WoW episode 3
3 The Legend of the Crocodile Man
New York City! Out in the bay a tourist boat full of tourists.
A beautiful girl snaps a selfie. A boy with messy hair wishes himself, “May the force be with me.” before going to talk to her. I like this kid already.
Of course he blows it. His name is Naoki and he immediately introduces his reason for living: original superhero comics from the sixties, movies and TV shows that talk about faraway worlds, and... and the girl has walked away. Naoki sighs a sad, “hasta la vista, baby.” He goes to look over the rail.
Out in the water two kids are piloting small remote-control boats. Naoki gets out his phone and with a few taps hacks into the boats' controls and hijacks them. His phone case has Godzilla on it.
Dude, Naoki, next time there's a pretty girl just try, “I will be your free IT guy.”
But enough of that, the real Godzilla is here! The crocodile man in not that much bigger than a person and is shaped like the 90s Godzilla, the kinda dumb Jurassic Park influenced one. It's swimming around the boat. People notice. There is panic.
On a Gardenia morning the girls talk. They can't get back into the other dimension. They can't contact Annabel. They don't have very much dust left. Aisha is all for giving it a try, but Tecna wants to wait. They get in a fight, but have to stop to be on the show.
But it's interrupted by a news bulletin about the monster in New York bay!
As the girls watch, their magic hones in on Naoki as an important person.
When their show is back, the girls immediately announce they're going to New York!
And they do. As the pink RV drives through the city Bloom shows the others a sketch she did of Naoki. They all saw him, and realize their powers are connected to the talents.
Ace calls them on their tablet-table to remind them of the disguised Musa's poor performance and how he wants to see something better. Stella laughs her head off at Musa.
The girls talk, wondering if the crocodile man is the talent thief, or one of his pawns. Tecna works out that Naoki “wants to draw attention.”
Naoki has gone to a comic book store and interrupts some of his fellow nerds with his story of the crocodile man. They don't believe him, and suggest he's made up tall tales before. The crocodile man is following under the streets as Naoki rides away on his scooter.
And the pink RV is right behind him!
Inside, Tecna has the stats. The crocodile man is 3 meters tall, has 124 fangs, and a human brain. I'm not sure how she'd know that from analysing a video, but ok. So if it has a human brain, I'm assuming transformed human? One of the lost boys, now lost to mammaldom also?
Tecna deploys radar, a little thing that floats over the RV and scans the area, and finds Naoki right in front of them. They take off in pursuit, trailed by the WoW drone cameras. Naoki hacks the streetlights making them all green for him and goes blazing though the city, and there is more dangerous driving in the pink RV. Naoki realizes he's being chased.
Back at WoW central Ace is confused and Cliff thinks an action chase is great.
Naoki guesses he's being chased by the men in black. Tecna hacks his headphones and says hello, and Nakoi realizes it must be the WOMEN in black, much more exciting! But he's still going to run away. He's not scared of them, he's having a great time.
Unfortunately the crocodile man is coming up from below the street! It bursts up in front of Naoki and Aisha uses her magic to activate a fire hydrant and spray the beast away. Naoki thinks this is great too. He almost hits a hotdog cart but Flora magics some rose vines to stop his scooter and move it out if the way. He gets into a blind alley with the crocodile man in front and the Winx behind. Stella uses magic to make a bright light and chase the monster away. It climbs up the buildings and drops onto the pink RV! Bloom's turn, she uses fire magic to chase it off.
The girls have tried to tell Naoki that they're here to help, but he runs away.
Ace calls and bloom explains that “true talents aren't used to being in the spotlight, you have to chase them down!” Uh, that's stalking, Bloom... the girls also seem very annoyed by Ace. Why did they think this reality show thing was a good plan?
Anyway, at some point the radar was broken, but now it works.
Stella decides they'll pretend to be journalists. The girls step onto a magical clothes-changing circle and get new outfits, and the RV-Tecna calls it the Winxmobile but I'm sticking with pink RV-gets new wing decals.
The girls act like journalists and gather evidence at the place where the crocodile man burst through the pavement. Stella poses for the real journalists' cameras. Then Tecna finds a flier stuck to the RV's tire. She figured out that Naoki hacked the RV's computer to repair their radar, and now she knows where he's gone.
Is it a con? Tell me it's a con. Nerds love con beyond all things!
It's a science fiction museum and it's empty. Naoki knows the guard. He sits down in a seat with some MST-type robots next to him and watches the footage of the crocodile man on a big screen.
Then the Winx start emailing him a guilt trip about all the traffic chaos he caused, asking if that's what he really wanted. Of course it isn't! He just wanted people to realize what he's capable of.
Which is plenty, if he can hack a car from outside it.
Tecna comes in and then the other Winx and they tell him what's up and that they've come to save him. Epic music again! Then the crocodile man bursts in through the wall!
Transform! Aisha worries about their disguises as ordinary girls but Bloom says they can trust Naoki.
Battle is barely joined before the monster escapes up a handy ventilation duct. Naoki is delighted to meet fairies, “just like in the movies!” Tecna tells him to stop playing around.
Musa uses sound magic to make phantom footsteps... look! A dalek!... to lure the monster away. Flora's grabby vines aren't strong enough to catch it but Aisha's summoned water knocks it out of the way for a minute.
Then the monster finds Naoki, but he's protected in Tecna's digital shield. Stella blasts it through the wall with light, and Musa finds a funny device the monster apparently dropped. It's not immediately obvious but... hang on, Neverland, crocodile... it's the pocket watch!
Naoki is chuffed, he saw the bay monster! He can tell everybody! But Tecna says, 'The world's not ready for that... but are you ready for the world?”
Next time we see everyone, the Winx are welcoming a crowd to the museum of science fiction. Naoki is talking about special effects and using his phone to make some robots move. He's pretty polished for just being a kid.
The drone cameras catch up with the Winx and Stella says “Naoki is a natural at science fiction!” I'm not sure that's actually a talent, more of an interest and a knowledge base, but the judges and the voting public on WoW like him!
Naoki talks about special effects and the pretty girl from before asks for a tour. Naoki snubs her and the Winx laugh.
In Musa's bag, the pocket watch begins to tick!
Ok, I'm wondering about the finals on WoW. How would you even judge between singing, and knowledge of science fiction?