The Missing Ax

Two boys, Thad and Kyle, leave their father Mach's ax against a log while they go off to play, and it disappears. Rather than admit it, they invent a robber in a purple cloak. Bow rides into Horde-held Greenthatch to catch the thief and is captured by Mantenna. When She-Ra presses the boys, the truth comes out, and she frees Bow from a slave transport. Mach grounds his sons, since a lie costs trust.

Loo-Kee: "Hi! Here's Loo-Kee again. Did you find where I was hiding today? If not, take another look. See me now? Today's story was about trust. Trust takes a long time to build, and a single lie can destroy it in a moment. Thad and Kyle found that out. Even when you've done something wrong, it's best to tell the truth. Bye now! See you next time."

Mach: "You both want me to give you more responsibility, more freedom, but how can I do that when I can't believe what you say?"

She-Ra: "Why, hello, Bow. Signed up for the Horde Holiday Tour, I see."

Bow: "No, not the best shot, just the luckiest."

Mach lets his sons Thad and Kyle use his ax to chop kindling, with the warning "Remember, it's my means of earning a living." The boys work for a short while, one says "I'm tired," the other answers "Me too," and they leave the ax against a log and race to the brook. Nothing about this is wicked. They are tired and want to cool off.

Two Twiggets find the ax and decide to take it to Madame Razz, because "If anybody can find out who it belongs to, Madame can." The boys return to an empty log. One says "I got it! We'll tell him it... it was stolen!" and the other adds a man in a purple cloak and "remember to look really scared." They tell Mach a robber took the ax, and when asked which way the man went, they say "It's kinda hard to say" before settling on the road to Greenthatch, "A town still in the grip of the Horde."

The episode is about what that lie costs, and Bow is the one who pays. He rides into Greenthatch in a hooded cloak with Kowl, who says "I think we better give up and go home now." Kowl also asks "Why don't we just buy Mach a new ax?" and Bow answers "It's the principle of the thing. The thief should pay for his crime." There is no thief, so the principle has nothing to land on. Mantenna has already recognised Bow as a rebel, and by the end of the chase Bow is unconscious in a slave transport bound for the energy mines in the Dark Mountains.

The best scene is the unravelling. She-Ra comes to Mach's door looking for Bow, and when she asks where the theft happened the boys answer over each other: "At the brook." "Along the road." She says "Boys, you don't seem too sure. Is there something you haven't told us?" The confession comes out in pieces, and even then they trim it: "We stopped to play, but just for a few minutes." Then Kowl flies in shouting for help with the news that Bow has been captured, so the admission and its consequence arrive together. It works because the boys never get to deliver a tidy apology before the damage is reported.

The weakness is the ending. Mach gives the right lecture, "how can I do that when I can't believe what you say?", and the grounding is fair. His next line is the one with teeth: "From now on, you will have to earn the right to do the things you want to." Then Madame Razz and the two Twiggets turn up with the ax, and the only material loss is undone. Kowl's line about buying a new ax was planted earlier and the script leaves it unused. The stronger choice would have been to keep the ax lost and make the boys earn a replacement. As it stands, the boys spend some time indoors while Bow has been dragged toward a mine in a prison transport, and the episode treats the two as roughly even.

The action is solid. She-Ra drops a boulder in front of the transport, and when Mantenna tries to fire on her his eyes swing into a tangle and he shouts "My beams are crossing!" Her greeting to Bow, "Signed up for the Horde Holiday Tour, I see," lightens the rescue without undercutting it.

Verdict: a clear, readable story about a small lie, with a good confession scene. It would be better if the ax stayed gone.

1. Closing scene: the two Twiggets who find the ax carry it on a pole to Madame Razz, and she brings them and the ax to Mach and the boys at the end.