Is everything okay?

Here’s an answer to one thing I’ve been wondering for a while: In a world that generally runs on magic, how does Luz charge her phone? The answer is apparently literal lightning bugs! But that’s beside the point.

The main point here is that Luz, rather than communicating her actual needs, instead tries to solve everyone else’s problems.

Luz: Today is going to be a productive day of problem-solving!

So first she tries to contact Hunter on Penstagram.

OF COURSE he’d be a fan of King’s self-insert power fantasy. And of course he shares pics of his adorable pet.

Eda: Hmm…you’re avoiding something. Spill it.

Can’t get much past the Owl Mama.

Luz: Maybe I am…okay, I definitely am. Every year, me and Mom have this little ritual we do. It’s nothing big, I just miss her, that’s all.

King: What you need is a healthy distraction from your problems. Like breakfast!

Just as an aside, Luz is starting to grow her hair out – it’s not clear whether or not it’s intentional, but it’s certainly a thing.

Amity: Luz! I have a problem, and it could distract us all day.

Luz: Tell me all about it and don’t spare a single detail.

To be fair, Amity does have a legitimate conundrum on her hands, but this is more of an UNhealthy distraction for Luz.

And it involves underground wrestling. Weird how that specific pastime keeps showing up in cartoons…

Alador: Mittens! Didn’t see you there.

Amity: Clearly. So do you think you’ll be able to take me to the brawl tonight?

Alador: No. Tonight they’re holding the Emperor’s Coven tryouts. Your mother already signed you up and I’ve prepared a chaperone to make sure you get there safely.

Amity: You mean, “to make sure I get there.” Dad, I don’t want to go to coven tryouts. I want to enter the Brawl, and maybe win the champion belt, like you did.

Alador: I goofed off a lot back then, but you have a bright future and shouldn’t waste it on that nonsense.

Alador is the more reasonable of Amity’s parents, but he’s still an overprotective dad.

Amity: The Bonesborough Brawl is the one cool thing my dad did before joining the Abomination Coven. It would have been nice to share something with him.

Luz: Well, hey! I’m here to help. You ditch the tryouts and enter the Brawl.

Amity: What?

Luz: Come on, you should know I always go for the chaotic route. And if you win, maybe you could use it as a chance to tell your dad that you don’t want to join a coven anymore.

Yeah, I don’t know how Amity could’ve expected any other advice from Luz.

And naturally, her siblings fully support the chaotic route, even donating their “concealment stones” to the endeavor.

Em: We’re proud of you, sis.

Ed: Yeah, you’re becoming more of a delinquent every day.

THESE TWO!

Also, the concealment stone is yet another example of people using magic for more mundane purposes (it might have originally been intended for disguises, but Ed and Em just use it as an easy way to look more presentable).

Luz (internally): Wow! Amity’s got this in the bag. Guess I, uh, don’t need to do much. I can just sit back and think about…things…

She desperately wants to not be alone with her thoughts, so she ends up entering the Brawl, too.

Amity: Is everything okay? Eda told me it’s a special day for you.

Luz: She did? I mean, it’s nothing for you to worry about. Not even worth talking about! Really, I just want to help you. Besides, can’t let you have all the fun.

Luz, you’re not communicating again!

Meanwhile, Eda’s keen on getting news from the castle (mostly, but not exclusively, about Raine), and since Warden Wrath is at the Brawl, she cooks up a scheme (or rather, a potion) to make him talk.

Ed: So, the blabber serum should get your ex to tell you about your other ex? Man, being an adult gets complicated.

Eda: Warden Wrath is not my- King, can you stop telling people that? […] Wrath may know why my…friend can’t seem to remember me, and it has something to do with the Day of Unity, but with this, he’ll tell me everything I need to know.

Ed’s been feeling a bit useless today (since Em knows some healing magic, she’s the one tending to the girls), so when Eda asks for his help, he’s happy to oblige.

King: You’re enjoying this, aren’t you, Blight brother?

Ed: It’s just nice to be taken seriously for once.

King: Yeah, I know what you mean.

Then Amity’s abomaton “chaperone” shows up again (they’d distracted it for a few hours with a fetch quest), and Luz, being VERY distracted today, thinks the best solution is hitting it. Even when it elicits an alarm.

Amity: You didn’t touch it, right? Dad filled this thing with alarms.

Luz: Uh, of course not.

Just a series of unfortunate decisions…

Then, just when Amity’s ready to fight for the belt, her dad shows up to spoil the fun.

Alador: Not only did you ditch the coven tryouts, but someone set off your abomaton’s alarm. I just followed its signal.

Amity: Luz…did you lie to me earlier?

Luz: I didn’t want to worry you.

Amity: Well I am worried! You’ve been acting wierd all day, and now I’m in trouble. What is going on with you?

Luz: It’s nothing, really. Seriously, it’s nothing.

JUST TALK TO YOUR GIRLFRIEND ALREADY!

Alador: Mittens, go round up Edric and Emira. We’re leaving.

Amity: But-

Alador: And if we beg, maybe we can sign you up for the next tryout.

Amity: No. I’m not going anywhere with you. Either of you.

Then she grabs one of Luz’s invisibility glyphs and takes off. Naturally, Luz runs after her.

And she just so happens to run to the tree they made from Grom and it is too precious. But she’s still upset about Luz’s behavior.

Amity: I’ve always wanted to enter this brawl. I thought it would be fun to bring home the belt, and I thought I could understand my dad better. But then you joined the competition. And then you tried to mess with that abomaton on your own? And then you lied about it! You’ve been acting strange all day. Does it have something to do with the human realm?

Luz: Okay, okay. I don’t talk about this cause it happened, like, a long time ago, and it’s like, totally not an issue anymore, but, uh, today’s the anniversary of my dad passing away. That’s not an excuse for what I did. Like I said, it happened a while ago, so I didn’t want to bring it up…

Luz: He always brought us flowers on our birthday, so after he passed away, we started picking flowers for each other. And then we’d visit his grave, and me and my mom would spend the day together. It’s nice, but this year I’m not with her, and…I don’t have any flowers. And when you told me about the problem with your dad, I don’t know. Maybe I was jealous, or just needed a distraction. I was dumb. I’m sorry.

Maybe it was just being away from her mom for the first time, but sometimes you’re just bothered when you think you should be “over” a loss. And at least she was finally able to talk about what was bothering her, which can be hard when you’re with a new friend group, because you don’t want to wallow in a pain that “should” be in the past.

Amity: I don’t know what rituals you have in the human realm, but I’ll help you pick some flowers, and we can do something here!

She is a very good GF.

Meanwhile, Ed rushed the potion, resulting in the Warden turning into this.

Eda: We have to turn him back to normal.

Ed: Well, if the heat from the firebee honey caused the potion to mutate, then maybe something cold would reverse it?

Eda: We don’t have time for a new potion!

Luz: You don’t need one. I can handle this.

Because she and Amity heard the ruckus, and of course they’re going to help.

Luz: Thank you, for listening. I can’t wait to pick flowers with you.

these two

Amity: I’m making my own choices from now on.

So Amity works together with her dad to subdue the mutated Warden while Eda flies Luz over to drop some snow glyphs on him, with the desired results.

Eda: What’s going on at the castle? What’s really gonna happen on the Day of Unity? Have Raine’s memories been altered?

[…]

Wrath: I don’t know about Raine, but I have heard some things. The Day of Unity is supposedly going to unite us with the Titan, but some of us don’t think this new world will be very inviting to magickind, wild or not.

Eda: Illusions, beastkeeping, and potion magic? Keep it up, kid. You’ve got a future in wild magic.

Em: I want a t-shirt, too!

Luz really should’ve gotten a t-shirt BEFORE she went to Hexside.

And Amity finally gets to talk to her dad.

Alador: What? You don’t want to join the Emperor’s Coven anymore? But that’s- that’s always been your dream!

Amity: No, that’s always been Mom’s dream. And you just went along with it. I bet you didn’t even know I was dating Luz!

Alador: Edalyn’s kid?

Amity: See? You don’t talk to us anymore. You’re too busy making these monsters for the Emperor and Mom’s too busy trying to dye my hair green.

Alador: I…I like your new hair color. It’s abomination colored.

Amity: Finally someone gets it. Can you tell Mom that?

Alador: I’ll talk to her.

Then Luz is trying (and failing) to find any flowers to pick.

Amity: How do you get [the glyph] to do what you want?

Luz: You’ve gotta know what you need. I can’t believe I didn’t try this first. My head’s really on backwards today.

I’d been wondering how that worked! It seems a good imagination is an asset with magic.

Then they tie the flowers to a balloon and send it off.

Amity: Do you think they’ll reach the human realm?

Luz: Probably doesn’t work that way, but it’s a nice thought, right?

they are too precious

There was some good character development here for both Amity and Luz, but it’s especially nice to see more about Luz’s background. And they even managed to include a taste of the larger plot, which is pretty necessary this late in the show (there’s only 10 episodes left!).

Until next time…