Adora thanks Mermista for the fishermen of Bright Moon's catch, then Mermista hears a distress signal from a whale. As She-Ra, Adora finds Hordak's ship with a stunned baby horn whale, meant as a gift for Horde Prime. She-Ra and Mermista free it, breaking the ship's propeller, and take it to Mermista's father, King Mercia, in the sunken city of Salinius. Hordak has hidden a spy device on the whale, and learns that the city holds the power pearl, the source of the merfolk's control over the sea. He steals it and cracks the dome, so the city begins to flood. With the baby whale as her tail, She-Ra persuades a giant sucker clam to plug the crack. Shadow Weaver struggles to use the pearl for Hordak, and She-Ra frees a crabulous and is frozen by a freeze torpedo, but breaks out. The baby takes back the pearl, Mermista calls for help, and the baby's mother arrives and wrecks Hordak's ship. King Mercia gives She-Ra a medal, and Loo-Kee closes with a talk about being lost.
Loo-Kee: "Hi! I'm Loo-Kee. Did you find my hiding place today? If not, take another look. See me now? Here I am! Today, She-Ra and Mermista helped a lost baby whale. People get lost too. If you are ever lost, remember not to be frightened. The best person to talk to is a Policeman. He'll get you home safer and faster than you can say 'bye now'!"
Mermista: "So long as the Horde does not bother him, he will not bother the Horde."
Mermista: "Oh, yes, it is, Hordak."
King Mercia: "My apology, She-Ra. I am just so worried."
She-Ra: "Clam, please listen."
Hordak: "Who cares? That's not my problem."
A kingdom that wants to be left alone learns how little that wish is worth. Mermista explains early on that her father, King Mercia, wants no trouble: "So long as the Horde does not bother him, he will not bother the Horde." The rest of the episode takes that sentence apart. Neutrality lasts only until the other side takes an interest, and Hordak takes one the moment he learns where the city is.
The setup is clean. Hordak's crew nets a baby horn whale with a stun beam, and the plan is to hand it to Horde Prime as a present. A voice asks about the tank. Hordak answers, "Who cares? That's not my problem." Mermista cuts in with "Oh, yes, it is, Hordak." The exchange is small, but it shows what the villain values and what the heroes will not allow. The whale then does double duty. Hordak shoots a spy device onto it, and the rescuers carry the spy straight into the sunken city.
The character work belongs mostly to King Mercia and Mermista. The king bars dry landers from the sunken city because "We fear their greed." When the dome cracks, he snaps, "I knew a dry lander would bring us trouble." Mermista answers at once: "She-Ra had nothing to do with it." He takes it well and says, "My apology, She-Ra. I am just so worried." That is a short, believable turn for a proud ruler, and it leaves She-Ra free to work.
The best scene is the clam. A crack in the dome needs a plug. One of the two suggests a giant sucker clam and warns it is "impossible to pry loose from a rock." She does not try force. She speaks to it: "Clam, please listen." Then she asks, "Will you release your grip?" It does. She-Ra's answer to a problem of strength is a polite request, and it fits her better than another punch. The captions show golden rings pulsing around her head as she asks. The baby whale then carries the clam to the dome in its mouth.
The weakness is the finish. Hordak's side has real problems, with Shadow Weaver admitting the pearl is "a very old magic and unfamiliar to me" and then saying "I think so" within the minute when Hordak asks if it works. But the plan to retake the pearl is announced and carried out in seconds, and a frame near the end shows the pearl at the baby's mouth. The ship is then wrecked by the baby's mother, who arrives because someone is calling for help. Weaver's own line, "That's not the one I was calling," is funny. The monster Hordak wanted never shows, and the help Mermista called ends the fight.
Even so, the episode has a clear shape. It gives Mermista real work to do, uses the baby whale as both threat and solution, and keeps She-Ra's methods gentle. That is enough. It is a modest, tidy sea adventure, and the Loo-Kee talk about a lost whale and lost children grows naturally out of it.
- Continuity: Hordak says the baby horn whale is a gift for Horde Prime, who "collects strange animals."
- Continuity: The sunken city is named Salinius in the dialogue, and its king is Mermista's father, King Mercia.
- Continuity: Hordak plants an "Olympet spy" device on the whale and says the whale will "be a spy for us."
- Note: She-Ra uses her sword to make a diving helmet ("Sword to helmet") in two scenes.
- Production: Written by Bob Forward and directed by Lou Kachivas; first aired 1986-10-25.
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