Loo-Kee Lends a Hand

Hordak finishes a Timestop device with a crystal ordered from the Horde catalog, and Shadow Weaver hides it in a package that Glimmer collects with the rebels' supplies. When she opens it, everyone in the Whispering Woods freezes, Adora and Spirit included. Only Loo-Kee still moves, and Light Hope tells him that Adora is She-Ra and that He-Man is Prince Adam, then sends him to Eternia to find He-Man. A portal mishap drops him into Snake Mountain, where Skeletor's own plan for a portal to Adam's bedroom ends up carrying him there instead, and Orko and the Sorceress then get Adam to Etheria as He-Man. He-Man reaches Adora, who becomes She-Ra, and together they chain the Timestop device and drag it away from the camp. Pried open with their swords, its crystal is destroyed, the rebels start moving again, and Mantenna's attempt to repair Hordak's broken machine turns time inside out.

Loo-Kee: "Hi. Today, I know you found me 'cause I was part of the story. You know, none of us have powers like She-Ra and He-Man, but we can still do lots of things that are helpful to others. I'm not very strong, and my magic is just for hiding, but I helped She-Ra and He-Man today. Size is not the true measure of one's worth. Little people, like you and me, can do big things. So don't let being little keep you from being helpful."

Loo-Kee: "Nothing's moving in these woods but me."

Light Hope: "Adora is She-Ra."

Orko: "Some of us are trying to sleep."

What do you do with a story in which every hero you care about has been turned into a statue? Loo-Kee Lends a Hand sends for a member of the cast who has a reason not to be frozen, and then makes him earn the trip. The idea is simple and the episode never lets go of it: a very small character carries a very large secret across a world that has stopped moving, and the plot, the jokes and even the closing sermon about size all hang from that errand.

The first scene that matters belongs to Hordak. He orders parthax from the Horde catalog, fits it into his Timestop device, and tests it on Mantenna, who ends up hanging in mid-air over the trapdoor while Imp begs for permission to drop him. Hordak says go right ahead, and Imp has to work out for himself that a man stuck in time will not fall. It is a good small gag. The Horde cannot get into the Whispering Woods, so the rebels have to be talked into carrying the thing in themselves, and Imp points out that they are always coming to town for supplies. Shadow Weaver wraps the device in a package, Glimmer collects it with her shopping, and the trap works because the rebels do what they always do.

Then the camp goes silent and the episode finds its best stretch. Loo-Kee wakes up looking for a hiding place and notices that "Nothing's moving in these woods but me." He begs a frozen Bow to move and asks Madame Razz to fix everything. Watching him plead with a frozen Bow is funny for a second and then it is not. A voice calls him to a portal, he suspects a trick, and once inside it Light Hope tells him "Adora is She-Ra." Loo-Kee gets as far as "That means that He-Man is..." before Light Hope supplies the name Prince Adam. The opening narration says only a few others share the secret, and here is the show quietly adding one more to the list, chosen because he is the only one who can reach her brother.

The weak joint comes right after. Light Hope can open a portal but cannot aim it, and says he must put Loo-Kee somewhere on Eternia, anywhere, so the mission survives only because Loo-Kee lands in Snake Mountain beside a Skeletor who, prompted by Loo-Kee, lays out how he will use a crystal portal to reach Prince Adam's bedroom. Loo-Kee blurts out that Adam is He-Man, and ends up carried to the Royal Palace by the very portal Skeletor meant for himself while Skeletor blames Beast Man. The scene is well played and the jokes cover the coincidence, but it is still luck doing the work that planning should do.

After that the relay is brisk. Cringer hides under the covers, Orko drifts in with a candle and complains that some of us are trying to sleep, and the Sorceress explains that Orko and Loo-Kee are creatures of magic and that Adam's sword will protect him once he is He-Man. On Etheria, He-Man reaches Adora, and as She-Ra and He-Man turn their swords into chain and haul the Timestop device across the grass while Orko and Loo-Kee tumble about in the wind. Moving it damages it and starts shaking the planet, so the fix is to pry it open and destroy the crystal inside.

A light crossover with a cheerful bookend: Mantenna volunteers to repair the broken machine, turns it on, and the scolding that follows is "You turned time inside out!" Loo-Kee's sign-off says "I helped She-Ra and He-Man today," and the episode backs him up.

cereal:geek's commentary on Loo-Kee Lends a Hand, with behind-the-scenes detail on how the episode was made.

1. Continuity: The opening narration names Light Hope, Madame Razz and Kowl as the only others who share She-Ra's secret, and Light Hope tells it to Loo-Kee here, who is startled to learn it.
2. Continuity: Hordak says the Horde cannot get into the Whispering Woods, the setting of The Peril of Whispering Woods.
3. Continuity: Imp proposes dropping somebody down Hordak's trapdoor and later begs to drop Mantenna through it. Skeletor and Beast Man are scheming in Snake Mountain here, and in Of Shadows and Skulls, in which Skeletor again comes to Etheria and works with Shadow Weaver.