J. Brynne Stephens

Gwen Wetzler

In the process of trying to find the perfect gift for the King and Queen's wedding anniversary, Orko manages to screw up everyone else's, and gets so discouraged that he decides to run away with Cringer - provoking all his friends to mount a frantic search, and Orko to get himself - and them - into even more trouble.

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

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blue bird, lizard guy, Talgoth, tangle tree, shadow beasts

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In the palace courtyard, Orko is whining because he doesn't have a gift to give the King and Queen for their impending wedding anniversary celebration. Cringer, lying nearby, tries to say something noncommittal but encouraging, but finds himself roped into Orko's idea to go ask Man-at-Arms and Teela for ideas. In an ensuing series of disasters, his visit to each of the heroes starts with the Trollan trying to help and concludes in calamity. At Man-at-Arms's lab, Orko accidentally sets off the fireworks display Duncan has built, starting a fire. Since there is apparently no system in place for fighting fires in Eternos, Cringer has to go fetch Adam, who turns into He-Man to come blow it out. Orko then moves onto Teela, who is in the palace kitchen waiting for a cake to rise. Orko's well-meaning spell makes the dough - and the entire oven - float in the air, with the dough growing its way out of the oven. A magical attempt to undo the problem ends in a splattery explosion of dough, and He-Man arrives just in time to catch the falling oven. He and Teela angrily eschew Orko's abashed offer of clean-up assistance, and the Trollan mopes off to his room with Cringer. The cat's attempts at comforting the magician go unheeded, and Orko decides that since he is no good to anyone, he will just run away. He leaves behind a floating farewell note, and is reluctantly accompanied by Cringer.

Eventually, Teela, Duncan, and He-Man all realize they haven't seen Orko for a while, and decide to mount a search. They question many citizens, including Fisto, Stratos, and an unnamed lizard guy, before bringing the issue to Randor and Marlena. Marlena provides the sensible suggestion they all should have tried first, of going to Orko's room, where they of course find the note; and an empathic He-Man decides that the only person Orko could have gone to was the Sorceress.

Which, indeed, is where Orko and Cringer are headed; but they find themselves feeling strangely drained on the way there, and are attacked by a giant blue fanged monster. Barely able to escape, they nevertheless reach Grayskull, where Orko entirely forgets to mention their death-defying adventure, so preoccupied is he with his own sense of worthlessness. It's only after the Sorceress has bucked him up, showed him how sad all his friends would be without him, and suggested that they are out searching for him right now, that Orko recalls the danger in the forest. By the description of their ordeal, the Sorceress identifies the monster as the legendary Talgoth, which can suck people's energy or magic and use it for evil. Alarmed, Orko and Cringer rush back out to warn everyone. Instead of encountering their friends or the Talgoth, however, the pair get themselves grabbed by a tangle tree.

Meanwhile, as He-Man, Teela, and Man-at-Arms tramp through the forest, they experience the effects of the Talgoth's draining even more thoroughly than Orko and Cringer did: Man-at-Arms becomes confused and unable to operate simple machines or even walk in the correct direction, Teela becomes clumsy and uncoordinated, and He-Man lacks the strength to lift his normal load of rocks. It's too bad they're attacked by some shadow beasts, and menaced by the sounds of the nearby Talgoth (which He-Man, versed in the lore of legendary Eternian monsters, has already successfully identified).

Having rescued himself and Cringer from the tangle tree by the dubious use of a magical snake-charming song (under the questionable logic that vines are just like snakes), Orko ends up flying directly into the clutches of the Talgoth. Which turns out to be lucky for everyone, since the other heroes immediately locate him, and the creature appropriates the Trollan's temperamental magic, instead of sucking talents from everyone else. The Talgoth's attacks become strange and ineffectual, including easily avoided nets and spongy, bouncy boulders. This leaves a reinvigorated He-Man free to knock open a chasm and toss the creature into it. Orko's friends than remonstrate with the little magician, who never should have run away from his problem and should have realized that he is loved by them all, regardless of his transgressions. Orko is still worried that he has ruined everyone's presents, and never did come up with his own gift for the royal couple.

End with a Joke: In a very rare show of affection, Man-at-Arms actually hugs little Orko and tells the Trollan that having him home safe and sound is "the best present of all" - thus explaining this episode's title, and causing Orko's eyes to get swirly, as if he's being hypnotized.

• Cringer (reacting to a lab fire): This calls for a hero a-a-and I know where to find one!
• Cringer (reacting to Orko's decision to run away): Much as I hate to say it... I'd better go with ya.
• He-Man: Life is certainly never dull with Orko around.
• Orko (narrating his note spell): To whom it may concern - I am nothing but trouble, so I've gone away. I'll miss you all.
• Teela: I sure hope we find Orko soon; I sure miss that little guy. / Man-at-Arms: I never thought I'd say it - but I do, too.
• Orko: So you see, I cause nothing but trouble for everyone I know. / Sorceress: At times we all cause problems for those we love. But if they love us, then they'll forgive us...You are loved more than you know, Orko; and you're much less trouble than you think.
• Sorceress: You say it drained you? There is only one beast with that power - the Talgoth. It drains the powers from other living things and uses their strengths for evil.
• Man-at-Arms: The Talgoth is using Orko's magic, and it works wrong, just the way it does for Orko. Hey - I can think again!
• Orko: I ruined your anniversary presents. / Man-at-Arms: Yes, but you've done worse things.
• He-Man: It's how we deal with our mistakes that's important. Running away is no way to deal with anything, especially when you're running away from people who love you.

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One partial (missing Cringer/Battle Cat sequence)

Brought to you by Orko
Orko, now apparently at the royal anniversary party and floating next to a many-tiered cake, gives a typically fast-paced recitation of today's lesson: that running away won't solve your problems, and you should ask someone for help. In the process of explaining this, he predictably knocks over the cake and must cry for help. Oh, Orko...

Skeletor-less episodes in Season 2: And that's all. Since Orko is not a child (though he certainly acts like one), we can't tag this under "wayward child learns a valuable lesson."

• Cringer rushes off to get Adam and finds him reading a book in the library - a very rare occurrence! I could believe that Teela might read for pleasure in her off moments, as she was doing in MU066's "The Cat and the Spider," but seeing our princeling doing it is quite a shock! For more book-based fun, see the very next episode, MU072.
• "There is no royal fire department!" Adam shouts crossly at Cringer's paltry excuse for not wanting to turn into Battle Cat and help put out the fire. But wait a minute - there is no royal fire department? So... how do they put out fires in Eternos? Do they just hope He-Man shows up?
• He-Man gets a chance to use his super breath to put out the fire in the lab, something he doesn't have the opportunity to show off too often. The last time he used it was in MU059, to blow away a sand monster.
• Even though Cringer is the one who fetches He-Man, he manages to avoid being turned into Battle Cat; an unusual situation that harkens back to his refusal to transform in MU050. This time he remains his cowardly self for the entire episode. This will happen again in MU074.
• We get a glimpse of the royal palace's kitchen again, though Chef Alan (seen in MU030) is not in residence.
• We also get another look at Orko's bedroom, looking much the same as it did the other times we've seen it - most recently in the PSA for MU061.
• It's somewhat unusual for Cringer to be the one who tries to cheer up Orko, as he does in this episode - usually he's the one who stirs up trouble by making derogatory jibes at the Trollan's expense.
• The lizard guy Teela briefly questions while searching for Orko looks a lot like good old Lizard Man (see MU005 or MU020), but isn't: he's a different color and is wearing spectacles. Maybe an older relative!
• Orko's "note spell" is written in a completely unfamiliar alphabet - except for his signature, which is easily legible by English-speaking people from Earth.
• Orko is a poet, and we didn't know it - Teela mentions in passing that the Trollan once left her a spell note with a poem on it.
• He-Man gets himself into Orko's head to find him: "If I were Orko, I'd go to the only other friend I have - the Sorceress." And he's right! He-Man is awfully good at putting himself in other people's shoes - remember in MU033's "The Starchild" when he imagined himself as a lonely little girl!
• Orko's magic: when he first sees the Talgoth, a terrified Orko rolls his body up into his hat, which drops onto the ground.
• It hardly needs mentioning, but the Sorceress's magical look into what life would be like without Orko is very much like the premise behind Frank Capra's classic It's a Wonderful Life. The hypothetical reality is displayed on the Sorceress's all-purpose magical window.
• The Eternian forests just seem to be crawling with wildlife in this episode! In addition to the Talgoth and the tangle tree, we also get to see our friends the shadow beasts again. They have appeared in multiple episodes of the series, most recently in MU029's "Prince Adam No More," where they provided a sort of Greek chorus for a downhearted Beast Man. In this episode they appear only briefly, seemingly only as a tool to show just how inept our drained heroes have become.
• Man-at-Arms has a sonic disruptor on his wrist and Teela wields a sort of bo staff - though due to the Talgoth's influence, neither items are put to good use!
• He-Man calls Talgoth a "legendary monster," which puts this episode into the sub-category of "only a legend."
• He-Man's pre-PSA advice to Orko (and Orko's own subsequent PSA message), that running away is no way to solve a problem, is very similar to the PSA from Man-at-Arms at the end of MU052. Also see MU037.
• A rare episode for the fact that it has no Evil Warriors, no vehicles, and (most unusual) I couldn't locate a single instance of a reused animation loop from my list.

• Animation error: The flask of orange liquid on Man-at-Arms's work table that tips over and starts a fire does so twice in a row.
• Since Man-at-Arms knows that he can't lift the cabinets or storage unit that has pinned Orko, why doesn't he try putting out the fire in his lab instead? Do something useful with yourself, Duncan! Unless, in addition to there being no royal fire department, there are also no such things as fire extinguishers in Eternos...?
• Animation error: The animation of He-Man ostensibly leaping over the lab fire has him jumping after he's crossed the flames.
• Animation error: In the scene where Orko and Cringer are "helping" Teela in the kitchen, Cringer's eyebrows are incorrectly colored the same orange as his stripes. There are also several scenes of Cringer seen from a distance, where he appears to have no eyebrows at all.
• This episode features a nice aerial shot of what I assume is the Evergreen Forest, and a river cutting through it.
• Interesting that everyone panics when they can't find Orko, but no one wonders what happened to Cringer! If I were the tiger, I'd be pretty miffed by the end of the day! Maybe you just expect a cat to wander where it will when you let it run loose.
• In the quick montage where He-Man and Teela are wandering around questioning Eternians about Orko, Fisto is seen breaking a boulder into smaller pebbles. I like to think that he has a contracting company that supplies gravel for landscaping.
• I like the extra Orko goof that Randor sticks in, of the Trollan having started the day by spilling orange juice on the royal personage.
• Given all the trouble Orko actually has caused in the series so far, it's pretty hard to agree with the Sorceress's (perhaps not altogether genuine) assertion that he is "much less trouble" than he thinks. Overlooking the "helping" he did in this episode, and all the smaller-scale issues involving a water- or egg-drenched Duncan: Orko summoned a demon that could have destroyed all Eternia in MU017; released MU067's insatiable Energy Beast; and was indirectly the cause of sending the power sword back in time in MU003. This is not to mention the times when Orko just being Orko caused problems that required his friends' assistance, as when he managed to lose his magic in MU045, got himself turned evil in MU023, or had a tantalizing "secret" in MU048. The little Trollan is just lucky that all this thoughtlessly catastrophic behavior is offset by the few really helpful things he's done, like swapping out the Starseed in MU035's "The Search," assisting in the defeat of the wicked Masque in MU040, or recovering He-Man's power sword in MU056's "Quest for the Sword." And of course, there are many more Orko-sourced hijinks yet to come! I could try listing them but I think this entry has been long enough.
• If you just barely made it to Grayskull because a giant monster drained you of your energy... wouldn't you mention that first, upon arriving? Jumping Eternian Jesus, Orko! Get your priorities straight!
• The Sorceress claims that the Talgoth uses people's "strengths for evil." The explicit danger that Orko imagines is that of the Talgoth acquiring the talents of his friends. So when Teela, Duncan, and He-Man are getting drained, why don't we see evidence of the Talgoth being able to create/use cool gadgets like Duncan, do crazy flips like Teela, or punch through rocks like He-Man? Or, at the least, shouldn't it gain the ability to talk, instead of just shrieking at everyone?
• He-Man's solution to the Talgoth problem is to just make a quick hole in the ground and throw it down there, assuming that it will take it a while to climb back out again. That's some pretty lame problem-solving, He-Man. Definitely not future-proof! Though to be fair, throwing monsters down holes, or burying them, is his go-to. It's what he did to MU067's Energy Beast and MU022's Yog, among others.
• A silly little episode. I like Orko well enough when he's a goofy-but-equal member of the hero team, but feel like the character has morphed over the progress of the show into a walking, talking object lesson, or a sort of substitute child, whose hijinks are nothing but fodder for moralizing. Lesson-heavy episodes like this one furthermore pull the focus from the fantasy escapism that one really wants from He-Man.