Recap / The Little Mermaid S 1 E 3 Stormy

Ariel goes out on a swim and sees a giant seahorse leashed in a corral. She admires the animal but is warned by the seahorse wrangler to keep her distance, as Stormy, the seahorse, is too wild to tame. Smitten by the majesty of the wild seahorse, Ariel vows that someday she will ride Stormy.

At dinner, Ariel expresses an interest in riding seahorses. Triton says she is welcome to do so, and recommends a well-trained old mare from his stable, but when Ariel says she wants to ride Stormy, Triton laughs at her, saying Stormy is much too big and wild for her. Ariel says that she and Stormy already like each other, but Triton isn’t convinced, and when he finds out that Ariel got close enough to pet Stormy, he forbids her from going near the seahorse again. Ariel bursts into tears and swims off. Knowing how stubborn Ariel can be, Triton knows this is far from over.

Ariel decides to sneak out that night to see Stormy. She recruits Sebastian to be her lookout, but mere moments after Ariel leaves Triton gives Sebastian another mission: guarding the seahorse.

Triton: Make sure no one goes near it, especially no one with beautiful red hair who has a tendency to disobey her father.

Ariel sneaks out to the corral and sings to Stormy, but before she can try riding him, Triton shows up. He again tells Ariel that Stormy is too dangerous for her to ride, and if he can’t trust her to stay away from the seahorse he will have to sell it. Ariel is heartbroken.

Ariel: You don’t care what’s best for me. You want to tie me down, just like Stormy!

They all return to the palace, but after Triton falls asleep Ariel sneaks out again and goes right back to the corral. Before anyone can stop her, she frees Stormy and rides off.King Triton is awakened by Sebastian, and he and the seahorse wrangler set out to find Ariel, knowing that Stormy will have gone into the wilderness.

Ariel and Stormy race through the wilderness. Ariel starts to get worried when she realizes that they’re going faster and further than she had planned, but she isn’t able to get Stormy to stop.In the wilderness, two octopus seahorse rustlers are lamenting the lack of giant seahorses these days, when they are suddenly disrupted by Stormy and Ariel hurtling by.When Ariel and Stormy stop to rest, the octopuses catch Stormy. Ariel manages to sneak up on them and free Stormy from the seaweed lasso. The rustlers pursue the seahorse and mermaid, and in the chase Ariel hits her head on a low-hanging bit of coral, knocking her out. Stormy saves her before she falls into a crevasse, and the rustlers finally decide the seahorse is just too wild for them to catch.

Old Octopus: I’m gonna start rustling sea slugs. At least they leave a trail.

Young Octopus: Yeah, and sea slugs are a lot slower too.

The search party finds Ariel and takes her home. When she wakes up, Ariel admits to Triton that he was right about Stormy being too wild for her.

Triton: I know sometimes you think I’m mean. I don’t like to say no to you Ariel, but sometimes I have to because…because…

Ariel: Because you love me?

Some time later, Ariel and Triton release Stormy into the wild to swim free.Triton tells Ariel he’s proud of her, and he introduces her to Seabiscuit: a much tamer and more manageable seahorse for her to ride.

Tropes

• An Aesop: Sometimes parents have good reasons for forbidding their children from doing things.
• Call-Forward: The argument between Ariel and Triton over Stormy is extremely similar to the argument they have over humans in the movie. Both arguments end with Triton forbidding Ariel from going near the dangerous thing ever again, and Ariel swimming off in tears.
• Continuity Nod: When Ariel says Stormy likes her, Triton reminds her of her misadventures with other animals, like the baby killer whale she hid in her room.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Played with. Triton is supportive of Ariel learning to ride seahorses, but he doesn’t want her to ride one as wild as Stormy.
• The Freelance Shame Squad: Ariel’s sisters all laugh at her when she says she wants to ride Stormy. Downplayed later on: while they laugh at Ariel for getting in hot water with Triton, they wait until after Ariel has left.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs:
  Sebastian: Ariel, stop seahorsing around!
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: To avoid laughing at Ariel in front of Triton, Arista asks to be excused by saying she and her sisters need to go wash their hair. Despite living under the sea.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Even Ariel comes to realize that King Triton was right about Stormy being too wild for her to ride safely.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: After unsuccessfully chasing Stormy, the octopuses decide to rustle something easier to catch, like sea slugs.
• Seahorse Steed: The giant seahorses have the heads and manes of horses with the bodies of seahorses.
• Series Continuity Error: Ariel is seen using a fork at dinner, when the original movie depicted forks as human artifacts that mermaids are unfamiliar with. Unless this is a human fork that Ariel brought home in an attempt to find out its purpose?
• Shout-Out: Ariel ends up with a seahorse called Seabiscuit, named after a champion racehorse of the 1930s.