Watching And Dreaming

"Watching and Dreaming" is the series finale of the American animated television series '' The Owl House''. The episode served as the third and final episode of the third season, and the 43rd episode of the series overall. The episode was written by show creator Dana Terrace and John Bailey Owen, and directed by Bosook Coburn and Bridget Underwood. It originally aired on April 8, 2023, on both Disney Channel and Disney XD, and was released on the former channel's official YouTube channel and Disney+ afterwards.

The episode received a combined viewing audience of 500,000 viewers and received a 0.09 rating among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. It received praise from critics for its writing, themes, action sequences, pacing, animation, musical score, ending sequence, and emotional weight, with many calling it a satisfying conclusion to the show. Although, some expressed disappointment over the cut storylines and arcs for certain characters in order to fit in with the shortened season.

Plot

Continuing from the events of " For the Future", Luz Noceda is separated from her friends and mother after the Collector makes her, Eda, and King to play his games. Luz finds herself on Emperor Belos' throne and finds everyone she knows from the Boiling Isles petrified before being attacked by her friends, who are being puppeteered with the Collector's magic. With help from her friends, as they briefly resist, Luz eventually breaks the Collector's spell and frees Eda and King with light glyphs, happily reuniting with Eda and King. The Collector is upset by the outcome as Belos, who is controlling Raine Whispers' body, suggests killing the trio. The Collector refuses since he wants to befriend them while revealing that his magic is ineffective against Titans. He also reveals that the heart of the Titan whose body became the Boiling Isles is still beating and located in Belos's castle. Belos convinces the Collector to play with Luz, Eda, and King in person so he can reach the heart.

The Collector accepts the offer and challenges the three to a variety of games, only to repeatedly lose to them, all the while making it clear he doesn't understand the concept of death. The Collector eventually confides in Luz, saying that all he wanted was a friend who would not lie to him. He reveals that his siblings, the Archivists, sent him to the Demon Realm to live and "play" with the Titans, along with observing them. But the Archivists drove the Titans to extinction upon deeming them a threat, resulting in the Collector being sealed by King's father for association. A sympathetic Luz comforts the Collector as she, Eda, and King take him to the Owl House and various sites of their past adventures to help him understand true friendship.

At the same time, Belos reaches his castle before Raine breaks the Collector's spell and purges Belos out of their body. But despite Raine's attempt to stop him, Belos merges with the Titan's heart and begins to infect the Boiling Isles with his spores. Luz's group rushes to Belos's castle, who is a dragon-Titan like beast. The Collector tries to reason with Belos, inspired by Luz's friendship lessons, only to be horrified when Luz dies shielding him from Belos's attack. The Collector is confused by his sadness when he is unsuccessful in reviving Luz while Eda and King are consumed in a fit of grief and rage as they attack Belos.

Luz's spirit ends up in the In-Between World and is saved from sinking into the afterlife by King's father, Papa Titan, who has been observing her and King. He then helps a despondent Luz understand that Belos is too consumed in his delusions to act with any real good intention, offering her his remaining life force to stop Belos before he could fully consume the Boiling Isles. Luz accepts this and revives herself. At the same time, Eda and King fight Belos in a losing battle while the Collector breaks down, guilt-ridden and confused and finally understanding empathy, apologizing for everything he has done. The three are saved by the revived Luz, now half-Titan, joined by Eda and King as they fight their way to the Titan's heart while the Collector protects the Archive House.

An enraged Luz, Eda, and King manage to break into Belos' demon shell, Eda frees Raine, who joins forces with them. With her powers, Luz removes Belos from the Titan's heart, ending his reign throughout the boiling isles and destroying the beast. A weakened Belos assumes his human guise while appealing to Luz by claiming he was acting under a curse. Luz refuses to listen as a downpour of boiling rain reduces Belos to a muck-covered skull, with Luz walking away as Belos fails to guilt trip her into saving him. Eda, Raine, and King arrive and spitefully stomp on his remains, killing him for good. As the Titan's spirit departs, the Collector succeeds in saving the Archive House with help from Gus, Amity, Willow, and Hunter, winning their friendship. While everyone on the archipelago reunites, they realize that they will need to completely rebuild the Boiling Isles. The Collector returns to the stars to do some "growing up", but promises to return in the future. Luz finds out that the Titan's complete death means she can no longer use his glyph magic.

Four years after Belos' defeat, 19 year old Vee and 18 year old Luz have graduated high school and were going to college on the Boiling Isles. The Nocedas have purchased the abandoned house in the middle of the woods, which now has a new portal door to the Boiling Isles made by the Collector. Willow plays flyer derby at a professional level, and Hunter is a professional palisman carver. Amity has become an Abomination engineer, while Lilith has become an architect. Eda is the headmaster of the university Luz is attending, which teaches wild magic, with Gus and Edric as part of the staff, the former teaching human culture. As she enters the Boiling Isles, Luz receives a surprise quinceañera from her friends after having to miss her initial one due to her spending her last three birthdays rebuilding the Boiling Isles. King shows Luz that his growing Titan powers allow him to create his own glyph language. The Collector presents Luz and her friends with a light show while passing through and Luz thanks Eda and King for everything. In the final scene of the series, all characters come together and say "Bye!" to the departing Collector and the audience.

Production

According to show creator Dana Terrace, numerous scenes and storylines were cut due to Disney Television Animation cutting the season down to three episodes instead of a usual 20-episode season. According to an article by the ''Connecticut Insider'', the sudden cutting of the season forced the show's creators to insert storylines that the creators had previously debated.

Disney Television Animation's decision to cut the season down to three episodes received mainly negative attention. ''Vanity Fair'' writer Emily St. James said that the series' "LGBTQ+ representation" caused the series to shut down despite the show's popularity. St. James would also say that the series served as a sign that American children's television had decreasing representation of LGBTQ+ people, following the cancellations of other American animated television shows, such as '' Steven Universe''. Dana Terrace had denied that this was the cause, revealing during a Reddit AMA that it was due to a variety of factors that were beyond her control, though she has admitted that if Disney Television Animation had different people in charge, the show would have most likely lasted longer.

Three weeks after the episode aired, selected voice actors and writers for the show gave an interview on Instagram. During the interview, Terrace publicly stated that she had wanted to include Hooty more, along with wanting to expand the storylines of The Collector more. She would go on to state that two characters, Willow Park and Hunter, were made with the intention that they were pansexual and bisexual, respectively. Terrace also admitted that most of the second season was written without prior notice of the shortening of the third season, leading to several major storylines being cut from the third season. Terrace also stated that she would like to see a sequel made, but the decision to make a sequel is not up to her control, as The Walt Disney Company owns the intellectual property of ''The Owl House''.

Promotion

On March 22, 2023, The Walt Disney Company released an official one-minute trailer for the episode, featuring Luz and her friends battling against both The Collector and Emperor Belos. The trailer featured Luz reuniting with her mentor, Eda Clawthorne, and The Collector and Emperor Belos plotting an attack against Luz and her friends.

On April 3, the official poster for the episode, made by Terrace in collaboration with artist Andy Garner–Flexner, was released.

Right before the episode officially aired, Disney Channel aired a montage of clips from previous episodes, thanking viewers for watching the series.

Critical reception

Ratings

This episode was watched by 375,000 viewers on Disney Channel and a combined audience of 500,000 viewers including the simulcast on Disney XD, currently making it both the most viewed Disney Channel and Disney XD premiere in 2023, beating "For the Future", another episode of ''The Owl House''.

Reviews

Writer for ''TheGamer'', Jade King, gave the episode a highly positive review, calling it "an extended dream sequence/kaiju battle/time skip that did everything it could to wrap up loose ends and leave us smiling as the credits rolled... beneath it all, core themes still managed to resonate and leave us with a message that is both bittersweet and poignant." King would praise the redemption arc for The Collector and the episode's messages, saying "''The Owl House'' leaves us with a mantra of guilt, forgiveness, and love woven through a passage of time that stops for nobody. Clear in how we must savour each moment as it comes and recognise that making mistakes and surrendering to our emotions is precisely what makes us human... we are all worth something."

Writer for ''TV Source Magazine'', Lee Arvoy, gave the episode a relatively positive review, but said the episode was limited in terms of character development and involvement. Speaking on the topic of Luz's friends, he said that "I wish we were able to have more of Amity, Willow, Luz and Hunter involved in the main story. They felt a bit disconnected from the main story... I felt that Hunter especially should have had more of an involvement in finally taking down Belos. His whole existence and place in the world were linked to him."

Writer for ''Polygon'', Petrana Radulovic, wrote that "''The Owl House'' gave us almost everything that it could've in its limited three episode final season — and also gave us a gut-punch in the finale that is going to stick with us for some time." Writer for ''Comic Book Resources'', Marc York, wrote that "For the most part, ''TOH'' handled being cut short with grace and dignity. It still managed to flesh out the characters that really needed it, cover a lot of major plot points if not all of them, and give just about everyone a well-deserved happy ending. The action was also pretty great."

Writer for '' Collider'', Emily Kavanagh, praised how the finale was able to handle both Emperor Belos and The Collector as villains and the nuance of forgiveness and redemption. Writer for ''The Pop Break'', Avani Goswami, ranked that show's finale alongside the finale of '' She-Ra and the Princesses of Power'' and said that "it's bittersweet to say goodbye to a top-tier animated series that feels like a warm hug or cup of tea, but the ending proves just why the show will always be memorable, and it's so nice to see the characters' bright futures. To anyone wanting to share in a magical adventure that will make you smile, ''The Owl House'' is definitely worth a shot. It's a heartwarming series from beginning to end, and one that makes all viewers wish they could step through the door to the Boiling Isles once again for the very first time."

Writer for '' Autostraddle'', Heather Hogan, wrote, "The series ended this weekend, triumphantly and unapologetically queer, just like its creator, Dana Terrace. And it did so as LGBTQ+ youth and trans people of all ages are under cultural and legislative attack in the United States like never before. 'Watching and Dreaming' would always have been a triumph — to close out a story with so many beloved characters, and such deep mythology, in a truncated final season mandated by spineless Disney execs is no small task — but doing so in a time of so much violence aimed at gay and trans kids feels like the firm planting of a beacon of hope." Writer for ''Out'', Mey Rude said that "It was a perfectly fitting ending for a show that ended up changing a lot of young people's lives."

References

External links

* (Watching and Dreaming):
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{{The Owl House

The Owl House (season 3) episodes
2023 American television episodes
2023 in LGBT history
American LGBT-related television episodes
2020s American television series finales
Television episodes about dolls
Animated films based on animated series
Fiction about shapeshifting
LGBT-related animated television episodes
Television episodes about birthdays
Television episodes about death
Television episodes about extraterrestrial life
Television episodes about friendship
Television episodes about ghosts
Television episodes about murder
Television episodes about nightmares
Television episodes about parallel universes
Television episodes about resurrection
Television episodes about sacrifices
Television episodes about spirit possession
Television episodes set in Connecticut
Works about amputees
Works about games
Works set in castles