A Fanatic Heart
Episode 6 of Fate: The Winx Saga begins with Bloom speaking to Rosalind from within her magic prison and asking the fairy to channel the flames within her. Using Rosalind’s influence and tools, Bloom starts to channel her abilities. As she does, Aisha rocks up with Dowling, who heads down to find Bloom before it’s too late. Unfortunately, the fairy releases Rosalind from her prison who’s on the hunt for more magic. That brings her down to the Stone Circle, where she begins using the stones as a conduit to charge up. Once there, Rosalind admits that Aster Dell was not a mistake. It turns out there were Blood Witches operating there and she had the soldiers take them out with one quick hit. Bloom was kidnapped by those witches originally too, who wanted to use her magic. This also explains the Burned Ones, who have been after her all this time believing she has the power to stop them. While the girls are confined to their rooms, Stella and Aisha come to blows over getting Dowling involved. Only, their argument is quickly broken up by word that the Burned Ones have broken into the school and have started attacking students. Sam is immediately injured. As Rosalind guides Bloom into using her powers, she suddenly stops using her fire power to talk to Rosalind. She promises to help find Bloom’s birth parents but for now, word of the school attack sees our student hurry back to help. On the way, she runs into Sky who follows her inside. He’s obviously not happy with the way she drugged him and reminds her that just because something seems right, doesn’t mean that it actually is. As the students gather together in the assembly hall, Dowling informs them that Solarian troops are on the way but they may have to attack the Burned Ones before then. She tells them all to prepare as they may need to use their powers. Bloom catches up though and tells them what Rosalind is doing and how the Burned Ones are after her. This Stone Circle, as we soon find out, actually works as a conduit for the school’s barrier. If the magic is consumed completely then the barrier will fail. Well, it seems like that’s happening as more Burned Ones start to arrive. Elsewhere, Sky learns the truth about his Father, Andreas. It turns out he was killed in Aster Dell by Saul’s blade. It’s great timing too, as this bombshell reveal is suddenly interrupted by the Burned Ones attacking outside. While they do, Terra and her Father try their best to save Sam’s life. Only, Terra suddenly leaves to find Musa with her headphones on. It turns out her Mum died a year back and she could feel every part of it (oh man, what a great flashback that would have been to help her character development!) Terra hugs Musa and promises she won’t let him die. In fact, Musa has a change of heart and arrives to hold his hand through the pain. Bloom heads outside with Aisha and Stella, conjuring up her powers and bursting into flames like a phoenix. Finally understanding her true power, flamed wings protrude from her back and she effortlessly destroys the creatures. At the same time, Terra and Musa both manage to save Sam. Meanwhile, Rosalind rocks up in the school, and specifically to greet Beatrix. She recruits Dane and Riven to her ranks while simultaneously revealing that she’s also unlocked some ancient magic they all thought was laid dormant. Bloom finally speaks to Dowling in her office, who forgives her for what happened in the past. Bloom even asks for a hug from the headmistress for her help and care in bringing her to safety. It’s a pretty significant moment in their relationship, one that sees Dowling struggling to hold back tears. After everything that’s happened, Bloom heads back home to her parents and greets them again. Only, she hasn’t come alone as all our faeries rock up to crash for the night. While sat together, Bloom conjures her fire powers and shows her parents what she can do. They’re shocked, of course, as we’re left to wonder what’s next for our teenage fairy. Meanwhile, the Solarian troops arrive at school along with Queen Luna. They arrest Saul for the attempted murder of Andreas, who steps out the car and reveals that he’s very much alive. He greets his son and leaves the door wide open for a second season. Meanwhile, Dowling and Rosalind talk out in the graveyard. Rosalind admits that there’s a 1000 year old legend about dragon flame which is directly linked to the origin of the Burned Ones. She also admits to being the one to let these cursed beings in. She also planted Beatrix at the school, who was working with Andreas all this time. He was kept in hiding until this very opportune time where Queen Luna, with the help of the faculty members, are on the verge of usurping Dowling and installing Rosalind as the headmistress once more. Dowling is obviously not happy and refuses to leave the school in her hands. Unfortunately, Rosalind snaps her neck and leaves the girl dead on the floor, buried under blossoming flowers.
The Episode Review
This show really should have been 10-15 episodes long. Everything feels so rushed and the contrived teen drama isn’t given anywhere near enough time to grow and evolve over time. Because of this rushed feel, every spat or argument across the season has felt completely superficial. The Alicia/Bloom situation with the magic in episode 2 is a great example of this. That so easily could have been a whole episode long, exploring both Alicia and Bloom’s past and how they coped with their magic. It also would have been nice to see Alicia’s school flooded too! And then there’s the teen romances which suffer from the exact same problem. There’s just no time for anything to evolve naturally so all the drama and ensuing fall-outs feel rushed and far too tepid than they perhaps should be. Because of these time constraints, the plot suffers badly by rushing through the word building and ideas while bringing up plenty of contrivances and plot holes. The situation with the phones and technology in general feels out of place and odd, accentuated by the fact there only seems to be 3 teachers working at Alfea. And what of that ending too? The show leaves the door wide open for a second season with the promise that there’s more to come on the horizon. So if this show is renewed, will there be ramifications for Bloom showing her powers off to humans? Is this fair game? It’s not initially clear what happens when this occurs, or how either, which feeds back into that earlier idea of rushed world-building. Hopefully if this is given the greenlight we’ll get a longer season to flesh everything out as while Fate has been an enjoyable enough binge watch, it’s also a far cry from the best fantasy offerings out there.
