Trust

When an escaped prisoner shows that Eternian steel can be broken, the Masters look for Eternium, a legendary metal said to lie in the frozen ice mountains, and Stratos flies off to find it. Skeletor sends Trap Jaw after him. Their fight leaves both injured and trapped in the ice caves, forced into a truce that Trap Jaw keeps breaking. He-Man and Battle Cat search the mountains but are ambushed by Skeletor's warriors. Stratos wakes among the Kulitox, who guard the Eternium, and when he and Trap Jaw both ask for their trust, the Kulitox test them. Trap Jaw fails, Stratos earns their trust, and He-Man helps drive Skeletor off.

"We all want to be trusted. But to earn the trust of others, it's important to be trustworthy. And that means keeping your word, being honest, and, of course, speaking the truth."

Skeletor: "Do try not to fall in the snow, and rust."

Stratos: "You choose evil. And that's a choice made only by the weakest minds."

Trap Jaw: "Hey, you can't leave me to get eaten. You're supposed to be all good and heroic."

Skeletor: "Actually, it was Trap Jaw. But the whole gang's here now."

Kulitox elder: "We were observing. You have earned our trust. Not by word, but by deed."

Stranded with the enemy is one of the oldest setups in adventure television, and it lives or dies on how long the truce holds. Trust starts with a prison break: a gamma blast cuts through "double-reinforced Eternian steel," and the Masters go looking for something stronger. The ancients spoke of Eternium, said to lie in the ice mountains of the frozen north, so Stratos flies off with a scanner to find it. Skeletor sends Trap Jaw after him alone, with a parting shot that sets the tone for what Trap Jaw has coming: "Do try not to fall in the snow, and rust."

He does fall, and so does Stratos. Trap Jaw's ambush brings the ice down on both of them, and the pair wake in a cave with a busted wing and a busted leg between them. Trap Jaw proposes the obvious deal, that their only chance is to help each other, and he breaks it within minutes by grabbing for the blaster. When something hungry starts hunting them through the caves, he begs to be taken back on the grounds that Stratos is "supposed to be all good and heroic," and Stratos agrees, with conditions.

Words are cheap in this episode, and the Kulitox are the only characters who know it! Everybody asks for trust. Trap Jaw asks for a deal in the cave, and when the creatures break through, Stratos protests that they have a deal and is left behind anyway. Later, in the village of Stilia, Trap Jaw and Stratos both stand in front of the Kulitox elder and say the same two words, "Trust me." The elder answers by locking them in a supply chamber with what looks like a store of Eternium, and watches.

That test is the standout scene, and William Forrest Cluverius builds it with a nice economy. Trap Jaw goes straight for the prize, crowing "I'm gonna be indestructible," while Stratos tries to stop him. It turns out to be Deuterium, which, as the episode dryly puts it, "apparently makes you sick." The elder's verdict is the line the script was written to reach: "You have earned our trust. Not by word, but by deed." Skeletor turns up shortly after with his own philosophy, "might makes right," and Stratos takes a hit standing between Skeletor and the elder.

The animation does its best work in the caves. Blue-lit ice, icicle ceilings, a wall of skull-shaped openings and snow beasts with glowing green eyes give the Ice Mountains a look of their own. The shot of Stratos carrying Trap Jaw on his back with a cannon in his free hand sums up the truce better than any line of dialogue. He-Man's arctic armor, fur-trimmed with a white cloak, is a striking change from the usual harness.

Paul Dobson makes Trap Jaw the funniest thing in the episode, whining and scheming in equal measure. Scott McNeil gives Stratos a clipped gravity that suits his bluntest line: evil, he tells Trap Jaw, is "a choice made only by the weakest minds." Skeletor even gets a good gag at He-Man's expense, correcting "Triclops was here" with "Actually, it was Trap Jaw."

He-Man's half of the story is the weakness. Adam slips away with "I think I just saw He-Man pass by," and we are off to the mountains with him. From there He-Man mostly searches the snow, gets ambushed by Skeletor's gang and knocked down the mountain, and resurfaces in time to take on Skeletor himself. A show built around He-Man has to put him in every episode, and the reasons are easy to see, but here his thread runs alongside the real story rather than through it.

Trust is a Stratos episode first, and one of the better arguments the first season makes for its supporting cast. Stratos thanks the Kulitox for teaching him that trust is earned "not simply by word, but by deed," and the Kulitox are left with a way to call the Masters if they are ever threatened again. This time the promise comes with something they can hold.

1. Toys: He-Man's cold weather gear is based on the Ice Armor He-Man figure Mattel released in 2003, according to the He-Man wiki.
2. Homage: The He-Man wiki notes that Eternium was first mentioned in the Filmation episode Double Edged Sword.
3. Goofs: The He-Man wiki spots part of Skeletor's chest armor changing from light blue to its normal dark blue as he arrives saying the whole gang's here.
4. Fan observation: The subtitles call the snow people the Kulitox and the false treasure Deuterium; the He-Man wiki spells them Kulataks and Deterium.
5. Voice cast: Per the He-Man wiki, Paul Dobson voices both Trap Jaw and Tri-Klops, so when He-Man blames Tri-Klops for the abandoned vehicle and Skeletor corrects him with Trap Jaw, both suspects share an actor.
6. Voice cast: The He-Man wiki's cast list credits Scott McNeil with Stratos and Beast Man here, among other Masters and villains in the series.
7. Voice cast: Campbell Lane voices the Kulitox elder, according to the He-Man wiki's cast list.