History

Count Marzo, a hunched pickpocket chased by barbarians, is cornered by Evil-Lyn, who wants a spell that opens a gateway to Despondos and frees Hordak through the Well of Darkness. She keeps his amulet as leverage. King Hiss sends Kobra Khan to the surface as a diversion, but Khan learns of the plan, and Hiss marches to stop Hordak's return before calling forth Serpos. The Masters hunt the Snake Men, and He-Man chases Hiss along the River of Fire, taking him for the threat. Corrected by the Sorceress, He-Man reaches the Well and disrupts the ritual, Marzo turns on Evil-Lyn, and Hiss is pleased with the result.

"Trust is a two-way street. To receive someone's trust, you need to prove that you're someone that can be trusted."

Marzo: "Easiest pockets I ever picked."

Sssqueeze: "Never had a taste for vegetables, but there's a first time for everything."

Prince Adam: "You've got more Battle Cat in you than you think, Cringer."

He-Man: "Hate to spoil your fun, but Hordak's not welcome here."

Marzo: "And weak magicians such as yourself need to know their place."

King Hiss: "How considerate of He-Man. To keep Hordak from interfering with my plans."

Count Marzo makes his entrance in "History" muttering "Easiest pockets I ever picked." in a street full of horned barbarians who are soon chasing him and shouting "Stop, thief." It is a fair introduction to a man who spends the episode certain he is the cleverest person present.

Larry DiTillio's story sends three parties toward the Well of Darkness. Marzo says he is through with Skeletor, and Evil-Lyn tells him to forget Skeletor; she wants a spell that opens a gateway to Despondos so that Hordak can be freed. When he balks she reminds him that his amulet's power stays in her control "until I decide to give it up." King Hiss, tipped off by Kobra Khan, marches to stop her, because he wants Hordak, his "ancient enemy," kept out of Eternia before he calls forth Serpos. The Masters hunt Snake Men through a jungle and take it for granted that Hiss is the danger.

That assumption is what the episode is about: He-Man spends the middle of it fighting a villain who wants the same thing he does, and that villain is the one who ends up pleased with him. After the chase along the River of Fire he can report "Taken care of. King Hiss is gone," only for the Sorceress to tell him that the evil she senses is Hordak, and it follows that Hiss was going to the Well of Darkness "to prevent something." The last scene pays it off, with Hiss delighted at how considerate He-Man has been.

The dialogue is sharpest where nobody is cooperating. Evil-Lyn says Hordak's return will give her power enough to make Skeletor tremble, Marzo asks what he gets out of it, and the answer is "After the spell is cast," delete (end the sentence at "After the spell is cast."). Marzo gets two lines that answer each other: "Hordak stays in his place," and later, weak magicians "need to know their place."

The animation divides the story by palette. The hunt sits in a yellow-lit jungle of hanging moss, while the ritual itself happens among red rock spires under a dark sky, with lava boulders tumbling down the River of Fire past climbers who are nearly silhouettes. Battle Cat leaping a chasm and He-Man dangling from a rock wall above the lava make that chase the ambitious stretch, and its staging favors scale over detail. Marzo gets two bodies, a hooded pickpocket and a long-haired figure in dark armor with glowing red eyes, whom we take to be the same man.

The voices carry the comedy. Kobra Khan, sent to the surface as a diversion that would "serve him right" if it got him captured, grumbles about General Rattlor and fawns to Hiss about information "even your brilliant Generals failed to provide." His best moment comes later, when Sssqueeze remarks that he never had a taste for vegetables and tells him to go first, and Khan gulps his way to "pleasure."

The standout is the double-cross. With Hordak half summoned and He-Man in the way, Evil-Lyn insists they keep trying until they get it right, and Marzo's reply is a short "Oh, I think not." He laughs as he delivers the line about weak magicians, and the scene needs it. The man who has been pushed around all episode gets the last word.

The weakness is the jungle. The Masters' fight at the Snake Men's door runs for several minutes, with Fisto and Moss Man each turning up for a beat, and neither is at the Well of Darkness when it matters. A half-hour slot with a crowd of heroes to place probably explains it, and the brawl does set up the misreading of Hiss, but it is a long way around to a story that starts in earnest at the ritual.

In a second season mostly given over to Snake Men, "History" is where the Hordak business gets settled. The sanctuary Skeletor destroyed in "The Power of Grayskull" and the Well of Darkness named in "Separation" both come due here, and the one episode left afterward never mentions Hordak. The snakes profit from the detour, since He-Man clears Hordak out of their way without meaning to.

1. Voice cast: The He-Man wiki's cast list for this episode credits Michael Donovan as both Count Marzo and Tung Lashor, and Brian Dobson as both King Hiss and Sssqueeze, so the pickpocket shares a voice with one of the snake warriors and the Snake King shares one with his purple enforcer.
2. Voice cast: The same cast list gives Colin Murdock both Hordak and Barbarian #1, so the warlord Evil-Lyn is trying to free shares a credit with one of the horned crowd in Marzo's market.
3. Continuity: Marzo tells Evil-Lyn that Hordak's former sanctuary is destroyed, and it is: in "The Power of Grayskull" He-Man tells Skeletor that once the sanctuary is destroyed Hordak can never get free, and Skeletor answers "Excellent point, He-Man" and brings it down. With that place gone, Evil-Lyn needs another place of power, and the Well of Darkness fills the gap.
4. Continuity: The Well of Darkness is named in "Separation", where the Spell of Separation calls for three artifacts "joined together at the Well of Darkness". Wikipedia's episode list credits Larry DiTillio with that episode, with "The Price of Deceit", which also deals with Hordak, and with this one.
5. Continuity: Marzo's frail body and his amulet both come from earlier episodes. In "Mekaneck's Lament" the Sorceress explains that he was imprisoned in an old man's body and that the source of his power was a magic amulet, and the He-Man wiki says he loses the amulet, and his full form, at Castle Grayskull in "The Last Stand".
6. Continuity: When Marzo chants "Despondos, Despondos" over the Well, he repeats the word the Horde Wraiths chant in the flashback of "The Power of Grayskull", where Hordak's sorcerers summon the dimension that later becomes his prison.
7. Production: The He-Man wiki, citing a He-Man.org forum Q&A with Mattel's Ian Richter, says Hordak was meant to conquer Eternia as the main villain of a third season and be overcome by Skeletor, but the toy line and cartoon were cancelled with only half of the second season ordered.
8. Toys: TheFwoosh's first look at the Masters of the Universe Classics Count Marzo, from June 2010, says the figure is based on the 200x cartoon rather than the Filmation version, and describes a soft plastic cape and loincloth and a clear red amulet.
9. Toys: The silver snake armor He-Man seen in this episode's transformation was also a figure in Mattel's 200x line; ActionFigure411 lists Snake Armor He-Man as a 2004 wave 7 release with a Power Sword, a firing missile and a snake clamp.