The final stretch of reviews! Fate: The Winx Saga 2×05 “Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?” it’s a quieter episode than the previous one but very important. In the end, the episode takes on a frenetic pace that leads to surprising resolutions. While this is happening, we screaming in Rivusa together. Slow burn just started and we’re dancing! Ready?
Here we go!
Extreme Decisions
Fate: The Winx Saga 2×05 “Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?” is the quintessential Rivusa episode and we’re screaming! If you thought that all Riven was going to do was bring Musa into his arms you were wrong. It all starts with me hating Rosalind for how she treats Musa and continues with Terra trying to help Musa get her powers back.
No matter how angry Terra was with her, Musa is her friend and she won’t leave her alone. Just her help is a bit too much and Musa is getting overwhelmed. So the knight in shining black armor AKA Riven rescues her to give Musa a break. And they have a moment. It’s fleeting, you can hardly feel it but it was there, still.
Musa proposes to train together and, while our brain thinks about the Rivusa possibilities, our heart identifies that something is wrong with Musa. It’s almost as if she didn’t fight to get her powers back and had resigned herself to losing them. As if she gave them up.
An intuition that is later confirmed because when the Winx were about to get their powers mixed up – a great scene, by the way, it shows that these types of scenes have improved – Musa is the one who asks them to stop. She had felt a tingle in her magic and she didn’t want to go on. So it’s a fact: Musa doesn’t want her powers back. But why?
Musa is a fairy, her powers are a part of her, giving up her powers voluntarily is extreme because, in short, she is giving up a part of herself. But it makes sense if we take into account everything that happened. It was never easy for Musa to deal with her empathy powers and at this point, she feels that her powers and her mishandling of them are the reason Sam left.
It’s liberating for Musa to think of a moment without feeling the feelings of others and without having the power to handle those feelings. Perhaps willingly giving herself over to some bugs that steal her powers is too dramatic, but it serves the purpose.
Rivusa Is Coming!
Musa may not want her powers back, but she won’t sit idly by either. She finds a middle ground in Fate: The Winx Saga 2×05 “Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?”, she begins training with Riven, though he underestimates her abilities.
And, maybe at another time and with another person, I would have said that Riven is just a dick, but I think his intentions here are good. I don’t think Riven is questioning Musa’s abilities as a specialist but I think he is trying to get her to react and not leave a part of herself behind just because she is in a low place and feels guilty.
This theory is confirmed when Riven doesn’t hesitate to defend Musa from Terra’s uncontrolled powers and tries to get her to lower the intensity, just as he tries to convince her to tell the truth to Terra and the Winx so they will understand. Terra won’t stop until she helps her, she can be intense but she will never leave a friend helpless… and they all deserve to know the truth.
I think it’s the first time I’ve seen Riven be this sincere and this nice to someone, outside of the sarcastic jokes he shares with Sky. The show is starting Rivusa’s slow burn and there are many possibilities here. And yes, we’re screaming in Rivusa, just like you.
The Past Knocks at the Door
It seems that Bloom came to her senses in Fate: The Winx Saga 2×05 “Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?” since her friends return to occupy a central place for her. The plan to lure Sebastian out is mainly to figure out a way to restore Musa’s powers. Of course, Bloom attracting Sebastian is exactly what Rosalind wants, but given Bloom’s behavior in the previous episode, her main motive mustn’t be Rosalind.
Bloom and Sebastian’s meeting had an…unexpected result. While Bloom learns that restoring Musa’s powers isn’t going to be easy, he learns some details about her past. Until now, Bloom’s past has been a big question mark, but Sebastian seems to know everything about it, although we’re still not quite sure how.
Sebastian left us wanting to know more about Bloom’s past because he barely gave us a piece of information. He only gave us one piece of a much bigger puzzle, but just enough to keep Bloom and us interested in what he had to say.
Secrets Unveiled
However, Sebastian reveals one of the biggest secrets of the season: Rosalind is Farah’s killer. In these last few episodes, Bloom justified every Rosalind’s shady action because Bloom believed her explanation that she was just doing what had to be done.
But in Fate: The Winx Saga 2×05 “Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?” Bloom cannot close her eyes at this revelation. Farah always tried to help Bloom, even when Bloom rejected her, and Bloom always felt guilty for not allowing her to be closer to her, for not listening to her and trusting her.
Finding out that Rosalind was the one who took away the opportunity to do all that and to fix what she did wrong with Farah, sends Bloom into a state of uncontrollability aggravated by the alterations in her magic. Regardless, Bloom can hold back the Dragon Flame. That fragile control is broken when she and Rosalind come face to face.
Rosalind no longer has to pretend so she shows her true colors by attacking Bloom and showing her that she is only using her. Rosalind even dares to call her weak. Although Rosalind and I have very different concepts of what weakness means because having scruples is not being weak. So I’m mad with Rosalind. And I’m not the only one. At Rosalind’s attack and words, Bloom loses the fragile control he had over her power and kills Rosalind to the shock of everyone, including herself.
Wow! It’s the only thing we can say. We didn’t imagine that Fate: The Winx Saga 2×05 “Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?” surprised us like this. Bloom had no real intentions of killing Rosalind, she didn’t want to, but at that moment, just at that moment when she was flooded with power and had no control over it, she felt invincible and wished to end Rosalind and her manipulations forever. However, Bloom is no murderer and this will haunt her. For our part, who signs up for the party?
Unlikely Friendships
As for Stella, she tries to integrate Bellatrix with the Winx in Fate: The Winx Saga 2×05 “Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?” After everything that’s happened, she wants them to know that they can trust her even if she made questionable decisions in the past. Bellatrix may have thought that Rosalind was the answer to everything she wanted to achieve but Bellatrix realized that she wasn’t. However, the Winx can’t forget everything Bellatrix did and frankly, I understand them.
In the end, Bellatrix and Stella meet again. Both are very similar. They both grew up with a family that doesn’t love them and forces them to humiliate themselves so that they can be treated decently. Stella asks Bellatrix to betray Rosalind to help them and she, for Stella, does so. Stella is hoping that this will help the Winx to give Bellatrix a chance and these two are so cute it makes me melt.
Although Bellatrix does what Stella asks, she is tired of feeling judged by everyone, she doesn’t care if the Winx accepts her or not. Bellatrix learned to do whatever it took to survive and that’s just what she’s been doing her whole life.
At this moment in Fate: The Winx Saga 2×05 “Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?”, Bellatrix is vulnerable for the first time before someone and lowers her defenses to accept in front of Stella that now that Andreas is gone, no has no one or nothing. She is alone and she must fend for herself so she will do whatever it takes to survive another day, even if it means not choosing the noblest option.
Bellatrix is brave and, despite her cold appearance, she is capable of doing anything for whom, like Stella, she cares, but she is not one of the heroines who save the world. She doesn’t need or want to be. And Stella understands her because she too often has to do the impossible to survive.
That’s why it’s so important that Bellatrix trusts Stella enough to show the vulnerable side of her because it’s a symbol that she always knew she was alone but for the first time she feels that maybe she isn’t.
Recovered Relationships
Skloom is on fire again in Fate: The Winx Saga 2×05 “Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?” They are so cute and cuddly…they make me want to hug them both. Their romantic and playful moments always put a smile on my face.
But all that glitters is not gold. For a moment, both of them forget about their concerns and it’s just them, in their world, in their bubble. But soon the outside world returns and, while Bloom cannot stop thinking of how to lure Sebastian into a trap, Sky cannot forget that he was forced to kill her father.
When he closes his eyes he sees Andreas pleading and he sees himself stabbing him with the sword…it’s horrible. So he tries to forget it by getting drunk. But alcohol is never a good adviser, and Sky ends up asleep on watch.
Silva, instead of intimidating him as Rosalind does, supports him. He knows that Sky is going through a horrible time and that their relationship right now is not the best, but Silva wants to make it clear to him that he is there for him, and that he will always be.
At this moment in Fate: The Winx Saga 2×05 “Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?” is when Sky breaks down and takes it out on Silva. Until that moment, Sky resisted being close to him again but she can’t take it anymore.
Silva made mistakes but always showed him that he can count on him and that Sky is, for all intents and purposes, his son. And Sky tried to deny the obvious but to him, Silva is his father in all the ways that matter. So Sky doesn’t hesitate to confess the guilt he feels for what happened and how it seems like nothing is ever going to be the same again.
Saul doesn’t lie to him. Nothing will be like before for him but Sky will overcome this. Little by little, the guilt that he feels will give way to the logic that he did the only thing she could do. Sky will never forget what happened and he will probably relive it in his nightmares but he will make it through. This father and son scene is beautiful and brought tears to my eyes.
Unpleasant Surprises
Aisha, for her part, feels tremendously guilty in Fate: The Winx Saga 2×05 “Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?” She feels that she failed Bloom and all of her friends by not being there when they needed her. She was carried away by her feelings and they blinded her, leaving her friends alone, and abandoning them.
Aisha doesn’t have to feel guilty, she was just enjoying herself and spending time with the boy she likes, and that’s not a bad thing. However, although Winx doesn’t blame her, she blames herself. She’s supposed to be the voice of reason, she’s supposed to be there to help, she’s not supposed to be anywhere else.
This reaffirms Aisha’s belief that she can’t let her tight grip on her feelings slip. She got carried away for once and her friends were in danger and Musa lost her powers. Aisha feels that she has to care for and protect them, she is supposed to be analytical and not get carried away by sentimentality.
Her rational mind allows her to face the most difficult situations and be prepared for what eventually happens. She can’t afford to get carried away if it means her friends are going to be in danger.
This task is self-imposed on Aisha’s part, and quite unfair to her because Aisha has the right to live and no one has the right to blame her for it, not even herself. But it’s what Aisha feels and her guilt for not having been there for letting Grey distract her torments her.
Although he does not understand anything and, as Flora tells her, Aisha should tell him what is happening because the only thing Grey knows is that they spent an incredible night together and that the next day Aisha ignores him.
Although Grey is not as innocent as it seems Fate: The Winx Saga 2×05 “Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?” He jumps the barriers without permission and, as it is, our suspicions are raised and this gives us a very bad feeling. Is Grey one of the villains? He may have been looking for Aisha for more than just why she turned away from him…Aisha doesn’t deserve to be disappointed.
This Is Me
Terra made me emotional in Fate: The Winx Saga 2×05 “Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?” After her coming out in the previous episode with Flora, her next step was to tell everyone else, although it’s not as easy as it sounds. It’s still hard for Terra to open up like that even to her friends. She is too used to rejection and can’t help but feel wary.
However, they all support her, Stella is the first to hug her. Stella was always particularly cruel to Terra and her being the first to show acceptance is important and it struck a chord with me.
We think that this story of Terra coming out is one of the most careful and best told of the show. It felt so real… a lot of people can relate to Terra and her story and that, after all, is the most important and beautiful thing. Also, the hug of all the Winx, the confidence that this gave Terra, and the acceptance that she felt in such a momentous moment for her were the chef’s kisses.
Fate: The Winx Saga season 2 is available to stream on Netflix and we’ll be back with episode 6 review tomorrow.
