Out of the Cocoon

In Glimmer's garden, orange worms cover the roses, and a spray meant to help ruins the plants. Adora tells Glimmer to be patient, because the worms are not what they seem. Starving farmers from Sand Valley arrive, saying Baron Condor's soldiers took their food, so Adora has wagons loaded and, as She-Ra, has Swift Wind tow them through the sky. Condor's soldiers put on rags and fly white flags, and She-Ra lands at his castle and is trapped in a glowing beam in the dungeon. A cleaner named Small One cuts the beam with her mop so that She-Ra can break her chains, then falls asleep. She-Ra takes her to Light Hope, and Small One emerges from a cocoon as Flutterina, a winged ally. They reach a besieged castle where Bow stands with a crowned prince, Prince Norb, and stop Condor's Sun Beamer when Swift Wind blows clouds across the sun. She-Ra then digs a channel from the Green River to irrigate Sand Valley, ending the war and the famine. Back in the garden the worms are butterflies, and Loo-Kee closes with a lesson about physically disabled people.

Loo-Kee: "It's Loo-Kee again! Did you find my hiding place today? If not, try again. Look! See me now? Here I am! In today's show, the caterpillars in Glimmer's garden turned into beautiful butterflies. You know, there's an important lesson about people here. Especially people who are physically disabled. They may look or act different than you, but inside, they are just as special and beautiful as you are. Bye now!"

Adora: "Trust me. And wait."

Baron Condor: "Look as weak and hungry as possible."

Small One: "I'm very unimportant."

She-Ra: "No one is unimportant, Small One. But everyone has a different path in life."

Light Hope: "You are Small One no longer. Arise, Flutterina!"

Patience is hard to put on screen, because nothing happens while it works. Out of the Cocoon builds a story around waiting by running two plots on one idea. In Glimmer's garden, the wait is for caterpillars to become butterflies. In Sand Valley, it is for a dungeon cleaner to find out what she is.

The garden scene that opens the story is brisk and a little funny. Glimmer is angry about orange worms on her roses. A man in an elephant helmet offers to spray them, and the spray drenches the plants and leaves them wilting. Adora's advice is calm. "Trust me. And wait." Nothing is explained, which is the right choice, because the answer waits at the end of the half hour.

The Sand Valley plot is set up with clean cause and effect. Farmers arrive with their story: "Our crops have died, and Baron Condor's soldiers have taken our food." Adora has wagons loaded and sends She-Ra to fly them in. Meanwhile Condor tells his men to put on ragged clothes and "look as weak and hungry as possible." The trick works long enough to get She-Ra into the castle. It also gives her the show's driest line, aimed at the well-fed beggars: "some of your people don't seem to have missed many meals lately."

In the dungeon, She-Ra hangs in a glowing beam, and a mop-wielding girl called Small One looks in. Their exchange is the heart of the writing. Small One says, "I'm very unimportant," and She-Ra answers, "No one is unimportant, Small One. But everyone has a different path in life." Small One then helps with her mop, which cuts the beam so She-Ra can break her chains.

The standout is what happens next. Small One drops to the floor, asleep, and She-Ra carries her through a field of blue crystal to Light Hope. A tan cocoon sits on a stone slab. Light Hope calls her to emerge, and she wakes with pink butterfly wings: "You are Small One no longer. Arise, Flutterina!" Soon after, she promises to use her powers for good and never for evil. The scene is plain, and the cocoon and the slab say what the dialogue does not. The garden lesson becomes a person.

The weakness is what the new hero does afterward. Light Hope says her powers are needed now, but the episode never shows what they are. On screen she flies alongside She-Ra and dives through the sky. The big fixes come from She-Ra and Swift Wind. Swift Wind flaps clouds across the sun to stop Condor's Sun Beamer, because, as She-Ra says, "Condor's Sun Beamer only works in clear sunlight." Her sword becomes a digger and cuts a channel from the Green River. Flutterina gets a title and a promise, but little to do.

The closing garden scene returns to the worms, and the image repays the wait. The ending talk does stretch further than the plot. Small One is never described as disabled in the story itself, so the link to people who are physically disabled comes only from Loo-Kee. Still, the episode treats an unimportant worker kindly and lets She-Ra end a war with irrigation rather than a last fight. "Your greed would have beaten you" is a fair summary of Condor. It is a gentle, tidy episode with a strong middle.

1. Production: Don Heckman wrote it, Marsh Lamore directed it, and it first aired on 1986-09-27.
2. Continuity: She-Ra says that when Condor used the Sun Beamer as a control beam she could not fight her way through it, and Bow is told that Condor has fooled them before.
3. Continuity: Condor and Prince Norb end the war by taking each other's hand in friendship, with the Green River water to irrigate Sand Valley.
4. Note: Small One's mop is what cuts the beam that holds She-Ra's chains in the dungeon.
5. Note: The closing garden scene answers the opening, since the "worms" Adora told Glimmer to wait for turn out to be butterflies.