Ron Schultz & Sam Schultz

Ed Friedman

This episode will definitely make you think twice about not owning up to hitting a ball through someone's window! Little Podi, daughter of the chief of the Fantus tribe, runs off to avoid getting into trouble for just such an offense, and ends up getting tangled in the evil Rago's plot to take over the tribe by means of his godlike rhino car, Zegone!

Orko, Prince Adam (He-Man), Man-at-Arms, Teela

N/A

Podi, Rago, Zantar, Rago's soldiers, Merlo's messenger, catcher plant, Chief Merlo

Zegone (though since the thing is referred to as a "he" and is to be worshipped, we could also consider him a character!)

Orko and young Podi are having fun tossing a ball around in the courtyard of the palace, when tragedy strikes! A return shot flung by Podi arcs too high and flies into the window of Man-at-Arms's lab, audibly smashing something. Orko (in a surprising show of maturity and responsibility) thinks they should own up to the mistake, but Podi - worried about angering her father's friend Duncan - opts for running away to hide.

Up in the lab, Orko arrives and looks over the damage: a thoroughly disintegrated Melectron Analyzer. When he hears Orko's story, Duncan thinks Podi should come up as well, but Orko explains Podi's choice. We see that Podi has run off to a particular old temple (what she calls a "cave") in the Vine Jungle, where she springs a trap! She has been captured by Rago, the enemy of her father Chief Merlo. Orko, knowing where Podi will go, shows up not too long afterwards, in time to also be nabbed. The pair are introduced to Rago's sweet new ride, Zegone, a rhino-shaped tank thing that they plan on worshipping like a god. It just needs one more piece of bling: the precious Moorfire Stones, a treasure of their people the Fantus tribe that Podi is going to be compelled to help the bad guys obtain.

Back at the palace, our heroes learn that the evil Rago is running around loose in the very jungle where they know Orko and Podi went. Time for Adam to become He-Man! The big lug and Duncan meet up with Teela and the team of heroes carve their way through the jungle (with a brief interlude for He-Man to bust his way out of a catcher plant), discovering evidence of Podi's abduction. They then have to go own up to Chief Merlo about what terrible caregivers they've been. The whole team set off through the jungle to catch up to Rago.

What follows is a lengthy chase that takes up most of the rest of the episode. Suffice to say that despite attempts at escape and subversion by Podi and Orko, Rago uses Podi to get the stones (the child of the chief of the Fantus being the only person who can actually touch them), and they are set in the eyes of Zegone. Zegone carves a path through the jungle and the megalomaniacal Rago has dreams of conquering all of Eternia. We learn that Rago was insulted by being given the job of water supply supervisor by Podi's dad, and that he, too, is the kind of person who runs away from onerous responsibilities (providing a useful negative example for Podi). Rago leaves a tied-up Orko and Podi trapped behind the collapsed entrance to the temple of the Moorfire Stones, where He-Man and crew finally catch up after some exciting times in the jungle. Having dug the kids out, the heroes are urged by Podi to continue following the villains back toward her people's village, which they emphatically do. He-Man uses his power sword to deflect the powerful lasers from Zegone's eyes back at the vehicle's legs (actually just some metal supports for its tripod treads). Our hero can then easily lift up the amputated rhino and shake out its occupants, two of whom are chased down by Teela and Duncan. The last, Rago, is left for He-Man, who predictably gets his man with the help of some clinging vines.

End with a Joke: Our heroes decide it's actually very funny that a rescued Orko and Podi broke the precious pottery of Podi's people, since they fight over taking the blame for the breakage.

• Rago: I trust, Orko, that Podi has told you about her father's old friend, Rago? / Orko: So you're the evil Rago. / Rago: You've heard of me? [Um, yes... he has. That's what you just said you "trusted" was the case, Rago.]
• Chief Merlo (of his daughter, blatantly hammering home the lesson of the episode): If only she had taken responsibility for her actions, this might never have happened.
• Rago (complaining about the job Merlo gave him): It was a job for a girl! Besides, I have more important things to do. / Podi (again blatantly slapping us with the episode's lesson): But you were supposed to do it, and you didn't! It was your responsibility, and then you ran away.
• Orko (lamenting with what ease the bad guys retrieved the Moorfire Stones from his person): How come I can't ever find anything when I want it?

• He-Man swings sword overhand: Multiple times, to cut vines in the Vine Jungle
• Rago's soldier runs at the viewer, bug-height: Chasing after Orko
• A look through widespread legs: He-Man landing in front of the smashed temple, and again later as he confronts Zegone
• He-Man punches the viewer: Clearing the rubble at the temple entrance
• Man-at-Arms from above, runs to mid-screen and pauses, battle-ready: While chasing Rago's minion

One partial (missing Cringer/Battle Cat sequence)

Brought to you by Orko
Can you guess what lesson Orko has to impart to us? Yes, it's that same one that everyone in the episode proper spent the whole time beating to death: if you make a mistake, don't run away - own up to it. I think the episode writers should own up to the fact that they oversold this lesson.

Wayward child learns a valuable lesson: This variety seen last in MU021's "The Royal Cousin."
Skeletor-less episodes in Season 1

• Podi and Orko are shown at the beginning playing an Eternian game that looks very like lacrosse. Maybe Marlena introduced it to the planet!
• Adam uses an unlikely expression, "Jumpin' Jupiter!" Again, is this Marlena the Earthling's influence? I don't think Eternia is located anywhere near Jupiter, nor do they have a tradition of Greek/Roman myths to get that word from...
• Podi hides in the "Vine Jungle," a location we've encountered before. It was on the map of Eternia seen in MU034. In MU033's "The Starchild," the title character gets into trouble several times by running off to the "Old Vine Jungle," which presumably is a slightly more dangerous location nearby (though given He-Man's later comment in this story, who knows?).
• I admit to having had to wait to hear some pronouns for Podi before being sure she was a girl. The character is very androgynous and uses the same voice employed for young boys in other episodes. (By the way, the voice actor in question, if Wiki Grayskull is to be believed, is Erika Scheimer, daughter of executive producer Lou and other some-time voice actor Jay. We will see Erika providing voices for tertiary characters throughout the series - and you'll read me complaining about her voice work several times.)
• Another case of "Cringer was taking a nap." Neither he nor his braver alter ego appear in this episode.
• As they are chopping their way through the jungle, Man-at-Arms is seen wielding a sword - an unusual choice of weapon for him.
• In this episode, He-Man (with help from a handy tether that Man-at-Arms just happened to bring along) manages to fashion a zipline that can be used in both directions!
• According to Wiki Grayskull, Rago is voiced by John Erwin. If so, he must have really enjoyed the change of pace from whitebread He-Man: Rago is hilariously melodramatic and tons of fun. I actually suspect the wiki has it wrong here, as Rago sounds much more like Alan Oppenheimer's Skeletor. They may have confused character names and swapped credits for Rago and Chief Merlo, who sounds more likely for John Erwin.
• Things that go into Orko: at Podi's command, the Trollan hinges open the top of his hat to catch the Moorfire Stones: "No one will ever be able to find them in there." One shudders to imagine hunting about inside! Fortunately all the bad guys had to do was shake it out of him.
• Things that come out of Orko: We hit the jackpot for this sub-category! A huge amount of objects, jarred loose by a swift shake from Rago's second-in-command, Zantar. Among them: a football, a french horn, what looks like a colorless Rubik's Cube, a pot, a pocket watch, a lamp (whose shade has a jaunty bend in the top, similar to Orko's hat), a bell, a jack-in-the-box with a ringed planet on the end of its spring, a green rope (possibly intended as a jumping rope), and several other less-identifiable things.
• He-Man runs at his greatest pace to catch up to the be-jeweled Zegone, mimicking the run he did back in MU007 to catch the Spellstone. This running animation has been used elsewhere; funnily enough, in MU021, our other "wayward child" episode.
• In a surprising reveal, the minion that Duncan battles at the end of the episode whips out a light saber! We've seen Duncan wield this type of weapon (in somewhat varying designs) before, in MU004 and MU015. He's quite dismayed to find it being used against himself! The weapon comes complete with some very Star Warsian sound effects.
• In another reuse of a device, after subduing his man, Duncan captures him in the good old porta-prison, seen in MU003 and MU021 (another "wayward child" repeat). This porta-prison is much more orange than previous instances, which were (if memory serves) gray.
• We can forgive the writers of this episode, the Schultz brothers, for bringing us this somewhat sub-par episode, since they were also responsible for the memorable MU005, "She-Demon of Phantos."

• It's so nice to see Orko having someone like Podi to play with. We know that when he gets lonely and bored, as he did in MU017, dangerous things happen!
• I get a kick out of Duncan's broken device being called a "Melectron Analyzer." Just what are melectrons, Duncan? Please, explain them to me.
• The other characters seem to be somewhat confused as to how to pronounce "Rago," and Rago himself seems to pause before and after his first couple of times saying "Zegone;" you get the sense that he's consulting the script to confirm he's saying it right.
• He-Man refers to the Vine Jungle as "one of the most dangerous areas in Eternia." Yet they had to wait for the warning from Chief Merlo before being concerned that Podi ran off there alone? Shame, shame! You'd think Duncan had never raised a kid before!
• I wonder how long Rago and his goons were going to sit around in the Vine Jungle cave/temple, on the chance that Podi might show up to get trapped? Lucky for them she's bad at Eternian lacrosse, I guess...
• It's cool and all, but I just feel like if you had a rhinoceros tank that you worshipped as a god, you would put some more decorations on the outside of it. Zegone is surprisingly light on flourishes and ornamentation!
• I get a Native American/Aztec vibe from the Fantus tribe members and their homes and accoutrements.
• For those trying to read symbolism and sexuality back into the show, there is no scene more potentially disturbing than when Rago clutches Podi from behind and the pair ride the horn of Zegone up so the little girl can pluck two balls out of the eye holes of a statue. Far more enjoyable is the moment when a fallen Chief Merlo hops on He-Man's back so they can both swing to safety. Thank goodness for some good old-fashioned homoerotic undertones!
• He-Man is so convinced by Podi's urging "You've got to stop them" that he only breaks Podi free of the ropes, leaving Orko still tied up!
• He-Man has used his sword countless times to deflect laser bolts (and other less likely projectiles, like jets of fire), but never so effectively as in this episode, when he takes out the legs of the mighty Zegone! Take that, god rhino!
• There are quite a few moments in this episode that make it very clear how thoroughly padded out it is. It's apparent from the very beginning of the show, when we are treated to an ultra-extended opening shot, first flying through space, then seeing the full planet Eternia, then getting an extra-slow panning shot of Eternos and the palace. Then there are all the scenes of people running through the jungle, chopping down vines. Then there's Zegone, whose talent for knocking over trees and crushing things is given ample documentation. Finally we get to watch every aching second of Duncan and Teela's battles with completely unimportant soldiers of Rago.