Robert Lamb

Steven Clark

Using a newly dug-up Eldritch Book of Spells, Shadow Weaver casts a pall of mist over the edges of the Whispering Woods, trapping nearly all the rebels inside - and Adora without! Luckily, it so happens that a frisky Castaspella has chosen today to pluck Prince Adam out of Eternia for an unscheduled visit - so He-Man will be adding his power punch to today's rescue!

Spirit (Swift Wind), Princess Adora (She-Ra), Castaspella, Prince Adam (He-Man), Kowl, Glimmer, Broom, Madame Razz, Bow, Light Hope

Shadow Weaver, Hordak, Horde Prime

Horde soldiers, enslaved Etherians, various rebels, Twiggets (Sprocker, Spritinia, Sprag), magical specters

Horde tank, Horde ship

When you're She-Ra, it's hard to go anywhere without being distracted by one's responsibility to perform acts of heroism. Case in point: our title character is flying along on Swift Wind, bound for Mystacor and a casual visit with Queen Castaspella, when she spots a Horde expedition gathered about some ruins - along with a party of enslaved Etherians. We can't have that! She-Ra swoops down and - with the help of a sword-bola - easily defeats the small force of Horde soldiers guarding the slaves, then bustles her rescuees into the Horde transport to enjoy their new-found freedom. Heroing safely completed, she hurries off herself for her appointment with Casta. Had She-Ra only looked back over her shoulder, she would have witnessed Shadow Weaver emerging from an underground chamber amid the ruins, clutching an archaeological prize: the Eldritch Book of Spells. Uh-oh; this can't presage any good for the Great Rebellion!

Arrived at Mystacor in her Adora form, the princess is rewarded with a look at Castaspella's Pool of Visions, a mystical well where the sorceress can summon up livestreams of any place in the universe - for instance, Eternia. Casta waves her arms and summons up a vision of Prince Adam, lazing by a pond on the planet that He-Man oh-so-coincidentally calls home. The magical woman is intrigued by this pink-and-purple hunk, and suggests that Adora should bring him to meet her someday; in fact, she's got such a hankering for this stud that when Adora steps away to answer the hail of an arriving Kowl, Casta throws a spell over her shoulder that rudely plucks Adam from his napping place and draws him into the pool. A very confused Eternian prince wades his way out of the water (finding that he very quickly dries off - that's magic water for you) and explores his strange new surroundings. Approaching a balcony, he hears the voice of his twin sister discussing a sighting of the Horde with Kowl. Adora!

Introductions are made all around, with a shameless Castaspella making eyes at the new arrival (hmmm, wonder how he got here?) and Adam slathering her in compliments. But the talk soon returns to Kowl's news: a Horde vessel has been seen heading for the Whispering Woods! The rebels need to find out what's afoot, and since things are slow back on Eternia, Adam is happy to tag along. Casta therefore instantly teleports the entire party to the outskirts of the woods, where they immediately spy Shadow Weaver emerging from a Horde ship with her new spell book. They watch unseen as she casts a spell from the book that surrounds the entire rebel hiding place in a shroud of thick mist - a "mist of endless sleep." Her evil work done, Weaver departs, and the rebels approach the foggy barrier. Casta finds that her usual magic is unable to penetrate the stuff, and posits that Weaver has obtained the powerful Eldritch Book of Spells. The heroes decide to split up to see how far around the woods this magic extends, with Casta magically fetching Spirit the horse from Mystacor to give Adora a mode of transport. Of course, as soon as Adam and Adora are out of sight of Casta, they say their magic words.

It's He-Man and She-Ra who then decide that the best next course of action is to use Swift Wind to fly over to Light Hope and ask for advice. Having suited the deed to the word, they are informed by Light Hope that they should have just listened to Castaspella, because she was totally right about that book of spells. The book can only be used by a magic-wielder; so the heroes should go back to the sorceress and head off to the Fright Zone to steal Weaver's book, so they can find the evil spell's undo command. A slack-jawed, heavy-lidded He-Man is overjoyed at the prospect of working closely with the lovely Casta.

But enough of that gooey stuff. What's happening elsewhere on Etheria? Well, within the woods we find that the Twiggets and Madame Razz are experimenting with the strange mist surrounding them. Razz tries to ride Broom through the barrier, but vanishes, necessitating a rescue from Bow and his grappling arrow. When the mustached hero tows the pair out of the mist, they find both Razz and Broom enscorcelled by a magical somnolence. Meanwhile, over in the Fright Zone, Shadow Weaver makes her report to Hordak, who for once is entirely pleased with the deeds of his magical servant. Having received her pat on the head, Weaver heads off to her chambers, first stopping to tuck the Eldritch book away in the fortress's security cabinet for safekeeping. Hordak then facetimes his boss Horde Prime to pass on the good news: the Great Rebellion is trapped! As he's busy bragging, however, the Etherian dictator glances at his surveillance footage (where he's distractedly overseeing a bonus tax collection shipment) and spots She-Ra, He-Man, and Castaspella sneaking around on his front stoop. Rats! Hordak cuts his call short and prepares to receive visitors.

Actually, it's Shadow Weaver who first confronts the intruders, appearing before the trio and stealing Castaspella away. The evil sorceress drags Casta to her own roomy, gloomy chambers, where the pair engage in a magical battle. We learn from their traded verbal barbs that these two have a history - they knew each other years before, likely a friendship that was forever broken when they chose opposite sides of the Horde/Rebellion conflict. Weaver's attempts to summon monsters and ghouls to defeat Casta are deflected or de-fanged, with the Mystacorian changing dangerous bolts and frightening enemies to flowers and butterflies. She finally transforms a slavering beast into a friendly teddy bear, who walks back to Weaver to smother her in a giant, fuzzy hug. That takes care of that!

What of He-Man and She-Ra? Well, our heroine thought she knew her way around the Fright Zone, but she leads her brother into a trap set espcially by Hordak. The pair are imprisoned in a chamber whose walls begin to glow red with blistering heat. They'll be cooked! Fortunately She-Ra remembers that Hordak's throne room is just above them, so He-Man helps hurl his sister up through the ceiling, quickly following after her. Hordak tries his arm laser cannon (or "projector" as She-Ra calls it) on He-Man, pressing the oaf back with the force of the continuous beam. But She-Ra shoves Hordak's arm down, causing the projector to project Hordak up into the ceiling. When the villain finally manages to turn off the laser, he experiences a moment of impending doom at the top of a long fall, a sensation with which the Looney Tunes' Wile E. Coyote will be very familiar. Hordak ends his fall inside the heated chamber. It seems the Horde leader is about to be fried to a crisp; but He-Man and She-Ra won't stand for such a thing - they have a lot more episodes left to go in this season, after all - so they redirect some water pipes down into the hole, instead nearly drowning the fellow. As a bonus, the battle in the throne room has incidentally smashed open the security cabinet, and our heroes find the book they were looking for lying among the wreckage. Time to wrap things up!

Reunited with Castaspella, the twins journey back to the Whispering Woods during an off-screen transition, and we next see everyone gathered in the midst of a forest clearing (how did they get inside the barrier??). Casta reads the right words from the book, and the mist is dispelled - along with Madame Razz's nap. The day is saved! Time for Adam (who, along with his sister, has now reverted to his non-superpowered self) to end his unscheduled vacation and return to his own nap, back on Eternia. After he's gone back into Casta's pool in Mystacor, Adora and Castaspella enjoy some suggestive banter about a potential future romance between Adam and his magical admirer. I'm just not sure he swings that way, though!

• Castaspella (looking at Prince Adam in her Pool of Vision, and speaking almost to herself): Mmmmmm. He is quite handsome, huh. Yes, quite nice. (to Adora) You must bring him here.
• Prince Adam (to Castaspella, cranking up his charm levels past 11): This grand estate is overshadowed only by its lovely mistress.
• Shadow Weaver (to Castaspella): I've been waiting a long time for this meeting. / Castaspella: Yes, it has been a long time. I can't believe how much you've changed. / Shadow Weaver: I serve the Horde now, while you serve the rebels. ... / Castaspella: Look at what you've become. ... It's too bad; you used to know how to have a good time.
• Hordak (of She-Ra): No - it's impossible - can nothing stop this woman?!
• Castaspella: Oh, that's some brother you've got, Adora. / Adora: I saw you making eyes at him. / Casta: Yes, well, he has such pretty eyes, heh. Do you think he - likes me? / Adora: A little. / Casta: A little? Well; just give me time. (both giggling)

• A look through widespread legs: He-Man lands after having leapt up into Hordak's throne room

One full (combined)
Variation - In an intercut transformation we've seen in various forms before (67005, 67013, 67035), Adora and her brother make their changes simultaneously. Adora's change is a full one, including the Spirit/Swift Wind sequence; but Adam was not brought to Etheria with his cat, so his is a partial.

9:03 - Loo-Kee is stuck inside the mist-shrouded forest with the rebels, and as is often the case, we find him clinging to the trunk of a tree. He's in the bottom right corner of the screen, looking off to the left at the rebel camp.
Did I spot him? YES! I feel like I'm beginning to get an instinctual feel for scenes and camera shots that are "Loo-Kee-ish."

Loo-Kee advises us to ask more experienced people - like our family members or teachers or friends - for help when we need it, in the same way that She-Ra was willing to ask Light Hope for help in today's story. But what about the Sorceress, Loo-Kee, hmmm? Why can't she ask the Sorceress for help? I want my bird lady!!

MOTU crossover
Love is in the air: Perhaps a bit of a stretch, since it isn't the main theme of the episode; but still, I don't think Adam or He-Man would have shown up today if Castaspella hadn't been quite so enamored of our hunky Eternian.
Horde Prime appears in person: Since I often cite Horde Prime in the character list when he's only mentioned in an episode, I thought it would be helpful to create this category for times when we actually get to see the Horde ubervillain. This is the first episode in the series where that happens.

• This makes Robert Lamb's fourth POP script, which is the same number of scripts he wrote for MOTU. This is the first POP writing credit that is solely his (he having assisted on the teleplay for the three previous ones). Quite appropriate that this writer who has worked on both Filmation properties will preside over this crossover episode!
• As has happened in several other episodes (67007, 67010, 67042), She-Ra begins this story in an already-transformed state - as does her horse.
• We encounter again the wide-bodied Horde tank model, the same one used as a prisoner transport in the previous episode (67026's "Book Burning") and which is likely modeled off the one Hordak and Shadow Weaver have tooled around in on earlier occasions (67011, 67042).
• Swiss army sword: She-Ra shows off a new form for her sword, this time changing it into a bola. It's good for wrappin' up folks. Afterwards, in a move stolen from the Jedi, She-Ra retrieves her weapon by simply holding out her hand and waiting for it to magnetically return.
• Like the last two scripts Mr. Lamb gave us (67019, 67020), this one returns us to Mystacor and its patrician ruler, Castaspella. This time, we learn that Casta has a nifty "Pool of Vision," which can show her what's happening on pretty much any planet in the universe - including Eternia.
• Casta, it seems, can also teleport herself and three other people over long distances - in this case, from her castle in Mystacor into the Whispering Woods. She also fetches the abandoned Spirit from Mystacor when the situation calls for a horse. That's a very useful talent which it will be interesting to keep track of, as I suspect other writers may not remember it...
• It looks like a new model of Horde spaceship (or maybe just air ship?) today, as Weaver's transportation to the woods consists of an unfamiliar triangular hull with a two-tined, fork-like nose.
• For the first time on screen, He-Man meets Light Hope, She-Ra's competitor for the role of Sorceress. As is usual with such things, everyone acts as if they already know each other and have met before.
• To get inside the Crystal Castle, She-Ra calls, "Crystal Castle, I bid you open!" This is similar but not identical to the wordings she's used in her previous entrances (see 67021, 67022 - in 67021, she directly asked Light Hope to open the door). It's also, as I noted on those earlier instances, very similar to what He-Man sometimes says to get into Castle Grayskull.
• Light Hope makes reference to a "Great Fire of Birindale," a seeming Noah's-Ark-level catastrophe that took place a thousand years in Etheria's past. Or perhaps the writers were thinking of the burning of the ancient Great Library of Alexandria.
• Also, Shadow Weaver's magical MacGuffin for this episode is the "Eldritch Book of Spells." Good on Filmation for using "eldritch," a truly fun vocab word for young viewers. We've seen Weaver rely on newly found magical tomes before; it was a magic book she'd just found in 67011 which allowed her to mix up the nasty "Poison of Gondahar." A spell book is also integral to Weaver's banishment of She-Ra in 67020's "Three Courageous Hearts."
• Hordak drops the name of Horde Prime again, a name we haven't heard since 67015, when Hordak was pleased that his boss hadn't been bothering him much lately. Like all the previous episodes where this character has come up, I assumed a name-drop was all we would get; but it turns out today is the day we get our first glimpse of the Evil Horde's great leader! Well, "glimpse" is perhaps a strong word, because old Primey is a shy, retiring fellow; even on Hordak's video call with his boss, all we get to see is a cloud of smoke and some flickering green lights. But this is surprisingly consistent with the way Prime is depicted in the later Christmas Special. It still makes you wonder how he ended up with a normal humanoid "son" like Prince Zed (see 67011).
• We learn that Hordak keeps a "security cabinet" in his throne room, a sort of magic safe, like the kind they put in hotel rooms. Since it ends this episode smashed into tiny bits, we likely won't see it again.
• By the way, to call Horde Prime, Hordak makes use of the same giant, projected screen he was utilizing in 67017's "A Loss for Words" (another Lamb script).
• Shadow Weaver and Castaspella's magical duel provides us some very intriguing dialogue, along the lines of that spoken by Darth Vader and Obi-Wan when they confronted one another near the end of Star Wars (1977). There's clearly some history here, a soured relationship that we'd love to learn more about. (And we will! See 67047's "The Price of Power.") Recall Hordak's reference to having discovered Weaver as "a second-rate sorceress from Mystacor" (67017), and these tantalizing revelations make a lot of sense.
• The giant teddy bear which ultimately spells defeat for Shadow Weaver is reminiscent of a much more evil teddy bear used by the title villain of MU124, "The Toy Maker."
• Hordak transformations: the villain changes his arm into the typical laser cannon we've seen many times before - though this time She-Ra refers to it as his "projector." Instead of firing a single blast as we've seen in the past, the cannon projects a continuous beam, which serves to disable He-Man for a few seconds but ultimately does much more damage to its user.

• I really love Shadow Weaver's evil laugh. There are plenty of good evil laughs out there - Skeletor's is a great example, and George Dicenzo's snorting Hordak laugh is also wonderfully distinctive - but the talented voice actor Linda Gary tends to finish off Weaver's cackle with an almost regretful sigh or moan, a unique trademark that often provokes a laugh from this viewer.
• It appears that today's MOTU crossover is owing almost entirely to Castaspella's capricious desire to meet Adora's handsome brother in the flesh. Rrrowrr! Apparently the attraction is mutual, though on Adam's side with the added complication of his alter ego.
• You have to wonder what He-Man makes of Light Hope. We're not going to get the satisfaction of seeing She-Ra explain to the big lug why she's two-timing the Sorceress with this beam of light, because the series acts as if this explanation has already taken place. He-Man stares stolidly and without reaction as Light Hope makes its thundering appearance on the central circular platform in the Crystal Castle; he's seen this all before.
• Interesting to see a growing trend of Shadow Weaver calling the villainous shots in the story. She's enjoyed a couple of episodes as the sole representative of the Horde (see 67020, 67022), and several beyond that where her evil spell has driven the plot (I'm thinking in particular of 67017's "A Loss for Words" and 67042's "Enemy with My Face"). She's also managed this against Hordak's protests that sorcery is unreliable (67017).
• There's something very amusing about the very casual way Hordak signs off from his video session with Horde Prime: "Call you back later - bye."
• Weaver's endless mist is pretty great and all, but her evil plot has a fairly big hole in it which neither the sorceress nor Hordak seem able to comprehend. Hordak is absolutely flummoxed when he spots He-Man and She-Ra skulking around the Fright Zone: "How did they escape the mist?!" he bellows. Um, it's easy: they weren't inside when it went up. It's an odd assumption that just because the rebels live in the Whispering Woods, they're all going to be constantly huddled within, with none of them out at the supermarket or something when you summon your magic barrier.
• "Shadow Weaver's chambers are just down this way," She-Ra tells He-Man and Casta, as they're sneaking through the halls of the Fright Zone. This turns out to be a rather pointed continuity error - or at least logical error - as we very quickly discover. First I want to direct your attention to 67022's "The Crystal Castle," where we definitely saw Weaver hanging out in her own detached tower, separated off from Hordak's Fright Zone fortress. (It's called Horror Hall, as we'll eventually learn in 67043.) Indeed, this is the very structure where Weaver teleports Castaspella in this episode for their tete a tete (a background painting of this same tower is even used for this episode's title screen). So why does she apparently have sleeping chambers under Hordak's roof? Is the Etherian dictator just that paranoid about his minions' loyalty that he doesn't want them straying too far from his watchful eye?
• The interiors of Weaver's tower are different than what we saw of them in 67022, but very, very cool-looking. We get a quick pan of an impressive library (not surprising for someone who depends on spell books for most of her evil plots) and some very macabre decorations, including a very creepy monster in a jar that's disturbingly reminiscent of the works of H.R. Giger. It also makes me think of the Guild Navigator from David Lynch's adaptation of Dune (1984).
• It's interesting to consider what Hordak must think about She-Ra's incredible familiarity with the layout of the Fright Zone. Of course, we know that she knows this because she is, in fact, Adora, who lived there for many years. But can Hordak, spying on the heroine as she deftly navigates his fortress, connect those dots? Well, no; no, he can't. Still, fun to speculate!
• This episode features another in a growing list of times where our heroes blatantly give up the chance to finish off their archenemy. Remember when She-Ra had Hordak trapped and helpless inside his own bubble gun's bubble, back in 67008? And yet all she did was to throw him back to his friends, leaving him safe to oppress Etheria another day. Here, almost without meaning to, He-Man and She-Ra have Hordak trapped in his own trap, a boiling-hot room that will surely mean the end of him. Instead of just walking away, thus ensuring the freedom of Adora's adopted planet, they douse Hordak with life-saving water and depart, allowing him to recover. Grrrrah! I understand why this had to be done; I just wish Mr. Lamb had come up with a more logical reason for letting the bad guy get away. Couldn't he ride off on a sky sled, like Skeletor?
• Continuity error: We established earlier in the episode that Castaspella was unable to find a way to break through the mist that was trapping all the rebels inside the Whispering Woods - in fact, this was the whole reason that she, He-Man, and She-Ra rushed off to the Fright Zone to get the book. So what the heck is she doing inside the Whispering Woods in the final scene of the episode? She clearly hasn't yet undone the evil spell, since that's what she's in the process of doing when we show up. It makes for a nice ensemble shot to have all the rebels there to celebrate the dispersal of the mist, but it doesn't make much sense.
• I'll admit that I've found Robert Lamb's past He-Man scripts to be somewhat uneven - the grounded, emotionally relevant tales in MU083's "Into the Abyss" and MU101's "Not So Blind" offset by the clumsier MU126's "Capture the Comet Keeper" and the confused, depressing lesson of MU127's "The Ancient Mirror of Avathar." His POP scripts thus far (67017, 67019, 67020) have been fun but similarly uneven and problematic in the logic department, with 67019's "The Enchanted Castle" being the delightful standout. This one, with Lamb finally riding solo in the writer's chair, still has its own issues of logic, but is nonetheless exceptional. The first appearance of Horde Prime? He-Man and Adam conducting a goofy romance with Castaspella? Shadow Weaver trapped in a teddy bear hug? Hordak stuck to the ceiling by his own arm cannon? A sorceress's duel? Fan. Tas. Tic.