There’s a new chosen witch in town, except she’s a Wizen, and she’s called Cece. The new Hulu show Spellbound dropped a 13-part season 1 on the 31st of August for all younglings hoping to make it big in dance or magic. The show follows a young girl named Cece, whose life has been transformed ever since she moved to Paris to learn dance at the prestigious Paris Opera Ballet School. She’s been dreaming about this her whole life. In Paris lives her aunt Ginger, who has taken up the responsibility of taking care of Cece for her sister. What Cece doesn’t know is that her family and she are Wizens! How will things pan out for Cece in Paris? Let’s find out.
Spoilers Ahead
Dance And Friends
Before getting to the ballet school, Cece already had an internet bestie named Simone; this helps her when she gets to Paris and realizes quickly that she’s not cut out for the Opera Ballet school. Mia is the Irish girl who is the uptight I want to lead friend (you know, the feminine one who is usually villainized in these kinds of shows?), but really she just wants to fit in. Then there’s Jack, who is Canadian and is quick to make friends; he’s very charming. Benoit is the French guy who is socially awkward but super handsome, and Cece falls for him immediately. Finally, there’s Finn, who is almost as uptight as Mia and carries the burden of social media on his shoulders. Immediately at dance school, Cece learns that she’s not half as good as any of the other dancers in her grade because she doesn’t have the proper technique required for ballet. She’s been taught to express her feelings through dance rather than follow the rules. Cece, who is living with her aunt, finds out on the same day that she might be a witch from a family of witches, and they’re all called Wizens. In come Amy and Lola, the two Wizen friends who want to help Cece learn how to hone her powers and also ask her for help to basically save the world because she’s the “Wise One.“
At first, Cece, her aunt, and the other two Wizens use magic to try and support her dance career, but it causes more trouble than good, and she learns that only with hard work can she truly become better. Cece causes havoc in the beginning, allowing her to remain a student at the opera but also making an entire team of professional dancers sick enough to have students perform on their behalf. Fortunately, it all goes well in the end, and she finds her place in the school. In class, she’s still very unique and needs a lot of training, but with the help of Mia and Simone, she’s able to nail the technique and incorporate her style into the many challenges thrown her way.
The 40% Grade
Cece and Simone are best friends, but because of an embarrassing incident when Simone was younger, she’s chronically afraid of lifts. When she’s teamed up with Cece for a test that will be 40% of their grade and needs to include a lift, Simone completely panics and ends up begging Cece to use magic. Cece pretends to do so, and their routine is beloved by all. Later, Cece tells Simone that it was all their hard work, and they were magical enough themselves.
The Prom-A-Thon
When Cece finds her footing in the school and is enjoying her dancing too, she sees the poster for a special gala. The gala excites her so much that she decides to do a fundraiser of their own in school with her classmates, but her big twist is that it’s a prom-a-Thon, which is a combination of a dance-a-thon and a proper American prom. All this while, Benoit has liked Cece and has been trying to get with her, and it’s the same with Mia and Jack. The Prom-A-Thon finally presents them with the opportunity to confess their feelings and become dance partners. The Prom-A-Thon is a huge success, and even their teacher, Armando, is proud of them. Because Cece and Benoit are the last two dancing, they win tickets to the gala. But there’s another obstacle waiting for them.
The Scottish Play
For the fall festival, the class decides to adapt the Shakespearean play Macbeth (the guy who cannot be named, not Voldy) into a ballet because it’s never been done before. The problem is that the play is supposedly cursed, and if a Wizen like Cece spoke out the cursed words, disaster would strike on the day of the performance. Unfortunately, Cece does say the purple words and makes a mess of things because she thinks the curse is all fake. She even writes down all the people that she and Simone want to cast for the main roles on a piece of paper to manifest it. They toss a coin for who is to be chosen as the King himself, but Cece, who is smitten with Benoit, feels bad for him later and cuts out Jack’s name to write Benoit instead.
During the class, Armando picks Jack as Macbeth, and Benoit is devastated. Mia gives him the idea of speaking to Armando during the gala and ditching Cece in order to make sure his position in the school is intact. Benoit does as Mia says, but because Cece has the two Gala tickets, she takes Adrian with her. They, too, have a kind of spark, so she gives it a go when Adrian charms her. At the gala, Cece is disappointed to see Benoit, but they’re distracted when Jack breaks his ankle, and Benoit replaces him in the play, just like Cece cut his name out on the piece of paper. Finally, it looks like the performance went well in terms of the dancing, but a lot of magic happened in between!
Wizens And The Works
Cece accidentally uses a truth serum on her aunt and finds out that her whole family are Wizens. She also comes across a book that has all the spells and family spell secrets. Cece accidentally unleashes her power by reading out a random spell in the book, causing the Mystiqs to know where she is and that she’s alive. Amy and Lola come to both protect and help Cece save herself and everybody else from the Mystiqs. They don’t know what she’s unleashed, but they know the red dust isn’t good news. While at first Lola doesn’t want Cece to dance and just focus on magic, she realizes that she loves it too much. So, they work together to improve her skills in both aspects.
At the same time, Adrian makes his way into Ginger’s life as a worker at their store, “W Apothecary.” He also brings his brother Kevin, who is trapped in a steampunk-looking device. It’s a cheeky place for Wizens to hide their spells and also help “pedestrians” (non-Wizens). During the big performance, when they replaced the professionals, Lola tried to mess up Cece’s dance, but at the same time, Adrian was there to see Cece as the Wise One. He drains the two girls of their magic, leaving them completely powerless.
Amy and Lola trick Ginger into making Cece an official Wizen and, at the same time, into adapting them as her apprentices. She’s made to eat an agreeable pie that forces her to do these things without realizing it. This way, Ginger can help them restore their powers. Cece is all fun and games, and with Halloween being her favorite holiday, she gets her whole class to dress up and celebrate the day. They all play games and do some dancing until Mia disappears into a mirror because the Mytiqs think she’s Cece thanks to their matching witch costumes. Cece learns to use her skills well and gets Mia out of the mirror, but Adrian shows up at the school too, and Cece does not suspect him at all.
Every month, many Wizens catch up together at the W Apothecary, and Adrian uses this event to store just a little bit of their powers in veils for his personal use. Draining Amy and Lola gave him their power and a lot of knowledge in the form of actual books about Wizens. To bring his brother out of his trap, Adrian needs a proper Wizen circle; only then does it work. Adrian finds the piece of paper on which Cece wrote all her classmates’ names and finds that he had the perfect circle. He takes the veils he had saved from all the Wizens and uses them to make the pedestrian performers Wizens for his big plan.
At the same time, since they’re performing Macbeth, Cece has to somehow break the curse, so Ginger finally gets the help of all the Paris Coven. Even Cece’s mother comes to check on her daughter, only to finally find out everything that has gone down. It turns out that Macbeth was cursed by a woman named Juliet, who used to be a Wizen herself. Shakespeare had stolen the whole act from her, so she couldn’t make a living anymore. She’s been forced for 400 years to watch every presentation of Macbeth. Juliet could never escape because no actor who said the words could reverse the curse. Only a Wizen could do so, and finally, Cece could say the words while performing and release Juliet.
Does Juliet Replace Cece?
The coven begins to counter the curse when the performance takes place, and at the same time, Adrian is working to make sure that Cece is in the center of the circle to help him release his brother. Somehow, the dancing and the spell recitation are helping Adrian, even though something seems very off, and the gate opens for Kevin, his brother, to come out. Cece can’t seem to stop herself from saying the words of the spell from Macbeth, and Juliet tells her that soon “she will be her.” This seems to mean that Juliet’s soul may enter Cece’s body so she can be freed from the curse. In the end, Adrian puts on a Wizen cloak himself and pulls Cece away from the stage. Cece had been screaming for help while dancing, but of course, no pedestrians could hear, but Adrian must’ve heard her pleas. He may have broken the circle so that Juliet would not be freed, but this also means that Kevin is still trapped. Seeing as things are not going so well for either of them, Adrian is going to be in big trouble. Maybe the coven’s spell would’ve kept Cece safe, but Adrian had a quicker plan instead. Now we have to wait for Spellbound Part 2 to truly understand what’s happened and if either Kevin or Juliet have been released or if Adrian has turned soft and saved Cece.
Adrian is definitely in the gray area as a villain. It’s his brother who does more of the heavy lifting in terms of being the monstrous one, but Adrian seems to enjoy himself doing the work that the Wizens do. He’s also very smart and has a real interest in helping Cece. Maybe we’ll see him switch sides when Kevin is finally out.
