Bloom: Nothing brings a family back together like having to fight an evil demon and an army of zombies, escape a few explosions, and survive a massive tidal wave.
Stella, in an awkward change of subject, tells Bloom that the movie has nothing to do with bringing her parents back together. Um... where did that come from, exactly? Musa says how movies about parents make her miss her mother. Flora asks for everyone to stop talking about it, as it's scaring her. She looks more pissed than scared, really.
Inside Alfea, Bloom continues on about the movie. Stella complains, and Flora asks Bloom, again, to please stop talking about the movie. Tecna hears a growling sound, but Bloom just writes it off as Kiko's stomach growling. I'd have guessed Musa would had the best hearing. The five girls all go to bed.
We see Stella in her bed, with the nightmare gargoyle, a little but ugly baby-looking thing, in her room, and we hear what she's dreaming: her mother and father are telling her that they're going to live in separate palaces, going to get a divorce. Her mother seems to represent the moon, and her father, the sun. Stella complains about their leaving, yelling how she needs them. The nightmare gargoyle, pretty much breathing in Stella's face while she's moaning in fear, and the gargoyle grows into a spiky dinosaur like thing, and leaves. In Stella's dream, a mirror reflection of her tells Stella how she's so pretty, but a loser on the inside, and how no one likes her. Stella wakes up, screaming.
The other four girls all wake up, to see what's wrong with Stella. Mirta, still a pumpkin, wakes up too. Bloom says Stella must have had a nightmare, but Stella says it wasn't a nightmare, that it was real, that something was truly scratching at her and tearing at her mind. Everyone tries to convince Stella that it was just a nightmare, but Stella is insistent that what was happening was very, very real. Still, no one believes her, and the girls leave Stella, frightened. Magix isn't exactly a place where weird things don't happen sometimes: why can't anyone tell just how sincere Stella is being? She isn't just some random dumb blonde. Someone should've offered to stay with her, at least. Mirta looks sad, though her eyes perk up as she senses the gargoyle entering Musa's and Tecna's room.
The nightmare gargoyle crawls over to Musa. In Musa's dream, her mother is calling her, asking Musa to sing with her. Her mother goes on to say she cannot hear any music. Musa's mother is sitting on a step, looking sad, saying how much she misses music. Musa walks up in a jumpsuit. The jumpsuit looks nice on Musa. Musa yells for her mother not to leave her, but her mother is no longer there. Musa then goes on yelling that she cannot hear music anymore either. In the real world, Musa collapses in her bed, seemingly physically drained completely, and the nightmare gargoyle transforms into an ugly scorpion-looking creature.
COMMERCIAL BREAK #1
The nightmare gargoyle crawls over to Tecna, shining a red light from it's large red eye it has in its scorpion form, and we see Tecna's nightmare. Throughout most of her nightmare, an 80's-style computer voice speaks, seemingly the computer part of Tecna's mind, malfunctioning, trying to remove emotions for more efficiency, and ultimately brain breakdown. Visually, numbers and other mathematical symbols are falling, then turn into a paper that Tecna becomes trapped inside. Tecna ultimately winds up in a world of vector graphics, everything malfunctioning for poor Tecna. Timmy walks by, explaining that it's just a glitch in the glitch in the just the... err, he says something nonsensical, in a very glitched-up manner. He also takes off his glasses, showing him to be eyeballless. The nightmare gargoyle evolves into a dragon/beast-looking thing. Tecna wakes up, trying to wake Musa up, who feels weak, as well as Tecna.
Now, while Stella's and Musa's dreams were a bit more straightforward, Tecna's might have been a little less obvious: what's going on, exactly? It's Tecna's being half-android, and her computer self conflicting with her human self, as well as her computer self glitching up, with the humanness of Tecna fearful of how to handle it.
The other three girls walk into Tecna's and Musa's room, and ask if everything's all right. Tecna explains she does not know what's happening, that she had a nightmare, and now feels drained. Musa feels the same. Bloom concludes that this was not just because of the movie.
Stella: Hello! I was trying to tell you that!
See? See? Why didn't you listen to Stella earlier? Musa still insists that it's all just because of the movie. Musa, are you that stupid? You were affected by this monster! Flora hears a voice calling her name; Kiko hears it too. It's a girl's voice calling out to Flora. Kiko brings Flora over to Mirta, where the voice is coming from. Flora tries to change Mirta back into a girl, which, though Mirta does not change back, a small holographic image of Mirta forms above Flora's hand, and is able to talk to the girls. Mirta tells the Winx girls that they were attacked by a nightmare gargoyle, explaining that Icy sent the gargoyle, and that they give you nightmares, and drain some of their power at their most terrified moment. Despite being a pumpkin, she's still able to help the girls out. Nice!
In the morning, the girls are right outside Alfea, standing about. Stella has a theory:
Stella: Maybe it's like a class assignment. Send a nightmare beast to torment the fairies by Monday?
Bloom doesn't think this is a school-related activity, noting that the Trix sisters have been targeting them since the beginning of the school year. Musa asks why. Tecna thinks Bloom has a theory and isn't sharing. Bloom thinks the witches are after her, but doesn't know why, except it might have something to do with her past, that the Trix sisters know more about Bloom than she does. Which, of course, they do. Bloom's rather sweet here, not wanting to discuss it because she doesn't want to be self-centered. Stella thinks Bloom is overthinking things, and that they're really after her. Stella does have a point: the Trix sisters were after her. Originally. Though since then, the Trix sisters have lost interest in her ring of Solaria. Still understandable why Stella might think the witches were after her. Bloom says it's not a contest, but Stella was honestly not trying to make it one: she, like the other girls, just wants to figure out how to kick the gargoyle's butt. Yay, Stella! Bloom mentions Flora is in the room trying to change Mirta back. She also mentions that Flora said she hates the witches, a word Bloom does not remember hearing Flora utter before. Bloom just hopes their ambush plan works.
At Cloud Tower, the Trix sisters are in their room. They're all talking about how they'll fight the Winx girls tonight, and how the Winx girls won't be able to fight back. Basically, they're going to kick the Winx girls' butts.
At nighttime, the girls are all pretending to be asleep in their beds. Mirta senses the nightmare gargoyle and starts to glow brightly. This is a sign for Kiko to alert the Winx girls that the gargoyle is coming. The gargoyle heads for Flora, but Flora is awake, and wraps the gargoyle in venus fly wrap. It doesn't work, though, and actually makes the monster stronger.
COMMERCIAL BREAK #2
The girls all rush into Flora's room and transform to their fairy outfits. Stella takes her ring off, turning it into her staff. Stella strikes the monster, but as she does, her nightmare of her parents' divorce is brought back to her, and she is weakened as the nightmare gargoyle is strengthened. The gargoyle runs off, and the fairies chase after it, except for Flora, who hears Mirta calling her. Mirta does the hologram thing again, and tells Flora that the Trix sisters are after Bloom's power, and the monster is draining everyone else's magic to get to Bloom. So, is the hologram going to be something Mirta's going to be able to do on occasion while a pumpkin? Flora didn't put the spell on her this time, so I guess Mirta can come forth every now and then when she has something to tell the girls.
The girls, minus Flora, fight the nightmare gargoyle without much luck. When Bloom defends against an attack by the monster, it brings Bloom questions about herself that weaken her, and the monster blasts her down. Flora rushes in, telling the girls, all down, to get back up. Flora tells the girls that the monsters have gone downstairs, and the teleport outside Alfea.
The girls are unable to find the nightmare gargoyle, at least until it falls on top of them, blowing them away. Musa uses "funky forcefield," a disco ball shield, to defend herself against the gargoyle, but she doesn't have enough magic for it to last very long. Tecna throws a digital triangle at the monster, but misses. Digital triangle? Is that the best Tecna can do? Digital triangle?! Tecna tries to get her firewall shield activated, but cannot muster up enough magic, and Tecna's thrown down. Flora and Stella try attacking the gargoyle without success. Bloom tries to encourage them, but the Trix sisters have teleported to the battleground. Icy freezes Flora and Stella in ice.
Icy: Coming soon to a stadium near you: pixies on ice!
Bloom goes after Icy, but the Trix sisters stop her in her tracks, and the nightmare gargoyle drains her magic.
COMMERCIAL BREAK #3
The Trix sisters continue taunting Bloom. Bloom doesn't understand what the witches want. Miss Faragonda comes to the scene, wondering what is going on outside, and is very upset upon seeing the Trix sisters have conjured up a nightmare gargoyle. Miss Faragonda keeps firing at the gargoyle, and recruits Bloom's help, who's not completely out of it. After the gargoyle is blasted into oblivion, Miss Faragonda goes in to fight the witches herself. The Trix sisters seem terrified of her. I can only take it they were caught off guard, as they don't seem to likely to normally be pushed around like this. The Trix sisters teleport out of the area before Miss Faragonda can get ahold of them.
Miss Faragonda asks the girls what was going on. Bloom explains that the Trix sisters sent the nightmare gargoyle to weaken the girls' powers, and then come in person to attack the girls. Stella sweetly asks for Miss Faragonda not to fail them. Miss Faragonda mentions a nightmare gargoyle defeating an entire senior class before. Miss Faragonda is going to file a complaint with the Magix Council, who will see that Miss Griffin punishes the Trix sisters.
The Trix sisters are walking through a storm into Cloud Tower. Their makeup is all running, and their hair--particularly Darcy's--is ruined. Icy complains about all their plans having gone awry, but Stormy's attitude is more upbeat. Annoyingly so.
Stormy: Yeah, well at least the weather's kind of nice tonight.
Darcy: Be quiet!
Stormy: Excuse me, I'm just trying to look at the dark side of things.
Darcy: Yeah, well some of us don't exactly feel like--
Before Darcy can finish that sentence, a giant floating pink see-through head of Miss Griffin appears, demanding to know where the Trix sisters were. Icy tries to think up a lie, as Miss Griffin scolds them, telling them she knows what happened. Miss Griffin is tired of being embarrassed due to the Trix sisters' fouling up. Icy tries interrupting occasionally, though Miss Griffin does not allow it. OK. So she doesn't care that the Trix sisters were being particularly vicious, even seemingly be witches' standards. All she cares about is the Trix sisters getting defeated, making her school look bad. Miss Griffin expels the Trix sisters. The Trix sisters vow revenge on the fairies. It also kind of sounds like they want revenge in general... likely including Cloud Tower.
Stella and Tecna were both scared out of their wits after waking up from their nightmares, but Musa was pretty limp after hers. Musa seems to be emotionally weaker than Stella or Tecna, despite her tough front she likes putting up. Heck, even after her nightmare, Musa's still putting up that tough front, saying it was just a nightmare, nothing serious.
I guess all the Winx girls do, indeed, trust Mirta, despite being a witch. No one accused her of causing the trouble with the nightmares. I guess they can all see that Mirta truly is good. As it is, she indirectly saved the girls again here.
Isn't it a bit cliched to have a nightmare episode that begins with the characters having just watched a scary movie?
9 out of 10 on the old scale.
