Let's Talk About RWBY Volume 8 Episode 9 - "Witch"
The latest episode of RWBY is now available for Rooster Teeth First subscribers. I really enjoyed the episode, but don’t worry, spoilers won’t start until after the break. The episode is called “Witch” and there are some interesting moments.
This episode starts out with showing us the forces of Atlas trying to fend off the hordes of Grimm. It’s during this start that we see Flynt and Neon from the Vytal Festival make appearances as soldiers. We also have a moment where Winter is directing the payload to be dropped off so it can be transported inside of Monstra and blow it up. Marrow tries getting her to wait for Jaune, Ren, and Yang, but she doesn’t budge. He even tries saying that she wouldn’t do this if Weiss had been in the Grimm. Winter says she would because it’s her duty. I’m not entirely convinced of this, but at the same time, I can still see it to some degree.
Now, let’s jump inside Monstra. Oscar and Ozpin have a small conversation. Ozpin doesn’t think Oscar’s strategy to divide the forces of evil is working. Right around that time, Hazel shows up. He picks up Oscar and they go to Jinn’s lamp. Oscar calls forth Jinn and this apparently proves everything to Hazel and he becomes a good guy. Emerald is also on board the “ditch Salem” train at this point and they start working with Oscar to get him out. They don’t ask Jinn a question, so she goes back in her lamp. Emerald uses her semblance to make Oscar look like Hazel and they end up talking with Salem. Things almost go horrible at this point, but an alarm for the lamp triggers (we’ll come back to this) and Salem tells the two to go stop the intruders.
“Hazel” and Emerald then bump into JRY who get ready for a fight but Emerald talks to them and they drop the Hazel disguise, so everyone’s cool with them all trying to escape together. This doesn’t mean that they all trust Emerald completely, but they’re all down with running away together for now. Unfortunately, as they’re about to escape, Salem shows up. She quickly deals with our heroes and Emerald, incapacitating them with Grimm arms grappling them. Hazel then shows up and Salem orders him to take Oscar back. He plays along, but then hands Oscar his cane and then full on tackles Salem. He tries fighting her and if it were anyone else, they’d probably be dead. This is all to buy time for everyone else to run away which they do except Oscar stays behind for some purpose. Salem is all but ready to kill Oscar and Hazel when Oscar uses some magic to create a blinding flash of light where the episode ends.
Two things of note. First, in the conversation between Ozpin and Oscar earlier, Oscar revealed that he doesn’t like using magic. The reason is because every time they use it, he can feel the two souls merging more and Oscar’s not ready for that. This is 100% understandable. He’s still a kid! It appears that the use of magic at the end was probably unavoidable in some way.
The other thing I wanted to note is that after Hazel, Oscar and Emerald leave the safe with the lamp, Neo shows herself. She was hiding in the room camouflaged the whole time and clearly doesn’t have problems taking it. She’s the one that sets off the alarm and it’ll be really interesting to see what her goal is. Also, how is she going to summon Jinn or make her wish since she doesn’t talk? Maybe she’ll just make someone else do it for her with her ways.
What did you think of “Witch?” What do you think the flash of light at the end of the episode was?