She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Rewatch 5.10, "Return to the Fright Zone"

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Hope returns, and just in time.

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5.10, "Return to the Fright Zone"

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

Synopsis

They are detailed plans.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Adora leads a strategy session to try to figure out how to stop the suborned princesses in their rampages across Etheria. Netossa notes weaknesses and methods for subduing her peers, including those present. The demonstration is convincing.

Discussion continues. Scorpia's location is noted--the Fright Zone. Scorpia soon becomes the imminent target, and plans for rescuing her begin to form.

It does appear to be a comfort.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Bow frets about his dads; Glimmer offers to take him to check on them, and he reluctantly accepts.

The mission to retrieve Scorpia begins, with Adora, Catra, Perfuma, Netossa, and Melog sneaking into the Fright Zone. They find it in ruins, Catra noting the fight with Hordak that occasioned much of the damage. And they find Scorpia in short order; she makes an explosive, energetic entrance, and a fracas ensues.

Glimmer and Bow arrive at the library. They reconnoiter, finding the library empty and ransacked slightly. Bow frets until Glimmer points out a letter to him from his dads; it reveals their location to him in a terrible pun.

The fracas against Scorpia continues. Mermista joins the fray. It does not improve things. Nor yet does the entrance of Spinnerella into the fight, which draws off Netossa.

Glimmer and Bow return to the First Ones ruins his dads had been studying. They find each other and confer, and Lance and George reveal that they have uncovered useful information.

Knocked the She-Ra right out of her...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Mermista faces Catra and Melog; they retreat from her. Netossa faces Spinnerella. She-Ra and Perfuma flee from Scorpia, who pursues in might; Adora loses access to her powers and finds herself facing Horde Prime on what had been Hordak's throne. He gloats to her about his circumvention of her.

Lance and George show Glimmer and Bow that they have access to the First Ones technology that had previously been restricted: there is a back-door to the operating systems. And there is a destruct mechanism for the Heart of Etheria, one they may be able to access--if they can decipher the location.

It is a classic villain pose.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Adora and Perfuma face Horde Prime and Scorpia. They manage to escape. Netossa subdues and recovers Spinnerella as Glimmer arrives to effect extraction. There is some victory to be found, but matters are still grim, even as hope of the failsafe against the Heart of Etheria is present--for Shadow Weaver and Castaspella know it is accessible through Mystacor.

Discussion

Little if any new invocation of the medieval presents itself in the current episode, although there is an oblique bit of medievalism. Jason Tondro, in Superheroes of the Round Table: Comics Connections to Medieval and Renaissance Literature, makes a formal case for the kind of links noted briefly by Hana Videen here--namely, that superheroes such as DC's Superman and Marvel's Captain America are themselves medievalisms. It's an obvious thing, really, given heraldic blazons, call-backs, shout-outs, and some outright borrowings (The Mighty Thor, anyone?). And there is something of Batman and his hyper-preparedness in Netossa's dissection of her peers' weaknesses early in the episode; the Dark Knight (another medievalism in itself) keeps contingency plans to take down his colleagues, much as Netossa has developed. And at least one of them comes to fruition in the episode.

To pivot from that slightly, Horde Prime appears to have made use of what TV Tropes calls a Batman Gambit in laying a trap for Adora. That is, he expects Adora to try to save her friends--which she does, of course, being as she is. That he is unable to capture her in the event is less a misreading of her and more a hubristic belief in his own superiority--but, as noted before, he has (unjustified) reason to harbor such belief.

More people could stand to learn the lesson in his failure.