Ron Schultz & Sam Schultz

Marsh Lamore

Orko firmly believes that no one can change, and bad people will always be bad; but perhaps Sibyline can prove him wrong. She has long been an evil sorceress under the command of the wicked Gorgon, but has decided to change her ways and put the imprisoned King Danton back on the throne of the Isle of Tears. It may take He-Man and friends to help her; and to help Orko change his mind!

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

Evil-Lyn

Gorgon, Sibyline, Gorgon's guards, King Danton, flying dragon

Wind Raider, Gorgon's submarine

At the palace, Orko performs an impressive feat of juggling (actually, in comparison to the other magic he occasionally manages to achieve, it's not all that impressive, but let's humor him shall we?). His audience applauds appreciatively and tells him how much he has improved. Orko hotly denies this, due to his very emphatic belief that people are unable to change. Cut (with a clever segue, making use of the repetition of "wrong" by two different characters) to the Isle of Tears, where the evil Gorgon is arguing with his underling Sibyline, who has decided she wants to change and no longer be evil. Naturally, Gorgon tosses her in the dungeon, to share a cell with the king the pair helped depose: King Danton. Sibyline expresses her change of heart to Danton and her intention to magically escape and undo Gorgon's evil, and he gives her the idea to go for help to Randor and He-Man. Danton wishes her well, though he grieves over Sibyline's inability to transport him with her.

Randor gathers our heroes in the throne room - even a tardy Prince Adam - to inform them of Sibyline's request for a hearing. Orko is predictably resistant, citing some of Sibyline's former bizarre sins; but Randor wants to give her a chance. Gorgon, missing a good evil sorceress at his side, has called up Evil-Lyn, and the two spy on Sibyline as she wanders the gardens of the palace. They decide to exacerbate Orko's mistrust of Sibyline by conjuring a flying dragon whose appearance will surely be blamed on her, but Sibyline reacts by rescuing the king and queen from the creature and even more firmly gaining their trust. Orko remains unconvinced, and while wandering off to continue spying on the woman, he gets caught in a flood caused by a suspiciously sudden freak rainstorm, necessitating Adam (fresh from an encouraging visit with the Sorceress) transforming to He-Man to rescue the Trollan.

Back in the throne room, Sibyline agrees with Orko's assessment that the storm was magical in origin, but pleads her innocence. The king commands that the heroes stop farting around and head off to the Isle of Tears to rescue Danton and return him to the throne. Sibyline guides them to the island and her own secret workshop, which has been trashed. They sneak their way to the dungeon cell where Danton is being kept, but it's a trap! Metal walls clang down, enclosing everyone within, and Gorgon makes an attempt at tricking the good guys into thinking this was Sibyline's plan all along. Everyone is soon convinced of the truth, however, and He-Man easily smashes through the steel walls meant to imprison them. Our friends plow through a pile of guards, with a finally reconciled Orko helping and being helped by the defector. They break into the barricaded throne room, where a panicky Gorgon evacuates and attempts to escape by submarine. He-Man once again shows off his muscles and yanks the submarine out of the water. At the same time, Sibyline faces off against Evil-Lyn. Gorgon stays captured, but Evil-Lyn magically teleports herself out of there.

Danton, finally out of his stylishly ragged prisoner clothes and in some absurdly posh kingly robes and a stupid hat, pardons Sibyline and spreads his gratitude on everybody. Our heroes head home, their job well done and an important lesson learned.

End with a Joke: Orko attempts to claim that he's always said "People can change;" when his audience seems skeptical, he tries to distract them by offering some magic tricks. Adam suggests that he disappear; and he does! "See you later, little buddy."

• Gorgon (to Sibyline): You're still a good sorceress. Good and evil! Ha ha ha ha!
• Orko (describing Sibyline): Hey she's bad, I've heard about her. She once turned a whole army into little fish with feet - eugh! ... / Adam: Don't worry little buddy: you'd look good as a fish. Especially with feet!
• Gorgon: I've asked you here, Evil-Lyn, because there is no sorceress more evil than you. ... Great, great, great! I love flying dragons!
• Sorceress: We must give her the chance to prove she has changed; and that even within evil lies the possibility for good.
• He-Man (actually rolling his eyes): Ah, just what everybody needs - a magical island holiday.
• Sibyline: I was afraid of your magic once, Evil-Lyn. But no longer. I have the strength of the truth behind me now.

• He-Man punches the viewer: As he breaks through two feet of solid steel, and again as he punches through a stone wall
• He-Man from above, runs to mid-screen and pauses, battle-ready: Before taking on Gorgon's guards, and again running down a hallway
• A look through widespread legs: Sibyline facing off against Evil-Lyn (using a disturbingly wide stance to do it!)
• He-Man laughs, head back: Just the very beginning of the loop, as he is amused at Gorgon's whimpering
• Adam laughs, head back: At silly old Orko
• He-Man smiles close-up, looking at the viewer: During the PSA

One partial (missing Cringer/Battle Cat sequence)

Brought to you by Teela and He-Man
You guessed it: people can change. Including you! Just say to yourself: "I can." As in: I can take my finger out of my nose.

Skeletor-less episodes in Season 1
Everybody deserves a second chance
Evil-Lyn power punches the glass ceiling: This one is a bit of a stretch for this category, but I decided to include it since we see Lyn operating independently of Skeletor - albeit under the aegis of the gross Gorgon.

• There is a weird, colorful alarm in the throne room which we see for the first time, and whose purpose is unclear. Is it to alert Randor that his good-for-nothing son is about to appear?
• Evil-Lyn shows that Skeletor is not the only Evil Warrior who likes spying on good guys, when she opens a cool portal in the floor of Gorgon's throne room.
• Adam's transformation sequence does not include Cringer being turned into Battle Cat, and Cringer is still Cringer as he stands next to He-Man in the subsequent throne room scene. At some point after that meeting, He-Man must have changed Cringer into Battle Cat, since Battle Cat shows up with the heroes on the Isle of Tears.
• Duncan shows off a "lasso line" while fighting with Gorgon's guards. It's just a lasso that shoots out of his wrist armor; but it's reminiscent of the overhyped lasso laser from MU013.
• Gorgon could teach Skeletor a thing or two about quick escapes; he has a sweet little red button on the arm of his throne that shoots him safely behind a wall! Still, he doesn't do as well as Evil-Lyn, since he gets captured in the end and she magically vanishes.
• The animation of He-Man swinging a grappling hook to catch hold of Gorgon's submarine is identical to the animation of his swinging a grappling hook to grab hold of Karg in MU023.

• Sibyline's voice is absolutely goofy, like someone trying to be a super-prissy, over-the-top governess in a farcical play, or like the Good Witch Glinda in The Wizard of Oz. No wonder people have trouble taking her seriously!
• Gorgon has a cool staff that ends in a clawlike hand, and Sibyline has a cool cobra-style wand. They would have made nice action figure accessories!
• Nice to see the king and queen are still ruling in Eternia! It's been a couple episodes since we saw them last, and their only dialogue felt spliced-in then (see MU025).
• "Slavery is a terrible thing," says King Randor; but we saw Eternia dealing with the slave-owning Phantos in MU005, and we know that they keep a prison mine where they force criminals to do hard labor. Randor, I dub thee hypocrite!
• It's hard to understand how Orko - who can FLY - got caught in a flood.
• There is some really great looking animation in the scene where He-Man dives into the water and starts swimming after Orko (though he lands in the water completely horizontally, which must have hurt his poor bare belly!). It is very likely rotoscoped - a style Filmation often resorted to for complex character animation, where the animators essentially trace off of video footage of real people - but it looks great all the same. The animators at Filmation certainly not being ones to let a good animation go to waste, we'll see them reusing this clip, or parts of it, many times in the future.
• We are to believe, based on the scene where the heroes are standing on the shores of the Isle of Tears, that they all got there in the Wind Raider. That is: Man-at-Arms, Orko, Teela, He-Man, Battle Cat, and Sibyline, all on a vehicle that in previous episodes could only hold two. Cozy! I hope they were all wearing their deodorant.
• Orko tries to show off how very quiet and stealthy he is by flipping upside-down in the air, causing his juggling balls to fall out of his hat. His subsequent comment - "Oops!" doesn't sound like him and was likely added to the soundtrack at the last minute.
• If I were Gorgon, I would have planned the trap pretty much the same way, but without actually letting the heroes get a hold of Danton. Why not a fake robot Danton instead? Everyone loves a good robot duplicate...