Divide and Conquer is the seventh episode of season 1 of the W.I.T.C.H. TV series.

Plot

Main article: /Transcript

The W.I.T.C.H. girls (and Elyon) go on a school skiing trip to show up Swiss exchange-student Sondra, who seems to have mesmerized all the boys at Sheffield Institute and things heat up when Sondra steals Matt from Will, and the two girls compete in a one-on-one skiing competition. Will tries to "cheat" by skiing in her Guardian form (with a coat and hat to cover it up) and Hay Lin flying above her and using her powers to keep Will steady.

Little do the young Guardians know that Phobos wants to take advantage of this trip to divide them and separate the other four Guardians from Will and the Heart of Kandrakar, the only thing that can activate their full powers. Despite Cedric successfully separating Hay Lin and Will from the rest of the group, and his noting how Phobos was correct that the girls are weaker without the full group (even in their transformed states), the girls prevent the plan and defeat Cedric.

Later, W.I.T.C.H. and Elyon find out that Sondra is not a Swiss exchange-student at all, but an ordinary girl who tried to steal all the boys. Plus, Sondra sprained her ankle.

In the B-story, Caleb is trying to tell the girls he knows about fun.

Possible mistakes

• When Sondra was revealed to be a fake, it looked like Matt is in the background in his regular clothes, even though he was beside Will in his ski-wear.

Potentially explained

• In this episode, Will seemingly cannot transform Hay Lin without transforming herself, but in later episodes (such as C is for Changes) she can transform the other girls without her own transformation. However, she may simply not have known about this ability at the time. Another possibility is that she chose to transform herself as well to give herself greater physical strength and endurance for the competition. It is also never directly shown in other episodes how such a transformation is achieved, so it may still not actually be possible, with Will simply changing back once the other girls were far away from the Heart.

Behind the scenes

• Fan discussion of the original broadcasts of this episode at Anime Superhero (formerly Toon Zone). Some episode threads also feature posts by members of the crew that worked on the show, including Andrew Nicholls (Andrewjn) and Justine Cheynet (witchinsider).

Trivia

• Blunk's attempt to dissuade Cedric provided possible timing information for the episode, hinting that it may take place during the winter break. In contrast, previous episodes were implied to be set in the fall/autumn.
• Matt showed a clear romantic interest in Will, something that was only implied in his debut appearance in Happy Birthday Will.
• Irma showed that she likes Martin, as she get jealous when he payed more attention to Sondra than her.
• Sondra was revealed to be a fake at the end of the episode and supposedly changed schools.
• Elyon seemed to have become a good friend to all the W.I.T.C.H. girls, having previously just been Cornelia's best friend.
• The famous literary works Heidi and War and Peace were mentioned in this episode.
• Despite not having a specific elemental ability until season 2, Will was not left without offensive powers in season 1 (as is commonly assumed). In this episode, she demonstrated direct attack power when she shot a pink beam of light from the Heart at Cedric, causing him to cover his eyes and squeal in pain. Similar demonstrations occur in Escape from Cavigor and The Battle of The Meridian Plains.

In the fandom

• A very common fan theory is that Alchemy's surname is mentioned in this episode for the first and only time (likely due to her being in only a few episodes). When Cedric tried to force Blunk to tell him where "the girl with red hair" was, Blunk seems to refer to another vaguely red-haired girl, stating that "Ethel" (which is possibly a surname given Blunk's speech mannerisms and him not knowing Alchemy that well) went to Denmark. Assuming there are no other named red-haired girls in the TV series, this would make her full name "Alchemy Ethel".
• An extremely common fan misunderstanding has to do with Sondra's supposed background. Sondra claims to be from Switzerland, a country with four national languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh. Given this, her speaking French and having a French accent throughout the episode is hardly unusual, and not a hint about the reveal at the end of the episode. Furthermore being Bilingual is much more common in that part of Europe lending credence to Sondra being able to at least read Russian. Both the assumption that Switzerland has its own ("Swiss") language and simply confusing Switzerland with Sweden are widespread within the fandom due it being a common misconception outside of Europe

Gallery

TV series
Season 1	It Begins · It Resumes · The Key · Happy Birthday Will · A Service to The Community · The Labyrinth · Divide and Conquer · Ambush At Torus Filney · Return of The Tracker · Framed · The Stone of Threbe · The Princess Revealed · Stop the Presses · Parent's Night · The Mudslugs · Walk This Way · Ghosts of Elyon · The Mogriffs · The Underwater Mines · The Seal of Phobos · Escape from Cavigor · Caleb's Challenge · The Battle of The Meridian Plains · The Rebel Rescue · The Stolen Heart · The Final Battle
Season 2	A is for Anonymous · B is for Betrayal · C is for Changes · D is for Dangerous · E is for Enemy · F is for Facades · G is for Garbage · H is for Hunted · I is for Illusion · J is for Jewel · K is for Knowledge · L is for Loser · M is for Mercy · N is for Narcissist · O is for Obedience · P is for Protectors · Q is for Quarry · R is for Relentless · S is for Self · T is for Trauma · U is for Undivided · V is for Victory · W is for Witch · X is for Xanadu · Y is for Yield · Z is for Zenith

Season 1
Heroes:		W.I.T.C.H. (Guardians) · Yan Lin · Elyon Brown · Caleb · Blunk · Vathek · Aldarn · Drake · Tynar · The Mage · Alborn · Miriadel
Villains:		Prince Phobos · Lord Cedric · Miranda · Tracker · Jeek · Raythor · Frost · Lothar
Items:		Heart of Kandrakar · Horn of Hypnos · Map of portals · Star of Threbe · Seal of Phobos · Book of Secrets · Spike wheel · Symbols of Elyon
Planets:		Earth · Meridian
Episodes:		01 · 02 · 03 · 04 · 05 · 06 · 07 · 08 · 09 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23 · 24 · 25 · 26