The squad heads to the planet Krytis to find a way to get past Horde Prime's blockade on Etheria. Shadow Weaver appeals to Castaspella for help.
Tropes
- Absurdly Sharp Claws: Invoked when Catra cuts an opening through a thick metal door with her claws... though the door was actually an illusion, or at least it was partially an illusion.
- Aww Choo: When a mote of magic lands on her nose, Catra sneezes. Bow immediately starts teasing her over how cute her sneeze is, while Adora and Glimmer snicker at Catra's increasingly indignant reactions. Melog later imitates Catra's sneeze a couple of times.
- Bond Creature: Melog forms a mystical bond with fellow feline Catra, mirroring Adora's bond with Swift Wind.
- Brainwash Residue: Even after being freed from Horde Prime's Hive Mind, Catra still gets flashes of information from it, like her information on Krytis.
- Breather Episode: Largely comedic and heartwarming episode after a dramatic Heroic Sacrifice last episode.
- Can't Believe I Said That: Bow feels very odd when he agrees with Catra about the need for an actual plan to deal with Prime.
- Damsel out of Distress: By the time the squad catch up to Catra, she's befriending the monstrous-looking creature they thought she was in danger from. This is one of several events in season five that challenge Adora's patronizing worldview.
- The Empath: Melog can read emotions, making the usually temperamental Catra force herself to stay calm in order to keep the spectral feline from lashing out.
- Enemy Mine: Castaspella very reluctantly agrees to hear out Shadow Weaver's plan to find the Heart of Etheria and return the magic the First Ones stole back to the planet.
- Evolving Credits: The chipped Spinnerella, Micah, Scorpia, and Mermista join Horde Prime and Hordak in the villain's shot. In the heroes shot Netossa, Sea Hawk and Perfuma all sport new poses to reflect their states after the loss of the now chipped heroes (Netossa looks angry, Sea Hawk determined, and Perfuma sad).
- Foreshadowing:
- There are some hints that the things the Best Friend Squad is encountering on Krytis are illusions, like the barrier where a door should have been that glowed after Catra cut through it, a passage appearing where one wasn't before, and the stilted speech when "Entrapta" tells them to go down it, with "Wrong Hordak" not making any noise despite his emotional state at the time.
- Shadow Weaver telling Castaspella to go ahead and stop her if she actually tries to take the magic for herself is an indication that Shadow Weaver knows she isn’t going to be around for very long in this universe.
- The Gadfly: Bow — and to a lesser extent Glimmer — delights in teasing Catra throughout the episode, to her frustration.Catra: [sneezes]
Bow: Aww, that's your sneeze?
Catra: What?
Bow: It's just so... cute!
Catra: [indignantly] It's a normal sneeze.
Bow: I can't believe the whole time you were trying to kill us, you had the cutest sneeze of all time!
Catra: I am not cute! [tail puffs up]
Bow: The angrier you get, the cuter you are! - Godzilla Threshold: Shadow Weaver convinces Castaspella that with the far more powerful Micah chipped by Horde Prime they need to find and release the magic found in the Heart of Etheria back to the planet in order to give themselves the boost they need to fight him.
- Heroic BSoD: Wrong Hordak has an existential crisis upon discovering hard evidence that Horde Prime isn't the perfect being he claims to be.
- I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: Wrong Hordak insists that they don't speak of Horde Prime's weaknesses... which confirms that he has a weakness. Then he says they don't speak of Krytis, which is where said weakness is. In this case, Wrong Hordak is simply too naive to avoid giving up this information even if he knows he's not supposed to (or rather, not programmed to).
- Implausible Deniability: Wrong Hordak's conditioning causes him to try and deny that Krytis exists despite being on Krytis at the time.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Wrong Hordak does this as he realizes everything he thought about Horde Prime is a lie.
- Intelligible Unintelligible: In its feline form, Melog's vocalization consists of meows, purrs, roars, and growls that only Catra - a fellow feline - can understand due to their mystical connection.
- Internal Retcon: For his pride, Horde Prime purged all records of his failure to capture Krytis and seemingly installed a block in his drones that makes them conspicuously deny any mention of its existence. The First Ones also apparently did the same thing, as its location is locked behind admin privileges in Mara's ship.
- I Resemble That Remark!: Catra denies being cute, while puffing up her tail.
- Last of His Kind: Melog is the last member of their species, the others dying in their stand against Horde Prime.
- Master of Illusion: Melog is able to generate illusions to ward the heroes off, like a door that the heroes can't reach or pointy spikes.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Glimmer is able to sense the magic of Melog's illusions, but can't quite put her finger on it until she physically touches one and realizes what it is.
- No Antagonist: This is one of the few episodes without a visible antagonist.
- Pet the Dog:
- Melog not fighting back when Catra attacks him is one of the first indications that he's sapient and heroic.
- Catra is determined to resolve things peacefully with the monster that's been terrifying her and her friends, even after backup arrives- a level of patience she would never have shown pre-Heel–Face Turn.
- Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: After Castaspella accuses her of wanting to take Etheria's magic for herself, Shadow Weaver tells Castaspella to stop her if she tries to do so. It's this request that convinces Castaspella that Shadow Weaver is being sincere.
- Pyrrhic Victory: While the First Ones were able to send the Galactic Horde packing from Krytis, all life on Krytis perished except for one, and is a barren planet.
- The Reveal: Horde Prime's weakness is magic, which he can't understand or properly control. That's why he left Krytis after the First Ones were driven off and Melog's species attacked him.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Catra seeing the heroes' dumb plans has her baffled as to how they survived for so long, let along kept defeating her.
- Starfish Alien: Melog is the sole survivor of a spectral alien species formed entirely of magic and capable of taking on any form it chooses. It is initially humanoid, but settles for making a feline form its default after bonding with Catra. When calm its mane, teeth, and tail are a soft blue, but when angry or afraid they turn a spiky red.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: "Wrong Hordak's" attempts to deny that Horde Prime has any weaknesses falls into this. His responses paint it as a combination of conditioning and programming.
- Trick Arrow: Bow has an arrow which turns into a magnifying glass, a function so absurd that Catra cannot believe the Horde was ever losing to the Rebellion.
- Twitchy Eye: Wrong Hordak has a minor case of this when bringing up Krytis, you can tell he's really fighting the programming there.
- Why Won't You Die?: A non-fatal example. Castaspella is left incredulous that the Rebellion lost so many good warriors but somehow Shadow Weaver got out without being chipped.
