Welcome to another week of cartoon rewatches! This is our last full week with He-Man & The Masters of the Universe as – counting today’s – we only have eight episodes to go. Sad. I’m gonna be sad. But once that’s done, we’ll move right on over into something new and begin that. I haven’t decided what that will be, but picking a show is easy. It’s finding a show that actually makes you want to stick around that’s the hard part.
We’re coming off an incredibly dramatic conclusion to the Snake Men epic that ended last week with Zodak having vanquished King Hiss and Skeletor having reclaimed the throne of Snake Mountain.
Before we left on Friday, I commented that I was really upset at how hot-shotted the whole angle with the Snakes felt, but after sitting on it for the weekend, maybe it’s not the worst thing. There’s a very limited number of episodes to go here and it’s probably best to go out the way we always come in: with Skeletor trying to take over Eternia and He-Man trying to put a stop to him.
There are way worse ways to spend some time than watching these titans do battle, so let’s get on with it.
S02E06: The Price of Deceit
Original Air Date: November 22, 2003
Screen Cap Analysis: KELDOR AND YOUNG EVIL-LYN!!!! Ooooh I love backstory!
OK, we’re starting hot right out of the gate: we’ve got two Snake Men who are looking for the ruins of the old Hall of Wisdom. They say King Hiss told them that’s where they’ll find whatever it is they’re looking for. Right off the bat, I dunno what to think. The fuck? Literally all of the snakes just jumped into a bottomless pit around Grayskull chasing after King Hiss’s dead body. But OK, maybe not all the Snakes are idiots. But Hiss told them to look here? Is he still alive? The questions!
Cut away and Evil-Lyn is running through a bit of desert and ruins herself. She’s obviously fucked now that the Snake Men have seemingly gone the way of the buffalo and no doubt Skeletor will be after her to punish her for aligning herself with King Hiss. She’s being attacked by some of Skelly’s regular warriors outside a temple featuring a Ram head. It’s where the Ram Stone used to be held which was also protected by the Faceless One: Evil-Lyn’s father. The Faceless One, however, is constricted by powers higher than him to never be able to leave the walls of the temple so he is of no help to her. He is, however, able to send a message for help to the Masters about Skeletor looking to banish Evil-Lyn in the Pool of Shadows.
This is a big deal because if a living being is sacrificed, it can open a portal that will bring over horrors from another dimension into Eternia. Not the kind of shit that anyone wants to have to deal with. Buttttttttt…Evil-Lyn really did screw the pooch here, so…sorry, not sorry?
Sssqueeze and Tung Lashor were the two Snake Men from before. They find an old tablet of the Elders and say that Hiss will be pleased. Wow, so everything from Friday’s episode just don’t mean dick now. OK, cool.
At the Pool of Shadows, Evil-Lyn is hanging from shackles as Skeletor cackles about sending her to the Forsaken Realm as a slave while he releases abominations from a time before time to now serve him. Evil-Lyn begs Skeletor, trying to get him to remember her loyalty from all of the years prior. Skeletor then takes a few steps and begins singing “Part Of Your World” from The Little Mermaid as we go into a flashback of Evil-Lyn first meeting Skeletor who then was still Keldor. Skelly brakes from the trance and breaks us back to current-day. The reminiscing didn’t do any good and he lowers Evil-Lyn closer to the pool.
He-Man arrives on the scene after taking it upon himself to follow-up on The Faceless One’s tip. He’s held up by the henchmen, but still has plenty of time thanks to Evil-Lyn still getting Skeletor to remember a bunch of other old memories of her loyalty like when his face was hit with acid at the Hall of Wisdom and Evil-Lyn activated a wishing well so Hordak could be summoned to save Keldor’s life, but turn him into Skeletor. Once again, Skeletor isn’t one for nostalgia and finally opens the Pool completely to sacrifice Evil-Lyn.
He-Man is able to act in the nick of time and save Evil-Lyn from the Forsaken Realm, but the summoned monster insists on feeding for having been awaken and puts forth an attack that He-Man is able to diffuse easily. In doing so, however, the portal is disrupted and explodes, leveling the surrounding area to rubble.
Evil-Lyn questions why He-Man would save her and he explains that the Faceless One believes her to be worthy of saving. She pontificates momentarily about changing her ways before blasting He-Man across the land and saying, “I think I’ll pass.” She then helps Skeletor back to his feet and returns his Havoc Staff as he says he may have misjudged her.
Back to the Snakes because that is another story happening here and we travel to the lava pit abyss that surrounds Castle Grayskull where King Hiss isn’t dead, he’s fired up to have this tablet from the runs of the Hall of Wisdom in his possession. He runs his finger over the markings and lets out a billowing laugh as he’s sure this will help him take over Eternia.
PSA: Forgiving your friends will always make you feel better. Even if they’ve sold you out to Snake Men.
Final Thoughts:
When we left off Friday, I was annoyed that they cut the arc with the Snake Men so short. Now, here we are on Monday and I’m annoyed that we’ve brought them back with no reasoning given with them apparently just hanging out in that abyss waiting to plot their next move like it’s home now. It’s not like they’re stuck there – Tung Lashor and Sssqueeze obviously left to search the ruins – so why not just go take back Snake Mountain and sleep in your own fucking beds?
I don’t know what happened here but this is depressing. Not “ruin the show for me” depressing, but just a letdown because I’ve grown to expect a lot from the writers of this show and this comes off as a clear bait and switch. You’re better than that.
The stuff between Skeletor and Evil-Lyn is great. I love seeing bits when they go into the characters’ pasts and really enjoyed getting more insight into the relationship between the two. I also liked seeing another use of The Faceless One as he was shown early in the series where Evil-Lyn actually returned the Ram Stone to him without giving it to Skeletor and he had held out hope then that maybe she could turn her life around (for that entry, click here), but to this point, she still has not done so.
Six episodes in, and despite some logistical problems, I’ve thought each of these episodes have been pretty strong. If this show was airing right now, we’d be drooling for each new episode, but somehow this was already forgotten about in 2003. That’s a shame. At least we have seven more to enjoy while we can.
Until next time.
Joe
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