The Ending Of Fate: The Winx Saga Season 2 Explained
"Fate: The Winx Saga" Season 2 continues Netflix's gritty adaptation of the beloved "Winx Club" cartoon, bringing in new characters and expanding the world while also planting seeds for the future. "Fate" follows Bloom (Abigail Cowen), a powerful fire fairy raised in the human realm who embarks on an adventure at the magical Alfea College. She's joined by a large ensemble of friends and allies, including her boyfriend Sky (Danny Griffin) and suitemates Aisha (Precious Mustapha), Terra (Eliot Salt), Musa (Elisha Applebaum), and Stella (Hannah van der Westhuysen).
Season 2 packs a lot of action into just seven episodes, picking up right where Season 1 left off. Having finally accessed the ancient power inside her called the Dragon Flame, Bloom becomes the primary interest of headmistress Rosalind Hale (Miranda Richardson) and the Otherworld at large. While the threat of the Burned Ones is quelled, a new danger emerges in the form of a Blood Witch resurgence. Each of the many characters grapple with their insecurities, relationships, and mysterious pasts to unlock their true power and protect their home.
Equal parts "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and CW teen drama, "Fate: The Winx Saga" Season 2 is as colorfully entertaining as it is frequently baffling. The season finale changes up a lot of things in the show's status quo and sets up even bigger stories to come. Here's what it all means and where the series could go next.
The brief resurrection of Farah Dowling
Before the full climax of "Fate: The Winx Saga" Season 2, we get a surprise cameo in the form of Farah Dowling (Eve Best), the former headmistress of Alfea who appeared to be murdered in the Season 1 finale. Turns out, after being attacked by Rosalind, Fowling was able to preserve her spirit in a magical relic, which is later excavated and opened by Flora (Paulina Chávez) and Terra.
Unfortunately, Dowling can't stay long. The implication is that while her spirit was kept in a kind of limbo, her body was still destroyed. The essence she was able to preserve resuscitates her fully for a limited time, but then she turns to dust. It's possible that Best's casting as Rhaenys Targaryen in HBO's "Game of Thrones" prequel series "House of the Dragon" may have played a role in Dowling being written fully out of the show. According to Radio Times, the actor wasn't even able to film on the "Winx" set due to the other show's production schedule, so Dowling's brief return was crafted using remotely recorded dialogue, body doubles, and special effects.
All that would seem to indicate that Dowling really is gone for good this time, which is sad to say the least. She was a bright spot for the show in Season 1 and shines again in her short-lived return. At least she gets to give the girls some final wisdom before passing into the great beyond.
Sebastian's grand plan
The grand villain of "Fate: The Winx Saga" Season 2 is Sebastian Valtor (Éanna Hardwicke), a graduate of Alfea College who's secretly a Blood Witch. Over the course of the season, it's revealed that Sebastian's family lived in Aster Dell — the Blood Witch community wiped off the map by Rosalind. In a bid for revenge, Sebastian starts stealing fairies' magic and gathering allies in order to steal the Dragon Flame.
For most of Season 2, Sebastian's ultimate goal is a mystery, and even by the end it's a bit tricky to piece together. According to Beatrix (Sadie Soverall), Sebastian only ever wanted to correct Rosalind's crimes. "There's an entity in the Realm of Darkness," she tells Stella in the finale. "Shadow. It can raise the dead." Apparently, the villain's goal is to use the Dragon Flame to open a portal to the Realm of Darkness and tap into this being's power to resurrect those slain at Aster Dell.
However, because opening such a portal is incredibly dangerous to the fabric of reality, the Winx step up to stop him. They're a little late, though, as a gateway is indeed opened in the bowels of the school. In the original "Winx Club" cartoon, Sebastian's last name Valtor is the name of a powerful sorcerer and major bad guy. If "Fate" stays true to the source material, Sebastian's plan could lead to the arrival of some even more dangerous foes.
New transformations
Defeating Sebastian is no small task, and it ends up requiring the combined strength of Bloom, Terra, Aisha, and Stella. Fortunately, they have a new trick up their collective sleeve. Before returning to the afterlife, Ms. Dowling imparted to them some ancient fairy wisdom — that the secret to transforming and growing wings is in balancing all your emotions, both good and bad. Bloom's friends join her in becoming the first fairies in generations to transform and put a brutal stop to Sebastian for good.
Admittedly, there are some odd details in this twist. How did Dowling know this secret of transformation? In the last moments before her death, she theorizes to Rosalind that Bloom was able to transform because of the Dragon Flame. So did she do a lot of reading while she was buried in the ground? A lot of meditation, perhaps? Beyond that, it's a bit underwhelming that the key to transformation ends up being so simple. In Season 1, we're told that the magic of wings was thought to have been lost forever. Does that mean that not a single fairy in all that time managed to embrace all of their emotions? It seems like the kind of thing that someone could do by accident.
Regardless, it's fun to see the four fairies grow their wings and combine their powers. With a portal to the Realm of Darkness now open, it likely won't be the last time.
An impending Blood Witch war
One of the wilder moments in "Fate: The Winx Saga" Season 2 comes at the end of Episode 5 when Bloom kills Rosalind. To be fair, the cruel headmistress attacked her first, and she killed Ms. Dowling in Season 1. The Otherworld is probably a better place without Rosalind's tyrannical presence, but that doesn't stop Bloom's attack from being quite surprising. Though she's (briefly) imprisoned for her actions, Bloom isn't announced to the public as Rosalind's killer. Instead, Queen Luna (Kate Fleetwood) blames the crime on the Blood Witches, using it as an excuse to sow hatred amongst the citizens of the Otherworld.
Even with Sebastian and Rosalind both dead, it still seems like a proper war between fairies and Blood Witches might be brewing. Public sentiment has clearly turned against the Blood Witches, and that bias is only strengthened by Luna's address. If the leaders of Solaria decide to take a more active stance in hunting down the Blood Witches, the rest of the Otherworld might follow suit. But, while Sebastian and his crew are the cause of a lot of pain, vilifying all Blood Witches seems like a bad move.
The character of Grey Owens (Brandon Grace) proves that not all Blood Witches are bad. He even shows that their magic can be used for good by bringing Sky back to life. But, if Queen Luna wants a war, she'll probably get one.
Criminal charges
One plot thread that's completely dropped at the end of "Fate: The Winx Saga" Season 2 is Bloom's imprisonment for killing Rosalind. Queen Luna sentences her to 20 years in stasis due to her being a threat to the Otherworld, but her friends break her out almost immediately. Then Sebastian attacks Alfea, and before you know it, everyone seems to have forgotten that there was ever a murder, or a tribunal, or a sentencing.
The best explanation for the charges against Bloom being dropped is that Ms. Dowling's resurrection proved Rosalind's guilt. However, we never actually see Dowling meet with Luna or any other authority figures to clear Bloom's name. She helps break her out of stasis and gives all the Winx a lesson in transformation magic, but then she just vaporizes. You'd think it would be important for Dowling to use some of her time alive to set the record straight against Rosalind, but that never happens.
So why does everybody just forget about Bloom's trial? Obviously, the attack on the school changes priorities a bit. Her powers are needed to stop Sebastian, and Saul Silva (Robert James-Collier) never wanted her imprisoned in the first place. Even so, Queen Luna is still very much alive, and she isn't the type to change her mind easily. Perhaps she would have put Bloom back in stasis if she hadn't vanished into the Realm of Darkness.
Is Beatrix really dead?
The triumph over Sebastian at the end of "Fate: The Winx Saga" Season 2 comes at a cost. After two full seasons of playing all sides and only looking out for herself, Beatrix does something genuinely selfless and stops Bloom from relinquishing the Dragon Flame. Her intervention is the reason that Sebastian is defeated, but she dies for it, leaving a complicated legacy that ends with a noble sacrifice.
But is Beatrix really dead? We see the graveyard plot where she's buried at the end of the finale, and we see Stella mourn her. But then we also see a terrifying being of pure shadow looming over Beatrix's grave. The figure looks just like the one Bloom keeps having visions of, and it's likely the same "Shadow" from the Realm of Darkness that Beatrix mentions to Stella earlier on. If it's true that the entity in question truly can raise the dead, we may yet see Beatrix again.
That would make sense given how many loose ends are left hanging over her story. The romantic tension between Beatrix and Stella is pretty obvious, but they never get the chance to really talk through their feelings. Stella is also shown studying the information given to Beatrix by Sebastian, which names her two sisters — Isobel and D'Arcy Daniels — and where to find them. It looks like "Fate" might finally be bringing in all of the "Trix" witches from "Winx Club," which further suggests Beatrix's return.
The Realm of Darkness
There are several mentions of the Realm of Darkness in "Fate: The Winx Saga" Season 2, culminating in Bloom venturing there herself. But what exactly is this alternate reality, and what secrets might it hold for the future of the show?
While there's no place called the Realm of Darkness in the original "Winx Club" cartoon, there are some similar locations that clearly served as inspiration. In the animated series, Bloom's mother and father are both imprisoned in a dark dimension called Obsidian, which she later journeys to. The Realm of Darkness is similar to Obsidian in several ways, primarily in its monster inhabitants and the fact that at least one of Bloom's parents vanished there. There are many such alternate realms in the cartoon, so the introduction of such a place in "The Winx Saga" makes a lot of sense.
When Bloom arrives in the Realm of Darkness, it doesn't actually seem all that bad. But, of course, very little is shown in "Fate" Season 2. It's revealed earlier on that both the scrapers and Shadow — the mysterious entity reportedly capable of raising the dead — come from the Realm of Darkness. While little else is revealed by the end of Season 2, it seems clear that the dangerous dimension will play a much larger role in events going forward.
Who's the mysterious shadow figure?
Arguably the most intriguing aspect of the Realm of Darkness in "Fate: The Winx Saga" is the mysterious being Beatrix refers to as "Shadow." Bloom sees the creature in her visions, and it appears at the very end of the Season 2 finale by Beatrix's grave. So what exactly is it, and what does it want?
While "Fate" Season 2 leaves the shadow creature shrouded in mystery, the original "Winx Club" cartoon might provide some answers. In that show, one of the primary antagonists is Lord Darkar, an ancient being whose powerful magic is the direct opposite of the Dragon Flame. Like the Shadow, Darkar dwells far away from Alfea and is awakened by the actions of the Winx. It's also worth noting that Darkar frequently employs the skills of the Trix — a trio of villainous witches. Beatrix fills the role of the Trix in "Fate," and that comparison is even more apt now that it has been revealed that she has two sisters.
In all likelihood, this entity of the Realm of Darkness will be Bloom's strongest foe yet. The creature may resurrect Beatrix and bring her to its side, though why it seeks her grave out specifically is unknown. It's also unclear if, like Darkar, the shadow creature is directly tied to the Dragon Flame. But given that one must use the Flame in order to open a portal to the Realm of Darkness, it seems likely.
Bloom's real mother
The final shot of "Fate: The Winx Saga" Season 2 shows Bloom entering the tower from her visions in the Realm of Darkness to find a woman who may or may not be her mother. She calls her mom, and Sebastian tells her that her mother imprisoned herself in the Realm of Darkness after putting Bloom in stasis 1,000 years ago, but there's no proof in Season 2 that the person Bloom encounters is in fact her mother.
One of the reasons that's unlikely is the aforementioned 1,000 year time jump. Sebastian tells Bloom that she was born during the ancient war that saw the rise of the Burned Ones, and that her mother wielded the Dragon Flame before her. In an attempt to free her child from the pain she experienced on behalf of the Flame, Bloom's mother froze her for a millennium and sent herself into exile. So how could she possibly be alive so many years later?
Maybe she entered a kind of stasis herself. Maybe the latent power of the Dragon Flame sustained her somehow. Or maybe time simply passes differently in the Realm of Darkness. Of course, it's also possible that the woman Bloom finds isn't her mother at all. And, even if it is, her appearance could be part of some larger, more evil plan. If the shadow entity of the Realm of Darkness can truly raise the dead, maybe it's behind Bloom's mother's return.
Did Flora lose her magic?
During the battle at Alfea, Flora makes a brave move and attracts all of the scrapers in the school to herself. She injects herself with a compound that's lethal to them, basically turning herself into a bioweapon. The only catch is, they have to absorb her magic for the plan to work. By the end, Flora is alive, but she takes a beating in the process.
It seems like everything should be fine, but during the final montage sequence of "Fate: The Winx Saga" Season 2, Flora is shown to be far from fine. One shot shows her looking at a gruesome scraper bite mark in a mirror and crying. The earth fairy also isn't seen using magic at any point after her ordeal, and the whole thing is treated like a big sacrifice despite the fact that she survives.
Is it possible that Flora lost her magic in the process of killing the scrapers? Musa and the rest of the sapped fairies all get their powers back when Sebastian dies, but the Blood Witch never got to absorb Flora's magic from the scrapers. If they died immediately after sapping her, does that mean that she wasn't restored by Sebastian's death? If so, could she still get recharged by a method similar to the channeling crystal used to help Musa? "Fate" doesn't provide a lot of answers in this department, but it's clear that Flora is far from over her frightening encounter.
What's up with the rest of the Otherworld?
As in Season 1, the rest of the Otherworld beyond Alfea is mentioned frequently in "Fate: The Winx Saga" Season 2. Solaria comes up the most due to its particular influence over Alfea, but the season also expands the lore of the show by discussing Aisha's family business, Flora's research adventures, and other aspects of the story that take place further from the school. And yet, very little of that world beyond Alfea manifests visibly on the screen.
Between the Burned Ones, the Dragon Flame, the scrapers, and the Blood Witches, you'd think that Alfea would be a prime destination for any Otherworld bigwig or political leader — that fairies all over the world might want to meet Bloom for their own reasons. They don't show up, however. That's likely more due to budget constraints than anything else, as "Fate" clearly isn't the most expensive fantasy show in Netflix's catalog. But as Luna pushes the fairies toward all-out war with the Blood Witches and the hole to the Realm of Darkness stays open, the series may not be able to hide at Alfea for much longer.
Love is in the air
While a lot of things are pretty dire at the end of "Fate: The Winx Saga" Season 2, there are also sparks of joy, many of which come from the show's numerous active relationships. The series has always been just as much about teen drama as it is about saving the world with magic, and at the end of the Season 2 finale, we get a cute montage of where everybody stands.
Sky and Bloom have a rough go of it when she decides she needs to go to the Realm of Darkness, but it's clear that their bond is still strong. Terra fully embraces her queerness and goes on a date with Kat (Leah Minto). Musa experiences heartbreak earlier in the season when Sam (Jacob Dudman) announces that he's leaving Alfea, but by the season finale, it's heavily implied that she might have feelings for Riven (Freddie Thorp). They're seen sparring together in the closing montage, and Riven even gifts her a set of magic-blocking handcuffs so that Musa can decide when to take a break from her powers.
Despite being banished from Alfea, Grey returns to see Aisha at least one last time. However, it isn't revealed how she responds to seeing him, or what the consequences might be for his actions. And, last but not least, Stella mourns Beatrix's death — a relationship that's heavily implied to be more than just friendship. In short, there's lots of drama to go around.