W.I.T.C.H. S2 E11

## Plot

Caleb hears about Elyon's abduction. He wants to go to Earth to tell the girls, but Nerissa apparently cursed the Mage's ring and Blunk's Tonga tooth, so they can't get to Earth until the Mage counteracts the spell. Except Nerissa is also posing as the Mage. Man, that many identities would normally mean you have dissociative identity disorder. For Nerissa, it means she's a brilliant, crazy, power hungry sorceress who wants to take over the universe. Oh my gosh, Shuriki is Nerissa, and vice versa. Nah, I'm just kidding, but the two are very similar characters. So, how come Elyon's parents are in human form, even though that's not their true forms? Sure, we know that glamour magic exists, and maybe it's for Elyon's sake since she's used to seeing them like this, but still. After a time skip, summer vacation is over, and school starts the next day. Taranee has done some research on Quintessence, and discovered that it's like electricity, but it can also bring things to life, including inanimate objects. They still don't know what Nerissa's connection to the Guardians or to Will is though. Here's an idea: Go to Kandrakar and ask the council! Seriously, all that free time, and they never bothered to go back to Meridian to visit Elyon or Caleb? Will even mentions that she's concerned that they haven't heard from them in weeks, but everyone else brushes it off, even Cornelia. So much for being able to sense that something was wrong with her best friend in the season 1 finale. Anyways, Taranee has a crush on a guy named Nigel. He's in Matt's band, and he went to the dance with her way back in episode 18. He kind of became friends with Uriah after everyone else left for the summer. Uriah takes Taranee's glasses. Nigel asks her out to a club that night, and she says yes. Caleb and Blunk finally fold to Earth, but wind up on top of a mountain called Mount Thanos. Cue the Infinity War. Wait, that mountain was on Earth? Huh. And all this time I thought it was its own little dimension. Yan Lin is there. She overheard the girls talking about Nerissa earlier. She came to investigate the cave inside. There's a cell there, but it's empty. Hay Lin discovers that the boy she likes goes to Sheffield. When Taranee looks for her glasses outside, she sees Nigel, Uriah, and his friends vandalizing the school statue. Principal Knickerbocker catches them all in the act. This means that Taranee is unable to go with the other girls, Matt, Caleb, Blunk, and Yan Lin to Kandrakar. The principal believed Taranee about just watching what happened, and the boys are forced to clean up the statue. Taranee's mother, who is a judge, believes that Nigel is a bad influence on her, and forbids her from seeing him. So, everyone finally learns who Nerissa is. It's about time! The girls weren't the first Guardians. Decades ago there were five others: Cassidy, Halinor, Yan Lin, Kadma, and Nerissa. Nerissa led them as keeper of the Heart. But the Oracle sensed that the Heart's power was corrupting Nerissa, and gave it to Cassidy, the Guardian of water. Nerissa demanded that she give it back, but she refused. Nerissa accidentally killed Cassidy in her rage. She was devastated and fled, but was soon caught by the council and imprisoned on Mount Thanos. After the Veil was raised, they could no longer watch her. She escaped when a portal opened on the mountain, and went into hiding. Every world has a source of mystic energy, like the Heart of Kandrakar. Elyon was the Heart of Meridian. With her power, Nerissa's might equals the five of theirs, combined. Um, the flashback showed the wrong necklace. Back on Earth, Taranee is deliberately disobeying her mom, not only preparing for her date, but dressing up in a punk outfit, temporarily dying her hair pink, and using contact lenses. The others head to Meridian to fight Nerissa, who uses her powers to bring objects to life. She defeats them and folds to Earth to take care of Taranee. Will uses her powers to turn things back to normal, and realizes that Nerissa is going after Taranee. Nigel gets her glasses back from Uriah, but everyone is thrown out of the building when lightning strikes. Knowing that it's a clear night, Taranee hides in the building and tells Nerissa to come out. The other girls get there and help her. Matt and Blunk left to go get Yan Lin and Halinor. They remind her of Cassidy, and say that this would be an insult to her memory. Nerissa is affected by this and teletransports away. Taranee is caught sneaking in by her mom, who grounds her. Nigel shows up on her roof, returns her glasses, and kisses her. Aw!

## Review

This was a good episode. Season 2 overall really steps things up in terms of story quality. So much so that I can't even pick just one favorite episode. Episodes 8, 12, 13, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26 are all amazing. Don't get me wrong, season 1 was good, but there were a lot of filler episodes until episode 11, when the main story finally became the main focus. Even after that though, so many episodes were about Elyon not trusting her old friends or the girls trying to find her. It got old after awhile. Here, there's plenty of different subplots and mini-arcs, and I care more about the characters, their development, and their relationships. No offense to Winx Club, since the early civilian outfits in that show are fire as well, but I love all of the different outfits that the girls wear. In most cartoons, characters just wear the same outfit so the animators don't have to go through the trouble of making a whole new model for them, at least in 3D animation. Each episode of season 2 focuses on a different girl, at least for the B-plot. This gives all of them time to shine and focus on them and their lives outside of being guardians, as we see their romantic, platonic, and familial relationships with other characters develop. That being said, it's nowhere near an even split. Hay Lin, Taranee, and Cornelia only get four episodes each, Irma gets five, and Will gets nine. Damn. Don't get me wrong, I love Will, and she's my favorite character, but wow. She even gets three straight in a row (episodes 3, 4, and 5), and three of Hay Lin's episodes are in the last third of the season (episodes 18, 20, and 24). Plus, if I'm being totally honest, not all of the B-plots are great, like Irma's in episode 23. I would've preferred it if her relationship with Chris had changed, like Cornelia's did with Lillian in episode 21. That being said, the girls are so close to each other that it never really feels like any one of them is hogging the spotlight or taking screen time away from the others, which I feel is a problem that later seasons of Winx Club ran into, turning it into the Bloom Show featuring the Winx. *Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers* also had this problem with the character of Tommy Oliver in its second season, to the point where I think it's a meme in the fandom. It probably helps that the focus on them is the B-plot, not the A-plot, except maybe in the first episode, before they're aware of Nerissa and the Knights of Vengeance.