: Or the illusion of a plan!

That’s the power of illusion!

But it turns out they’re only out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Because they just destroyed detention.

Bump: To think that any student of yours would be capable of doing anything but create chaos! Eda, take your student and leave. You are both banned from this campus.

But Gus takes the fall for it, as he IS the whole reason Luz was here in the first place, and once again Principal Bump proves to be a reasonable authority figure. He removes Gus from office (probably for the best, as with Luz at school, he wouldn’t have much time for a club anyway), and doesn’t punish Luz at all.

Eda: I’m only doing this because I have faith in you, and I know you’re too smart to fall for that one-witch-one-coven nonesense. You can learn a lot from the witches here, and maybe teach them some of that Bad Girl Coven magic, too.

Thus, Luz is going to magic school next semester!

Just had to mention that these items from Eda’s school records include one or two Ghostbusters references. But we sadly never got to see these animated.

(it’s still probably better than Hogwarts)

Until next time…