She-Ra and the others investigate a Horde base, where Catra and her allies have disturbed some large creatures and make use of a past discovery.
In a frozen wasteland, Entrapta greets the shivering Catra, who asks where their First Ones weapon is, but Entrapta says they're looking for tech, not a weapon.
Entraptapoints out they'll have data for Hordak even if they find no tech, but Catra just tells her to hurry up, as this place creeps her out. A strange creature lurks outside. Sea Hawk ferries She-Ra and the others on his ship, the Dragon's Daughter V, glad to be helping since Mermista canceled plans with him to hang with her friends. Glimmer hopes to take his mind off it as they adventure through the Northern Reach, as they have no idea why the Horde set up a base there. Back at the base, Scorpia invites Catra to hang with her outside work, but stumbles as Catra doesn't understand, knocking over the tech that infected Entrapta's bots. She tells them how it also disabled She-Ra, which gets Catra's attention. Scorpia gets back to her request, but an alarm goes off, which Entrapta says is a simple bomb, but they have to check it out because all their drill bots went offline simultaneously. Sea Hawk again feels down as the others ignore his plight with Mermista, and when She-Ra finds a possible creature track, he shares tales of monsters in the Reach. Bow's tracker is still on the fritz from their past ghostly encounter. After Sea Hawk suggests they go on instincts, a new First Ones tech signal appears, and they believe it should lead them to the Horde.
Entrapta discovers the drilling bots have simply vanished and wonders about the creature rumors, but Catra snarls for her to get Hordak tech.
She-Ra and the others arrive, taunting Catra about not seeing action lately. She-Ra demands the land back, and gives chase when Catra tells her to take it and runs. Scorpia groans about her plans failing and takes on Glimmer, tossing her into the hole where she sees two pairs of eyes and teleports out. Scorpia then turns her attention to Sea Hawk and his glowing rapier, replying "potentially" when he, still stuck on his issues, asks if she'd call him cool. Bow chases Entrapta, warning that she doesnt' know what she's messing with, but she counters that that's the fun of doing it. She-Ra catches Catra and gets her to the ground, but isn't willing to hurt her, giving Catra time to infect her with the First Ones tech again. She-Ra goes on a rampage attacking Glimmer, with Entrapta admitting to the confused Catra that she should lose her powers eventually. Bow stops She-Ra with a net arrow, but she soon breaks out of it, and her continued attack destroys the ground, causing the others to fall. This pleases Catra, but She-Ra then focuses on her,and without Adora's mind, goes in for the kill, flinging Catra around like Hulk with Loki. Scorpia tackles her to the ground, and as she reverts to Adora, they realize the sword was infected, not She-Ra herself. Catra takes the sword and has Scorpia cart Adora inside, not noticing he creature from earlier in the background, narrowing its eyes, which seem infected like She-Ra.
In the gorge below, Glimmer explains the infectious disk to Sea Hawk, but also admits she unfortunately ran out of magic, so they'll have to climb.
Scorpia is apprehensive as Catra says they'll take Adora back to the Horde, where she can go berserk under their command. Entrapta requests a bit more time to find the tech, which their bots located before disappearing, but Catra states they're going to ignore Hordak's order to find it in favor of bringing Adora and her sword back instead. Catra leaves Scorpia to watch Adora while she checks on an alarm. Adora disappears, however, and the still-working Entrapta tells Scorpia which way she went. Out on the cliffs, Sea Hawk's focus on being cool causes him to fall, and he sings a sad song about himself as Bow, who caught him with a lasso arrow, hoists him up. Scorpia finds Adora, in a drunken stupor like the last time she was infected, and is upset when, while pressing buttons on a code panel, she properly unlocks a door because she knows and input Catra's favorite number. The hall outside has been destroyed, however, and Scorpia spots the creature while Adora catches snowflakes, and forces her back into the isolated room. Outside, the others make it to the top of the cliffs, where they discover there are in fact two giant creatures. While Scorpia laments how Adora gets in her way with Catra, Sea Hawk arrives to save his friend. Her demeanor confuses him, and he plays tug-of-war with Scorpia for her. ​With both of them feeling left out, a heart-to-heart soon takes place, and Glimmer and Bow plead with Catra and Entrapta to help them stop the attacking creatures.
Last episode we had obvious references, and this time around there's a bit more subtlety and the return of an established item in the series.
Of course the item in question is Entrapta's disk, which had been set up at the end of its first episode as something that could be important down the line. Initially, this tech seems like a saving grace for Catra, who now has a way to control She-Ra to a degree and use her for the Horde's purposes. What Catra fails to realize is that she's also putting herself in incredible danger by doing this, because She-Ra loses all boundaries when infected. The only reason Adora hasn't used her She-Ra abilities to take her down is because of their old friendship and lingering feelings. By making She-Ra rampage by infecting her, Catra loses the safety net of Adora's restraint, as we see when Adora hurls her around the way Hulk did Loki in Avengers. If it wasn't for Scorpia, who is desperately trying to make Catra her best friend and cares more about her than the mission, She-Ra would've killed Catra. It's definitely a learning experience for her, and surprisingly it is for Entrapta as well, since she thought She-Ra might be tech since she got infected, and lost her powers as a result of the disk. Obviously, neither Adora nor She-Ra are tech, and what she realizes here is that she only loses her powers when she drops her sword. With it, she turns into a bull at a rodeo, becoming a danger to everyone, friend or foe, with the only known solution being to break the disk. Thinking about it now, we really don't get much time with She-Ra or Adora this episode, and that's not just because she goes rabid after being infected. Once she loses her sword, Adora is out for a few minutes, and even after waking up, she of course finds herself in a drunken stupor like last time. She "escapes" Scorpia's watch, but with no intentions of doing anything, and from then on simply babbles nonsensically. I'm honestly surprised she was able to remember Catra's favorite number while typing on the keypad, and there were goofy moments like her declaring Sea Hawk and Scorpia her best friends. Adora, Scorpia, and Sea Hawk are the main sources of comedy in this episode, and occasionally it gets pretty annoying, especially from SH. As much as I've enjoyed and loved the guy so far, he spends the entire trip worrying that people don't find him cool, even after almost plummeting to his death. Similarly, Scorpia is focused on making Catra her best friend, and while her heart-to-heart with Sea Hawk works to explain their issues and get the two over them, it felt weird to me because they're supposed to be enemies. I've seen enemies connect before, but usually there was a specific reason for a team-up, like in Teen Titans when Robin and Slade join forces. Slade, who is working for Raven's father Trigon, decides to exit the demon's service and regain his body, while Robin is trying to find Raven. The two are bitter archenemies, but Slade has information they need and is willing to help guide where they need to go, which will also restore the world. While Robin would never trust Slade completely, he knows this is their only chance, and agrees, going on a journey with his masked foe. It's even a longstanding trope to get people talking to trick or get through to them; heck in Justice League episode "Injustice For All Pt. II," Batman gets two of his Legion of Doom captors to fight and even seduces one of them! It didn't feel like Sea Hawk and Scorpia were enemies grudgingly opening up to one another over time in this episode, which is something that has bothered me about this and some other modern things I've seen. Despite being top members of opposing sides in a war, sometimes the characters seem to view their foes simply as school rivals or something. Just a short time after Sea Hawk, who is an enemy trying to take back their prisoner, enters the room, Scorpia is opening up about her worries and desires. Sea Hawk then reveals his own struggles in turn, talking about his relationship issues with Mermista, and it just feels weird. One thing I did like about the episode but hope to get answers about later is the giant creatures, which the characters believe are attacking as a result of the drilling. It's also suggested early on that they're infected like She-Ra, because we see one narrow its eyes, and strange lines like hers appear on its face, which the others actually realize and mention later. The creatures felt like a take on movies like The Thing, where people are trapped and isolated, in these cases in a frozen wastelend, and a monster arrives. They also seem reminiscent of creatures like Godzilla, who appear and cause damage, sometimes accidentally, and at times because, like here, they were disturbed. While this episode's situation is pretty quick and simple, I like how there's another sign that Catra is starting to follow in Shadow Weaver's footsteps. She's already becoming frustrated enough with her position that she's gone to Shadow Weaver for help, and in this episode directly disobeys Hordak's orders to find new tech after they infect and capture Adora. Before her downfall, Shadow Weaver seemed to be trying to overthrow Hordak, and I wonder if Catra is going to take a similar path over time. While it doesn't have the creep factor of the ghostly village a few episodes ago, "White Out" puts the characters in a deadly situation without their powerhouse, and it takes teaming up to get out of it.
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AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
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