The Red Knight

Bow, Adora and Glimmer ride through a swamp to the Rebels' Fair at Castle Blackmoor, where a mysterious Red Knight drives off a Horde ambush and then beats Bow in the Rebels' Run. Bow, who has never lost before, rides off alone, while Hordak plans to take Queen Angella because the fair is outside the protection of Bright Moon. She-Ra finds Bow and tells him that you can only fail if you don't try, and his arrow turns Hordak's blaster back on the Horde. The moral is that doing your best is what counts, win or lose.

Loo-Kee: "Hi! It's me, Loo-Kee. Did you find where I was hiding today? If not, take another look. See me now? Here I am! Today, Bow lost the race, and felt really bad because he did. But She-Ra told him he did his best, and that's what counts. Win or lose, what counts is doing your best. See you next time!"

Bow: "Yes, I do."

Kowl: "Bow has gone away, left us, departed, withdrawn, vamoosed, understand?"

She-Ra: "You can only fail if you don't try."

Bow: "So you can beat me at that too?"

Bow rides into Castle Blackmoor's fair with a reputation already waiting for him. Children ask whether he will win the Rebels' Run again, and one answers for him: "Don't be silly! Bow always wins!" He says, "I'll try not to disappoint you." Before the race Adora tells him, "You don't have to prove anything to anyone," and he answers, "Yes, I do." The Red Knight, a stranger who drove the Horde off in the swamp and was invited to the festival as the rebels' guest, then wins the race.

The episode is about Bow's first defeat and what he does with it. Kowl names the problem for Adora once Bow has gone: "Bow has never lost before, and I don't think he knows how to deal with it." Kowl has grumbled all episode ("Only a fool would go sloshing through this swamp for a silly fair!"), and his comic run about the disappearance, "left us, departed, withdrawn, vamoosed, understand?", is the best joke in it. Bow's own explanation is plainer: "I lost, so I left. I didn't think anyone would notice." He was too embarrassed to face everyone, especially She-Ra.

The Red Knight stays a polite blank. He declines to give a name: "My true name shall remain a secret until all of Hordak's evil forces are defeated." Queen Angella says more than once his voice is familiar, and the closing scene promises only that "when Etheria is free, the mystery will be solved." Hordak is the mirror. He is proud of the Laser Bubble Blaster, which he tries on Imp ("Hey, let me out of here!"), and he plans to catch Angella because Castle Blackmoor is "outside the protection of Bright Moon." Once she is captured he tells her she is the bait in a trap for the others.

The weak point is the scene where She-Ra finds Bow. She asks, "Did you do your best?" and he says, "I surely did and then some." That should settle it. Instead She-Ra goes on for several more lines: "You can only fail if you don't try," "the way you feel about yourself," "the pride that comes when you know you've given your best shot." Kowl had already stated the problem, and the arrow later in the episode will prove the point. Bow answers, "Yes, you're right. I-I understand," which shows how little the extra lines were needed. Stopping at "Then you didn't fail" would have let Bow go quiet and left the lesson to the shot.

The shot arrives in the Horde tent. Hordak levels his blaster at She-Ra, she answers "Don't bet on it," and Bow's arrow turns the attack back on the Horde. "It backfired!" someone cries, and then "Great shot, Bow!" The man who lost the race is the one who saves everyone. Afterward the Red Knight asks to be taught, "You must teach me when next my travels bring me here," and Bow says, "So you can beat me at that too?" The joke is small and it lands.

The episode is slight, built from a familiar lesson and a stock mystery that is put off to the end. What works is the run of Bow's lines from "Yes, I do" to that last joke, a clear start and finish for his defeat. A tighter clearing scene would have made it better.

1. Continuity: Queen Angella is exposed away from Bright Moon here, and Hordak says so outright: Castle Blackmoor is "outside the protection of Bright Moon."
2. Continuity: The transformation sequence runs twice, once before She-Ra deals with the collapsing balcony at the fair and once before she goes looking for Bow, with Spirit becoming Swift Wind in the second.