Why wouldn’t we recap fairies at a fairy school?
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To the Waters and the Wild
Marines: A tale as old as time: Netflix emailed me and everyone else about this new show with a stupid name and I was like, “okay, yes.”
Jess: A new show to recap together! But I think this one will be less confusing for me.
Paige: As one of the few people in the world who seems to remember the fever dream that was the animated series, I’ve been waiting for this since the trailer got dragged on the bird app. Will they do ten-year-old me dirty? TBD.
Mari: So happy to have you both here for… whatever this is.
An old man steps out of his house in the middle of the night. It’s dark and foggy, so this seems like a real bad idea. Sheep bleat in the background, and he curses them out for not letting him sleep. He counts the sheep, and realizes that some are missing. He finds one close to some creepy woods and figures the one still missing is in the creepy woods. He steps through some sort of magic barrier as he heads into the woods, and sir, you are doing too much. No sheep is worth creepy, foggy woods in the middle of the night. You are Dead Man Walking.
Jess: I really liked how they start us off with very predictable danger and a sacrificial lamb.
Paige: This whole intro gave me Twilight vibes, and that’s probably the audience they’re going for so it makes sense.
Mari: Sure enough, Dead Man Walking ends up getting dripped on and when he looks up, there is a dead body in a tree. He hears a few more creepy noises, but waits until he sees the actual monster to start running. He gets close to the magic barrier again, but the unseen monster catches him and mauls him.
Gotta love a good hapless victim mauling as a cold open. How else would we know that things are both magical and broken in this world, HUH?
Jess: Obviously they have to set up how hardcore these new non-cartoon fairies are.
Paige: They really said “forget about the bright, happy childhood memories you had about this, the new Winx is all about murder and demons,” and honestly that’s very 2021 of them.
Mari: The title card is psychedelic fairy wings and the stupid title, Fate: The Winx Saga.
Jess: All of my Claire’s store shopping as a teen has set me up for success on this show.
Mari: Claire’s is the gift that keeps giving.
Fairy School, I’m assuming. Our YA Heroine with Red Hair steps through the gates and looks around appraisingly while Amber Van Day sings “Kids in the Corner.”
Jess: You might remember her as the other Weird Sister in Sabrina. She was actually my favorite so I’m excited to see she’s the main bitch this time.
Paige: That Main Character glow up really came through because I didn’t even recognize her, and I watched CAOS to the bitter end.
Mari: I watched one season, but didn’t recognize her, so this makes me feel better.
We get a zoomy pan of a few people (surely our main players) and honestly this goes on forever– long enough for a white boy with a strong jawline to take notice of Ya Red Head. Jawline leaves his friend to come snark at Ya Red Head about how lost she is. He even has a British accent, my god.
Jess: If I had to guess what accent fairies would have, posh British accents would have been my number #1 choice. Is Jawline going to be our angsty love interest?!
Mari: Absolutely, that’s what I’m saying. He’s got that jawline AND that accent.
Paige: Listen, as far as White Boys of the Month go, this off-brand Austin Butler is a perfectly acceptable addition to the roster.
Mari: Ya Red Head tells Jawline Accent that she doesn’t need his help, but he points out that he didn’t offer any.
A White Boy With Curly Hair, Who is A Little Shorter Than The Main Love Interest (you guys know, you know) interrupts by telling Jawline to quit perving on first years. Jawline turns to him, and Ya Red Head uses this opportunity to head off. Jawline and A Little Shorter bro hug it out.
Jess: I love a good bromance, specifically one that’s typecast with a tortured tall hero and a shorter, funnier, more reckless bro. That bro hug set it all up.
Paige: Despite not keeping the magenta up-do this character had in the cartoons (boo), they cast A Little Shorter bro well because every time I see him I’m both sad and angry at the sight of his face for absolutely no good reason.
Mari: Blonde & Popular [B&P] is still watching, but now we see that Ya Red Head is approaching her. B&P greets her as Bloom and Bloom tells us B&P’s real name is Stella. Bloom explains that she was waiting, but she got impatient. Stella calls that very America of her, and is smiling, but not really smiling.
Jess: You know, Bloom also seems like a perfect fairy name but also still California.
Mari: Stella leads Bloom around inside for a nice walk-and-talk. During this time, we learn that Bloom had to travel here by a gateway that was really out of the way, but the Headmistress always does things by the book, including protecting the secrets of their gateways. Stella has a gateway ring, though, which means she can travel whenever. She flashes the ring, so I’m sure this will be significant.
We cut to Bloom in the Headmistress’s office, looking at a globe of this world. (J: Love a good map.) The Headmistress tells her to think of Alfea as her new home. Bloom admits that things are a little different than she expected, as there are no Tinkerbells zipping around and not a single pair of wings. The Headmistress exposits that as they’ve evolved, they’ve lost transformation magic and the wings. Also, Tinkerbell was an air fairy and Bloom is a fire fairy. With red hair. Got it.
Jess: Subtle!
Paige: I’m becoming more and more convinced this realistic grittiness in lieu of all the fun parts of the cartoon (the pixies! the wings! any sense of style!) was because Netflix said “no <3” to a bigger budget.
Mari: I believe that.
Bloom gets a little more serious since no one finds her jokes funny and asks when classes start. Headmistress says she’ll start tomorrow and will learn to use her magic slowly and safely. Bloom is not a fan of “slow,” but Headmistress insists that magic is dangerous, as Bloom well knows, so she has to trust the (slow) process. Alfea graduates are a BFD who often hold positions of power in the Otherworld. If Bloom does well here, that can be her too. Bloom says this place seems great, but it isn’t her home. She is here because the Headmistress promised to teach her control. The Headmistress stands and says actually Bloom is here because she knows she had no other choice. Well, damn, way to bring that up on a girl’s first day.
Jess: Can we trust the headmistress? I get weird vibes because I would’ve laughed at Bloom’s jokes.
Mari: Bloom is getting settled into her room while she Facetimes her mom and dad back in California. They seem sweet, in that generic YA parents sort of way.
Jess: SWEET?! DAD CAN GET IT.
Mari: We are “finding parents YA hot” years old.
Mom is encouraging Bloom to be social when her roommate walks in, a Black girl we definitely saw during that character montage in the opening. Bloom starts to get real awkward on this phone call, and at first I don’t really catch why, but if you were paying more attention than me, you caught that the parentals think Bloom is somewhere in the Alps.
Jess: I was also super confused as to why she was confused. Is she embarrassed? Is this a weird teen thing?
Paige: This part of the world-building had me a little distracted. FaceTime still works in the Otherworld? You’re telling me they have wifi? I wonder what phone plan they had to get Bloom on for these long-distance calls.
Mari: The first time Bloom took out her cell phone, I want WHAT out loud to no one in my apartment.
Bloom’s roommate catches onto the phone call awkwardness and yells “lights out!” Bloom’s like “oop, gotta go mom and dad.” After the call, Bloom thanks her roommate, Aisha, for the save. Aisha asks why Bloom’s parents thinks she’s in the Alps, and she explains that her parents are human, so she told them Alfea is an international boarding school in Switzerland.
Jess: I was also shocked at this lie. Like how did her parents allow her to go to a school in Switzerland? Did they Google it? Did they ask for references? How did they not insist on accompanying her? I HAVE ALL THE QUESTIONS.
Mari: I hope Alfea has a dummy site set up like totallylegitboardingschool.com
Aisha is a little surprised that Bloom has human parents.. Bloom shares that the Headmistress thinks she’s got a fairy in the bloodline. Some dormant powers thing. She giggles though, because it still sounds totally ridiculous. Aisha asks if she’s the one person who hasn’t read Harry Potter, and Bloom says of course she has. And wasted lots of hours taking sorting quizzes. Aisha easily guesses that she’s a Ravenclaw. Bloom smirks and says she’s sometimes Slytherin. Aisha says that explains the lies. Bloom takes this in good stride and says that Aisha must be Gryffindor, which explains the judgement. Aisha smiles as Bloom walks out.
Jess: I love a good Harry Potter reference, especially with the sexed up Hogwarts vibe they’re going for.
Paige: It’s obvious now that they’re writing Sexy Winx for us millennials because no teenager still thinks HP is cool.
Mari: Out in the hall, Bloom can see into Stella’s room. She’s holding up different outfit options and Bloom just stares for a bit. Weird, Bloom.
Jess: Maybe that’s why her parents didn’t come. She’s odd.
Mari: Stella acknowledges her presence, and Bloom asks about the whole changing thing. She thought that the orientation party was casual. Stella rambles about her reputation and while she does, she snaps her fingers and causes a little ball of light to appear. Bloom wants to know how she did it, and Stella says she’s a mentor, not a tutor. She does share, however, that fairy magic is connected to emotion: love, hatred, fear, etc. The stronger the emotion, the stronger the magic. Bloom does that awkward giggle thing again and asks if Stella hates or fears her, because she certainly doesn’t love her, and she was looking at Bloom when she did the light magic. Stella says that she doesn’t know Bloom, but she’s sure once she does, she’ll find something to love about her.
I’ve got to say that Bloom had this coming with the awkward staring and questions. Chill, my guy.
Jess: But like also what did the light thing do besides be her personal ring light? There was already appropriate lighting.
Mari: You’re not wrong.
In the common area, the One Plus Sized Character is putting out a bunch of potted plants. Stella snits that this is shared space and everyone liked The Secret Garden because it was a secret. The One Plus Sized Character corrects her, saying that the actual message of The Secret Garden is that secret things can’t be appreciated. Stella just glares, so The One Plus Sized Character grabs a couple of her plants and heads back into her room. Her roommate, The Edgy One, and I think the final member of this housing situation, sarcastically says that Stella seems greeeaaaat. The One Plus Sized Character is also Very Cheery and says that it’s fine and Stella is “just having fun.” We read that real differently, friend.
Her point is that she gets it; She’s an Earth fairy called Terra who likes plants. She rambles about the name being a family thing, and also, her dad works at the greenhouse here, so she grew up around Alfea, which explains how she knows a lot of the second years.
Paige: The Winx Nerd in me would like to point out here that Terra mentions a cousin named Flora, who is the character she’s replaced in this show from the original cast!
Mari: The Edgy One asks why Stella is here with them if she’s a second year. Terra fumbles around an explanation and says maybe it was an administrative thing. The Edgy One’s eyes glow red. Terra says they probably shouldn’t bring it up with Stella. The Edgy One tries to put her headphones on, but Terra next asks if maybe she wants a low-maintenance, very hip succulent. The Edgy One [TEO] asks if Terra will stop talking if she takes it. Terra looks a little hurt, so TEO softens and says she was just having fun, accepting the succulent. She puts her headphones on so she can fully ignore Terra.
Jess: Terra is going to explain all the confusing Alfea things, but honestly she makes me tired.
Mari: She would be a lot for any introvert.
Aisha pops in, though, having overheard that Terra grew up around Alfea. She went swimming in the river, which was fine, but wonders if there is a pool she could use instead.
Cut to The Pond Where the Specialists Train.
Jess: THAT POND IS DISGUSTING. WHO WOULD SWIM THERE?!
Paige: It’s a health hazard. If the demon lurking the woods doesn’t kill them, an accidental dip in that “pond” will.
Mari: Students dressed in black are fight training, and we see one student get knocked into the pond. (P: rip to them.) Riv and Jawline Accent are sparring with sticks while talking about the new girl. Jawline says there’s just something about her. Riv thinks she’s crazy because all gingers are crazy and ha ha ha, they make great lays and ha ha ha how would Riv know unless his hand was a ginger. Ha.
Jess: How edgy.
Mari: Jawline Accent takes Riv down and tells him he got slow over the summer. Riv says actually he got high. Jawline clearly doesn’t approve, but Riv doesn’t want a lecture. He wants Jawline to go distract his “aggro father figure” so Riv can ditch and not get expelled.
Jess: This is what all of my Love Island watching has prepared me for. BRITISH SLANG. They use aggro every time they get into an aggressive argument or the other person pisses them, so I’m going to guess that he’s not a favorite.
Paige: Okay but question–why does American media ALWAYS make supernatural creatures’ accents British? Colonialism strikes again in 2021, I guess.
Mari: We cut to Aggro Father Figure [AFF] giving some gathered students a speech about how after classes, they are his, and he likes the things he owns to work well. Ew? That’s a weird thing for even a fairy teacher to say.
Jess: Yea, but Aggro can also get it.
Paige: Downton Abbey Stans assemble for Rob James-Collier, playing a delightfully scruffier version of the equally aloof Thomas Barrow.
Mari: As he keeps speeching, Jawline Accent approaches, and Aggro Father Figure starts sparring with him as a demonstration to the newbies. AFF announces to everyone that Jawline’s (his name is SKY?? Really?? I wonder if they’ve said it before, but my brain didn’t process that his name was actually Sky.) dad was Andreas of Eraklyon, which made Sky a legacy admission, but he still showed up on the first day and did the work. AFF shakes Sky’s hand and finishes telling the newbies that he expects no less from them.
Jess: Sky is also a very appropriate fairy name. I think they have said it before, but I didn’t make the connection. But also he sucked in that fight.
Paige: The specialists’ fight scenes are the most cringe-inducing part of the show so far. You cannot fool me into thinking these fake teenagers are badass, sorry.
Mari: Okay, we are on the same page.
The speech goes on and on about preparing for uncertainty and the future, and one of the newbies starts laughing. AFF pauses to ask Giggles if this is funny to him. He says it’s just that he’s talking about uncertainty to a bunch of kids with swords in a castle.
Jess: Correction wooden sticks.
Mari: Yes, right, that one.
AFF uses this as an opportunity to teach us all about the Barrier, which we saw Dead Man Walking cross in the cold open. The Barrier is in place to keep the school protected from the Burned Ones. Giggles thinks the Burned Ones are gone and done with, but AFF keeps lecturing about being prepared for Burned Ones, with a sprinkling of sharing his childhood trauma of watching a Burned One kill his father.
Meanwhile, we see Riv cross the barrier to go into the haunted woods to smoke. That’s a big commitment to smoking.
Jess: But like also if this barrier is so protective why is everyone crossing it.
Paige: You’d think they’d make it harder to walk through since it’s surrounding a school of teenagers who never listen, but it’s really just a suggestion.
Mari: A whisper of a barrier, if you will.
We cut to AFF, Headmistress and a new Bespectacled Teacher examining the body. They make guesses about what kind of animal could’ve done this, but Bespectacled says the body has char residue. It’s been 16 years since the last Burned One sighting because someone named Rosalind was relentless in killing them all. Except apparently not. Headmistress thinks that this is all irrelevant because the barrier is doing it’s job. If will just suck for any sheep farmers who lose a sheep and teens who want a smoke, I guess.
Jess: Who the hell is Rosalind?
Mari: Someone who killed Burned Ones, duh.
Orientation party. Terra wonders who actually saw the body because old people die and the farmer could’ve died of old age and not a monster attack. Musa jokes that old age decapitation will just get you. Aisha adds that it happened to her nan in the middle of Bingo. You can tell Terra isn’t sure if they are laughing at her or with her. Things get even more uncomfortable for Terra when Aisha makes a joke about how much she eats and how she would be “massive” if she didn’t swim twice a day. On that note, Aisha is off for more swimming. Musa says she really wasn’t joking about that swimming twice a day thing.
Left alone now, Terra confronts Musa about the fact that she heard Aisha talking about swimming earlier, when she had her headphones on and was pretending she couldn’t hear Terra. Musa says she puts them on sometimes when she doesn’t feel like talking. Terra says it just seems to happen a lot when she’s around. Musa tries to say it’s a her thing, not a Terra thing, but Terra has heard and said enough. Good for her for confronting Musa. Who knew the talkative plant queen would be my early fave.
Jess: That was so unexpected from Terra. Is she actually the edgy one?!
Mari: Terra spots her dad, The Bespectacled Teacher in fact, asks if he’s heading to the greenhouse and if she can help with anything. He tells her to stay here, enjoy, mingle and be herself. Terra smiles but she’s left standing awkwardly after her dad is gone.
Jess: No one wants to be here and this actually doesn’t look like a bad time.
Mari: Really? It looks like one bland party for a fairy school. Like… where’s the magic?
A student marches into the Headmistress’s office. The assistant tells her that she needs to book an appointment, but the girl doesn’t leave. The Headmistress opens the door and the girl introduces herself as Beatrix, the headmistress’s biggest fan. She rambles about how obsessed she is with Alfea’s history, and the Headmistress just says this is lovely, but perhaps Beatrix would like to study that history in the library. She has work to do.
Jess: Beatrix is not a fairy name I would have guessed.
Paige: The Winx-nerd in me is very excited for this character and the shenanigans to come.
Mari: Bloom has a notebook open in front of her and has hilariously written out “Fairy Magic: Powers = Emotion.” Wonderful. Great start. The second note is “Fire Fairy: Control?” Really killing the notes game.
Paige: Sis is not a Ravenclaw.
Jess: This reminds me of my 2021 resolution to take up journaling. That’s what it looks like.
Mari: 1430 to both of you.
Flashback. Bloom’s mom is telling her to go out and go do something that isn’t antiquing. Bloom says that not only is it not enough that she goes out, but she has to be a basic bitch like her mom. Mom softly says that she’s worried about Bloom. Bloom is crying, but she throws back that maybe Mom should be more worried about how sad her life is since she’s overly concerned about the minutia of Bloom’s. She slams the door in her mom’s face.
Jess: I can’t imagine ever telling my mom any of that but wow what a great burn.
Paige: I never understand the parent-child fights in teen shows. The mom is angry that her kid is kind of a loner and likes old things? It feels a bit Much.
Mari: I got a vibe that maybe there were other things at play here but this fight somehow got off track, but maybe that’s giving the show too much credit.
In the present, Bloom’s eyes glow red, and she closes her very bad notes.
Bloom joins the party and immediately spots Sky. She comments on the many people and wonders where she can go that is the opposite of this. Outside maybe? Sky interprets that as beyond the Barrier for some reason? Like there isn’t an outside that isn’t barrier? (J: EVERYONE JUST WANTS TO CROSS THAT BARRIER.)
Sky says that depending on rumors, there might be wolves, bears or something much scarier out there, implying that it isn’t safe. Bloom says there’s people though, so she’s in. He offers to join her. They smile and flirt at each other about whether or not she trusts him, until Stella interrupts and asks if she can talk to Sky for a second. Stella makes herself scarce. Oh wow, don’t tell me Popular Girl and Jawline Accent used to date or something.
Mari: Not SLOOM. I can’t.
Stella hands Sky a drink and says she hasn’t seen him all day. Sky says it’s actually been all summer. Stella tells Sky that Bloom is her suite mate and Sky is like “so??” Stella tells him to do the right thing, and Sky says he always does, handing her back the drink. People are watching now, so as Sky walks away, Stella asks all the spectators if they enjoyed the show.
Jess: I did!
Mari: Aisha is swimming, and she sees Bloom walking toward the woods. There is no reason Bloom couldn’t just hang out alone and outside on this side of the magic barrier. Also, it’s kinda messed up that Sky wasn’t like “oh, the barrier was put in place to keep out flesh charring monsters” and was only like “idk, maybe bears?”
Bloom enjoys the woods for a bit before she finds a bit of a clearing so she can practice her magic. She tries to call up her fire by thinking happy thoughts, but it doesn’t work. She pulls out her phone to scroll through old photos and finds a bunch of the aftermath of a fire. In a flash of memory, we see as the fires starts and spreads. Back in the woods, Bloom manages to call up her fire in her hands. She concentrates and makes the fires burn brighter. None of this seems like a bad idea in a woods to her? (J: I thought the same thing!!! Look at all the trees she’s going to burn up.) (P: Maybe it’s a good thing Bloom left California for this reason.) Bloom starts to lose control and it gets worse when Aisha appears and tries to calm her down. Bloom yells at her to go away and shoots out a bunch of fire. Aisha puts her hand to the ground and causes water to rise up and douses Bloom’s fire.
Jess: That’s why she likes to swim!
Mari: Again, subtle.
Back inside, Bloom is yelling at Aisha for being out there. Aisha is like “uh, you’re welcome?” Bloom is in her feelings though, about how she doesn’t ~fit in~ and she isn’t ~like the rest of them~. Aisha shares her own story of how one time she flooded her whole school because she failed a math test, including the toilets so she had to wade through shit. Bloom is like “oh yea, well I don’t get alone with my mom. She would love a cheerleader daughter and I’m the opposite of a cheerleader.” Yeah, Aisha. She like antiques and being alone.
Jess: All of these girls love being alone.
Paige: Bloom is such a Bruh Girl.
Mari: This throws us into another flashback, sometime after Bloom called her mom a basic bitch and slammed a door in her face. Bloom’s dad is removing her door, while mom explains that if you slam a door you lose a door. And any come back from Bloom will be another week without it. Bloom silently fumes so her parents leave. Bloom’s Voice Over tells us that that night, she couldn’t sleep because every time she closed her eyes, the rage just kept building. And then it happened. She she started a fire and then just let it burn for a long time, until she heard her parents screaming. We watch as her Dad holds an unconscious Mom on the floor as the fire rages.
Jess: Teenagers are too much. What an excessive reaction to that door.
Paige: Everything about this is so weird. You’re telling me the writers couldn’t come up with a better backstory than “antiquing daughter hates mom and burns her in revenge for taking her door”? How am I supposed to root for Bloom after seeing that.
Mari: Agreed. It felt like there was story missing here to make this compelling.
In the present, Bloom says that after that, she snuck out of her house every night and slept in a creepy warehouse by her house because she was scared to start more fires. Aisha admits that Bloom’s fire story beats her shit story. She wonders if Bloom’s parents knew she started it, but Bloom says they didn’t. Her fairy ancestry must be very far back, because her parents aren’t in the magical know. Aisha says it’s odd that Bloom would be from a dormant blood line and drew up so much power without trying. Aisha asks if there is any chance she’s adopted. Well, she is a ginger and if fiction has taught us anything, it’s that gingers have a 50% chance of being adopted. And she doesn’t get along with her mom? Getting along with your mom is definitely genetic, she’s adopted.
Bloom says there’s no way, because she’s heard the story of her birth so many times. She had a heart defect in the womb, but it was gone the day after she was born. Aisha guesses that she’s a changeling, then– a fairy baby that was traded out for a human baby. (J: A CHANGELING?! How creepy.) Bloom says NUH-UH (basically) and tells Aisha she’s not helping. She stomps away, passing Musa on the way. Musa asks what the heck Aisha said, and Aisha says the truth, because someone has been lying to her.
A big DUN cuts us to the Headmistress pouring herself tea and then using magic to open up a secret passageway behind a bookshelf.
Jess: I knew we couldn’t trust her.
Mari: Riv sees Giggles hanging out by himself and heads over to pour a bunch of alcohol into Riv’s drink and bully him into drinking it. Terra watches this happen and tells Riv to lay off, saying he thinks he’s some badass when really he’s a tragic nerd in disguise. Riv says she’s just three people in disguise. (P: Very original.) Terra has had it. People always think they can treat the big girl like shit, because they are sweet and harmless, but sometimes they’ve had a really bad day, and a scrawny little asshole says the wrong thing at the wrong time. Terra lifts her hands and uses the ivy covering the walls behind Riv to choke him. For quite a while. She even does a little “huh, I can’t hear you?” as he gasps for breath. Once Terra releases him, Riv huffs away.
Jess: Riv’s acting during that choking was horrible. The green screen or whatever they used to make them move was sooooo bad. The only thing that saved this scene is that Terra was a badass.
Mari: She legit almost killed him, but I kinda support it.
Terra introduces herself to Giggles and apologizes for the less than ideal first impression. Giggles asks if throwing up after a single drink makes a better or worse impression. Terra hurries off with him.
In her room, Bloom is Google image searching fairy babies. (P: Big Bella-googling-vampires energy.) She puts her phone down and picks up a picture of her parents. Stella finds her there, looking at the picture, and says that sometimes she gets homesick, too. Sometimes she thinks she’d just rather be home living a normal life, and there is nothing wrong with that, hint hint wink.
Later, Aisha and Musa get back to their dorm room and ask Stella where Bloom is. Stella says she doesn’t know, and Musa’s eyes glow red again. She says Stella is wracked with guilt, alerting her roommates to the fact that Stella’s a “mind fairy.” Hmm, okay. Terra joins them and gets caught up on the Bloom is missing and Stella feels guilty thing. Terra pushes here too, knowing that Bloom was talking to Sky and she knows what happened to the last girl who spoke to Sky. Stella cops to having lent Bloom her gateway ring so she can travel back home. Trouble is, the ring only works on the bad side of the barrier.
We watch Bloom arrive at the old cemetery where there is a gateway. (J: This all seems like such a bad idea.) She passes through without a problem, ending up at that old warehouse by her house.
Bloom walks to her house and calls her parents while watching them from outside. (J: She loves being creepy.) Her parents are excited to hear from here again, but can immediately tell that something is wrong. Bloom tearfully asks what happens if she made a mistake. Her mom assures her she didn’t. Mom always knew Bloom’s path would be different, and even though whatever she’s going through right now might suck, Mom can’t wait to see who she becomes. Bloom sees her mom’s arm covered in burn scars and she gets herself more together and tells them they are right and that she loves them. She ends the call and leaves.
Jess: But like now, the mom is nice. NOW.
Paige: The parents really look like they’re living their best lives. The red wine? The puzzle? I, too, would be in a better mood now that my angry teenage daughter is at boarding school.
Mari: Maybe they did Google it and know it’s fake, but they are like “sure! Go to the Alps! BYE.”
We watch Bloom get back to the warehouse, now with extra creepy noises. She looks out the window and sees a big, scary creature. She freaks out and drops the gateway ring, and it falls down a grate. Bloom ducks out of sight. There is a second of silence before the monster breaks through the window.
Jess: The monster looks like an extra from Alien.
Mari: The next part gets a little camera shaky and dark, but uh, I think Bloom lets herself down into the grate too, crawling through some sort of HVAC to get to the ring. The Burned One eventually busts into the HVAC and manages to grab the gateway ring before Bloom can reach it. (J: How is he so dexterous with the weird hands.) Bloom kicks down another grate and runs through the warehouse toward the gateway exit. There, she finds the Headmistress who tells her to keep running. Bloom does and turns back in time to see the Headmistress using magic to body slam the Burned One.
Just outside, Musa, Terra and Aisha are waiting for Bloom. They ask if she’s okay, and she is. She asks where Stella is, because uh, whoops the monster has her ring.
Paige: Of all the things to be worried about in that moment–not the fact that she has just escaped DEATH, but a missing ring. Bloom needs to straighten out her priorities.
Jess: Guys are so stupid.
Paige: Nothing about Stella’s personality that we’ve seen thus far would actually make me think Sky would put up with her.
Mari: Also, way to ask no follow up questions about what Stella did to Bloom…
The girls get back to their room. Aisha tries to be reassuring and say that the Headmistress will take care of the Burned One and her parents will be safe. Bloom smiles tightly, says thanks and leaves.
Riv is out in the hall somewhere, still smoking and having that be his one personality trait so far. Beatrix approaches, hands full of books, and he asks if she’s burning the midnight oil. She said she’s snorting the midnight Adderall is more like it, but she will need sleep eventually. He shares his joint, but because her hands are full, he blows smoke into her face. Cool, glad we did this.
Jess: How does no one catch him smoking ever? Does no one see the smoke but Beatrix? I don’t understand.
Paige: IDK so far we’ve seen like four adults in this whole school. I don’t think there’s anyone around to *catch* these shenanigans.
Mari: Wow, it’s true.
Terra is watering her plants before bed when Musa rushes in with her headphones on. Terra motions for her to take them off, and Musa does so reluctantly. Terra says she gets that Musa wants to listen to her music, but she gifts her a speaker so that she can be in her world, but not alone in it. Musa doesn’t say anything, so Terra turns back to her plants.
Musa tells her not to be angry, but Terra says she’s not. Musa’s like, “girl, empath here.” She can feel everyone’s emotions and so she listens to music so she can drown it out. But she does play her somber indie music on the speaker so Terra can hear how she feels.
Jess: Terra fluctuates between annoying and nice.
Mari: The music takes us to a view of the school, the creepy woods, and the Headmistress telling AFF that she chained up the Burned One. AFF thinks she should’ve, you know, killed it, but Headmistress (Farah) wants to try and get into its head and figure out if this is an isolated incident or something more. Farah shares that she found a Changeling in the First World, left there 16 years ago, right around the time the last Burned Ones were spotted. Farah admits to AFF (Saul) that she’s struggling because Rosalind kept so much from them.
Farah’s voice over about being worried for the students takes us through a montage of Terra texting with Giggles (Dane), Dane accidentally liking one of Riv’s photos, Riv walking into his room to see Stella and Sky cuddling in bed together, and Bloom climbing into bed.
Jess: But like damn Dane, what a rookie move.
Paige: Again, I have questions about fairies using Instagram!!
Mari:
Then we see a hooded figure walking into the greenhouse where the Burned One is kept and using electricity magic to revive it. The person pulls back her hood, and it’s Beatrix. “Good morning Sunshine,” she says, and walks out.
The strongest feeling I have after watching all of that is that I’m almost impressed at how many tropes they managed to squeeze into 50 minutes of TV. There truly wasn’t one trope they missed when they had the opportunity to take it. This is partially based on the source material, from the naming of some of the characters to the color coding of the same. It’s very cartoon-esque. The funny part is that they aged this up in very trope-y ways as well? Like what would you do to YA a cartoon? Uh… a joint? GREAT.
Jess: I actually really enjoyed this cliched attempt at a new kind of Vampire Diaries. I love the set up of a love triangle, the teen angst, the social commentary, there were lots of mentions on spectrums, being a feminist, etc. I’ve never seen the original cartoon so I didn’t realize the names were taken from there, but I thought it was good. I’m in and invested. GIVE ME ALL THE CHEESY LINES.
Paige: As a fan of all the campy teen adaptations Netflix has made so far (yes, I still watch Riverdale), they know exactly the kind of trash TV to serve me. Aside from the choices to whitewash certain characters in the cast, I’m not angry at tone they decided to go with. This version of Winx is the definition of “it’s not a phase, mom!” and I’m fully prepared to binge it all.
Next time on Fate: The Winx Saga: Bloom and Stella team up for a mission in S01 E02 – No Strangers Here.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
Jessica Moro’s voracious appetite for books is matched only by her love for cake and reality tv. She’s always looking for new reads, especially books that have surprising twists and happily-ever-afters that are good for the soul. You can find her letting her reading freak flag fly at www.bookcrack.com, covering New Adult reads on USA Today's Happy Ever After, on Twitter and Facebook.
Gen-Z wannabe and perpetually on the internet, my tastes are varied and questionable. Catch me online as @minimalbookie talking about books, or IRL probably still in my bed reading them.
