Janis Diamond

Lou Kachivas

Skeletor is gathering an army with Trap Jaw and Beast Man, confident that this time he can crush He-Man - and things are not as they seem because this army is powered by assembly line! Meanwhile, Teela and Duncan struggle with a lasso-shooting device! It's all excitement in this episode!

Teela, King Randor, Man-at-Arms, Prince Adam (He-Man), Orko, Zoar (Sorceress), Cringer (Battle Cat)

Skeletor, Trap Jaw, Beast Man

serpentoids, pterodactyl-thing

sky sled, Wind Raider

At Snake Mountain, Skeletor checks to make sure Trap Jaw is ready - and the army they have gathered. Skeletor just hopes that He-Man will get involved in his plans this time: because he's sure to crush the hero! Meanwhile, Duncan is trying to show off his new invention, a lasso gun, using Orko as a guinea pig. Orko demonstrates almost by accident that he can very easily escape from the rope; while Duncan and Teela are busy trying to figure out what settings to adjust so that Trollans can never escape their grasp, Adam notices Zoar flying by overhead and makes a lame excuse to leave. Randor, also present at the demo, expresses a tragic level of disappointment in his son.

Adam grabs Cringer and makes the usual transformation, then heads off to Grayskull, where the Sorceress tells him he is to head to Stardica. The usually-deserted old fortress there has become a staging ground for Skeletor's army, meant to take over all of Eternia. When He-Man declares his intention of getting Man-at-Arms to help (because against a whole army you should get, like, one other person to help - right?), the Sorceress gives him an annoyingly cryptic warning about "things not always being what they seem." He-Man brushes it off and leaves.

Back at the palace, Duncan and Teela are still tangling with the darn lasso shooter, which frankly doesn't seem like a very constructive use of their time. He-Man interrupts them and lays out the plan. Teela wants to help, but (as in MU005) Duncan leaves her behind - because she is critically needed to fix the stupid lasso launcher. As the heroes fly off, we learn that Skeletor's plan involves an army of serpentoids (two-headed dragon-like robots) which Trap Jaw is busily producing on an assembly line.

Teela quickly polishes off the lasso device and decides it will be just fine if she catches up with Duncan and He-Man, who land at the apparently deserted fortress. They are ambushed by lightning bolt launchers which pin them down effectively; then Beast Man sends a pink pterodactyl-thing to kidnap Duncan. The lightning bolts having evidently been shut off, He-Man and Battle Cat are safe to leap inside the fortress, where they finally meet the serpentoids, which they are surprised to discover are robots and not living creatures. (This was what the Sorceress was referring to when she said that things wouldn't be what they seemed, and was not some kind of subtle reference to Duncan having been replaced by a pod person.)

He-Man and Battle Cat can crunch up the serpentoids like anything, but they are quickly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of critters. Fortunately, Teela shows up with the repaired "laser lasso" and, though it makes a short detour into Beast Man's hands, old Fur Face manages to incapacitate himself and He-Man is able to use it on the serpentoids (so I guess it was worth spending time on after all). Teela and He-Man then break into the robot factory and Teela wrecks the machinery and freezes the evil minions. He-Man uses a scanner to locate the tied-up Man-at-Arms, but accidentally sets off the self-destruct in the process, necessitating a hurried search for his friend and the tossing of a bomb.

End with a Joke: Back at the palace workshop, Teela waves the lasso laser at Orko again and chases him off, to the amusement of Duncan. Adam tells Teela, with great dramatic irony and a wink at the audience, that "things aren't always what they seem."

• Trap Jaw (to his serpentoid army): Get them my little beauties!
• He-Man: This reminds me of a game my mother told me about. It was called "bowling."
• Skeletor (to his minions): You idiots! If I'm not there, nothing is done right!

• He-Man jumps on the back of Battle Cat
• He-Man smiles close-up, looking at the viewer: Twice, though the second time he has some very derisive-looking eyebrows
• He-Man punches the viewer
• He-Man in battle stance on Battle Cat: With his fist out
• He-Man picks up and throws a rock: Once using the full loop, the second time to show him throwing a bomb

One full

Brought to you by Teela
Teela points out that your parents aren't always right, which slightly undermines her message of how you should listen to your parents. Further undermining her message is the fact that she didn't actually do what her father told her in this episode, and things worked out totally fine. So... what have we learned, exactly?

N/A

• As we've heard before, there is a wolf-like howl in the establishing shot of Snake Mountain.
• As he as often done in the past, Skeletor spies on our heroes using the top of his havoc staff.
• Skeletor communicates with Beast Man as a floating sparkly head, something he hasn't quite done before.
• Beast Man finally gets a chance to mind-control an animal (the pink pterodactyl-thing)! And it doesn't go horribly or instantly wrong! But he then manages to lasso himself with the laser lasso... sigh. Oh, Beast Man.
• Teela's wrist freeze ray, first shown off in MU001, makes an important and very useful reappearance here.
• Skeletor uses a handy teleport once again, to retrieve his icy minions (he's working remotely in this episode so doesn't have to teleport himself).
• He-Man pulls a very convenient scanner device out from under his chest harness, where it must have been chafing him something awful. It can detect living things. Seems much more useful than a lasso gun!

• In the opening scene, Skeletor is shown fondling a jewel, which he seems to have entirely so that when he mentions crushing He-Man, he can simultaneously crush the jewel. Noyce.
• In an animation error we've seen before, a close-up shot of Cringer has him with the wrong colored nose - the same color as his surrounding fur, instead of the darker green it's supposed to be.
• He-Man does his full transformation, tells Battle Cat they have to go to Grayskull, and then goes there - complete with a lengthy establishing shot and the animation of the Jawbridge going down and him riding inside (all the while the soundtrack pounding out "He-Man! He-Man! He-Man! He-Man!"). A little short on runtime, were we? Ironically, after this lengthy transition, the Sorceress tells He-Man "There is no time to lose!" After their conference we are treated to a lengthy animation of He-Man leaving Grayskull.
• Duncan has oddly pale skin in the scene where He-Man comes in to tell him the plot. There are a few other instances of off-color shots in the episode that make me think parts of the animation have been damaged or were photographed incorrectly.
• When Skeletor is spying on the heroes, we see Battle Cat STANDING UP in the middle of the Wind Raider, like he absolutely doesn't fit in the vehicle. It looks incredibly unsafe! I'm pretty sure we've seen Cringer sitting down in the thing just fine. Future trips in the Wind Raider will show further inconsistency regarding how tigers sit in the vessel, but most of the time Cringer/Battle Cat will fit in the back seat.
• When Skeletor switches his staff view to check on Trap Jaw, for some reason we see the background first and then Trap Jaw fades into his chair. Likely this was an error in the fade animation, and both the background and character were meant to appear at the same time.
• When Teela calls Orko in for a favor, he says "For you Teela, I would do... anything," while his eyes swirl creepily. Um, OK, ease off, psycho. "You're sweet," says Teela; then awkwardly clears her throat. It's probably for the best that she immediately ties him up. (Orko will be mesmerized this way by a pretty lady again, in MU018.)
• It's hard to understand how the lasso is able to hold Orko, given that just seconds before its final test he demonstrates his ability to teleport. Is it an... anti-teleporting lasso? Yes, I guess that's what it is.
• I love the factory where Trap Jaw is busily building his serpentoids. It's full of a lot of great, futuristic gadgetry.
• In one of the sequences showing Trap Jaw's assembly line, the machinery produces a dud: a metal block goes into the zapper on one side, but no serpentoid comes out the other side. That's Stardican craftsmanship for you!
• The title of the episode strikes me as off-target. Part of the plot is about Teela not quite doing as she's told by her father, and the two of them both being good at gadget-making; but it seems like the main focus of the title should be Skeletor's evil scheme. He's been very sidelined here! Maybe his plans didn't get top billing because he couldn't be bothered to show up at the fortress.