Awaken the Serpent

King Hiss uses the Snake God Serpos, a giant three-headed serpent who is the living form of Snake Mountain, to attack Eternia. He-Man and the Masters cannot stop it, and Serpos tears down the Palace of Eternia while Hiss's Snake Men round up the defenders as slaves and meals. Hiss then sends Serpos toward Castle Grayskull to devour the power of the elders who once imprisoned him. Prince Adam, called back by an ally who knows his secret, becomes He-Man again, while Zodak faces Hiss. He-Man fights Serpos with his glowing sword and returns it to stone.

"Climbing a mountain is like undertaking any big job. It's not so difficult once you know the secret: just take it one step at a time."

King Hiss: "Behold! The power of the Snake God!"

He-Man: "You will rule nothing, Hiss."

King Hiss: "Come, Serpos, onward to Castle Grayskull, where you shall devour the power of the elders, the very ones who imprisoned you."

Snake Man: "These will be slaves. These will be lunch."

King Hiss: "How I hate a meal unfinished."

The heroes of this series usually fall back to the Palace of Eternia, and the final episode, "Awaken the Serpent", flattens it before the halfway mark. The story opens inside a mountain that is starting to shake. Skeletor glares out of his hood and swears that whoever is behind the rumbling will perish a thousand deaths. He clearly did not plan it. The man who did plan it is King Hiss, who announces himself with "Behold! The power of the Snake God!", and from there Serpos, three-headed and tall enough to rise behind the palace towers, walks toward the capital while the Masters throw everything they own at it.

Dean Stefan's script is about what the heroes have left once the things they rely on are taken away. Hiss states the terms himself, gloating that the symbol of Eternian power has been crushed and its defenders defeated, and the episode makes him right for a long stretch. The stills show the armory abandoned, the Masters herded along a smoking palace wall and captives kneeling in a line. Teela's complaint, "Now what? We have no weapons," is the plainest statement of the spine, and the order later comes to drop the swords so they can be melted. Everything after that asks what a hero does without the gear, and the answer is He-Man's sword and a force field Zodak scrapes together.

The writing is at its best when the defeat turns funny. A Snake Man promises "These will be slaves. These will be lunch," and then worries about eating around a fist. The prisoners stall with a story about dropping to their knees, and a little later the track brings a crash and an order to attack. That scene is the standout, because it lets the heroes buy a moment with nothing but talk, right where the plot has taken everything else away from them.

The stills lean on scale. Tiny vehicles skim beneath Serpos' heads, small figures stand on a summit under a red moon, and the palace dome vanishes under molten lava, with each setting washed in its own colour: violet sky, pink moon, golden sunset, yellow haze. Brian Dobson, whom the He-Man wiki lists as Hiss, gets the best of the voice work with "How I hate a meal unfinished," a villain complaining about a missed snack with real irritation.

The weakness is the Zodak and Hiss duel. Zodak spent "Rise of the Snake Men" vowing vengeance for his brother, and here Hiss greets him with "Zodak, what a nice surprise" and recalls devouring that brother. A few lines about a force field later, someone asks "What have we done?", Hiss promises to be restored by Serpos, and the confrontation is over, with Zodak's part acknowledged only by a remark at the very end. That looks like the cost of a short season, since the He-Man wiki says the second year was planned at 26 episodes and cut to 13, which left a finale with Serpos to fit in.

The Serpos fight is paced better. Zodak lays out the history, that the elders imprisoned the beast in stone and that it came to be known as Snake Mountain after Hiss moved into the shell, and the fight that follows spends its time on glowing swords, falling boulders and ghostly elders. Serpos ends up back on a ridge as stone. The episode closes on a small lesson from He-Man to Orko, which echoes the one Adam gets while sharpening swords in the armory.

In the series, this is the payoff to a Serpos run that starts with Hiss planning to free the Snake God in "History" and takes the Snake Men to the Temple of Serpos in "Rattle of the Snake". It is a monster movie more than a farewell, loud and good-looking, and it suits a last episode because it puts the palace under pressure.

1. Production: This was the last episode of the series, the 39th overall, and the second season ended on it.
2. Production: The He-Man wiki says the second season was planned for 26 episodes and cut to 13 during production.
3. Production: The He-Man wiki lists an unproduced 40th episode, "Captured", also written by Dean Stefan, in which Kobra Khan tricks Skeletor and his Evil Warriors into freeing King Hiss and the petrified Snake Face. Its script and a comic adaptation were bonus features on the complete series DVD set.
4. Continuity: Serpos has been teased for two episodes. In "Rattle of the Snake" the Snake Men visit the Temple of Serpos and talk of finding the means to revive him, and in "History" Hiss speaks of setting the Snake God free.
5. Continuity: Zodak's brother has been a thread since "Rise of the Snake Men", where Zodak says King Hiss killed him. Here Hiss tells Zodak he swore he would be next after devouring his brother. "Snake Pit" had already mentioned the legend of Hiss killing Zodak's brother.
6. Continuity: The He-Man wiki describes Serpos as the Snake Men's god and the true form of Snake Mountain, imprisoned in stone by the elders; in this episode Zodak tells the story and Hiss uses it for his plan.
7. Voice cast: The He-Man wiki lists Brian Dobson for both Skeletor and King Hiss, and Nicole Oliver for both the Sorceress and Queen Marlena, all of whom are in the episode.
8. Goofs: The He-Man wiki notes that Paul Dobson is credited for Trap Jaw and TriKlops although neither speaks, and that Merman and Ram Man make grunts and yelps without an end credit for Scott McNeil.
9. Comics: The He-Man wiki records that the Medallion of Serpos later turned up in the MOTU Origins mini comic "Leviathan's War".