Recap / She Ra And The Princesses Of Power S 5 E 05 Save The Cat

Adora surrenders herself to Horde Prime, hoping to buy time for Entrapta, Bow and Glimmer to rescue Catra and hack Horde Prime's server.

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Tropes

• Airvent Passageway: Referenced by Entrapta, who wonders how anyone gets around on the Velvet Glove with no apparent air vents.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Horde Prime sends the Brainwashed and Crazy Catra out to fight Adora in order to force her to become She-Ra. After Catra is left on death's door he asks Adora to give him what he wants. She does so. "You miscalculated" indeed.
• Bizarrchitecture: Apparently Horde Prime's ship is deliberately designed so that you need to have a connection to the Hive Mind to be able to effectively navigate it.
• Borrowed Biometric Bypass: The controls on Hordak's citadel are keyed to him and his clones, so Entrapta suggests taking Wrong Hordak with them because he can open all the doors for them and without the hive mind is too distraught to question what they're doing.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Catra is all-but subjected to Death of Personality via Horde Prime implanting a control chip on her. She becomes a loyal servant that Prime happily turns on to Adora.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Once Adora transforms into She-Ra again she lays waste to every clone she finds on Horde Prime's ship without them being able to lay so much as a finger on her.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: "Wrong Hordak" is able to defend himself against several clones at the same time.
• Dissonant Laughter: While Catra is under Horde Prime's control, she lets out occasional bouts of disconcerting laughter - particularly when her control chip is damaged.
• Double-Meaning Title: "Save The Cat" can literally refer to Adora and her friends rescuing Catra, but the "Save The Cat Moment" is a term (taken from a successful trilogy of screenwriting books) for the scene in a script that firmly establishes the protagonist as someone to root for.
• Fake Ultimate Mook: For a horde of evil, galaxy conquering clones, the clones on the Prime's flagship are extremely vulnerable to a handful of meagerly armed teenagers due to the obvious weak points on their necks and the fact that they never use tactics more complex than an unarmed Zerg Rush.
• Fighting from the Inside: As Horde Prime mocks Adora for walking right into his trap, Catra briefly breaks free from his control at the sight of Adora's anguish. After Adora damages her control chip by smashing her into the Spire's screen array, Catra struggles against Horde Prime's control - causing her to spasm and laugh painfully.
• Gasp of Life: She-Ra uses her Healing Hands on Catra to revive her. At first it seems that it doesn't work, until she starts coughing before giving her a weak but affectionate, "Hey, Adora".
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Subverted. It initially appears that this in play, with the very few guards actually present ignoring the infiltrators and Adora clearly speaking through her earpiece. Then it turns out Prime knew everything that was going on the whole time and was waiting for the dramatically appropriate moment to block the signal and send in the troops as part of his mind games.
• Healing Hands: After transforming into She-Ra, Adora carries the dying Catra to safety and then uses her healing abilities to save her.
• Hive Mind: How Horde Prime and his clones are interlinked. The clones experience deep emotional distress when they are disconnected from the hive, similar to the Borg.
• Hope Spot: After Adora promises she'll take Catra home, the two reach for each other's hand. Prime gets Catra back under his control right then, and sends a shock of electricity through her so hard that she faints and falls from the throne platform.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Adora tries to get past Horde Prime's brainwashing by talking to Catra through their fight, and even quotes the trope almost verbatim at one point.
• I Think You Broke Him: After Entrapta and Bow accidentally disconnect Wrong Hordak from the Hive Mind, the latter starts to cry messily, despairing over not being able to connect with Horde Prime. Entrapta's response? "Uh-oh, we broke him."
• Impeded Communication: Horde Prime jams the team's comms once Adora refuses his offer, to demonstrate that he always knew what they were up to.
• Important Haircut: Horde Prime has Catra's hair trimmed down to Boyish Short Hair levels and slicked back.
• Insult of Endearment: Catra calls Adora an idiot when she briefly manages to break away from the chip's control. Her tone positively drips with fondness.
• Ironic Echo: After Adora surrenders herself, Prime reveals that he's aware of what she and her friends are up to and activates traps while cutting off their comms; touting his omniscience and telling Adora that she miscalculated. After Adora transforms into She-Ra and wipes the floor with his clones, she tells a clone he's indwelling that "You've miscalculated."
• Meaningful Echo:
  • Catra murmurs "Hey, Adora" to Adora after she is healed, this time in a weak but genuine and affectionate voice.
  • Once again, Adora and Catra are in a Literal Cliffhanger, this time on the platform in Horde Prime's cavernous throne room, with Adora reaching out to Catra. Only this time Catra tries to accept Adora's help and when Catra does fall, Adora jumps after her.
  • Similar to the above, when Adora tells Catra she's going to take Catra home, Catra looks at her and asks "Promise?" to which Adora (of course) responds "I promise," a call back to one of Catra's flashbacks from, well, Promise.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After punching a mind-controlled Catra across the face, Adora looks down at her fist with a horrified expression.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: By taking over and then attempting to kill Catra, Horde Prime provided the emotional jolt Adora needed to become She-Ra once more.
• Oh, Crap!: When the mind-controlled Catra tips back off the edge of Horde Prime's throne platform, Adora rushes forward to stop her with a panicked expression. After being pulled to safety, Catra takes advantage of Adora letting her guard down out of relief to attack her again.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Somehow Wrong Hordak manages to get in front of Bow and Entrapta when they're running away from him, and without them noticing either.
• Out-of-Character Alert: The first sign Catra is Brainwashed and Crazy when Adora arrives is that she says "Hello, Adora".
• Over-the-Shoulder Carry: After freeing Catra from Horde Prime's Mind Control, Adora, as She-Ra, throws the unconscious Catra over her shoulder and proceeds to beat Prime's minions surrounding them carrying her all the while over her shoulder.
• Perpetual Smiler: Catra, while under Prime's control, always has an eerie smile on her face. It doesn't even go away during her fight with Adora.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Entrapta shows the LUVD crystal to Wrong Hordak in an attempt to jog his memory, incorrectly thinking he is Hordak. Months after they parted, she's still worried about Hordak and eager to help him.
  • Entrapta brings Wrong Hordak along when the protagonists flee from Horde Prime's ship. Entrapta and Bow's actions caused Wrong Hordak to be disconnected from the hive mind, and she felt obligated to take care of the clone she "broke". Given what Horde Prime does to "defective" clones, Entrapta probably saved Wrong Hordak's life and soul by doing so.
• Pietà Plagiarism: Adora holds Catra in this pose as Catra is dying.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: As Catra is dying from injuries sustained by her fall off the throne platform, She-Ra tearfully begs her not to leave her.
• Possession Burnout: To rile up Adora, Horde Prime suggests that he might take Catra as a new "vessel", implying that doing so would quickly be fatal for her.
• Power Glows: When Adora regains access to She-Ra, first her eyes shift from their normal grey to a glowing blue (the magic expelling her tears as well), she becomes encased in a column of blue light before lifting her hand and regenerating the Sword of Protection, and the glow from her transformation is so powerful that all the Horde Clones eyes reflect yellow instead of green.
• The Power of Love: It's Adora's love for Catra that allows her to transform into She-Ra for the first time since shattering the Sword of Protection.
• Promise Me You Won't X: Entrapta doesn't want Bow to get mad that she's been tinkering and upgrading Darla whenever she was told not to. Given that they're surrounded by Horde Clones at the time Bow retroactively okays it.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Horde Prime attempts this on Catra when she resists his control and reaches out to Adora, mocking Adora before electrocuting Catra via her implant and causing her to fall off the Spire. Catra is fatally injured, but Adora resuscitates and heals her after transforming into She-Ra.
  Horde Prime: [speaking through Catra] Disappointing. Some creatures are destined only for destruction.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  Glimmer: [while whacking a clone] WE HAVE! TO GET! OUT OF HERE!
• Rage Breaking Point: Horde Prime makes the mistake of taunting Adora after he induces Catra to attempt suicide. Adora's anger allows her to regain access to She-Ra's powers, stabilize Catra's physical state, and mow through all the clones before leaving the ship.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: As it turns out, the clone who was once Hordak was demoted to the ranks after being reconditioned.
• Rogue Drone: Wrong Hordak is in distress because he was disconnected from the hive mind and cannot feel Horde Prime's presence. Entrapta initially mistakes him for Hordak.
• Save the Villain: While Catra had been an antagonistic force since the beginning of the first season and increasingly doubled down on villainy — especially when she almost destroyed reality — her Heroic Sacrifice in the prior episode prompts Adora to go to extreme lengths to save her.
• She's Back: After briefly accessing the power in the previous episode Adora is finally able to transform into She-Ra again, with a new outfit to boot, in order to take down the clones and save Catra's life.
• Shout-Out: The scene where She-Ra holds Catra's body while surrounded by Prime's army is a recreation of a shot from Revolutionary Girl Utena where Utena holds Anthy in the same pose.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • After Catra is mortally wounded, Adora transforms into She-Ra out of sheer grief and anger but only expresses a Death Glare as she curb-stomps Horde Prime's clones.
    She-Ra: You miscalculated.
  • Prime clenches his fist when She-Ra defeats his clones.
• The Unreveal: When and how Entrapta recovered the LUVD crystal is never explained.
• Voice of the Legion: When Horde Prime controls Catra, she speaks with both their voices in unison.
• Wham Line: At the end of the episode, Hordak finds the LUVD crystal and says, "Entrapta?" This shows the audience that Hordak still cares for Entrapta, still has fragments of his memories, and that Horde Prime's mind control techniques are not infallible.
• Wham Shot: Entrapta got the wrong clone... but the right one isn't too far away.
  Hordak: [picking up the LUVD chip] Entrapta?
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Prime tries to force Catra to kill herself once he realizes that Adora won't give him what he wants, even in exchange for Catra, just to punish her for her defiance. He almost succeeds, but Adora uses She-Ra's powers to heal Catra.

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