Robert Lamb

Lou Kachivas

Skeletor tries to control the power of some mystical comets by capturing their keeper, Zagraz - a character we met way back at the beginning of Season 1. But Zagraz is a very uncooperative hostage, and without his tutelage, the comets go berserk!

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

Two Bad, Skeletor

comets (including Doodles), Zagraz

Attak Trak, Wind Raider, Roton

It's a pyrotechnic display of wonder and beauty! Our friends Teela, Prince Adam, and Orko look on in awe as the comet keeper, Zagraz, conducts his comet pets through a symphony of dancing lights and colorful explosions. Afterwards, Zagraz introduces his appreciative audience to the youngest comet - clearly the favorite - named Doodles. Doodles, who doesn't always do what he's told but has a "very good heart," reminds Adam of a certain Trollan troublemaker. Orko requests to play with Doodles some time, and the heroes request an encore. What the comet keeper doesn't know is that he has another, more sinister audience, watching by spy dome: Skeletor and his minion, Two Bad! Skeletor remarks that Zagraz is putting his powerful pets to paltry use with his performance - there are plenty of amazingly evil things that he, Skeletor, would do with them if given the chance. Two Bad (perhaps with bad judgment) finds it necessary to remind his boss of the terrible things that happened the last time Skeletor tried to mess with Zagraz's cosmic comet (see MU001's "The Cosmic Comet," from way back at the beginning of the series). Skeletor, remembering that the only reason he could control the cosmic comet was because it was already evil, realizes that he doesn't need to control the comets directly; he just needs to control the guy who controls the comets.

Pleased with having settled on his evil plot for the day, Skeletor orders Two Bad right out to Zagraz Mountain to kidnap a comet keeper. The minion does as he's told, arriving just as Adam and party depart in the Attak Trak, and grabbing hold of the magical hippie. As soon as Zagraz is taken away, a pall of dark clouds descends over the mountain, lightning and thunder gather, and the comets start going crazy. Taken to Snake Mountain, Zagraz is forced to have a long conversation with Skeletor about how evil his kidnapper is. Prince Adam, now returned to the royal palace and looking out over a scenic expanse of Eternia from a high balcony, Cringer by his side, sees the comets whirling around again, much closer to Eternos than they should be. He receives a somewhat panicked call from Man-at-Arms and rushes down to the lab, where Duncan shows him video evidence of the comets running wild throughout Eternia. Tidal waves, sandstorms, avalanches - these comets are wreaking havoc! Fortunately no one has yet been hurt, but at least one comet seems to be headed toward the palace! Duncan urges his friend to transform into He-Man and do some protecting, so Adam gets right to it. In the hangar bay, He-Man finds Teela looking under the hood of the nearest Wind Raider, and invites her to join him on his mission. The pair head off into the skies, where they quickly tangle with the menacing comet. In the scuffle, He-Man just barely avoids falling to his death, and has to catch a crumbling tower struck by the celestial body.

This immediate catastrophe averted, the heroes decide to head off to Zagraz Mountain to get some answers, since the keeper hasn't been answering his phone. They find the mountain shrouded in black clouds, and nearly crash their ship coming in for a landing. Zagraz is not in his usual spot; but the pair don't have to spend long wondering where he's gone, since Skeletor's floating head appears in the sky to brag that he has the keeper, and will soon have control over the comets - giving him the ability to break into Grayskull. He-Man and Teela must fight off another swooping attack of comets before they can jump back in their Raider and head for Snake Mountain to do some rescuing.

Having for once actually expected this, and further alerted to the heroic approach by the triggering of his intruder alarm, Skeletor gives Two Bad the OK to fire off his "pulsar" defense system. The ray, which is emitted from Snake Mountain's snaky eye, stalls the engines of the Wind Raider, forcing He-Man to make a thrilling emergency landing by means of a grappling hook and rope. The ship still ends up landing in a muddy swamp, necessitating a messy tow out of the muck. By this time, Two Bad has been sent out in the Roton to take care of the heroes - or at least slow them down, so Skeletor can finally convince a stubbornly defiant Zagraz to control the comets for him. But Two Bad's attack ultimately has the opposite of its intended effect, since He-Man spins the baddie out of the Roton's cockpit and into a nearby mud puddle, and he and Teela hop in instead, using the vehicle to gain easy entry to the fortress.

In Snake Mountain's throne room, the heroes interrupt Skeletor in the midst of berating a manacled Zagraz. He-Man sternly breaks Skeletor's staff in two. As they're tussling and having a thought-provoking argument about how much Skeletor loves fighting, the perimeter alert sounds again, and Zagraz explains that little Doodles has found its way here. Skeletor, claiming that he can handle one measly comet, magically reassembles his staff and runs to the mouth of his mountain, hitting the comet a few sound zaps to the midsection. It carries on, however, plowing into the fortress and sending Skeletor running down a hallway, where a heavy metal door clangs down behind him (does Snake Mountain have a panic room?).

The villain (temporarily, at least) out of the picture, He-Man breaks Zagraz free of his shackles, and the keeper rushes to cradle a weakened Doodles in his arms. For a few tragic seconds, it seems that Skeletor's magic has done for the little cheese puff; but it miraculously recovers, to everyone's delight.

End with a Joke: Since Orko isn't around, this episode's final joke is given to us at the expense of Skeletor. Having locked himself behind that metal door for a little while, the villain emerges again, checking to see if the coast is clear. The revived Doodles comes right at him, chasing Skeletor all the way out the mouth of his fortress and down into the mud puddle, where he joins his minion, Two Bad. Grumbling at his unfortunate situation, Skeletor gets an attempted cheering-up from Two Bad, who says: "Oh, I don't know if it's too bad. Yeah, it just takes some gettin' used to." Afterwards, He-Man and Teela look on indulgently as an elated Zagraz, back on his mountain, enjoys the company of his restored comets - especially little Doodles, who gets a chuckle-filled hug.

• Zagraz: This is my little one - Doodles. He's very timid, don't ya know; and he sometimes doesn't do everything I tell him. But he has a very good heart. / Orko: Gee, he reminds me of someone. / Adam: Yeah, reminds me of you, little buddy. / Orko: Yeah! That's right!
• Skeletor (sounding very unimpressed): Yes, it is pretty amazing. But what a waste - he plays with them! All that power, and he plays with them!
• Skeletor: Ooh, I feel so much better when I do something bad! (cackles)
• Zagraz: You're causing a great deal of trouble. / Skeletor: Don't I always? ... I never, ever do anything for goodness sake. Everything I do is for the sake of evil. / Zagraz: But there's some good in everybody. / Skeletor: Not in this body. (laughs)
• Skeletor (to He-Man): How did you get so smart, muscle head?
• Skeletor (to Two Bad): Of course it's He-Man! (to the audience) They say two heads are better than one, but I think they're wrong.
• Zagraz: Saving the world for you to rule is not saving it. / Skeletor: That's your opinion. / He-Man: And mine, Skeletor. / Skeletor: He-Man! Who let you in? The door was locked. / He-Man: We let ourselves in - and you need a new door.
• He-Man (sighing): Fighting is all you ever think about. / Skeletor: You're wrong! I think about ruling all Eternia more than I think about fighting. Fighting is a close second.

• Skeletor shakes his fists, three-quarter view: To emphasize the extent of his evilness; and during the PSA, an extended and hilariously laugh-filled version of the loop is used as Teela explains how much Skeletor loves fighting
• Skeletor leans in close to the viewer: Explaining to Zagraz that it's better to rule by fear
• Skeletor rolls along the ground: After being thrown by He-Man

One partial (missing Cringer/Battle Cat sequence)

Brought to you by Teela
Teela advises us against fighting, which she claims is what Skeletor always resorts to (even though we've seen him resort to running away quite a bit more often). She also states that He-Man, in contrast, always tries to avoid fighting - another claim which gets made a lot, but I think is contradicted by actual animated evidence.

Appearance of Zagraz and mystical comets

• Finally - after one hundred twenty-four episodes (give or take), we have the long-awaited return of Zagraz the Comet Keeper! Zagraz's first episode, MU001's "The Cosmic Comet," could be considered the first episode of the He-Man cartoon. By some listings of episodes, it is.
• Two Bad tries to remind Skeletor of the "trouble you had the last time you tried to use a comet," beginning a short reminiscence of the plot of MU001. But Two Bad definitely wasn't in that episode, so it's hard to see why he'd remember. The title comet of that plot had turned evil after its partner was accidentally destroyed by Zagraz, making it vulnerable to the influence of the Evil Warriors. In this episode we don't concern ourselves with the new pairing of comets created at the end of that story; the main comet character is a surprisingly unpaired little fella named "Doodles." Sigh...
• We find Adam and Cringer looking out over a high balcony in the royal palace - possibly attached to the prince's bedroom, though that's not entirely clear. Adam and Cringer were also conveniently enjoying a sunset from a palace balcony in MU091, the perfect vantage from which to see the Widgets' He-Signal bursting in the sky. No sunset here - the entire episode seems to take place at nighttime - but the balcony affords them a clear view of Zagraz's feral comets.
• Duncan communicates with the prince by wrist communicator, a tool we've seen used several times before in the series.
• Adam and Duncan check out the progress of the comets around Eternia via Duncan's gigantic TV screen, which we've (again) seen in several other episodes (one being MU076's "The Ice Age Cometh"). This time, the background surrounding the TV looks oddly empty, cleared of the usual density of mechanical detritus.
• Cringer appears briefly in this episode, but is not around when Adam does his transformation, so we get no Battle Cat. Also appearing only very briefly at the episode's beginning is Orko - an unusual circumstance for our Trollan friend.
• I appreciate He-Man's attention to the city infrastructure. "I'll have to fix this later," he mutters to himself after catching the crumbled top of a tower struck by a comet. He similarly made a note to himself to fix a floor he was forced to smash open during an escape in MU033's "The Starchild."
• While fighting off some comets, He-Man does his cool spin kick move, a trick we saw him use against boulders in MU106, and again in MU109.
• Two Bad and his boss are able to check out their video monitors using a convex glass screen with high-tech control panel. The villains had something similar in, for instance, MU099, but this one looks chunkier.
• Skeletor makes it pretty clear to both Two Bad and the audience that he thinks his minion is a moron; but Two Bad asks his boss whether he should use "my defense system," which seems to hint that the lumbering lackey invented the weapon he's about to use. Is one of those heads smarter than the other one?
• The disabled Wind Raider crashes into a swamp which apparently resides just next to Snake Mountain (who knew?), and looks suspiciously like MU018's tar swamp (or any of the several swamps we've encountered in MOTU before; for instance, the one that poisoned He-Man in MU099's "Hunt for He-Man"). Instead of tar, He-Man identifies the liquidy substance they land in as "mud."
• To attempt to nab the downed heroes, Two Bad ventures out of the fortress in the Roton; this is the vehicle's fourth animated appearance. This time it actually ends up with He-Man behind its "wheel," possibly the first instance of Heroic Warriors driving an Evil Warrior vehicle, unless you count their going along for the ride in Skeletor's auto-piloted Doom Buster in MU080. They've never taken him up on it, but Skeletor's given the heroes a couple of chances to drive a pre-owned Collector - see MU099 or MU117.
• Two Bad ends up in the mud (and later so does Skeletor), which coincidentally was the fate of several bad guys in the first Comet Keeper episode, MU001. Poor Beast Man suffered from multiple mud dousings.
• He-Man pulls a bad-ass move when he just walks up to Skeletor, takes away his havoc staff, and snaps it in half. He actually has done this before, in MU087's "Things That Go Bump in the Night." In this episode, we see how Skeletor got his staff back: he can simply magic it back together.
• He-Man uses his patented judo throw on Skeletor, one we've seen deployed several times in the series, most recently in MU122.
• The episode's emotional moment is brought to us when a brave little Doodles, having been shot down by Skeletor, seems on the brink of death. "He was very brave," comments Teela, and we begin to wonder whether we're going to be asked to clap if we believe in fairies; but then the comet comes right back to life. Well, that stressful two seconds is over! Whew!
• Are you wondering whether the ending credits are still the variant ones with the flat-painted Jawbridge? Well, they are.

• Real celestial comets are balls of ice. Zagraz's just look like giant cheese balls. Eventually in the story, Zagraz's comets cause avalanches, tidal waves, sandstorms, and other natural disasters. It's hard to say what a real comet would do in a similar situation; my guess is, melt.
• The Eternians definitely need to be concerned about a future without Zagraz. We learned in MU001 that he's lived for centuries, but presumably he's not immortal; and we find in this episode that, mere seconds after being nabbed by Two Bad, the skies over his mountain darken and his comets begin to go wild. Is he training any kind of replacement, maybe? What if he keels over from a heart attack? Is the planet just straight up doomed?
• This episode is clearly short on content, without any real Plot B and not much happening in Plot A. Rather than fill the runtime in the usual way, via multiple He-Man transformations and belabored animations of characters walking down hallways or sinking slowly into chairs, the writers have opted for inserting long philosophical conversations between characters. One example is the lengthy back-and-forth between Skeletor and Zagraz early in the episode, on the subject of just how evil Skeletor is. The discussions are similar to ones we'll hear in the Christmas Special, though in that movie Skeletor will prove surprisingly capable of changing his evil ways - something that, in this episode, he claims is impossible.
• Man-at-Arms assures the prince that he's "tried calling Zagraz." It's hard to picture the robed hippie magician having a phone anywhere. I suppose he has a tele-beam viewer like everyone on Eternia seems to.
• He-Man appears in the hangar bay and leaps into the cockpit of the Wind Raider Teela is working on. Teela then hops in next to him and they take off - but what was the captain of the guard doing with the Raider's hood up? Doesn't she need to finish changing the oil or something?
• The animators provide a very obvious pair of handles sticking up over the dashboard of the Wind Raider - the logical assumption is they're meant to be the steering controls. But neither character in the vehicle makes the slightest move toward holding them; when He-Man advises Teela to "hold it steady," implying that she's the pilot, we can clearly see her sitting with her arms at her sides, a good foot away from the handles. Was Teela installing a thought-control device in the thing?
• As I've said, the whole episode appears to take place at night. But when He-Man lands in the deserted Eternian market square, we see many stands behind him filled to the brim with fresh fruit and vegetables. Don't the vendors at least cover their wares for the night? Is there no refrigeration in Eternos?
• "The game is almost over, He-Man!" Skeletor boasts to He-Man, once again counting his chickens and gloating over a battle not yet won; but it was hard for me not to see ulterior motives in this choice of dialogue. I'm very aware as I analyze this story that I'm closing in on the end of my task of reviewing these 130 episodes of MOTU, and you can imagine that the writers were aware of the impending conclusion of the second season as well, even if they maybe didn't realize it would be the cartoon's final run. A similar fatalistic conversation happens late in the episode, when Zagraz again refuses to assist Skeletor in his evil plan, noting that "That would mean the end of everything!" Skeletor depressingly replies, "It's going to happen anyway."
• Another episode, another home invasion. He-Man and Teela know just where to go to rescue Zagraz, and that's Snake Mountain. They don't find their incursion as easy as on previous occasions, however; for one thing, we find that Skeletor happens to be using an intruder alert this time (something that has happened in the past, but rarely in this season; the villains saw He-Man coming as recently as MU117, and definitely had an intruder alert in MU108). For another, Snake Mountain boasts an impressive defense system: a "pulsar" beam which emits energy rings from the mountain's snake eyes and puts the Wind Raider out of commission. It's similar to the "nullifier ray" used to crash an approaching Teela and Kittrina in MU066.
• Animation error: In the shot that shows the heroes standing next to a mud-drenched Wind Raider, Teela's foot overlaps the front of the vehicle, as if she's partly standing on its nose.
• Late in the episode, after a lot of runtime has been used up with rather pointless battles against comets, He-Man settles down for the episode's second long philosophical conversation. In it, he discusses with Skeletor his penchant for fighting, and Skeletor agrees that it's almost all he ever thinks about - which is kind of funny when you consider that Skeletor's most common response when faced with a collection of angry Heroic Warriors is to turn tail and run, not fight it out.
• One wonders what became of Two Bad and Skeletor, trying to find the positive side of things while wallowing in a mud puddle at the foot of Snake Mountain. Did He-Man just leave them there, or did he actually try to have them taken to a court of law, or shipped directly to a prison planet? For once, we do not see Skeletor run off, teleport away, jetpack away, or even fire himself off as a frozen torpedo-sicle (see MU117), so he seems ripe for the plucking here.
• This episode was not written by the people who gave us the first Zagraz episode - that was Tom Ruegger and the great Larry DiTillio. This script was instead written by Robert Lamb, who penned two previous MOTU scripts. This one proves an odd outlier for Lamb, who in his preceding efforts provided the grounded and realistic character studies in MU083's "Into the Abyss" (which I rated a landmark episode) and MU101's "Not So Blind" (which I also thought was pretty good). While this one did give us some character analysis amongst the lengthy conversations had by Skeletor with the heroes, it was a bit of a fluffball of a script, with wacky magical comets and some strung-together action scenes filling out the twenty minutes. True, the dialogue did provide me with a lot of memorable lines, but otherwise there wasn't much here. If you were waiting with bated breath for the long-delayed return of Zagraz, I'm sorry to disappoint you; this one ain't exactly a classic.