Winx Club 3x12: The Black Willow's Tears
Apr. 8th, 2008 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderbraidsBefore I begin my summary, a plug for the latest updates on my Winx Gallery: I've uploaded new galleries for "Missing in Action" and this current episode, as well as some additions to other places. Go check them out, okay?
Previously on Winx Club: A weakened barrier allowed Val and co to attack Alfea, where Val took on Faragonda one-on-one in the forest, and after the Winx girls were finished with the battle at Alfea, they (and their bonded pixies) went out to search for FG. After fighting off witches and other monsters at Cloud Tower, the Winx eventually found FG combined with an oak tree. Meanwhile, Val started considering sharing his power with one of the Trix. This could get interesting...
Daytime in the forest. TreeFG. Pixies. Tune and Digit water TreeFG. Lockette asks TreeFG if she needs anything else. Amore: "Lockette, she can't talk." Chatta: "Wait a second everybody. I bet I can break Valtor's spell..." Me: "Oh, don't be foolish Chatta." Chatta's magic bounces straight back into her and she falls to the ground. Me: "Told you so."
Lockette: "Don't worry headmistress, because right now, the Winx are on their way to Linphea to find a way to break this spell."
Ooh, Linphea, as in Flora's home realm? Looks like we're going to get to see another Winx girl's home...
Well. Turns out I'm not alone in being giddy over hearing what Lockette said. Someone in a hood is overhearing Lockette, but it's not hoodie guy from last week. It's Lucy, apparently back in action. We see Lucy hopping along branches, before transforming into a snake.
CT, and Val's mark is hovering ominously above it. Lucy shoves two student witches out of the way on her way to Val.
GrifVal's room. Val is reading a spell book and takes a spell out: "Hmm, very interesting." The Trix are there, so Val has Stormy come forward for him to give a new power. Naturally, Stormy is pleased, while Icy, not so much. Icy: "Why her???" Val: "Because I said so." With that, Val throws the spell at Stormy. Val: "Tell me how you feel." Stormy: "ELECTRIC." Icy and Darcy: "Hmm."
Knock-knock, and Val magi-opens the door for Lucy. Lucy takes off her hood before relaying what she overheard from Lockette, and we see Icy and Darcy looking smug. Val: "Seeking aid from the realm of nature, are they? Thanks for the news Lucy." Lucy re-hoods before leaving. Val switches back into Donald Trump mode: "Y'know, it would be nice if someone here were to take care of those fairies for me." Stormy: "I'll go to try out my new power." Wow. How transparent. Stormy leaves, and Icy soon also heads off: "Yeah, I've got something to do, too." Darcy has a weird look on her face as she says, "HUUHHH." I've got to iconize that.
And hello, Linphea! A bright portal appears underneath a tree, and Flora is the first to come out. Flora: "Linphea! It's so good to be home." The next girls to come out of the portal are Bloom, Layla, Musa, Tecna and lastly, Stella with her sceptre: "Stella's teleport thanks you for riding with us and hopes to see you again soon. " When you think about it, you do hardly get to see Stella's sceptre anymore, and it's even rarer that you get to see her ring, like this time.
Layla is in awe at the beauty of the place. Insert nice pan of the plant life in Linphea. Stella sneezes. HEE! And we hear a young voice calling Flora. We see a nice-looking orange-haired girl in a white dress, and Flora ID's her as Miele (me-ELL-ay), and hello, Flora's Enchantix target. Flora introduces Miele as her sister, and the girls are all, "Hi Miele!" Flora: "So, do you have good news for us?" Miele: "Well I spoke with the elders like you asked. They said you need to go to the City of Trees and see the Sage of Linphea. I'll take you there. Come on everybody!" And with that, Miele leads the way.
CT, where Stormy is test-driving her new powers on a balcony: "Portal of realms, a tunnel of light, give me a passage through which to take flight." We see a portal open, and she closes her spellbook and it disappears. We pan over to see Icy: "A dimensional passage. Congratulations. You used to have trouble with that kind of spell." Somehow, I think we'd believe that more if we actually saw this...
Stormy: "What are you doing here??"
Icy: "What makes you think you're the only one who can go??"
Stormy: "Valtor gave me new powers, which means he wants ME to take care of the fairies."
Icy: "But why you??"
Stormy: "Who knows, maybe he likes me." Val is, of course, watching all this through the crystal ball. "Later sis."
We see Icy following Stormy through the portal, and Valtor looking smug at this development.
Linphea. The girls are in awe.
Musa: "Totally amazing."
Bloom: "Is this the City of Trees? Are we in it?"
Miele: "It's way up there."
Tec: "Is there a hyper-speed elevator in one of the tree trunks or something?" HEH.
Flora: "Are you kidding? Technology is forbidden in the City of Trees."
Layla: "Then we'll just have to use our wings."
Flora: "That won't work either: the winds that blow down from the mountains create powerful wind tunnels." We see leaves blowing around in the wind.
Bloom: "Okay, so how do we get up there then?"
Miele is standing next to a HUGE leaf that easily dwarfs her: "C'mon. I'll show you. It's easy."
And whattaya know, Stormy is watching them get on to the leaf, before running off.
So the girls are getting on the leaf. Flora: "Miele, you don't have to come if you don't feel like it you know." Sis: "Hey. I'm not a baby anymore." Flo: "Hey, I didn't say you were, I was just asking." Stella: "Why? Is there something we should worry about? Isn't the leaf safe?" Miele: "Sure it is. You just have to hold on tight."
Stormy watches this and quips: "What goes up, must come down." And with that, Stormy uses her new powers to create a flock of harpies. Stormy: "These new powers rock! I can summon anything!"
On the leaf, Stella is pretty worried: "Is there any way to slow this thing down?" Flo: "It HAS to go this fast to push past the wind. Just don't look down." Stel: "Why not?" As she peers over the leaf's edge, the answer is quite clear. Hello, dizzying heights. Musa: "And don't look up either. We're heading into a storm!"
Bloom can't see a thing. Musa's wondering "What was that?" when one of Stormy's harpies decides to swoop down. Bloom tells Musa to duck to avoid the harpy.
Bloom: "Storm harpies? I thought they only existed in fairy tales!"
Flora: "Some people think that about us." Heh.
Tecna: "Watch out! They're getting ready for another attack!"
Bloom: "Then we'd better defend ourselves! Magic Winx!"
And here we go with Winx-level transformations for Flo, Tec, and Bloom. Then it's the others' turn with their Enchantix-level transformations (once again, we get the usual split screen of Stella and Layla preceding the transformations).
Alrighty then, let's get to business. Tec zaps a harpy. Musa: "Nice ONE." And here come more harpies. Flo: "3 o'clock!" Bloom: "Whose 3 o'clock?" Flo: "Yours but now it's 9 o'..." Apparently, the harpies bump Layla and Stella to the back of the leaf, with Stella hanging on for dear life, as Bloom throws fireballs at some harpies.
Layla is hanging on to Stella, but Stella has other ideas: "Let me go, and I'll fly." Layla: "No, it's too dangerous!" Stella: "Just let me try, okay?" Layla lets go of Stella... and we see that Stella's Enchantix wings are pretty robust, as they hold up perfectly, and she's flying under solid control.
Stella: "I was right! These wings can handle even the strongest winds."
Bloom: "Enchantix power is amazing."
A harpy attaches itself to the underside of the leaf and starts rocking the leaf. We see another harpy swoop in, and we see Flo and Tec take her down. Charmix music starts playing as Miele gets tossed over the side, but Bloom grabs her (with Musa also supporting Bloom). With new-found confidence in their wings, Layla and Stella have gone airborne, and they're taking down harpy after harpy. Stel: "C'mon! Let's show them what Enchantix power is all about!" Musa decides to join in on the other Enchanti's fun: "Hey fairies, we've got company. Back in a minute!"
Musa joins the others: "Do you girls need any help?"
Stella: "It's about time! Were you afraid to try out your wings?"
Musa: "Well, they still ARE brand new." Zing. (No, not the cosplay pixie, though where HAS she been this season, anyway?)
Layla: "Can you feel the awesome power they posess?"
Stella: "Power AND style! Now that's what I call cool fairy fashion!" HEE!! And, totally true, Stella.
We see lots of harpies tailgating Flo's leaf. The Enchanti take down some more harpies. We briefly cut to Stormy cackling. And then back to the leaf, where we see a pretty bad animation mistake in action, as casual Flo tells sis "Don't worry, we'll get through this." Sis: "I know Flora, you're the Winx." Bloom: "Heard that Tecna? Miele trusts us." Tec: "So, let's try not to let her down."
After we see Flo back in her fairy outfit as the other not-as-strong-winged fairies take down some harpies from the leaf, we see three harpies swooping in to turn it over. Stella calls it a three-on-three, and the Enchanti each take out one harpy with her blast. Musa: "Mission accomplished!"
The Enchanti get back to the leaf, where we see CASUAL Flo with Miele. Cut to side of the leaf, and we see Flo's wings. Yeah, I guess the continuity people weren't being paid enough this season.
We see a shot of some buildings in trees, and then we see Stormy frustrated and knocking down a couple small branches. We cut to the girls walking on some path. Musa: "Cool." We see more walking on the path, and then walking into a cave. We hear the flowing of water.
Layla: "Uh, you sure this is the right place?"
Miele: "Positive. This is where the Sage of Linphea lives."
Sage: "You've come to help Faragonda. Step closer."
Stella: "HUH. The voice is coming from that waterfall."
We see some tree growing in the waterfall's flow.
Sage: "Valtor's magic is very powerful, and cannot be undone through normal reversal spells."
Flo: "You are the...?"
We get a good shot of the Sage, a tree that has grown to look just like a woman in a dress standing in the waterfall: "Are you disappointed? Were you expecting something different?"
Me: "No, not really."
Bloom gets straight to business: "How can we help Faragonda?"
Sage: "The only way to undo Valtor's spell is to reverse the flow of time. Eons ago these two willow trees were the source of life for the region of Lulea, a lush, prosperous, land north of Linphea." We see, in the waterfall's reflection, two willow trees.
Flo: "Lulea is a wasteland."
Sage tells us the story as a flashback illustrates it for us: "It wasn't before the Great Realm Fire. It totally destroyed one of the trees and badly damaged the other, which became known as the Black Willow. Its grief was such that it couldn't stay where its sister had once stood, so it left Lulea."
Musa: "So where did it go?"
Sage: "To a cave in a nearby mountain. It then began weeping for its lost sister. The tears soon formed a puddle, which tne became a pond, flowing out of the cave and up the cliffside, defying gravity and forming what is now known as the Water Stairway." We're shown all these through flashback.
Layla, being the fairy of water and all, seems piqued: "A place where water flows backwards?"
Sage: "Memory is what makes the Black Willow cry. That's why its tears can reverse the flow of time, and change what has happened."
This gets the Winx thinking.
Bloom: "So if we can get some of the water,"
Stella: "We can water the Faragonda tree and turn back time."
Musa: "If we can bring her and the tree back to the moment just before the spell was cast, then we can free her."
Sage: "You must hurry: If you wait too long, Valtor's spell will become irreversible."
Bloom: "Let's go."
Sage: "One last thing: You need a goblet to collect the willow's tears."
I should note that the 4K dub has the Sage cryptically say "You must touch the water without touching it", but here the Sage is specifically telling them exactly how to collect the water. That's kind of like 4K putting the words "Quiz Answer Sheet" on an originally blank envelope... except that it's in the reverse direction now. HUH.
Back at CT, Darcy has Grif's crystal ball show her Stormy, and finds Stormy at Linphea. Darcy: "That sneaky witch..." Then she has the ball show her Icy, and Icy's there too. She runs out to the balcony, where Stormy's portal is still open after who knows how long.
Darcy: "If they think they can make me look bad in front of Valtor, they're messing with the wrong witch!" Dude, I don't think they can possibly make you look any worse than when Layla shackled you up.
Back on Linphea, Stella is getting on to a huge bug, saying she can't believe they're riding bugs. Musa thinks they're cute, adding that they're like ladybugs. Flo sees Miele trying to get on to another ladybug.
Flo: "Miele, what are you doing?"
Sis: "I'm coming with you."
Flo: "I'm sorry Miele, I can't let you. It's too dangerous."
Sis is not pleased: "No way! You can't leave me here!"
Flo: "We have to sweetie. You did a great job finding the Sage and getting us here. We really appreciate it, but it's just too risky for you to come with us."
Sis: "But I'm a FAIRY!"
Flo: "And you'll grow up to be a strong and brave fairy, too. Your time hasn't come yet, that's all. But don't worry, you still get to ride the ladybug."
Flo helps her sis on to the ladybug, and has the ladybug take sis back home, adding: "If she asks you to fly faster, just don't listen to her okay?" The Winx girls wave goodbye and Miele says "Just call me if you get in trouble!"
We see the girls riding the ladybugs. We see birds getting nectar from flowers. We get a nice long panning shot showing what other Linpheans look like. Cool.
Flo stops the ladybugs: "Sorry girls, we've got to stop. The ladybugs don't like to go near the sticky vines."
Musa: "Let's use our own wings to fly across the canyon."
Flo: "Are you kidding? This way is much more fun. Watch!"
Flo hop, skips, and jumps along a vine across the canyon. Stella doesn't think it looks very steady. Flo has the girls follow her, and they do without the need to transform.
And then who should we see but Icy. We hear Darcy chiding Icy for wanting them all to herself. Something good is gonna happen...
Darcy: "What, you want to become Valtor's #1 witch?"
Icy: "I don't want to, Darcy. I already am!"
D: "Yeah, well we'll just see about that!"
And we see them go at each other like animals. It's mostly physical, except for Darcy ducking to avoid Icy's ice blast. Grif once said that team members can betray one another, and it seems that we're finally seeing something like that from the Trix. Anyways, here comes Stormy...
Stormy: "What are you doing??? Come on, chill out, stop fighting."
I: "Don't you start telling us what to do! You think you're 'all that' because Valtor gave some new little power to play with?" She and Darcy hit Stormy with a combined blast.
S: "Oh yeah? You wanna see me play huh?"
We see the Trix put their arms up raring for a fight... And then Darcy starts giggling.
D: "I can't believe this."
I&S: "What's so funny???"
D: "We're actually fighting over a guy."
I: "Huh, you're right."
S: "Yeah, if we're going to get rid of those fairies, we have to work together."
D: "Stop it. You sound like Bloom." Heh.
S: "Well, I mean, we are friends."
I: "Stormy, are you getting sentimental on us?"
S: "Uh... no no of course not. Let's go."
Good times, good times.
Back to the fairies. Bloom: "The Water Stairway. That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen."
We see a waterfall, but instead of the water, y'know, falling, it's going upwards from the pond below. Flo says the cave's supposed to be behind it. We see the Trix looking at the Stairway from a distance. Darcy: "There must a cave back there. I wonder why there's always a cave behind a waterfall." HEH. Icy: "Who cares? It's the perfect place for an ambush."
Back to the fairies, where Flo is leading them along a wooden pathway behind the waterfall into the cave, and there's the tree. Layla is in awe as Bloom goes to collect some water, but Flora stops her: "If the tears of the Black WIllow can turn back time and you touch the water," Musa: "time might turn back for you too. You could become a kid again." Bloom wonders what to do...
And whattaya know, here's Miele: "Girls, don't you remember what the Sage said?" Flo's surprised to see Miele and asks what she's doing here. Sis continues: "You've got to get the water without touching it." This prompts Bloom to mention the goblet thing. Stella: "Allow me."
The others seem a bit bewildered, as Stella goes down to pick up a rock, and she makes it glow with magic. "A touch of sun magic should be enough to turn this stone...into a goblet of shining crystal." And just like that, the rock has turned into a goblet. Pretty cool power, and Flora seems to think so too. I should note that, by not having the Sage spell it out for them in the 4K dub, it makes Stella pretty smart to make the goblet.
Tecna reminds Stella not to touch the water as she's collecting it. And here comes the ambush Icy was talking about. The water spills, but Stella saves the falling goblet. Nice reflex, kid! (Thumbs up)
Icy: "Trying to save Faragonda? Try saving yourselves first!" Heh.
Bloom is of course none too pleased to see them again. Stormy asks the girls "How did you like our little trick with the harpies?" Musa zings one right back: "Oh, we had a blast, and now we'll do our best to return the favor!" And wouldn't that have been a great line to return from silence with? Icy is clearly not pleased with that zinger, so she fires icicles at her (what, no flames? again?), and of course Musa ducks. We see Bloom put out two fingers from each hand and crossing them, and you know what means: Transformation time!
Interestingly, in our version, we only see Bloom and Flo's Winx-level transformation, and then a 4-5 second stab of Musa's Enchantix transformation. As we'll see later, those aren't the only girls who have transformed. A Winx first, perhaps?
Bloom fires at Icy, and Icy turns the fire energy to an ice blast before redirecting it back to Bloom. We see Bloom say "Hurry up, Stella!" and then ducking to avoid the ice blast.
And we see another possible Winx first, as Stella has NOT transformed. Unlike Mirta last week, she doesn't have "I don't have my own transformation sequence" to fall back on, and unlike Bloom in late S1, she also doesn't have "I lost my powers" to fall back on either. I suppose that Stella's big Enchantix wings are built more for strength (remember, we saw them handle the storm winds while she was fighting the harpies) than delicate maneuvers, or at least she thinks they are, and considering that she has to be careful not to touch the water when collecting it, I'd say that this a pretty delicate maneuver... Still, it's a bit of a stretch in reasoning to justify not transforming along with everyone else.
Anyways, un-transformed Stella tells the girls to keep the Trix busy while she's getting the water, while Miele is just standing around. Stormy uses her powers against Musa, Tecna, and Flora (and they're all transformed), as Stella gets the water. Icy sees this and shoots at her goblet to empty it. Stormy shoots at Musa, and Flora makes vines grow around Stormy, but Stormy wastes no time in getting rid of them. Icy shoots icicles at Bloom, affixing her to a cave wall with lots of ice, a la when she lost her Dragonfire back in S1. Darcy multiplies herself over and over, and surrounds Musa all by herself. Deja vu, anyone? Musa is confused by all the extra Darcies, and then she's tied up with a purple rope. Still wingless Stella's got some more water in the goblet, so Icy fires at the goblet again, this time not only turning the goblet over, but also sending it flying pretty far before shattering on the rocks, after Stella runs herself into a tree while chasing the goblet. Ouch, that's gotta hurt.
Icy is all "HAH-Hah!" (tm Nelson from the Simpsons) as she's pointing out how that water could have saved FG, but Bloom, still affixed to the cave wall (and BTW missing also her crown) says "We'll get more" in sort of a "Well, duh" voice, after all, there IS a stream full of FG-saving H2O, so one broken goblet should be just a minor issue, right? Well, Darcy doesn't think so, and asks "Remember Griffin's nature study class?" Stormy: "Yeah, how to ruin a perfectly naturally environment. You totally aced that one." Icy: "Well, now's your chance to show what a scholar you are."
So, Darcy casts a spell into the stream, causing it to become polluted all the way from the Black Willow, out the cave, and up the Water Stairway. The Trix cackle as the leaves on the Willow turn dark, so I take that this means that Darcy has just killed the Willow. Concerned, Flo spars off against Darcy, but Stormy immediately blasts her and sends her hurtling some distance like the goblet. Stormy: "I like wiping out goody-goodies." HEH. The Trix power up a convergence spell to finish off Flora, but who should jump into the way of the blast but sister Miele?
The blast knocks Miele straight into the polluted stream, and since Darcy polluted it, the water doesn't have its usual time reversal effects (keep that in mind). We see Flora looking horrified, and Musa still trying to get out of the rope Darcy tied her up in earlier. Flora is very angry, and she shoots a Venus Gobbler, and some plants grow out of the polluted stream, and their buds gobble the Trix. Musa breaks free of the rope in the background as Flora jumps into the stream. Musa is horrified: "Flora you can't!"
Back to sinking Miele. Flora is diving down towards the stream floor, where there's some stream grass growing. That sure is some hardy grass if it's still growing in the Darcy-polluted stream... So anyways, Miele sinks on to the grass, and Flora reaches her and gives her an air bubble, asking: "Miele, why didn't you go back home?" Sis: "I wanted to see what would happen." Well, are you happy now sis? Flora: "I love you my little blossom..." With the last of her magic, Flo tells the bubble to bring sis up as she gets tangled in the stream grass and drowns.
Surface. The bubble brings Miele to safe ground. Miele is despondent at her big sister's fate, before seeing her big sister's Venus Gobblers pop open. Stormy: "Looks like the flower fairy didn't make it!" Bloom breaks the ice affixing her to the wall and flies over to Miele. Bloom: "What happened? Where's Flora?" Sis: "She saved me." We see sister weeping.
Now, 4Kids generally translated this season faithfully to the original, but this is where the episode plot takes a different path. After we see sister weep, we see the Willow produce a tear in parallel. The tear drips into the polluted stream, and the stream becomes clean (and backwards-flowing) again. It's pretty, except that if the Willow were dead, like it appears it's supposed to be, it shouldn't be able to produce any more tears, which is why Darcy cast her spell in the first place. Plot hole, anyone?
Anyways, we head underwater. It looks as if Flora's soul is leaving her body, and Flora's body reunites with her soul (which I take as the stream taking her back to the moment before she drowned)... before going Enchantix.
We see petals flying across the screen, shading Flo's eyelids with a nice shade of pink. She blinks as we pan over to the top of her hair, where we see a crown materialize just like in Bloom's Winx transformation. We see her hair tie itself up. We see her body surrounded with light and petals, and we see her twirl around, and the petals combine with the light and coalesce into Flora's new dress. The new dress covers her navel like her Winx outfit did, and even has its two shades of pink, but with the addition of some purple highlights, and a small stab of bluish-green over her chest. Next, we see petals and light form one of Flora's Enchantix gloves, then we pan down Flora's legs as she twirls around one to show her lengthened hair, with petals and light forming her leggings, probably the only part of the new outfit that doesn't really fit with the others, since they're cyan with a red gem (especially considering that, as was pointed out during my time at the community, making the leggings green would make them look like vines). Petals fly across the screen as we see a big pink flower come apart to reveal the new Flora with arms over her chest and four large petals on her back, with the petals sparkling into pink and green butterfly wings. Even without vine-like leggings, I still think Flora's Enchantix outfit is pretty to look at.
We see the cleaned stream flowing from the Willow, out the cave, and up the Stairway. Back at the tree, we see Flora surface, revealing her new form to everyone. The fairies, plus Miele, are joyous to see Flora alive and Enchantixed. Of course, the Trix are pretty angry, and Darcy looks especially steamed. Well, your coffee would be pretty steamed too if you were just majorly hosed by a big-time plot hole.
Back to Flo looking at the "dead" tree. We see her new wings flapping. We see her taking her fairy dust bottle, which has a flower-shaped frame enclosing it, from her top, before then drawing a flower shape with it (of course). The outline disappears, and she glows green, then we get a full-screen shot of the bottle, with the flower frame receding and the cap coming off. Flo takes some of the dust and sprinkles it all over the tree, and the tree extends its leaves to wrap around Stormy, and then Icy and Darcy, dumping them into the stream.
The girls come over as Enchantix Flo touches down on the riverside. Layla is happy to see that Flora earned her Enchantix. Stella: "You look amazing."
Sis: "Thanks for saving my life."
Flo: "Hey, you saved mine first."
Sis: "Yeah, well I guess I did."
Flo: "You were very brave. I'm proud of you Miele."
Musa points at the stream: "Hey look. Haahh."
The Trix are coming out of the stream, but since, unlike when Flo drowned, it was clean when they fell in, it has its normal time reversal effects, so you see where this is going, right?
KidIcy: "Your hair used to look like that?"
KidDarcy: "Whatever. You look like a pixie."
KidStormy: "You'll pay for this, Flora!"
KidStormy tries to cast a spell, but her magic fizzles. Bloom comes over to the three of them: "Now Trix, stop misbehaving, or else we'll have to give you a timeout." The prospect of getting a timeout sends the KidTrix fleeing, and we see everyone else laughing, including Stella, holding a new fresh goblet.
TreeFG, with the fairies, pixies, and Miele. Bloom is holding Stella's new goblet, now carrying some FG-saving H2O, hoping it will work. Bloom opens the lid and drips a few drops of the water on to one of the roots. The tree grows backwards, and when it disappears, there's an explosion, and the smoke clears to reveal FG, back in human form.
FG: "Thank you girls. I knew I could count on you."
Girls: "Welcome back! We've missed you!"
Hmm, it's hoodie guy from last week. This time, he has a telescope, and he's peering through it. And this time, we hear him speak. "Layla. I finally found you." Yes, he's trained his telescope on Layla and Piff, and the somewhat ominous music seems to be suggesting that this is the man who will allegedly ruin her life forever. The telescope matte closes with a shutter effect... and scene.
Critique of the episode:
1. So, we learn that Enchantix isn't just about the fancy outfits and the fairy dust, as we discover how strong those new wings of theirs are: apparently, enough for stable flying in strong winds.
2. Many good lines this week. The cream of the crop: Tec's elevator comment, Musa on her new wings, Stella's "cool fairy fashion" comment, Darcy wondering about caves behind waterfalls, Musa's little zinger right before the fight, and Stormy calling Flo a goody-goody.
3. This week's show had an animation mistake with Flo in her casuals on the leaf, plus a big plot hole with the tree (which 4K fixed in their version, so kudos to them), but if you thought that was big, next week is going to make that plot hole look totally minor.
4. A 4K change makes Stella smart, just like in the S2 finale, by having her figure out the Sage's riddle instead of having the Sage spell it out for them. This one's more natural than Stella mentioning a field trip "out of nowhere" as in the S2 finale... Hmm.
5. The battle: Now, this is the kind of battle we expect between the Winx and the Trix, and unlike their first encounter this season, Darcy actually remembers to use a power she used back in the 2nd episode. See, writers, THAT is how you do a battle. But we're still waiting for Icy to fight fire with fire...
6. Meanwhile, at the very end, we see what's up with the hoodie guy we saw last week. Apparently, he's interested in Layla. Somehow, Layla's arranged marriage has to figure into this somewhere, and I'm wondering if this is the only reason Layla mentioned it so early on...
7. Okay, so let's recap. We saw Bloom's snowed-over Domino way back in S1. We saw Musa put down flowers on her mother's grave in Melody in S2. This season so far, mostly because of Enchantix, we've seen many of the girls' realms: Layla's Val-ravaged Andros, Stella's Solaria, and now Flora's Linphea. So that just leaves Tecna's digirealm of Zenith that we haven't seen yet.
8. Note to the writers: If you ever want to re-tool Winx and start afresh with a new batch of fairies, please include Miele in the club.
Previously on Winx Club: A weakened barrier allowed Val and co to attack Alfea, where Val took on Faragonda one-on-one in the forest, and after the Winx girls were finished with the battle at Alfea, they (and their bonded pixies) went out to search for FG. After fighting off witches and other monsters at Cloud Tower, the Winx eventually found FG combined with an oak tree. Meanwhile, Val started considering sharing his power with one of the Trix. This could get interesting...
Daytime in the forest. TreeFG. Pixies. Tune and Digit water TreeFG. Lockette asks TreeFG if she needs anything else. Amore: "Lockette, she can't talk." Chatta: "Wait a second everybody. I bet I can break Valtor's spell..." Me: "Oh, don't be foolish Chatta." Chatta's magic bounces straight back into her and she falls to the ground. Me: "Told you so."
Lockette: "Don't worry headmistress, because right now, the Winx are on their way to Linphea to find a way to break this spell."
Ooh, Linphea, as in Flora's home realm? Looks like we're going to get to see another Winx girl's home...
Well. Turns out I'm not alone in being giddy over hearing what Lockette said. Someone in a hood is overhearing Lockette, but it's not hoodie guy from last week. It's Lucy, apparently back in action. We see Lucy hopping along branches, before transforming into a snake.
CT, and Val's mark is hovering ominously above it. Lucy shoves two student witches out of the way on her way to Val.
Knock-knock, and Val magi-opens the door for Lucy. Lucy takes off her hood before relaying what she overheard from Lockette, and we see Icy and Darcy looking smug. Val: "Seeking aid from the realm of nature, are they? Thanks for the news Lucy." Lucy re-hoods before leaving. Val switches back into Donald Trump mode: "Y'know, it would be nice if someone here were to take care of those fairies for me." Stormy: "I'll go to try out my new power." Wow. How transparent. Stormy leaves, and Icy soon also heads off: "Yeah, I've got something to do, too." Darcy has a weird look on her face as she says, "HUUHHH." I've got to iconize that.
And hello, Linphea! A bright portal appears underneath a tree, and Flora is the first to come out. Flora: "Linphea! It's so good to be home." The next girls to come out of the portal are Bloom, Layla, Musa, Tecna and lastly, Stella with her sceptre: "Stella's teleport thanks you for riding with us and hopes to see you again soon. " When you think about it, you do hardly get to see Stella's sceptre anymore, and it's even rarer that you get to see her ring, like this time.
Layla is in awe at the beauty of the place. Insert nice pan of the plant life in Linphea. Stella sneezes. HEE! And we hear a young voice calling Flora. We see a nice-looking orange-haired girl in a white dress, and Flora ID's her as Miele (me-ELL-ay), and hello, Flora's Enchantix target. Flora introduces Miele as her sister, and the girls are all, "Hi Miele!" Flora: "So, do you have good news for us?" Miele: "Well I spoke with the elders like you asked. They said you need to go to the City of Trees and see the Sage of Linphea. I'll take you there. Come on everybody!" And with that, Miele leads the way.
CT, where Stormy is test-driving her new powers on a balcony: "Portal of realms, a tunnel of light, give me a passage through which to take flight." We see a portal open, and she closes her spellbook and it disappears. We pan over to see Icy: "A dimensional passage. Congratulations. You used to have trouble with that kind of spell." Somehow, I think we'd believe that more if we actually saw this...
Stormy: "What are you doing here??"
Icy: "What makes you think you're the only one who can go??"
Stormy: "Valtor gave me new powers, which means he wants ME to take care of the fairies."
Icy: "But why you??"
Stormy: "Who knows, maybe he likes me." Val is, of course, watching all this through the crystal ball. "Later sis."
We see Icy following Stormy through the portal, and Valtor looking smug at this development.
Linphea. The girls are in awe.
Musa: "Totally amazing."
Bloom: "Is this the City of Trees? Are we in it?"
Miele: "It's way up there."
Tec: "Is there a hyper-speed elevator in one of the tree trunks or something?" HEH.
Flora: "Are you kidding? Technology is forbidden in the City of Trees."
Layla: "Then we'll just have to use our wings."
Flora: "That won't work either: the winds that blow down from the mountains create powerful wind tunnels." We see leaves blowing around in the wind.
Bloom: "Okay, so how do we get up there then?"
Miele is standing next to a HUGE leaf that easily dwarfs her: "C'mon. I'll show you. It's easy."
And whattaya know, Stormy is watching them get on to the leaf, before running off.
So the girls are getting on the leaf. Flora: "Miele, you don't have to come if you don't feel like it you know." Sis: "Hey. I'm not a baby anymore." Flo: "Hey, I didn't say you were, I was just asking." Stella: "Why? Is there something we should worry about? Isn't the leaf safe?" Miele: "Sure it is. You just have to hold on tight."
Stormy watches this and quips: "What goes up, must come down." And with that, Stormy uses her new powers to create a flock of harpies. Stormy: "These new powers rock! I can summon anything!"
On the leaf, Stella is pretty worried: "Is there any way to slow this thing down?" Flo: "It HAS to go this fast to push past the wind. Just don't look down." Stel: "Why not?" As she peers over the leaf's edge, the answer is quite clear. Hello, dizzying heights. Musa: "And don't look up either. We're heading into a storm!"
Bloom can't see a thing. Musa's wondering "What was that?" when one of Stormy's harpies decides to swoop down. Bloom tells Musa to duck to avoid the harpy.
Bloom: "Storm harpies? I thought they only existed in fairy tales!"
Flora: "Some people think that about us." Heh.
Tecna: "Watch out! They're getting ready for another attack!"
Bloom: "Then we'd better defend ourselves! Magic Winx!"
And here we go with Winx-level transformations for Flo, Tec, and Bloom. Then it's the others' turn with their Enchantix-level transformations (once again, we get the usual split screen of Stella and Layla preceding the transformations).
Alrighty then, let's get to business. Tec zaps a harpy. Musa: "Nice ONE." And here come more harpies. Flo: "3 o'clock!" Bloom: "Whose 3 o'clock?" Flo: "Yours but now it's 9 o'..." Apparently, the harpies bump Layla and Stella to the back of the leaf, with Stella hanging on for dear life, as Bloom throws fireballs at some harpies.
Layla is hanging on to Stella, but Stella has other ideas: "Let me go, and I'll fly." Layla: "No, it's too dangerous!" Stella: "Just let me try, okay?" Layla lets go of Stella... and we see that Stella's Enchantix wings are pretty robust, as they hold up perfectly, and she's flying under solid control.
Stella: "I was right! These wings can handle even the strongest winds."
Bloom: "Enchantix power is amazing."
A harpy attaches itself to the underside of the leaf and starts rocking the leaf. We see another harpy swoop in, and we see Flo and Tec take her down. Charmix music starts playing as Miele gets tossed over the side, but Bloom grabs her (with Musa also supporting Bloom). With new-found confidence in their wings, Layla and Stella have gone airborne, and they're taking down harpy after harpy. Stel: "C'mon! Let's show them what Enchantix power is all about!" Musa decides to join in on the other Enchanti's fun: "Hey fairies, we've got company. Back in a minute!"
Musa joins the others: "Do you girls need any help?"
Stella: "It's about time! Were you afraid to try out your wings?"
Musa: "Well, they still ARE brand new." Zing. (No, not the cosplay pixie, though where HAS she been this season, anyway?)
Layla: "Can you feel the awesome power they posess?"
Stella: "Power AND style! Now that's what I call cool fairy fashion!" HEE!! And, totally true, Stella.
We see lots of harpies tailgating Flo's leaf. The Enchanti take down some more harpies. We briefly cut to Stormy cackling. And then back to the leaf, where we see a pretty bad animation mistake in action, as casual Flo tells sis "Don't worry, we'll get through this." Sis: "I know Flora, you're the Winx." Bloom: "Heard that Tecna? Miele trusts us." Tec: "So, let's try not to let her down."
After we see Flo back in her fairy outfit as the other not-as-strong-winged fairies take down some harpies from the leaf, we see three harpies swooping in to turn it over. Stella calls it a three-on-three, and the Enchanti each take out one harpy with her blast. Musa: "Mission accomplished!"
The Enchanti get back to the leaf, where we see CASUAL Flo with Miele. Cut to side of the leaf, and we see Flo's wings. Yeah, I guess the continuity people weren't being paid enough this season.
We see a shot of some buildings in trees, and then we see Stormy frustrated and knocking down a couple small branches. We cut to the girls walking on some path. Musa: "Cool." We see more walking on the path, and then walking into a cave. We hear the flowing of water.
Layla: "Uh, you sure this is the right place?"
Miele: "Positive. This is where the Sage of Linphea lives."
Sage: "You've come to help Faragonda. Step closer."
Stella: "HUH. The voice is coming from that waterfall."
We see some tree growing in the waterfall's flow.
Sage: "Valtor's magic is very powerful, and cannot be undone through normal reversal spells."
Flo: "You are the...?"
We get a good shot of the Sage, a tree that has grown to look just like a woman in a dress standing in the waterfall: "Are you disappointed? Were you expecting something different?"
Me: "No, not really."
Bloom gets straight to business: "How can we help Faragonda?"
Sage: "The only way to undo Valtor's spell is to reverse the flow of time. Eons ago these two willow trees were the source of life for the region of Lulea, a lush, prosperous, land north of Linphea." We see, in the waterfall's reflection, two willow trees.
Flo: "Lulea is a wasteland."
Sage tells us the story as a flashback illustrates it for us: "It wasn't before the Great Realm Fire. It totally destroyed one of the trees and badly damaged the other, which became known as the Black Willow. Its grief was such that it couldn't stay where its sister had once stood, so it left Lulea."
Musa: "So where did it go?"
Sage: "To a cave in a nearby mountain. It then began weeping for its lost sister. The tears soon formed a puddle, which tne became a pond, flowing out of the cave and up the cliffside, defying gravity and forming what is now known as the Water Stairway." We're shown all these through flashback.
Layla, being the fairy of water and all, seems piqued: "A place where water flows backwards?"
Sage: "Memory is what makes the Black Willow cry. That's why its tears can reverse the flow of time, and change what has happened."
This gets the Winx thinking.
Bloom: "So if we can get some of the water,"
Stella: "We can water the Faragonda tree and turn back time."
Musa: "If we can bring her and the tree back to the moment just before the spell was cast, then we can free her."
Sage: "You must hurry: If you wait too long, Valtor's spell will become irreversible."
Bloom: "Let's go."
Sage: "One last thing: You need a goblet to collect the willow's tears."
I should note that the 4K dub has the Sage cryptically say "You must touch the water without touching it", but here the Sage is specifically telling them exactly how to collect the water. That's kind of like 4K putting the words "Quiz Answer Sheet" on an originally blank envelope... except that it's in the reverse direction now. HUH.
Back at CT, Darcy has Grif's crystal ball show her Stormy, and finds Stormy at Linphea. Darcy: "That sneaky witch..." Then she has the ball show her Icy, and Icy's there too. She runs out to the balcony, where Stormy's portal is still open after who knows how long.
Darcy: "If they think they can make me look bad in front of Valtor, they're messing with the wrong witch!" Dude, I don't think they can possibly make you look any worse than when Layla shackled you up.
Back on Linphea, Stella is getting on to a huge bug, saying she can't believe they're riding bugs. Musa thinks they're cute, adding that they're like ladybugs. Flo sees Miele trying to get on to another ladybug.
Flo: "Miele, what are you doing?"
Sis: "I'm coming with you."
Flo: "I'm sorry Miele, I can't let you. It's too dangerous."
Sis is not pleased: "No way! You can't leave me here!"
Flo: "We have to sweetie. You did a great job finding the Sage and getting us here. We really appreciate it, but it's just too risky for you to come with us."
Sis: "But I'm a FAIRY!"
Flo: "And you'll grow up to be a strong and brave fairy, too. Your time hasn't come yet, that's all. But don't worry, you still get to ride the ladybug."
Flo helps her sis on to the ladybug, and has the ladybug take sis back home, adding: "If she asks you to fly faster, just don't listen to her okay?" The Winx girls wave goodbye and Miele says "Just call me if you get in trouble!"
We see the girls riding the ladybugs. We see birds getting nectar from flowers. We get a nice long panning shot showing what other Linpheans look like. Cool.
Flo stops the ladybugs: "Sorry girls, we've got to stop. The ladybugs don't like to go near the sticky vines."
Musa: "Let's use our own wings to fly across the canyon."
Flo: "Are you kidding? This way is much more fun. Watch!"
Flo hop, skips, and jumps along a vine across the canyon. Stella doesn't think it looks very steady. Flo has the girls follow her, and they do without the need to transform.
And then who should we see but Icy. We hear Darcy chiding Icy for wanting them all to herself. Something good is gonna happen...
Darcy: "What, you want to become Valtor's #1 witch?"
Icy: "I don't want to, Darcy. I already am!"
D: "Yeah, well we'll just see about that!"
And we see them go at each other like animals. It's mostly physical, except for Darcy ducking to avoid Icy's ice blast. Grif once said that team members can betray one another, and it seems that we're finally seeing something like that from the Trix. Anyways, here comes Stormy...
Stormy: "What are you doing??? Come on, chill out, stop fighting."
I: "Don't you start telling us what to do! You think you're 'all that' because Valtor gave some new little power to play with?" She and Darcy hit Stormy with a combined blast.
S: "Oh yeah? You wanna see me play huh?"
We see the Trix put their arms up raring for a fight... And then Darcy starts giggling.
D: "I can't believe this."
I&S: "What's so funny???"
D: "We're actually fighting over a guy."
I: "Huh, you're right."
S: "Yeah, if we're going to get rid of those fairies, we have to work together."
D: "Stop it. You sound like Bloom." Heh.
S: "Well, I mean, we are friends."
I: "Stormy, are you getting sentimental on us?"
S: "Uh... no no of course not. Let's go."
Good times, good times.
Back to the fairies. Bloom: "The Water Stairway. That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen."
We see a waterfall, but instead of the water, y'know, falling, it's going upwards from the pond below. Flo says the cave's supposed to be behind it. We see the Trix looking at the Stairway from a distance. Darcy: "There must a cave back there. I wonder why there's always a cave behind a waterfall." HEH. Icy: "Who cares? It's the perfect place for an ambush."
Back to the fairies, where Flo is leading them along a wooden pathway behind the waterfall into the cave, and there's the tree. Layla is in awe as Bloom goes to collect some water, but Flora stops her: "If the tears of the Black WIllow can turn back time and you touch the water," Musa: "time might turn back for you too. You could become a kid again." Bloom wonders what to do...
And whattaya know, here's Miele: "Girls, don't you remember what the Sage said?" Flo's surprised to see Miele and asks what she's doing here. Sis continues: "You've got to get the water without touching it." This prompts Bloom to mention the goblet thing. Stella: "Allow me."
The others seem a bit bewildered, as Stella goes down to pick up a rock, and she makes it glow with magic. "A touch of sun magic should be enough to turn this stone...into a goblet of shining crystal." And just like that, the rock has turned into a goblet. Pretty cool power, and Flora seems to think so too. I should note that, by not having the Sage spell it out for them in the 4K dub, it makes Stella pretty smart to make the goblet.
Tecna reminds Stella not to touch the water as she's collecting it. And here comes the ambush Icy was talking about. The water spills, but Stella saves the falling goblet. Nice reflex, kid! (Thumbs up)
Icy: "Trying to save Faragonda? Try saving yourselves first!" Heh.
Bloom is of course none too pleased to see them again. Stormy asks the girls "How did you like our little trick with the harpies?" Musa zings one right back: "Oh, we had a blast, and now we'll do our best to return the favor!" And wouldn't that have been a great line to return from silence with? Icy is clearly not pleased with that zinger, so she fires icicles at her (what, no flames? again?), and of course Musa ducks. We see Bloom put out two fingers from each hand and crossing them, and you know what means: Transformation time!
Interestingly, in our version, we only see Bloom and Flo's Winx-level transformation, and then a 4-5 second stab of Musa's Enchantix transformation. As we'll see later, those aren't the only girls who have transformed. A Winx first, perhaps?
Bloom fires at Icy, and Icy turns the fire energy to an ice blast before redirecting it back to Bloom. We see Bloom say "Hurry up, Stella!" and then ducking to avoid the ice blast.
And we see another possible Winx first, as Stella has NOT transformed. Unlike Mirta last week, she doesn't have "I don't have my own transformation sequence" to fall back on, and unlike Bloom in late S1, she also doesn't have "I lost my powers" to fall back on either. I suppose that Stella's big Enchantix wings are built more for strength (remember, we saw them handle the storm winds while she was fighting the harpies) than delicate maneuvers, or at least she thinks they are, and considering that she has to be careful not to touch the water when collecting it, I'd say that this a pretty delicate maneuver... Still, it's a bit of a stretch in reasoning to justify not transforming along with everyone else.
Anyways, un-transformed Stella tells the girls to keep the Trix busy while she's getting the water, while Miele is just standing around. Stormy uses her powers against Musa, Tecna, and Flora (and they're all transformed), as Stella gets the water. Icy sees this and shoots at her goblet to empty it. Stormy shoots at Musa, and Flora makes vines grow around Stormy, but Stormy wastes no time in getting rid of them. Icy shoots icicles at Bloom, affixing her to a cave wall with lots of ice, a la when she lost her Dragonfire back in S1. Darcy multiplies herself over and over, and surrounds Musa all by herself. Deja vu, anyone? Musa is confused by all the extra Darcies, and then she's tied up with a purple rope. Still wingless Stella's got some more water in the goblet, so Icy fires at the goblet again, this time not only turning the goblet over, but also sending it flying pretty far before shattering on the rocks, after Stella runs herself into a tree while chasing the goblet. Ouch, that's gotta hurt.
Icy is all "HAH-Hah!" (tm Nelson from the Simpsons) as she's pointing out how that water could have saved FG, but Bloom, still affixed to the cave wall (and BTW missing also her crown) says "We'll get more" in sort of a "Well, duh" voice, after all, there IS a stream full of FG-saving H2O, so one broken goblet should be just a minor issue, right? Well, Darcy doesn't think so, and asks "Remember Griffin's nature study class?" Stormy: "Yeah, how to ruin a perfectly naturally environment. You totally aced that one." Icy: "Well, now's your chance to show what a scholar you are."
So, Darcy casts a spell into the stream, causing it to become polluted all the way from the Black Willow, out the cave, and up the Water Stairway. The Trix cackle as the leaves on the Willow turn dark, so I take that this means that Darcy has just killed the Willow. Concerned, Flo spars off against Darcy, but Stormy immediately blasts her and sends her hurtling some distance like the goblet. Stormy: "I like wiping out goody-goodies." HEH. The Trix power up a convergence spell to finish off Flora, but who should jump into the way of the blast but sister Miele?
The blast knocks Miele straight into the polluted stream, and since Darcy polluted it, the water doesn't have its usual time reversal effects (keep that in mind). We see Flora looking horrified, and Musa still trying to get out of the rope Darcy tied her up in earlier. Flora is very angry, and she shoots a Venus Gobbler, and some plants grow out of the polluted stream, and their buds gobble the Trix. Musa breaks free of the rope in the background as Flora jumps into the stream. Musa is horrified: "Flora you can't!"
Back to sinking Miele. Flora is diving down towards the stream floor, where there's some stream grass growing. That sure is some hardy grass if it's still growing in the Darcy-polluted stream... So anyways, Miele sinks on to the grass, and Flora reaches her and gives her an air bubble, asking: "Miele, why didn't you go back home?" Sis: "I wanted to see what would happen." Well, are you happy now sis? Flora: "I love you my little blossom..." With the last of her magic, Flo tells the bubble to bring sis up as she gets tangled in the stream grass and drowns.
Surface. The bubble brings Miele to safe ground. Miele is despondent at her big sister's fate, before seeing her big sister's Venus Gobblers pop open. Stormy: "Looks like the flower fairy didn't make it!" Bloom breaks the ice affixing her to the wall and flies over to Miele. Bloom: "What happened? Where's Flora?" Sis: "She saved me." We see sister weeping.
Now, 4Kids generally translated this season faithfully to the original, but this is where the episode plot takes a different path. After we see sister weep, we see the Willow produce a tear in parallel. The tear drips into the polluted stream, and the stream becomes clean (and backwards-flowing) again. It's pretty, except that if the Willow were dead, like it appears it's supposed to be, it shouldn't be able to produce any more tears, which is why Darcy cast her spell in the first place. Plot hole, anyone?
Anyways, we head underwater. It looks as if Flora's soul is leaving her body, and Flora's body reunites with her soul (which I take as the stream taking her back to the moment before she drowned)... before going Enchantix.
We see petals flying across the screen, shading Flo's eyelids with a nice shade of pink. She blinks as we pan over to the top of her hair, where we see a crown materialize just like in Bloom's Winx transformation. We see her hair tie itself up. We see her body surrounded with light and petals, and we see her twirl around, and the petals combine with the light and coalesce into Flora's new dress. The new dress covers her navel like her Winx outfit did, and even has its two shades of pink, but with the addition of some purple highlights, and a small stab of bluish-green over her chest. Next, we see petals and light form one of Flora's Enchantix gloves, then we pan down Flora's legs as she twirls around one to show her lengthened hair, with petals and light forming her leggings, probably the only part of the new outfit that doesn't really fit with the others, since they're cyan with a red gem (especially considering that, as was pointed out during my time at the community, making the leggings green would make them look like vines). Petals fly across the screen as we see a big pink flower come apart to reveal the new Flora with arms over her chest and four large petals on her back, with the petals sparkling into pink and green butterfly wings. Even without vine-like leggings, I still think Flora's Enchantix outfit is pretty to look at.
We see the cleaned stream flowing from the Willow, out the cave, and up the Stairway. Back at the tree, we see Flora surface, revealing her new form to everyone. The fairies, plus Miele, are joyous to see Flora alive and Enchantixed. Of course, the Trix are pretty angry, and Darcy looks especially steamed. Well, your coffee would be pretty steamed too if you were just majorly hosed by a big-time plot hole.
Back to Flo looking at the "dead" tree. We see her new wings flapping. We see her taking her fairy dust bottle, which has a flower-shaped frame enclosing it, from her top, before then drawing a flower shape with it (of course). The outline disappears, and she glows green, then we get a full-screen shot of the bottle, with the flower frame receding and the cap coming off. Flo takes some of the dust and sprinkles it all over the tree, and the tree extends its leaves to wrap around Stormy, and then Icy and Darcy, dumping them into the stream.
The girls come over as Enchantix Flo touches down on the riverside. Layla is happy to see that Flora earned her Enchantix. Stella: "You look amazing."
Sis: "Thanks for saving my life."
Flo: "Hey, you saved mine first."
Sis: "Yeah, well I guess I did."
Flo: "You were very brave. I'm proud of you Miele."
Musa points at the stream: "Hey look. Haahh."
The Trix are coming out of the stream, but since, unlike when Flo drowned, it was clean when they fell in, it has its normal time reversal effects, so you see where this is going, right?
KidIcy: "Your hair used to look like that?"
KidDarcy: "Whatever. You look like a pixie."
KidStormy: "You'll pay for this, Flora!"
KidStormy tries to cast a spell, but her magic fizzles. Bloom comes over to the three of them: "Now Trix, stop misbehaving, or else we'll have to give you a timeout." The prospect of getting a timeout sends the KidTrix fleeing, and we see everyone else laughing, including Stella, holding a new fresh goblet.
TreeFG, with the fairies, pixies, and Miele. Bloom is holding Stella's new goblet, now carrying some FG-saving H2O, hoping it will work. Bloom opens the lid and drips a few drops of the water on to one of the roots. The tree grows backwards, and when it disappears, there's an explosion, and the smoke clears to reveal FG, back in human form.
FG: "Thank you girls. I knew I could count on you."
Girls: "Welcome back! We've missed you!"
Hmm, it's hoodie guy from last week. This time, he has a telescope, and he's peering through it. And this time, we hear him speak. "Layla. I finally found you." Yes, he's trained his telescope on Layla and Piff, and the somewhat ominous music seems to be suggesting that this is the man who will allegedly ruin her life forever. The telescope matte closes with a shutter effect... and scene.
Critique of the episode:
1. So, we learn that Enchantix isn't just about the fancy outfits and the fairy dust, as we discover how strong those new wings of theirs are: apparently, enough for stable flying in strong winds.
2. Many good lines this week. The cream of the crop: Tec's elevator comment, Musa on her new wings, Stella's "cool fairy fashion" comment, Darcy wondering about caves behind waterfalls, Musa's little zinger right before the fight, and Stormy calling Flo a goody-goody.
3. This week's show had an animation mistake with Flo in her casuals on the leaf, plus a big plot hole with the tree (which 4K fixed in their version, so kudos to them), but if you thought that was big, next week is going to make that plot hole look totally minor.
4. A 4K change makes Stella smart, just like in the S2 finale, by having her figure out the Sage's riddle instead of having the Sage spell it out for them. This one's more natural than Stella mentioning a field trip "out of nowhere" as in the S2 finale... Hmm.
5. The battle: Now, this is the kind of battle we expect between the Winx and the Trix, and unlike their first encounter this season, Darcy actually remembers to use a power she used back in the 2nd episode. See, writers, THAT is how you do a battle. But we're still waiting for Icy to fight fire with fire...
6. Meanwhile, at the very end, we see what's up with the hoodie guy we saw last week. Apparently, he's interested in Layla. Somehow, Layla's arranged marriage has to figure into this somewhere, and I'm wondering if this is the only reason Layla mentioned it so early on...
7. Okay, so let's recap. We saw Bloom's snowed-over Domino way back in S1. We saw Musa put down flowers on her mother's grave in Melody in S2. This season so far, mostly because of Enchantix, we've seen many of the girls' realms: Layla's Val-ravaged Andros, Stella's Solaria, and now Flora's Linphea. So that just leaves Tecna's digirealm of Zenith that we haven't seen yet.
8. Note to the writers: If you ever want to re-tool Winx and start afresh with a new batch of fairies, please include Miele in the club.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-04-08 03:12 pm (UTC)Miele is such a weird name. The pronunciation sounds really tongue-tangling. I like Rose better. Simple. Floral. I still want to see their parents.
If "Quiz Answer Sheet" hadn't been on the envelope, how would they have known NOT to open it? It wouldn't have been such a dilemma if they didn't know what it was. It would have been "Do we open someone else's mail?" rather than "Do we cheat on the big test?"
I still don't get your beef with the field trip. Why can't they have done some things off screen? Is that so problematic? We don't see them going to the bathroom, do we? We don't see them sleeping most of the time, do we? Or eating? So why can't they have classes off screen? Because gods know, we barely see them in class and it's a school. It's only logical that they attend classes even if you don't see it happening. DEAL.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-09 02:04 am (UTC)Nice to see that someone's on the same wavelength as me. (But I've made an animated version over at VVI, plus a few Darcy bits from the same ep.)
I like Rose better. Simple. Floral.
Reasonable. Still don't really understand why a girl in a realm of nature, whose sister is of a fairy of flowers at that, would be named "Honey" (that's what Miele means in Italian). Okay, so honey comes from flowers' nectar, but that's a bit of a stretch :-)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-09 02:15 am (UTC)Honey. *snort* That's a stripper or porn star name. Good change, 4Kids. Good change.
your story
Date: 2008-09-01 04:25 pm (UTC)i love winx club! i love Darcy's young picture.