Prince Adam stands alone against Skeletor at Castle Grayskull until the freed evil warriors arrive to join the Council of Evil. Orko returns the Power Sword, and He-Man defends the castle's force field against the combined villains. When Mossman frees the Masters and they join the battle, the Council deserts Skeletor, Count Marzo loses his amulet, and Skeletor retreats. At the palace, Man-At-Arms tries to resign, but Randor refuses and announces a new council. Meanwhile Kobra Khan, who freed the evil warriors, shows Evil-Lyn Skeletor dismissing their capture as a small price and wins her over to King Hiss.
"Things don't always go smoothly or work out the way we planned. But we can often find creative ways to solve problems if we use our heads."
Skeletor: "Just out of curiosity, Prince Adam, how did you plan on stopping me? With your good looks?"
Skeletor: "It's not nice to take what rightfully belongs to others. But then, like father, like son."
Beast Man: "My pal, Skeletor. You gotta love a guy like that."
Skeletor: "Either you or the force field will be destroyed, He-Man."
Queen Marlena: "Oh, listen to you two. Are you the great defenders of Eternia or a pair of whiny children?"
Prince Adam: "Go, Mom!"
Skeletor has spent two episodes letting everyone around him know what they are worth to him, and in The Last Stand the bill comes due. The season two opener picks up where The Council of Evil left Prince Adam: alone at the gate of Castle Grayskull, swordless, promising that the Masters will be there any second. Skeletor asks how he planned on stopping him, "With your good looks?", and the aircraft that arrive a moment later carry Skeletor's own evil warriors, free from the Eternian prison and in no hurry to explain who let them out.
Their reunion is sharply written. Skeletor greets them as if the scheme had been staged for their sake, claiming he retrieved Count Marzo's amulet, freed Evil Seed and gathered the others only to avenge their capture. When someone asks whether he really did all that for them, the reply comes back as a flat "I doubt it." Evil-Lyn remarks drily on how quickly he replaced them, and a warrior who starts to name their rescuer is muffled mid-word.
The Last Stand is about what loyalty is worth to the people Skeletor has already spent. Beast Man answers it one way: "My pal, Skeletor. You gotta love a guy like that." The Council answers it the other way, but only when the fight turns. Once Mossman and the Masters arrive at the force field, the hired help decide they were better off working for themselves and leave, and only Count Marzo keeps fighting until he loses his amulet. A single henchman stays behind, and Skeletor answers with "How comforting".
The action, meanwhile, belongs to He-Man again. Adam tries to bluff with something he has taken from Skeletor and gets a sneer about taking what belongs to others, "like father, like son", before Skeletor turns the tables. Orko's "Ta-da!" with the recovered Power Sword is a lovely little beat, and the fight at Grayskull that follows is staged around the glowing green shield: He-Man leaping along the skull towers, blocking blasts with the sword, and caught between the Council's sorcery and the force field while Skeletor gloats that either way he wins.
The standout scene comes after the battle, in the golden palace hall. Man-At-Arms reports what happened and resigns his post, Randor refuses, and the two men take turns blaming themselves until Queen Marlena asks whether they are the great defenders of Eternia or a pair of whiny children. Adam's "Go, Mom!" is earned. The scene also sits at the centre of the episode's idea: Duncan offers his resignation because he was fooled by Skeletor's plan, and the King refuses it because he blames himself.
That contrast pays off in the last act. Kobra Khan comes to Evil-Lyn to collect on his debt, and she first refuses, saying that she and Skeletor go back a long way. Then the mountain itself plays back Skeletor calling the capture of his warriors a small price to pay. Fans will notice that this is not the speech Skeletor gave in Part 2, where he boasted of sacrificing the warriors he liked; whether Khan has doctored the record or the episode wants us to assume a second speech, it never says. Either way it is enough. Evil-Lyn switches her loyalty to King Hiss, and Snake Mountain, lit by a blood red moon with lava pouring from its fangs, has a new set of plotters.
The weakness is the rescue. The Masters escape their dungeon offscreen, and the episode explains it afterwards in one line of report: Zodak contacted Mossman, who freed them. Mossman never speaks, and Zodak is little more than a name. It is a reasonable trade for a half hour that has to close a three-part story and open a new season, but the cavalry arrives with no sense of the effort it took.
As a finale it is busy; as a premiere it is sharp. The Council of Evil collapses on its own selfishness, and the new season starts with Evil-Lyn, who defended Skeletor on grounds of loyalty, finding out what he thinks of her.
- Fan observation: The He-Man wiki points out that the speech Kobra Khan shows Evil-Lyn does not match Skeletor's words in The Council of Evil Part 2, and reads it as Khan altering it to turn her, much as Skeletor and Tri-Klops altered Randor's message in Sky War.
- Goofs: The He-Man wiki notes that in the cutaway to the Sorceress and Zodak inside Grayskull, while He-Man swings at Count Marzo's amulet, Zodak's helmet is missing its wings.
- Continuity: Kobra Khan escaped the palace prison in Snake Pit. Here the Masters work out that he only pretended to join Skeletor's warriors so he could get into Snake Mountain and reach the entrapped King Hiss.
- Continuity: Count Marzo's amulet, which Skeletor says he retrieved, is the source of power the Sorceress describes in Mekaneck's Lament, where Marzo had been imprisoned in an old man's body.
- Continuity: The new council Randor announces is convened in the next episode, To Walk With Dragons, which opens with Duncan reminding the King they have less than a day before the new Council of Eternia meets.
- Production: Wikipedia notes that the series was later referred to as Masters of the Universe vs. The Snake Men during its second season, and this premiere ends with Kobra Khan recruiting Evil-Lyn on King Hiss's behalf.
- Voice cast: The He-Man wiki lists Michael Donovan as both King Randor and Count Marzo, so the King who refuses Duncan's resignation and the sorcerer who stays to fight at Grayskull share a voice.
- Toys: Mossman, silent here, never reached the main 2002 Mattel line because it was cancelled before his figure could be released; the He-Man wiki says a limited edition figure was given away as a Mattel exclusive.
- Production: Unlike the two Council of Evil parts, The Last Stand closes on a short moral scene about solving problems creatively, just before Ram-Man crashes through to make room.
DISCUSSION
Join the conversation.
Comments below are mirrored on the heman.org forum. Sign in once, post anywhere.