Force Captain Adora wakes up in the Fright Zone alongside her best friend Catra. She's convinced something's wrong, but only Scorpia seems to agree.
Tropes
- Alternate Universe: As the portal causes reality to unravel, Adora finds herself as if she never left the Horde.
- Arc Words: "Everything is perfect."
- Bait-and-Switch: Shadow Weaver looks ready to hit Catra for getting Adora in trouble again, but the sorceress just cleans off her face and fondly tells her to go wash up, showing that she and Catra have a loving relationship in this reality.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The portal fantasy is essentially a world where everyone's maladaptive coping mechanisms work. Catra and Angella get to cling to their loved ones; Bow gets to be happy with the mask he conforms to for his parents; Adora (initially) gets to avoid making a decision between her ethical duty and her old life in the Horde. The resulting version of themselves are happy, but stunted and weak, ignorant of the good surprises in life as well as the bad. For example, Catra is disrespected by almost everyone around her, Angella hasn't learned she is brave enough to face her fears, Bow hasn't learned his parents can love his true self, and Adora believes she has no purpose in life other than killing people.
- Body Horror: Catra manages to crawl out of the rift with half of her body disfigured into a black void.
- Brainwashing for the Greater Good: The portal trap removed Scorpia's memories of loving Catra, presumably to stop her from interfering. The only troublesome emotion it allows her is a faint feeling of resentment towards the romantic rival she would otherwise have (for a given value of 'rival').
- Brick Joke:
- Early on, Catra mocks Adora's "hair poof thing" by saying she'd always assumed it protected Adora from concussions. Later on, Scorpia singles it out as something she inexplicably hates. Then toward the end of the episode, Madame Razz gently bops Adora on the head with her broom but does so over the hair poof.
- Adora gets to attend Force Captain Orientation, and the topic is the Sea-Gate.
- The Cameo: Octavia and Grizzlor appear in Adora's mission briefing.
- Call-Back:
- In the alternate reality, the Horde's next port of call is the Sea-Gate, causing Adora to flash back to the events of that episode.
- Once again, Adora and Catra steal a skimmer and head out into the woods - but this time, it's Adora that stole it and Catra who's being dragged along.
- Evil Laugh: Before she attacks Adora, Catra laughs evilly.
- Face Death with Dignity: Possibly because she believes Adora can undo all the damage done to the world, Razz calmly walks into the rift when it comes for her.
- Foreshadowing:
- Adora attends a Force Captain briefing where she learns the Horde's next goal is to take over Salineas. In season four, Salineas gets conquered by the Horde and becomes the Rebellion's first significant loss.
- When Razz explains that all this has happened before, she says "I remember it like it was yesterday. For Madame Razz, it was yesterday." This gives us a hint as to how she experiences time.
- Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Catra slaps Adora, leaving a nasty scratch.Adora: Ow! What was that?!Catra: Sorry! You were freaking out, and it was freaking me out!Adora: Well, you didn't have to slap me!
- A Glitch in the Matrix:
- Adora starts noticing something is wrong in the Lotus-Eater Machine when doors as passages she remembers start vanishing. The glitching continuously gets worse over time.
- Scorpia notably also notices something is wrong because she doesn't like Adora (due to her Undying Loyalty to Catra)
- Gone Horribly Right: Adora manages to get Catra to remember their history. Problem is, it gets Catra to remember their history. Since Catra's psychopathic jealousy of Adora is what caused the mess in the first place...
- Hate at First Sight: Scorpia, usually genially disposed to everyone, hates Adora at first sight for reasons she can't explain.
- I See Them, Too: Scorpia also realizes something is wrong with reality.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The effects of the portal place everyone in a reality where, superficially, their lives are perfect. Adora never left Catra or the Horde and successfully sacked Thaymor as a highly respected Force Captain.
- Meaningful Echo: Adora and Catra find themselves in another Literal Cliffhanger situation much like in "Promise", only this time it's Catra who is dangling and Adora is offering her help. Just like before, Catra refuses Adora, this time allowing herself to fall into the rift.
- Negative Space Wedgie: The out-of-control portal. At first, it causes distortions in time and space but rapidly worsens to wiping entire regions of Etheria out of existence.
- Not Quite Dead: Catra is seemingly swallowed by the rift and Ret Goned out of existence like everyone else hit by it. The end of the episode, however, shows Catra survived albeit heavily corrupted.
- The Resenter: Catra.Catra: I won't let you win! I'd rather see the whole world end than let that happen!
- Ret-Gone: The portal eroding Etheria has this effect on anything that falls into the rift. Eventually, people just start fading away without having to hit one.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory:
- Madam Razz knows exactly what's going on without prompting because she remembers the same thing happening when Mara pulled Etheria into Despondos. She also tosses out a cryptic line that for her, it happened literally yesterday.
- Downplayed with Adora and Scorpia, who can't fully remember the old world but are aware there's something wrong with the one they're currently in.
- Shout-Out: Catra wagging her finger to Adora in a manner resembles Sega's iconic and fastest hedgehog.
- Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: After recovering her memories, Catra still attempts to stop Adora and outright declares letting the world end is an acceptable price if Adora loses.
- Time Skip: In-universe, time starts jumping ahead randomly, leaving Adora even more disoriented. When it happens mid-conversation with Scorpia, poor Scorpia is totally confused.Scorpia: HOW DID WE GET HERE?!Adora: Just go with it, okay?
- Two-Faced: After falling into the reality-destroying wave consuming Etheria, Catra emerges alive, but her right arm and the right side of her face have been blackened.
- Visions of Another Self: Everyone, when reminded of how things were before the portal activated, has flashes to the truth of their lives.
- Wimp Fight: Adora and Scorpia argue about how to sneak into Hordak's lab, have an argument with shushing each other, then end up having one of these that alerts the guards to them.
