Robert Lamb

Bill Reed

Remember Glimmer's father, who was captured by the Horde back when she was a little baby, and who she totally thinks of every day, even though she never mentioned him until just now? No? Well, don't worry - he's back!

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

Horde Prime, Tung Lashor, Hordak, Imp

Horde soldiers, King Micah, harpy soldiers, Hunga the Harpy

Horde spacecraft, Horde flyers

Let's start with a thrilling space chase today, shall we? (After all, it worked for Star Wars!) Some Horde flyers are on the tail of a larger Horde spacecraft. At the controls of the stolen vessel is one Micah, who we learn has just busted free of a prison on Horde World. Both the pursuing soldiers and Horde Prime himself, who is personally interested in the prisoner, command Micah to turn around and surrender. Not surprisingly, he refuses; and the very helpful computer on his spaceship assists him in his refusal by firing lasers at the attacking flyers and plotting a course through hyperspace. Once the ship makes the jump, Micah is free and clear of the soldiers, who are probably in for a very uncomfortable debrief with Horde Prime. Micah's destination? Etheria!

Yes, Etheria, where just now Glimmer has been telling Bow the story of her father, who disappeared from her life many years before while battling the Horde. (Huh! I wonder if it's the same guy?) Today in particular brings thoughts of her lost father to the fore, since it happens to be her parents' wedding anniversary. Bow sympathizes with the princess but clearly has his own business to attend to; he walks off, leaving Glimmer to her lonely thoughts. Imagining herself as dancing with her father, she picks a flower and twirls through the Whispering Woods in a daydream, not looking where she's going. As a result, she tumbles off the edge of a cliff! Luckily Glimmer manages to grab hold of a projecting branch on the way down; but things aren't looking good!

Glimmer's cries for help are overheard by Princess Adora and Spirit, taking a break at a nearby stream before a visit to Bright Moon. They waste no time changing to their alter egos and taking to the sky to try to spot their friend. Glimmer assists in her own rescue by using a reflective crystal pulled from the cliffside to shine a light into the sky, leading She-Ra to her. After the exciting rescue and a brief moment for Glimmer to catch her breath and explain her delusional behavior to her friend, the pair fly to Castle Bright Moon, where Glimmer and her mother Queen Angella recount happy memories of husband and father King Micah. (Yep! Same guy!) They were never able to discover what happened to Micah after the Horde captured him. Their musings are interrupted by the sight of a Horde ship cutting a flaming path down toward the surface of Etheria. What they don't know is that this is Micah himself, his ship (which apparently was damaged at some point during the escape and flight) now headed for a crash landing deep in Harpy Country (i.e., the Talon Mountains).

But Hordak knows! That's right, Horde Prime has told his people on Etheria to look out for the fugitive, and minion Tung Lashor, moistly monitoring the Fright Zone video screens, detects the arrival of the stolen ship as Hordak and Imp look on. Hearing the ship's landing spot and realizing that his some-time allies, the harpies, will not give up such a valuable hostage easily, Hordak commands Tung to take a squadron of Horde flyers to Talon Mountain and wrest the king away by force.

Hunga the Harpy, meanwhile, has been busy with her new prisoner, plucked from the crash site by a pair of harpy soldiers. The harpies' leader knows Micah, and has an old score to settle with his wife. (Attentive viewers will remember that Angella started the series as a prisoner of Hunga, and was rescued by She-Ra and He-Man in Episode 4.) Hunga video-calls Angella via the magic of her scepter while the queen is still conversing with She-Ra and Glimmer, and informs them of her kingly prize. Astounded to see her husband again after all these years, now chained in Hunga's kingdom, Angella is willing to do anything to secure his safe return - and that "anything" turns out to be offering herself in exchange. Deaf to any pleas from her companions, Angella bids farewell to She-Ra and her "Sunshine," Glimmer, and wings her sacrificial way toward Talon Mountain.

Glimmer is desperate to follow her mother and see her father, but She-Ra is at first hesitant to condone the idea, perhaps concerned for the hostages' safety if they interfere; but seeing Glimmer's determination, she eventually agrees, and the pair hop on Swift Wind. Over in Harpy Country, Angella has had an all-too-brief reunion with Micah before retaking her former spot, kneeling in chains at Hunga's feet. Affirming everyone's suspicions, Hunga quickly reveals she has no intention of keeping her side of the bargain: she wants Micah to remain as her personal slave. The horrible harpy is pulled away from her gloating by the arrival of the Horde fleet, with Tung Lashor at its head (his tongue on the joystick). With her magic scepter, she easily zaps all the robot flyers out of the sky, and sends Tung's craft into a nose dive ending abruptly on the canyon floor. So much for the Horde!

The conflict provides the perfect cover for She-Ra and Glimmer to make a stealthy entrance into the fortress and break out both prisoners. Before they can cleanly escape, however, the intruders are discovered by Hunga, leading to a no-holds-barred showdown between the two winged queens. To even the fight, She-Ra offers her sword of protection to Angella, who quickly tosses it back after disarming her foe. She-Ra just can't bring herself to stay entirely out of the fight, however, and ultimately ends it by changing her sword into a blanket and grabbing Hunga in it like you would an angry cat. She tosses the harpy leader away, where Hunga falls into the canyon to land smack on the top of the downed Tung Lashor's head. Ouch!

Escaped at long last from all his various imprisonments, King Micah embraces his family in Castle Bright Moon while a heartwarmed She-Ra looks on. But he announces to them all that he has no intention of becoming a homebody. The Horde still needs to be defeated, and he plans on going anywhere and everywhere to make that happen. His loving family are dismayed by the prospect of his departure, but proud of his brave decision. Together, the heroes raise a cheer in praise of the cause of freedom.

• Bow (in the midst of an absurdly apropos conversation): And your father has been missing all these years? / Glimmer: Yes. I think about him all the time. Mother misses him terribly, especially today: it's their wedding anniversary.
• She-Ra: How long has it been since you last saw King Micah? / Glimmer: I was just a little girl when he left to fight the Horde; but I remember it as if it were only yesterday.
• Imp (of Tung Lashor): Yuck! Does he have to use his tongue to push the buttons? Eeeuugh! / Hordak: Tung Lashor! How many times must I tell you? / Tung Lashor: I know, I know; no tongues on the equipment.
• Hunga: Look who I found in my back yard! / Angella: Micah, oh Micah - is that really you? Or am I dreaming?
• Angella (to Glimmer): You're a big girl now, Sunshine. I know you can take care of yourself. For the chance to save your father or you, I would risk anything and everything.
• Hunga (having just defeated the Horde forces): That takes care of them. Now, to give my new slave a workout!
• Hunga: If you know what's good for you, you'll surrender now. / Angella (channeling the cliche 50s housewife): My husband is what's good for me, and I'll not let you take him from me.
• Angella: But Micah - you've only just returned. / Micah: I know; and I will stay and enjoy my family for a while. But I can't rest until all Etheria is free.
• She-Ra: We work for the day that all of us will live in peace and happiness. (lifting her sword) Down with the Horde! Freedom for Etheria! / The rest: Freedom!

• She-Ra mounts Swift Wind and flies off: Just after transforming

One full

6:20 - Once again, as he has done in 67015 and 67040, Loo-Kee is lurking and watching as Adora is changing. We can see him peeking out at us from around the trunk of a tree on the left side of the screen, as the freshly incarnated She-Ra hops onto her horse.
Did I spot him? YES!

Loo-Kee, marching cheerfully out from his hiding place, accuses us of taking our loved ones for granted. Don't you know that at any moment, your father could be sent away to a prison world? Or kidnapped by a harpy queen? Or gripped with the nonsensical desire to wander off and ignore you in favor of freedom fighting in some far-off corner of the world? Tell your parents and siblings you love them, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!

Love is in the air: The traditional, staid, boring love of two heteronormative, happily married white people, only one of whom is magic and has wings.
Horde Prime appears in person

• Writer Robert Lamb returns for his fifth POP script, so has now surpassed his MOTU script total (four). And he's not done yet!
• The stolen Horde spacecraft that begins the episode looks similar but not identical to the Horde ship Shadow Weaver was flying in 67027.
• The confusing "Horde flyer" ship design, identical to the batmeks, recurs - and in space. The last time we saw these ships in space, in 67032, they were billed as entirely robotic (so that She-Ra could smash them with a giant tennis racquet). Today, we see pilots inside. Of course, the pilots are also ostensibly robots!
• Also today, for the second time only and in more detail than ever before: it's Horde Prime! The previous (and first) time we saw this Horde overlord, it was on a viewscreen as Hordak made an abbreviated video call in 67027's "The Eldritch Mist" (not coincidentally the last time Robert Lamb was holding the pen). Here we see a Horde pilot calling Prime, and on the resulting video screen catch a flash of the uber-villain's glowing red eyes through his (apparently self-exuded) mist.
• The Horde soldiers' call signs (Red Leader, Red Three) recall those of Luke Skywalker and his X-wing-flying buddies at the end of Star Wars. (Us nerds will remember that Luke was Red Five.)
• Today's shoehorned retcon of Glimmer's long-lost father, imprisoned for an incredible span of years by a distant enemy, is forcefully reminiscent of the story of Adam's long-lost grandfather King Miro as told in MU098's "Search for the Past" - the events of which were recalled for us in 67013's "King Miro's Journey." And, speaking of shoehorned retcons of long-lost family members - what about Princess Adora herself? This misplacing of dearly beloved family members is becoming an uncomfortable theme on the show. Are we going to learn in Season 2 that Bow has a long-lost uncle who's been trapped in the Dark Dimension for the past twenty years? (Actually, as it turns out, we won't even have to wait until the next season for our next "long-lost father resurfaces" plot; see the two-part story "Anchors Aloft" in 67059 and 67060.)
• It's nice that the subject of our story leads to some flashbacks, rewarding us with a look at a younger Angella, Glimmer, and Micah. As we hear from present-day Angella, her husband was captured not long after the arrival of the Horde on Etheria - when Glimmer was a toddler. They were never able to discover the location of his prison - a location that we already know, since we saw Micah escaping from Horde World to begin the episode. Horde World seems the place where particularly high-profile prisoners end up - so it's impressive that King Micah is so far the only person in the series to have rated such treatment.
• Appearing for the first time since 67043 (and, as in that episode, identified by his action-figure-accurate character name) is Tung Lashor; and appearing for an amazing seventh consecutive episode is that little stinker you love to hate, Imp! Sadly, this episode will mark the end of Imp's consecutive run, as he won't be appearing in tomorrow's 67047.
• Micah's stolen ship goes down in what Tung calls the "Talon Mountains." This is meant to match up with the singular Talon Mountain, the home of Hunga and her harpies in 67004's "Reunions." Ironically, and adding to the series of unlikely coincidences which seem to hold this plot together, it's the place where, in 67004, Glimmer's mother Angella was being imprisoned when He-Man and She-Ra broke in to rescue her. To add a spice of confusion, the background painting of the mountains is identical to the poorly identified Forbidden Zone from 67037.
• Yes, it's a vintage callback to the harpies and their queen, Hunga! Honestly, when we encountered these villains in 67004, I really expected them to be a more regularly recurring set of characters in the series; but this is only the second time they've appeared.
• We discover that Hunga's scepter has the spying powers of Skeletor's axe head (MU004 - that's taking us back a ways!) or havoc staff. It can also make calls.
• Glimmer's childhood nickname is "Sunshine." Important to know!
• Interesting to consider past chronology here. Remember that, as we learned at the beginning of the series, Hordak and his forces were at war with Eternia about twenty years ago - just at the time when Adam and Adora were born (which, based on my own deductions, was also around the same time Teela was born - see my ruminations about Teela and Adam's relative ages in the lore for MU058). It seems logical to assume that Hordak's conquest of Etheria occurred after he kidnapped Adora and fled Eternia. Micah went off to fight the Horde - and was subsequently captured - when Glimmer was a little toddler. We don't know how much time passed between when Hordak left Eternia and when he began his battles on Etheria - but unless he has been fighting Etheria's rebels for about twenty years (the time it would take for the infant Adora to grow up and reach her current level of maturity), which seems unlikely, there must have been a pretty big gap there. That means Glimmer must be several years younger than Adora - which perhaps helps explain why Adora nudged her out as leader of the rebellion. (After all, age and experience have to count for something.)
• Back in 67004, I confidently numbered Hunga among members of the Horde, as it was clearly the Horde who were supposed to have effected the capture of Angella, and the Horde who stashed the queen at Talon Mountain. However in this episode the harpies' relationship with Hordak seems to have evolved - soured, perhaps, by the failure of Hunga's people to hold Angella in that previous episode. Today, rather than consider Hunga's capture of Micah a win for the Horde, Hordak sends an attack squad to wrest away the prisoner.
• A unique moment occurs in the series, when, to aid the Bright Moon queen in her duel against Hunga, She-Ra gives Angella her sword of protection! Not only that, she hands it over like it's no big deal. You didn't see He-Man passing his power sword over to folks! Not on purpose, anyway. (Though I had reason to be reminded, from a recent re-viewing of the story, that He-Man gave his power sword to Teela for a brief moment during their battle against Mer-Man and Bakkull in the thrilling conclusion to the seminal MU006's "Teela's Quest.")
• Swiss army sword: Speaking of unique... today She-Ra turns her sword into a... blanket? Is it made of metal?
• Our heroes' concluding cheer in favor of freedom and in disfavor of the Horde mimics the ending of 67008's "The Red Knight," when the mysterious title knight who I thought at the time might be Angella's husband raised his fist along with She-Ra and the other assembled rebels.

• I was very surprised to see a regular grunt of a Horde soldier calling up Horde Prime. It feels like Hordak should be the only one of sufficient rank to do that!
• Horde Prime can't understand how Micah could possibly have stolen the spaceship "without any technical knowledge;" but in the following sequence, we see that Micah can simply tell the ship's computer to defend him, and it takes care of raising the shields and firing the lasers. It even plots his escape course for him. How much technical knowledge do you really need?
• You have to appreciate the hilarious level of unlikelihood involved in today's opening scenes. Bow, having apparently never heard of Glimmer's missing father before, learns this information on the very day that Micah escapes the Horde. And Micah - we assume unintentionally, since he's doomed to the stereotypical forgetfulness of all 80s TV males - just happens to escape on the day of his twentieth wedding anniversary.
• I've never been as concerned for Glimmer's mental health as when she talks and dances with her imaginary, invisible father - and gets so wrapped up in her delusion that she nearly twirls off a cliff to her death. Do they have therapists on Etheria? Cos Miss Princess here has some things she need to work through. Maybe Madame Razz is a good listener?
• Glimmer saves herself by pulling a handy reflective crystal out of the cliff face and using it to flash a signal to She-Ra, flying overhead. That's cool; but we just had concrete evidence in 67024 that among Glimmer's array of magic powers is the ability to create a blindingly bright flash of light with her hands. Why didn't she just do that? Another illogical aspect of the rescue sequence: Adora and Spirit know to go looking for their friend because they hear her crying for help. But once they're in the air as She-Ra and Swift Wind, they suddenly can't hear her at all, which is what necessitates the crystal beacon. Huh? (Later powers gifted to Glimmer in 67067 will make this rescue scene seem even sillier in retrospect.)
• An amusing little extra touch: the fugitive Micah, surely traumatized after over a decade as a Horde prisoner and now flying through hyperspace in a stolen and damaged spacecraft, passes the time by casually whistling to himself.
• Animation error: In the scene where Tung Lashor is remembering that he's not supposed to use his tongue to operate equipment, the control board in front of him is oddly unfinished and transparent, allowing us to see through it to the machinery in the background. It remains just as transparent in a subsequent scene where Tung imprudently wipes the console off - using his tongue. It's only in the scene following that that the control panel finally becomes solid.
• It's a shame I was so distracted by this animation error, because these Tung jokes are pretty great - especially the big finish, where the cheerful Snake Man finally thinks to whip out a can of spray cleaner and a rag. Tung is the source of several more good jokes later in the episode, like when he finds himself alone in his flyer cockpit and immediately returns to his unsanitary bad habits; or when he finds his head sandwiched between his crashed ship's viewscreen and an inverted Hunga.
• Consider the very unstable and disrupted home life Glimmer has had to deal with! A kidnapped father since she was a child, and an imprisoned mother for some undisclosed period of time after that. It's no wonder she talks to herself and walks off cliffs. If you can compare trauma levels, who do you think had it worse? Glimmer, with her war-torn planet and kidnapped parents (though her mother doesn't seem to have been imprisoned for too long), or Randor with his relatively peaceful kingdom, but a kidnapped father and daughter? Recall that in Randor's case, though his lost family members were restored to him, they both immediately left again and never come to visit. Was it something he said?
• Angella, bowing to Hunga's demands, flies off to offer herself in a hostage exchange for King Micah. She-Ra and Glimmer both know that Hunga is never going to honor her part of this bargain; yet She-Ra's advice to Glimmer is to "wait to see what happens." What!?!? This is literally the same woman who flew into Talon Mountain and wrecked the place to rescue Angella forty episodes ago. She's eventually convinced by Glimmer's fervid determination to go and help; but She-Ra's hesitation at the beginning is hard to understand. I suppose she's worried that some harm will come to Hunga's prisoners if she interferes? But that isn't usually a consideration on either side of a hostage crisis, in MOTU or POP.
• A gloating Hunga tells Angella that she's saved the queen's "old spot," then chains Angella in the same kneeling position where He-Man and She-Ra found her back in 67004. But there's one important difference: in the earlier episode, there was a metal collar around Angella's neck that was specifically stated as inhibiting her powers. Here, it is missing, implying that she could potentially free herself if she tried hard enough.
• In the latest example of his poor managerial judgment, Hordak sends a force to Talon Mountain which proves woefully inadequate to its task. Tung had a whole mountain full of harpies to contend with, but his squadron of three Horde flyers is taken out by Hunga alone! You could argue this failure was largely due to Tung's incompetence, but in these situations the supervisor should hold the responsibility, don't you think?
• I loved the moment when Angella faced off against Hunga; it looked to be a definitive showdown, with the two winged ladies both out for vengeance, Angella in particular looking to pay back the harpy for threatening her loved ones and keeping her prisoner. It was very honorable of She-Ra, also, to step aside and let Angella have this fight. It was, that is, for the five seconds that She-Ra allows the battle to go on before "finally" stepping in and resolving it herself. Come on, She-Ra. Instead of giving us an unadulterated moment with a secondary character taking center stage, as in 67024, we're teased with the possibility before having the rug yanked out from under us.
• Oh my god, I can't believe it! Micah pulls a Miro! Just like Adam's estranged grandfather at the end of his story (MU098), at this episode's conclusion the freshly rescued Micah, finally restored to the arms of his family, immediately declares his intention to wander off again. What is it with these deadbeat dads? And even after Angella learns that the father of her child is about to ditch her again, the queen's only response is "You make me very proud to be your wife." WTH? Is this The Stepford Wives, Etheria style? (And yes, of course I realize that what's really at work here is the inescapable vortex of the unchanging character dynamics required for a children's show built on repetition and aired with little regard to a larger story arc. But still.) (And also by the way, spoiler alert - the next long-lost dad we meet, in 67059 and 67060, will also prove himself to be a deadbeat, albeit with a rather contrived excuse.)
• This is the kind of episode that I enjoy not necessarily for its storytelling merits (though it's not terrible on that score, and definitely has its touching moments), but for the fodder it provides for my commentary section. I appreciate the opportunities this gave me to speculate and extrapolate about our characters and their lore. So thanks, Mr. Lamb.