John Curtin

Lou Kachivas

Our heroes meet young Prince Glitch, a fear-filled failed recruit of Skeletor's. Prince Adam takes the boy under his wing and attempts to put him on the straight and narrow; but Skeletor is not done messing with the little coward - or our Eternian friends!

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

Skeletor, Clawful, Evil-Lyn, Webstor (mentioned only)

Glitch, Skeletor's robot minions, tentacled flowers, owl, Glitch's father, Sallasian guards, Eternian guards

Stratoblaster, Wind Raider, Sallasian stalactite ship

It's King Randor's birthday, and Orko has created a huge multi-tiered chocolate cake in honor of the occasion. He also has a weird, color-changing rock, which apparently can grant the king a birthday wish. Orko asks the king what he would like; an indecisive Randor (a poor trait for kings to have, by the way) hems and haws and requests that Orko "wait;" so naturally Orko conjures a 1-ton "weight," which promptly drops on the cake, splattering everyone.

A despondent Orko, contemplating how the show writers always insist on putting him in these situations, wanders out into the palace courtyard and finds a shiny new Stratoblaster tied up with a ribbon: it's the king's present from everyone. Having learned nothing from the events immediately preceding (and, as noted, a slave to his sadistic writers), a curious Orko unties the ribbon. The cockpit of the Stratoblaster automatically slides open; concerned that it might rain and ruin the beautiful new interior, the Trollan slips into the seat, just to find the controls to lock it back up again. Guess what happens? Yep: He accidentally launches the ship at full speed, with himself trapped inside.

Already headed out to cheer up Orko, our heroes appear on the scene and see the problem. Man-at-Arms and Teela jump into the Wind Raider to chase down the rogue craft, while Adam lamely tells them he has something else to do, and turns into He-Man as soon as they're out of sight. Given that he's left himself with no vehicle, we'll have to wait for He-Man to catch up to the action. In the meantime, the Wind Raider tracks Orko to a refuse heap just near Snake Mountain. A spy-happy Skeletor is aware that he has an intruder, and heads out with Evil-Lyn, Clawful, and a team of robot minions to make things uncomfortable for Orko and crew. Also present at Snake Mountain for reasons that are hard to understand is a young boy named Glitch, who apparently thought it would be a good idea to join the Evil Warrior team but has clearly had a change of heart - he's very unenthused at the prospect of roughing up some heroes. So it's just the more usual suspects who face off against Orko and his friends - and He-Man, who shows up just in time to help wipe the floor with the enemy.

After the scuffle, a very disappointed Skeletor (who, let it be known, was the first one to flee when things went pear-shaped) bemoans the cowardice and incompetence of his minions. To test their resolve, he creates a pit in the area abutting his conference room and stretches a laser tightrope across, daring the lackeys to walk it. Evil-Lyn and Clawful each cross safely, but when Glitch's turn comes he is too terrified to make the attempt. A disgusted Skeletor decrees the boy's expulsion, commanding that he find his way through the scary Enchanted Forest. Man-at-Arms is taking such a long time repairing the busted Stratoblaster out in the trash dump that the heroes are still around to witness Clawful tossing Glitch out. Teela picks the boy up and our friends offer the luckless child a lift back to Eternos.

Glitch explains that he is a prince, the prince of Sallasia. At an audience in the royal throne room, he tells the assembled heroes that his father will be along soon to get him; until then, he just wants everyone to leave him alone. A concerned Prince Adam, perhaps seeing something of his younger self in the boy, decides that he wants to take the princeling under his wing and get him to open up. He invites the kid out into the Enchanted Forest (for which Glitch has expressed extreme distaste) and gives him a crossbow. (Cringer comes along, too.) Apparently Adam actually does know how to relate to the youth of today, because Glitch takes to him and confesses that he ran away from home and joined up with Skeletor for some excitement and adventure - and to attempt to learn courage. But it didn't work!

Speaking of Skeletor, he is still watching the heroes and wants to mess with them some more. He commands a pair of minions to go terrorize the princes. Either Bonehead's employees are very good at working from a distance, or the villain just gets lucky without the help of his minions, because Adam and Glitch are instantly menaced by some tentacled flowers. Trying to flee, Adam is tripped by the tentacles and stunned. Even though he is still terrified of the forest, Glitch knows what he has to do: leaving Cringer to watch the prince, he dashes back through the woods to the palace to fetch help. He makes it just fine, with only one scare along the way from a hooting owl. While Glitch is gone, the dazed Eternian prince is coaxed through his He-Man transformation by his tiger and does away with the dangerous plants, so that when help arrives, it's to find a recovered Adam wondering what everyone's so worried about.

Remember that "father" that Glitch mentioned earlier, who was going to come looking for him? Well, he's here! The first place Daddy visits is Snake Mountain, where he angrily bombards the place with spiky rocks before stopping to ask where his son might be. He finds a crafty Skeletor, who claims that the child has been captured by the "evil" King Randor. Glitch's father then steers his gigantic saucer-shaped rock ship over the royal palace, where he commences another stalactite bombardment. Ringing the entire city with the stone shafts, the ship then lowers onto the cylinder it has formed, closing the lid. Speaking from a control chamber in the center of the ship with buddy Skeletor at his side, the king demands his son be returned. Glitch tries to defuse the situation by explaining the truth to his father, but Skeletor zaps the king with his staff, freezing him.

Adam having invented an incredibly lame excuse to step out of sight for a moment, He-Man arrives and uses a rope and grappling hook to scale the inner stalactite wall up to the ship. There, he uses his Grayskull-infused muscles to pry the entire city-sized craft off the top of the cylinder, lessening the danger it poses to the citizenry of Eternos. He then invites Glitch to scale the rope and stand by his side at the top, where the pair face down Skeletor. The villain shows himself particularly enamored of tightrope walking in this episode, setting up another laser beam between the stalactite wall and the control chamber of the ship, and daring his enemies to walk across it. Demonstrating reckless endangerment of a minor, He-Man allows Glitch to conquer his fears by actually walking the rope - directly into the clutches of Skeletor. He-Man must then also walk the rope - nearly falling when Skeletor prematurely switches it off - and undo the villain's magic by cracking his havoc staff in half. The restored Sallasian ruler then traps Skeletor in a glass bullet-shaped chamber and launches him into the sky.

Afterwards, the heroes gather to bid a fond farewell to Glitch and his father - all except Prince Adam, who is unaccountably late and only arrives after the boy and king have climbed back aboard their gigantic ship.

End with a Joke: An annoyed Teela comments that the only thing Adam is never late for is lunch, drawing the interest of Cringer. Marlena suggests that they all "go to the kitchen and cook up some food," to which a thrilled Cringer replies, "You're a girl after my own heart." Everyone laughs at the hungry tiger, particularly Duncan.

• Skeletor (spying on a crashed but unharmed Orko): Yes, you are all right - now. We'll do our best make sure that condition doesn't persist too much longer.
• Glitch: But you promised I could go home whenever I wanted. / Skeletor: Promises come in handy; only when you can find a fool to believe them. (laughs)
• Clawful: Skeletor runs things now, but, but some day, some day I'll turn on him... / Skeletor: Silence, you fishmonger! I'll throw you back in the ocean before you ever rule Snake Mountain!
• Prince Adam: I can't stop wondering about Glitch. It might just take all the wisdom of Grayskull just to figure out what's bothering him. / Man-at-Arms: In a way, he reminds me of a boy I once knew. / Adam: I was never that hard to get close to - was I? / Man-at-Arms: Well... No, never that bad. But there were days! (chuckles)
• Skeletor: Once a coward, always a coward! (Laughs and pounds his table so hard that he breaks his spy dome) Clawful, you fool - now look what you've done!
• Glitch (to Cringer): You scared me. / Cringer: I know just how you feel.
• Glitch: Thank you, King Randor; and thank you all for putting up with me while I sorted out my problems. / Glitch's father: King Randor, from the bottom of my heart I thank you for being a friend to my son when he needed one. / King Randor: I'm sure you would have done as much for my son.

• Skeletor laughs, head back: At the prospect of having his minions mess with Orko
• Man-at-Arms laughs, head back: At the paltry ending joke

One partial (missing Cringer/Battle Cat sequence); Two full
Variation - in a unique spin on the full transformation, in its first iteration Cringer coaxes a collapsed and barely conscious Adam through the first line of his magic words. Even though the prince is not even holding his power sword, the transformation takes effect, and the rest of the sequence proceeds as usual - with a quick cut-in shot of Cringer remarking "Ooh, me and my big mouth!" before his own transformation.

Brought to you by Prince Adam
Adam, accidentally speaking in the deeper voice of his alter ego He-Man, admits to us that he used to be afraid of the dark when he was little. Our viewing audience may have something that makes them particularly afraid: water, fire, high places, or (more generically) "getting hurt." Adam assures us that this is a good thing, because it will keep us safe. Fear, children; fear! Adam then admits his own very current fear: he's afraid... it's time to go.

Wayward child learns a valuable lesson: Glitch learns the valuable skill of tightrope walking! And to not be afraid.
Everybody deserves a second chance: Also Glitch, who (since he was hanging out with Skeletor) we can consider as being "evil," even though he never seems to have taken to plundering and wickedness.

• It's King Randor's birthday! We experienced Prince Adam's birthday in MU072, and Orko's birthday in MU030. Curiously, Randor is the only character whose birthday we get to enjoy twice; it will happen again in MU129.
• Interesting that Adam tells us the big tiered birthday cake for the king is a magical one, whipped up by Orko himself. For Orko's birthday the cake was baked by Chef Alan, a royal staff member who we haven't seen since (he also isn't brought up in the ending scene, where Marlena seems to be suggesting that everyone in the palace cooks their own meals). Teela tried to bake a cake for the king and queen's anniversary in MU071 - another episode with a memorable celebration where Orko messed everything up.
• We appear to get a first glimpse of a very important part of Snake Mountain's infrastructure: the trash dump! The refuse-filled region is where Orko crashes the Stratoblaster.
• Stratoblaster, by the way, sounds very similar to Stratocaster, which is a famous model of Fender guitar. I'm not sure if that's just a coincidence or writer John Curtin announcing himself as a disciple of Rock.
• Skeletor is manning his desktop spy dome once again, ensuring that "something unfortunate" happens to anyone who visits his territory.
• Evil-Lyn appears for the first time since her inclusion in the encyclopedic evil ensemble of MU080. She wields her action-figure-accurate mace/wand in battle with the heroes.
• As other minions have done before him (notably Beast Man and, with more credibility, Evil-Lyn), Clawful mutters ambitious rants about "some day" taking over from his boss.
• Skeletor sends Glitch out through the "Enchanted Forest." In the recent "Fraidy Cat" (MU084), the kidnappers' trail led through the "Haunted Forest," which seems like a more logical focal point for Glitch's fear. But the animators seem to have confused this episode's "enchanted" region with the "Evergreen Forest," the more typical place where Adam hangs out and discovers his plotlines, and where (based on the background paintings) he and Glitch have their jaw session.
• Queen Marlena is voiced here by her some-time designated (and unsettling) substitute, Jay Scheimer.
• Adam and Duncan's conversation about Glitch as they fly in the Stratoblaster gives a tantalizing hint of Adam's slightly more troubled youth with Man-at-Arms as a father figure. The interesting suggestion is that Duncan had to manage the prince rather than his actual father. Randor, in typical kingly fashion, was perhaps a bit distant and tied up with his royal duties...this supports the idea, noted in MU083, that Adam and Teela grew up as brother and sister.
• Skeletor, enjoying his own joke too much in the midst of spying on the two forest-bound princes, pounds his spy dome into a shattered mess. It's lucky for Adam that he did, because the broken dome leaves our villain unable to witness the moment when an injured Adam transforms into He-Man. Just after He-Man has rescued himself, we cut back to Skeletor with a newly repaired desktop dome, commenting, "This should be working now..." I've noted in several other episodes (most recently in the commentary of MU086, the previous episode) the incredible coincidence that, in all of his spying, Skeletor never manages to catch that most crucial of moments that would reveal Adam's secret identity. It's very amusing and rewarding to see the writers recognizing and explaining away the issue.
• By the way, Skeletor's dome has gotten broken before! Webstor accidentally smashed his head into it in MU066.
• He-Man is conjured for the first time without Adam having to hold aloft his power sword - just by saying the first line of his magic phrase, the prince is able to trigger his transformation. Unfortunately, this rather ruins the plots of several other episodes, where Adam couldn't turn into He-Man because he couldn't reach his sword (see for instance MU085 - though Adam wouldn't have wanted to turn into He-Man in that situation anyway, since he was chained up next to several people who didn't know his secret).
• We surprisingly learn that Glitch and his father are actually from another planet! "Our tracers have tracked the prince to this planet," says Glitch's father. This somewhat undermines the big deal Man-at-Arms made about discovering alien life in MU081's "The Arena." Aliens seem to be visiting all the time!
• How's this for doing a poor job with the old secret identity? Our heroes are trapped in their own city, surrounded by stalactites. Adam, in the midst of his friends, announces, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I, uh..." trails off and leaves to turn into He-Man, earning Teela's ire, and the comment that "Prince Adam has a perfect talent for making himself scarce at times like these."
• Glitch's father is one of those characters that Filmation doesn't bother to name in the episode. According to Wiki Grayskull his name is "King Sallas," an obvious reference to the name of his kingdom (Sallasia).
• Skeletor uses his havoc staff as a freeze ray - a unique ability for the weapon that I don't think we've seen before. Also in this episode: He-Man breaks the havoc staff! Ouch.
• Kudos to Glitch's father for calling Skeletor a "deceitful blackguard" and getting some nice old-timey insulting vocabulary into the show.

• Sigh, another episode where Orko bounces heedlessly from screw-up to screw-up, and the incredibly patient responsible adults must forgive him his trespasses. MU071 already explored this theme, which fortunately is not the central one of this story. "The most important thing is that you aren't harmed" is all Man-at-Arms has to say about the Trollan's rash and destructive joyride in the Stratoblaster. He's a saint!
• Oddly, when Skeletor suggests the use of the oft-seen robot minions, he indicates that they belong to Clawful - when in past episodes they've definitely been attributed to Skeletor. Maybe old Bonehead got tired of rebuilding the things after their many smash-ups and bequeathed them to someone else! Incidentally, this will be the robots' last appearance in the regular series.
• Adam transforms to He-Man back in the palace courtyard, leaving his friends to fly off in various high-speed vehicles, then somehow manages to appear in the Snake Mountain trash yard in time to aid the other heroes in their battle with the Evil Warriors. How, exactly? Did he run all the way there? The easiest solution to this issue would be if he rode Battle Cat to the scene - it would also help explain the mysterious appearance of Cringer at the dump, after He-Man has reverted to Prince Adam. This looks to be another in a growing number of instances where the writers/animators deliberately omit Battle Cat - even in a case where it would have been more logical to include him. What makes this doubly odd is that Battle Cat does eventually appear in this episode, in two separate transformation sequences - but that's all. The cat is given nothing to do on screen.
• Skeletor's got a lot of nerve complaining to his minions about their cowardice, after he skedaddled at the first whiff of He-Man. The villain's hypocrisy is not surprising or unusual - just particularly blatant here. Not to mention enjoyable!
• It's hard to understand what would have convinced Skeletor to recruit an employee like Glitch, even as an intern or trainee. Besides the obvious fact that he's a child (and a cowardly one at that), the little prince has no obvious physical deformity or magical ability to commend him, like crab hands or a strong repellent odor. I have to assume the boy had a very impressive (fabricated) resume. We'll see Bonehead giving a few other interesting fellows a one-episode try-out later in the season, including the title "Toy Maker" of MU124 and the wormy Maddok of MU129.
• During Glitch's scene in the throne room, Randor states that he'll have Man-at-Arms contact the boy's father. This doesn't mesh with Glitch's dad's eventual appearance - he clearly has no idea who took the boy and had to use tracking equipment to arrive at Snake Mountain. What happened? Did Duncan forget to make the call?
• Continuity error (kind of): When Glitch returns to Eternos after a spooky walk through the Enchanted Forest, we are treated to an establishing shot of the oft-used terraced tower in the city. But the following shot shows Glitch, Duncan, and Teela in the palace courtyard - clearly not in the tower.
• Skeletor calls on Webstor and Clawful to antagonize Adam and Glitch as the heroes walk through the forest; but the villains don't show up, and don't seem to be responsible for the tentacle flowers that menace the heroes. It's an odd choice that seems to hint at a disconnect between the writer and animators.
• We are faced again in this story with the inconsistent issue of just how much of the planet Randor rules over. According to Skeletor, "Eternia is ruled by the evil King Randor." Obviously he's lying, but I think we're meant only to see the "evil" part as a lie. However, in just the previous episode, MU086, it seemed there were territories on Eternia (like Morainia) over which Randor had no jurisdiction.
• Glitch's father has a sick stalactite-bombarding spaceship that's so huge it can enclose the entire royal palace and surrounding buildings. Noyce.
• Two examples of very poor decision making are in evidence during the scene where Glitch walks across Skeletor's laser beam tightrope. The first is He-Man allowing a child to walk a thin wire over a deadly drop. The second is Skeletor not turning the beam off when the kid is halfway along it.
• Glitch's father's excuse for their having to leave so soon is that their "magnetic beams" are going to run out. I'll have to try that the next time I want to leave a party early.
• I'm not crazy about the larger story here, which was too lesson-heavy for my taste; but I liked the dialogue in this episode. It had some good Skeletor content and some cool vehicles.