Prince Adam dreams of Hordak and of a warrior who looks like He-Man, and the Sorceress reveals the warrior as his ancestor, King Grayskull. Long ago, with his sword lost and Hordak readying his army, Grayskull's wife Veena sent him to the Oracle of Zalesia. The journey ended with his own lost sword, the news that the power was inside him, and a warning that he would not survive Hordak. Grayskull drove Hordak into another dimension and died of his wounds, leaving Veena sworn to guard his castle. In the present, Hordak orders Skeletor to free him, but Skeletor destroys Hordak's sanctuary instead.
"The best way to work out differences and conflicts is through talking, not fighting. If you're willing to do that, almost any problem can be solved."
Prince Adam: "There was a King Grayskull?"
Hordak: "That is good counsel, Calix. But I so hate bad news."
The Oracle: "That? Just for show. Impresses the lookie-loos."
The Oracle: "I wasn't sure you'd make it, so I didn't tell you this before."
King Grayskull: "I... have... the... Power!"
Skeletor: "Excellent point, He-Man."
Every episode of this series opens with a prince raising a sword and claiming the power of a name, and this episode is where the show finally says whose name it is. This one stops. Dean Stefan starts it as a nightmare about Hordak and a warrior who "looks like He-Man, but different," then hands most of the half hour to a story set long before the prince was born.
The present-day frame is lean. Hordak, trapped in another dimension, calls in the price for once saving Skeletor's life and orders him to free his master from his old sanctuary; the Sorceress, still weak from King Hiss' venom, takes Adam into a sealed chamber and shows him his ancestor, King Grayskull. Adam's reply is "There was a King Grayskull?"
The episode is about where He-Man's power comes from, and its answer is that it was never in the sword. Veena sends her husband to the Oracle of Zalesia. The Oracle sends him through dragons, a labyrinth, a snowstorm and the Sands of Time to the top of Mount Imperium, and the box waiting in the cave holds the sword he already lost. "It possesses no great power," says Grayskull, and the Oracle laughs: "No, but you do." It is a fairy-tale twist, the kind where the treasure turns out to be the journey, but it lands because the show has spent its run treating that sword as the source of everything.
The Oracle is the episode's comic engine, and a sly one. He greets Grayskull from behind a looming giant that he admits is "just for show," finishes Grayskull's sentences for him, and saves his worst news for the top of the mountain: "I wasn't sure you'd make it, so I didn't tell you this before." Grayskull will not survive the battle. His answer, that what becomes of him is not important so long as Eternia lives in peace, could sound pious, but the scene has just been played for laughs, so the turn to sacrifice hits hard.
The weak stretch is the quest itself. The Oracle names each trial in voiceover, and the screen gives us Grayskull riding red canyons, a winged demon against a red sky, a jungle path, a blizzard and a boulder lifted in a cave. When the Oracle then praises his courage, wisdom, kindness and strength, the episode is telling us about tests we mostly watched as scenery. With a Skeletor subplot sharing the slot, a ride under narration was probably the only way to fit the journey in, but it costs the payoff some weight.
The battle repays the wait. Hordak's army rings the castle, pink beams hammer its walls, and his wraiths chant for the portal to Despondos. Then Grayskull, half buried in rubble, finds the words, and the words come one at a time: "I... have... the... Power!" Adam says those words in every opening as a formula; here they come from a man with nothing else left. Cam Clarke voices Grayskull as well as Adam, and Colin Murdock's Hordak is all dry menace, never more so than when he thanks Calix for good counsel and adds, "But I so hate bad news."
The death scene is handled gently. Grayskull asks that his power be used to rule with wisdom and kindness, comforts his queen, promises that a great hero will be born by his name, and Veena vows to guard the castle until she can find another to take her place, which suggests where the Sorceress's duty began. Back in the present, Adam puts it together: "His power inside of me, when I'm He-Man!"
The frame closes on a real surprise. Skeletor, told by He-Man that destroying the sanctuary would trap Hordak forever, agrees ("Excellent point, He-Man") and blows it up himself. It is a sharp end, and it leaves an open question about what Skeletor actually wants.
This is the mythology episode the 2002 series needed, and it earns its title.
- Production: The He-Man wiki reports that King Grayskull's look came from an early Four Horsemen prototype of the 2002 He-Man figure with longer hair, which the producers liked enough to build a character around.
- Toys: According to the He-Man wiki, King Grayskull was one of the first Masters of the Universe Classics figures, a 2008 San Diego Comic-Con exclusive with a limited bronze statue variant, followed by a redesigned version in 2010 and a glow-in-the-dark Spirit of King Grayskull in 2015.
- Toys: Hordak's chanting wraiths are credited as Wizards in this episode's end credits; the He-Man wiki notes Mattycollector released them as a Horde Wraiths figure in 2016.
- Voice cast: Cam Clarke voices King Grayskull as well as Prince Adam and He-Man, and Nicole Oliver plays both the Sorceress and Veena.
- Voice cast: The He-Man wiki's cast list doubles up the villains: Colin Murdock voices Hordak and one of the wizards, Gabe Khouth the Oracle and another wizard, and Scott McNeil both Beast Man and Calix.
- Continuity: Hordak reminds Skeletor, "When I saved your life, I told you there would be a price." The He-Man wiki places that rescue in "The Price of Deceit", where Hordak saves Keldor and renames him Skeletor.
- Continuity: The Sorceress is "still weak from King Hiss' venom", a thread from "Rise of the Snake Men, Part 2", in which the He-Man wiki records Hiss poisoning her during the attack on the castle.
- Production: Hordak vows "I shall return!" but never does in this series. The He-Man wiki cites Mattel's Ian Richter as saying Hordak was planned as the main villain of a third season that was never made, because the show and toy line were cancelled.
- Continuity: Two episodes later, in "Rattle of the Snake", King Hiss taunts He-Man with "I knew King Grayskull. I fought King Grayskull." This episode's flashback has Grayskull losing his sword in battle with the Snake Men.
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