Birds of a Feather

Hordak turns away a would-be recruit called Red Eye as too small to be worth much, until it comes out that he is Kowl's cousin and can bring back some of Kowl's feathers. Red Eye grabs Kowl in the village, Adora scares him off, and he leaves with his feathers, which Shadow Weaver uses for a family mind-reading spell that lets the Horde watch the rebel camp in Whispering Woods and ambush them. When Castaspella works out how it was done, Kowl decides he is a danger to his friends and flies off to the Valley of the Lost, and Spirit tells Adora where he went. Hordak sets out in Horde Prime's Monstron to capture him and hold him to ransom. She-Ra saves Kowl, then uses Red Eye's mind-reading to send Hordak toward Whispering Woods while she doubles back and calls the birds to help. The birds blind the Horde crew, She-Ra sends the robots into a mud bath, and Hordak, standing in red mud, blames Red Eye for losing the ship.

Loo-Kee: "Hi, here's Loo-Kee! Well, did you find me? If not, find me now where I was hidden in today's story. Find me yet? Here I am! In today's adventure, Kowl had a problem. Of course, everyone has problems. The trick is to know what to do when you have one. What I do is talk it over with someone who cares. That usually helps me. I'll bet it will help you too!"

Kowl: "I can't stay here. I'm a danger to my friends."

Adora: "I think that if somebody's in danger that it's more important to tell."

Hordak: "Either Monstron or the volcano will take care of you and those birds, She-Ra."

What does a spy look like when he does not know he is one? Birds of a Feather answers with Kowl, who loses a handful of feathers to a cousin he does not get along with and becomes, without moving, the Horde's window into Whispering Woods. Red Eye comes to Hordak asking to join up and is told he is too small to be worth much, until he mentions Kowl and Hordak's interest changes on the spot. A spell cast over some feathers does the rest.

The best early move is how the trap is staged. Kowl, perched alone, says he has the feeling he is being watched, and Bow tells him off for being a feather-head; Glimmer agrees it is only imagination. Then the Horde, watching through the same spell, repeats it back: "Pay no attention to Kowl." The rebels walk their trucks into an ambush with no troopers on it, Madame Razz's smog (she asked for fog) lets them get out, and Red Eye gloats that "A little bird told me." Everyone but Kowl has been wrong, and he is the one who ends up blaming himself.

Here is what the episode is about: Kowl treats being a leak as a reason to vanish, and the episode proves that a leak you know about is the most useful thing a rebel can own. Castaspella and the others work out the spell, and Kowl's first conclusion is that "I'm a danger to my friends." He flies off to a place from which, he is warned, nobody returns, and asks Spirit not to say where. Spirit, who cannot lie, takes the question to Adora as a riddle about a friend who asked for silence, and gets the answer that "it's more important to tell." That moment is the hinge: a small, sensible lesson about secrets that turns an exile into a rescue.

The standout is the scene where She-Ra uses the leak. Pinned in a cave while Hordak's ship hunts them, with Swift Wind's wing frozen, Kowl notes that Red Eye is trying to read his mind, and She-Ra answers that they may "use that to our advantage." She clears her throat and announces that they should head back to Whispering Woods. Kowl plays along with a cheerful line. Hordak changes course, and the Monstron points the wrong way long enough for She-Ra to double back. One line and a bit of acting is all it takes.

The weak spot is the finish. She-Ra spots some birds and says they give her an idea for a real surprise, and the next thing we see is her calling to the birds to bring their friends, who attack the Horde robots with no more setup than two birds on a branch. The payoff is pleasant, and the birds thank her because Hordak has always been mean to them, but they are a rescue force the episode only meets in its last five minutes. Kowl, whose problem started all this, is by then just riding along.

Still, the small plants pay off. Early on someone warns Hordak about what could happen to Horde Prime's finest ship, and later Hordak is standing in red mud wailing "Not my Monstron!" while Red Eye pleads for a lower rank. The moral Loo-Kee delivers, to talk a problem over with someone who cares, fits Spirit's talk with Adora better than it fits Kowl, who announces he is leaving rather than asking anyone what to do. It is a light, sturdy Kowl episode, and the best thing in it is a ruse that works only because the Horde is listening.

1. Continuity: After the ambush someone points out that the trees will not let the Horde into Whispering Woods, and someone else answers that Shadow Weaver may have a new spell. Whispering Woods appears again in The Peril of Whispering Woods.
2. Continuity: Hordak borrows Horde Prime's finest ship, the Monstron, and Red Eye is promised a Force Captain's rank if the plan works. Horde Prime himself does not appear in this episode but turns up in Horde Prime Takes a Holiday.
3. Continuity: Kowl is one of the few who share She-Ra's secret, as the opening narration says, and he recurs in Welcome Back, Kowl. Madame Razz's spells going wrong, here fog turning to smog, have a counterpart in the broom mishap in The Price of Power.