Hordak gives Catra two days to extract anything useful out of Shadow Weaver before the latter has to be exiled to Beast Island. Meanwhile, Shadow Weaver remembers her time at Mystacor.
Tropes:
- A Day in the Limelight: Shadow Weaver is the focal character of this episode. Catra plays Deuteragonist for the day, while the heroes only appear in the final scene.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head:
- Averted when Shadow Weaver gently caresses Catra's face and even plays with her ear tuffs, which should be an affectionate moment. However, it becomes apparent once Shadow Weaver escapes that she only did it to manipulate Catra's need for her validation.
- Done a bit more genuinely in a flashback when she caresses Micah's face and leaves him unharmed.
- Bait the Dog: Shadow Weaver's treatment of Catra when she visits her, which includes telling her why she constantly treated her badly, gently stroking her face, and telling her that she wants her to go farther in the Horde then she ever did, all seem like signs that she may want to reconcile with her ward. However, this is all a ploy to convince Catra to get her old sorcerer guild badge so she can escape, leaving Catra high and dry now that she has lost a valuable prisoner.
- Batman Gambit: Catra personally delivers Shadow Weaver her meals because she enjoys seeing her in her current predicament, but deep down she still cares about her despite how she treated her. Shadow Weaver exploits this by manipulating Catra into getting her sorcerer guild badge for her as a Last Request, which contains what she needs to escape.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Norwyn was ultimately proven correct that Light Spinner only wished to use the Spell of Obtainment for personal gain. That being said, Light Spinner also had a point when she criticized Norwyn for his inaction against the Horde and was right when she claimed the Horde would pose a serious threat.
- Call-Back: Turns out Castaspella was right. Glimmer really does look a lot like her father.
- Continuity Nod: Among the things Light Spinner and Micah use as spell components are the mirror shards Castaspella said contained Mystacor's history on them, which they grind up to make magic.
- Cyborg: This episode reveals that Hordak is one.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The Spell of Obtainment can grant power, but at a significant price.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Spell of Obtainment involves conjuring a shoggoth.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: The dark magic Light Spinner absorbs does a number on her face and eyes. It also temporarily gives her the Voice of the Legion.
- Fallen Hero: Light Spinner... sort of. She certainly started out with noble intentions, but she shows hints of a darker nature underneath, like the way she loses her temper at Micah when his power is shown to exceed her own, and her contempt towards the other sorcerers when they refuse her dangerous plans.
- Fate Worse than Death: Outright said by Scorpia about being sent to Beast Island.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In one shot, a toddler version of Castaspella can be seen running around the hallways.
- Functional Magic: Light Spinner explains to Micah a bit about how sorcery works. The princesses all have natural connections to runestones that grant power, but sorcerers can tap into ambient energy to perform their spells.
- Geometric Magic: More advanced spells create 3D holographic shapes, such as a tetrahedron.
- Generation Xerox: We meet Glimmer's father Micah and see he had the same headstrong and mischievous yet goodhearted personality she does. Additionally, they both are manipulated by Shadow Weaver into helping her with some evil scheme that she presents as necessary to protect their people from the war but is ultimately because she's power-hungry and spiteful.
- Hellish Pupils: Light Spinner's cool new look after she finishes the Spell of Obtainment has inverted "Y"-shaped pupils.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Already incensed with her fellow sorcerers for refusing to help her fight against the Horde, Light Spinner being rejected totally and attacked by them after she casts the Spell of Obtainment leads her to take all her newfound power and join the Horde so she can help destroy them.
- Morality Pet: Young Micah serves as one to Light Spinner. Her affection towards Micah seems completely genuine, in stark contrast to how she raised Adora and Catra.
- Odd Friendship: Entrapta and Hordak's strange bond continues. Not only does he favor her company over Catra's, but one scene shows Entrapta sitting on one of the armrests of Hordak's throne, excitedly sharing her plans with him as he listens respectfully.
- Oh, Crap!: Light Spanner is visibly shocked when the Spell of Obtainment conjures the entity that twists her. This indicates that whatever she was expecting the spell to do, it wasn't that.
- Pet the Dog: Even though Shadow Weaver defected to the Horde, she still couldn't bring herself to kill Micah.
- Power Parasite: Shadow Weaver (when she was still Light Spinner) wanted to use the Spell of Obtainment to increase the sorcerers' powers to fend off the Horde but Norwyn denied it, saying the spell merely turns the caster into a magical parasite. This is what happened to Shadow Weaver after she cast the spell, and it is also why she was cut off from her magic after her connection with the Black Garnet was severed.
- Shout-Out:
- The scene of Catra walking on Hordak as machines work on his cyborg body certainly brings to mind the famous scene from The Empire Strikes Back.
- To Alexandre Cabanel's The Fallen Angel: Newly turned Shadow Weaver emulates Lucifer's pose
◊, albeit standing instead of laying down. After having been consumed and scarred by the evil entity summoned Spell of Obtainment, the Council of Mystacor accuses her of being power-hungry and fire spells at her. She absorbs their attacks and her first offensive spell has her crossing her arms covering her mouth and with her hands skewed to the right. Her countenance is downright ballistic and betrayed.
- Too Much Alike: When Catra asks her why she always treated her so horribly, Shadow Weaver admits it was because she saw a lot of herself in Catra and that, since she always had to struggle in order to gain recognition, so should she. Catra rightfully points out that she was just a child, so she couldn't have done anything to warrant such harsh treatment from Shadow Weaver.
- Unreliable Expositor: Twice by Shadow Weaver:
- The images she'd shown the other sorcerers at Mystacor cast some doubt on Scorpia's previous claims of her family willingly joining the Horde and giving the Black Garnet to Hordak.
- Meanwhile, it turns out that her claims about being kicked out by the Mystacorians and finding Adora herself are, surprise surprise, lies.
- Villain Episode: This episode focuses mostly on Shadow Weaver and her backstory, with some scenes involving Catra, Scorpia, Entrapta, and Hordak. Adora, Glimmer, and Bow only appear in the last scene.
- Villain Has a Point: As hard as it is to listen to Shadow Weaver, she was right about Catra beginning to be pushed out in favour of Entrapta, like what happened to her.
- Back when she was Light Spinner, she also had a point about the Mystacorians' inaction towards the Horde.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Catra's desire for Shadow Weaver's love and approval lets her play right into the old woman's hands.
- Wham Episode: Shadow Weaver manages to escape her imprisonment, having regained at least some degree of her old power.
- When the Planets Align: Spell power gets a boost when Etheria's three mystic moons are aligned. In the past, Light Spinner used the power of the moons to amplify her and Micah's magic in order to cast the Spell of Obtainment. In the present, Shadow Weaver uses the moons to amplify the magic dust left inside her old sorcerers badge so she can escape from the Horde.
- Your Other Left: Bow tries to get Glimmer and Adora to adjust antennas for his tracker.
