Winx Club - Episode 104

The Black-Mud Swamp is the fourth episode of the first season of Winx Club.

Synopsis
The aspiring fairies experience their first outdoor exercise at the Black-Mud swamp. The troll is being transported to the Magix Prison by the Specialists. They have to apply all their magical powers to escape from this life-threatening maze.

Plot
In the middle of the swamp, the girls are preparing for an exercise in the woods. They have three hours to escape the forest without using magic. The girls begin by getting stuck in the swamp. Bloom smells something bad and after discovering that it smelled like gas they retreated and the bubbles pop revealing the dangerous gas that was trapped inside it.

At Cloud Tower, the Trix appear in their room, after they had used a spell that made them invisible so that they could skip class, and called for the ogre. The ogre heard that the Specialists are going to deliver the troll that was captured at Bloom's house to the police, Stormy suspects that the troll will reveal to the police what the Trix are planning. Thus, they hatch a plan to eliminate him before he is turned in.

As the Specialists were transferring the captured troll that worked for the Trix, the Trix girls, who wanted to free the troll that would give them the evidence they needed to convict the Trix, attacked the Specialists while they were in mid-air.

The Winx girls find the ship that fell from the sky. The troll escaped, and the Winx and the Specialists get into an argument, and the Specialists leave to find the troll.

The girls notice that the prints disappear. They come to the conclusion that someone helped the troll escape. The girls keep on moving, trying to find the troll and make it through their assignment.

'Living vines' catch the Specialists due to the loud noises they were making. The plants that captured the Specialists then attacks Stella because she did not believe what Flora said about the plants - they like silence, and so Flora helps calm the plants down. Riven mocks Prince Sky's squire, and almost gets kicked off the team.

The group continues on their way. They stand on moving clumps of turf, and the clumps begin getting sucked in by a whirlpool. The Winx and Specialists jump from clump to clump. Riven falls in, and they work together to pull him up to the bank. After resting on the bank, they head off, discouraged.

As they continue to search for the troll, they heard screaming and found the troll attacking the girls of Alfea. They devise a plan of attack, and go to capture the troll. The Winx insult and distract the troll, and the Specialists attempt to cuff the troll, but he throws them off. The fairies tease the Specialists and run off. The troll disappears into the woods.

The Trix then meet up with the troll, and obliterate it. They then return to Cloud Tower, and the Winx and Specialists arrived too late to retrieve the runaway troll. However, they do succeed in their assignments, and the Specialists learn to work together.

Major Events

 * Palladium takes his class to Black Mud Swamp for the first time, teaching them about the voice of nature and gives them their assignment.
 * The Specialists transport the troll from first episode to hand him over to the authorities.
 * Knut passes along the news to the Trix and they decide to eliminate him to keep their secret.
 * The Specialists - Timmy and Riven - meet the rest of the Winx - Musa, Tecna and Flora.
 * Musa becomes attracted to Riven.
 * Brandon and Sky meet Stella and Bloom again.
 * Brandon and Bloom's relationship continues to develop.
 * The Winx help the Specialists track down the troll, without success.
 * The Trix terminate the troll and return home.
 * Palladium praises the Winx for a job well done.
 * Sky, Brandon, Timmy and Riven form a group.

Debuts

 * Amaryl
 * Francine

Characters

 * Winx Club
 * Bloom
 * Stella
 * Flora
 * Musa
 * Tecna


 * Professor Palladium
 * Fairies
 * Francine
 * Amaryl
 * Specialists
 * Sky as Brandon
 * Brandon as Sky
 * Riven
 * Timmy


 * Villains
 * Trix
 * Icy
 * Darcy
 * Stormy
 * Hunting Troll
 * Knut

Spells Used
None.

4Kids

 * We Are the Winx
 * Little Crazy
 * We Are the Winx (Instrumental)

Cinélume

 * Under the Sign of Winx
 * The Girls of the Winx Club

Scripts

 * 4Kids
 * Cinélume
 * Cinélume - 4Kids Differences

Trivia

 * This is the first episode that does not show the Winx transforming.
 * This is the first episode that Red Fountain is shown.
 * The song "Searchin'" is heard at the end of the episode in the "Crystal Ball Video" segment of the 4Kids dub.
 * The Winx Club group is formed in this episode in the 4Kids dub.
 * One of the names for the suggested by Stella in the 4Kids dub is "B.S.M.T.F.," which is meant to stand for "Beauty, Style, Magic, Taste, and Flair" as well as for the first letters of the group members' first names.
 * The latter might be a nod to the Italian comic book series W.I.T.C.H., which, like Winx Club, is a magical girl fantasy series depicting a group of five teenage girls who are given magical powers and fairy-like transformations so they can protect the universe, and who give their group the name W.I.T.C.H., formed from the first letters of each member of the group: Will Vandom, Irma Lair, Taranee Cook, Cornelia Hale, Hay Lin.

Mistakes

 * Flora's T-shirt keeps changing colors from light green to bordeaux and back.
 * Bloom knows what Icy's duck looks like even though she has never seen him before.

Quotes
"A good fairy must be able to listen to what nature tells us."

- Palladium

"Oh yes dear, all this mud is so very inconvenient."

- Musa

"But we're witches aren't we? We're suppose to break the rules!"

- Stormy

"U-um, I'm really glad to see you again, Bloom!"

"You're off the team, buddy. Is that clear?"

"We're not specialists, we're a bunch of rookies. The only thing we do really well together... is argue."

"We've gotta work together, if not we're never going to succeed."

"I watched you during today's exercise. Even though you came in last I'm really satisfied with your work. You've shown courage, initiative and generosity, as well as excellent decision making capabilities. So, in the light of the outcome of this exercise I'd like to say that it was a test run."

- Palladium

"For the first time in my life, I felt like, I was in some part of group!"

- Timmy

"Well then, you know what I say: A real team of specialists was born today!"