The truth about Heinous! Wraith's Journal #40 [S3E13 - Monster Bash]
It's a big one - the first 2 part episode since the end of Battle for Mewni - though, it seems benign to start. Star is throwing a party to celebrate a new age of Monsters and Mewmans living in harmony, but things start to go amiss... Heinous learns about her past.. and so does Star! Let's open the door!
~
We're at.. Monster Temple of all places where Star et al. have decorated the place for a party to usher in a new age of Mewmans and Monsters living in harmony - a Monster Bash if you will. Everyone seems to be having a good time. There's food, music and good vibes.
Outside, in the shadows, Heinous is lurking with Gemini and a mostly-regenerated Rasticore. Her cheek emblems are glowing just like Star's have...
~I mean, there have been so many hints about this to this point, ever since when Heinous was first introduced almost 2 seasons ago. But perhaps the bigger question in the moment is: why now? Why would her cheeks be glowing now?
In the party, there's budding romance in the air, and tension elsewhere - Tom wants some one-on-one time with Star, but she's busy making sure the party goes off without a hitch. Meanwhile, some Monsters start going missing and people start suspecting one another. Star and Marco go into the basement to investigate Slime's disappearance and find... Mina Loveberry?!
~We very briefly saw her in the midst of Battle for Mewni when Ludo was occupying Monster Temple. Has she been here the whole time? What has she been doing when no one was here? Who or what sent her here in the first place? She says she's "duty bound" to protect this place - but why?
Before Mina can explain anything, Heinous and her group literally crash in and bury Mina in rubble. They detain Marco and Star so Heinous can drain Marco's life force once and for all.
Heinous advances on Marco, but her cheek emblems - clovers, by the way - glow and open a nearby door. The door also has clovers, embedded in a spade (who has spades, hmm?). The room is.. a nursery.
There's dolls of Eclipsa and her Monster husband in a model of Butterfly Castle, a crib - everything one would expect to find in an infant's room. Heinous softly examines everything as her memories come back to her - this was her nursery. Star can only watch on with a mixture of confusion and concern.
~This scene is very telling. The dolls were left in the Butterfly Castle model, but everyone knows Eclipsa left the kingdom. Is this.. hope I sense? Heinous was the headmistress of St. Olga's, yet Eclipsa was alive 300 years ago. This room survived all this time. It almost seems like.. magic.
Heinous wipes the dust off the crib and reveals a name: 'Meteora'. Everyone is confused, but Mina emerges from the rubble, and drops the bomb:
Mina: I knew you'd be back here one day.. Meteora!
Heinous: Meteora... That is my name. At least, it was my name a long, long time ago.
Heinous's cheek emblems glow again, and her arm becomes scaly.
Mina: Well, ain't this a pretty picture? First, Eclipsa wakes up, and now, look who comes a-cryin'. Ty-pi-cal!
Star: Whoa, wait. Eclipsa? What does she have to do with this?
Mina: Don't you ding-dongs know anything? She's her mama!
Mina gestures to an art of Eclipsa holding a baby with clover cheek emblems.
Marco: Eclipsa is Heinous's mother?! But how?! Eclipsa is hundreds of years old! Besides, that would mean Heinous is a.. a princess!
Star: It means she's a Butterfly.
Mina: It means.. [transforms into her powered-up form] SHE'S A MONSTER!
~WHAT?! So, wait a minute. Heinous's real name is Meteora... she's hundreds of years old... and she's Eclipsa and her Monster husband's daughter?! What happened to her? How did.. everything happen to her? Does that mean Star is part Monster, too?
~Like I said, there have been many hints up to this point about Heinous's true identity - the cheek emblems alone raise a lot of questions. This is the biggest twist in the show so far, but things still aren't adding up. What else has been hidden from us? From Star, from the people of Mewni?
Star momentarily holds up Mina, but Mina wants to blast Meteora anyway. Star fires the first spell, kicking off a huge fight. Marco goes to free the Monsters Mina kidnapped.
Star's strong, but Mina is stronger. Star gets knocked back, almost into Tom who came to check on Star. He half-apologizes but Star notes the bigger problem right now. Tom jumps into action and casts some Demon magic to trap Mina, but she breaks free anyway. Tom and Star are both knocked back.
In the commotion, Heinous has disappeared, enraging Mina even further. She breaks through the ceiling into the main party. Star rushes back upstairs and stops Mina with...
Star: Raspberry ribbon lasso!
Star: You're ruining everything I'm trying to accomplish!
Mina: Well, you just helped the most dangerous Monster in the history of Mewni escape!
~Wait another minute. Dangerous? I mean, okay, Heinous was draining the life force of the princesses at St. Olga's and has apparently been alive for hundreds of years (unlike Eclipsa who was crystalized). Also, what about someone life Toffee? He's naturally immortal and did some pretty serious damage before Star stopped him. Why is Heinous so dangerous? Why was her coming back here so important that Mina had to stand guard over the Temple?
As Star's questions pile up, Rhombulus and the Royal Guard burst in and crystalize everyone and everything. Mina flees (why did she run from.. Mewmans?). Outside, Rhombulus is outraged at Star.
Star: Look, it was just a party, okay? We weren't doing anything wrong.
Rhombulus: Oh, really? Then what was that huge surge of magic we detected in the dungeon earlier?!
Star: Oh yeah, that...
Rhombulus: Do you have ANY IDEA what this place is?!
Star: Uh.. a fun place to throw parties?
Rhombulus: It's not just a fun place to throw parties. It's.. well, I'm not even authorized to tell you what it is. That's how bad it is!
Star: You don't know what it is, do you?
Rhombulus: What? No! I totally know what it is! It's--
Rhombulus's snake arm makes noises to get him to shut up. Rhombulus leaves to deal with the 'crime scene'
~He did admit it's a fun place for parties - moody, out of the way, what's not to like? How did Star find out about this place anyway? And what was Rhombulus hiding? We already know about the nursery.
Tom gets Star a drink. He apologizes for real this time, but Star is upset:
Star: This is all my fault. I really thought I could just change everything overnight. Ugh, I was so wrong.
Tom: Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. There's no way you could've known that all this weirdness would happen.
Star: Yeah, that's the problem, Tom. I don't know anything. I don't know how to fix what's wrong with Mewni. I don't even know who my own family is anymore. All that stuff with Heinous and Eclipsa. I just--
Star is interrupted by the Royal Guard leading the Monster kids away for loitering in the Temple. Star points out that the Mewmans (and Marco) were doing the same thing, and demands the Monsters be let go, which they are.
Star apologizes to the Monsters and tries to make things up, but they've had enough excitement for one night. The Monsters leave sad, but still seem on alright terms with Star.
~I feel bad for Star. Her heart is in the right place, but she overestimated how big this problem is. I said it in an earlier journal, Star went from being ignorant of the problems just outside her doorstep, to starting to see injustices in history (Mewnipendence Day), to seeing injustices first hand (Starfari), to working to make things better (Death Peck). But, like she said, she can't change everything in one night - with one party with a handful of teenagers. Is she still on the right path? It's a setback to say the least.
Gemini and Heinous are hiding in the woods, Gemini noting that their wanted level is still too high.
Gemini: We should get going, Miss Heinous.
Heinous's cheek emblems glow
Heinous: (slowly) That's not my name.
Gemini: I'm.. sorry?
Heinous stands. Her form has changed slightly.. she looks more like a Monster.
Heinous: My name is Meteora.
~
Easily one of my favorite episodes, and one of the best episodes in the series. The mystery keeps getting deeper. Heinous - or should I say, Meteora - who has been a thorn in the side of Star and Marco for most of the series (even if she wasn't around as much as, say, Ludo), might be A BUTTERFLY?! What is 'family', really? If Star really is related to her, what does that mean for Star herself? What does it mean for magic? Toffee kind of messed up things with the Realm of Magic and Ludo mused about conquering the universe. If Heinous is even half-Monster, what could she do with this power? Why was she suppressing it? Was she suppressing her Monster biology, too?
Every time we 'answer' one question, five more pop up. Some people say the show should have stayed low-key and slice-of-life, but then we'd never get to dive into the history of the Butterfly family, how the characters of Heinous/Meteora and Eclipsa tie into everything and what their real story is, how Mewmans and Monsters could get along...
Again, I'm intrigued by Mina calling Meteora 'the most dangerous Monster in the history of Mewni'. What makes her dangerous? It's like people talking up how "evil" Eclipsa is - she just seems like a nice lady most of the time. Are we even chasing the right person here?
Star's story is having its ups and downs. Star had her first big defeat when Ludo stole the Book of Spells, and spent the rest of last season dealing with the fallout from that. Now she's defeated Toffee, but has, honestly, bigger problems to deal with. Toffee was a threat, sure, but now, I'm not sure she knows what or who the threat truly is. It might have been Meteora, but if she's a Butterfly, could she turn out to be on their side? Who the heck are we supposed to be fighting? Who is family? Can Mewni ever be fixed?
Great, fantastic episode. We're peering into the abyss of the mystery that's unfolding, and the abyss just keeps getting deeper and deeper. There's apprehension, but also a lot of fun. Stay tuned for something new next time!
Posted Jul 29, 2025, 11:17 PM UTC