Antoni Zalewski

Marsh Lamore

In their attempts to steal a new Wind Raider auto-pilot, Skeletor and his goons accidentally orchestrate the poisoning of He-Man by swamp water! Our powerless hero is thus at the mercy of young Drak and his grandpa, swamp people who struggle over whether to surrender their valuable prize to the villains.

Prince Adam (He-Man), Cringer

Whiplash, Trap Jaw, Skeletor

Drak, Drak's grandpa, hunter robots, swamp villagers

Wind Raider, Collector

By the ancients - there's no one flying that Wind Raider! This is the thought you might have when you see this episode's opening shot, depicting a Wind Raider flying through the sky with no one in the front seat. It's certainly the thought that Cringer has - he's napping peacefully in the back seat of the vehicle, draped over the lap of a similarly relaxed Prince Adam. Cringer wakes up enough to fully realize that no one is at the controls and, panicking, yowls his fears to Adam. But a blithe Adam calmly explains that the Raider is equipped with Man-at-Arms's latest autopilot, and will fly wherever it's told.

Down in the dungeons of Snake Mountain, Whiplash and Trap Jaw are finding out the same thing as Cringer. They're spying on the Raider with their giant spy TV. When Whiplash tells Trap Jaw that the self-flying ship surely represents an invention from the royal palace, an interested Skeletor strolls in, his bony ears all a-quiver. The villain decides he needs the machine, and orders his minions to zap it with a freeze ray. Whiplash does so, but the results are suboptimal for all involved; the Raider loses all control and crashes violently into the deep water of a nearby swamp. An annoyed Skeletor complains that an unpleasant swampy journey is now in store, and orders his lackeys to saddle up.

Meanwhile, the Raider is sinking underwater, and Cringer's tail is stuck! A desperate Prince Adam transforms into He-Man and swims down to extract the entire ship - along with his friend. When the pair are safely on shore, the Raider is found to be inoperable, and the rescue seems to have taken more out of He-Man than usual. He groggily walks over to a tree, leaning against the trunk. A following Cringer sits down on a root and accidentally triggers a trap - a thorny cage that drops over both heroes. He-Man finds he's too weak to break them out of the trap. Cringer offers to become Battle Cat to effect an escape, but He-Man is unable even to hold up his sword. Arriving to see what they've caught in the trap are an old grandfather and his young grandson, who proves to be named Drak. The swamp people are disappointed that the trap didn't catch them dinner; but looking over the strangers, Drak's grandpa quickly realizes that He-Man (who introduces himself) has been poisoned by the swamp water.

Releasing the heroes, Grandpa offers to lead He-Man to his village, where an antidote to the poison can be administered. But Drak has a better idea: they can sell He-Man to Skeletor! The nasty little kid has somehow gotten it into his head that Skeletor is an admirable and inspiring leader who will offer them money and power in return for the sickly strongman. Drak's grandpa tries to disabuse his relation of this nefarious notion, but the kid keeps pushing his idea, even as they place the disabled He-Man into a cart and Cringer begins towing the hero along the road to the village, the tow rope in his mouth.

And what is the genius freedom fighter Skeletor up to? Having packed his cronies into the Collector, the bony villain tracked down the crashed vehicle and was majorly peeved to find his prize completely ruined. In search of the vehicle's occupants, he works a handy spell with his havoc staff to conjure an image of what happened earlier at the crash site - and gets a clear picture of the weakened He-Man in a cart! Excited at the prospect of catching his foe in a vulnerable state, Skeletor plots to fly on ahead while ordering his cronies to catch up on their prey from behind. To aid his servants he unleashes a pack of "hunter robots" from his ship. The motorcycle-adjacent, animalistic robots are intended as steeds for Whiplash and Trap Jaw, but the over-eager machines zoom off before their riders-to-be can get on, rapidly tracking down the heroes and swamp people, who are currently making their way across a narrow, unrailed stone bridge spanning a seemingly bottomless gorge.

Now's the chance for our friend Cringer to show what he does best in the face of danger: run! Cringer is meant to slow down the robots while the swamp people get a head start with the He-Cart, but instead he makes a break for it. Very fortunately, the chase causes the delicate bridge to crumble behind him, and the pursuing hunter robots fall into the abyss below. Having reached the other end of the bridge, the travellers seem to have outrun their troubles, because the swamp people's village is just up ahead. But no! It turns out the village is on fire, and all of its people prove to have been kidnapped by the person who set the fire: Drak's idol, Skeletor! He-Man, even though he's still sick and barely able to lift himself up on one elbow, takes the opportunity to rub the situation in Drak's face, pointing out that Skeletor was not at all who Drak thought he was. Grandpa decides that they all really need He-Man's strength just now, and the best way to get it back is to drag their load to the source of their antidote medicine: the healing tree.

The heroes make it to the tree, but discover they've been pursued by another hunter robot which Skeletor planted in the village. It's a talkative thing, as it turns out, because even after a brave Drak has leapt onto its seat and found the control to stop it, the robot informs its quarry that it has communicated their location to Skeletor and his crew. He-Man needs time for the healing tree to take effect - time that they now realize he doesn't have. Drak once again suggests that they sell out He-Man, but this time as part of a ploy to fool Skeletor. When the villains arrive, they find Drak sitting astride the hunter robot by the covered He-Cart. The boy employs various methods to stall the bony villain, first admiring a ring he's wearing and then attempting to elicit details of Snake Mountain (it's "dark and dismal; just like any home, really"). Eventually an impatient Skeletor shakes the boy free and pulls back the blanket on the cart - revealing a sheepish Cringer. The aggravated villain takes the duplicitous boy and tiger prisoner and loads them back into his Collector.

Drak's plan worked! As we discover presently, when a fully healed He-Man emerges from a pod of the healing tree, ready to go do some punching. With Grandpa at his side, he forces his way into the Collector, wrecks the remaining hunter robots (knocking them into Whiplash and Trap Jaw), frees the prisoners (including the collection of villagers Skeletor kidnapped earlier), and - with an assist from Drak's grandpa - disarms Skeletor. The defeated villain teleports himself out of there (along with his lackeys, who got nabbed by the villagers), leaving the heroes victorious - and they even got themselves a brand-new, used Collector. We have to grudgingly admit that much of their success was due to Drak, since it was his plan they were following. Drak takes a moment to express his regret at the incredibly poor behavior he exhibited in the first half of the episode.

End with a Joke: "Well," says He-Man to his tiger companion, "that just about wraps it all up. Cringer - let's go home." A very pleased Cringer declares that "home" is his favorite word, apart from "food." Everyone laughs. Personally I think Cringer has overlooked another word that should be in his top two - "sleep."

• Whiplash: Hmm, it's probably another of those new inventions those goody-goodies at the palace keep coming up with. / Skeletor: Inventions? I always need new inventions!
• He-Man: You all right, Cringer? / Cringer: Yes, but I don't want to play submarines anymore.
• He-Man: Much as I hate using force to solve a problem - (attempts to use force to solve his problem) ... I can't understand it; I'm so weak I can hardly stand.
• Drak: But Skeletor is a genius! His magic is powerful. We need a friend like that.
• Trap Jaw (impressed with Skeletor's magic): I-I didn't know you could do that! / Skeletor: I could write a book about what you don't know.
• Trap Jaw (giving excuses to his boss): Well, it wasn't our fault the bridge collapsed. / Skeletor (mimicking): It wasn't our fault! It's never your fault! Things just seem to happen to you two.
• Skeletor: After all these years, He-Man is in my power!
• Drak (stalling for time with Skeletor): Snake Mountain! It sounds so glamorous. Tell me about it! / Skeletor: Well it's - it's uh dark and dismal. Just like any home, really.
• Skeletor: Curse you, He-Man! I shall plot your downfall at Snake Mountain. (teleports away)
• He-Man (to Drak, sounding kind of like his confessor): Evil can often look attractive. That's why we must be careful. You're not the first to be fooled.

• Skeletor laughs, head back: Enjoying Whiplash's use of his tail to activate Snake Mountain's freeze ray
• He-Man juggles his sword: The unsheathing part of the animation is used as He-Man attempts to transform Cringer (and fails)
• Skeletor leans in close to the viewer: Having discovered Cringer pretending to be He-Man
• Skeletor shakes his fists, three-quarter view: Angry that his magical bolt has been skillfully deflected by He-Man
• He-Man rolls along the ground: Smashing into some hunter robots

One partial
Variation - as he has had to do once before (see MU074), Adam makes his transformation while submerged up to his chest in deep water. Just as occurred last time, he's able to lift his sword without treading water or making any obvious attempt to stay afloat; and since he's underwater, the part of the sequence that shows him standing in a full-body pose is omitted. He still says "By the power of Grayskull" and "I have the power!" but as the second line is spoken we cut away and see Cringer sinking to the bottom of the swamp lake. Because he is in the middle of rescuing Cringer, He-Man also does not transform the tiger. (Adam will transform in water again in MU102.)

Brought to you by Cringer, He-Man, and Drak
The three characters are seen standing in a hallway of the palace, and provide a somewhat unusual PSA format since none of them speak directly to the viewing audience. Even though we just went through all this a few seconds ago, Drak recapitulates his regret at his near-betrayal of He-Man to the evil Skeletor. Drak decides that all the riches Skeletor might have given him in return for the big lug are nothing in comparison to the more abstract and metaphorical riches he's gained by his friendship with our title character. Cringer - much less convincingly - claims in turn that he and He-Man are richer for knowing Drak.

Wayward child learns a valuable lesson: Because Drak, one of the more despicable young children we've encountered in a long line of them, has to learn not to sell people out to Skeletor.

• As with MU096's "Battlecat" (one word), we again see a disconnect between the writers of the title cards and other writers of character names, as this episode's title screen has our title character's name printed without its customary hyphen. (This was the same typo we saw on the "HE MAN DAY" posters of MU067.) But this is not the only MOTU episode with "He-Man" in its title: MU019's very similarly titled "Quest for He-Man" correctly included the hyphen in its title screen - but neglected to capitalize the "man."
• Just as we saw in the previous episode (MU098), we see a detailed view of the Wind Raider's cockpit controls. This time they match the layout seen in MU074; but as in MU098, they are on the right side of the ship instead of the left.
• Adam explains to Cringer that the Raider is flying by itself using "Duncan's new auto-pilot;" however in the last episode (MU098) the ship was already capable of landing itself. I suppose being able to go wherever you tell it is a bit more advanced than a self-parking function. Recall however that we've seen ample past evidence of He-Man being able to summon vehicles by whistle, including Wind Raiders (MU014, MU019, MU027, MU038, MU052, MU066).
• Skeletor is back (along with some minions)! We haven't seen him for three whole episodes. Looking back, we see that three episodes is usually the most we go without seeing our bony friend, though there was a depressing Skeletor-less slump in Season 1 that lasted six whole episodes (MU037-MU042).
• Unusually, the villains are spying on our heroes via a large-screen TV, instead of the top of an axe or the much more common throne room desktop dome. We'll see a similar screen being used by the villains in MU106 and MU126.
• According to Skeletor, Snake Mountain has a "freeze ray;" the actual weapon, when used, doesn't act like the show's many other freeze rays. It's a bright pink beam coming from the top of the fortress that doesn't encase its target in an ice block but instead shuts off its engine. We've seen a beam projected out the top of Snake Mountain before, and it even had the same effect of causing a Wind Raider to crash; except then it was called a "nullifier ray" (see MU066).
• Whiplash speaks of capturing "more people for the mines," hinting that Skeletor and crew have a prison mine. This is a new one, at least in the context of the villains; in previous episodes we've heard that prison mines are where the good guys stick their Evil Warriors when they capture them (MU003, MU010, MU042, and MU047). We did see the villains using slave labor in a flashback provided by the Belot leader Subternius, in the otherwise unremarkable MU082.
• Skeletor shows off a very cool trick he can do with his havoc staff, twirling it and producing a shower of stars that generates an image of what recently occurred in the swampy area where he's standing. As Trap Jaw comments: "I-I didn't know you could do that!" Us neither, man.
• Another new tool of our villains: "hunter robots," which Skeletor unloads out of his Collector to aid his hapless lackeys. I was unsure whether to classify these things as vehicles or characters, but settled on putting them in the "Other characters" category, since they're called "robots" and since the things fly off without Trap Jaw or Whiplash managing to sit on them (even though they have seats and look like pretty awesome motorcycles).
• There are several familiar character designs among the assortment of swamp people Skeletor has rounded up in the prison cell of his Collector. I see Mallek (MU024, MU059), Lady Valtira (MU035), the generic old man we've seen in many village ensembles (such as MU007), the old lady disguise used by both Jarvan (MU010) and Evil-Lyn (MU007, MU021), and - I believe - Yarrow from MU070's "Fisto's Forest." In a later ensemble shot, I believe I also saw a clone of Palos from MU033's "The Starchild."
• In order to give Drak something to chat about with Skeletor and generally waste time, the boy notices a ring on the villain's finger which he doesn't usually wear (for the obvious reason that the animators would have to draw it all the time). It's a big black stone set in a gold band. Predictably, it does not appear in preceding or subsequent scenes.
• We've seen He-Man deflect bolts and laser attacks many times, but the animation used for his deflection of the hunter robot beams is particularly fancy. Energy rings form all along the length of the sword before the pink bolt shoots off again.
• We see the animators making use of He-Man's leaping/diving animation as he fights the robot hunters in the Collector. In this case, instead of getting him into a body of water or across a gorge, the move transitions into a roll.
• Skeletor uses his havoc staff to zap Drak and Cringer with a spell that puts them in a bubble - a rather strange choice, but not without precedent. Skeletor trapped Orko in a "force bubble" in MU036's "The Search." He-Man himself, in one of his odder attacks, caught Skeletor in a "zero G bubble" back in MU022.
• With Drak and Cringer in that bubble, Skeletor has a brief moment where he actually takes advantage of his hostages, ordering He-Man to stop or he will transport the pair to his mine. In the end it comes to nothing because Drak's grandpa disarms the villain - but it's an impressive few seconds, as I've noted in previous episodes a longstanding theme of villains failing to capitalize on their valuable prisoners.
• Skeletor escapes by one of his typical ploys, magically teleporting out from under his subduer. Somewhat unusually, he also makes sure to teleport his minions away - very considerate of our Bonehead! Unfortunately he's forced to leave the heroes in possession of his Collector. We recently learned he has multiple Bashers (MU088), so hopefully he has a spare of this vehicle as well!
• Note this is another episode in Season 2 that features Cringer but no Battle Cat (like MU071, MU074, MU079, MU083, or MU084). Also missing are any other Heroic Warriors apart from the tiger and Adam/He-Man.

• Animation error (?): Well not really; more of a soundtrack error. Skeletor visibly laughs at Whiplash's using his tail to flip a switch; but the voice that laughs is definitely not Skeletor's. It's deep and throaty and sounds like Trap Jaw. In reviewing this episode I managed to watch this sequence several times, and it got funnier each time.
• Animation error: A closeup of a very frightened Cringer has his eyebrows painted the wrong color - orange instead of black. (We can ask "What else is new?" on a couple of fronts, since Cringer is always scared, and his eyebrows are frequently colored incorrectly in just this way.)
• It would have been nice if this new-fangled Wind Raider was also equipped with the handy ejector seats of the one in MU098 - it would have saved our hero from swallowing all that nasty swamp water!
• There's a very obvious question we should be asking about the issue of poisonous swamp water in this episode, which for some reason it took me a long time to think of: what about Cringer? He's underwater arguably longer than He-Man, and more likely to have swallowed the nasty liquid in his panic. Why does he remain unaffected by the poison?
• The old man explains to He-Man of the thorny trap, "This is how we swamp people catch our food." But it's large enough to contain a full-grown man and a tiger! What the heck are these guys eating?
• Secret identity problems? Trap Jaw and Whiplash get a good enough look at the Wind Raider on their TV to realize that the only humanoid in it is Prince Adam; but Skeletor's subsequent havoc staff spell shows them only the sickened He-Man being towed in a cart from the crash site. Can we not connect these two dots?
• Drak - that little bastard - doesn't seem to have much of an imagination when it comes to thinking up what he can do with the treasure he thinks they can earn by selling He-Man to Skeletor. His only idea is buying a "walking-stick of gold" for his grandpa. I guess good on him for thinking of a gift for someone other than himself first? But that's a pretty lame use of money, kid. You could at least buy Grandpa a walking-stick that doubles as a sword.
• One can't help thinking - as I often do when presented with a fun Filmation character or vehicle design - that the hunter robots would have made a fantastic vehicle toy for Mattel. Once again they miss a trick here!
• Continuity error: Or what seems like one. There is an odd jump in the story, coming just after a scene about halfway through the episode where Drak and his grandpa have crossed the stone bridge with their sick He-Man, and Drak is still contemplating selling the hero out. Then suddenly we're in the midst of Drak's burning village and He-Man is saying, "It looks as if Drak is starting to understand why we fight Skeletor." It seems there really should have been like a five-second scene in between there, where the heroes arrived at the village to find it burning and we fully established that Skeletor was the one who did the deed. Instead, we have to pick up the pieces of the plot by inference - not a usual MOTU storytelling practice. It's a particularly odd point at which to skip over a scene, since Drak's discovery of Skeletor's treachery should be the big turning point in his character arc.
• Another consequence of this apparently missing scene is a delay in revealing where all the other swamp people from the village got to. For a minute or so, it seems the fire must have incinerated everyone - a pretty dark lesson for our wayward Drak! Eventually, in a subsequent scene with our villains in the Collector, the camera pans over and shows that Skeletor has all the villagers locked up in a cell. Whew!
• Also very odd that Drak somehow got the idea that Skeletor, as he says, is "fighting for a better way of life." Did Skeletor spread propaganda presenting himself as a freedom fighter against the oppressive Randor administration? That would be an interesting angle!
• Note that when Drak begins presenting his plan to his grandpa, he ties a handkerchief over the front sensor of the hunter robot - which I suppose we're supposed to believe keeps it from overhearing him, or possibly from shouting out to warn its boss when Skeletor arrives. If the latter, it's along the same lines as Princess Leia covering C-3PO's mouth slot in Return of the Jedi - doesn't make a lot of sense. Still, I like the consideration of the animators in adding this touch.
• This is another episode like the recent space pirates plot (MU090) where a contrivance is invented to keep He-Man out of action and thus delay his eventual easy resolution of the central problem. In MU090 (and in other earlier and similar examples, like MU003 and MU061) it was the theft of the power sword that kept He-Man out of the picture; here, it's poison. It's an interesting and somewhat original choice to incapacitate He-Man instead of making his appearance impossible. The closest corollary would be MU092, when He-Man's misplaced trust in Squinch got him knocked out by some green gas.
• As I've already noted, Drak may rank the highest in a long list of naughty children for his selfish desire to betray He-Man to the villains. We've had some misbehaving kids before but very few on this scale! To give a few examples: Phillip of MU076's "The Ice Age Cometh" refused to accept responsibility for his mistakes, indirectly leading to Icer almost freezing Eternia. But he didn't give up the northern base to Icer on purpose; he just messed up on guard duty (and, as I argued in the commentary, some of the blame for his mistakes has to fall on Randor and his questionable hiring practices). Adam's cousin Jeremy of MU021 was a real jerk, but he didn't realize he was being fooled by Evil-Lyn into betraying Man-at-Arms; he just thought it was a prank. And consider the nearly blameless Podi of MU037, whose only crime was running away instead of owning up to having hit a ball through a window. Perhaps the closest kid in naughtiness to Drak is MU087's Glitch, who also thought it would be a good idea to join up with Skeletor; but Glitch very clearly changed his mind almost immediately after signing up, and caused very little actual damage to anyone (mostly because he was so bad at being bad). In contrast, Drak's continued and active arguments in favor of betraying Eternia's protector look especially villainous, regardless of what delusional ideas he may have gotten about the anti-heroic appeal of Skeletor. To make up for it, Drak's turnaround proves comparatively drastic, with him performing an impressive capture of a robot hunter and then devising the plan that saves everyone. I suppose all that heroism balances the books, Drak - but I'm watching you! (There are a few more entries still to come in the "wayward child" category, but - spoiler - none of them features a child as dastardly as Drak starts out.)