The Locket

Sorrowful the dragon tells a crowd how he helped She-Ra and the rebels escape from the Horde on Beast Island, and his young friend Deena asks Adora for a story too. Adora shows her a locket, one half of a magic pair from Sea Hawk, whose twin half glows for Sea Hawk when she is in trouble. Imp, shrunk to a flea, tickles Sorrowful and steals it. Adora, Sorrowful, Bow and Madame Razz give chase and tell Deena to stay behind. She follows anyway and is taken by Rattlor's troopers, and Adora is caught trying to save her. Shadow Weaver cries out when she fits the halves together. Sea Hawk's half glows, and he and Swin sail in, only to be caught. The prisoners are taken to the Fright Zone, where Hordak hangs their swords on his wall. Sorrowful and his friends follow. Adora gets her sword back and becomes She-Ra, and with Sea Hawk and the Solar Sailor she fights the Horde while Sorrowful melts tanks and frightens Hordak into freeing Deena. Deena apologizes, Sea Hawk sails on, and Loo-Kee talks about telling your parents where you are going.

Loo-Kee: "Did you see me today? Take a good look. Here I am! You know, when Deena followed Adora and the rebels, she was thinking only about herself. No, boys and girls, it isn't enough to do what you want, it's very important to think of how something you do might affect others, like going some place without telling your mother or father. Tell them where you're going, and you'll save them a lot of needless worry. Think it over. Bye now."

Adora: "I'll tell you a story about this locket."

Deena: "I never get to have any fun."

Sorrowful: "You know, Mr. Hordak, if I weren't a very gentle dragon, I would be very upset with you."

Hordak: "Of course. I was just about to suggest that."

Every rule in a children's story exists to be broken by the one child who hears it. The Locket spends twenty minutes on that point and keeps its aim steady.

The frame is a story within a story. Sorrowful the dragon tells a crowd how he helped She-Ra on Beast Island, and Deena, his young friend, asks Adora for a tale of her own. Adora shows her the gold locket Sea Hawk gave her at the end of a visit. It comes in two halves, and Sea Hawk says, "If you're ever in trouble, my locket will glow, and let me know." Imp, hiding nearby, hears the word magic and decides he will steal it. He shrinks to a flea and tickles Sorrowful until the dragon rolls over laughing, then grabs the locket in the confusion. The gag is simple and it works.

The character work is tidy because everyone has a job. Adora tells Deena it is too dangerous, Sorrowful tells her the same, and Deena is left behind saying, "I never get to have any fun." The refusals are repeated on purpose. When she rides off to "join the Great Rebellion", the story has already said no to her twice. Her capture by Rattlor and his troopers is the price, and Adora is caught trying to save her.

The best scene comes late. Hordak flies off in a Horde craft with Deena at his side, and Sorrowful puts his head through a broken window. The dragon is gentle and polite, and that is the joke. He says, "You know, Mr. Hordak, if I weren't a very gentle dragon, I would be very upset with you." Hordak answers, "Uh, yes, of course you would." Sorrowful adds, "But you're gentle. Very gentle." Hordak gives in with "Of course. I was just about to suggest that." A dragon who was tickled helpless in the first scenes ends the episode as the one thing Hordak cannot argue with.

The weakness is the locket itself. It is the title object, the cause of the chase, and the reason Sea Hawk arrives, but it does little once it is in Shadow Weaver's hands. She puts the halves together and cries out, which the prisoners warned her about, since the magic "only works for Sea Hawk and me". Then she calls it "not magic at all", and She-Ra's reply is a single line rather than a scene. The glow that brings Sea Hawk in is its last real job. Imp, who starts it all, vanishes after the fetch, and Catra and Rattlor get little to do.

The rescue runs on action. Swin brings the Solar Sailor, Sorrowful melts the Horde tanks, and Adora changes into She-Ra in the Fright Zone. Nothing is clever, but the pacing holds, and every beat answers an earlier one. The swords Hordak hangs on his wall are what Adora and Sea Hawk run back for.

The ending is a lesson with an apology in it. Deena tells her rescuers, "I was just thinking about myself," and Sorrowful forgives her. Loo-Kee spells it out in the closing talk about telling your parents where you are going. It is on the nose, but it fits a story that has already shown the point in its plot. The Locket is a modest episode with a likable dragon, and Sorrowful's scene at the window is worth the time.

1. Continuity: Adora's locket was a going-away present from Sea Hawk, who says it "has a special magic" and will glow to warn him when Adora is in trouble.
2. Continuity: Sorrowful tells the crowd a tale of Beast Island, where he and She-Ra went to rescue Bow and Glimmer.
3. Continuity: A Horde base camp is placed just beyond the borders of Mystacor, and Swin, who serves on Sea Hawk's ship, brings the Solar Sailor to the Fright Zone.
4. Production: Written by Michael Utvich and directed by Richard Trueblood, first aired 1987-09-26.