SHE-RA - 1985

The Caregiver

The Caregiver synopsis still

In the Fright Zone, Hordak gives his servant Shakra a pendant as a farewell present, and he and Shadow Weaver say that it will tell them everything about the Rebellion. Shakra, who once raised the young Adora, walks into Whispering Woods in a Horde costume and asks to join. Adora welcomes her, and Shakra comes along on a raid against Horde robots. Mantenna and Grizzlor spring a trap, and Bow and Glimmer are taken. Adora becomes She-Ra and fights, but Bow and Glimmer are carried off, and Hordak thanks Shakra for her aid within Madame Razz's hearing, so Madame Razz calls her a spy. They go to the Fright Zone by an old secret entrance, only to meet a flood trap. Then Shakra mentions the pendant, and She-Ra deals with it, explaining it was a spy device. Hordak attacks, Shakra throws a cape over troopers and uses a circuit confuser to switch off his computer, and She-Ra frees Bow and Glimmer. Madame Razz apologizes, Shakra is welcomed to Whispering Woods, and Loo-Kee closes with a talk on not judging newcomers too quickly.

The Caregiver Official upload, Masters of the Universe channel

Loo-Kee: "Hi everybody. It's your friend Loo-Kee again. Did you find where I was hiding today? If not, here's another chance. See me now? Here I am! In today's story, Madame Razz had a hard time trusting Shakra, just because she was different. She finally learned not to judge a person too quickly. Remember that the next time you meet someone who is new or different from you. Give them a chance. They could turn out to be your loyal and trusted friend."

Hordak: "No one understands the real me."

Adora: "Shakra was all the mother I had until my brother Adam found me."

Madame Razz: "I don't trust you, Shakra."

She-Ra: "I'll trust you, because I have to. And because I want to."

How much should a loved one's past count against her? The Caregiver asks it about a woman who walks out of the Fright Zone in a Horde costume and says she wants to join the Rebellion. Adora knows her at once and hugs her. Madame Razz does not, and the script has the nerve to let Madame Razz be right about one thing: Hordak does seem to know the Rebellion's every move. It just is not Shakra's doing.

The opening scene does the setup in a minute. Hordak thanks his "best servant" for her years of work and gives her a pendant. Then he muses aloud that "No one understands the real me." Shadow Weaver agrees with a flat "Oh, of course." After Shakra leaves, the two say outright that she means to join Adora, and that "with the help of the pendant we gave her, we will soon know everything about the rebellion." Nothing is hidden from the viewer. The fun is watching the heroes catch up.

Shakra herself is a warm piece of character work. Adora says Shakra raised her from the time Hordak stole her as an infant, and sums it up in one line: "Shakra was all the mother I had until my brother Adam found me." That explains why Adora lets Shakra into a raid plan on sight, and why she says "I have no secrets from her, Bow." When the Rebellion's own suspicion lands on Shakra later, her answer is short and hurt: "I would never do such a thing."

The standout scene is the quiet one in the tunnel. Before a flood trap nearly drowns them, Madame Razz says flatly, "I don't trust you, Shakra." Afterward she says Shakra knew the tunnel was a trap, and Shakra answers that she was in as much danger as anyone. Both points are fair, and Razz has her reason, since Hordak thanked Shakra for her "aid" within earshot of the rebels. Then Shakra mentions, almost in passing, that Hordak surprised her with a present when she left. She-Ra sees the pendant, tells her "Hordak was using you," and the scene turns on a single beat. Shakra learns that her own gift was the leak.

The weakness is how little the other rebels have to do. Bow and Glimmer are captured early and spend most of the episode hanging in chains while Shadow Weaver drains Glimmer's light magic. Glimmer gets a flash of halo at the end and Bow gets a weary smile. Hordak's plan also asks a lot of luck. He announces his thanks where the rebels can hear it, and that single clue brings Razz's doubts to a boil.

The moral, as Loo-Kee gives it, is that Madame Razz judged Shakra "just because she was different." That is not quite what the episode shows. Razz has evidence, however thin: she heard Hordak say thanks. When She-Ra says "There's no real evidence against her," she is making a better argument than the closing talk does. The tag asks viewers to give a stranger a chance, and the story itself asks for something harder: to keep trusting someone while the facts look bad for her.

This is a sturdy, affecting entry in Season 2. It gives Adora a family tie that matters, gives Madame Razz her best stretch of stubbornness, and lets Shakra win her place by doing things instead of explaining. The ending is warm without being sugary.

Continuity: Adora says Hordak stole her as an infant and that Shakra raised her until she left the Horde, and calls Adam her "brother Adam".
Continuity: Hordak gives Shakra a pendant on her departure; Hordak later says it lets him see and hear the rebels perfectly, and Shadow Weaver says that was her intent.
Continuity: Shakra says the secret entrance to the Fright Zone is one she and Adora discovered together when Adora was a child.
Production: J. Brynne Stephens wrote the episode and Bill Reed directed it; airdate 1986-11-29.

Princess Adora

Princess Adora

She-Ra

She-Ra

Bow

Bow

Glimmer

Glimmer

Madame Razz

Madame Razz

Swift Wind

Swift Wind

Hordak

Hordak

Shadow Weaver

Shadow Weaver

Mantenna

Mantenna

Grizzlor

Grizzlor

Horde Trooper

Horde Trooper

Loo-Kee

Loo-Kee

A spider-legged Horde war machine stands before a burning, smoke-filled landscape.

Dark metal tanks and coiled cables line a wall inside the Horde fortress.

Hordak turns his back to the camera as Shadow Weaver stands beside him in a machinery-filled chamber.

Hordak looks down beside the hooded Shadow Weaver.

A gray-haired woman stands before a curtained window beside Hordak's shoulder.

Hordak glares down with half-closed eyes.

Hordak stands with Shadow Weaver, whose yellow eyes glow in her hood.

Shadow Weaver leans toward Hordak, who smirks beside her.

Hordak smirks with his red eyes narrowed.

A framed portrait of a blonde woman rests against a green cushion on a dark bed.

A wide valley of blue trees stretches beneath distant hills and a pale sky.

Madame Razz, Bow and Glimmer stand around a tree stump in a rocky red clearing.

Glimmer and Madame Razz look on with worried faces.

The gray-haired woman stands among pink bushes in a purple forest, her pendant hanging at her chest.

Adora looks off to the side in the forest.

Adora and the gray-haired woman embrace in the forest.

Bow and Glimmer look on side by side.

The gray-haired woman rests a hand on Adora's arm as they stand together.

Adora and the gray-haired woman look off to the side.

A small figure crouches among red-leafed plants beside a pink-flowered path.

Adora and the gray-haired woman peer over a fallen log.

Adora, the gray-haired woman, Bow, Madame Razz and Glimmer crouch behind a log.

Madame Razz sits on her broom, holding it beside a giant fallen log.

Two Horde troopers sit at the wheel of a vehicle.

A Horde trooper drives while Madame Razz tosses a coin outside the window.

A Horde trooper stands with his back turned beside a dark vehicle.

A Horde trooper hauls a captive with orange hair and a red cape under his arm.

Bow looks off to the side against a cloudy sky.

Glimmer stands alone on a lawn before pink bushes and tall trees.

A burst of yellow light streaks across a Horde trooper.

A Horde trooper grips the steering wheel and drives.

The front of a gray Horde vehicle sits on the grass in a purple forest.

Adora walks past smoldering, broken trees in the forest.

A Horde trooper faces the gray-haired woman in a long dress as Glimmer walks past.

Adora, the gray-haired woman, Glimmer and Bow stand surrounded by Horde troopers.

A white horse peeks in from the left beside a hollow log.

Madame Razz stands holding her broom beside a jagged rock formation.

Adora raises the sword overhead as golden sparks burst around her.

She-Ra rises in a blaze of golden light with her sword raised and her cape flowing.

A pale silhouette of She-Ra with her arm raised fades into a yellow glow.

She-Ra runs toward Swift Wind, who lowers his head beside a log.

Horde troopers close in on Glimmer, Bow and the gray-haired woman in the clearing.

Hordak tumbles backward into a pink bush.

She-Ra rides Swift Wind through the sky with his rainbow wings spread.

Glimmer and Bow stand together, looking off to the side.

A Horde trooper stands upright in the clearing.

Glimmer and Bow run across the grass, Bow holding his bow.

Hordak glides through the sky standing on a black hover platform with a bat emblem.

She-Ra and Swift Wind lie sprawled on the grass in the forest.

Hordak glares down as two troopers on hover platforms fly behind him.

Hordak rides his hover platform away from the gray-haired woman standing on a path.

Madame Razz talks with her wooden broom beside her.

The gray-haired woman faces Madame Razz and her broom on a grassy clearing.

The gray-haired woman looks off to the side before a wall of red rock.

She-Ra looks off to the side among red rocks and pink bushes.

The gray-haired woman frowns at She-Ra, whose hair fills the right edge.

Madame Razz stands in the clearing with her broom beside her.

She-Ra looks to the left in profile as Madame Razz's hat shows at the edge.

Madame Razz and She-Ra stand together in the pink forest.

Madame Razz speaks with her mouth open and her eyes wide.

Madame Razz shuts her eyes and frowns as her broom leans in beside her.

She-Ra rides Swift Wind through the forest with the gray-haired woman seated behind her.

Swirling blue and white wisps of light fill the frame.

The spiky Horde fortress rises against a smoky orange sky.

She-Ra and Swift Wind fly through a field of blue sparks with Madame Razz trailing on her broom.

Shadow Weaver stands beside a red-faced Horde minion with large ears.

She-Ra holds Swift Wind's mane as the gray-haired woman clings behind her.

The Horde fortress towers over a burning landscape.

Shadow Weaver stands before glass tubes and coiled lab equipment.

Shadow Weaver holds a staff topped with a green orb beside Bow, who hangs by chained wrists.

Glimmer hangs by chained wrists as a beam of green light flares at her side.

Bow hangs from chains with his arms raised and his eyes squeezed shut.

Glimmer hangs limp in her chains with her eyes closed.

Glimmer slumps in her chains with a weary expression.

She-Ra, Swift Wind, Madame Razz and the gray-haired woman stand in a pipe-filled tunnel.

She-Ra and the gray-haired woman look ahead with serious faces.

Swift Wind, She-Ra and the gray-haired woman stand in a dim tunnel.

Madame Razz clenches her fists and scowls under her witch hat.

The gray-haired woman looks to the side with a worried face, her pendant on her chest.

The gray-haired woman, She-Ra, Madame Razz and her broom stand framed in an opening against red walls.

She-Ra and the gray-haired woman stand side by side in a dark tunnel.

Madame Razz cowers beside the gray-haired woman and She-Ra.

She-Ra reaches out as the gray-haired woman lunges past her above a broken hole in the floor.

The gray-haired woman and She-Ra look ahead as Madame Razz's hat fills the right side.

She-Ra looks ahead as Madame Razz and her broom glance sideways.

The gray-haired woman glares sideways as She-Ra's hair fills the right edge.

The gray-haired woman looks worried beside She-Ra, who glances aside.

A shimmering pink screen glows on a red wall beside an empty throne.

Hordak stands beside a Horde trooper in the red-walled fortress.

Horde troopers raise their weapons in a crowded red corridor.

Sparkles swirl around a hanging lamp with glowing yellow panes.

The gray-haired woman throws a large blue cape over three Horde troopers.

Two Horde troopers hold electric rods in front of a wall of red machinery.

She-Ra walks across a gray floor in front of red pipes.

Hordak climbs up out of a hole in the rubble-strewn floor.

Bow and Glimmer hang by chained wrists in a dim cell.

Glimmer hangs by chained wrists in a cell with a round marking on the floor.

She-Ra crouches beside a blue tracked robot with a bat emblem.

The gray-haired woman looks at a small device in her hand.

The gray-haired woman looks up with a worried expression.

She-Ra stands with her hands on her hips beside the gray-haired woman in the red corridor.

A blue tracked robot lies tilted on its side, its arms in the air.

Bow and Glimmer hang from chains in a dark cell.

A white halo of light flashes around Glimmer as she hangs in chains.

Bow hangs by chained wrists with a weary smile.

She-Ra faces Bow, who looks back at her.

She-Ra holds her sword in both hands in a dark cell.

Hordak stares out from the shadows with his red eyes glowing.

She-Ra plants her sword in the floor as golden sparks fly from the blade.

She-Ra holds the gray-haired woman close as they stand in a jagged red opening.

She-Ra and the gray-haired woman ride Swift Wind away from the fortress.

Hordak glares out of the shadows with a chain across his collar.

Hordak stands in a dark chamber with his arms hanging at his sides.

Adora and Glimmer look off to the side in the forest.

Madame Razz and her broom stand beside the gray-haired woman on the grass.

Adora smiles and looks off to the side in the forest.

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