Brandon: Start by surprising her with a little gift, or something. I hear girls like flowers.
Timmy: Flowers?
Brandon: They grow in fields?
Timmy: I know what they are!
'Twas an honest mistake, Timmy. Anyone could've been fooled. Classic!
At Alfea, while Kiko is sunbathing in the quad, the Winx girls are in Profesor Palladium's class. Palladium is teaching ancient Elventian incantations, emphasizing the importance of exact pronunciation. He has Bloom try to unlock a padlock with such a spell, and she does so correctly. Palladium demonstrates what happens if the pronunciation is messed up, bringing several cute kittens into the room. Palladium continues explaining, as Flora stares longingly at her notebook. At first, it looks more like she's hot for teacher. Also, it looks like Kaie, a regular random student at Alfea, has gotten some facial reconstruction surgery, or something: she has a kiddie face.
Flora goes into a daydream, dreaming of Helia rescuing her from a large monster. After he defeats the monster, he carries Flora off, both dressed in wedding atire, and carries her down the aisle, with Palladium as the minister. Right as he's about to pronounce them husband and wife, real-life Palladium interrupts her daydream sequence, asking her to try a spell. She mangles it pretty badly, putting "Helia" into the pronunciation, causing the kittens to grow giant.
In the hallway, the Winx girls separate: Bloom goes off to study, Tecna to meet Timmy for lunch, and Musa and Stella go to hang by the lack. Flora and Layla stay behind at Flora's request. Knut passes by, with an ice cream cart, as a random hatted student skips off happily with ice cream in hand.
Flora: Well I--I've got this friend, right? And she kind of likes this boy, but she, uh--
Layla: You're crushing on Helia and you want some advice.
Flora: I guess it's written all over my face.
Layla: Yeah, that and all your notebooks.
Flora's obviously smitten, but Flora worries that Helia might not like her. He's not really being that subtle, Flora. She frets that he may already have a cool artsy girlfriend back at home. Interesting to note that her voice is notably more biting as she mentions the possibility of his having a girlfriend. Nice to see she isn't always Little Miss Perfect, prone to jealousy like anyone. Layla offers to do some snooping. Flora likes the idea, but convolutedly asks Layla to make sure he doesn't know that Flora wants Layla to snoop.
Tecna and Timmy are having lunch in downtown Magix. Timmy says he's been thinking, and gives Tecna a new computer heat sink for a present. Tecna, looking bored, says it's not compatible with her computer.
Timmy: Speaking of compatibility...
Tecna: Yes?
Timmy: Guess who managed to download song files through his portable hero's assistant?
Tecna: Listen, Timmy... sometimes I get a little tired of talking about our computers all the time. Why don't you give me a call when you feel like talking about us!
That "us" at the end was a really nasty tone of voice, too! Tecna actually perked up after Timmy mentioned compatibility, but soured right back down after he started on about downloading song files. Look, Timmy, as much as Tecna likes fiddling with computers, you need a clue: she wants more from you than just that. Try anything else, anything non-computer related! Tecna storms off, leaving Timmy wondering what he could've done differently.
At Alfea, a mysterious cloaked figure--very obviously Professor Avalon--casts a spell on the pixies. The pixies themselves are playing in an obstacle course of some sort, dressed in funny little sporty outfits with ice skates, with Tune as the referee. Piff is asleep in the goal. Little green orbs attack the pixies.
Bloom is in the library, wanting to practice ancient spells. One large book falls off the shelf, The Archaic Spells of Spheria. Bloom takes off with it, thinking the book might have some good spells in it. From behind the bookcase, in very Scooby Doo-like fashion, the same mystery cloaked figure steps out from behind.
In her room at night, Bloom tries a spell to change the color of leaves, but all it does is kill one of Flora's plants. Stella barges in, worried about where Amore is. Bloom says they're probably just still playing bumbulini ball, but Stella says it was hours ago, and Musa can't find Tune, either. Bumbulini ball... sounds like a sport Zing would've come up with. Speaking of Zing, where is she, anyway?
On the bumbulini field, the six pixies wake up, sounding as if they're in a trance, headed back for the pixie village. Layla, spotting them, says they need to go after the pixies. Lord Darkar watches via a crystal ball-esque fog.
COMMERCIAL BREAK #1
The six Winx girls are out at night talking to their pixies. Bloom asks what the pixies are doing. Lockette says they wants to go back to the pixie village, though Bloom, and the rest of the Winx girls don't understand why, since the pixies know that Lord Darkar would find the location of the pixie village if they went back.
Layla: Why do you guys want to go home?
Digit: Because! Just because!
Tecna: "Because" is not a reason, Digit!
I'm sure Digit would be ashamed of herself for such an answer if she were in her right state of mind... it's so very not Digit, just as Tecna's reply so very is Tecna! Stella's upset that she won't be watching movies tonight with Amore, but she doesn't care. She's sweet about it, at least. Chatta shouts for all the pixies to scatter, and they all fly off. The Winx girls all transform, then chase after the pixies. Bloom finds Lockette, flying over a hedgemaze, and traps Lockette in some sort of bubble. Flora catches Chatta in a cage of vines. Stella uses night-light to find Amore: the poor thing seems absolutely terrified! Tecna and Musa work together, with Tecna using a tracking device to find Digit and Tune. The five pixies are put into a small cage, none of them willing to explain why they insist on going back to the pixie village. You'd think Digit and Chatta would normally jump at such an opportunity, too.... Musa notices Piff is gone, but Layla says not to worry, that Piff conked out shortly after she tried getting away, and is sleeping peacefully a few feet away. Lord Darkar, watching from Shadowhaunt with his crystal ball fog, is irate.
The six Winx girls meet Miss Faragonda in her office that same night, with Faragonda explaining that they were right to keep the pixies contained. She explains that there's an ancient homesickness spell put on the pixies, giving them an uncontrollable desire to go back to their village. Bloom complains about Faragonda's crypticness. 'Bout damn time she did! Go Bloom! Faragonda decides to give in--quite easily, oddly enough--to explain about the four parts of the Codex, one in each of the three schools, and the pixie village. As for the pixie's spell, Faragonda says breaking the spell will take some research.
At Red Fountain, Layla sneaks into Helia's room. I'm curious how she found it so easily. Layla finds a poem he'd written. Helia's obviously got a crush on someone whose name rhymes with "aura," except Layla didn't get to the last word before Helia walked into his room, and she had to hurry off into hiding. A safe bet that it's Flora, anyway.
Bloom tries another spell from the book of ancient spells, to undo the spell she'd tried earlier, only it turns Flora's plant that Bloom had killed earlier into a man-eater. Bloom quickly knocks the plant out with the heavy book, but she's now aware that there's something wrong with the book itself.
The six pixies are locked in a cage somewhere in Alfea, concerned for Piff, bawling. Before long, the same mysterious cloaked figure walks up to the cage, worrying the pixies.
COMMERCIAL BREAK #2
Miss Faragonda watches an hourglass filled with green liquid in a thought bubble. That was... err, random. A thought bubble? Bloom walks in, asking about having trouble with the spells in the book. Faragonda is shocked whe she sees it's a book about vile magic that the witches of Spheria used, and says it's not a book that should've been in Alfea's library. Faragonda quickly finds another book for Bloom, a book of healing spells of Sparx, hoping there's something in there Bloom can use to help the pixies.
Meanwhile, the pixies are scared, with the Ava... err, the mystery man closing on them, but all he does is opens the cage, then walks away. The six pixies then fly away. Darkar, watching via his usual seat, orders a couple of monsters to follow the pixies, and eat anything else that follows them. I'm starting to think Lord Darkar idolizes Dr. Claw, just watching the heroes' every move, then getting others to do his dirty work while he sits back and relaxes. Tune and Digit carry Piff, struggling a bit, as they fly away. The Winx girls, minus Bloom, follow, but get lost soon. Stella gets Flora to listen to that voice of nature thing to help guide them, and it works!
Stella: I just love it when your whole "talking to trees" thing comes in handy.
We haven't had enough classic Stella lines lately. Back at Alfea, Bloom finds the right spell, and heads off to find the pixies.
Back in the forest, the Winx girls find the pixies, who stop for a moment to rest, but Lockette's worried that they're being followed. Layla's about to do something, when a couple of monsters step in, and Layla makes the goofiest expression we've seen for her yet.
Lockette: I knew it! Monsters are going to gobble us up!
Cutest Lockette line yet! Musa says they'll help the pixies, and the five girls transform. Twice in one episode! That's never happened before, I believe. A porcupine monster shoots its spines at Stella, but Tecna soon hits it with number cruncher, a ball of numbers that hurts it. Flora uses her Venus vine wrap to restrain it. Stella kills it with a sun blast. Layla fires a blast at the other monster, but it just eats it.
COMMERCIAL BREAK #3
Bloom is running forth, hoping to get to the pixies in time. Transform already, dummy, and fly there!
Back at the fight, the pixies fly off, not wanting to wait for their fairies to finish. Musa uses her sonic boom, stamping her foot repeatedly to bounce the monster around on the ground. Flora ties it up with her vine, and Stella uses a sun blast to finish it off, as it explodes lots of mud everywhere. Especially cute expression from Musa covered in mud! Bloom catches up to the Winx girls, transformed by now thankfully, then flies off to get to the pixies, and cast the spell on them, which works, and the pixies no longer desire to go back to the pixie village.
The next day, Flora and Layla are lying out in the quad, talking about Helia: Layla tells Flora that she's sure that Helia likes her. Flora has some flowers grow in Helia's window, and he smiles.
Why did Avalon not bother with Zing and Glim? I mean, they hang right out at Alfea too, and having eight pixies headed home is harder for the Winx girls to stop than just six... there's absolutely no reason he would've ignored them. Just bad writing.
Aside from making the pixies homesick, the spell also seemed to have the pixies all throw common sense out the window. Even Digit couldn't explain why she needed to go back so much... yeah, I'd say the spell did a little more than just making all the pixies homesick.
The character models looked very off at a few points in the episode, particularly when the mud splattered on everyone. Cute as Musa was, she looked a bit deformed, too.
6 out of 10 on the old scale.
