Friends Are Where You Find Them

Prince Jol of Antares crash-lands on Etheria in an escape pod after She-Ra drives off Hordak's robot fighters, and Bow takes him to meet the young Etherians of Bright Moon. Jol refuses to let anyone near his Robo-Friend, a robot that does everything for him, and the other children give up on him. Hordak, who wants the robot, lets Imp go to Bright Moon, and Imp learns it still works and follows Jol to a camp in Big Ditch Canyon. While Jol is coaxed away to practice climbing and leaves it in a tent, Imp slips a control chip into the robot and Catra, Grizzlor and Leech distract the camp. Hordak takes command of the Robo-Friend, which captures Jol and heads for the Fright Zone until She-Ra blinds it with a smoke screen and it crashes. Jol, rescued, says robots are only friendly because they are programmed, while people are friendly because they care, and his parents have arrived to take him home.

Loo-Kee: "Hi, it's your friend Loo-Kee. Did you try to find me in today's show? If you didn't, try now. Look closer. Here I am. In today's story, Jol learned a very important lesson. He learned out of all the things in life that people may have, there is nothing more precious and more important than the friendship of other people. You see, people need a lot of things. But most of all, people need other people."

She-Ra: "Because sharing is a big part of friendship."

Hordak: "You're the only one around here I can trust."

Imp: "Okay, robo-pal, the time has come for you to become friends with the Horde."

Jol: "People are friendly because they really care about you."

Is a machine that does everything for you a friend? Friends Are Where You Find Them says no, and it takes a boy from Antares and a Horde chip to prove it. Prince Jol arrives in an escape pod after She-Ra, riding Swift Wind, swats Hordak's robot fighters out of the sky with a giant racquet, then helps his escape pod down after the ship explodes. His Robo-Friend's guidance system was wrecked in the crash, he says, and Queen Angella promises to try to reach his parents on Antares while Bow shows him around the kingdom.

The first scene that carries the idea is the clean-up. The young Etherians are busy before a game of arm-ball and ask Jol to lend a hand, and he answers that he does not usually do that because his Robo-Friend does it for him, and that he would never let anyone else use it. One of the kids says they have no robo-somethings anyhow, and Jol is told that on Etheria "we like to share things"; he answers that he does not.

Here is what the episode is about: Jol has mistaken service for friendship, and the Horde, by turning his robot's service against him, is the only party in the story that can prove it. Hordak knows what he wants. The Robo-Friend is very powerful, and Imp volunteers to go to Bright Moon, floats a disguise as a bibble (he drops it himself, since someone might eat him) and then as a candle (Hordak vetoes it, since he might get burned), and is allowed to go as himself because "You're the only one around here I can trust." It is a small, odd moment of warmth in a villain.

The standout is the tent. Jol has been talked into leaving his Robo-Friend behind for a climbing lesson, and he agrees only after protesting that someone might touch it and that he has "never climbed without help." Nobody touches it but Imp, who stands on a crate and tells the robot it is time to "become friends with the Horde." Hordak wakes it with a word, it announces that it is at his service, and Imp cheers. What follows is the cruelest use of the title. Told to release Bow, the robot answers "You can have him!" and a crash follows, and when Jol calls it over, it answers "Yes, Master" and "I am your Robo-Friend" before a lock clicks shut. The machine is not lying; it serves whoever holds the controller.

The weak point is that the lesson Jol is supposed to learn never has to be learned. The climbing practice is set up as the cure for his dependence and then interrupted by Catra, Grizzlor and Leech declaring the canyon Horde land, so that Jol's change of heart arrives as a speech once the robot lies wrecked at the foot of a cliff: "robots are only friendly because they're programmed that way," and people care about you. It is a sound conclusion delivered where the plot needed one, not where the character reached it, and the last exchange, where Jol says he felt safe because She-Ra was there, shows him still leaning on someone.

The ending gives Bow a gag to carry the credits: he boasts that he is in touch with She-Ra all the time, with Adora standing next to him and "tell me more" coming back at him. Friends Are Where You Find Them is a plain Loo-Kee lesson, and the villain's plot supplies the evidence for it.

1. Continuity: Catra's order to look for Adora in the tents, because Hordak would love to capture "that traitor", treats Adora's defection from the Horde as old news, the turn told in Into Etheria.
2. Continuity: The opening narration names Light Hope, Madame Razz and Kowl as the few who share She-Ra's secret; Bow is not named, and the closing gag has him telling Jol he is in touch with She-Ra all the time while Adora stands next to him.
3. Continuity: Queen Angella is heard but not seen in the sampled frames, saying she will make every effort to reach Antares; it is She-Ra who places her castle in Bright Moon.