The Seeds of Resistance

Skeletor blames Flogg for sending the Mothership elsewhere while the rebels spread, and the scientists report that the water from a certain pond short-circuits the Zeps. When the Mothership finds Zaphor empty, Skeletor tests a tractor beam on the village. Mara and He-Man free Master Sebrian, Hydron and Flipshot, though Skeletor lets them escape with a homing device on Sebrian's toga. Sebrian promises to lead them to a secret fighter base, then reveals there was no such base: the Mutants only wanted to see where the heroes would go. Gleep's fire extinguisher ends the story.

Gleep puts out a small fire with an extinguisher, and the closing lesson is to make sure your parents have fire extinguishers at home, to find out where they are and how to use them, because fires are serious business and you should be prepared.

What do you do when the enemy is listening to every word you say? "The Seeds of Resistance" has a better answer than most cartoons would bother to find: you tell them what they want to hear. The setup is a good one. Skeletor and Flogg are squabbling over a squadron of Terra Claws and a Mothership sent in the wrong direction, a rebel strike has almost taken a fighter base, and Skeletor is quick to remind his partner who is behind it all. Meanwhile at the scientists' lab we learn that not just any water short-circuits the Zeps; there is something about the water from this particular pond, and the answer lies in its chemical composition.

The spine of the half hour, in plain terms, is that resistance grows from small advantages, a pond, a bluff, a trick played on a listening device, and not from firepower. Zaphor is the counter-example, the other side's idea of strength. When the Mothership arrives the village is deserted, someone on the bridge insists it cannot be since there was a battle there only yesterday, and the scene fills with a very funny argument over whose command it is, Skeletor's wish or Flogg's, and who should enlarge the image on the screen. Skeletor then orders a tractor beam test as a lesson, and Zaphor, we are told afterwards, is no more. On the rebel side, a voice admits that they cannot fight alone and need Sebrian's wisdom, and the military talents of Hydron and Flipshot.

The prison break is the sprightly middle. Mara tells two troopers she is a defenseless woman, asks them for help with a wrist phaser Alcon rigged, and a voice crows how easily the fool will fall for the brilliant plan. Slush Head blocks the path to freedom, He-Man arrives, and the escape is made. Afterwards Skeletor asks whose idea it was to plant a homing device on Sebrian's toga, and Flogg hurries to agree, yes, yes, it was his idea.

Sebrian himself is the star. He says that tomorrow he will guide them all to the secret fighter base, someone cheers that they will get their wings back, and nobody is told where it is, because if he said so it would not be a secret. Then, at the oasis, he says the entrance is over the next rise, and by Crater Lake he has told them that he knew the Mutants were listening, that a micro-com had been planted on him, and that there was no secret fighter base. The Mutants lose the audio, follow the movement to the frozen lake and move in, and the old man's bluff shows him to be as cunning as the villain. His wisdom is shown working.

The weakness is the price of the trick: to fool the listeners, Sebrian has to fool his own side as well, and the cheer about getting their wings back, followed by the admission "you even fooled us", leaves the rescued friends looking a little credulous. Because this is the fourth part of five, the story also has to hold something back, and the closing line that the people have risen points ahead rather than settling anything.

Verdict: a clever bridge episode whose idea, a false secret as a weapon, does better than its action. The idea carries it.

1. Continuity: Wikipedia's episode list labels this as Part 4 of 5 of the occupation of Primus story.
2. Continuity: The He-Man wiki marks Veeta's silent appearance here as her final Jetlag productions appearance, and the village of Zaphor as a location's final one.
3. Continuity: Per the He-Man wiki, the scientists learn here that mud short circuits the Zeps, which sets up the mud shooting weapons used in The Battle for Levitan.
4. Behind the scenes: In the safety moral, Gleep puts out a small fire with an extinguisher and tells viewers to make sure their parents have several at home, with Master Sebrian adding that fire is serious, according to the He-Man wiki.
5. Voice cast: Don Brown voices Hydron, Optikk and Gepple here, Scott McNeil voices Flipshot, BH and Krex, and Venus Terzo voices Crita and Mara, per the He-Man wiki cast list.
6. Toys: Optikk's toy biography, quoted on the He-Man wiki, calls him a spy with a spyball eyeball and a Photon Neutralizer weapon, while the cartoon mostly keeps him as the Mothership navigator.