Small Problems

Glimmer rescues Bow and Kowl from Horde troopers in Small Oak and then tells the story so often, and with so many extra Hordesmen, that Adora's talking-to only makes her defensive. When word comes that the Horde is working on a chemical weapon at a research base there, Adora takes Glimmer along, and Glimmer sneaks onto the roof alone to prove herself and is seized by robots until She-Ra frees her. Catra's troopers then spray both of them with a miniaturization formula, and the shrunken pair get past a fribian, a mornik and a giant bird that carries Glimmer toward its nest. Bow finds them, puts on a Horde inspector's uniform and gets a proud scientist to show him the growing serum. Restored to size, She-Ra and Glimmer wreck the formula lab while Catra and Scorpia blame each other. Back at camp Glimmer says she has learned her lesson, then boasts once more about holding She-Ra in the palm of her hand, and the scene closes on a crack about a very small joke.

Loo-Kee: "Hi there, it's your friend Loo-Kee again. I hope you found my hiding place, but if you didn't, look for me now. See me yet? Here I am. In today's adventure, Glimmer got what is called having a big head. You know, it's okay to be proud of what you've done, like when you win the spelling contest. But remember, no one likes to listen to someone brag, so don't you get a big head. See you next time!"

Glimmer: "Talent like mine shouldn't be wasted on small jobs."

Hordak: "I'll be able to shrink Adora and her Rebels to the size of bugs."

Glimmer: "From now on, my head is getting no bigger than the rest of me."

How do you cure a boaster? Small Problems tries a talking-to first, and it fails in under a minute: Adora tells Glimmer, kindly enough, that a good morning's work has given her "too big a head," and Glimmer answers that Adora is only jealous of the attention. The episode then does what its title promises and cuts her down to size, with a formula the Horde built to make heroes small.

The first scene that carries it comes after the fighting is over. Bow and Kowl were cornered in a house in Small Oak by troopers with a Dissolvo Beam, and the camp hears about their escape from Glimmer, who says she grabbed a line, swung down and brought a tower down on the Hordesmen. Asked how many there were, she puts the number at "a dozen, two dozen." Bow and Kowl, the two people she saved, tell each other that each telling adds more of them, and from that point the script has a gauge for her ego that anybody can read off.

The standout is the second telling, which happens inside the Horde base. Glimmer has just been pulled out of a robot's grip by She-Ra, and her thanks are a boast that she would have made scrap metal of the machines anyway, followed by the Small Oak story with a new attendance figure: "30 or 40." She-Ra says she has heard it before. Glimmer asks how that is possible, and the answer is "word does get around fast." She never connects the woman in front of her with the Adora she has just remembered leaving behind. Nobody raises a voice, and the secret identity does the scolding that Adora's tent speech could not.

The shrinking follows, and it mirrors the problem. Hordak's stated plan is to shrink Adora and her Rebels "to the size of bugs," so the Horde is trying to do to the heroes what the episode wants done to Glimmer. A fribian, a mornik and a bird that carries Glimmer off toward a nest all become monsters at that scale, and the formula costs She-Ra her power to reach the mornik and leaves Swift Wind unable to carry two. Bow's rescue is the best-built part: in a white helmet he passes himself off as a Horde inspector, the real Scorpia turns up at the gate and ends up vouching for him, and a scientist who says it is so seldom anyone appreciates him points out the growing serum.

The weakness is that Glimmer never gets to be tested. For the whole shrunken half she is carried, grabbed or put on Swift Wind's neck, and she says almost nothing boastful, so the lesson is a conclusion the episode announces rather than a habit she is seen restraining. One scene in which she is tempted to take credit and holds back, or admits she needs help, would have made her closing line count for more. As it stands, "no bigger than the rest of me" is a good joke that lands on a character who has not had to do any changing.

Catra and Scorpia, sent to the same base, spend their scenes there on each other, and the last Horde shot is Scorpia remarking that she does not know how Catra will explain the damage to Hordak. Catra's answer is to tell her to be quiet. The gags are better than the structure here: the tall tale gets its comeuppance, the Horde loses a lab, and Loo-Kee closes by telling kids not to get a big head.

1. Continuity: The opening titles name Light Hope, Madame Razz and Kowl among the few who share She-Ra's secret. Glimmer is not named there, and when She-Ra says she has heard the Small Oak story, Glimmer asks how and never works it out.
2. Continuity: Hose Nose, at a lake, helps wash the formula off She-Ra and Glimmer, but the stuff takes effect anyway a moment later.
3. Continuity: The Horde research base is in Small Oak; Hordak asks Catra if the miniaturization formula is ready, hears "almost," and says he is sending Scorpia there.