Rise of the Snake Men Part 2

With King Hiss free and Skeletor beaten, Zodak refuses to explain himself and goes after the Snake Men alone, knocking Teela and He-Man aside to avenge the brother Hiss killed. At Snake Mountain, Hiss decides to honour Evil-Lyn by eating her, and she saves herself by offering to lead him to the Power of the Elders. The Snake Men march on Castle Grayskull, where the Masters hold the line while Hiss poisons the Sorceress and goes after the power below. Zodak finally joins the heroes' side, defeats Hiss and shows the Snake Men their fallen king, while Skeletor, back on his throne, wants Evil-Lyn to suffer.

"Zodak was so blinded by revenge, he made rash decisions that could have allowed the Snake Men to achieve victory. It was only when he decided to cooperate and work with us as a team that the battle was won. Cooperation and teamwork are always the best way to go."

He-Man: "You've got a funny way of showing it."

Zodak: "My brother, my battle, my vengeance."

Evil-Lyn: "Didn't you hear him? I'm to be honored."

King Hiss: "Snake versus bird. Is there any doubt as to the outcome?"

King Hiss: "Allow me to reunite you with your brother."

Who gets to finish an old fight? Part one left King Hiss on Skeletor's throne and Skeletor screaming as a snake dealt with him, and this concluding half opens with Zodak stepping into view to tell the Masters it is already too late. He is right, but he does not much mind, because the only part of the Snake Men's return that interests him is the part where Hiss dies.

Steven Melching's script gets to Zodak's motive quickly. The Masters wonder aloud how three warriors could disarm the Cosmic Enforcer unless he wanted Hiss free, and when Teela presses him, Zodak puts her on the ground. A little later he tells He-Man that Hiss killed his brother, and then he says the line that sums him up: "My brother, my battle, my vengeance." This is an episode about revenge treated as private property, and about what that costs everyone standing nearby.

The villains play out the same fight over a grudge on a smaller scale. Kobra Khan, who did the work of freeing his king, is dismissed as a puny descendant who has never tasted real battle, and Evil-Lyn, expecting to be honoured, learns that the honour on offer is being eaten. Her escape is the sharpest writing in the episode: she talks fast, promises Hiss the Power of the Elders, and buys her own life with the Power of the Elders. Everyone at Snake Mountain is looking after themselves, and next to them the heroes look slow, stubborn and decent.

The animation saves its best work for the castle. Snake Mountain is red rock and a giant stone serpent spewing lava under a red moon, while Grayskull's hall is a pale teal space with the Sorceress's winged throne at the top of a long staircase. When Hiss walks in, the two of them fight down that cracked stairway; Hiss sneers "Snake versus bird," and then turns into a great fanged snake head. What follows is the moment to remember: we get white feathers lying in the shadow of the hall, then the Sorceress with tears running down her face, and the show lets the cost register without lingering on the blow itself.

The siege outside is busier, but it is less memorable. Rattlor promises the Masters a swift death if they surrender, and the jungle fight becomes a run of quick hits: a snake man stretching his arms into green ropes to bind He-Man, Man-At-Arms charging a spotted brute, Stratos groaning and He-Man shouting for Mekaneck.

Brian Dobson voices both Skeletor and King Hiss, according to the cast list on the He-Man wiki, and Hiss on Skeletor's throne in the recap and Skeletor climbing back onto it at the end make a neat bookend. Christopher Judge's Zodak is written in short, closed sentences, which suits a man who wants nobody's help.

Where the episode stumbles is in the turn it asks Zodak to make. He-Man offers him a deal on the ridge, Hiss for Zodak alone if he works with the Masters, and the next time we see them together the Masters are being told to ease off because they are all on the same side now. Zodak never says yes on screen. The climax then hands him Hiss alone in the crystal chamber while He-Man carries the Sorceress, and the closing lesson praises a teamwork the last act barely shows. Two episodes of grudge get paid off by the man holding it, and that payoff wins out over the moral; it is the right call for the drama, but it leaves the lesson standing on very little.

As the second half of a two-parter it delivers what the first half promised: Hiss at large, Grayskull besieged, and the Sorceress hurt in a way the show does not wave away. Then it ends on Skeletor back among his bones and a promise that Evil-Lyn will suffer like no other, and the private grudge has a new owner. Zodak got his revenge by sharing the fight, if only just; Skeletor missed that lesson entirely, and the next episode is his.

1. Voice cast: Brian Dobson voices King Hiss and Sssqueeze in this episode as well as Skeletor, so the throne-room showdown replayed in the recap is one actor arguing with himself.
2. Voice cast: Zodak is played by Christopher Judge, best known as Teal'c on Stargate SG-1 and later as Kratos in God of War. The He-Man wiki's cast list also credits him with Zeelahr, the brother whose death drives Zodak here.
3. Goofs: Scott McNeil voices Kobra Khan and Merman in this installment but is credited only for Stratos and Beast Man in the end-credit cast list, and Cam Clarke is credited as both He-Man and Prince Adam although only He-Man appears, the He-Man wiki notes.
4. Continuity: the brother Zodak names is Zeelahr, who introduces himself as "brother to Zodak" in the flashback that opens Rise of the Snake Men Part 1. The He-Man wiki records that King Hiss swallowed him whole while Zodak watched.
5. Continuity: Hiss does not stay dead. According to the He-Man wiki he survived the fall from Grayskull; his Snake Men are working for him again by The Price of Deceit, and he returns in person in Second Skin, hunting the Serpent's Ring.
6. Continuity: the He-Man wiki notes that the scars the Sorceress takes in her duel with Hiss stay with her for the remainder of the series.
7. Production: Zodak had no link to the Snake Men in the original 1980s continuity. The He-Man wiki credits the connection to story development by Ian Richter of Mattel with Mike Young Productions, which tied him to the planned season two Snake Men arc.
8. Toys: The He-Man wiki records that Stratos, who fights at Grayskull here, was the Four Horsemen's first candidate when Mattel asked for more racial diversity in the 2002 line, and that the sculptors judged his design wrong for the change and reworked Zodak instead.
9. Fan observation: the He-Man wiki records a split among fans over this version of Zodak, with some praising the psychology behind his war and others arguing the show treats him too much as a hero when he was the one who let the Snake Men loose.