"Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door" is the eighth episode of the second season of The Owl House, and the twenty-seventh episode overall.
It premiered on July 31, 2021.
Synopsis
Hooty tries to help King, Eda, and Luz with their problems, but it doesn't go as planned.[2]
Plot
The episode begins with Hooty writing a letter to Lilith, telling her about the time he helped Luz, Eda, and King with their problems. It all started after Hooty received Lilith's recent letter to him. In the letter, Lilith expresses concern that Hooty feels unimportant, given how he stays put while Luz, Eda, and King are off on adventures. However, she thinks that as the Owl House itself, Hooty must care for its residents, which is a worthy purpose. Lilith's words inspire Hooty, and he decides to live up to them by going to help everyone. He discovers that King's voice is cracking and jokes that he's going through puberty, causing King to leave the room in frustration. Hooty tries to bond with Eda over King growing up, only to discover that she is tirelessly preparing herself for whatever Emperor Belos plans next. Hooty points out that whenever Eda stresses like this, it triggers her curse, but Eda leaves the room, blasting an air horn to stay awake. Luz then asks everyone to keep it down as they are scaring the echo mouse. She then tries to voice her concerns about not getting home but blurts out her worries about impressing Amity instead, prompting her to run away out of embarrassment. This gives Hooty the idea to try and help all three of them at once.
Hooty starts by trying to help King, who wants to know about his demon type so he can learn more about his past. Concerned that he won't accept his help willingly, Hooty swallows King and takes him to the tower, where he gives him a presentation on Demon Puberty. King groans at the thought of having a health class taught by Hooty, but he explains that he's simply trying to help King figure out what type of demon he is. He points out that he's the only other demon nearby, so King doesn't have a choice anyway. Hooty then teaches him about the three types of demons: Bug, Biped, and Beast. He starts by trying to determine if King is a Bug-type demon. As one himself, Hooty informs King that bug demons naturally communicate through dance, then uses a dance between a fairy and a butterfly demon to demonstrate it. King tries to imitate the communication method by making random dance moves; unbeknownst to him, he just insulted Hooty's mother. Hooty becomes enraged and chases after King, who runs away screaming.
A while later, King is seen panting while Hooty criticizes him for his offensive dance and failed attempt to spin a cocoon. King pleads with Hooty not to talk about the cocoon, so he obliges and tries to determine if King is a Biped demon. To test this, Hooty wants King to duel with a friend of his—Tiny Nose. King is confident about winning, only to be easily defeated by her. Hooty is surprised by King's lack of magic powers, as even Bug demons have some magic. In a final attempt to determine if King is a Beast-type demon, Hooty has Tiny Nose perform a blood draw on King.
Soon, the results come in, and King is eager to know what he is. Instead of giving a definite answer, Hooty informs King that he is himself. The test results were inconclusive, so Hooty cannot determine what type of demon King is. Hooty tries to console King by telling him that he and Tiny Nose don't need to know that to be his friends. This angers King, who hoped he had real answers. Hooty tries to cheer him up by telling him that the real answer is inside his heart, but he becomes angry and pushes him aside, as he doesn't need to hear that. He wants to know where he came from, what his dad looked like, and what he will look like when he grows up. He has had no response to his video or his wanted posters, and now he is beginning to doubt if his dad is alive and if there is anyone else like him. In frustration, he releases an ultrasonic scream, causing some items to break. Hooty is too upset to notice this, and thinking he has failed to help King, he pulls away in tears, not hearing King calling after him.
Hooty then helps Eda get some sleep by getting her to eat cookies filled with sleeping nettles. Unbeknownst to him, sleeping nettles also heighten people's dreams. Eda tells Hooty not to let her fall asleep, only to find that she is now stuck in a dream with the Owl Beast. However, Eda takes this as an opportunity, blaming the Owl Beast as being her reason for running away from home, never getting close to anyone, and no longer possessing magic. Instead of running away from the beast like she always does, she goes after it. Eda suddenly finds herself back home with her family as a teenager. This particular dream is also the day she accidentally attacked her father, Dell Clawthorne. That night, Dell was going to leave for the Mandible and set off a party popper to leave "in style." However, the flash of light caused Eda to turn into the Owl Beast and attack her dad, clawing out his left eye in the process.
Eda tells herself that this wasn't her fault and attacks the Owl Beast, only to find herself with Raine as a young adult. They voice their concern that Eda keeps lying to them about things being okay and tells her they've decided to join the Bard Coven. They also break up with Eda, saying she always pushed everyone away. Hearing this, past Eda's curse starts to flare up. Raine asks Eda if they can help, which current Eda tells her to let them do, but she refuses, telling Raine to leave, which they do due to being tired of dealing with this. She tells herself to let Raine help her, but past Eda turns into the Owl Beast. Enraged, Eda attacks the Owl Beast, blaming it for ruining her entire life, but she finds herself in her Owl form in an unknown location. She is then captured by a mysterious, hooded figure that taunts her. She tries to fly away, but her wings burn, and she falls into the sea, where she turns into the scroll Lilith used to curse her. It washes up on the shore of the Titan and is collected by a merchant.
Eda then finds herself on the shore, watching the shrunken Owl Beast trying to fly away somewhere, but is unable to due to being tied to Eda by a red string. Seeing this, Eda calms down, as she can see the Owl Beast trying to break away, but its efforts are futile to the point it becomes exhausted. Eda takes pity on the poor creature and realizes neither of them want to be together. However, they cannot change their fates, and Eda and the Owl Beast choose to make peace with each other. When she wakes up, Eda has transformed, but not in her usual beast form; she has turned into a harpy-like creature that is a cross between herself and the Owl Beast and is also conscious and in complete control of her body. She realizes that, looks into a mirror on the wall, and is quite happy with what she sees. Thinking he made everything worse, Hooty again pulls away in tears. Eda tries to tell him that he didn't make things worse, but Hooty is already gone.
Lastly, Hooty goes to help Luz. He hears Luz talking to the echo mouse, asking it if it can help her ask out a certain "cotton-candy-haired goddess" if it's not going to tell her more about Philip Wittebane. Realizing that she is torn between finding a way home and pursuing love, Hooty concludes that she cannot make any progress if her attention is split, so he tries to help Luz open up to Amity by setting the two of them up on a date. Luz is worried Amity will find her cheesy as everyone did back home, stating that Amity is "smart, cool, and classy," so asking her out should be breathtaking, emotional, and real. However, Hooty lures her to the basement, where she finds a scared and shocked Amity, having been abducted by Hooty and placed in an owl pellet. After Luz apologizes to her for Hooty's meddling, Amity asks Luz if they can forget what happened the last time they talked. Before Amity can finish, Luz interrupts her, telling her that she only cares about getting her out of the basement.
However, the two girls end up holding each other and blushing, fall down a trapdoor and end up in front of a Tunnel of Love set up by Hooty. There, they find a swan Hooty boat waiting for them, picking them both up using its neck and putting them inside its seat. The boat then cruises down the river and into the tunnel, with romantic music playing and various animatronics and cardboard cutouts filled with love messages alongside the river. Luz is embarrassed and worried that Amity would find this a lame way to confess her feelings. Amity notices a banner saying what Luz feels about her and, though embarrassed, is flattered. Humiliated and worried that she will get made fun of again, Luz desperately destroys everything, unknowingly hurting Amity's feelings and making her think Luz is rejecting her. Luz apologizes to Amity for saying it was Hooty's stupid idea. Still, to her dismay, a heartbroken Amity despondently replies that she will leave, waving around the idea of them dating before dismissing it as stupid. Luz is shocked by this, but not as much as Hooty, who once again believes he has messed up.
Hooty has a nervous breakdown and starts crying hysterically. He tries to break away from the Owl House, believing everyone would be better off without him. Since he is part of the house, his desperation to break away from it puts the house in danger of collapsing. King almost falls from the tower but is saved by Eda in her new harpy form. A falling stone nearly crushes Luz and Amity, but King saves them with his new ultrasonic scream powers. Hooty manages to free himself from the Owl House and starts dragging along the ground, causing earthquakes. Eda and King try to convince Hooty that he did help them in his weird way, but he is too upset to listen, saying that despite their claims, he has still failed Luz. Eda and King then ask Luz what Hooty tried to do for her, to which she confesses that he was trying to help her ask Amity out. Eda encourages her to do it, but Luz points out that Hooty's breakdown is ruining the moment. Eda then wishes her luck and flies off with King, dragging Hooty away.
Luz goes to talk to Amity, but the ground collapses beneath them. Once they're standing upright, Luz confesses that she wanted to ask Amity something but wanted to find the right way to do it and that she believed that Amity was too cool for her to do it in the Tunnel of Love and would find her attempts embarrassing, though Amity confesses that she's not as cool as Luz thinks, which surprises her. Luz then tells Amity that even though her life is hectic right now, and she doesn't know what will happen next, she wants Amity to be part of her future. Luz then builds up the courage to say the next thing, but Amity gets too excited and high-strung and hurriedly, though inadvertently, asks her out first. Luz is slightly disappointed and embarrassed that she built up the courage for nothing, prompting Amity to quickly apologize and allow her to speak awkwardly. Luz then asks her out, which Amity happily accepts. Unsure what to do now, they hold hands and comment on how scary the situation still feels. Hooty finally calms down and cries happily, knowing that he did help everyone. Hooty, Eda, and King watch Luz and Amity hold hands together in the heart-shaped crater Hooty created.
Afterwards, King starts to learn more about his newfound powers; Eda still drinks her elixirs but accepts the curse being a part of her; and Luz and Amity are officially dating while working together to learn more about Philip Wittebane and how to build the portal. Hooty is proud of himself but has to promise never to "help" anyone again. Hooty finishes his letter and heads off to mail it. At the mailbox, he meets a stranger who gives him a letter to deliver to King. After he leaves, Hooty gets distracted by a bug crawling on the letter and accidentally eats them both. After realizing his mistake, Hooty hopes that the letter is junk mail.
Cast
- Sarah-Nicole Robles as Luz Noceda
- Wendie Malick as Eda Clawthorne
- Natalie Palamides as Teen Eda
- Alex Hirsch as Hooty & King
- Mae Whitman as Amity Blight
- Cissy Jones as Lilith Clawthorne (voice only)
- Abigail Zoe Lewis as Teen Lilith
- Peter Gallagher as Dell Clawthorne
- Deb Doetzer as Gwendolyn Clawthorne
- Avi Roque as Raine Whispers
- Fryda Wolff as The Collector
Additional Voices
- Dee Bradley Baker as Owl Beast
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Unnamed King-like demon
- Dana Terrace as Tinella Nosa
Non-speaking cameo
Pictured
- Adegast
- Animal Control
- Braxas
- Camila Noceda
- Eileen
- Ratworm
- Selkidomus
- Slitherbeast
- Snaggleback
- Tibbles
- Trash Slug
- Warden Wrath
Other characters
Title in other languages
| Language | Title | Translation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 Spanish (Latin America)
|
Toc, toc, tocando la puerta de Hooty | Knock, Knock, Knocking on Hooty's Door | |
 Bulgarian
|
Чук, чук, чукам на портите на Бухти | Knock, Knock, Knocking on Hooty's Door | |
 Portuguese (Brazil)
|
Bate, Bate, Bate na Porta do Corujito | Knock, Knock, Knock on Hooty's Door | |
 Mandarin
|
敲敲呼啼的心門 | Knocking on Hooty's Heart | |
 Czech
|
Houk pomocníkem | Hooty the Helper | |
 German
|
Tunnel der Liebe | Tunnel of Love | |
 Danish
|
Banke, banke på Tudes dør | Knock, Knock on Tude's Door | |
 Arabic
|
الطرق على باب هوتي | Knock on Hottie's Door | |
 Spanish
|
Toc, toc, llamando a la puerta de Búhi | Knock, Knock, Knocking on Búhi's Door | |
 French
|
Boubou, un ami qui vous veut du bien | Hooty, a Friend Who Means Well | |
 Indonesian
|
Mengetuk Pintu Hooty | Knocking Hooty's Door | |
 Hebrew
|
טוק, טוק, על דלתו של שופי | Knock, Knock on Shoofi's Door | "Shoofi" is Hooty's Hebrew name. It is a kind of variation or kind of affectionate name of the word "Yanshoof" which means owl in Hebrew. |
 Italian
|
Toc, toc. Chi bussa alla porta dei Gufy | Knock, Knock. Who is Touching at Hooty's Door | "Gufy" is Hooty's Italian name. The name is also similar to the plural of the word "gufo" (owl), for this reason the title presents an error, indicating "gufy" as a group name rather than an individual one. |
 Malay
|
Ketuk-ketuk Pintu Hooty | Knocking on Hooty's Door | |
 Dutch
|
Daar wordt aan de Uil geklopt | There is Knocking at the Owl | |
 Norwegian
|
Bank, bank, banker på Hoohos dør | Knock, Knock, Knock on Hooho's Door | |
 Portuguese
|
Atrás da Porta do Hooty | Behind Hooty's Door | |
 Polish
|
Pomocny Uhu | Handy Hooty | |
 Romanian
|
Cioc, Cioc, Cioc la Ușa lui Hooty | Knock, Knock, Knock on Hooty's Door | |
 Swedish
|
Knack, knack, knackar på Hois dörr | Knock, Knock, Knock on Hoi's Door |
Transcript
| For a full transcript of "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door", click here. |
Gallery
Click here to view the gallery.
Trivia
- Viewership: This episode was watched by 0.41 viewers on its premiere.[3]
- The secret message for this episode is located on the wall when Luz and Amity fall down the trap door:
, which translates to "longer". - A diagram of Hooty's anatomy can be seen hanging on a wall while Hooty is giving King the "demon puberty" talk.
- This is one of the two episodes to have a character tell another character a story about the events before the present day. In this case, Hooty writes a letter to Lilith about the time he helped Luz, Eda, and King with their problems.
- This would happen again in "Them's the Breaks, Kid", when Eda tells Luz, King and Hooty about the time she met Raine.
- This is the second "three-storyline" episode after "Once Upon a Swap".
- Unlike that episode, however, this one properly has character development, story progression, and canonicity in King, Eda, and Luz and Amity's storylines.
Revelations and significant events
- Hooty has been writing letters to Lilith since she left the Owl House in "Keeping up A-fear-ances".
- King has begun going through "demon puberty".
- The ancestors of demons arose from the muck of a Titan's decomposing corpse.
- A diagram on the wall shows that all demons hatch from eggs.
- All demons known to witchkind can be classified into three categories: Bug, Biped, and Beast.
- Hooty and Tinella Nosa are directly confirmed to be demons; specifically, Hooty is a Bug-type Demon and Tinella is a Biped-type.
- Biped Demons possess a magic bile sac much like witches, which allows them to use magic.
- Bug-type demons communicate mainly through dancing.
- Hooty also has a folder marked “Hybrids” on his display board, but gives no examples.
- King's demon species is shown to be wholly unique, not fitting any of the three categories.
- King has the ability to create magical sonic waves capable of causing destruction.
- Hooty is friends with Tinella Nosa.
- Hooty has a mother.
- The name of Eda and Lilith's father is Dell.
- Eda attacked Dell as the Owl Beast when she was younger, which resulted in him losing one of his eyes.
- Eda and Raine were previously in a romantic relationship. However, Raine eventually broke up with Eda when she wouldn't confide in them.
- The Owl Beast is a living creature that was transformed into the curse by a mysterious being. The scroll with the curse washed up on the shores of the Isles one day, and was picked up by a Night Market merchant.
- Eda makes peace with the Owl Beast and acquires a new "Harpy" form, in which she can remain conscious and in control.
- The Owl House has a basement.
- House demons, such as Hooty, are capable of living multiple thousands of years.
- Luz and Amity finally confess their feelings to each other, leading them to begin dating.
- The unknown character resembling King, who first appeared near the end of "Eda's Requiem", leaves a letter for King with Hooty, who ends up accidentally eating it.
Continuity
- Lilith and Hooty have become pen pals, which Lilith first suggested before leaving the Owl House in "Keeping up A-fear-ances". Additionally, Hooty’s complaint in this episode that he cannot use a pen seems to be true, as he uses a typewriter to write his letter to Lilith.
- Hooty uses the talking typewriter from "Sense and Insensitivity" to write his letter.
- Hooty wears the same hat King wore in "The Intruder".
- King mentions the message he sent to his father on penstagram from the previous episode.
- Eda's estranged relationship with her father is shown, which was first hinted at in "Keeping up A-fear-ances".
- Jean-Luc is still in Luz's room after the events of "Echoes of the Past".
- The "Hooty boat" in the Tunnel of Love resembles the "Hooty swan" ice sculpture Lilith made in "Escaping Expulsion".
- Hooty's habit of making quest-like poems, first shown in "Witches Before Wizards", reappears.
- Amity indirectly mentions the kiss she gave Luz in "Through the Looking Glass Ruins".
- Amity's fear of being rejected, as seen in "Enchanting Grom Fright", resurfaces.
Production notes
- The scene where King gets angry at Hooty was modeled after the meme of the woman screaming at the cat.[4]
- When King saves Luz and Amity from the falling debris, the lights that sparkle around them are the colors of the lesbian and bisexual pride flags.[5]
- When Luz and Amity hold hands, the trees and dirt in the background form the bisexual pride flag.
Allusions
- Bob Dylan - The title is a reference to the Bob Dylan song "Knockin' On Heaven's Door".
- Pokémon - The third trait on Hooty's "Who am I?" chart is "Pocket Monster," which is the Japanese name for Pokémon.
- Cthulhu Mythos - The fourth trait on Hooty's "Who am I?" chart is "Cthulu", which is the name of the mythos' titular eldritch god.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion - The clothes Hooty forces King into resembles a similar outfit worn by Asuka Langley Soryu in the episode "Moment and Heart Together".
- Nintendo Switch - Tinella Nosa's video game handheld device resembles the Nintendo Switch.
- Dungeons & Dragons - Two of the demons pictured in Hooty's demon presentation are a Beholder and a Grell.
- Red thread of fate - The red string tied to Eda and the Owl Beast symbolizes their connection. In Chinese and Japanese folklore, a red thread of fate is said to connect those destined to meet for a life of greatness. Usually, this is interpreted as romantic fate.
- Harpy - Eda's new form refers to a creature from Greek and Roman mythology, depicted as hybrids between birds and Humans.
- Amphibia - When Luz and Amity are in the basement, the Calamity Box can be spotted on a shelf in the basement.
Errors
- In one scene focusing on Hooty at the beginning of the episode, Eda's wanted poster in the living room shows the bounty to be one million Snails instead of one trillion.
- Some versions of the subtitles (including on Disney+) refer to Raine Whispers as "him" rather than "them" in Eda's line, "Stop pushing them away".
- When Amity says she's not as cool as Luz thinks, she stretches out her arms, but in the next shot, they're crossed.
Videos
Memorable quotes
Amity: "YES!"
References
- ↑ Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door concept by Emmy Cicierega 3
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "July 2021 Programming Highlights". dgepress.com (June 21, 2021).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Metcalf, Mitch (August 3, 2021). "Top 150 Saturday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 7.31.2021". Showbuzz Daily.
- ↑ Cicierega, Emmy [@EmmyCic] (August 1, 2021). "TOH Spoilers #TOHSPOILERS I got to do some special poses for the latest episode of TOH. This is how I pitched this one lol" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ Alizor, Mariama [@Chromantica] (July 31, 2021). "This makes me very happy because I did reference the lesbian and bisexual flag for the efx in this scene, waited a whole year for this" (Tweet). Archived from the original on August 1, 2021 – via Twitter.
