One to Count On

In a village curio shop, Adora, Bow and Glimmer watch the last two diamonds being set in Queen Angella's crystal crown. Leech and a squad of Horde troopers burst in, a trap from Entrapta pins Bow, and Leech escapes with the crown even after She-Ra drives the troopers back. Bow, Glimmer and Peekablue set out to catch Leech before he reaches the Fright Zone, sure that She-Ra will save them. Kowl warns Adora, and Madam Razz tells her to join them as Adora so that they learn to rely on themselves. In the jungle, Catra's cat Clawdeen and a field of cage mines trap the group. She-Ra appears, tells them to believe in themselves, and leaves. They deal with the cat, but Catra captures Peekablue and sets a sleeping violet as bait. The rebels get into the Horde hideout carrying supply barrels, and Adora faces Catra. She-Ra returns and wrecks the traps, then falls asleep with the others, and the rebels get out with the crown. Loo-Kee closes by saying that stealing, as Leech found out, usually catches up with you.

Loo-Kee: "Hi! I'm Loo-Kee. Did you find my hiding place today? If not, try again. See me now? Here I am! You know, today Leech stole a crystal crown and got in big trouble for it. Funny thing about stealing, it usually catches up to you. And even if it doesn't, you never can feel good about yourself. See you soon."

Kowl: "That crown is not important enough to risk your lives."

Madam Razz: "Oh, no child. If you go, they'll never learn to take care of themselves."

She-Ra: "It wasn't luck that brought me, it was concern."

Adora: "That's ex-Force Captain, Catra."

She-Ra: "I'm always ready to help someone who's tried to help themselves."

A hero who always arrives teaches the people around her to wait. That worry sits under One to Count On, and the script handles it with more care than its crown-theft setup suggests. The Rebels have come to treat She-Ra as a guarantee. When the Rebels argue for chasing the thief, the case is short: "We have She-Ra, the most powerful woman in the universe on our side." Only Kowl objects.

The setup is quick. Adora, Bow and Glimmer stand in a curio shop while the last two diamonds are set in Queen Angella's crystal crown. Then Leech and a squad of Horde troopers burst in. Bow ducks behind a suit of armor. Glimmer ends up inside a clear bubble. A magnetic trap, billed as a present from Entrapta, pins Bow's hands. She-Ra drives the troopers off, but Leech still leaves with the crown. That loss is the point. It leaves Glimmer with her face in her hands and Bow looking proud and sure of himself, and it sets up the argument that follows.

The best writing is the quiet scene back at base. Kowl brings the news to Adora, and her first instinct is to go and save them. Madam Razz stops her: "Oh, no child. If you go, they'll never learn to take care of themselves." The compromise is neat. Adora goes along as Adora, and She-Ra stays in reserve. Kowl is the voice of sense in the earlier scene. He tells the group, "That crown is not important enough to risk your lives." He is right, and he is ignored.

The standout is She-Ra's visit at the cage mines. A pink lion lunges, the group runs into cage mines, and Adora hides behind a rock asking, "I can't let them get captured. What's the right thing to do?" She decides to help, but "not in a way they expect." She arrives as She-Ra, and the speech is gentle. "It wasn't luck that brought me, it was concern." She tells them they are not using their abilities when they lead others into danger and then wait for rescue. Then she ends it: "You must believe in yourselves. Farewell, dear friends." She leaves them with the problem. They deal with the cat on their own, to the loud annoyance of Catra.

The finale pays this off with a reversal. Catra baits a trap with a sleeping violet, and the perfume puts She-Ra and Glimmer to sleep while Bow and Peekablue stand awake. The rescue of the hero falls to her friends. It also gives Adora her best exchange with Catra. Catra calls her Force Captain, and Adora answers, "That's ex-Force Captain, Catra."

The weakness is a muddled message. The lesson is self-reliance, yet She-Ra steps in twice. She says, "I'm always ready to help someone who's tried to help themselves," and the last word goes to Bow: "no matter how confident I feel, I'm sure glad She-Ra's around. Just in case." The point lands, then gets a hedge. Loo-Kee's closing talk makes it worse. It is about Leech and stealing, not about the Rebels at all.

Even so, this is a sensible entry. It gives Bow and Glimmer the last act. Catra's traps, the violet and the Horde hideout are all aimed at them, and they spend the finale answering those threats. The curio-shop opening has energy, and the Adora and Razz scene gives the story a reason to exist. The sign-off disagrees with the story, but the story itself holds together.

1. Production: Karen Wilson and Chris Weber wrote it, Bill Reed directed it, and it first aired on 1986-09-13.
2. Continuity: The crown is to go back to the safety of Whispering Woods once two more diamonds are set, and the shop talk says Hordak would love to get his hands on it.
3. Continuity: Catra greets Adora as "Force Captain Adora," and Adora answers that she is the ex-Force Captain.
4. Note: Loo-Kee, who gives the closing talk, is in the story too: he stands in the curio shop with Bow, sits in a cage in the jungle, and swings off a vine carrying the crown.
5. Note: Peekablue joins Bow and Glimmer on the stone bench outside the shop, and is the one Catra captures.