Harvey Brenner

Tom Sito

Today's episode fully mines the meaning of the phrase "old flame," as the aged Madame Razz comes face to face with former swain Frit the Bottle Man. Frit gets tangled in a plot by the Horde from which only She-Ra - and perhaps his old witchy girlfriend - can extricate him. Will a winter romance be rekindled? Do we want to see that?

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

Catra

Frit the Bottle Man, Twiggets (Sprocker, Spritina, Sprag), Horde soldiers, True Blue

wagons, glonders

Who is this mysterious old man with a floppy hat over his face, stuck laboriously pushing his horseless cart up a hilly dirt road on Etheria? Patience, viewer, for all will soon be revealed! It's a tough slog getting that cart up a hill, but once you get over the hump, it's much easier - maybe too easy. Guided onto a down-slope, the old man's cart begins to fly forwards, dangerously out of control! Luckily just nearby is Princess Adora, who has been enjoying a healthy game of hide-and-seek with the Twiggets of the Whispering Woods. With the forest people out of sight in their hiding places and trouble headed her way, Adora raises her sword of protection and brings She-Ra to the fore. The mighty heroine catches the cart like it's nothing, and is soon trading introductions with the vehicle's owner, who calls himself Frit the Bottle Man.

Frit - who got his nickname because he wanders the surrounding countryside collecting bottles - proves a talented storyteller, delighting Adora, Glimmer, and the Twiggets with his tales of Etheria from before the time of the Horde. When the Twiggets ask for more, Frit instead suggests that Bow regale them with a tune. He has a particular request in mind, that famous love ballad, "Just We Two." Bow is happy to oblige; but as he is strumming away, an enraged Madame Razz comes zooming in on Broom and demands that the musician stop at once. Frit requested the song because it reminds him of his lost love; Razz wants Bow to hush up because the song reminds her of her lost love. Turns out the two are remembering each other. Some undisclosed difference in opinions drove the once-amorous pair apart, but it seems Frit remembers their time together more fondly than Razzy.

With this back story established, it's time to chivvy along our present-day plotline, which involves Frit's missing steed, True Blue. It appears the Horde have taken the poor beast, and the rebels volunteer to help our bottle man win it back. For some reason, this involves Frit, Bow, and all the Twiggets taking Frit's cart (now being pulled much more effectively by Spirit) back to his personal hideout, while the unseen Razz and Broom follow along discreetly from the sky. At the same time, Adora and Kowl head into town in search of True Blue. They have to spend some time skulking around, waiting for Catra and a party of soldiers to leave.

Frit's special place up in the mountains is where he's been keeping all the bottles he collects: it's his life's work, a giant castle-like structure of glittering bottles in every color of the rainbow. Frit explains to the awestruck visitors that his sculpture represents the many faces and personalities of Etheria; it's a symbol celebrating the beauty of diversity and freedom of choice. A still concealed Madame Razz, watching with her Broom from a hidden spot, is also impressed. She's been talking over her feelings with her friend and means of transport along the way, and though she's still confused, she seems to be leaning towards falling back in love with the old man.

Madame's contemplations are interrupted in the worst way, when Catra and her Horde soldier goons show up! Turns out Catra has discovered the location of Frit's masterpiece and doesn't appreciate its message of freedom. She's come to zap it into tiny glass shards! Spirit, who realizes that the best way to remedy this situation is to get Adora, breaks free of the Horde ambush and dashes away. He smashes the hover bike of the one soldier sent to stop him and gallops into town. Adora has been busy there; having finally tracked down True Blue (who was being cruelly forced by a couple of Horde troopers to walk a treadmill powering some machinery), our princess transformed herself again and took out the guards. When Spirit spots She-Ra, she has already rescued True Blue and is comforting the old nag. Spirit fights off any jealousy he might be feeling at the sight of his owner giving attention to another horse, and quickly passes on the news about Catra. Leaving a relieved Kowl to stay with the tired old True Blue, She-Ra changes her own mount into Swift Wind and takes to the skies.

Our heroine arrives at the bottle sculpture just as Madame has used her magic to fend off Horde lasers with a spell that temporarily blinds the attackers. She-Ra lands and puts on a swaggering pose for Catra, but immediately surrenders her sword when the feline foe offers a deal. Both are fibbing, though, since the wicked Catra has no intention of letting anyone go in return for the heroine's sacrifice; and She-Ra, it seems, has a remote-control blade! Responding to her cry of "cut," the sword of protection saws a neat circle in the ground around the Horde members. She-Ra then grabs the hilt and levers up the circle of earth, flicking her enemies down the mountain. But her success has come at a cost; for while She-Ra was prying at the ground, the Horde soldiers and Catra got off a few good shots at the castle. It now trembles and shakes, on the verge of total collapse! Thinking quickly, the loyal Swift Wind pushes over Frit's cart, neatly fitting it into a wedge-shaped space under the base of the sculpture, which She-Ra holds up.

Frit's life's work has been saved from utter destruction - for now; but given that its existence and location are now known to the Horde, the beautiful artwork is still in danger. No worries; Madame Razz has a spell for that. In a rare successful casting, the witch transforms the entire sculpture into a huge block of meridian crystal. Since this substance is the strongest one found on Etheria, there's no chance the Horde will be able to smash it now! Also, Frit and Razz's time being tied up back-to-back by Catra has given them a chance to have a heart-to-heart. Razz recalled that the reason she left Frit was because he didn't share her great desire to join the Great Rebellion; but Frit, shamed into action by this rejection, has spent his time as a bachelor fighting the Horde in his own way. The couple realize they no longer wish to be apart; and the cherry on top arrives in the form of True Blue, whom Kowl has finally ridden to join the others.

With our lovers reunited and the day saved, Broom has no qualms in requesting that his musical friend "Play it again, Bow;" so the mustached archer plays us out with what we can very graciously and forgivingly describe as a rousing rendition of "Just We Two."

• Bow (singing "Just We Two"): Razzle dazzle's all I see, whenever it is you with me. Everything's in harmony - har-mo-ny. Just we two, me and you...
• Frit: Hello, Razz. It's been a long time, but you're still as pretty as a rainbow.
• Broom (advising his rider, Razz): Stop paying attention to your knees and your head; just listen to your heart.
• Frit (talking about his garbage pile of used bottles): It's my life work - my monument to freedom. ... I built it up here for all Etherians to see; to give them hope. The bottles represent the people. It takes many different kinds and colors to make something beautiful and important.
• Sprocker (referring to Razz and Frit's lovey-dovey conversation): I don't know what's worse: being tied up or listening to that mush.

N/A

One partial (missing Spirit/Swift Wind sequence), one full (but divided)
Variation - for Adora's second transformation, the opening shot of her raising her sword is omitted in favor of showing the glow of her magic cast on the pile of wood in which Kowl is hiding. Spirit is not initially present for this transformation, but when he later encounters She-Ra, she again recites "For the honor of Grayskull" and points her sword at the horse, completing the transformation sequence.

6:33 - Play it again, Loo-Kee? Our elfin friend's location and surrounding foliage is very similar to the very obvious hiding spot from just the previous episode, 67029. The difference is in the background, which is wide open countryside that doesn't match the Whispering Woods-sourced bushes and trees he's hiding in. Feels like our animators just didn't have their heads in the game today...
Did I spot him? YES!

Loo-Kee derives an impressively idealistic message from today's recycling pile: "They [the bottles] represent the hope that we can become stronger and even more beautiful people if we live and work together with love for one another. I guess there is nothing more important than that!" Don't forget, Loo-Kee, that each bottle also represents two cents, if you turn it in for a refund. And that's pretty important, too.

Hordak-less episodes in Season 1
Love is in the air

• Today's writer, Harvey Brenner, is a POP newbie but has given us two memorable episodes of MOTU: MU072's "The Great Books Mystery," where birthday boy Adam has to deal with a large-scale book theft from the wicked Batros; and MU091's "Jacob and the Widgets," which concludes with a zany moving of the Eternian moon by He-Man - a feat which I've had call to remember several times, as recently as 67028. This will be Brenner's only She-Ra story.
• Our opening character, the peddler Frit, has drilled holes in his hat brim to see through, just like Madame Razz with her witch's hat. Is this some strange Etherian fashion trend? Nah; it's probably just meant as a visual signal that these two are meant for each other! (The old-school aviator goggles he wears above his eyeholes also remind me of the prevaricating Trollan, Squonge, from MU109's "Orko's New Friend.")
• Princess Adora endangers her secret identity by raising her sword aloft before ascertaining that her playful Twigget friends have sufficiently hidden themselves out of her line of sight. But I guess you have to be quick when it comes to saving out-of-control peddlers' carts! (See below for more identity endangerment.)
• We've heard Bow claim that he sings before (67017), and we've certainly encountered him strumming on his instrument before (67019, 67028), but I think we can mark this down as the first time that he actually sings a song on screen. ... yay?
• It's romance from an unexpected quarter today, with Razz revealing a past relationship with Frit the Bottle Man. The last time we saw Razz being romanced was the (very icky) occasion when the pirate mate, Swen, asked her if she'd like to go for a walk with him at the end of 67016's "Return of the Sea Hawk." Frit has the advantage of being about the same age as Razz (both are white-haired, at least), rather than an inappropriately young pup like Swen.
• Actually, with regard to Frit and Razz's relative ages, we will eventually get evidence in 67052 and later in 67070 that our rebel witch is several centuries old - so it's possible our bottle man, who probably doesn't share Razz's magic-induced longevity, is robbing the grave just as much as Swen!
• The revelation of our old flames also shows us the reason for today's episode title, which is a very clear reference to the classic movie Casablanca (1942). One of the countless iconic lines that people remember from that film is Humphrey Bogart's Rick saying "Play it again, Sam" to his piano player (actor Dooley Wilson). The pedant (such as myself) will tell you that this line represents a cinematic Mandela Effect, since many people remember it but Bogie never actually says it; the closest he gets is: "Play it, Sam; you played if for her, you can play it for me." Regardless, it's a very fitting reference for today's story, since, just like Rick and Ilsa in Casablanca, Frit and Razz are two former lovers who get very nostalgic over their song - though one member of the couple finds it more painful to hear than the other. For the movie characters the song was "As Time Goes By;" for our animated couple it's "Just We Two."
• This is actually not the first time that POP has put in a solid reference to Casablanca; Adora quoted the movie's final line, "Something tells me this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," at the end of 67007's "The Sea Hawk" (another lovey-dovey episode).
• The Horde hover bikes first used by Dylamug and his gang way back in 67006 make a reappearance here as vehicles for Catra and her gang. It's been so long that I had forgotten what they looked like, and almost thought this was another new vehicle type to add to the seemingly endless Horde fleet. (Note, I eventually discovered all the way in 67052 that these vehicles are called "glonders," and have since updated that name in my vehicle listings; but I still call them hover bikes in my entries as that is the most clear and descriptive name for them.)
• Speaking of 67006, the buildings in the town are the same used in that episode to represent Devlan. Even that is not their original usage, since the town's inn is very clearly the Laughing Swan Inn from 67001, situated in the town of Thaymor. The building has a very distinctive swan logo above the front door that makes it easy to recognize. I recognized it in 67017 as well, where the inn was transplanted to Gailbreth. Since today's town is never specifically named, it's possible we could be revisiting any of these previous locations. (That swan logo will continue to recur in later episodes, as I've noted elsewhere.)
• In a rare event, Spirit takes his own reins today and acts independently. Due to his being co-opted to pull Frit's cart, the horse is separated from his owner Adora. When Catra and her soldiers take Bow and the others by surprise, Spirit uses his own initiative to run off and fetch the princess, even managing to take out the Horde soldier sent to stop him. Attaboy, horsey! In similar situations without Adam, Cringer has sometimes performed well, though it's usually the exception rather than the rule (see MU084's "Fraidy Cat"). Even Battle Cat, when left to his own devices, tends to get panicky; see MU031's "A Tale of Two Cities."
• From a couple of bits of dialogue, we learn that the Twiggets are divided on the subject of romance. Sprocker and Sprag think it's yucky, while Spritina gets all fluttery and gooey listening to Razz and Frit woo each other.
• I don't know if it was purposeful or not, but Frit's loyal friend True Blue calls to mind the faithful companion of the legendary Paul Bunyan, Babe the Blue Ox. Poor True Blue is a very bony, decrepit-looking specimen, who (unlike Spirit, who is chatty today) seems to exhibit the non-verbal, non-sentient qualities of a typical Earth horse. In the end, though he's the reason for the episode's characters meeting each other, we don't see much of the fellow, and we don't learn quite why he was the focus of a Horde horsenapping. (A bit more on that subject in the commentary section.)
• In her second transformation of the day, Adora again seems to put her secret identity in danger. The Horde troopers spot Adora before she hides herself in a nearby building; but it's She-Ra who comes back out. Would anyone care to put two and two together here?
• Several of the Horde soldiers are packing what seem to be rocket launchers today. The guard who fires his weapon off at She-Ra talks about hitting her with a rocket, and if you watch very closely you can catch a brief glimpse of the projectile before She-Ra implausibly blocks it with her sword.
• Swiss army sword: It's a "sword to lariat" day for She-Ra, with the weapon changing into a sword-shaped pile of rope. In the final battle, we also learn that she can remotely command her thrown-away sword to "cut," causing it to carve a perfect circle in the ground.
• Madame's Magic: Razz takes her sweet time deciding what spell to use against Catra and her bottle-smashing compatriots, but when she does finally cast one, it's without screw-ups and involves making the bottles reflect blinding light onto their would-be destroyers.
• She-Ra's provocative pose when she arrives at the bottle sculpture, leaning an elbow against the monument with her sword stuck in the ground, is identical to a pose she used in Snake Mountain when first meeting Teela and Man-at-Arms (67005).
• Madame's Magic: Even more impressively than her previous one, Madame's final and identically flawless spell turns Frit's bottle monument into "meridian" crystal.
• In typical Filmation superlatives, She-Ra describes the meridian crystal (spelling based on my DVD captions; to me, it sounded as if the word started with a "b") as "the hardest, strongest material on Etheria." On Eternia, or at least in He-Man's dimension, the corresponding material has alternately been photanium or eternium, depending on which episode you watch (MU005, MU069). Things are just as confusing on Etheria: back in 67021, it seemed that Muralian scrap was the "strongest metal in the galaxy." I suppose calling it the strongest metal leaves the door open for meridian crystal's "strongest material;" but it still feels inconsistent.
• Don't expect any great romantic sequel to this story, but Frit will get a surprising (if fleeting) encore appearance at the very end of 67088's "Portrait of Doom."

• Hilariously, when Bow begins strumming his harp to play "Just We Two," a full multi-track recording starts up, of which none of the tracks sound like a harp. I hear a drum machine beat, a synth melody, and a bass line. Also I'm really not sure why I'm calling Bow's musical instrument a "harp," because it's not; I suspect it's intended to look like a medieval bard's lute. Neither instrument, regardless, should be capable of producing the sounds we hear.
• Animation error: when Bow turns his head to speak to Frit during their carriage ride together, his eyebrows incorrectly change to the same color as his hair, instead of their normal black.
• There doesn't seem to be any good reason for Frit to take Bow and the Twiggets up to see his bottle monument, unless he just wants to show off. Or was it the meeting place they and Adora decided on after True Blue was rescued? If so, it's not explained. Frit's whole visit with the rebels ends up being much more casual and unconcerned than you'd think a rescue mission would be. "My horse is kidnapped, but let's sit for a while, tell stories and hear music - and oh, have you seen my bottle monument?"
• There's a nice extra touch in the background painting, on the little shack near the monument, which has lettering next to the door reading "Frit's Place." Cute.
• As a person who at least at one time considered a career in the fine arts, and has actually painted a picture or two, I should appreciate the value in the symbolism and inspiring message behind Frit's life's work. But it's hard not to compare it unfavorably to what Madame Razz has chosen to do with her life. She's out there on the front lines, fighting the Horde (how effectively is up for debate, but nevertheless); all Frit did was recycle a bunch of garbage into a sculpture that, from a distance, looks like the places where Sea Monkeys make their homes. Perhaps more valuable is his practice of continuing a tradition of oral history by telling old tales of Etheria.
• Continuity error: Though you could explain it away, like many things in the show, by just shrugging and saying "it's magic." I'm referring to She-Ra's sword, which when it first changes to a lariat clearly still retains the sword's hilt. The next time we see She-Ra holding the lariat, however, the hilt or handle has vanished and all she's holding is rope.
• In my plot summary I wrote that Spirit told She-Ra about Catra kidnapping her friends; but this was just a necessary assumption, because we never hear this information divulged on screen. Like the rebels' journey to the bottle monument, She-Ra's dash to the rescue is an action performed without much setup or explanation. Some other details of the story that don't get much elaboration: why did the Horde bother capturing the skeletal True Blue - is he really an effective choice of work horse? What is the machinery that the horse is being forced to power? And why did Catra choose today to destroy the bottle sculpture Frit has been working on his whole life? Clearly it's been there a while, and since he wants people to see it, word of its existence must have gotten around. Did she just learn about it, and if so, how?
• Kowl avoids capture: Or at least, the final battle. Assigned to stay with True Blue, Kowl makes a deliberately slow return journey to the rest of the party, thus avoiding any part in the conclusion. Arriving at the very end, a pleased Kowl comments, "Looks like I missed all the action. Thank goodness!"
• A fun episode, affording us the unusual chance to learn more about some side characters, particularly our doddering Madame.