Robert White

Richard Trueblood

Adora, hewing loyally close to today's episode title and theme, decides to travel to the Fright Zone alone in an attempt to help an old friend and fellow soldier from her Horde days. Could it be... a TRAP?!?!

Princess Adora (She-Ra), Kowl, Madame Razz, Broom, Bow, Spirit (Swift Wind)

Hordak, Lohni, Shadow Weaver, Grizzlor

Fright Zone mud monster, Arrow, tyrosaur, wolf-bat, giant snake, Horde soldiers (including the ones who get turned into rats), spider, Lohni's father, two-headed dinosaur, raptor-like dinosaur

battle wagon

We open in the Whispering Woods, where our Princess Adora is so engrossed in examining a piece of paper in her hand that she hardly notices when a typically reckless Madame Razz buzzes her on Broom. When Bow asks her what's up, Adora explains that she's received worrying news from her old friend and former Horde second-in-command, Lohni. Lohni writes that she is about to be sent to the Horde slave pits just for having once associated with the former force captain. Feeling responsible and guilty about her past sins, Adora resolves to infiltrate the dangerous Fright Zone to rescue her friend - and she wants to do it alone. She brushes off Bow's strenuous arguments that he should accompany her, and walks off.

Realizing she's on a dangerous mission, Adora transforms herself and her horse into their more powerful alter egos before departing for the nastier parts of the Fright Zone. A good thing, too; for She-Ra very soon has to fight off a tentacled beast in a mud puddle. She then encounters an angry tyrosaur, but is able to sense that the creature has an injured wing, and uses her powers to heal the beast. Since Lohni is not in on the whole She-Ra thing, our heroine must transform back into her human form once inside the Horde complex. This proves problematic when Adora has finally been reunited with her old friend; for, predictably, it turns out to be a trap. Hordak, we discover, coerced Lohni into writing the letter and luring Adora into an ambush, with the promise of rewarding Lohni's cooperation by releasing her father from a Beast Island prison. Once Shadow Weaver has disarmed Adora and a troop of Horde soldiers has taken her in hand, however, Hordak (again very predictably and true to his character) reveals he has no intention of honoring his promise.

Looks like Adora just got herself captured while trying to help a friend. Well, Bow can do that, too! The mustached archer, convinced that Adora needs his assistance, has secretly followed behind her to the Fright Zone. He fights his way through the dangers of the Horde base, using his various wiles (such as laser-deflecting hand mirrors and torch-extinguishing arrows) to bamboozle or be-snake Horde soldiers and Grizzlor and make his way to the chained-up Adora. But just as it seems he'll succeed in rescuing his friend, Hordak knocks the hero out with some sleep gas. Kowl, who clearly found a shortcut to the princess, snatches up her sword of protection in a bid to help her, but ends up having to dash out a nearby window with the weapon instead. His rescue attempt is delayed until Adora and Bow have been shipped all the way to Beast Island. There, Kowl once again finds his way to his imprisoned friends, first dropping off Adora's sword and thus (whether he knows he's done it or not, which remains hazy) enabling She-Ra's appearance on the scene. Moving onto Bow's cell, Kowl hands over the archer's eponymous weapon; but Bow doesn't get a chance to use it before She-Ra shows up to bust him out. Lohni also shows up, now being pursued by Hordak's soldiers since she has decided to help her friend. No worries: Adora is "safe" somewhere else, and She-Ra is here to help rescue Lohni's father!

The rest of the episode is a thrilling jailbreak. She-Ra and friends must fight off attacks from Hordak, Shadow Weaver, and armies of Hordesmen, and She-Ra must transform her sword into a lasso and make with some impressive acrobatics in order to perform the "impossible" rescue of Lohni's father from his cage. The cell is so impressive that it's been given its own name (which is more than we can say for old Dad) - the Vulture's Perch. Once freed from the Perch, Lohni's father - and his new rebel friends - still find themselves deep within the prison on Beast Island, with no obvious escape route. Their only choice is to run to the exit and venture out into the wilds surrounding the prison - a region so dangerous that, once they've left, Shadow Weaver just writes off the rebels, shutting the door behind them and wiping her hands.

For the purposes of this episode, at least, Beast Island's exterior jungle is indeed chock-full of dangerous, dinosaur-like monsters, some of whom have two heads and laser eyes. Our heroes are quickly surrounded! This perilous moment is the perfect time to return to today's theme of friendship: enter the healed tyrosaur from earlier in the story, who in return for She-Ra's ministrations will happily carry the whole crew of rebels back to the Whispering Woods. Ah, sweet reciprocity! Isn't friendship wonderful, no matter what strange shapes it may take? And Adora and She-Ra's actions have now gained the Great Rebellion a new member in the form of the soldier, Lohni (and maybe her nameless dad, though who knows how useful that guy is?).

• Madame Razz (to Broom, after yet another crash): You know, we really should practice more. / Kowl: Or move - to where there are no trees.
• Kowl: Fright Zone's no place for a sensitive fellow like me. / Bow: She is so stubborn; and as for you... / Kowl: Forgive me, dear boy; I guess I'm not a hero at heart. / Bow: I guess you aren't. / Kowl: Of course; but it does keep me from doing the stupid things you do.
• Bow: That's a girl, She-Ra!
• Bow (to She-Ra): You'll have to tell me how you made friends with that tyro; must be quite a story. / Kowl: Oh, I must say, friends come in strange shapes. / She-Ra: But aren't we lucky to have them?

• She-Ra runs at the viewer, bug-height: On her way to leap onto Swift Wind just after transforming
• Bow from above, runs to mid-screen and pauses, battle-ready: Just before being spotted by a guard in the Fright Zone

One full, one partial (missing Spirit/Swift Wind sequence)
Variation - In the episode's first, full transformation, the regular frontal shot of Adora holding up her sword to begin the sequence is replaced with a shot of Adora from behind, with Spirit standing next to her.

4:01 - Loo-Kee appears on the far left and bottom of the screen, peeking out at us from among some Horde trash in the middle of the Fright Zone. The scene looks to have been pulled from one of Kyle Reese's flashback dreams of the post-apocalypse in The Terminator. Somewhat unusually, we continue to see Loo-Kee between the bits of detritus as the camera pans to the left.
Did I spot him? YES!

Loo-Kee reminds us of the lesson we were already given without his help just a few seconds previously, about the "special friend" that She-Ra earned when she saved the tyrosaur. You'd think Loo-Kee would connect this to the real-world concept of our viewers' school friends or same-aged neighbors; but he instead wanders off into a discussion of teachers, doctors, policemen, and parents. These people aren't "friends," Loo-Kee. Three out of four of them get paid to help you.

Changing hearts and minds: Since Lohni's betrayal of Adora sets up her eventual conversion to the good guys.

• Today's writer is Robert White, who gave us three MOTU scripts: MU058's "The Once and Future Duke" (in conjunction with Phyllis White, who I would guess is his spouse), MU076's "The Ice Age Cometh," and MU090's "One for All" (the space pirates episode). This will be his only POP script.
• A few new concepts come at us right in the opening seconds of this episode: first, we learn that while Adora was a member of the Horde, she had a second-in-command named Lohni; we also learn that Horde World is equipped with slave pits - a not particularly surprising fact. What I find surprising is that Lohni was somehow able to send a letter to Adora; how do you get mail in the middle of an enchanted forest?
• After having been rudely pulled into a mud puddle by a tentacled thing, She-Ra cleans herself off by doing a quick twirl, which unavoidably calls to mind Lynda Carter doing her own transformation into Wonder Woman on the classic 70s TV show. By the way, we don't get much of a look at the mud monster, but I suspect it was modeled off of the octopus beast He-Man has fought on two separate occasions - once by land and once by sea! (See MU064 and MU077.) This altercation is also similar to She-Ra's eventual battle with the famous "Beast Monster" of the Christmas Special.
• She-Ra again makes use of both her animal-communicating and healing abilities with the tyrosaur she meets in the Fright Zone. Unlike in the previous episode, 67013, when our heroine carried on a mental conversation with a very annoying-sounding bird, we don't hear any inner voice from the tyrosaur; She-Ra simply monologues what she's sensing from the beast, then heals its injured wing with a glowing touch.
• The animation used of Adora walking down a hallway inside the Fright Zone looks identical to one first seen in 67003, back when she was still a Horde force captain.
• Adora is briefly interrupted in her search of the Horde complex by a wolf-bat: another case of creatures and things that exist on both Eternia and Etheria. (In 67013, for instance, we heard Broom use the Eternian expression "by the Ancients," spotted Loo-Kee hanging out in the Eternos palace courtyard, and discovered that both worlds have a "Crystal Mountain.") We saw wolf-bats in four separate episodes of MOTU, ranging all the way back to MU003 and all the way up to MU112.
• There are a lot of critters in this episode - and we haven't even gotten to Beast Island yet! After encountering the mud monster, the tyrosaur, and the wolf-bat, Adora must tangle with a giant snake. Bow will later make use of the snake by entangling a Horde soldier in its coils. It seems as if we have another invasive species from Eternia here, since the snake looks very much like the "crawlers" seen in the animal sanctuary in MU129 - or the monster that attacked Orko outside the Demon Zone in MU078's "Betrayal of Stratos."
• On his way into the Fright Zone, Bow runs by the very wrecked battle wagon that Hordak used to demonstrate his cherished Magnabeam Transporter at the beginning of 67003. Did the vehicle teleport itself back from the Valley of the Lost after He-Man smashed the beam?
• Bow pulls a judo throw move on a Horde soldier that's identical to one we've seen He-Man and other MOTU characters use several times in the past. In fact, Adam used it on a Horde soldier in 67001, during his and Bow's bar brawl; so maybe Bow learned it from him!
• Our third journey to Beast Island (after 67002 and 67012) gives us a lovely beast in this episode full of beasts: a giant spider, whose character design is copied from a giant spider encountered by He-Man and friends in Granamyr's basement (MU114). Hordak sentimentally identifies the creature as his "pet."
• Nice to see that the Beast Island prison doors still work the same way they did back in 67002: a circular opening that closes using a ring of fanglike projections.
• This episode seems to set up an opportunity for showing us that Kowl is in on Adora's special little power sword party trick, when Kowl brings her blade to her in the Beast Island prison cell. But he then leaves, so is not present for her transformation into She-Ra; and he doesn't drop any hints that he knows that's what she's about to do, just requesting that she use the sword to "get us out of here." (Note, we saw Adora change into She-Ra while in the presence of Madame Razz and Broom, near the beginning of the previous episode, 67013.) IMO we won't see definitive evidence that Kowl knows Adora's secret until 67035's "Gateway to Trouble."
• In the commentary section I have some things to say about Grizzlor's inability to parse simple logic with regard to She-Ra's secret identity; but she does have to do at least a He-Man level of covering for herself when she tells a curious Bow and Lohni that the absent Adora is "safe."
• Hordak transformations: In his latest transformation innovation, Hordak changes his arm into one ending in a set of rotating blades. It proves a very poor choice, as She-Ra immediately uses the blades' spinning motion to wrap him up in a chain, leaving him incapacitated for the rest of the episode. In a subsequent scene, on a roll in terms of turning people's assets against them, She-Ra catches and throws Shadow Weaver's own magic back at her.
• While we're listing new abilities, check out Bow's "oil arrow." Huh. And just a few seconds later, She-Ra for the first time commands her sword to turn into a lasso, making a second instance of the sub-category "Swiss army sword." Indeed, collectively, our heroes and villains could put together a very comprehensive Swiss army knife.
• To conclude the episode we get an "Androcles and the Lion"-style follow-up to She-Ra's earlier healing of the tyrosaur, when the creature returns to save everyone's asses. Even ignoring the fable as inspiration, She-Ra is following in the footsteps of He-Man here. The MOTU instance that immediately comes to mind (there may be others) is He-Man's rescuing of a takdryl during his race to find MU064's "The Remedy," which later earns him a very faithful flying mount. She-Ra will have a similar experience on an even larger scale when she and her friends visit 67024's "The Mines of Mondor."

• I'm surprised to find we are once again encountering Beast Island, the setting of 67002 and 67012. I guess it's the go-to prison for Hordak, and He-Man knocking it over in 67002 doesn't seem to have put an end to it at all! I appreciate the turnaround here in terms of prisons, though. In MOTU, on the rare occasions that He-Man bothered to capture one of Skeletor's flunkies and make noises about legal punishment in the form of prison planets or mines, we knew we were sure to see said lackey free and easy in a later episode. In POP, it seems the revolving door prisons are all on the bad guys' side!
• Bow uses the same trick of deflecting a laser with a tiny hand mirror that King Miro and Madame Razz used in the last episode (67013). Maybe Razz told the archer the story of how she blew up those attack bots after Bow got back from Devlan!
• Kowl avoids capture: Bow very clearly forces his tiny friend to accompany him to the Fright Zone, because we see the two traveling there together; but once Bow gets inside the complex and begins to face all the dangers therein, Kowl is nowhere to be seen. I was thinking to myself, "I guess he's just going to wait outside in the car, then" - by which I mean, sit on Arrow's head in the front yard. But in fact Kowl independently finds a way to reach Adora, apparently with much more ease and less danger than Bow; and also manages to escape after he's spotted by Hordak. He doesn't stop his friends from being imprisoned, but he's once again free and on hand at Beast Island to break them out - just like he broke He-Man out of the same place in 67002.
• Of the various tricks Bow must pull in order to fight his way into the Fright Zone, my favorite was his putting out a series of torches with the passing breeze of a well-shot arrow. Noyce.
• Hordak has been wanting to capture Adora again for a while now, ever since she vanished in 67003. He was so obsessed with retrieving her that he made a deal with Skeletor, which instantly went sour (67005). In this episode, with the princess finally in his grasp for a few short minutes, it appears his plan is not to exact any kind of revenge on her for her traitorous actions, but instead just try to make things go back to the way they used to be: with a mentally fogged Adora blissfully obedient to the Horde, his trusted favorite once again. Seems like a weirdly forgiving move for a guy who drops people down trapdoors just for telling bad jokes (67013). Does Hordak actually feel some measure of parental affection for this Eternian girl that he raised from a baby? (Future episodes will show Hordak much less interested in returning Adora to the fold, and much more interested in exacting vengeance.)
• I've made comments before about the incredible lack of interest people seem to take in the appearances and disappearances of Adora and She-Ra, making it ridiculously easy for her to hide her secret identity. In this episode there seems to be an almost willful self-delusion involved, when Grizzlor enters Adora's cell and finds She-Ra there instead. He hems and haws, but can't seem to put two and two together, even though She-Ra makes no attempt to explain the situation away. Maybe Grizzlor really is "the poor man's Beast Man."
• We can believe that Kowl made it to Beast Island carrying Adora's sword, because we see him flapping around with the thing clutched in his feet; but where the heck was he keeping Bow's bow? We've seen before that it is collapsible, but it still takes up a measurable amount of space, even when retracted! I can think of only one place where he could have jammed it during transit, and if I'm right, Bow should really have rinsed it off first.
• Near the end of the episode, when the rebels are contemplating how to escape the prison, Lohni claims that they "can't go outside: the island's swarming with hungry monsters." Oh, really, Lohni? Well, we've seen very little evidence of that on our previous visits. The rescue party in 67002 came across exactly one beast during their trek across Beast Island, and all the monsters that showed up there in 67012 were safely imprisoned - until Sorrowful the dragon let them out, that is. None of the 67012 monsters are in evidence here, having seemingly been replaced with free-range dinosaurs.
• Regardless, once our heroes actually do run outside, Shadow Weaver is so convinced they're doomed to evisceration at the paws of the island's wildlife that she doesn't even bother checking up on them. This feels like a pretty inconsistent treatment of the island's exterior dangers. In 67012, a bunch of people were running around outside for a good portion of the episode, including Horde soldiers, Catra, and her buddies; here, Weaver doesn't even want to leave the front door open for longer than a second. We'll see the Island's dangers and wildlife population continue to evolve in future episodes.
• Given my previous points, and even though there are some cool character designs to be seen among the dinosaur-ish animals She-Ra and her friends encounter, my satisfaction at finally seeing a bunch of beasts roaming free on Beast Island was largely spoiled.
• There wasn't a lot to this story, but it did have a lot of fun action, and I appreciate that the writers gave us a brief glimpse into Adora's past life as a Horde officer. Also, since I didn't manage to work it into the plot summary anywhere, I will just mention here that I loved the little scene where Shadow Weaver discovers the two Horde soldiers that She-Ra locked into her cell. Weaver opens the cell door for them, but instead of releasing the men, she angrily turns them into rats as punishment for their failure. Love that extra touch of wickedness!
• By the way, I hope someone went and got poor Swift Wind from his post outside the Fright Zone! For all we know, at the end of the episode he's still patiently waiting for Adora to come out of the Horde headquarters with Lohni.