"Understanding Willow" is the fifteenth episode of the first season of The Owl House, and the fifteenth episode overall.
It premiered on August 1, 2020, alongside "Really Small Problems".
Synopsis
Luz, Willow, and Amity take a trip down Memory Lane.[1]
Plot
The episode opens up with Boscha and Amity hanging out in front of the lockers at Hexside. Skara arrives and gives invites to the two girls to her 15th birthday party. In the midst of her invitation, they notice Luz and Willow engaging in a thumb war. Boscha comments on how weird it is that a human now goes to Hexside, and how especially weird it is that the human chose to be friends with Willow. When Skara gets curious about Amity's past with Willow, Amity merely says that "Blights only interact with strong witches", which gets to Willow.
Later, Luz and Willow are working in photo class extracting Willow's memories and hanging them up. When Luz notices a memory of Willow and Amity at a birthday party, Willow turns the photo around and tries to avoid the topic by telling Luz to leave it alone. The bell rings and they head to lunch, but Luz sneaks back to turn the photo around again hoping that it'll help the two make amends somehow. Once Luz has left the room, Amity passes by and notices the photo, freaks out and tries to burn up the photo, but as a result ends up burning all the memories hung up on display. When Luz, Gus, and a dizzy, amnesiac Willow return to the photo room, they see Amity vainly trying to put out the fire.
In order to fix this issue, Amity and Luz, with the help of Eda, enter Willow's mind to try and repair the memories. Meanwhile, Eda and King compete to win the spot as the interviewee for Gus' journalism project.
During their time in Willow's mind, Luz gets to observe more about Amity and Willow's past as friends, and questions why Amity keeps avoiding one specific memory - the same photo of them at a birthday party. As Amity avoids the topic, a pink monster, similarly hued to the flames Amity ignited the photos with, appears and chases Amity and Luz into a memory from their swim lessons. The monster is revealed to be "Inner Willow", a version of Willow who acts as the guardian and aide to her memories.
Inner Willow forces Luz and Amity to watch the scene that started their feud - the birthday party. They watch as a young Amity berates young Willow for being unable to perform magic well, telling her to leave and that their friendship is over. After the scene finishes, Inner Willow starts to try to burn Amity alive, but Amity stops her and shows them her own memory - Amity's parents Alador and Odalia telling her that if she didn't stop hanging out with Willow, they'd crumble Willow's chances of getting into Hexside. After Amity apologizes and promises to make sure no one - not even Boscha's gang - messes with Willow again, Inner Willow allows Amity and Luz to save Willow's memories, and keep the ones with Amity, no matter how good or bad.
When Luz and Amity return to the real world, Willow tells Amity that, while she doesn't believe they're friends quite yet, it's a start. As for Eda and King's competition, Gus ends up taking the side route and choosing Hooty as his interviewee, before quickly getting annoyed by him and leaving.
Cast
- Sarah-Nicole Robles as Luz Noceda
- Wendie Malick as Eda Clawthorne
- Alex Hirsch as King and Hooty
- Tati Gabrielle as Willow Park
- Issac Ryan Brown as Gus Porter
- Mae Whitman as Amity Blight
- Eden Riegel as Boscha
Additional voices
- JB Blanc as Snake Teacher
- Kimberly D. Brooks as Skara (uncredited)
- Matt Chapman as Detention Teacher
- Grey DeLisle as Photo Class Teacher, Rabbit Student, and Four Eyed Teacher
- Rachael Macfarlane as Odalia Blight and Blonde Unibrow Kid
- Jim Pirri as Alador Blight
Non-speaking cameos
- Mattholomule
- Cat
- Bo
- Gilbert Park (pictured)
- Harvey Park (pictured)
Title in other languages
| Language | Title | Translation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 Spanish (Latin America)
|
Comprendiendo a Willow | Understanding Willow | |
 Portuguese (Brazil)
|
Entendendo a Willow | Understanding Willow | |
 Mandarin
|
友情修復記 | Restoration of Friendship | |
 Czech
|
Porozumět Willow | Understanding Willow | |
 German
|
Erinnerungen | Memories | |
 Arabic
|
ذكريات ويلو | Willow's Memories | |
 Spanish
|
El enigma de Willow | The Enigma of Willow | |
 French
|
Remuer le passé | Stirring up the Past | |
 Indonesian
|
Memahami Willow | Understanding Willow | |
 Hebrew
|
להבין את ווילו | Understand Willow | |
 Italian
|
Comprendere Willow | Understand Willow | |
 Japanese
|
ウィローの記憶 | Willow's Memory | |
 Korean
|
윌로우의 기억 속으로 | Into Willow's Memory | |
 Malay
|
Memahami Willow | Understanding Willow | |
 Dutch
|
Willow weet | Willow Knows | |
 Portuguese
|
Descobrir a Willow | Discovering Willow | |
 Polish
|
Wspomnienia Witki | Memories of Willow | |
 Turkish
|
Anlayışlı Willow | Insightful Willow |
Transcript
| For a full transcript of "Understanding Willow", click here. |
Gallery
Click here to view the gallery.
Trivia
- Viewership: This episode was watched by 0.42 viewers on its premiere.[4]
- Odalia and Alador Blight make their first appearance, albeit as silhouettes.
- Amity visits the Owl House for the first time in this episode.
- The fifteenth rune code of the season is visible at the top of the sign for thw Roller Ghoster:
, which translates to "and". - This is the first episode where Luz is not seen wearing her signature outfit besides the intro.
- While it was only in a flashback, this is the only episode where Boscha and Skara are shown wearing casual clothing.
- This is the first episode to air on the same date as its prior episode.
- Gilbert and Harvey Park appear in the episode through photos.
Revelations and significant events
- Skara is officially named in this episode.
- Christmas, or an analog of it, is celebrated on the Boiling Isles.
- Willow is revealed to have two dads.
- It is revealed, or rather confirmed, that Amity used to have brown hair as a child.
- The reason Amity and Willow stopped being friends is because Amity's parents forced her to, under the threat of keeping Willow from attending Hexside if she did not.
- This would later inspire the plot for the episode "Escaping Expulsion".
Continuity
- Tinella Nosa is still famous from publishing her story in "Sense and Insensitivity", and consequently Gus could not get her for an interview.
Allusions
- Lacuna - The name of Lake Lacuna comes from the term "Lacuna", meaning a missing section of a manuscript, or a gap/unfilled space in general. This likely serves to reference the broken and incomplete state of Willow's memories.
Errors
- When Boscha is changing her nails, the first shot depicts her right hand, then changes to her left hand in the next.
- Skara's nose disappears in two frames during Boscha's imitation of Willow: once as she passes a pillar and again while passing by Luz.
- When the fire monster first appears behind Amity and Luz in the beach memory, its frame is transposed above Luz's head.
- Although Skara speaks in the episode, her voice actress, Kimberly Brooks, is not listed in the credits.
- When Luz is drawing the ice glyph in the beach memory, the center of the glyph appears when finished even though Luz only draws the outer circle.
- On Disney+, the captions credit Amity for saying "Solid Willow impression, Boscha." when it was actually Skara who said it.
Edits
- Gilbert and Harvey Park are blurred out in all of their pictures in the Southeast Asian broadcast.
Memorable quotes
Videos
Notes
- ↑ Credited as Sabrina Cotugno.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "August 2020 Programming Highlights". Walt Disney Television Press.
- ↑ Disney+ Channel UK [@DCUK_NEWS] (August 9, 2020). "Don't miss out BRAND NEW Show The Owl House starts tomorrow at 9:30pm! Monday to Fridays at 9:30pm" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ "Disney Channel UK HD, Monday, Aug 28, 2020". TV24.co.uk. Retrieved on January 8, 2023.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Metcalf, Mitch (August 4, 2020). Top 150 Saturday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 8.1.2020. Showbuzz Daily. Archived from the original on 2020-08-10.
- ↑ "Understanding Willow concept 2".