To the carnival!

This aptly-named episode is indeed about fairly insignificant troubles in the grand scheme of things. And also people getting shrunk.

King is acting particularly doggishly today as Luz heads off to school.

King: You- you really think she’s coming back this time?

Eda: Yes, she’ll be back. She always comes back. It’s cute that you miss her, though.

King: The King of Demons misses nobody! I wouldn’t care if she came through this door right now!

King: You’re back! I didn’t miss you at all!

It turns out school’s cancelled due to a pixie infestation (if they’re anything like the pixies of Harry Potter, I totally understand).

So King wants to hang out with Luz, and they just so happen to receive a flier in the mail about a pop-up carnival. The kids think it’s the perfect opportunity to have fun and hang out, while Eda thinks it’s the perfect opportunity to run scams. So they’re all fully onboard with the outing.

At least until they discover who sent them the flier.

Luz: Aren’t you mad at us for destroying your stand?

King: Oo! And destroying his life! That was the best part.

Tibbles: No, no, no! I should thank you. After my stand was destroyed, I reevaluated my life and found my true calling!

They’re still wary of him, especially when he tries to get them to drink a suspicious magical liquid (which Eda spots as the obvious trap that it is), but Luz and King are promptly distracted by the various attractions, and thus they gradually forget that someone with an obvious grudge against them brought them there in the first place.

Luz: That’s a friendship bracelet.

King: Is that a type of deadly weapon?

Luz: A weapon of love! It’s basically a declaration to the whole world that you’re the best of friends.

King: Oh, that’s way safer than becoming blood brothers!

King is set on winning the friendship bracelets for him and Luz (by playing a bunch of carnival games), but just as they set out to do so, Willow and Gus show up.

Gus: We figured it’s a trap, since we squashed his stand with a walking house.

Willow: But who cares? This place has a Scarris Wheel!

Poor King is feeling left out, which makes him particularly susceptible to dumb schemes.

King: Today was supposed to be about me and Luz, see? But now she’s distracted by her cool new school friends.

“Obvioso”: What if I were to tell you that there was a way to make all those problems disappear?

King: I’d say that sounds illegal. I would also say go on.

Well, this is sure to be a foolproof plan that couldn’t POSSIBLY backfire!

He does have some second thoughts when he’s handed a spray bottle that will make his “problems” (Gus and Willow) disappear, even if he’s led to believe the effects are only temporary. But then he’s suddenly left alone with them, and Gus isn’t taking him seriously at all, and before he knows it, he’s accidentally splashed them.

But unbeknownst to King, he only shrunk them.

Gus: It’s so hairy! Why is it so hairy?

Willow: Because up close, everything is hairy.

As soon as Luz gets back, she says that she’ll play games with King like he wanted in the first place, just because she promised to win the friendship bracelets (and believing that Gus and Willow are enjoying the rides on their own).

Eventually, those two lure Luz into a house of mirrors with a cotton candy trail so that they can show up in the funhouse mirrors.

And I just find it amusing that Anime Luz has pink hair, which is sometimes associated with Latinx characters, and other times with the leader of a team of magical girls.

But once Luz discovers what happened to her friends (and the role King played), they’re alone in the house of mirrors, and Tibbles takes the opportunity to shrink Luz and King as well.

Tibbles: You ruined my livelihood. So now, you’ll feed my livelihood!

Even Willow isn’t much use against the menagerie of Tibbles’ Tiny Terrors.

King: Willow, Gus! I’m sorry for poofing you. And Luz, I’m sorry for taking you away from your friends. I know you’ll eventually go home, and now you’re spending more time at school. I just…want to be around you!

It’s cute that he misses her. Until he does something incredibly stupid.

But he manages to fix it, too, when he gets Tibbles to change them back to normal.

Along with all the other “tiny terrors”. Who subsequently attack him.

Willow: Looks like we ruined his life for a second time.

Gus: We’re on a roll!

Then King makes peace with Gus and Willow.

King: I’m sorry, Luz. Demons do crazy things when they’ve been missing somebody.

Luz: And can I tell you a secret? I’ve been missing you, too.

I prefer this episode to the previous Luz & King episode, “Sense and Insensitivity”, mainly because they actually get some development here, where in the other they pretty much just resolved the plot went back to normal. At least they express their feelings.

Next time: Understanding Willow…