Time for episode 4, "The Black-Mud Swamp". It's an okay name, describing where the episode is at. 4Kids calls it "The Voice of Nature". It's also an okay name, since that's what the Winx are supposed to listen to this episode. Neither of them is better.
The episode begins with the fairies with Professor Palladium at a swamp. Everyone is wearing outdoor clothes, except for Palladium, who seems to be in his normal outfit. Palladium starts to explain that today's assignment will be difficult. One of the girls complains that she was bitten by a mosquito, but Palladium says that's to be expected. Apparently she got bitten in a place that Palladium doesn't want to see. Everyone starts laughing at him. Bloom feels sorry for him, but Stella says he needs more confidence if he wants more respect.
Palladium says good fairies should be able to listen to nature. They've already been divided into groups, and they have 3 hours to get out of Black-Mud Swamp and into Gloomy Wood Forest without using magic. First, what's with all the dark names of places? Do they expect fairies to get slaughtered here? Second, so much for magic training in the wilderness. Guess Alfea doesn't focus completely on magic after all. Palladium teleports away.
The Winx head straight into the swamp. Stella thinks it's disgusting. Musa snarks that it's really inconvenient. Those two aren't going to get along are they? Tecna points out that they're knee deep in a problematic mud puddle. Tecna prepares to use magic to do something, but Bloom tells her to stop. Bloom says they have to listen to nature. They smell gas and run out of the mud. Bloom throws a stick into the mud, and a bunch of blue gas comes squirting out. The others point out Tecna almost got them into a lot of trouble. Yeah, I'm not sure what she was thinking there, especially when they were told no magic. Tecna does seem to accept that she made a mistake at least.
At Cloudtower, the Trix teleport into their room after a hard day of lessons. Stormy complains that she can't stand Zaratestra's lessons. I'm not sure if that's how you spell her name. Darcy calls for Knut. Did I mention that she looks cute with those glasses of hers in civilian form? Knut was hiding in a cabinet and has become really smelly due to eating some beans. Stormy realizes they need a better hiding spot for him.
Darcy reminds him that nobody must know he's here. Icy says that it's against school regulations to have beasts or animals on campus. Icy's duck clings to her again, so Icy throws it against the wall. I guess she still hasn't warmed up yet to her own pet duck. They already broke one rule today by becoming invisible to skip a class. Stormy thinks witches are supposed to break rules.
Icy berates Knut for not using telepathy to send his message. He apologizes and says that while hiding near Red Fountain, he heard that his troll that was captured in episode 1 is being sent to Magix, turned over to the police, and then sent to prison. Stormy realizes the problem, that the troll could tell the authorities about what they are doing. Icy decides to get him during his trip to Magix and get rid of it forever. Looks like they don't treat useless minions well.
A Red Fountain ship is flying in the sky. This is our first look at the ship, and it looks decent. The troll is cuffed and in captivity on it. Brandon tells Sky he has a strange feeling that something is about to happen. Sky, who's looking at a map, asks what kind of fun. Brandon is unsure. Riven says he complete control of the ship. He's controlling it with, a disco ball thing? Future tech is weird. Riven insists on being captain. Timmy comes onto the bridge, saying the prisoner is calm.
The ship starts shaking, and Timmy says he spoke too soon. That's why heroes should always wait one second before speaking. They realize the blow came from outside, but Riven insists that the sensors aren't showing anything. The ship starts crashing to the ground smoking. It's spotted by the Winx, and Bloom recognizes it as a Red Fountain aircraft. Has she ever seen one of them before? The Winx run over to help.
The ship has crashed into the swamp and has a sizable hole on the top. The Specialists are out of it, and Flora asks if they're okay. Riven says it's obvious. Musa reacts at seeing him. Got a crush Musa? Two snarkers, could they make a good couple? Or would they just fight all the time? They realize the troll has escaped. Tecna is surprised that they let the troll escape, but Riven insists that it was an accident. Timmy says it was a mechanical favor. Riven says there's no worry, since it's handcuffed. Cue Sky seeing the cuffs on ground, not on any troll. That's why heroes should always wait a second before speaking.
Brandon asks what the Winx are doing. The Winx say they're on an assignment, and Riven tells them to get back to it while the Specialists take care of it. Stella asks when the Specialists are going to be here. Okay, that was funny. Riven's irritated. Sky says the same thing, but in a nicer way. Looks like one knows how to deal with the ladies, while the other can't stand them. Riven says he doesn't need editorial comments, "your highness". Riven sure doesn't mind being rude to royalty, given how he's treated Sky and Stella. Though I'm not sure how much he actually knows about Sky.
Another group of fairies says that they don't need to be told what to do. I'm just going to introduce their leader now. Amaryl was the one speaking, and she's probably the most notable of the background fairies. She shows up from time to time. Also, where did they come from? Riven says he warned them, and the Specialists get to work finding the troll. Flora wants to get back t the assignment. Stella is worried for the Specialists. Flora relents to her. Tecna realizes the ship was hit in flight, which means someone helped him escape. Now who could it be? Could we be in for a surprise? Don't count on it.
Timmy is working on repairing the ship. Tecna and Musa deduce that whoever knocked out the ship's stabilizer must have dealt with the handcuffs. Mental powers are needed to open it according to Tecna. Which probably contradicts something that happens later. Bloom and Musa see that the troll's footprints become less visible the farther it went until they disappeared. It must have gotten the help of a flying spell, but trolls can't cast spells. Another clue that someone helped him. The Winx head out to find him. Musa is slightly spooked at how the swamp absorbs all the sound.
Bloom and Flora are happy though because it helps them listen to the voice of nature. Tecna is annoyed by it since she can't hear anything. They listen, and Tecna asks if Mother Nature suggested anything. Bloom and Flora feel that one direction is the right path. The others are less certain.
Meanwhile the Specialists have gotten tangled up in some living vines. Timmy thinks that no animals could survive in the swamp. Timmy isn't going to be a biologist. He says that there's nothing that animals can eat here. Brandon is doubtful about that, and Timmy is as well. He screams for help.
Flora tells the other Winx to not make any noise around some plants that hate noise. It's Stella's turn to be a moron now, and she whistles just to prove Flora wrong. A few vines grab her and hold her upside down. Flora seems to mentally get them to retreat and drop Stella down. She asks if Stella will shut up from now on. Listen to the nature fairy. She knows what she's talking about.
They hear Timmy screaming. Riven is just pissed that he can't think straight with Timmy's screaming. Riven continues to snark while Musa tries to get him to quiet down. Flora gets the vines to release the Specialists. Brandon says he's glad to see Bloom again after they're out of danger. They decide to team up now, though Riven doesn't want to work with fairies.
They start to hop across a large mud lake, but Timmy falls on his ass in it. Everyone has a quick laugh, but Riven continues to be rude by saying they have to deal with fairies and clumsy Timmy. Brandon says he's gone to far. Riven counters that he's just Sky's yes-man. The two start to argue until Sky makes it clear that he needs to stop being a jerk or he's off the team. With no one to back him up, Riven relents. Looks like Sky is the leader, which makes sense. Good to see that they don't completely tolerate Riven's behavior.
They jump on clumps of turfs in the mud river. It starts moving, which worries everyone briefly. A whirlpool starts while they're jumping across, and Brandon tells everyone they need to get out of there now. Stella falls into Sky arms, probably on accident. Leaping time with recycled animation. Riven doesn't get recycled animation sadly and falls in the water. Tecna grabs him. Purple saves purple. She almost falls in herself, and Timmy grabs her. Bloom and Brandon bring them in. Riven gets up without any snarking.
They hear girls screaming, who Bloom recognizes as Amaryl. Huh, they did name her this early. I thought she didn't get a name till later. The troll has the fairies seen earlier trapped against a cliff. Sky comes up with a plan. The Winx will distract the troll. Stella doesn't like step one. Step two has Brandon and Timmy grab him while Sky and Riven get the cuffs on the troll.
Bloom and Stella manage to get the troll's attention. The troll looks hungry, so it looks like it's fairy snack time. Brandon and Timmy trip it up. The Specialists kind of suck though, and the troll gets away in the chaos while Timmy ends up cuffed. Amaryl mocks the Specialists, saying they specialize in botchery. Well, it looks like niceness isn't a requirement to be a fairy. Sky just takes their "thanks" in stride.
The troll picks up a scent and starts heading in a direction.
Bloom tells Brandon that what they did was nice, even if the troll did get away. Brandon is feeling a bit down, though he appreciates the words. He says Amaryl's group was right; they're just rookies. The only thing they do good together is argue. Well that's something at least.
Riven and Sky are in the middle of blaming each other for the failure. Timmy gets them to stop fighting. They forgive each other and decide to work as a team from now on. Tecna seems to be eyeing Timmy. Looks like we have our last couple. Flora is the unlucky girl of the season. No boyfriend for her. Brandon would've preferred everlasting peace instead of a truce, but he'll live with the former.
The Trix are waiting in the swamp. Stormy is getting antsy. Icy tells her to chill out. Don't make too many ice puns Icy. It never helps anyone. Darcy is worried that the troll is lost. Icy says that a troll never loses a scent. Darcy suggests he got lost in the quicksand. Stormy points out that the ant-gravity spell would keep it from sinking. Icy briefly wonders if that made it lose the scent, but she dismisses that idea, thinking she ever hatches a plan that isn't perfect.
The duck appears, trying to get Icy's attention. Icy is annoyed and freezes him over. He still has his legs, so he keeps moving forward. The troll finally arrives at their location. They tell him that they gave him freedom, and now they will banish him to oblivion. They just killed their own troll. Harsh. They teleport back to Cloudtower.
Bloom and Flora are describing the voice of nature as something you feel inside you. Sky isn't completely sure they're on the right path, but Tecna says that she's learned that Bloom can't be beaten in these situations. She's going to want to revise that in a couple episodes. They reach the end, but don't see anything. Stella and Tecna feel negative energy in the area, like someone cast a spell here.
Musa sums everything up. Someone helped the troll escape, guided him through the swamp, and made him disappear. Bloom finds some purple feathers on the ground. She and Musa recognize it as Icy's duck. So, Flora specifically made the duck purple? And how did they know it was Icy's duck. They have no idea what she would have to do with this,
The Red Fountain ship, now repaired, flies over to the meeting spot. The Specialists let he Winx off. Musa is still crushing on Riven for some reason. Brandon wishes them goodbye, then the guys take-off. Palladium was watching them throughout the day. Pervert. Even though they came in last (this was a competition?), he's satisfied with what they did today. They displayed initiative, generosity, good decision making, and other good fairy qualities. Today was just a test run, causing Amaryl to complain that they did all this for nothing. Palladium says some people learned a lot today. For example, Amaryl learned that Specialists suck. The show doesn't say that, but she was probably thinking that.
We get to briefly see the Red Fountain castle before jumping to the Specialists. They agree that while the day was a complete disaster, it was good team-bonding experience. Brandon thinks a real team of Specialists was born today. So their mission in episode one doesn't count? They did pretty well there. Except Riven, he sucked there as well. Sky asks them to stop calling him prince. It makes him feel old. Yeah, for some reason I don't think that's why he wants to be called prince.
It's night at Alfea, and Bloom checks up on Stella. Stella tells Bloom to go to bed. She then mutters good-night to Sky. Yup, those two are definite. End of episode.
That was actually pretty good. There wasn't much on the plot or magic front, but there was a lot of character development and interaction this time. Plot points furthered are the troll being finished off and the romances officially established for all the couples. Sort of.
Bloom comes off as a bit too competent for someone with her experience. Still, her connection with nature does make sense with the later revelation of her powers. She starts coming into the leader role this episode and has mostly good judgment calls. She seems rather drawn to Brandon and wants to support him.
Stella comes off as a moron who is ill-suited to the outdoors. Which she is. She did have a good joke at the Specialists' expense though. By now she definitely has a crush on prince Sky.
Flora was good this episode, which should be obvious given as how nature should be her territory. She's the one who gets the plants to stop bothering them, and she had an easy time hearing the voice of nature. Unfortunately for her, she's got no guy to eye at. This actually won't bother her much this season.
Musa finally got to do something mildly useful besides deride Stella's stupidity, though she is good at that. She was good at figuring out the mysteries about how the troll was moving. She doesn't have much nature connection though. She also didn't talk with Riven much, so it's not really clear why she likes him. Probably an attraction to bad boys in general.
Tecna seems less competent then usual, but that probably has to due with how nature is the opposite of her forte. After her early mistake in the mud, she doesn't screw-up at all, so she's not an idiot who doesn't listen to her friends. She's also good at figuring out how the troll got away. She's seen admiring Timmy stopping the fighting, so at least she likes people for their good qualities rather than their bad ones. It's easy to miss though, but it looks like he's her love interest.
Brandon doesn't do much aside from argue with Riven and get comforted by Bloom. He seems similarly drawn to her, so the attraction is mutual. He's your standard hero type, kind and brave.
Sky shows he's the leader here and manages to put his foot down on Riven, which is good. Aside from that, he takes everything else in stride. He seems friendly with Stella, so those two will probably hook up quickly.
Timmy tries to be a geek, but he is hit by a lot of bad luck. He gets cuffed, falls in the mud, gets proven wrong half the time, and is laughed at by everyone else. He is the stabilizer in the group though. He's the one who gets the others to stop fighting. He never argues with Riven, so he doesn't like needless fighting. No interaction with Tecna unfortunately.
Riven is a jerk. Not even a well-meaning one, just one who takes out his frustrations on others. He doesn't get along well with others and almost seems like he has a grudge against fairies. Will he get better, or will he get worse? Time will tell. He didn't even talk with Musa much, which is a disappointment.
The Trix stick to the sidelines this episode. Icy continues to lead them well, and this is actually their first successful scheme in the show. Stormy shows that she's not dumb, but she is impatient. Darcy seems to be the one that takes care of Knut he most.
Palladium seems to be an unassertive teacher who isn't concerned for their safety. To be fair, he could probably just teleport to someone if there was any serious danger. Amaryl shows that just because you're a fairy, doesn't mean you're nice.
This was probably the best episode so far. The characters came across well. The Specialists got a lot of screen time for the first time. Both groups are coming together, but the Winx are doing it faster than the Specialists. With the relationships established, it's time to get the plot moving.
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