Drew Lawrence

Bill Reed

Poor Mekaneck gets sad sometimes, especially when he plays chupra with the palace kids; it's because they remind him of his own son Philip, lost in the same storm that gave Mekaneck his bionic neck. Good news, Mekaneck! Your son is alive and well - and a kidnapped pawn of the evil Count Marzo! Now Marzo plans to reveal his useful hostage in a bid to take over all Eternia.

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

N/A

Eternian boys (including Derek), Philip, Eternian citizens (including market vendor), Count Marzo, Chimera, gargoyles ("pterodactyls"), bee people, Jawlik, looma

Battle Ram, land speeder, Attak Trak

In the royal palace's courtyard, bionic hero Mekaneck is playing a disc-throwing game with a pair of young boys. Man-at-Arms approaches one of the boys, Derek, to ask if he's having a good time. Derek replies that he has fun with Mekaneck but has noticed that sometimes the fellow seems a bit sad. Duncan explains that Mekaneck's very real sadness is due to his having lost his own son, who is about the same age as Derek. In a flashback sequence, we see Mekaneck sitting in the forest on Dragon Mountain, listening to his son Philip play a flute. The hero hopes that some day the child's dream of playing before the king and queen will come true; but a sudden storm approaches which proves so fierce that Philip is literally blown away. After the storm has died down, Mekaneck wanders about in vain trying to find his son, eventually collapsing due to an injury to his neck. This is how Man-at-Arms found him, subsequently saving him with emergency surgery involving the insertion of a prosthetic neck (and, we assume, a snappy and offensively appropriate new name).

Ever since, Mekaneck has pledged his loyalty to the king, but though he's returned several times to the site of Philip's disappearance, Mekaneck has found no trace of his son. We viewers don't remain in ignorance for long on the subject of Philip's whereabouts, however, since the following scene shows the boy safe and sound in the Eternos marketplace, being directed in some shady endeavors by the evil Count Marzo (a villain encountered in two previous episodes). It turns out the count rescued the boy off the mountain and has taught him to play the flute so well that he can mesmerize listeners, such as market vendors, allowing Marzo to sneak in and steal their gold. But Philip, being morally pure and annoyingly righteous, refuses to go along with Marzo's schemes and stops playing mid-theft, forcing the count to skedaddle and drag the boy away with him. Clearly our villain is going to have to find some other use for his child hostage - and he has a Plan B in mind already!

At the palace, we learn of the king and queen's impending visit to the bee people, which will inexplicably involve a long trip across the desert. Mekaneck is tapped to lead the escort, then wanders off alone to mope about his missing son. Suddenly, Philip's floating ghostly head appears in the sky above him. Mekaneck thinks he's starting to crack up, but Count Marzo teleports in to reassure the hero of his continuing sanity. The count introduces himself and says he'll be happy to reunite the father and son, on one condition: that Mekaneck hand over the king and queen of Eternia. Marzo has strong ideas about what's due to him because of his royal blood, and also really wants to hear people call him "King Marzo." Mekaneck is horribly torn, but in the end can't bring himself to treasonously betray his adopted king to get his son back. A balked Marzo zaps himself away, threatening future reprisals.

Mekaneck seems to have run right to Duncan with news of his encounter, since in the following scene Man-at-Arms is relating the story to Prince Adam. They realize they will need to be extra watchful on the royal trip through the desert, so Adam and Cringer decide to come along. In fact, a full-fledged Eternian caravan makes its way over the sands, with Mekaneck on the Battle Ram, the royal family and Cringer in a land speeder, and Man-at-Arms, his daughter, and Orko bringing up the rear on the Attak Trak. Mekaneck scouts the road ahead beyond some rocks and finds a lovely oasis in an old, vine-covered fort, where he and the royal couple enter to take a rest stop. The Trak chooses this moment to break down, leaving Duncan and fellow passengers outside. The prince approaches, suspicious of the fort because he doesn't remember encountering it on any of his previous jaunts into the desert. His suspicions prove well-founded when Marzo appears to zap the nearby cliff and block the entrance with rocks! The oasis, it appears, was all a tantalizing illusion.

Adam and Cringer transform into their alter egos and bust their way inside the fort; but Marzo has his muscular minion Chimera grab the king and queen and make off with them, and distracts He-Man, Battle Cat, and Mekaneck with a pair of gargoyle-type creatures that we've seen him employing in a previous episode. Mekaneck is absolutely no help; he even manages to get himself grabbed by one of the winged monsters, and He-Man must make an exciting dive to rescue the guy when he gets dropped. Punching a way to freedom, He-Man leads Mekaneck back over to the others to update them on the terrible events that have just transpired. The heroes decide, with very little evidence, that Marzo's hideout must be somewhere nearby, and split up into some very uneven parties to look for it. Teela volunteers to climb the rocks to get a good view of the surrounding countryside, while everyone else traipses over the sand.

The hidden entrance to Marzo's base is discovered by a bored Orko, who just happens to toss a rock at the magically hidden doorway. The rock vanishes, giving him a clue that something funny is afoot. Avoiding some very real and very spiny cacti, He-Man, Battle Cat, Mekaneck, and Orko make their way inside, with Man-at-Arms opting to watch the entrance and maybe play some games on his phone. Inside, Marzo has indeed imprisoned the king, queen, and Philip, advising them to stay where they are or risk rousing the dangerous Jawlik. Inevitably, the prisoners do just that, and Philip is able to show off his Orpheus-level flute-playing abilities to send the giant spider creature to sleep. (It's also worth noting that Philip's childhood dreams from earlier have come true, since he's played his flute before the king and queen.) In his attempt to flee, Philip fails to look where he's going and trips over a stone, sending him careening into a chasm which proves a nest for "loomas." He manages to save himself by clinging to the grid-like structure on one wall, but is menaced by one of the loomas (it's basically a giant bee or wasp).

Fortunately, He-Man and co. choose this moment to make a well-timed appearance, fresh from a short and decisive battle against Chimera (He-Man tossed him into a puddle - that showed him!). He-Man throws his power sword to cut down a swath of webbing that drapes over the threatening looma, driving it off and leaving Mekaneck free to lower his neck into the looma pit and pull his long-lost son up into his arms. Teela also then shows up with her savior, Buzz-Off. The bee man decided to check up on the royal party after they failed to appear at his place, and spotted Teela just as she slipped and fell off the slippery cliffside while being menaced by Marzo's gargoyles (or "pterodactyls," as she calls them). Marzo appears at this point to threaten our blonde wonder, but after some verbal sparring with He-Man (perhaps sensibly realizing he's greatly outnumbered), simply teleports himself away.

End with a Joke: Looking on as Mekaneck and his son embrace, He-Man comments, "That's where a father and son belong," while behind him we can see our human beefcake's own father (if only he knew it!), Randor. Ah, dramatic irony; a great way to end any episode!

• Derek: Yeah Man-at-Arms, it's fun to play with Mekaneck. But sometimes, he doesn't seem very happy. / Man-at-Arms: He isn't! And playing games with you reminds him of his son.
• Man-at-Arms: His neck was in bad shape, but I managed to give him a bionic neck. Being a grateful man, Mekaneck decided afterward to remain here and serve King Randor.
• Philip: You taught me the beautiful melodies to help you cheat people. Well that's wrong! / Count Marzo: You ungrateful wretch; when I found you, you were wandering, lost. I saved you - and this is the thanks I get.
• Mekaneck (sitting alone and talking to himself): Philip, my life is so lonely without you.
• He-Man: Up to your old tricks, eh, Marzo? / Count Marzo: He-Man; well, we meet again. Glad you could drop by. I have some new tricks up my sleeve that I've been saving just for you.
• Buzz-Off: I have a funny feeling all day in my antennae. (I think they have a cream for that, Buzz-Off.)
• Marzo: You know, it is difficult for people like me to make a better life for themselves in Eternia when there are people like you around. / He-Man: That's because your idea of a better life doesn't include anyone else but you, Marzo. / Marzo (laughing): I've lived for thousands of years, He-Man; and I will outlive you. In the end, we'll see who rules Eternia.

N/A

One full

Brought to you by Teela
Teela evinces great restraint by not making any complaints about how all her heroic comrades abandoned her to try to scale a slippery cliff wall all by herself, for no good reason. Instead, she recalls the scene where she falls off the cliff as one of two instances in the episode that should remind us to be careful when we're climbing or walking around. Look where you're going and you won't hurt yourself! Wow - they clearly had to scrounge around to find a lesson in today's episode... (Man-at-Arms had a similarly difficult time finding a lesson worth mentioning in the previous episode, MU121.)

Count Marzo episodes
Skeletor-less episodes in Season 2

• This third Filmation appearance for Mekaneck will also include his "origin story," if you can call the flashback in the opening an origin story - it could basically be summed up in four words: "He hurt his neck." This time around, Mekaneck's voice sounds much more mechanical than it has in his previous two appearances (MU079 and MU116).
• We first see Mekaneck playing a game of catch with what looks like a frisbee, but which the Eternians refer to as a "chupra." It also kind of reminds me of the throwing discs from the movie Tron (1982).
• There are several young boy character designs in this episode, none of which are quite ripped off of any earlier designs. We have already met a boy character named "Phillip" (MU076), but he was not Mekaneck's son, didn't look quite the same, and was much more of a jerk; so I've chosen to spell this Philip's name differently. If this Philip looks like anybody, it's the young David, Duke of Abra from MU058's "The Once and Future Duke" - a not very surprising coincidence, given today's returning villain.
• In the flashback we hear that Mekaneck was visiting "Dragon Mountain," a new location in the series. There was a somewhat dragon-shaped mountain on the ancient Dragasaur Isle of MU008's "The Time Corridor," but there does not seem to be any relation between the two.
• The aerial view shown of Eternos's marketplace has been used before, in MU098 and MU101.
• Hey everybody: Count Marzo's back! He looks exactly the same, but he sounds different: gruffer and less snooty than he did in MU058's "The Once and Future Duke" or MU112's "The Eternia Flower." As usual, he is in the business of corrupting young boys.
• In announcing his impending trip to visit the bee people, King Randor mentions that the bee people's home is located in the Evergreen Forest, something that wasn't quite clarified the last time we met them (MU103's "The Good Shall Survive"). This seems logical enough; what doesn't make any sense is Duncan's later assertion that it will require a "caravan across the desert" to reach the forest. Maps we've been shown previously of Eternia (we've seen a few, but I always think back to the first one, featured in my favorite MOTU episode MU034) have consistently indicated that the royal palace is located in a fertile plain that is just south of the Evergreen Forest - with no pesky desert in between.
• An interesting silver vehicle features in this episode, first appearing in a panning shot of Eternos's hangar bay, just next to the Battle Ram. It's highly reminiscent of Luke's land speeder from Star Wars. The choice of inspiration does not seem to have been an accident, as the vehicle is subsequently used to carry the royal family across the desert, just like old Wormy hitting the wastes of Tatooine. I thought we hadn't seen this vehicle in the series before, but I'd forgotten about MU040. In that episode we can see Melaktha and his associates use the same vehicle to cruise the Sands of Time in search of the temple of Shokoti.
• The fort in the desert is likely reused from the old castle in MU008's "The Time Corridor," which also served as Baron Grod's castle in MU063's "The Huntsman."
• Also reappearing with Count Marzo is his righthand thug, Chimera - looking pink and hairless, as he did in his last appearance (MU112), and not gray and be-afroed, as he did in his first appearance (MU058). In an interesting switcheroo, however, this pink instance of Chimera has the same power of teleportation displayed by his original, gray form. (I feel like I'm talking about Pokemon here!)
• And also being reused from an earlier Count Marzo episode are the gargoyle creatures he summons, apparently as part of a "new trick" that he has up his sleeve. The gargoyles are not new, except in the fact that they are blue instead of brown; Orko forcibly befriended one that was in Marzo's castle in MU058. When Teela eventually catches sight of the creatures, she refers to them disappointingly as "pterodactyls," which I don't think is a very accurate name, especially considering we've seen other monsters in MOTU that look much more like that dinosaur (see for instance just the previous episode, MU121, where He-Man and Orko visited a dimension full of pterodactyl-ish critters).
• Though I wasn't able to spot any of my usual library of animation loops being used in this episode, there are still several sequences which we've seen many times before. For He-Man to make a swooping dive to snatch a plummeting Mekaneck out of the air, the animators reuse a familiar animation which was originally used to show him diving into water. See for instance MU028.
• Covering for his old secret identity in the usual way, He-Man assures a questioning Teela that Prince Adam is "safe" and is not needed for the royal rescue mission. Not worried about his missing mom and dad, eh? Just wandered off? All right, then!
• The scenes with the bee people storing their honey thermoses for the winter are ripped off frame-for-frame from the beginning of MU103, except that Buzz-Off has been inserted into them. This is our bee hero's fourth appearance in the series, in an episode that has proven to have a remarkably high Heroic Warrior character count!
• In one of the story's later scenes, we see Marzo very surprisingly posing right next to his Well of Forgetfulness from MU058. Since this well featured prominently in his first evil scheme, and was the source of all sorts of amnesiac hijinks, you'd think the heroes would have destroyed it after defeating him back then; or you'd think Marzo would have, since he ended that episode having accidentally fallen into it himself! (We never did learn how he shook off that case of amnesia, but you'd think it would leave him with bad...memories...)
• Marzo warns his captives that they might rile "the Jawlik," which turns out to be a giant spider. There have been many giant spiders in the series over the years, and we've seen this model before: it was Fisto's pet spider Arachna from back when Fisto used to be evil, as seen in MU070; and it was also hiding in the abyss around Grayskull in the important MU110. (I had to wade through a lot of spiders to make this identification, so I hope you're impressed!)
• Due to a PSA-worthy failure to look where he's going, Philip trips and falls into what Randor calls "a pit of loomas," revealing yet another insectoid creature: this one just looks like a giant bee. It's much better drawn than the giant bees He-Man recently encountered in the Beast's maze in MU117.
• Mekaneck reveals an ability to see through walls in the final minutes of the episode, as he is able to spot the king and queen in the next cave over. The view through his goggles is not the same as when we saw through them in his debut appearance (MU079).
• He-Man uses his old Judo throw to take down "Blinky" (AKA Chimera), a move we've seen him use in MU043, and which was most recently used by Earth astronaut Major Andrea Steele in MU119.
• In another reused trick, He-Man tosses his power sword boomerang-like to cut down a web that I can only assume belongs to the Jawlik. We saw him use this same talent in MU110 and MU114.
• I got a big surprise at the end of the episode, when Marzo calmly mentions that he's "lived for thousands of years." You have?!!? And you still thought it was a good idea to create an army of teens by hooking them on an intoxicating flower? He clearly hasn't made use of the extra years by getting any smarter.
• Another episode with the variant ending credits featuring the flat-painted Jawbridge.

• It's a little creepy that a guy who lost his son in a storm spends his time playing with other people's kids. Just sayin'.
• You would think that in the flashback that shows you how Mekaneck got his ... neck, that the hero would look different in some way: like maybe not be wearing his weird spiky hat and goggles, or maybe not sound like he already has a robotic larynx. But no: he's still dressed exactly like his action figure, and he still sounds like a robot when he's chatting with his son.
• Do you think there's a criticism of his son's flute-playing hidden in Mekaneck's comment that Philip should "learn to use it well"? As a parent, I can say that there are fewer things more difficult to endure than young children's musical performances; so Mekaneck's seeming equanimity as he sits next to his tooting boy is easily the bravest act he performs in this episode.
• It's interesting that Philip's mother is never mentioned, making Mekaneck a single parent. If we imagine that she died while Philip was a child, it makes the whole story even more heartrending. So let's do it!
• It really doesn't look like Mekaneck hurt his neck that badly in the storm. We see no evidence of anything actually striking the hero, and he is clearly able to turn his head and walk around after the storm; the only evidence of his injury is a brief moment when he raises one hand to lightly grasp his neck. Let's be real: don't you think Man-at-Arms just had a bionic neck laying around that he was itching to use on someone, and took the excuse of finding Mekaneck unconscious to make it happen? If we imagine this scenario, Man-at-Arms becomes like the sadistic surgeon in Scream and Scream Again (grisly old Vincent Price movie, if you like that sort of thing), and you can imagine Mekaneck screaming in horror when he woke up and was informed that he could now find out just how much dust was on top of his refrigerator whenever he wants.
• Also - what was Mekaneck's name before the storm? Surely he wasn't christened Mekaneck; that would be the most prophetically apt name ever.
• Man-at-Arms vaguely tells Derek that Mekaneck's son was lost "a while back;" which is wise when we stop to try to consider the chronology here. It doesn't seem to make any sense for Marzo to have had this kidnapped boy hanging around during his flower scheme of MU112, so you'd think that he didn't come upon the kid until after the events of that episode. This is hard to rectify with the fact that Mekaneck had already appeared (with his neck) in MU079, well before Marzo tried his hand at drug dealing. And of course all of this ignores the fact that Marzo ended MU112 soundly beaten by He-Man, and sent to a prison planet - but we've long had to resign ourselves to the reality that Eternia is equipped with revolving-door prisons.
• There's a brusque father-son moment, contrasting with the goopy interactions of Mekaneck and Philip, when Adam asks his father Randor whether he'll be included in the mission to the bee people. "We'll see," Randor snaps, then abruptly walks off. Geez, pops! Let him down easy, maybe.
• Marzo appears to Mekaneck in an outdoor courtyard of the palace, but I think this still technically counts ("counts" - get it?!) as another case of home invasion, and once again reinforces the notion that Man-at-Arms's formidable skills of invention should really be focused towards building some sort of anti-teleportation shield around Eternos.
• Proving that he's just as bad a kidnapper as a drug dealer, Count Marzo seems to have forgotten that one of the most important parts of making ransom demands is to ensure the person you're threatening doesn't go to the authorities. In the scene after Marzo asks Mekaneck to give up the king and queen, we discover that the hero must immediately have dished the whole scheme to Man-at-Arms. Whoops!
• There are a couple of sound effects used in this episode that sound distinctly Atari-like. One is a sort of bloop sound that's used just as Marzo teleports himself away from his meeting with Mekaneck - for some reason I found this sound hilarious. I ended up running through that scene many times while inputting the entry for this episode, and every time it made me laugh. (In fact, the bloop sound effect is repeated whenever Marzo teleports away, making for some wonderfully whimsical escapes.) The second time we hear Atari sound effects is inside of Attak Trak; the twiddling sounds played behind the vehicle's sickened voice are exactly like the sound of the spider crawling around the screen of Centipede.
• You have to wonder at Attak Trak's very convenient breakdown. Teela believes that sand has gotten into the circuits, which seems entirely plausible; but it certainly aided Marzo's plans to have most of the heroic party stranded a distance from the fort when the royal kidnapping went down!
• He-Man appears completely balked by the fact that Chimera flees with the king and queen, exiting through a brick wall which splits apart and then reseals itself after him. Oh no! A brick wall! He-Man certainly hasn't punched his way through literally one hundred of those... He does eventually punch his way through, but it seems to be played up as more of an obstacle than it should be. Honestly, I'm pretty sure I've seen He-Man leap over walls as tall as those of the fort - he's certainly managed it on the back of Battle Cat, who is just nearby - so this shouldn't have slowed him down. And, in writing all this, I completely forgot that He-Man already made a perfectly good hole in the fort's wall to get inside of it in the first place! There was no need to make a new one.
• Did anyone else notice how completely unhelpful Mekaneck was during the confrontation with Marzo? Shameful! Rather than stop or even slow down the villains, or provide any assistance with the gargoyle creatures, Mekaneck instead manages to get himself grabbed by one of the winged monsters, forcing He-Man to waste valuable time rescuing him. In the end, the necky hero might as well have helped Marzo kidnap the king and queen - the results would have been about the same!
• There's a legitimately funny Orko moment in this episode, just after He-Man returns to the Attak Trak to tell the Trollan, Teela, and Man-at-Arms the bad news about the king and queen. "Oh no, we'd better find them - fast!" cries Orko, and exits off the right side of the screen. He-Man completely ignores him and walks the other way; a couple seconds later, Orko returns, muttering, "Where do we start?"
• He-Man suggests that the heroes split up; the resulting division of labor seems to consist of He-Man, Orko, Battle Cat, Mekaneck, and Man-at-Arms in one party; and in the other party... Teela. Yeesh - sexist much? The show is usually better at equality than this! The A-Team then completely fails to notify Teela when they've found the secret entrance to Marzo's hideout, and leave her to scale the slippery rocks outside. She actually slips and falls off the rocks, and is only saved from certain death by the fortunate arrival of Buzz-Off. Way to go, He-Man! (You probably can't tell how sarcastic I was being when I wrote that, but I was totally being sarcastic.)
• I think we can assume that Philip isn't aware of his father's bionic neck until Mekaneck uses it to reach down to save the kid in the closing minutes of the story. Must have been quite a shock! It's easy to imagine a startled Philip losing his grip on the cage-like walls of the pit in his surprise. How would that be for some dark irony?
• All Marzo's posturing and egomaniacal claims in this episode make it sound as if the writers were trying to create a villain worthy to stand next to Skeletor in the Evil Warrior pantheon. Mattel seems to have disagreed on this point with Filmation, however, since the character didn't prove himself worthy of an 80s-era action figure. A "Count Marzo" was eventually released as part of the MOTU Classics line (I believe in 2010), but he looks much more chisel-jawed and grimmer (not to mention more ripped) than the Filmation Marzo. This depiction is actually based on the Marzo used in the rebooted MOTU series from 2002-2004.
• Reminding us to be careful where we step during her PSA speech, Teela smilingly recounts the moment when Philip fell into the looma pit; then she emits a light little giggle. Jeez lady, that's pretty callous; that animated kid almost died!
• This is an unremarkable but not terrible episode, which (as I suggested above, and contrary to his previous appearance in the show) does a fairly creditable job of creating a threatening enemy in Marzo. Though we're robbed of any final confrontation between the count and our title character, it's only fair to point out that running away at the end instead of fighting is pretty much what Skeletor always does, too. I enjoyed seeing the huge number of characters featured in this story, and it's one of those rare Season 2 episodes that makes use of Battle Cat. This will be the only MOTU script given to us by writer Drew Lawrence.