Story - Francis Moss & Teleplay - Larry DiTillio

Lou Kachivas

Ashamed by his own perceived cowardice in the wake of a military debacle, Kowl pairs with Broom on a very misguided self-imposed exile which puts the pair in the clutches of a disingenuous huckster named Doctor Drome and his agile sidekick, Acrobad. Also featured is the new Horde villain Colonel Blast, who will make She-Ra's rescue mission a challenge!

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

Leech, Colonel Blast

Horde soldiers, cows, Farmer Petro's wife and child, Farmer Petro, various rebels, bee, Acrobad, Doctor Drome, Twiggets (Spritina, Sprag, and Sprocker)

glonders, Horde trucks, wagons (including Drome's wagon)

Assigned to lookout duty while his friends are on a mission, Kowl allows himself to fall asleep on a tree branch. He's therefore surprised when a Horde convoy comes driving up the road. It's Leech in the back seat of a truck, flanked by a collection of Horde soldiers riding glonders. Spotting the rebel bird on the road ahead, Leech orders one of the glonders to attack, and Kowl flees. The fear-filled bird is able to hide in the bushes until his pursuer drives off, but afterwards remembers that he's failed at his job as lookout.

Who has Kowl failed to warn of the approaching Horde force? Why, Princess Adora and Bow, currently finishing up a chat with their ally Farmer Petro at his farmhouse. They've coincidentally chosen to gather Petro's intelligence on the same day that the Horde has come to collect some back taxes from the farmer. The sudden appearance of Leech and his men sends the rebels running for cover. Pinned down behind a water trough, they decide to split up and make a break for it, but a running Bow is hit by a freeze ray and imprisoned in a block of ice! Adora luckily escapes, and finds a private spot in the woods where she can raise her sword. She-Ra is then able to spring her own surprise on the Hordesmen. She flattens, tosses, and smashes the troopers who are threatening Petro and his family, then grabs Leech's truck before he can make a getaway and throws the vehicle all the way back to the Fright Zone. The enemies defeated, She-Ra finally has a moment to kick the frozen Bow loose from his ice block.

Bow was quite thrilled to awaken from his chilly sleep and find himself in the warming arms of the lovely She-Ra; but back at the rebel camp with a contrite Kowl, Bow's mood has distinctly soured. He entirely blames his avian friend for the near-disaster in the morning, and tells Kowl so in no uncertain terms. A crushed Kowl slowly flaps off to a private corner and gives over to loud, tear-choked sobs. He's in the middle of this one-person pity party when Broom strolls by and sees his friend in distress. Kowl explains the source of his woe, and wishes aloud that he could have just a smidgeon more courage. This gives Broom an idea: perhaps Madame can help! He seems to remember his witchy friend being in possession of a magic spell for courage, some centuries ago.

So Broom takes Kowl along to Madame Razz's little shack in the woods. But Razz is in the middle of mixing up a complicated potion, and doesn't have time for Broom's bothersome interruptions. The dismissed Broom and the dismal Kowl end up sitting on a log in the starlight, both depressed, their hopes dashed, their best friends seemingly having turned their backs on them. Broom again gives direction to the bereft pair when he remembers tales of a wizard in the nearby town of Silverglade. He proposes they travel there, so Broom can find a new magical partner and Kowl can obtain a courage spell or potion, and the convinced bird agrees. So the two stroll off into the night, in search of friendlier climes.

Unfortunately, their journey puts them in the path of some distinctly unfriendly strangers, in the form of Acrobad and Doctor Drome. Acrobad, a hoppy fellow dressed in a classic jester's costume, spies the approach of Broom and Kowl from a hidden spot in the bushes. He then passes news of the newcomers to Doctor Drome, a stocky, bearded and top-hatted old gentleman lounging nearby at his mobile home/wagon. Clearly meaning no good for our heroes, the devious pair arrange an "accidental" meeting on the road. Drome is able to convince the hungry Kowl that he and his friend should stop for a meal. With his rebel bird partner in a hiccuping food coma afterwards, Broom, anxious to be going, lets slip that they are on their way to Silverglade. Doctor Drome claims they are headed to the town as well, and offers his new acquaintances a lift. Having forgotten, if they ever learned the lesson, not to accept rides from strangers, Broom and Kowl accept a ride from the strangers, and instead of finding themselves at Silverglade, discover that Drome has driven his wagon to the Horde outpost at Moorstone. The rebels attempt to escape, but Kowl is nabbed by the agile Acrobad, and Broom is knocked unconscious by a blast from Drome's magic ring. Horrors!

Back at the Whispering Woods, the absence of Broom and Kowl has been noted, and Madame Razz and Bow have had time to rue their earlier hasty words to their respective BFFs. The Twiggets having been unable to find the missing pair anywhere in the woods, Adora goes to fetch She-Ra, and Razz joins hands with two of the forest people to cast a locating spell. Their magic generates a picture of Broom and Kowl in chains, being handed over by Acrobad and Drome to an imposing Horde soldier whom the watching She-Ra identifies as Colonel Blast. Our heroine knows the outpost where Blast is located, so - with Bow and the broomless Razz joining her on Swift Wind's crowded back - a daring rescue mission is underway!

Drome and Acrobad were hoping to make some money out of their betrayal of these naive, B-grade rebel outlaws, perhaps by having them sold to a circus on another planet; but Colonel Blast announces his own intention to take Broom and Kowl to the Fright Zone and surrender them to Hordak. Before any of this can come to fruition, however, the bored guards at the base, in the midst of complaining how nothing ever happens around here, are shocked by the arrival of She-Ra and her allies! She-Ra drops off Razz and Bow before performing Maneuver 55, an aerial attack that leaves one of the outpost towers collapsed into rubble. Meanwhile, Madame Razz is on point today, inspired by the need of her friend to cast her spells accurately and effectively. She boxes up the guards blocking her and Bow's path to the prison cells, and soon the two are reunited with their missing friends.

Acrobad - with misplaced optimism in his abilities, and after a peremptory order from Doctor Drome - makes an attempt to stop She-Ra, hopping high into the air and landing behind the heroine on Swift Wind's back. But She-Ra simply elbows him off, to land in a barrel of water in the base below. She-Ra's more threatening opponent is Colonel Blast, who proves to be peppered with armaments all over his body; but before the Horde officer can manage to land a hit against the blonde wonder (who shows off her own acrobatic skills with a collection of evasive flips and twirls), Bow executes a trick shot for the ages, firing seven arrows at once that all find their marks in the muzzles of Blast's militant attire. The colonel is left smoking in the exploded remnants of his armor, and our heroes are free to make their escape.

Safely assembled afterwards for a familial meal in the rebel camp (with She-Ra having made way for Princess Adora), our friends are overjoyed to be reunited. A tearful Broom confesses that this experience has helped him realize how much Razz's friendship means to him, and a tearful Razz apologizes for not listening to him earlier. Bow and Kowl had their own tearful reunion back at the Horde outpost; but the stoic Kowl quickly put up his emotional guard again, snidely asking the archer what took him so long. Now, his demand for a matching apology from Bow quickly devolves into a squabbling argument between the two buddies, causing an amused Adora to express her relief that everything is "back to normal."

• Leech (to Farmer Petro): So, you give aid to rebels, do you? / Farmer Petro: Gladly. Some day they'll send you and your kind all the way back to Horde World.
• She-Ra (to Bow, whom she has just kicked free of a block of ice): Are you all right? / Bow (leaning into She-Ra's embrace): In your arms, how could I be anything else?
• Kowl: I'm nothing but a useless coward. / Bow: You sure are.
• Kowl: If only I had a little more courage. Just - just a dab or two.
• Doctor Drome: Doctor Drome, at your service. Purveyor of potions, poultices and potent panaceas for every pain and problem - and this is Acrobad. / Acrobad: Ho - how do ya - how do ya do?
• Broom: Kowl! They're going to sell us to an alien circus. We-we'll never see our friends again.
• Kowl (having witnessed Broom and Madame's tearful reunion and sharing of feelings): Well Old Boy, don't you want to apologize to me? / Bow: I rescued you, didn't I?
• Bow: You rotten bird. / Kowl (scoffing): My, what a clever answer. Think that up yourself, did you? / Adora: It's nice to have everything back to normal, isn't it? (laughs, then winks)

• Bow runs away from the viewer: Attempting to escape his Horde attackers

One partial (missing Spirit/Swift Wind sequence)

7:22 - For once eschewing his much more common sylvan hiding place, today Loo-Kee has sneaked out of the trees and is peeking out at us from behind a pile of crates and barrels. He's on the far right of the screen in an establishing shot of the rebels' camp in the Whispering Woods. (Actually, apart from the fact that the wagon next to the barrels and crates has moved further away, this hiding place is identical to the one he used back in 67035's "Gateway to Trouble.")
Did I spot him? YES!

Loo-Kee's lesson today is right on the money with regard to the events of our story, and can be summed up in two rhyming words: stranger, danger. Don't get into cars (or motorized wagons) with people like Doctor Drome, kids!

Kowl DOESN'T avoid capture: Today our feathered friend's usually heightened sense of self-preservation fails him spectacularly, as he has the poor judgment to accept a ride from a very suspicious stranger.
Hordak-less episodes in Season 1: Though Hordak is mentioned, he does not appear.

• Our story writer today, Francis Moss, has contributed seven scripts to POP, nearly always as part of a collaborative team, with today being no exception. This will actually mark Moss's final contribution to the series. He's joined by the ubiquitous Larry DiTillio here, who is credited with the teleplay.
• Would you like to hear another chapter in the long, confusing history of Horde vehicles? Today we encounter what I've always called the "Horde hover bike," a vehicle that's already appeared in four previous episodes starting way back in 67006's "Duel at Devlan." To my knowledge, it has never been referred to by name - until today, that is, when Leech commands a Horde soldier on one of the bikes using the designation "Glonder Rider One." It turns out (and Wiki Grayskull confirms this) we're supposed to be calling these things "glonders." I will now have to go back through my database and fix this issue. Excuse me.
• When we cut to the farmhouse, we see very clearly a pair of Earth cows (udders and all), with no fantastical biological modifications to make them look like they're from another planet - recall, for contrast, the "cowatch" of 67023's "The Crown of Knowledge."
• Today gives us a rare solo outing for Leech, a Horde character who before now has always been shown in the company of some other action-figure-worthy buddy (such as Grizzlor). Here we see him with only some Horde robot troopers for company.
• Farmer Petro, an apparent informer for the Great Rebellion, looks like one of the more paranoid Ruxtowners from MU120's "Monster on the Mountain."
• In a very expressively animated sequence, a defrosted Bow greatly relishes being held in She-Ra's arms - recalling the attraction this sole male rebellion leader has sporadically shown for Etheria's superpowered female protector. The last time we saw Bow evincing similar feelings was when he was angling to put himself on a two-member mission with She-Ra back in 67044's "The Rock People."
• I've noted in the past that Kowl and Bow's relationship, which has always had a C-3PO/R2-D2 dynamic of balanced and constant sniping, in reality tends more towards unending critical jibes at Bow on the part of Kowl (see for instance the commentary for 67025). But today Bow pays it all back with interest with his emphatically cruel words about his friend's cowardice, prompting Kowl to a full-on, tear-gushing meltdown. Etherian Jesus, Bow! Take it down a notch. Maybe being stuck in that block of ice has left him temporarily without empathy.
• Some surprising lore about Madame Razz drops from Broom's lips today. We've heard him many times cracking jokes about just how old the witch is, and most of his extreme suggestions on that score could be put down to hyperbole; but today he remembers vaguely that his elderly rider had a spell for courage "a couple of hundred years ago." .... What?!?!? So we're saying that Razz is several centuries old, at least? No wonder she's forgotten a few things! It also makes you worry a little about her compatibility with Frit the Bottle Man (see 67030's "Play It Again, Bow"). Could Frit possibly be as geriatric as his partner, and if not, how many years/decades separate this couple? (The other thing implied by Broom's statement, of course, is that he is a couple of centuries old; but I find this feat less impressive when applied to a cleaning implement.) For more lore about Madame's superannuated nature, see 67070's "Something Old, Something New."
• In another surprising addition to Madame Razz's lore, today for the first time we visit her house! Yes, she apparently has one, which seems to double as a business, since there's a sign out front painted with a logo of Razz's head. It's what you'd expect a bumbling old witch's house to look like: ramshackle, tottering, and out in the middle of the woods. (We'll revisit Madame's house in the just-mentioned 67070.)
• The first we see of Madame Razz, she's in the midst of cooking up a potion in her house, which involves dropping what looks like a dead bee into a bubbling cauldron. The act seems particularly cruel after our glimpse of the cute, anthropomorphized bumblebee that opened 67043's "Welcome Back, Kowl."
• Note that this very short visit to Razz's home briefly reunites the three non-cowards who headlined 67020's "Three Courageous Hearts" - an episode that recalls several key elements of this storyline, as I'll note below in the commentary.
• Starting at the halfway point of our episode's runtime, we are suddenly introduced to several new characters. The first is Acrobad, a bouncy little jester-like fellow who talks with the rapid patter of a Hollywood Prohibition-era gangster. His partner is Doctor Drome, who we first see resting his considerable frame in a chair set on the porch of a mobile wagon home that mimics that of Professor Marvel in The Wizard of Oz (1939). This turns out to be a very apt reference for a man who is a self-described sham wizard. Drome's voice again sends me back to the 30s, since voice actor George DiCenzo makes him sound like the old Hollywood actor and comedian W.C. Fields.
• The Whispering Woods' Twiggets make a reappearance for the first time since 67043's "Welcome Back, Kowl." Their appearance in that episode was the first time we'd seen them since 67034, so the Twiggets have definitely grown more elusive than they used to be! (Some data to back this up: In the range of episodes 21-30 Twiggets appeared in 5 of the 10 episodes, compared to only 2 appearances across the twenty-episode range of 31-50.)
• Doctor Drome offers Kowl "another bibble fruit." We've heard of bibbles in a pair of previous episodes, and even saw Imp turn into one, in 67032. They are basically Etherian apples. Though the plate that Drome gestures to when making his offer at first appears to show smaller, cherry-sized fruits, a later shot shows more standard red apples, matching the fruit Imp mimicked in 67032 (though his version, like most of Imp's transformations, was the same blue color as his normal skin).
• To locate the missing Broom and Kowl, Madame Razz and the Twiggets join together to cast the very same spell they used to locate the captured He-Man in 67002's "Beast Island."
• Adora's second change to She-Ra is hidden between scenes, meaning we get only one (partial) transformation sequence today - and no Spirit. Swift Wind shows up as the necessary mode of transport to the final battle.
• Our third new character - who is recognized instantly by She-Ra, leading us to the conclusion that she tangled with this villain at some point between episodes - is "Colonel Blast." Unlike our other two fresh characters, I've chosen to list him solidly among the members of the Horde. Drome and Acrobad read as Horde sympathizers, while Blast is clearly an officer in their ranks and wears the red Horde logo proudly on his chest. His main gimmick (and the presumed source of his moniker) is that he has extendable guns attached to his shoulders, wrists, and kneecaps - a seemingly uncomfortable fashion choice.
• Colonel Blast runs a Horde outpost at "Moorstone," a location whose name recalls the "Moorfire Stones" of MU037's "It's Not My Fault."
• Today we see further evidence of writer Larry DiTillio's cherished assertion that She-Ra and her horse have developed a list of numbered maneuvers (see also 67033 and 67040). For their attack on Moorstone they use "Maneuver 55," which according to Swift Wind is "my favorite."
• Colonel Blast uses the expression "Hopping Horde World," an idiom previously utilized by Grizzlor in 67016's "Return of the Sea Hawk."
• Madame's Magic: She makes the floor underneath a few guards into "a box of steel," efficiently encasing the opposition without any humorous rhyming mix-ups. Says Madame: "When my friends are in trouble, I never miss, Deary."
• Bow gets his own chance to impress with what must be one of his most effective trick shots. Firing seven arrows simultaneously, the bowman hits every one of Colonel Blast's guns dead on - with one bonus arrow thrown in for good measure which seems to have been aimed at the villain's belt buckle. The single shot leaves our colonel with a very embarrassing wardrobe malfunction.
• This is the second episode in a row (after 67051's "My Friend, My Enemy") to end with our rebel friends in their rebel camp, gathered around a wooden table piled with food. These episodes originally aired in late November, so perhaps the animators had Thanksgiving on their minds!
• In case you were wondering, none of our new Horde villains from today were ever honored with a matching action figure - not even among the many more recent Mattel "adult collector" releases. The character that came closest was Colonel Blast, who eventually evolved into Rio Blast, the heroic figure originally released as part of Mattel's Wave 5 (1986).

• The basis on which today's plot rests is that Kowl acts as a coward when he's surprised by the Horde convoy. I would argue this is faulty, and steers the entire story in an illogical and incorrect direction. Kowl finds himself being pursued and fired at by a Horde glonder: what else can he do but run? I think we could go back through the episodes of this season and find several examples of other ostensibly brave rebels doing the same thing - including Bow, who judges Kowl so harshly for his actions. Kowl's real sin is that he was asleep on guard duty when the convoy showed up - which, in the Earth armed forces of the past, has been an infraction punishable by death. This bird doesn't need anymore courage - he needs caffeine, and a greater sense of the responsibility of watching out for his fellow rebels.
• Another reason why Kowl's courage should not be in question here? He already questioned his courage, in 67020's "Three Courageous Hearts," learning in the process that he is perfectly capable of looking into his heart and putting himself in danger to save his friends. Why does he need to learn this lesson again? Admittedly, at the end of that episode Kowl stated that he had used up his courage "for the next three years," so I suppose it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility for him to need a refresher. Regardless, the existence of this previous tale of courage gives this one the distinct air of a retread - even if, as we eventually discover, this story has little advice to impart about bravery or the lack thereof.
• The Horde "freeze rays" have wildly varying effects on the things they strike. Bow is encased in a giant ice block when one hits him, while the previous barrage that struck the water trough he was hiding behind had no visible effect on the trough. A few seconds after Bow is put on ice, a Horde soldier fires his stun stick at the farmhouse door, shattering it to bits. Good thing he didn't use that setting on our favorite mustached archer!
• Continuity error: Amusingly, if you take a careful look at Bow over the several scenes in which he's shown in his ice cube, you'll see that he's frozen in a markedly different position each time. (See the screens above, where I've captured the various poses.)
• Note that in the process of "saving" Farmer Petro and his family, She-Ra 1) wrecks his fence; 2) smashes a Horde glonder into his house; and 3) kicks a robot-shaped hole in one of his walls. Um... thanks, I guess? This is the kind of collateral damage that makes you wonder whether maybe those Sokovia Accords were a good idea after all...
• One of the reasons that the suspected treasonous activities of Kowl in 67043 seemed so completely unbelievable was the absurd idea that he would ever turn his back on all his established friends in the rebellion. Nevertheless, that's exactly what we're to believe he's willing to do in today's episode, after Broom nonsensically convinces him to go run off to the town of Silverglade in search of a rumored wizard (who's presumably a prospective replacement for Broom's oldest friend and partner, Razz).
• The approach of Drome's wagon to his ill-omened destination is animated in an unusual fashion, as a sort of first-person POV zoom with the various layers of background paintings sliding in and out of view.
• There're some muddled intentions with regard to the villains' disposition of Broom and Kowl. Drome and Acrobad seem to want to hand the pair over to Blast to make some money by selling the rebels to the circus. When Blast says he plans to send them to "Fright Zone" (not the Fright Zone, a strange phrasing), Drome and his friend seem shocked at the idea.
• Another sort of muddled quality of this episode is its title. Broom's "wizard," mentioned briefly after nearly half of the episode has already elapsed, never materializes. The misnomer speaks to this story's oddly gear-shifting story, which at first seems to be about a search for courage, then seems to be about finding a magician, then veers into meditations on friendship after a brief lesson about not trusting strangers.
• It's nice to get some affirmations of the way our paired characters feel about each other, in the tearful reunions between Broom and Madame and Bow and Kowl. We also had several interesting new characters today, which is always fun. But as I've already noted, the basis for this episode's story is a shaky one, in addition to being ground we've trod before; and the motivations and actions of our characters seem rather clumsy and illogical. Our new characters, furthermore, don't get much time to develop or do anything particularly interesting. All Acrobad does is jump a little; we never really learn what Doctor Drome brings to the table beyond his considerable paunch and his zappy ring; and Colonel Blast's impressive armory is defused with one trick arrow shot. It was fun while it lasted, but this one is not going to make my top ten.