In the Winx girls' suite, the five Winx girls are hanging, with Bloom worried about what happened with Layla, who's been sleeping for four days, and worried that whatever attacked her may come to Alfea, and as such, the girls must be ready for anything. Stella says it could be anything though, and a good chance it was nothing too serious.
Stella: We have no idea what she's been through! I mean, she could just be suffering from shopping exhaustion.
Musa: I don't think anybody but you has ever suffered from that, Stella.
Stella: Hmph! I've never slept four days after shopping!
Tecna: That's right, you slept for a week.
Tecna checks up on Layla from her handheld computer. Flora says they should get to bed and get some sleep, as tomorrow is the first day of classes. Stella says that the first day is just a bunch of roll-calling and introductions. Musa says sophomore year is different, that it's not like that. Unless high school's changed since I've gone, the first day of school was like that every year, from freshmen to senior. They all go to bed.
At Light Haven, the do-gooders' camp the Trix sisters were sent to at the end of last season, we hear a lot of people singing a dopey chant about loving stuff, and stuff loving them. Forget the Trix sisters--this place could drive anyone mad! A couple of guards are bickering, one of them believing that the people here are prisoners, and the other saying they're guests, and they like it at Light Haven. The positive-thinking guard insists that anyone can be forced into being happy with time.
In the virtual meadow in Light Haven, the Trix sisters are all in their Light Haven robes, and wearing special headgear to prevent them from using any magic. The trio are very upset, hating the place, loudly complaining.
Stormy: If these flowers were actually alive I'd kill them!
From a nearby speaker, an announcer talks annoyingly in a soothing sort of voice to all the "guests" at Light Haven, about goody good good. It's all infuriating for the Trix, naturally. Stormy gets so upset, that she goes into an angry rant that basically recaps the first season. The coolest way it could've been done, too, having Stormy griping about what happened last year: let's new viewers be up-to-date, and Stormy's fury during it all makes for a great explosion on her part, considering she is not currently able to blow anything up at the moment!
Announcer: Think not of spreading evil or wreaking havoc; just listen to your heart's true desire.
Darcy: But my heart's true desire is to spread evil and wreak havoc.
Stormy: He can't hear you, Darcy.
Icy: Would somebody please destroy that thing?!
Stormy: Well, we're not supposed to break stuff around here, but maybe it's OK if I just calmly disconnect it.
OK, admit it: how many of you have yelled stuff at the TV, knowing full well that they couldn't hear you? And Stormy's just great! "Calmly" disconnect it. Heh. The announcer continues to babble on as Stormy rips the loudspeaker from the tree, but it keeps working anyway, even as she kicks the thing around, with the trio becoming very annoyed.
Stormy: STOP THE INSANITY!!!
Gotta' love how Stormy just lets it all out. Icy and Darcy have more of a calmness to their hatred of everything than Stormy does. Looking around the place, Stormy and Darcy find more of those loudspeakers hidden just about everywhere, and they're just about to lose their minds. Icy promises that they will get out of this horrid place. In all honesty, I think most of us wouldn't care much for this place either.
COMMERCIAL BREAK #1
Back at Alfea, it's Professor Wizgiz's class, teaching about opposites. Stella and Bloom seem to be the only two Winx girls in the class. Stella is putting on makeup and Bloom is about to fall asleep as he teaches. He explains that all forces in the universe has an opposite, and that for every good force, there's an evil force. Wizgiz shows the class a sphere of paradoxical energy, talking about how it looks like it wants to take off from his hand, but can't. As he's babbling on about the sphere, Amaryl notes that Wizgiz isn't holding anything, though after Wizgiz turns off the lights in the class, we can see the ball as a glowing light. He explains that the paradoxical sphere exists as a ball of light in a room full of darkness, and a ball of dark in a room full of light, and that it takes fine magical power and awareness to see a ball of dark in a room full of light. He yells at Bloom, noticing she's falling asleep, and asks her to explain to him in a concise fashion what the yin yang symbol represents. Bloom says that he should ask Stella if he wants to talk about fashion. Wizgiz is not happy, and punishes her with a 30-page paper on Eenadraird's Rule of Opposing Forces. Thirty pages?! One week to do a thirty-page research paper?! Man, and we all thought Griselda was strict! Whatever happened to making the punishment fit the crime?
Meanwhile, Musa and Flora are with Layla, still asleep, in her hospital-ish room. Flora notes that Layla is waking up. Layla wakes up, yells "get away" randomly, and notes that she's been sleeping for four days.
Musa: You can tell that just by looking at your hand?
That's right, Musa! How the heck would Layla know how long she's been asleep? She's the fairy of water molecules, not the fairy of consciousness while sleeping! Layla starts yelling for Piff, and wonders if she's still asleep. Musa wonders what's wrong with her. Stella and Bloom enter, as Stella teases Bloom for getting caught falling asleep in class. The nurse enters the room, explaining that Layla has post-winx-depletion syndrome, but the worst of it's behind her. Layla wakes up again, and asks what happened. Flora says that she came to Alfea. Layla starts worrying, begging for them to keep "him" away from her. "Him" being Lord Darkar, not that anyone else knows this yet. Layla worries about Piff again, wondering where Piff is. Stella shows Layla to Piff, sleeping right on a shelp. Layla's hungry, and Stella offers a big sandwich she's eating--loudy, and Piff wakes up, crying incessantly. Stella wonders if she should offer Piff some of her sandwich, but Bloom says that Piff isn't even teething yet. Stella isn't sure what to do, but Musa keeps telling Stella to hold Piff. Stella's all confused, and accidentally throws the sandwich on Layla.
A little later, still in Layla's room, Layla introduces herself as the princess of Tides, and the other girls, minus Tecna, introduce themselves. Layla explains that she was trapped in the UnderRealm. Bloom worries that she might've turned evil in the UnderRealm, if she lost all her winx, and Musa gets jerky, in her face accusing her of being evil, infiltrating Alfea. OK, Musa doesn't say "infiltrating Alfea" outright, but she's probably thinking it. Musa could've been a little nicer, really. Flora explains that she senses a lot of positive energ coming from Layla, and calms Bloom's and Musa's worries. Flora makes some tea for Layla that will help her regenerate her winx.
Down in Shadowhaunt, Lord Darkar is sitting on his throne, as his runebat Kerbog tells Darkar, in its runebat language, about three sidekicks Darkar may want to use to help him in his... well, whatever he wants to do. We don't know yet, exactly. Darkar wants sidekicks that are not only truly evil, but also "have style." You know, you wouldn't expect a villain like Darkar to care much about "having style." So what, he wouldn't have wanted to use the Trix if they were stereotypical homely "toil and trouble" witches? And oh yeah, it's the Trix sisters Darkar wants, in case you haven't figured that out yet.
Back at Light Haven, the two guards are bickering again, with the negative one wondering what they're guarding if the guests aren't actually prisoners. The more positive guard insists they're guarding the guests, protecting them. Apparently from Darkar, as he flies over the guards, entering Light Haven. Darcy is pretending to be nice and good, talking about things that are nice and good, and it is very obvious how much it pains her, talking about love. Darcy tries getting Icy and Stormy to talk goody-goody, and as hard as it was for Darcy, it's all the harder for Icy and Stormy. Heck, Stormy sounds like she's going to completely break down, trying to talk about life being good.
Stormy: I AM SO OVERCOME WITH PEACE AND JOY!
Note that Stormy angrily screams that. Her delivery really makes it! Suddenly, the weather turns ugly, which makes the three witches happy. Lord Darkar appears before them, teleporting himself and the Trix sisters elsewhere.
COMMERCIAL BREAK #2
Back at Alfea, back in Layla's temporary room, Layla tells her story about the pixie village, how she found the hidden pixie village when she was a little girl, but that the last time she went, only Lockette and "Blinky" were there. Or Glim. A later episode calls Blinky by the name of Glim, which is also what she's called in the original Italian. So from now on, I'll just be calling her Glim. Layla explains that shadow creatures had kidnapped the entire village, except for Lockette and Glim, and say that the others are being held prisoner in Shadowhaunt. And in Shadowhaunt, in an effort to rescue the pixies, she met Lord Darkar, who decided to take Lockette and Glim while there. She later escaped with only Piff, of course, and worries that something really horrible is going to happen to them. Heck, it's too late for one of the pixies... more about that in Episode 5. The other Winx girls, minus oddly-absent Tecna, agree to help.
Inside a building in Light Haven, the Trix complain that they're still in Light Haven, that Darkar's breakout wasn't much of a breakout. Icy also complains about the stupid robes they're still wearing, so Darkar transforms them into their usual witch outfits, without the headgear. Stormy and Icy try to attack some guards headed their way, but they're too weak to fend against the guard. Darkar gives the Trix magical accessories--armwear for Stormy and Darcy, and neckwear for Icy--that increase their powers greatly, and, ominously, allow Lord Darkar to own the trio. Ownership. Why do I get this feeling that this is not going to bode well for our trio in the long haul of things to come?
COMMERCIAL BREAK #3
With their newly increased powers, Darcy blinds the guards with mesmerizer, turning their eyes black. Possibly the single scariest spell ever cast in the show. After a few moments, the guards charge forth, as Stormy blasts a tornado for the guards, and Icy freezes them. With the guards out of the way, Darkar says he's bringing the Trix to Shadowhaunt, which excites the Trix.
Back at Alfea, in Bloom's room, she worries about her opposite, saying she senses it out there, and feels it's getting stronger. So I guess this means she's been working on her report, since she wasn't paying attention when Wizgiz mentioned it in his class.
Where the heck was Tecna? Seriously... the other four Winx girls are visiting Layla. Tecna is not, despite there being no reason to believe she's doing anything else. So is she just sitting in her room, twiddling her thumbs, or what?
Stormy's rant about the goings'-on last season was about the most entertaining way the show could've managed to explain what happened last season for new viewers without it being completely dull for those who did watch last season. Almost feels there's a certain rhythm to it all, as well.
8 out of 10 on the old scale.
