Ordeal in the Darklands

Ordeal in the Darklands is the 26th episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, written by Marc Scott Zicree and directed by Gwen Wetzler. When Teela goes to the Darklands to test her skills, she is held captive by the sorcerer Kor, who believes that He-Man has kidnapped his daughter.

Synopsis
When Skeletor leaves Snake Mountain for a few days, Evil-Lyn decides to try to take over Eternia on her own. Tri-Klops, however, warns her that He-Man will stop her, so she devises a plan to turn Korr the Sorcerer, one of the Eternia's most powerful sorcerers, against him. Meanwhile, at the Royal Palace, Orko is controlling a Training Robot that Teela is fighting while blindfolded. When she defeats it, she says that she wants to continue training in the Darklands, but Man-At-Arms overhears her talking and implores her not to go.

In the Darklands, Tri-Klops uses the Basher to capture Kor's daughter Mira and flies back to Snake Mountain, where Evil-Lyn creates illusory images of He-Man and Man-At-Arms capturing Mira with the Wind Raider. Orko fights and defeats a Training Robot on his own, but when he flies off to tell Teela about his accomplishment, he sees her studying a map of the Darklands. She still wants to go in spite of her father's and Orko's disapproval, so Orko decides to follow her and make sure she doesn't run into any danger. She gets captured by Kor's Reptile Men after noticing that Orko has been following her, and Orko's magic doesn't work when he tries to turn one of them into a tree, so he promises to find He-Man and flies away.

The Reptile Men bring Teela to Kor just as Evil-Lyn has finished showing him the images of He-Man and Man-At-Arms capturing Mira. When he hears that Orko flew off to find He-Man, he decides to hold Teela hostage until He-Man arrives.

Orko flies back to the Royal Palace and finds Prince Adam and Man-At-Arms playing a board game. He tells them about Teela's run-in with the Reptile Men, and Adam transforms into He-Man and sets out in the Attak Trak with Man-At-Arms and Orko to rescue her. Along the way, Man-At-Arms tells them that Kor is the Keeper of the Flame and is responsible for watching the prison of the Crimson Scourge, a fiery beast that once threatened to set Eternia ablaze. When they arrive at the spot where Teela was captured, they allow the Reptile Men to capture them and bring them before Kor. He believes that Teela was not involved with Mira's abduction, but refuses to listen to He-Man and Man-At-Arms when they tell him that they don't know anything about it. He-Man and Man-At-Arms surmise that Evil-Lyn has duped Kor and break out of the cage in which he is holding them. They fight their way past his Reptile Men and try to escape from Kor's home, but he uses a magic orb to control He-Man's shadow and teleports him into the Crimson Scourge's prison when He-Man shatters the orb. He-Man is forced to fend off the monster's attacks while tunneling his way through the wall of the prison.

Teela and Orko, who managed to escape Kor's home during the commotion, leave for Snake Mountain to find his daughter. They get past Tri-Klops and break Mira out of her prison cell, then use a grappling hook to swing across a gap and get back to their Sky-Sled as Tri-Klops destroys a bridge with his optic blasts.

Back in the Darklands, Kor is angry that Man-At-Arms still won't tell him where Mira is and prepares to teleport him into the Crimson Scourge's prison. Before he does, Teela and Orko arrive with Mira, and He-Man escapes from the prison with the monster close behind. Kor is ashamed of his stubborn refusal to listen, but He-Man defeats the Crimson Scourge with water from an underground river, which extinguishes its burning body.

Back at Kor's home, Teela apologizes to her father and Orko, and Kor thanks Teela for rescuing Mira. Teela says that they'll both remember to calm down, think things through, and listen to their loved ones in the future, and Orko joyfully shakes a hand from under his hat as both Kor and Man-At-Arms hug their daughters.

Moral
Teela: "I had a really close call today. And it all started when I was so anxious to do something that I didn't stop to think of the danger and wouldn't listen to anyone who tried to warn me." Man-At-Arms: "Well, we parents may not always be right, but we try, because we love our children and we try to do what's best for them. And I'll tell you a secret: we really hate to say 'no' to something they really want. So when we do, we usually have a pretty good reason. Try to remember that the next time your mother or father says 'no' to you.".

Heroic Warriors

 * Prince Adam
 * He-Man
 * Man-At-Arms
 * Orko
 * Teela

Allies

 * Kor
 * Mira

Evil Warriors

 * Evil-Lyn
 * Skeletor (mentioned)
 * Tri-Klops

Villains

 * Crimson Scourge

Locations

 * Darklands
 * Eternos - Royal Palace
 * Snake Mountain

Vehicles

 * Attak Trak
 * Basher
 * Collector
 * Sky-Sled
 * Wind Raider

Cast

 * John Erwin as He-Man/Prince Adam and Strought the Reptile Man
 * Alan Oppenheimer as Man-At-Arms and Kor
 * Linda Gary as Teela, Evil-Lyn and Mira
 * Lou Scheimer (credited as Erik Gunden) as Orko and Tri-Klops

Behind the Scenes

 * Script was approved February 22, 1983 and final revision took place March 22, 1983.
 * Skeletor does not appear, but the Collector is seen leaving Snake Mountain in the opening scene, after which Evil-Lyn mentions that Skeletor has gone away for a few days.
 * Though never mentioned, the Darklands are underground, as made evident by a rocky skyline in the background of all scenes that take place there.
 * An entire subplot was deleted involving an invention of Man-At-Arms called the 'Shrinker'. The first scene would feature Prince Adam and Duncan testing this machine. Later, while the heroic warriors were in the Darklands, Evil-Lyn would sneak into the Royal Palace to steal the Schrinker. During the finale, Kor confronted Evil-Lyn as she attempted to use the Shrinker on He-Man.
 * In the original script, the Crimson Scourge broke out of the Darkland and headed towards the Royal Palace. The Heroic Warriors would end up using the firefighting machine from the episode The Curse of the Spellstone in an attempt to stop it.

Continuity

 * The character model for Mira was used earlier as Celice in "Song of Celice" and would be used again as Princess Nami in " City Beneath the Sea."
 * A recolored version of the character design for Kor was used as Zanthor in Golden Disks of Knowledge.
 * The close-up shot of He-Man deflecting laser fire was used again in the She-Ra: Princess of Power episode Sweet Bee's Home.
 * The Star Wars inspired chess game also appears again in Colossor Awakes & The Gamesman.
 * Part of the movement of He-Man attempting to strike his shadow will be seen again in Keeper of the Ancient Ruins when he is fighting Trap Jaw.
 * He-Man's sword fight with his own shadow would be reanimated in the She-Ra: Princess of Power episode Treasure of the First Ones with the characters of Sea Hawk and Octavia using the same moves.
 * Footage of Teela fighting the trained robot is reused in Pawns of the Game Master, except that in unlike the original version she is no longer blindfolded.

Errors

 * When Tri-Klops is flying away in the Basher after kidnapping Mira, the background is missing it's bottom plate. The rocky skyline is present, and the background just stops near the ground. Later, when Teela and Mira are seen flying a sky-sled, the same background is used and this time there is foliage placed on the bottom.
 * A hand appears from Orko's hat three times during this story, but it is robot hand attached to a mechanical arm rather than the blue Trollan hand that usually appears.

The He-Man and She-Ra Blog

 * A brief review #026 - "Ordeal in the Darklands"
 * The original Crimson Scourge!
 * The many forms of the Crimson Scourge!
 * He-Man's mighty thews!
 * The original Kor and Mira.
 * Mira and a bird.
 * Hey Layout!
 * Greenwood's Evil-Lyn...
 * Memories #23 - Summer morning re-runs.