Catra and Hordak fight one another as Glimmer and Scorpia arrive in the Fright Zone. Adora sets off in a last-ditch attempt to stop Light Hope's plan.
Tropes
- Alas, Poor Villain: Hordak spent years trying to earn Horde Prime's respect, just for his creator to berate him for developing his own identity, mind wipe him, and take to be "reconditioned." Glimmer spent years fighting Hordak and she's still horrified by Horde Prime's cruelty.
- All for Nothing:
- Hordak's conquest of Etheria and years and years of loyal service fails to earn him Horde Prime's respect. Instead, Horde Prime is angry that Hordak acted autonomously. After neck-lifting and mind-wiping Hordak, Prime arranges for Hordak to be "reconditioned".
- All of Catra's plans and work for the whole season come crashing down around her. After having betrayed and driven away the few people that actually cared about her in pursuit of destroying the Rebellion and conquering Etheria, Glimmer is able to set a trap that destroys the bulk of the Horde armies and turns Hordak against Catra. By the end, Catra is alone and the leader of a broken Horde no longer able to hold onto the territory they took throughout the season. After seeing Horde Prime's brutal treatment of Hordak, she sees that the entire conquest of Etheria was pointless, and then finds herself with no other choice but to serve Horde Prime.
- An Aesop: If you put your ambitions ahead of the safety and well-being of your friends to the point of ignoring everything else, you’ll only end up a few friends shorter when those friends leave you.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- Did Catra join forces with Horde Prime, or did she tell him about the Etherian superweapon in order to buy herself and Glimmer time to escape?
- Did Horde Prime permanently erase Hordak's mind, or did he only temporarily brainwash him in preparation for "reconditioning"?
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: It's questionable if Glimmer would have told Horde Prime about the Heart of Etheria even to save herself or her own planet. Catra has no such reservations, so Etheria is safe for the moment, even if the rest of the universe is in for even more danger from the Horde. It's just a matter of time before Horde Prime figures out how to reactivate the Heart of Etheria.
- Bait the Dog: After ruthlessly dispatching Hordak, Horde Prime becomes more affable towards Glimmer and apologizes for what Hordak's done. When Glimmer hopefully asks if this means he'll leave Etheria in peace, he laughs and says he can't let the "embarrassment" of Hordak's conquest leak so he's going to kill everyone on it, starting with her. Of course, given the unimaginable torture he's going to make Hordak endure, Glimmer getting killed on the spot would be as lucky an outcome she could possibly get. Only Catra's intervention stops him from going through with it.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Glimmer wanted to use the Heart of Etheria to give herself and the rest of the Princess Alliance enough power to destroy the Horde for good. Well it works but Light Hope neglected to mention that the power would eventually grow to the point that she couldn't control it anymore and the princesses almost die when the Heart fully activates. And just to twist the knife the Galactic Horde arrives on their doorstep rendering their actions pointless.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Before leaving the Fright Zone for good, Lonnie repays Scorpia's kindness by allowing her and Glimmer to pass through without a fight. She even goes as far as to say that "she's one of them".
- Book Ends: Just as the season began with Catra forcing Hordak to make her co-ruler, Catra towards the end of the episode persuades Horde Prime to let her work for him, which is essentially the opposite of what she asked for in the first episode.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Horde Prime is stopped short of killing everyone on Etheria, starting with Glimmer, when Catra points out the princesses are needed to operate the Heart of Etheria.
- Darkest Hour: She-Ra's sword is broken, Light Hope is gone, the Etherian Horde is in shambles, Hordak has been mind-wiped by Horde Prime, Glimmer and Catra have been taken prisoner onboard Horde Prime's ship, and Horde Prime now intends to use Etheria as a weapon for his conquests.
- Description Cut: When Scorpia and Glimmer enter the Fright Zone just as Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle are leaving and walk past them.Scorpia: Should be easy from here. Seems like a pretty slow day in the Fright Zone.
(cut to Hordak tearing the Fright Zone apart trying to kill Catra) - Determinator:
- Etheria may have been brought right to Horde Prime's doorstep, but Adora vows they will not only save Glimmer, but they will defeat Horde Prime, whatever it takes.
- With the other princesses paralyzed by the weapon and unable to even move, Glimmer has the force of will to drag herself to the Black Garnet room in a futile but brave attempt to smash it and save the world.
- During his fight with Catra, Hordak takes a punch to the face, has the First Ones' crystal ripped out of his cybernetic exoskeleton, has part of a building collapse on him, and takes an exploding arrow directly to the face, but shrugs all of them off.
- Dramatic Irony: Both Hordak and Catra boast about the achievements of the Horde, both claiming the glory of conquering the planet all for themselves. Unknown to them, by this point the Horde has been completely defeated. Extra points for this having occurred while they were fighting over leadership, destroying their own base in the process.
- Driven to Suicide: After losing Hordak's trust, her Horde army and receiving a brutal breaking speech from Double Trouble, Catra is left on the floor so broken that when Glimmer comes to kill her she encourages her to do it already. However, a series of circumstances (like the activation of the Heart of Etheria) prevent her from going throuth with it.
- Dying as Yourself: Light Hope's original personality takes over as she is permanently shut down.
- Empty Shell: Horde Prime's other clones appear to be drones rather than self-aware beings like Hordak.
- Evil Versus Evil: Hordak vs Catra.
- Eviler than Thou:
- Light Hope and her galactic purge quickly prove to be a far greater threat than anything the Horde is doing and she becomes the main threat for most of the episode.
- Horde Prime proves he's worse than Hordak by contemptuously rebuking him and his efforts to please his "brother", before having him disposed of like a common mook.
- Eye Color Change: Hordak's eyes turn green as he's subjected to Horde Prime's Mind Rape.
- Faux Affably Evil: Horde Prime carries himself with an air of manners while claiming he just wants to bring order to the universe. The fact that he loses his temper so easily with Hordak for wanting to be his equal, and planned to destroy all life on Etheria just to remove word of his brother's failed conquest make it clear that his manners are just a mask. Underneath it, he is pure evil.
- Get It Over With: When Glimmer finds Catra, Catra implies she wants Glimmer to go ahead and kill her, as she's too broken at this point to even care.
- Fiery Cover-Up: Horde Prime intends to destroy Etheria to leave no evidence of Hordak's autonomy, but Catra tells him about the Heart of Etheria so he'll spare the planet in favor of using it to his advantage.
- Fighting from the Inside: Light Hope comes into conflict with her original programming and her sentimental feelings for Mara as Adora tries to stop the weapon. In the end her feelings for Mara shine through and she tells Adora to go ahead and destroy the sword.
- I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Double Trouble sided with the rebellion because Glimmer told them the Princesses were the ones who control the Heart of Etheria.
- Gilligan Cut: At the start, Scorpia comments that it seems like a pretty slow day in the Fright Zone. The scene then immediately cuts to Hordak and Catra's climactic battle.
- Individuality Is Illegal: It's implied that the flaw in Hordak that Horde Prime found so offensive wasn't his physical deterioration. It was his free will.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Double Trouble did it in the most sadistic way possible, but telling Catra she drives everyone away and it's her own fault she's completely friendless was something she really needed to hear.
- During their fight, Catra accuses Hordak of lying to himself if he believes that Horde Prime would care about a "defect" like him or carry out his wishes on Etheria. Her comments were motivated by cruelty, but she was proven right later in the episode.
- Make Way for the New Villains: Horde Prime's formal introduction has him subjugating Hordak with Catra forced to appeal to him to save herself.
- Mercy Kill: For a given value of "mercy", Horde Prime was going to blow up Etheria for Hordak’s embarrassment of a conquest, but he was going to kill Glimmer beforehand. Until Catra convinced him otherwise, Glimmer was about to get off easy and not have to endure the torture he was about to give Hordak.
- Mind Rape: Horde Prime telepathically links with Hordak by touching him, reads his thoughts, and mind-wipes him. Viewers see Hordak's expression go blank and his eyes turn from red to green.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Glimmer has quite a few moments in this episode when she realises how badly she screwed up. First she is left horrified when she realizes how dangerous it was to activate the Heart of Etheria as the overflowing power becomes too painful for her to bear. And then Glimmer is left aghast when Horde Prime reveals her activation of the Heart of Etheria was what allowed him to locate where Hordak's signal came from.
- Near-Villain Victory: Light Hope nearly succeeds in using the Heart of Etheria to destroy the First Ones' enemies and is only foiled at the last moment when Adora destroys the Sword of Protection.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Glimmer choosing to activate the Heart of Etheria almost leads to the death of the Princess Alliance, gives Light Hope the power necessary to open a portal bringing Etheria back into the wider universe, and releases a signal that allows Horde Prime to find them. The look on her face says it all.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Catra's nowhere to be seen when Glimmer and Hordak are beamed aboard Horde Prime's ship, but sneaks out of the rubble when Horde Prime threatens to destroy Etheria.
- Parting-Words Regret: Adora really regrets going off and leaving Glimmer, because after returning from Beast Island and by the time she's done shutting down the weapon, she never gets the chance to reconcile with Glimmer, who has been taken by Horde Prime.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Double Trouble brutally assesses Catra's character before her, explaining how all the people who abandoned Catra did so because Catra is the toxic one, before revealing that they've screwed over the Horde and aligned with the Princesses.
- Redemption Equals Death: Light Hope overcomes her original programming but is deleted after Adora destroys the sword. She gives the hero a small thank you before she fades away.
- The Reveal: Light Hope tells Adora that she was the one who actually brought Adora to Etheria when she was a baby, not the Horde as she was led to believe. Suffice it to say Adora is furious to find out that Light Hope has been manipulating her all this time.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Hordak finally snaps and attacks Catra after learning that she exiled Entrapta to Beast Island.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Having had enough of Catra's tyrannical abuse, Lonnie decides that she, Kyle and Rogelio will be leaving the Horde.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Despite the Princess Alliance delivering a severe beating to Hordak's forces and nearly taking back the planet, they all ended up delivering themselves right onto Horde Prime's doorstep, and Catra practically gave the Emperor the whole planet, undoing their victory against the Horde.
- Shock and Awe: Scorpia finally connects to her Runestone, granting her electricity powers. This also makes her a literal Lightning Bruiser.
- Tempting Fate: During their fight, Catra taunts Hordak by saying "Haven't you noticed? I'm running things here!" Unbeknownst to Catra, several Horde soldiers have defected, Double Trouble has betrayed her, and the Horde army (already spread too thin) has been brought to its knees by a Rebellion ambush, so Catra isn't running much of anything when she utters that statement.
- Villainous BSoD: Catra is so stunned by Double Trouble's betrayal and "The Reason You Suck" Speech that she can't even bring herself to fight Glimmer. She manages to recover when Horde Prime beams them to his ship.
- Villainous Rescue: While her reasons are currently unknown, it's a fact that Catra saved not only Glimmer, but all of Etheria by telling Horde Prime about the Heart of Etheria.
- Wham Episode: Hands-down the biggest Wham episode so far. Double Trouble and the trainees betray the Horde for their own respective reasons. Scorpia reconnects with her Runestone causing Etheria to return to the wider universe, meaning that Horde Prime has finally found them. Adora destroys the Sword Of Protection, killing Light Hope as a result. Horde Prime sends Hordak to reconditioning and kidnaps Glimmer and Catra, the latter of which had just been brutally called out by Double Trouble. As mentioned above, this is easily the Darkest Hour for the series.
