Don Heckman

Ed Friedman

Queen Angella, Glimmer, and the people of Bright Moon welcome the handsome Prince Highcliff of Blue Mountain to Castle Bright Moon - with Glimmer adopting a funky new hairstyle to impress the visitor. But there's something a little off about this hunky royal heir; could it be that he's... an impostor?!?! And what about Bow and his fabulous new flying machine?

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

Grizzlor, Catra, Hordak, Imp, False Face

chariot horses, Prince Highcliff, Horde soldiers, various Bright Moon citizens (including chefs)

hang glider, chariot, Horde tanks, batmeks

It's a lovely, windy day outside Castle Bright Moon - the perfect weather for Bow to test his new experimental flying machine! (It's a hang glider, but since copyrights and patents are only good on the planet where they were submitted, there's no chance of our Etherian archer getting slapped with any lawsuits from Earth.) Bow's test flight ends in an ignominious dunking in the castle's moat; but Princess Glimmer, among those bearing witness, can't stay and watch the mustached rebel work on a version 2, since she has to get ready for the arrival of Prince Highcliff, on a diplomatic visit from his kingdom of Blue Mountain. She's never met the guy, but he's said to be very handsome; so to really impress the mysterious hunk, Glimmer convinces Madame Razz (over Adora's objections that the princess looks fine as she is) to dye her hair purple.

It is therefore a mauve-maned Glimmer standing by her mother Queen Angella's throne for the ceremonial introduction to the well-groomed Prince Highcliff. He seems a polite enough fellow, but for some reason Princess Adora gets a bad vibe about the guy. We know she's right to trust her feeling, because (as we've witnessed in an earlier scene) their visitor is not the real prince! He's the Horde agent False Face, who, through his own chameleon ability, was able to exactly replicate the clothes and body of Prince Highcliff after the Horde kidnapped the guy off the road. With lackeys Grizzlor and Catra looking on, Hordak explained False Face's mission: with the help of fellow shape-changing spy Imp, he is to infiltrate Castle Bright Moon and find the fortress's vulnerabilities.

False Face begins his mission by learning from Glimmer about the castle's flood gates. They allow Bright Moon's inhabitants to control the amount of water surrounding the castle; were someone to close them when the water is running high (as it happens to be just then), a dangerous flood would result. This is all False Face needs to hear; he leaves the tiny Imp (who's changed himself into a form so small that we viewers can't tell what it is) among the leaves of a plant just outside the flood gate controls. The winged blue minion sneaks inside and pulls a lever, shutting the gates and causing water to come pouring into the castle! The first Princess Adora hears about it is when she encounters two fleeing chefs, chased out of their kitchen by the encroaching flood. Our heroine quickly changes to She-Ra and swims through the waters out into the moat, where she hears from Bow - standing on the far bank among other evacuated Bright Mooners - that the gate is shut.

Deciding to rely on her big guns to solve this problem, She-Ra swims to the top of the gate, digs her fingers into the metal, and tears loose a door. Finding this is not sufficient to stem the flood, our heroine decides to dig her own canal using a chunk of the shattered door as an excavator. Just as she's prying out the last chunk of soil to let the water into her channel, a young girl standing at the crumbling edge of the excavation falls inside. Bow leaps in and helps the child to safety, but gets caught in the flood waters himself! She-Ra is then obliged to swim after the archer and carry him to high ground.

Surely the disaster is ended, yes? No! For the pesky Imp decides to give She-Ra more problems by transforming himself into a laser pistol and firing a blast at the base of the castle, starting a fire. To solve this new problem, She-Ra decides she has need of her flying steed; so she gives Swift Wind (who for some reason is already hanging about in his unicorn form) a telepathic ring, and he quickly shows up, raring to go. Apparently keen to invent her own thrill sport to rival Bow's hang gliding, She-Ra attaches the chunk of flood gate door via a rope to Swifty's saddle and, standing on the door, goes waterskiing. As Swift Wind tows his mistress across the moat, flying at speed by the edge of the flood wall, She-Ra's "ski" kicks up a wave of water that puts out the fire.

False Face's plans have been foiled for now, but he doesn't count himself out just yet. The only way to conquer the fortress, he decides, is by a full-on attack of the Horde's forces; and to facilitate that, he needs to find a way past Bright Moon's defenses. Time to flirt with Glimmer some more! The fake prince compliments his sucker, asking her to continue the tour that began with the flood gates, and wondering why there are no windows or obvious chinks in the castle walls. Glimmer obligingly explains that the castle's defenses are tied to the Moonstone, a special gem kept safe in its own locked chamber. But the princess ultimately refuses False Face's wheedling attempts to get a look at the stone, explaining that even she is not allowed to enter its chamber without her mother present - though she does have a key for emergencies.

Seemingly tiring of this whole charade, False Face then tosses his cape over the girl and carries her bodily to the Moonstone Chamber, where he lifts the gem and hightails it back to the Fright Zone using Highcliff's own chariot and horses. On the way, he informs Hordak via video call that the castle is now vulnerable to attack, so the Horde dictator immediately orders an aerial assault! Princess Adora, who has just been telling Queen Angella how little she trusts that prince guy, is interrupted with Bow's report of the disappearance of both Glimmer and the Moonstone. The heroes presently feel the first impacts of the Horde attack, so Adora and Spirit are forced to change to their alter egos and go on the defense.

Glimmer, meanwhile, has taken a cape-covered ride to the dungeons of the Fright Zone; but she turns the tables on her captor just as he's introducing her to the real, imprisoned Prince Highcliff. Stuffing False Face into a cell, the princess rescues the prince and gets him to retrieve the Moonstone off of the impostor. Then the pair hop back onto that chariot and head back to Bright Moon. They're pursued by Horde tanks, but their path home is covered by Bow, who has finally gotten his hang glider to work and is armed with Madame Razz's special brand of sticky glue arrows. Not long after the archer ensures the safe entry of Highcliff and Glimmer into the castle, however, his glider is zapped with a freeze ray from a Horde tank. The free-falling Bow requires a mid-air rescue from She-Ra, who's been spending her time on Swift Wind smashing the batmeks bombarding the building.

The situation is looking dire now: the Horde attacks by air and land have punctured ugly holes in the outer walls of Castle Bright Moon. Glimmer has returned the Moonstone, but her mother explains that a ceremony between herself and her daughter is necessary before the defensive gem can be re-energized. She-Ra decides that, to keep the castle defended while the Moonstone gets back up and running, she needs to take matters into her own hands. Lifting her sword aloft, she calls on all the powers of Etheria, and directs the resulting energies into a protective shield surrounding the castle. Just as her strength is about to give out, the Moonstone's power is recharged, restoring the castle and sending all the Horde forces fleeing. Whew!

Our heroes reassemble to talk over their close call, with Kowl actually admitting he was wrong to doubt Bow's ultimately successful and very helpful flying machine. Nobody thanks Glimmer, who actually did help a little during the course of her eponymously titled episode; all she gets is a question from Bow about her hair. But the princess, unfazed, declares that Adora was right about her hair color, and she's decided to go back to her usual pink: the visiting Prince Highcliff will just have to take her as she is. The prince rather insultingly admits himself to be incredibly relieved to discover that purple is not Glimmer's natural hair color - to everyone's amusement.

• Glimmer (of Prince Highcliff): They say he's very handsome! / Bow (dripping and morose after a hang glider crash into Bright Moon's moat): She used to say I was handsome. But now... / Kowl: But now, you're just all wet. (laughs)
• Hordak: Meeting with known rebels is a crime against the Horde.
• Imp: I spent an entire evening disguised as a salt shaker on the Queen's table to make sure. / Catra (laughing): Salt shaker - a pickle jar would be more like you. / Imp: Watch your step, Catra, or, or I'll turn myself into a mirror and show you how ugly you really are!
• False Face (as Highcliff): What a strange object. / Glimmer: This is Bow. (False Face was talking about Bow's hang glider; I just appreciated the juxtaposition here)
• Angella: The power of the Moonstone is an ancient gift, given to our family many years ago. When the Moonstone is removed from the pedestal, its power can only be restored in a bond from generation to generation. ... Great light of Etheria, use this link from mother to daughter to restore our strength!
• Kowl: Much as I hate to admit I was wrong, I guess I was. Good work, Bow. (We definitely need to record this line for posterity! Will we ever hear Kowl admit to such a thing again?)
• Bow: Uh, Glimmer, are you going to keep your hair like that? / Glimmer: No; Adora was right. Prince Highcliff is going to have to like me just the way I am. / Highcliff: You mean that's not the way you always wear your hair? / Glimmer: Of course not! / Highcliff: Oh. What a relief! (Everyone laughs)

• She-Ra runs at the viewer, bug-height: Charging toward a flood

One partial (missing Spirit/Swift Wind sequence), one full

1:21 - Appearing at the same time stamp as he did in 67022, and just after the title screen, our get-it-over-early guy is sitting in a tree and facing away from us in the upper left corner of the screen. Like the viewers, he's gazing at Castle Bright Moon.
Did I spot him? YES!

Taking Glimmer's bookended lesson from the episode as his guide, Loo-Kee reminds us that the way we are on the inside is what's most important - not the way we look on the outside (e.g., Glimmer's purple hair). I don't think Loo-Kee has quite hit the target here, though; by his logic, what we should have learned from the story is that Glimmer's hair color shouldn't have mattered, and people shouldn't have judged her by it or disliked her because of it. In fact, what we're supposed to take from the episode is that Glimmer's purple hair was bad, because she was trying to change herself to win the affections of Prince Highcliff. The lesson we should be learning here, Loo-Kee, is to just be yourself, not what you think other people want you to be. Take that, you sneaky elf!

Love is in the air: Glimmer's got the hots for Prince Highcliff - and Bow isn't too happy about it!

• With this script, writer Don Heckman matches his writing credit totals for MOTU and POP, with each tied at 3. He'll continue to write for She-Ra, however, racking up a much higher total before he's done.
• Our heroes are interested in high-thrill sports today. Bow starts the trend by experimenting with his hang glider.
• We get a new Etherian location with "Blue Mountain," home to today's new hunk, Prince Highcliff. His name comes with an easy crushing comeback for anyone who is not interested in his advances. ("Hey baby, the name's Prince Highcliff." "Is it? Because I wish you'd go jump off of one!") The "prince" (actually his evil doppelganger) eventually mentions that his father's name is King Storm.
• As the connected episodes section suggests, "Glimmer's Story" will bring us a little bit of romance today, or the lightest suggestion of it. We find the Bright Moon princess giddy over the impending arrival of Prince Highcliff, and anxious to pretty herself up for him. Bow, too, seems chagrined to find Glimmer's romantic attentions are directed somewhere other than himself - an interesting development which we'll have to keep a (non-lecherous) eye on.
• It looks like we're in for more Horde vehicle confusion today. The big tank blocking the progress of Prince Highcliff's chariot looks very similar to the wide-bodied model we've seen used in a few previous episodes (examples include 67011, 67042, 67027, 67028); however this version has been slightly retooled. Previous iterations always had caterpillar treads, but this version has a series of four distinct wheels on each side. It also has a sweeping back end, a sort of spoiler. To add to the conceptual muddiness, near the end of the episode Hordak orders the addition of "destructo tanks" to his attacking forces, a name I thought was reserved for the vulture- or Hordak-faced models, usually smaller in size than the wide-bodied one. However, the only kind of "tank" we see is the wide-bodied model, so it seems like the "destructo" label has an even wider use than I'd thought. (See commentary of 67038 for my rant about Horde vehicle naming and usage; and for some of my earlier confusion over just what the "destructo" tank is, see commentary of 67022.)
• Appearing for the second in what will prove to be a string of consecutive episodes, it's Hordak's tiniest minion, Imp! As an original example of his shape-changing skills, we hear right away from the little fellow that he's recently spent time as a salt shaker. We'll later get to actually see him change into a laser pistol, then a military medal. He also spends a brief moment as an object so small that it can be plucked out of a shirt pocket - it's so small, however, that we can't tell what it is.
• In putting a stop to the subsequent bickering that erupts between Catra and Imp, Hordak plays favorites with his little winged buddy, even pausing to give Imp an affectionate little pat on the head. I previously noted the Horde leader's preference for his little guy in 67032.
• There's an unexpected and surprising new Horde character today, in False Face. I was at least somewhat prepared for the debut of Multi-Bot in 67058's "Black Snow," since I was aware of his existence, both in the series and as a toy. False Face I'd never heard of. As far as I can tell, this will be his only appearance on POP, and he was never made into a toy. He reminds me most of Faker, a villain who will be much more familiar to MOTU fans, even though he also only appeared in one episode of He-Man's series (MU002); Faker at least rated an action figure. To be fair, though, Faker was much less useful as an impostor, since he only looked like He-Man; it seems that False Face has the potential to turn into pretty much anyone, the only requirement being physical contact with the subject. You can see how this would be hard to represent in action figure form.
• This is the first episode to be almost entirely set in and around Castle Bright Moon, so we get to see several previously unseen rooms in the place. The first new location is a bedroom which is most likely Glimmer's.
• This is also the first episode where one of our main characters changes their hair color: Glimmer, per the subtle lesson in today's story, will be rocking a purple mane for most of the episode, in an unwise bid to earn the admiration of the handsome prince. There's something about her new do that makes me think of Jem and the Holograms (1985-1988); us 80s kids will recall that the animated rock star, Jem, is truly outrageous, and she and her band all sport unusual hair colors.
• Madame Razz is chosen as Glimmer's hairdresser, giving the old witch a very brief showing in today's story - and also, very unusually, unaccompanied by Broom! (Razz appeared shortly and without her flying friend at the conclusion of 67009's "The Missing Ax.")
• Another new room revealed in Castle Bright Moon: the kitchen. It's impressively spacious, but suffers from having been injudiciously sited below the water table.
• More hydraulic engineering from our blonde twin: She-Ra takes a page from He-Man's watery book when she solves a flooding problem by channeling the water elsewhere. Search for the keywords "hydraulic engineering" in this database and be amazed by the number of times this arcane phrase makes an appearance!
• For the second time She-Ra calls Swift Wind by long-distance telepathy, something she first did in 67058's "Black Snow." This is also the second time since 67026's "Book Burning" that we see Swift Wind hanging around in a transformed state, seemingly without having been zapped by She-Ra (see more on this in the commentary). We will eventually see Spirit today, but only for a second or two, and only after this Swift Wind scene - a somewhat unusual arrangement.
• Swiss army sword: It's a "sword to rope!" day, making a sword-shaped pile of rope, as we've now seen many times; but today's rope has a pre-tied lasso loop on one end.
• She-Ra uses her sword rope to aid in today's second high-thrill sport: waterskiing! For skis, she uses the torn-off flood door, whose scale has become questionable, and to which she has somehow tied her rope in multiple places. Why waterskiing, you ask? To put out a fire, of course!
• In previous episodes (specifically 67022), Glimmer and her mother explained that Castle Bright Moon's defenses are directly powered by Etheria's moons - which is why the eclipse in that story allowed Shadow Weaver to attack the castle. Today, Glimmer adds a new MacGuffin to the mix: the Moonstone. "No evil force can take Bright Moon, so long as the Moonstone is energized," as Glimmer explains. This doesn't necessarily contradict the earlier lore, as we can happily assume the power of Etheria's moons is channeled through the stone. Queen Angella provides more details about how the Moonstone works later in the episode (see memorable lines), giving it a sort of witchy, matriarchal flavor.
• Where is the Moonstone kept, you ask? Why, the Moonstone Chamber! It's another - and very imposing - room in Castle Bright Moon, which we've never seen until today.
• False Face's stealing of the Moonstone via Glimmer reminded me of the evil Rago's use of young Podi to steal the Moorfire Stones to power his rhino-god-car in MU037's "It's Not My Fault." That's what we were all thinking, right?
• False Face has a video communicator embedded in his bracer, similar to the video wristwatch Imp used to talk to Hordak in 67017 and 67032.
• Today shows another phase in the Fright Zone's evolving system of incarceration. For a while there, it seemed like the Horde transported all their criminals to scenic Beast Island (last mentioned in 67020, last visited in 67014). In 67021, they bucked that trend by keeping an imprisoned Bow on-site in a supposedly impenetrable single cell. Today, we see a huge, stacked complex of cages, seemingly built into the Fright Zone's basement; similar but not identical to the dungeons where She-Ra had to go to rescue a kidnapped Prince Adam in 67015's "He Ain't Heavy."
• Swiss army sword: In the final battle against the Horde attackers, She-Ra again changes her weapon, this time explicitly to a lasso. Rather than a sword-shaped rope pile with a loop on the end, the sword instantly flashes into an already unfurled lasso. In fact, the rope proves to have two loops - one tied at each end! It makes for easy grabbing of a pair of flyers.
• Today's flying ships could be called "Horde flyers," as they have sometimes been designated, or "batmeks," an alternate name for the same ship design. She-Ra and others call them "robots," which leads me to use the "batmek" label, as that seems to be reserved for the entirely mechanical, unpiloted versions of the ships.
• It's a new arrow for Bow today, which he gets to try out during his at-last successful use of the hang glider - a sticky glue arrow! Oddly, Bow specifically gives the credit for the invention of this sticky projectile to Madame Razz, perhaps suggesting the witch has been responsible for developing all his wacky ammunition.
• We get a quick shot of Hordak's throne rotating, something we discovered it could do in 67017.
• She-Ra demonstrates an unprecedented ability today in her last-minute salvation of the rebels. Telling herself "I have to use the energies of the Crystal Castle [not Grayskull!] to protect Bright Moon until the Moonstone's back in place," she holds up her sword and cries, "Power of all Etheria - come to She-Ra!" The added jolt of power allows her to generate a short-term shield around the castle. This deus ex machina move reminds me of when the Sorceress had to give He-Man all the powers of Grayskull so he could do something very impressive at the end of MU030's "The Taking of Grayskull." It's a move She-Ra rather inconsistently doesn't consider resorting to when the Bright Moon shield is in a similarly power-depleted state, in 67079's "Romeo and Glimmer."
• Speaking of "Romeo and Glimmer," see that episode (67079) for more Glimmer-themed romance.

• I'm no hang glider expert, but you'd think someone testing a flying machine they just built would start out by jumping off of a shorter cliff than the one Bow chooses. At least he was near a body of water!
• Speaking of that body of water... it's a potentially huge continuity error, as I'm fairly certain we've never seen a moat in front of Castle Bright Moon in previous episodes. Background paintings have shown a river running by the front of the place, but attacks on the castle (such as that in 67005) have never had to contend with a watery obstacle. I suppose we can be charitable and theorize that Angella added the flood gates and moat after the events of 67022. At the end of that episode, Light Hope did tell She-Ra that the queen was going to take steps to ensure eclipses and such would never again leave the castle vulnerable to attack. Perhaps a new moat was one of Angella's countermeasures. Even this won't fly to completely explain the inconsistencies, though; because in the ending battle in this episode, the river which was clearly at the very base of the castle in earlier scenes has suddenly moved a distance away.
• The POP series seems to have a preoccupation with shape-changing. We see it regularly in Hordak, Imp, and She-Ra's sword; Modulok and his creation Multi-Bot are capable of it; it came up again with Joel's Robo-Friend in 67032; and our new enemy False Face also has the ability, though his focuses more on facial appearance (we doubt he's going to change into a catapult or salt shaker anytime soon). I'm not sure why this theme would raise its head so often, except perhaps for the contemporaneous popularity of The Transformers (1984-1987).
• Why, of all people, would you choose Madame Razz to style your hair?!?!? Is the senile female a former cosmetologist, or - even worse - is she planning to use a magic spell to change the color? There are so many ways that could go wrong (though, in all fairness, there aren't too many words that rhyme with "purple"). Also - I suppose this isn't as funny on Etheria, where presumably lots of people have pink hair and possibly fewer have purple, but - to me, it's very amusing that the pink-haired Glimmer wants to dye her hair purple. How big of a change is that, anyway?
• Interesting also that Glimmer is one of the few characters in the series who has a mom, but Angella seems to have zero input into Glimmer's hair change, and zero comment about it after it's done. I suppose Glimmer is her own woman, free to make her own terrible choices; but you'd think a series that purports to be so concerned about the morals of children and their obedience to their parents would have inserted some motherly advice here. In the story's exciting conclusion, Glimmer and Angella do get a chance to show their strong familial bond; but it's Adora who ends up being the lesson-teacher for Glimmer today, not her mother.
• Hordak carefully confirms ahead of time that none of the Bright Mooners have met Prince Highcliff. No doubt this is so no one will notice the change in personality and/or voice exhibited by False Face's version. But, if no one has seen the prince ... why do they need False Face? Any reasonable-looking human in a robe, riding a chariot, could show up at the castle claiming to be Highcliff, and Angella and company would have no way of telling it's not him - yes?
• I find it somewhat annoying that as soon as the false Highcliff appears, Adora already has a bad feeling about him, muttering, "There's something about him that's not right." As with any unlikely but unerring hunch of hers, we can claim it comes from the power of Grayskull, or some nonsense; but it would have been nice if it sprung from a more logical source. Adora could have at least spotted the prince sneering or making an unregal comment of some kind before making her snap judgment. (Actually, however, False Face is very good at his job! See my later comments on that front.)
• Continuity error: In the scene with Glimmer and Highcliff on the castle balcony, the prince's shirt suddenly has a handy Imp-carrying breast pocket that it never had before and never has again.
• False Face shows that he's actually quite good at pretending to be a good guy, in the scene where he's being shown Bow's flying machine. Rather than make some suspicious comment belittling Bow's vehicle or showing dislike for the archer's plan to attack Horde ships, False Face instead wishes the hero well: "I hope it helps you in your fight against the Horde." His comment about his own opinions toward the rebels' enemies is subtle and dodges an outright lie: "I have my own ways of dealing with the Horde."
• The whole sequence with the flooding of the castle has a large and obvious flaw. Imp causes the problem by pulling a lever to shut the flood gates. He makes no attempt to jam or break the controls after he's pulled the lever, so they should still be fully operational. The room with the gate controls seems to be well above the water line, and easily accessible to any inhabitants of the castle. You'd think it would be the first place people would go to try to stop the flooding, easily undoing it by the flick of a lever; but no one ever thinks to do this. Instead, She-Ra wrenches the doors off with her bare hands and then digs a new canal, nearly drowning a child - and Bow - in the process. Think smarter, not harder, people.
• I do love the very quick glimpse we get of False Face's reaction to She-Ra's heroism: in a shot of the gathered onlookers, the villain can be seen with a very calculating look on his face, one hand covering his chin and mouth in consideration.
• Another nonsensical sequence comes when She-Ra calls for Swift Wind. This is our first time seeing the horse in the episode, and he's off in the Whispering Woods, casually cropping some grass. I suppose we're to believe that this is just nearby the castle, where Adora left Spirit to roam free after traveling on horseback to Bright Moon. But she clearly didn't zap Spirit with her sword during the transformation sequence; so why is he already in his unicorn state? It doesn't really make any sense, unless we're to believe that whenever Adora changes into She-Ra, she somehow also transforms Spirit into Swift Wind, no matter where on Etheria he happens to be. Such a setup would be problematic for the maintenance of her secret identity, especially if Spirit got left in a crowded place.
• False Face seemed to be doing an awesome job buttering up his mark, and I thought he was going to cajole, flatter, and seduce Glimmer into taking him into the forbidden Moonstone Chamber, just like "Nadira" (actually Evil-Lyn) got Squinch the Widget to show her his coridite in MU012's "Evil-Lyn's Plot." But when Glimmer seems loathe to let the visiting prince into her home's most secret chamber, False Face finally gives up all his careful pretense and tosses a cape over the princess. I was a bit surprised he broke character when he did - he was doing so well!
• Glimmer very clearly explains to the counterfeit Highcliff that no one is allowed in the Moonstone Chamber without her mother; yet in a scene almost immediately following, we find Adora and Bow standing around in the chamber, no Angella in sight. Also, in the scene leading to this, Bow somehow already knew the Moonstone was gone, since he went to report the fact to the queen. How did he discover that without going in the super-secret chamber? (In a misleading and amusingly contradictory detail, background paintings of the highly secure chamber show the walls dotted with many doorways - are they all locked?)
• There's something very pointed in the way the hang-gliding Bow tells Glimmer, riding in a chariot with Highcliff, "I'm going to see if I can give She-Ra some help." It's like he's saying, "Look at the good job I can do on my flying machine; much better than your hunk with his dirty old horses!"
• With a name like "Glimmer's Story," today's episode gave me high hopes that it would finally reverse the tendency of the series to sideline our purple princess, once named the leader of the Great Rebellion, and give her a chance to (pun sort of intended) shine. (See my earlier complaints about the poor treatment of Glimmer's character in the commentary for 67025, for one.) Glimmer does eventually come into her own today, when she turns the tables on False Face and engineers her own and the real Prince Highcliff's escape. She also gets a chance to help her mother re-energize the Moonstone. But it's not the big turnaround I was hoping for, since the story gives most of the action and impetus to She-Ra, even making it She-Ra's absurd and unheard-of "power of all Etheria" move that really protects Castle Bright Moon, rather than Glimmer and Angella's almost-in-time Moonstone charging. Guys: She-Ra gets to save the day in every single episode. Maybe let someone else do it, just once?
• The other thing I don't like about She-Ra's ending save, as I hinted in the lore section, is the fact that she specifically calls on the energies of the Crystal Castle to do it, rather than Castle Grayskull. Um, isn't it saying "the honor of Grayskull" that allows you to transform every day, hmmmmmm? And isn't it the Sorceress of Grayskull who shows up in your little sword gem when you call? Clearly our writers are somewhat divided over whether or not to fully detach She-Ra from her Eternian roots and really give her her own independent power base. (For more musing on this score, see the commentary for 67061's "Darksmoke and Fire.")
• Yes, this episode had an interesting new villain, an exciting tale of espionage, and some fun new concepts and locations to show us; but I don't think it's asking too much to expect a show called "Glimmer's Story" to actually put the focus of the plot on the character whose name is in the title. And as my preceding commentary should show, there were quite a few logical and conceptual issues. If you search this database for the other MOTU and POP episodes written by Don Heckman, you'll see that this last is a common complaint of mine with regard to his scripts. Unfortunately for me, I have six more POP Heckman scripts to look forward to! We'll see if he improves his record as we go on. (Spoiler: he doesn't. In fact, Heckman's next episode, 67057, will leave me utterly infuriated.)