#schallow

Now all I can think of is post “I Was a Teenage Abomination”. It’s the next day. Boscha’s thought up the perfect abomination based insult, the best she’s made in years, she’s ready to cut Willow deep to the core.

And then that girl has the audacity to show up the next day in green-

I LOVE the implication that Boscha is just at home scheming up insults to call Willow

Sorry this took me a really long time to answer! I wanted to add screenshots but I was really lazy lol.

That said, allow me to analyze the entire scene line by line.

"Trouble with your team, captain half-a-witch?"

This is the first time Boscha has ever called Willow half-a-witch. The closest she has ever gotten before this episode was "Only real witches allowed." This, along with the fact that Willow was already incredibly stressed in this scene, makes the line hit much harder. But also note, Boscha also acknowledges Willow as a captain. While obviously sarcastic, it is also her acknowledging that in a way, they are similar, but only from her POV. Which is further proven by the next line.

"Leading isn't easy, is it? All your time is spent helping the team, keeping people from fighting, and Titan forbid you show any weakness. Everything else falls apart."

This is obviously, all Boscha's self-projection. Firstly, because she's mostly using sports lingo, and clearly doesn't know the full context as to why Willow is stressed. Furthermore, Willow isn't really the "captain" of her friends because that's not how her friend group works. Boscha only knows how to see things from her own perspective.

"Not now, Boscha."

This is Willow's warning shot. She can feel that Boscha is trying to back her up into an uncomfortable spot, and force her to answer questions that she very much can't answer. Especially not to her. But Boscha keeps going.

"If you want my advice..."

"Advice? From you? You have been nothing but petty and mean to me since I met you."

And there, Boscha clearly isn't going to listen, so Willow allows herself to snap back. This I feel is a great "show, don't tell" of Willow's self-restraint. Even in the next few lines...

"...You want me to give up? You want me to admit how stressed I am? What advice could you possibly give me?"

She shows some sense of giving Boscha the benefit of the doubt. While obviously, she doesn't want to deal with Boscha's bullshit at that moment with her giving up and admitting how stressed she is lines, she still gives her room to explain herself, if she really does want to give advice.

But note the vines. It's actually not very clear whether or not the vines were intentional since we also saw her dealing with vines in the photo room scene due to stress. But she's also visibly backing Boscha up against the locker so it might be intentional on her part to essentially "scare" Boscha into backing down.

Additionally, this is also Willow self-projecting in the scene. Willow indirectly admits she is incredibly stressed, but frames admitting it as negative and well, weakness. In a way, they understand each other because they're afraid of showing weakness.

It's actually justified that Willow would immediately assume that Boscha would attack her for things that she felt insecure about at that moment. It's been months since she's been put in the position to be exposed for her insecurities again, so coupled with her dads missing and feeling like she's failing her friends, we can see where she's coming from.

Lastly, if you listen very closely, it actually sounds like she's emphasizing me which can be interpreted as her saying "We are nothing alike." She very easily could've emphasized you instead, as in, "How could you understand me?" But the placement of the emphasis frames it as "Nobody understands what I'm going through." Which is common behavior for those who are emotionally repressed.

"Actually, I was going to advise you to watch your back."

I bet you didn't notice Boscha's face in the first frame of the next shot! It's a very "blink and you'll miss it" moment. But I love this because it shows how horrified Boscha is by Willow. Her confidence is all a facade. (I love how this also implies that while Willow was scaring her, that was the expression Willow was actually looking at the whole time. I'm sure that must've felt very satisfying on Willow's part.)

But then her facade comes back, but only because we can assume Kiki and Roka have just stepped behind Willow, which I think highlights a very important part of Boscha. She's only as powerful as the people she knows. She's only powerful when she has people to command. She's only powerful when she's friends with Amity.

It's actually very hard to say whether or not this was Boscha's plan this whole time because it would be delving into assumptions rather than hard evidence from the show.

"You never know when your opponent is gonna strike."

For this shot I would just like to analyze their faces, and the overall composition in general, because the show loves using angles to emphasize power! Roka is of course the biggest in this shot, even going off camera, establishing them as the most powerful. But I think it's also important to note how Willow is actually bigger than Boscha in this shot. You can say it's all because of perspective, but it would've been just as easy to make them the same size especially since Boscha is taller than Willow anyways. Boscha was the bait to get Willow distracted.

All this to say, I love how this shot is framed because it shows how Willow was backing Boscha up into a corner before being ambushed. She does have power over Boscha now! The only reason Boscha is so smug is because Roka was there to protect her. Willow also puts her vines down because she was so caught off guard by what Boscha said. Now she feels powerless in this situation. She's not even mad or upset. She just accepted that it was her fault for being boxed in.

Which perfectly sets up her breakdown in the detention pit... I suppose...

My Thoughts

I wish we could've seen more conversation between them tbh! I think my one problem with TOH is that they didn't take Boscha AND Willow seriously enough in the episode. Boscha's "arc" was kinda just resolved in the "I just wanna do normal things, and look great" line, which kinda took away the impact imo? What I love about this scene is how the crew actually took them seriously! The vibe was great. the music was tense. Their motivations, goals, vulnerabilities, etc were clear! I wish I could say that for the rest of the episode, but I'll take whatever I can get lol. I love their onscreen chemistry together because it really triggers some internal motivation between them. They both felt like active characters in the scene. They both had decisions and motivations. Boscha wanted to piss Willow off. And Willow wanted Boscha to shut up.

Boscha:

Boscha: How DARE u assume i would in ANY WAY line up for you.