SHE-RA - 1985

Return of the Sea Hawk

Return of the Sea Hawk synopsis still

Force Captain Catra seizes the Elves of Seaworthy and lets one escape, counting on the news to bring both Adora and Sea Hawk onto her Horde prison ship. In the Rebellion camp Adora tells Madame Razz that she fears Sea Hawk likes She-Ra more than he likes her, and that she cannot tell him they are the same person. Madame Razz flies off to find Sea Hawk, and She-Ra and Sea Hawk both go after the prison ship. She-Ra is captured and Sea Hawk boards the ship, and between them they free the prisoners, with Swen and Madame Razz helping from the Solar Sailor. On the shore afterward Sea Hawk tells Adora he would rather spend time with her.

Return of the Sea Hawk Official upload, Masters of the Universe channel

Loo-Kee: "Hi! It's Loo-Kee again. Did you find my hiding place today? If not, take a closer look. Find me yet? Here I am! In today's story, Adora and Sea Hawk liked each other, but they were afraid to admit it. Once they did, they became good friends. Everyone wants to be liked. If you like someone, tell them. And who knows they may even say 'I like you' right back."

Catra: "Of course he is. I want him to."

She-Ra: "I don't suppose you need any help, Hawk."

Sea Hawk: "No, of course not. I've got him right where I want him."

Sea Hawk: "She-Ra's fun to fight beside, but I'd much rather spend time with you."

Return of the Sea Hawk opens with Catra ordering the Elves of Seaworthy onto the docks and telling Mayor Guppi that they are bait for two very big fish, Sea Hawk and Adora. When an elf bolts and Grizzlor cries that he is escaping, Catra answers "Of course he is. I want him to." Her plan is sound. The elf will carry the news to Adora, and Adora and Sea Hawk will come to her. For its first stretch the episode is a Horde trap story in which Adora waits at the edge of the action.

Catra's side of the story has some good small jokes. She tells Grizzlor "Maybe you're not as dumb as everyone thinks, fur face," and a few scenes later, when she announces that she knocked She-Ra out, he starts to object and retreats in the middle of the sentence: "You? I mean you did it, Force Captain." Neither line is a big joke, but both give the Horde some personality.

The episode's spine is in the Rebellion camp. Adora is competing with her own other self, She-Ra, for Sea Hawk's good opinion, and she cannot say so. Madame Razz puts the problem into words, "You think that Sea Hawk likes She-Ra more than he likes Adora," and Adora answers "And I can't tell him they're both me." Razz's advice is short: "Then perhaps Adora should tell him how Adora feels." The rest of the story is built on that exchange, and the double identity is treated as a matter of feelings, not tactics.

The best scene in the rescue comes on the prison ship. She-Ra walks in on Sea Hawk while Grizzlor has him in a bear hug and says "I don't suppose you need any help, Hawk." He answers "No, of course not. I've got him right where I want him," and she replies "I can see that." Neither will admit that Sea Hawk is in trouble, and both enjoy not admitting it. It is the one stretch where the two of them trade jokes, and it makes the romance easier to believe.

The weakness is at the end of the thread Razz started. She tells Adora to speak up, and Adora never does. On the shore she says "Sorry to disappoint you," and Sea Hawk is the one who answers: "I'm not disappointed. I'm glad. She-Ra's fun to fight beside, but I'd much rather spend time with you." The moral Loo-Kee gives at the close is that if you like someone, you should tell them, yet the person who tells is Sea Hawk, who has not been shown to be afraid of anything in this story. Adora is the one with something at risk, because She-Ra's name hangs over every word she says to him. It would have been a stronger ending if she had spoken first and taken the chance. As written, the fear the episode builds in the camp is removed by someone else, and Adora has to do nothing about it.

The ending is still a kind one. Sea Hawk's choice is clear and warmly put, and Adora gets the answer she was afraid not to get. Swen then invites Madame Razz for a stroll to hear about his adventures with Sea Hawk, and she accepts, correcting "a few moments" to "I mean minutes" while the broom is left to ask "Hey. What about me?" Worth watching for the bear-hug exchange. The flaw is that its central character never has to say what she feels.

Continuity: The Grizzlor bear-hug animation on Sea Hawk is reused in this episode from The Sea Hawk.
Credits: The title card reads "Story by Michael Chase Walker" and "Teleplay by Larry DiTillio".

Princess Adora

Princess Adora

She-Ra

She-Ra

Madame Razz

Madame Razz

Broom (Madame Razz's broom)

Swift Wind

Swift Wind

Sea Hawk

Sea Hawk

Catra

Catra

Grizzlor

Grizzlor

Horde Trooper

Horde Trooper

Spirit (Adora's pre-transformation horse)

Spirit (Adora's pre-transformation horse)

Two elves of Seaworthy unload crates on the harbor dock.

A small sailboat with a white sail floats beside the Seaworthy dock.

Mayor Guppi and several elves gather outside the pink rock houses of Seaworthy.

Worried elves watch from the street as others peer out of the rock houses.

A crowd of anxious elves stands packed together on the docks.

Mayor Guppi points angrily at the camera while the crowd of elves huddles behind him.

Catra gives an order with a hard stare.

Grizzlor scowls beside a Horde Trooper.

Catra and Grizzlor stand on the dock, Grizzlor aiming a dart pistol.

Catra raises one finger as she explains her trap.

Adora sits on a log in the Great Rebellion camp with two Twiggets beside her.

Three Twiggets stand on the grass at night in the Whispering Woods.

A hollow stump sits among glowing blue trees and purple bushes.

Madame Razz sits on the ground rubbing her side while her broom stands beside her.

Adora holds a nest of two blue birds and a speckled egg.

Adora stands beside Madame Razz and her broom.

Adora looks off to the side with a worried expression.

She-Ra stands facing Sea Hawk in a hazy flashback.

Madame Razz wipes her eyes while her broom stands with hands on hips.

Madame Razz dabs her face as the broom looks on.

Adora stands tall beside Madame Razz and her broom.

Adora looks down and to the side, deep in thought.

Madame Razz flies off on her broom past a tent in the camp.

Adora glances down with a small smile.

Grizzlor and Catra watch a screen aboard the prison ship.

Static crackles across the big viewscreen as Catra and Grizzlor sit before it.

Grizzlor leans in while Catra raises her hands to her face.

Catra speaks sharply inside the dark prison ship.

She-Ra rides Swift Wind through the clouds.

The Horde prison ship cruises across the open sea.

She-Ra leans forward on Swift Wind in flight.

A hand presses a red button on a control panel inside the prison ship.

She-Ra rides Swift Wind with wings spread.

She-Ra and Swift Wind glide across the sky.

A trapper missile streaks across the sky trailing flame.

A red trapper missile chases over the sea as Swift Wind's tail trails at the corner.

Grizzlor and Catra watch from the prison ship deck with a Horde Trooper behind them.

She-Ra stands with her sword drawn beside Swift Wind inside the prison ship.

Catra frowns with her eyes narrowed in anger.

Grizzlor and Catra stare ahead, Catra scowling.

Catra glares at Grizzlor as he turns toward her.

Sea Hawk holds a map while Swen stands beside him and a cannon sits behind.

Sea Hawk looks up as Swen stands worried beside him.

Madame Razz and her broom pry at a deck grate while Sea Hawk's crew looks on.

Sea Hawk lies flat on the deck under the weight of Madame Razz.

Madame Razz tells Sea Hawk the news while holding her broom on the Solar Sailor.

Sea Hawk, Swen, Madame Razz and her broom stand together on the deck.

Swift Wind stands tied to a wall in the prison ship hold, wings spread.

She-Ra raises both hands, held captive inside the ship.

Catra watches with a hard stare in front of ship pipes.

The Solar Sailor appears as a distant dark shape through a rounded porthole.

Sea Hawk looks through a spyglass while Swen steers at the wheel.

The Horde prison ship sails across the water.

Sea Hawk looks out from the rail as Swen turns the ship's wheel.

Sea Hawk stands at the rail while a bald crewman grips a gun mount.

The Solar Sailor skims the sea with its solar sails spread and sparkling.

Grappling hooks line the open ports on the side of the prison ship.

Sea Hawk and a bald crewman walk across the deck as two sailors watch.

Grizzlor and Catra stand at a railing with a Horde Trooper behind them.

A Horde Trooper stands ready, its dark visor glowing yellow.

A Horde Trooper turns, its red bat emblem on the chest.

Two Horde Troopers stand side by side under a cloudy sky.

Sea Hawk speaks with a frown inside the prison ship.

A golden tower stands among blue trees as a beam of light flashes beside it.

Sea Hawk raises his cutlass, smiling.

Sea Hawk talks with a stern look.

Swen, Madame Razz and her broom peer over the Solar Sailor's rail.

A bald crewman aims a cannon from the Solar Sailor's deck.

Sea Hawk stands next to Swift Wind, who is tied with a rope.

She-Ra stands before a pale wall, held in a force field.

Catra stands with her hands at her sides inside the prison ship.

Sea Hawk raises his glowing cutlass in the ship's engine room.

Swift Wind stands with his wings folded down in the ship's hold.

Catra's purple panther form snarls on the prison ship floor.

Sea Hawk stands beside She-Ra, who looks ahead.

Catra's panther form sprawls among tumbled crates.

She-Ra looks to the side in front of blue storage tanks.

Sea Hawk holds out his cutlass beside a wall panel.

Grizzlor grabs Sea Hawk in a bear hug from behind.

Grizzlor holds Sea Hawk in a bear hug.

She-Ra walks through a doorway carrying a blue box with a red bat emblem.

Sea Hawk glances aside, his jaw set.

She-Ra looks to the side in the ship corridor.

Mayor Guppi leads a crowd of freed elves down the prison ship corridor.

She-Ra and Sea Hawk stand together in the corridor.

Sea Hawk looks down at an open floor hatch.

Sea Hawk looks down through the hatch at two Horde Troopers below.

The wooden hull of the Solar Sailor glows with lit portholes.

Sea Hawk stands on the boarding ramp as elves crowd behind the railing.

A cage of elves hangs from a crane above a round tank as Horde Troopers climb ladders.

Madame Razz grins, holding her broom after her spell goes wrong.

She-Ra looks ahead with a determined stare.

Catra's panther form snarls while crouched on the deck.

Sea Hawk holds a rope at the Solar Sailor's rail as She-Ra and Swift Wind fly past.

Catra scowls beside a Horde Trooper inside the prison ship.

Catra and a Horde Trooper watch the Solar Sailor on a big screen.

She-Ra rides Swift Wind through the clouds.

She-Ra dives headfirst through the clouds.

She-Ra plunges toward the prison ship's big gun turrets.

Sea Hawk, his crew and the rescued elves watch from the Solar Sailor's rail.

A winged golden ornament flashes with light at its centre.

Sea Hawk's crew stands on the docked Solar Sailor as elves cheer from the dock.

Spirit and Adora stand by the rock houses as Sea Hawk faces them.

Adora looks up at Sea Hawk with a hopeful look.

Sea Hawk and Adora talk on the beach beside Madame Razz and her broom.

Swen stands on the shore facing Madame Razz, whose hat fills the corner.

Madame Razz rubs her face, giggling shyly.

Madame Razz and Swen stand arm in arm as her broom stands apart.

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