The Curse of the Spellstone

Evil-Lyn steals the Spellstone and disguises herself as an old woman to talk the villagers near the Temple of the Fire People into handing over the Creeping Horak, a slow-growing weapon that can swallow the Royal Palace wall by wall. With Skeletor mostly occupied elsewhere, it's her scheme to run, and He-Man's job to recover the Spellstone before the Horak finishes what it started.

Man-At-Arms: You've all seen how Orko's magical tricks don't always go the way he planned. Sometimes they backfire on him. The same thing is true of practical jokes. Sometimes they don't go the way you planned and you, or someone else, can get hurt. So be sure and think twice before playing a joke or a trick on anybody. It might not go the way you planned and someone could wind up losing a finger, or an arm, or may be even an eye. And no joke is worth that, is it? See you again soon."

John Erwin as He-Man/Prince Adam, Ram Man and King Helios

Alan Oppenheimer as Skeletor, Man-At-Arms and Battle Cat/Cringer

Linda Gary as Teela, Evil-Lyn and Queen Marlena

Lou Scheimer (credited as Erik Gunden) as Orko, Trap Jaw, King Randor and Jaymar

Norm Prescott as Stratos and Old Zak

Jay Scheimer as Bran

Marc Scott Zicree hands most of this episode to Evil-Lyn rather than Skeletor, and it is a better episode for it. Once she has the Spellstone in hand, Skeletor is mostly offscreen managing Hover Robots at the Temple of the Fire People while Evil-Lyn runs the episode's actual scheme: disguised as an old woman, she preys on villagers' fear of the storms she herself is causing and talks them into handing over the Creeping Horak, the setting's cruelest weapon, on the promise that the royal family is somehow to blame. It is manipulation dressed as concern, and it is sharper villainy than the show usually lets its secondary antagonist attempt.

The Horak itself is the episode's best idea: a slow, inexorable, plant-like growth that swallows the Royal Palace wall by wall while the people trapped inside it can do nothing but watch it close in. Filmation rarely lets a threat feel patient, and there is something genuinely unsettling about a villain's weapon that does not need to be fast to win. He-Man's solution, recovering the Spellstone and reversing the Horak's effect, resolves the crisis efficiently, maybe too efficiently for a threat the episode spent so long building as unstoppable.

Man-At-Arms's closing message about practical jokes going wrong sits oddly apart from the episode it follows; nobody in this story plays a prank on anyone, and the connection asks the viewer to squint. What the episode does earn honestly is its villain balance: with Skeletor sidelined at the temple, Evil-Lyn gets to be the one making choices, wearing a disguise, reading a room, and escaping with her prize, and the Spellstone's return to the Fire People at the end plays less like a defeat for her specifically than a delay. The underground fight between He-Man's team and the Fire People is a filler detour, there mainly to keep the heroes occupied while the real story runs at the palace, but everything happening around Evil-Lyn's con is sharp enough to carry the episode regardless.

cereal:geek's commentary on The Curse of the Spellstone, with behind-the-scenes detail on how the episode was made.

1. Script approval came December 13, 1982, with a final revision dated July 13, 1983.
2. Loosely built on an earlier Filmation premise called Eternia's Ordeal, about storms turning citizens against the royal family.
3. The only time in the series Trap Jaw wears his Saw Blade attachment, and the only time Skeletor carries a sword identical to He-Man's, an echo of the original action-figure concept where the two came with matching half-swords.
4. Evil-Lyn's old-woman disguise gets reused twice more on the network, once by the wizard Jarvan in A Friend in Need and again by Evil-Lyn herself in The Royal Cousin.
5. The tentacled creature attacking in the Region of Fire is only called 'Serpent' in the script; it returns properly named as a Spidasaur in Double Edged Sword.
6. An ancient cursed stone falls into Skeletor's possession, granting him temporary command of the elements. An early Evil-Lyn showcase.