I saved this weekend’s The Owl House‘s mega-episode to watch as a reward for finishing Velma. In fact, as I was wrestling my way through Mindy Kaling’s truly terrible Scooby-Doo prequel, I kept thinking about how The Owl House is its exact opposite. Where Velma is begrudgingly, sparsely queer, The Owl House is proudly, endlessly queer. Where Velma is mean-spirited, out-dated jokes, The Owl House is “What’s the little red kitten trying to do?” Where Velma seems to loath its audience, The Owl House is an open-handed, open-hearted opus to the fans and all their years of theories. Most sadly: Where Velma has who-knows-how-many episodes left to slog through, The Owl House now has only one left. THE INJUSTICE!

The final season of The Owl House is split into three 45-minute episodes. “Thanks to Them” saw Luz & Co. making their way back to the Demon Realm, with Camila Noceda and her red baseball bat in tow. “For the Future” finds the gang navigating the weirdly glittery post-apocalyptic wasteland of the Boiling Isles. The Collector has basically turned everyone into puppets, and King is working around the clock to keep him from fully annihilating them. Right now, they’re sort of frozen in time, playing endless pretend with King and the Collector. Eda and Lilith are alive and in hiding in the Collector’s castle. Eda’s lost her arm and Lilith has a new tomboy haircut, and King visits whenever he can. The kids from Hexside are holed up inside the school, hiding out and plotting their next steps. And Hooty? Well, King has rescued his puppet-self and he’s now safely back in Lulu’s arms.

“For the Future” does so many impossible things. It gives almost all the main kids one last character arc. Willow learns that reliable people need someone to rely on too. Hunter learns that Flapjack (and friendship!) are the magic inside him. Mattholomew learns that he does have what it takes to be a good leader, even as an Illusionist (and also reveals that his name is Matt, and his last name was Tholomew this whole time!). And Boscha learns that things will never go back to the way they were before Luz showed up, that Amity didn’t want to just be a Mean Girl, and that Amity doesn’t love her back, not that way. Yeah, that’s right, Boscha’s queer too!

Luz, of course, learns the most of everyone. She learns that her mom was a secret teenage nerd who just wanted to protect her. She learns that all she’s ever really wanted was to be understood. She learns that even the best grown-ups make mistakes (like scheduling wisdom tooth surgery the day before their wedding!). And she learns that her Palisman is a SNAKE-SHIFTER NAMED STRINGBEAN. Of course it is! OF COURSE it is! (Stringbean shifts through fandom’s most popular Palsiman theories before nestling down as an adorable snake in The Good Witch Azura color scheme.)

All that character growth, and plenty of plot too. “For the Future” moves everyone into place for an epic finale showdown between The Collector, Belos, and and all the complicated Good Guys we’ve come to know and love these many years. I have been so surprised at how the romance between Raine Whispers and their long lost love Eda has become so central to the story. Surprised and thrilled! I think Raine is one of the most fully realized nonbinary characters we’ve seen on TV so far — and their heroism is not done yet. (Also, did you see their face when Eda transformed in front of them?? Oh they’ve never stopped loving her!)

I am going to be so sad when The Owl House ends, but every new animated TV show just makes me realize, more and more, what a gift it’s been to have it all these years. Until then, PIZZA BAGELS!

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