Denis Higgins

Tom Sito

The kidnapping of Sprocker the Twigget leads She-Ra to give herself up to Hordak as a prisoner, under the promise that she won't try to escape as long as Hordak makes no action against her rebel friends. How much do you think Hordak's promise is worth?

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

Mantenna, Hordak, Imp, Octavia

Twiggets (Spritina, Sprocker), Arrow, Horde soldiers

wagons, Hordak-faced ship, batmeks

Gathered around a food-filled table at their camp in the Whispering Woods, our rebel friends Madame Razz, Broom, Kowl, Bow, and the Twiggets Spritina and Sprocker discuss the latest victory by She-Ra - which involved the destruction of huge numbers of Horde batmeks - and decide to have a feast in celebration. Unsure of what should be on the menu, they eventually hit upon golden spuffles. Sprocker the Twigget hates golden spuffles, but everyone else loves them - especially Princess Adora, who arrives astride her horse Spirit singing the fungi's praises. Hearing that the rebel leader (on whom he clearly has a huge crush) loves spuffles, Sprocker changes his tune, volunteering to go pick some of the elusive mushrooms. But it seems that spuffles only grow in one spot: on the banks of the Singing River, just near the border of the Fright Zone. Yipe!

Nevertheless, made foolhardy by puppy love, Sprocker intends to brave the fearsome environs of the Fright Zone in search of the treasure sure to delight his blonde idol. He admits this secret intention to friend Spritina, vowing her to silence on his whereabouts before he dashes off into the bushes. Sprocker ventures to the riverside and spends what must be several hours - perhaps the whole day - hunting for the culinary rarity, but only manages to collect four spuffles in his basket. He spots another and tussles with the evasive thing, for spuffles (we find) will retract themselves under the ground to avoid being picked, and are quite resistant to plucking even when grasped. Sprocker ultimately yanks the thing free, but in the process is flung backwards into the river - where, not being an experienced swimmer, he flails helplessly, eventually finding himself hanging from a tree branch after a ride down a waterfall.

Wondering how he's going to get out of his precarious predicament, Sprocker finds his situation growing even worse when he's roughly pulled from the tree by the tentacle of the wicked Horde soldier Octavia! Octavia gurgles happily over her prize, certain that Hordak will reward her handsomely when she delivers the rebel captive to her leader in the Fright Zone. In the event, however, Hordak is entirely nonplussed at Octavia's find. Already in a bad mood from the recent rebel victory (for which he earlier punished Mantenna by dropping him down a trapdoor), the only prisoners Hordak is interested in obtaining are important rebels like Adora or She-Ra - not silly little Twiggets. It takes some whispered words from Imp at his shoulder for Hordak to realize the captured Sprocker might offer a way to lure in some bigger fish.

Speaking of those bigger fish - back at the main rebel camp in the Whispering Woods, Madame Razz and Adora are wondering where that scamp Sprocker has gotten himself to. They haven't seen him all day, and now it's dinner time. When Spritina looks abashed and shifty-eyed, Adora questions her carefully, pointing out that any secrets the Twigget girl may have been asked to keep are forfeit if Sprocker is in danger. Spritina spills, and Adora learns where the missing Twigget was bound. She and Bow then rush off to the Singing River, where they find only Sprocker's abandoned spuffle basket. The pair are met there by Kowl, who brings a message that arrived in camp. It's a ransom note signed by Hordak, requesting She-Ra surrender herself in exchange for Sprocker's safety. Declaring that she'll go "find" She-Ra, Adora rides off and does her full transformation in private, then - as She-Ra - hops right on Swift Wind for a trip to the Fright Zone.

With as much subtlety as her fabled brother, She-Ra makes her entrance by smashing a hole in the wall of Hordak's throne room, and Hordak shows her the caged Sprocker. They negotiate for the Twigget's freedom, and finally settle on the following terms: Sprocker will be released unharmed in return for She-Ra taking his place in the dungeon. She-Ra promises not to try to escape, as long as Hordak makes no moves on the other rebels. Against Sprocker's loud protests, She-Ra makes the promise, and the Twigget is led away to freedom. As soon as She-Ra is escorted to her cell and out of earshot, Hordak begins laying plans to deal with the other rebels. She-Ra, meanwhile, momentarily considers breaking her own promise and using her sword to break out of her cell. After all, Hordak is evil: why should she keep any promise made to a bad guy? But in the end, She-Ra knows that breaking your word, no matter to whom that word was given, is wrong. She can't try to escape.

No, She-Ra can't attempt to escape herself; but she didn't make any promises about not asking for help from someone else! Accordingly, our heroine concentrates and with closed eyes sends out a mental SOS to her brother, far away on Eternia. Prince Adam, who at that moment is contemplating the night sky from the balcony of the royal palace, hears her distant call and knows his sister needs him. He transforms to He-Man and heads for Etheria.

Meanwhile, the freed Sprocker has run back to the Whispering Woods and informed the other rebels of what went down with She-Ra. The determined Bow, who realizes he's not bound by any promise, gets right on his horse and grabs Madame Razz and Broom. The quartet rush right off to the Fright Zone on a rescue mission; but Hordak is prepared for just such a raid on his fortress. Horde sensors detect the approach of the would-be rescuers, and the Horde commander flies out himself to take care of the intruders, sweeping them all up in one big net. So pleased is Hordak by his success that he heads right down to the dungeon to boast about it to She-Ra, noting that her friends are about to be shipped off for a "vacation" to the Horde's terrible prison camp on Beast Island. She-Ra realizes that Hordak has broken his side of their bargain - and, therefore, she need no longer keep her side.

As if on cue, her brother chooses this moment to show up, peeling open the outer wall of She-Ra's prison and setting her free. Our grateful heroine explains the plight of her friends and He-Man readily agrees to provide further assistance. The twins mount Swift Wind, who was loyally waiting just nearby, and head towards Beast Island. The heroes intercept Hordak as he's still transporting Bow and the others in his ship to Beast Island; but his vessel is being accompanied by an escort of several batmeks. She-Ra directs He-Man to take care of the robot ships while she rescues her friends, and He-Man obeys, instigating a string of intentional batmek collisions using only his muscles and a short length of rope.

Meanwhile, She-Ra and Swift Wind are attacked by Hordak, who has armored himself in a personal flying suit and flown out of his air ship to take care of his hated enemy. She-Ra's shield deflects Hordak's rocket attack back at him, promptly sending the Horde commander into retreat; but he's abandoned his air ship filled with her friends, and it's swirling out of control, headed for a crash landing! Wordlessly, He-Man and She-Ra converge on the tiny island where the plummeting ship is bound, and arrive together to catch the vessel just before it smashes into the ground. A very relieved Bow, Broom, and Razz celebrate their deliverance (and we're sure if Arrow could talk he'd have something nice to say, too). But He-Man decides it's time he got the heck out; so after a quick embrace of his sister, he walks through a portal, and our tale abruptly ends, cutting to a panning shot of outer space in a vague attempt to make the conclusion seem less sudden.

• Bow (laughing): You have to remember that Madame Razz is a witch, Spritina. Her tastes in food are a little, uh - unusual.
• Sprocker: Hunting spuffles isn't easy, but I'd do anything for Adora.
• Hordak (to She-Ra, of Sprocker): We will free this little creature if you place yourself in our custody. Otherwise ... he will be placed back on ice. ... / She-Ra: If I agree, Hordak, do you promise to leave my friends in Whispering Woods alone? You won't harm them - ever? / Hordak (sounding veeery trustworthy): You have my solemn promise. On the condition that you promise never to escape - and you follow my orders without question.
• Hordak (to himself): At last, I have She-Ra in my power. Now I will deal with the rebellion. Ha ha ha ha!
• She-Ra (voicing her moral quandary): I made a promise to Hordak not to try to escape. But Hordak's evil! What difference does it make if I don't keep a promise to him? (Raises her sword, then lowers it again, sighing) It's no use; a promise is a promise, no matter to whom you make it.
• Prince Adam: That star! Something strange, it's like - like it's trying to tell me something. / She-Ra (her voice only, faintly): He-Man; He-Man... / Adam: I've got it - it's She-Ra! My sister needs help!
• Hordak: Oh, have you forgotten that old Horde saying: "Promises are made to be broken"?
• She-Ra (of Hordak): Let's give him a surprise. / He-Man: I love giving surprises.
• She-Ra: We're a good team. We should do this more often! / He-Man: We will.

• She-Ra mounts Swift Wind and flies off: The mounting part of the loop is used as She-Ra gets ready to take off, just after her transformation

One full
When Prince Adam is, surprisingly enough, added to the mix, we also get a partial (missing Cringer/Battle Cat sequence) He-Man transformation

1:21 - Loo-Kee made it very easy for everyone today, as he appears in the very first shot after the title screens, and is staring right at us, bold as brass, from over the top of some rebel supplies. His head is very obvious and takes up a large portion of the upper-right quadrant of the screen. (Apart from the coloring of the wagon next to the supplies and the fact that his head is a little more visible, this hiding place is identical to one he's used in 67035 and 67052.) This marks the fifth time Loo-Kee has gotten his hiding duties over this quickly, the most recent previous occasion being in the Season 1 finale, 67065.
Did I spot him? YES! You're darn tootin.

Loo-Kee points out that no one would have had any idea where Sprocker was today if he hadn't told Spritina. Likewise, we young audience members should always inform our parents where we're off to before we leave the house - for our own safety. Loo-Kee gave us a lesson very similar to this in just the previous episode (67082), so he clearly has a poor opinion of our memory retention, in addition to our communication skills.

MOTU crossover
Love is in the air: Perhaps a stretch since what Sprocker is feeling for Adora is hardly on the same level as other romantic feelings we've seen expressed in the series; but there are those little red hearts above the Twigget's head, and it's Sprocker's desire to make the rebel leader happy that drives today's plot, so let's go for it.

• This is the only She-Ra script written by Denis Higgins. Denis is also credited with one episode each of a few other cartoons around the same two-year period as this show - and very little else.
• In the grand tradition of misspelling main character names on title screens (see "Battlecat," MU096, or "Hunt for He Man," MU099), today's title, according to the first title screen, is "Shera Makes a Promise." SMH. The DVD set packaging and menu screen write our heroine's name correctly in the episode title, as I have chosen to do.
• The episode begins, unusually, with a thorough discussion of food - a topic usually avoided in the series (apart from the rebels' obsession with getting "supplies"). Razz reveals that, as a witch, she has tastes in food which perhaps are not in keeping with those of her fellow rebels (viz. "cream of bug broth"). Meanwhile, in front of the chatting heroes sits what appears to be a partially eaten meal, whose main course is meatloaf.
• In contrast to bug soup, everyone - except Sprocker - just loves "golden spuffles." People love them so much, they repeat the name over and over! As we learn, the spuffles are a seemingly sentient species of fungus that only grow on the banks of the "Singing River," which runs just by the Fright Zone.
• Oddly enough, we've heard of the Singing River before: it was mentioned by Bow when he was telling his tales of the great King Jared, in the opening of 67023's "The Crown of Knowledge." I'm not sure the original imagining of the river fits with this one, which is much less legendary and more prosaic.
• So Sprocker hates golden spuffles. Just what does he love? Well, according to this episode, he loves Adora. The Twigget gazes at the rebel princess with heavy-lidded eyes while little red hearts float and burst over his head. If I hadn't just recently come to the realization that Sprocker is meant to be a male character, not female (as I'd assumed for the first 80 episodes of this series), I would have been tempted to label this episode with a new category - something like "Homoerotic OVERtones." Today brings us particular proof that Sprocker is a boy, however, since he/him pronouns are used several times in the dialogue in reference to the character.
• We saw Adora getting to use Hordak's throne trapdoor controls in the previous episode (67082); today, we get a much more typical usage, as the Horde commander himself drops the miserable Mantenna through the floor. So good to see some things never change.
• Sprocker, we learn, "can't swim so good."
• We get the surprise return of one of our more obscure Horde villains with the octopus woman, Octavia! It's surprising since, based on her previous debut appearance in 67040's "Treasure of the First Ones," you'd think Octavia's roles would be limited to aquatic adventures. Today we find her very much on land, standing by the banks of a river - I guess that'll have to do.
• Imp plays an interesting part in the impetus of today's plot. We see Hordak ordering Octavia to simply toss the captured Sprocker back in the river; it takes the whispered suggestion of Imp for Hordak to realize he might have a valuable bargaining chip. This is odd for both sides here: Hordak should realize the utility of a rebel captive without having to be told, and Imp shouldn't be the idea guy in this relationship. The most the Horde spy usually does is parrot his boss and tease his co-workers.
• Some additional unusual Horde behavior: Hordak sends his ransom note on a rolled-up piece of paper. We've previously seen the commander making use of the more high-tech method of message cubes (67015, 67063) - well, at least when Bob Forward is behind the writing desk. Even Huntara, from the warrior world of Silax, sent a ransom note via hologram in her wonderful self-titled episode (67045).
• We hear Hordak styling himself as the "master of Etheria" in his paper note - a title which Bow scoffs at as "baloney."
• Bow may not agree with Hordak's self-assigned title, but Hordak at least is considerate enough to use She-Ra's: when the heroine busts into the Fright Zone, he addresses her as "the Princess of Power."
• In a unique imprisoning technique, when Sprocker is rolled up we see he's been placed in a cramped little wooden cart with icy roof and bars. Hordak claims that if She-Ra tries to free the Twigget, Sprocker will be "put into deep freeze." They should imprison everyone this way - it would certainly complicate the usual revolving-door style incarceration methods!
• Hordak transformations: To release Sprocker from the mobile ice cell, Hordak uses his cannon arm, which has been set to flamethrower mode. We saw the Horde commander use the same weapon in 67033's "A Talent for Trouble."
• She-Ra's "guest room" in the Fright Zone is the now very familiar prison cell we've seen occupied by Perfuma (67063), Netossa (67078), and Corporal Romeo and Glimmer (67079).
• Madame Razz claims that she's "forgotten how spooky" the Fright Zone was; but she was just there in the previous episode (67082), when she and the others tried to help Adora get her locket back. Is the old witch really that forgetful? Well; yeah, maybe she is.
• To spy on his latest batch of intruders (Bow, Arrow, Razz, and Broom), Hordak makes use of his rotating throne and projected video screen, lately very commonly used features of his throne room (see 67079).
• Hordak transformations: Claiming that "I need the exercise," to deal with his unwelcome guests Hordak changes his bottom half into a rocket thruster, something we saw him do in just the previous episode (67082). Rather than pair this with any kind of arm weapon, as he did then, today he just whips out a giant net from... somewhere. It really works well, and Hordak grabs all the intruders at once - even Bow's horse!
• For the first time, She-Ra discovers she has the ability to psychically call to her twin brother across dimensions, even when he's in the human form of Prince Adam. See commentary for my take on this. It's worth noting that, though we've never seen actual long-distance communication between the twins before, the psychic link between them was suggested back in 67029's "The Price of Freedom."
• Beast Island, that favorite of Horde prisons just featured in 67082, gets another mention today as Hordak's planned destination for the captured would-be rescuers. Though the journey there is begun, our characters never make it to the island.
• The royal palace balcony where Adam is seen contemplating the night sky is the same one we saw him standing at (with Cringer that time) in MU126's "Capture the Comet Keeper."
• This late and surprising appearance by Prince Adam, of course, makes today's episode a MOTU crossover event - the third in the last four episodes.
• Hordak, acting as a facetious tour guide for his prisoners as he personally flies them to Beast Island (he's feeling very hands-on today!), points out "Skull Path" on their right, "where you'll be working on the rock pile." As with the Singing River earlier, this is another case of a reuse of a geographical location that doesn't make a lot of sense from a continuity standpoint. In its first appearance in 67034's "Troll's Dream," Skull Path was a region near the castle of one Duke Dreer, nowhere near the watery flight to Beast Island.
• In the final battle, Hordak for some reason eschews further transformations of his body in favor of clothing himself in a totally awesome winged mech suit, partially formed from the controls and seat of his air ship. It will be interesting to see whether this bad-ass outfit makes a repeat appearance in the series.
• Swiss army sword: Hordak may not have transformed to fight her, but She-Ra transforms her sword to block his mech suit attack, using the standard shield form. Today it's an extra-large version, the better to block the huge rockets Hordak has fired at her.
• Note that in this episode, He-Man's transport to and from Etheria is performed with no fuss or muss. We don't see him making the trip there, but in the trip back, he simply walks through a portal that appears before him, without any prompting, as though he's subtly clicked a garage door opener hidden in his loincloth. This portal is usually the kind of one summoned via the Sorceress - or, more recently, Light Hope (to my consternation; see 67061). It also usually appears in a particular spot in or near the Whispering Woods, not wherever the heroes happen to be; but apparently He-Man was keen to leave today as soon as his contractual obligations were completed.
• Ending credits variation: The credits continue to use the Bright Moon background rather than the Crystal Castle painting from Season 1.

• It's odd that Bow should immediately turn to Madame Razz for some homestyle cooking - especially considering, as we learn immediately afterwards, that he knows she has an odd, witchy palate. Let's not overlook her senility, either - I'm sure you could say of Razz, with more accuracy than usual, that she's forgotten more recipes than we'll ever know!
• Spritina and Sprocker are clearly meant to be having a private conversation when Sprocker admits his plan to go hunt for spuffles all by himself; but the last few words of their conversation are shouted to each other over a wide distance, as Spritina sits at the communal dining table and Sprocker huddles in a bush. By all logic, everyone else in the camp should be able to hear them. The animators would have done better to change the context/setting here...
• I'm no vegetarian, so I'm speaking with more than a little hypocrisy; but it does seem a bit cruel to hunt fungi that are clearly smart enough to avoid being plucked from the ground. Do golden spuffles have souls?
• I noted in the lore that this episode is unusual in its obsession with food. Indeed, today the rebels seem to spend literally all day eating. We find them in the episode opening gathered around a table laden with food, talking about making a celebratory meal; and after Sprocker has wandered off and fallen into trouble by the Singing River, we return to find them still gathered around the same table, still laden with food - and Razz concerned that the absent Twigget will "miss dinner."
• A close-up shot of Sprocker as he's being held up by Octavia has a very amorphous, seemingly unfinished background painting - again pointing to some rushing on the part of our animators with regard to the context and settings in today's episode.
• I love the extra touch, when She-Ra asks after Sprocker, of Hordak first bemusedly responding, "Who?" There's only one possible reason for her to show up at his place, but he's so oblivious to the Twigget that he still can't be bothered to realize who she's talking about.
• Every once in a while, Madame Razz is compelled to walk somewhere, and I'm reminded how exceedingly silly her animated walk cycle is: arms bent at the elbows, hands up at her sides with the palms out, and wiggling her hips back and forth in the daintiest waddle you can imagine, all while the pinwheel at the tip of her hat spins at full speed.
• Either Hordak is very trusting that She-Ra is going to stick to her promise (which is entirely possible, given his later actions) or he has, like Skeletor on several memorable occasions, failed to properly search and disarm his prisoner; for we find that the golden-haired heroine is still very much in possession of her sword of protection, even after having been thrown in jail. I can't decide whether this makes Hordak a clever judge of She-Ra's character or a moron.
• For me, the fact that She-Ra still has her sword makes the use of her telepathic connection with Adam unnecessary; because we know that She-Ra can talk to the Sorceress through her sword's gem, and could just as easily (if more indirectly) have gotten a hold of her brother via these means. Still, I guess her mental link with her twin is a pretty cool gimmick, and certainly not one of the more absurd things the series has asked us to swallow.
• You can argue whether or not Hordak's judgment was faulty in letting She-Ra keep her sword while in his dungeon; but it's impossible to think him wise for coming to the prisoner's cell door to boast about how he's broken his promise to her. She-Ra, naturally enough, almost immediately comes to the conclusion that she no longer has to hold up her end of their bargain, and can happily escape and fight back. If Hordak hadn't shown up to brag, she would still have spent a lot of time agonizing over the morality of whether or not to walk out of her cell.
• This promise-breaking also seems to make He-Man's presence in the episode largely unnecessary. After all, She-Ra has broken plenty of other people - and herself - out of the Horde fortress plenty of times before, without He-Man's help. So why is our beefy friend here today? Was Filmation getting worried that She-Ra's popularity was waning? That it needed a boost from her better-loved brother?
• Continuity error: Hordak orders his robot soldiers to take Bow and the others to Beast Island "immediately" after bringing them to his throne room; but we later find that Hordak has opted to fly them there himself.
• To assist in the fight against the flying Horde forces, He-Man requests to borrow a bit of She-Ra's rope. We don't see the stuff change hands, but He-Man clearly has some rope in the next scene. I really wonder how he managed to obtain this, given that the only time we've ever seen She-Ra produce any is by transforming her sword into it. She clearly still has possession of her sword while He-Man is using the rope, so we have to assume she has a spare, non-sword-sourced supply of the stuff for emergencies.
• I've already noted its appearance in the lore above, but thought it was worth it to reiterate here just how cool Hordak's mech suit is. The scene where the pieces of the suit are assembled onto him is awesome. We see another opportunity Mattel lost here by not recreating this suit in plastic.
• In order to destroy all the batmeks, we're to believe that He-Man hops from ship to ship, steering them by his length of rope and causing head-on collision after head-on collision. It's hard to understand how even He-Man could survive all these crashes and explosions.
• We've had plenty of examples across MOTU and POP of characters jumping out of flying machines in midflight, with no concern for their ships' continued flight path. Indeed, He-Man has hopped off and back onto his crafts in the past, notably in the Christmas Special. I found it amusing today, therefore, when Hordak abandons his ship in his mech suit, and we eventually find the vehicle plummeting out of control to the ground below, destined to crash until He-Man and She-Ra catch it at the last moment. Did Hordak callously doom his prisoners, the ship's occupants, on purpose? Or was he planning to fly back in and take the controls again before the ship managed to crash?
• The first time I watched this episode, it was without paying any attention to the amount of time elapsed - which only served to emphasize the odd abruptness of the story's ending. To me it felt as if the episode cut off before the tale had really concluded; all the heroes are still stuck on an island in the middle of the ocean, with Hordak merely having "retreated to Beast Island," as He-Man points out. It really seemed like another scene was coming, with the good guys meant to track the Horde commander to his prison resort and mete out some further comeuppance; at the least, we'd expect the typical epilogue scene back at the Whispering Woods, and a final happy (and possibly heart-filled and goopy) reunion with Sprocker. Instead, He-Man just says it's time for him to get out of there, as if his shift has ended and he needs to clock out for the day. The sequence very much had the feel of our production team having run out of airtime, and just given up, rather than cut any earlier scenes or tie up any further loose ends.
• So yeah - this was a fun adventure, but I more and more get the feeling with these late episodes that the Filmation team was rushed and took some shortcuts in production. I don't know if I'm imagining it or what. But consider the context/background issues in the first half of the episode, and the cut-off nature of the ending.