Larry DiTillio

Marsh Lamore

This episode gives you just what it says on the tin: reunions, and plenty of them! Thanks to He-Man and She-Ra, Glimmer is reunited with her mother, Queen Angella. After some helpful back story from the Sorceress, Adam reunites Adora with her true parents. More worryingly, Hordak makes it to Eternia to reunite with an old frenemy...

Prince Adam (He-Man), Spirit (Swift Wind), Princess Adora (She-Ra), Sorceress, Queen Marlena, King Randor, Man-at-Arms, Bow, Glimmer, Madame Razz, Kowl, Cringer, Queen Angella, Broom, Teela

Hordak, Skeletor, Hunga the Harpy, Shadow Weaver

Horde soldiers, Eternian guards, various rebels, Twiggets, harpy soldiers

Horde tank (early model), Horde flyer, Hordak-faced ship

Landed safely in the Whispering Woods after having destroyed Hordak's Magnabeam and successfully escaped the Fright Zone, He-Man and She-Ra realize it's time for a conference. She-Ra says she's learned she is He-Man's brother from "the woman in the sword," leading our oaf to realize she must mean the Sorceress, so he rings her up on the sword gem. The Sorceress has them settle in and gives them both a history lesson: many years ago, a pair of twins were born to King Randor and Queen Marlena. It was them! Adam and Adora - so the beefy heroes now know each other's secret identities, as well. Unfortunately, it was maybe not the best time to be starting a new family, as Eternia was then at war against the invading forces of none other than the Evil Horde! Led by a younger Hordak, the soldiers and weapons of this army were still no match for Man-at-Arms's guards (who must have been braver back then!) and the magic of Castle Grayskull. A desperate Hordak, aware that some special destiny was in store for the royal children, crept into the palace to steal them both - accompanied by his brightest pupil, Skeletor. He only managed to grab Adora before his intrusion was detected, however, and Skeletor was overpowered and made a prisoner in the ensuing battle, while Hordak fled with the child. Old Bonehead was convinced to give up the location of the Horde's base on Eternia, and the Sorceress and Duncan rushed there to stop Hordak and retrieve Adora; but Hordak escaped to another dimension with the baby before they could manage it. Unable to pinpoint the dimension to which Hordak had gone with his priceless hostage, the Sorceress resorted to casting a spell of mass amnesia on the people of Eternia: no one apart from herself, the royal couple, and Man-at-Arms has any memory of the lost child and the war with the Horde. Adam has grown to maturity with no notion of the dark pall of loss hanging over his little family.

Now fully informed of these secrets, She-Ra is dying to return to her lost home and reunite with her true parents; but she can't bring herself to leave the rebels of Etheria in the lurch, to fight alone against the Evil Horde. Assuring the siblings that they can choose to return whenever they feel ready by ringing her again, the Sorceress fades away, and Adam and Adora return to the camp of the Great Rebellion. Adam has to explain to the very accepting rebels that the righthand soldier of their evil dictator is their friend now, and they quickly welcome Adora to their councils. It seems that Glimmer's mother, Queen Angella of Bright Moon, long thought lost (yes, it's another one of those), has been discovered imprisoned in Talon Mountain, the fortress of the wicked Hunga the Harpy. Adam and Adora immediately suggest that a rescue party should be organized, which (to the surprise of no one in the viewing audience) turns out to consist of He-Man and She-Ra, riding atop Swift Wind. The heroic pair fight through an army of harpy soldiers, break into the harpy dungeons, quickly bounce back from having been deceived by the shrieky Hunga (who had disguised herself as Angella), defeat the harpy leader, and find the real Angella. Once He-Man has cut her bonds and taken off her imprisoning metal collar, Angella spreads her wings and regains her full power, and the heroes return triumphant to the Whispering Woods.

Well! Now that that's out of the way, and an Etherian mother and daughter safely reunited, it should be fine (and very thematically appropriate) to go see the folks back on Eternia! Adam just quickly advises his sister that she should not reveal her husky alter ego even to her parents, just as he has not told them he's He-Man. With that stricture imparted, Adam and Adora head off with their separate pet mounts to a quiet spot in the woods to open the dimensional portal; but unfortunately they're spotted by a pair of Horde soldiers, who send word back to Hordak. He arrives in his shuttle just as the twins are vanishing through the doorway. Determined that he should not lose his precious Adora, Hordak transforms himself into a full-body rocket and zooms through the portal just before it closes. Since time seems to move slightly differently on the other side of the door in Castle Grayskull, Adam and Adora are able to have a conversation with the Sorceress and slowly walk out of the chamber before rocket-Hordak bursts through (conveniently, after everyone else has left). Uninterested in the mystical castle he has crashed just outside of, Hordak departs on an errand of his own.

At the throne room of the royal palace of Eternos, Prince Adam has his parents, Man-at-Arms, and Teela cover their eyes with the promise of giving them a surprise. When they are allowed to look, the party see Adora standing before them, and all (except Teela, who has never heard the story and doesn't remember) immediately recognize the long lost princess and break into tears. It's a lovely homecoming, and Randor (unwisely) vows that the family shall never be separated again.

Off at Snake Mountain, Hordak is working on a plan that will put that vow in jeopardy. He sneaks in on Skeletor's throne room, but finds his old pupil waiting for him. They have a short battle in which they get out twenty years of held grudges over Hordak's departure and Skeletor's betrayal, and in which Old Bonehead shows himself to have learned a trick or two (and Hordak shows that he can turn into a drill); but ultimately reaching a bit of a stalemate. Hordak reveals why he has shown up again after all these years. He is willing to partner with his old friend to get Adora back, and Skeletor is happy to sow chaos in his adopted home of Eternia. Shaking hands (metaphorically at least), they share an evil cackle at the prospect of what their alliance will achieve.

• Princess Adora (for the first time in the series speaking the opening monologue): I am Adora, He-Man's twin sister and defender of the Crystal Castle. This is Spirit, my beloved steed. Fabulous secrets were revealed to me the day I held aloft my sword and said: "For the Honor of Grayskull! I am She-Ra!" / She-Ra: Only a few others share this secret; among them are Light Hope, Madame Razz, and Kowl. Together, me and my friends of the Great Rebellion strive to free Etheria from the evil forces of Hordak.
• Sorceress: To have two such fine children brought great joy to the king and queen; but that joy was soon to turn to sorrow. And the cause of that sorrow was a force from another dimension; a force known as the Horde. ... (of Hordak) He knew you were both destined for something special, though he did not know exactly what. So he crept into the palace, determined to steal you both away. With him went his favorite pupil: Skeletor.
• King Randor (overjoyed at the return of Adora, and making it an even more special day by actually showing some pride in Adam): Son, I want you to know that today you've made me the happiest man on all Eternia. The royal family of Eternia is whole once more; and by the Ancients, I swear that nothing shall ever separate us again.
• Hordak (to Skeletor): I came after a traitor to the Horde. And it looks like I found one!
• Hordak: The Horde has no interest in this world anymore. I'm only here to capture the traitor I told you about. / Skeletor: This traitor - who is he? / Hordak: It isn't a "he;" it's a "she." It is the baby I took from Randor: Princess Adora. / Skeletor: What?!
• Hordak: You know Skeletor, your evil is almost a match for my own. Together we'll make life miserable for those Eternian fools. Why, it will be just like the old days! (Laughs with much snorting) / Skeletor (agreeing, but seemingly with reservations): Yes - yes - just like the old days.

• He-Man punches the viewer: To break into Talon Mountain
• He-Man swings sword overhand: Only the first frame of the animation is used as He-Man addresses Queen Angella, about to cut her bonds

Zero
In the opening sequence, an already-transformed He-Man and She-Ra speak with the Sorceress. They transform back into Adam and Adora to visit the rebels, back again to He-Man and She-Ra to ride to Talon Mountain, and after delivering Angella to the rebels, once again turn back to Adam and Adora for their trip to Eternia. None of these transformations happen on screen, however.

N/A
In the first five episodes comprising the Secret of the Sword movie, Loo-Kee does not appear.

N/A
There are no PSA segments for the first five episodes.

MOTU crossover
Landmark Episode

• This is an abbreviated entry since the beginning of the series was already featured as part of the movie, Secret of the Sword. For a full analysis of the first five episodes of She-Ra, see my entry for the movie. What I will mainly be focusing on here will be the differences between this episode and the corresponding section of the movie ("Act IV"), and connections to later episodes of the series.
• This is the first episode of the series to feature its regular opening sequence, carefully mirroring that of MOTU, with Adora explaining how she got her powers, who knows her secret, and what her business is. (For a transcription of her exact monologue see the Memorable lines section.)
• After the opening we get the recap of the previous episode (67003) which we've come to expect, followed by the usual title screen with writer/director credits.
• During the recap, the narrator refers to Adora's sword as "the sword of protection," what we could perhaps interpret as a "nurturing" type of name for a weapon. (The Sorceress also uses this name for the sword in the episode proper.)
• Note that the end of the recap shows He-Man and She-Ra on the back of Swift Wind, but they are descending into the landscape of the Whispering Woods - a shot that didn't appear in the previous episode (at the "to be continued" moment of 67003, the horse was still riding high in the sky).
• As in the previous episodes, the backing soundtrack continues to vary from that used in the movie.
• The first new scenes come during He-Man and She-Ra's approach on Talon Mountain. She-Ra has an exchange with Swift Wind where she asks if he's tired, and they both agree that they love flying. In the following scene introducing the harpies, Hunga speaks to a harpy soldier, giving her an order to "alert our sisters."
• When watching Secret of the Sword I had a strong feeling that the harpy sequence felt rushed and abridged; this episode shows how right I was. It features an entirely added battle between He-Man, She-Ra, and a whole host of harpy soldiers. Also added is a short exchange between Hunga and Angella, with Hunga getting annoyed seeing all her soldiers collapsed in a big pile on her TV screen, then rattling off some threats to her prisoner.
• He-Man and She-Ra's method of defeating Hunga by crossing their swords will be reused (in slightly different, more science-tinged circumstances) to defeat an electricity beast, or "electroid," in the memorable 67035's "Gateway to Trouble."
• After Adam, Adora, Spirit, and Cringer come through the portal into Castle Grayskull, there's an added bit of dialogue from the Sorceress where she explains that she's already informed the royal couple about Adam's supposed "mission" for her, and that he's returned with a "surprise." Adora, as she had with Adam a few seconds earlier, expresses anxiety over how she'll be received by her parents, and the Sorceress reassures her. Ironically, this added dialogue serves to make Hordak's late appearance in the castle even less believable than it was in the movie; what took him so long?
• Hordak transformations: To quickly pursue Adora across dimensions, Hordak changes his entire body into a rocket; a trick he'll use often in future episodes. To avoid a falling ceiling that Skeletor drops on him, Hordak changes his entire body into a drilling machine.
• Hordak's exclamation of "By Horde World" marks the first reference to this planet, which will next be mentioned in 67011.
• This episode left me with the distinct impression that Hunga and her harpies represented a set of villains we were going to be seeing many times in the series; but in fact, we'll only see them one more time in all of Season 1, for the important 67046's "Micah of Bright Moon."
• As with the preceding episodes, this one ends with a "to be continued" message, followed by some sneak previews of 67005. The typical ending credits then roll with the backing track of the theme from the SOTS movie.

• There are some interesting things about Adora's opening monologue, both in comparison to Adam's message and in context of what we know and don't know about the show at this point. Firstly, note that while Adam specifies that "fabulous secret powers" were revealed to him, Adora for some reason leaves it at only "fabulous secrets," which somewhat pulls the teeth out of the phrase. Secondly, Adam stresses that he has a "magic sword," while Adora's is just a plain old sword. Note also, in the same way that she omitted "powers" from the earlier phrasing, that her magic spell completely omits the word "power," even though Adam's magic spell uses that word twice. Empowering was the whole point of the original Mattel toy line, so I'm not sure why they've taken it out here. For the time and even in the present context, the series is groundbreaking in its focus on feminine power and agency, and we should of course not forget that it was titled "Princess of Power"; but these choices seem telling. I know from the Power of Grayskull documentary that there was more than a little male resistance behind the scenes during the toy and show development, with for instance strict instructions given that She-Ra should never punch anyone even though He-Man did that constantly.
• The opening monologue also has Adora describing herself as "defender of the Crystal Castle." First we've heard of that! (The series will not drop the other shoe on the Crystal Castle until 67021's "The Stone in the Sword;" but for a more satisfying origin story, see the following episode, 67022's "The Crystal Castle.")
• Also interesting is the fact that we continue to see more heroic characters in the opening sequence than have yet been shown in the series. The ensemble shot of the rebels is the same one that has been used in the three previous episodes, featuring Angella, Frosta, and Castaspella. Particularly odd is the seemingly random list of people that Adora notes as knowing her secret. Unlike Adam, who put a hard stop on that number ("only three others"), Adora uses the much more open-ended "only a few others," allowing some wiggle room for future revelations. Like Adam, she still only lists three people, but by the point of this episode none of them have any idea that Adora is She-Ra, and one of them (Light Hope) we haven't even met yet. In fact, she oddly doesn't include He-Man in the list, perhaps under the impression that this goes without saying.
• Note that the people who know Adora's secret identity broadly align to the corresponding character types of Adam's inner circle. We have Light Hope, who will eventually function as Adora's Sorceress; Madame Razz, her Orko; and Kowl, who also shares certain traits with Orko. I don't think Adora has a Man-at-Arms; the closest character might be Bow, though I may only be saying that because they both have mustaches.
• A couple of thoughts I had while watching this episode that didn't get into my commentary for the corresponding part of the movie: I noted that in the flashback, Man-at-Arms fires his wrist blaster at Hordak while the villain is holding the infant Adora, which just seems mighty reckless and a potentially disastrous move on Duncan's part. He even misses his shot, emphasizing the horrific possible consequences of firing a weapon near a baby.
• The other thing I noticed was an animation error: when Cringer shows up and pounces on Prince Adam in greeting, we get the fairly common MOTU coloring error where the tiger's eyebrows are incorrectly orange instead of the usual black.
• Another added observation which I didn't cover in the corresponding section for the movie: during Hordak and Skeletor's battle, Skeletor successfully buries his old boss under some rubble from the ceiling of Snake Mountain. Crowing his achievement, the bony villain claims that he has sent Hordak back to his own dimension. Um, you did? By putting rocks on him? How does that work, exactly?