She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Rewatch 3.5, "Remember"

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Despite claims, everything is not perfect as the third season of the series hastens towards its end.

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3.5, "Remember"

Written by Noelle Stevenson, Josie Campbell, Katherine Nolfi, and Laura Sreebny
Directed by Roy Burdine and Mandy Clotworthy

Synopsis

Quite the alarm clock, this.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

Adora wakes from a dream to Catra's face in the Fright Zone. After startling, she begins to situate herself, with Catra affirming that all is well. Adora is not entirely convinced.

Adora continues to try to situate herself, finding herself in an exalted position in the Fright Zone due to her successes in battle. Her memories are not entirely stable, but her relationship with Catra seems to be repaired. The environment seems to be changing around her.

You'd flee, too.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Accolades for Adora continue, as do strange gaps in the surrounding environment and situation. Shadow Weaver even seems to be pleased. Adora is assigned a new mission, and when she reports for the briefing, Scorpia upbraids her. Adora's memories and the environment continue to shift around her, and Adora flees.

Catra rejoins Adora, slapping her to startle her. Adora continues to experience strange gaps, frightening her and prompting her to question her surroundings. She realizes that Scorpia seems immune to the oddities, confronting her. Scorpia initially rejects her ideas, but she relents when confronted with Catra's behavior.

It takes a bit, yes.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The two proceed to Hordak's sanctum somewhat awkwardly. The environment continues to change around them, and they press on for answers. Reaching the sanctum, they find it empty, and Adora realizes that Catra is to blame for the current situation. They are soon after forced to flee, and the degradation of reality proceeds, taking Scorpia and driving Adora onward in terror. She finds Razz, who prompts her to find her in the woods as everything continues to fall apart.

This is a pretty bad sign...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Adora makes to flee with Catra, but Catra refuses, her own memories shifting. Adora abducts her and flees from the Fright Zone as it vanishes. Catra wakes and fights, and their progress is halted. They debate, and the fight continues. Catra finally accepts the nihilistic implications of her actions, and Adora flees in tears, finding Razz, who counsels Adora that things can be repaired--as they had been before. She advises her about how to proceed and sends her on her way--to Bright Moon, Glimmer and Bow. But she is not the only one pressing onward...

Discussion

The refrain in the episode that "everything is perfect" attracts attention early on. Coupled with the obviously apocalyptic action of the main line of the episode, the refrain calls to mind once again the "Þæs ofereode; þisses swa mæg" of "Deor" that seems echoed in the similar Voltron: Legendary Defender, even if it serves an opposite function; while the Old English speaks to hope, the refrain that punctuates the present episode is itself the indicator that something is very, very wrong in Etheria.

Another bit of Old English is evoked, if perhaps less clearly, in the changes that afflict Catra after her nihilistic declaration--being happy to let all fall to waste if another can but be made to suffer is hardly the most affirming perspective. Nearly fifteen years ago, now, while I sat in a graduate Beowulf seminar, the late professor James E. Anderson commented that Scyld Scefing is, in effect, the dragon of the later portion of the poem. In that long-ago lecture, he cited their common possessions of a golden standard and their jealous possession of lucre, as well as linking the Danes of the poem to fratricide and Scyld as an ill predating either fratricide (linked to the "scion of Cain," Grendel) or its progenitor (Grendel's mother, whom we might well call "Aglæcwify McAglæcwifface" after an excellent Twitter thread)--hence the initial evil of Satan (often linked to dragons, symbolically). Catra's transformation is not unlike those of the earlier figures, and it bodes ill for those who must face her--even as it promises the hope of her defeat, even as the earlier figures were bested.