Orko's Garden

Feeling left out of the palace duty roster, Orko talks Man-At-Arms into giving him the royal gardens, then floods them with a rain spell. Searching the Evergreen Forest for Mossman, he meets Evil Seed instead, who poses as Mossman and gives him seeds. The seeds sprout thorn vines that free Evil Seed and capture King Randor, Queen Marlena and the Masters. The real Mossman arrives, and when Orko lets slip that Castle Grayskull holds great magic, Evil Seed heads for the castle. He-Man, Battle Cat and Mossman stop him and send him back to the Root Cellar, and Mossman joins the Masters.

"Whether at home, at school, or in the garden, any job worth doing is worth doing well. And that requires patience, hard work..."

Man-At-Arms: "Well, that's not the only reason."

Evil Seed: "Who else would I be?"

Evil Seed: "You humans have gorged yourselves upon plant life for eons. But no more!"

Orko: "Oh, yeah? Well, they got all kinds of cool magical powers you never even dreamed of inside Castle Grayskull."

Orko: "I'm more of a one plant guy."

Mossman: "Hmm. Way I see it, Eternia is like a garden. Be a shame to let a few bad seeds ruin the whole thing."

Every royal household has somebody who gets left off the duty roster, and in King Randor's palace that somebody floats. "Orko's Garden" opens on Man-At-Arms reading out the day's assignments over Adam's breakfast, and Orko volunteers for every one of them: the spy work at the border, the repairs to the north wall, even sentry duty, which he greets with "Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me!" When he complains that nobody takes him seriously, the answer is "Well, that's not the only reason," and Man-At-Arms gives in and hands him the royal gardens. (If the speaker cannot be confirmed by ear, drop the attribution from the quote block too.) then gives in and hands him the royal gardens.

Orko's rain spell turns the dry garden into a flood, leaving one drowned bud as his whole charge, and a tip sends him into the Evergreen Forest looking for Mossman, who can supposedly make anything grow. The creature he finds there only growls until Orko mentions where he lives, and the question "King Randor's palace?" should worry the audience more than it worries Orko. Asked if he is Mossman, the creature replies, "Who else would I be?" and hands over a stock of seeds.

The episode is about the gap between wanting a job and being ready for it, and Len Uhley's script lets Orko fail at that lesson twice. The first failure is impatience: he plants the seeds and writes them off as duds while red thorn vines tunnel under the palace and drag off the King, the Queen and most of the Masters. The second comes in the root cavern, where he tries to rattle Evil Seed by boasting about the magic inside Castle Grayskull and gets "You don't say" for his trouble, followed by his own small "Oops." Neither mistake comes from stupidity, but from a character so eager to matter that he acts before he thinks. The script gives every misstep a reason, and we like him more for it.

The art direction gives the plant war a clear colour code. Evil Seed's vines are red and thorned, and the real Mossman's are green, so when the two of them race their vine beasts across the desert, or when a green wave of plants answers a red hydra of thorns, a young viewer always knows whose side a tangle is on. The opening garden is worth a look too: dead brush between two stone statues, which later stand watch in golden rain over the mess Orko has made.

Mossman himself arrives late and underplayed, yet the performance suits him. "Most folks call me Mossman" is all the introduction he offers, and his "Way I see it" gives him a folksy rhythm nobody else in the palace has. He-Man's dry "Does he always talk like this?" about Evil Seed's speechifying, answered with a flat "Uh-huh," is the funniest exchange in the episode.

The standout moment is quieter. Late in the fight someone calls for "a little water," and Orko answers "Oh, coming right up," so the spell that drowned the garden in the first act is the thing he contributes at the end, this time because he was asked.

The weak spot is Evil Seed. He is given a real grievance, telling his captives "You humans have gorged yourselves upon plant life for eons," and for a few minutes he is a villain with a point. Once Orko mentions Grayskull he drops it, and by the time he reaches the castle he is promising that "all of Eternia shall be mine!" like any warlord on the show. The likely reason is the clock, since the finale needs He-Man at the castle. It also leaves He-Man a passenger in his own climax; someone else has to tell him he is "working on the wrong end."

The ending lifts the episode above the usual Orko outing. Orko does not become a great gardener; he decides he is "more of a one plant guy," and Man-At-Arms calls that maturity rather than failure. Mossman, meanwhile, signs on with the Masters because "a few bad seeds" should not ruin the whole garden. Orko ends the episode fussing over one healthy bud. It is the right size of job for him.

1. Continuity: The He-Man wiki lists this episode as the first appearance of both Mossman and Evil Seed in the 2002 series.
2. Homage: The plot echoes the 1983 Filmation episode "Evilseed", in which, according to the He-Man wiki, seeds handed out by the villain grow into vines that cover the Royal Palace and take its inhabitants prisoner.
3. Continuity: Evil Seed does not stay in the Root Cellar for long. He returns in The Council of Evil two-parter, and a line in The Last Stand looks back on "freeing Evil Seed and gathering the others."
4. Continuity: Mossman's promise to help the Masters is kept in The Last Stand, where Man-At-Arms reports that "Zodak contacted Mossman."
5. Toys: The original 1985 Moss Man figure was, the He-Man wiki notes, a green repaint of Beast Man covered in flocked "moss" with a pine scent added to the body.
6. Toys: Mossman never made it into the 2002 toy line, which the He-Man wiki says was cancelled before his figure could be released. Evil Seed's 2002 design did reach plastic years later, as a Masters of the Universe Classics figure sold through Mattel's Club 200x subscription.
7. Voice cast: Nicole Oliver doubles as Queen Marlena and the Sorceress, who warns Adam that "Grayskull is in grave danger." Don Brown voices Evil Seed and John Payne voices Mossman.
8. Production: Writer Len Uhley, whose other series include DuckTales, X-Men and Static Shock, received the Writers Guild of America West's Animation Writing Award in 2014.