With the Sword of Power sundered, magic is dying across Eternia. Having abandoned King Randor's service, Teela now works as a mercenary with her partner, Andra. In their latest mission, the duo reclaim a stolen magical artifact from Stinkor, a former henchman of Skeletor. Upon returning the artifact to its temple, Teela expresses disgust with magic, believing that humanity should embrace technology instead. Majestra, an old woman, then hires the two to steal a chalice from Snake Mountain, the former lair of Skeletor.
After arriving at Snake Mountain, the duo are dismayed to find that the front entrance has been sealed with technological death-traps. Teela, however, remembers an alternate way in from an earlier adventure with He-Man. Infiltrating the fortress, they discover that Tri-Klops has set up a sinister machine-worshipping cult in Skeletor's absence. Tri-Klops preaches the glory of the "Motherboard" to his assembled cultists, before converting a pilgrim into a horrifying cyborg by having him drink a dark liquid from a chalice — the chalice that the duo have been hired to steal. Teela distracts Tri-Klops while Andra moves to secure the chalice, but their plan results in a massive brawl with the cult. The duo incapacitate Trap Jaw, Whiplash, Blast-Attak, and many of the cyborg cultists before escaping with the chalice.
Upon returning to Majestra, she offers the duo an even bigger payment to take the chalice to Castle Greyskull, which King Randor has declared a forbidden zone. Undeterred, the three women descend to Greyskull's basement, where the Sorceress is waiting for them.
Teela and Andra draw their weapons, revealing that they know Majestra is really Evil-Lyn. Dropping her illusion, Evil-Lyn in turn reveals that the chalice is really what remains of Skeletor's Havoc Staff — and that she acquired it to help the Sorceress. The Sorceress knows that Evil-Lyn is still a villain, but acknowledges that their interests are (for now) aligned, and entrusts her with the last spark of true magic. Together, Evil-Lyn and the Sorceress explain that once magic is completely gone, Eternia will die, and the rest of the universe will die with it. The only way to save Eternia is to reforge the Sword of Power, which was divided into two halves: one of which is now in the underworld of Subternia and the other of which is in the heaven of Preternia.
Teela rejects the quest, as she still wants nothing to do with magic, which reminds her of Adam's deception. She starts to walk out of Castle Greyskull, only to be stopped by Cringer, who has remained with the Sorceress. He-Man's former sidekick pleads with her to save Eternia, pointing out that while Adam hid his greatest secret from her, he would never have sacrificed himself if he did not trust Teela to fight for Eternia in his place. Andra speaks up to support Cringer, and Teela is moved to attempt the quest. However, even if they can retrieve both halves of the Sword of Power, Teela knows of only one man on Eternia with the skills to reforge the weapon — her disgraced father Man-At-Arms.
Tropes:
- Action Girl: Teela and Andra both show off their skills in this episode.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Evil-Lyn at one point refers to Cringer as a "fearful feline".
- Ambiguous Situation: Is the "Motherboard" that Tri-Klops preaches about a real entity, or just something he invented to manipulate his cultists? The latter seems more likely, but then we're left with the uncomfortable question of where Tri-Klops got that black liquid that turns people into cyborgs (with implant weaponry and all).
- Badass Bookworm: Andra is introduced as the gadgeteer of the duo, but she has an athletic build and is clearly not far behind Teela in fighting skill.
- Black and Nerdy: Andra is the brains to Teela's brawn.
- Body Horror: The liquid that the pilgrim drinks painfully transforms him into a cyborg within seconds, leaving him a cybernetic eye that can disturbingly extend from its socket like a tentacle, along with a retractable buzz-saw in his arm. (It doesn't help that Teela severs the latter shortly after that.)
- Booby Trap: The duo find that the entrance to Snake Mountain is covered with traps, forcing them to find another way in.
- Call-Back: In the flashback featuring He-Man, he swings Teela's body in a Combination Attack against Whiplash. Later, Teela uses the same move with Andra in the fight with Tri-Klops.
- The Cameo: Blast-Attak is part of Tri-Klops' cult and participates in the Snake Mountain brawl, but has no lines and is never addressed by name.
- Despite the Plan: Teela's plan to distract everyone while Andra sneaks the chalice away from Tri-Klops goes off the rails almost immediately, resulting in the duo having a massive fight with the cultists. They still get away with the chalice.
- Dragon Ascendant: Tri-Klops was formerly just another of Skeletor's henchmen, but now Snake Mountain is his lair.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Teela and Andra briefly disguise themselves as cultists while infiltrating Snake Mountain.
- The End of the World as We Know It: Both the Sorceress and Evil-Lyn impress upon Teela that the fate of the universe is at stake.
- Enemy Mine: Both Evil-Lyn and the Sorceress are desperate enough about the end of magic to set aside their differences and work together.
- Evil Versus Oblivion: Evil-Lyn isn't so evil that she is willing to allow the universe to die.
- Forbidden Zone: This term is actually used when discussing Castle Greyskull, now off-limits by King Randor's decree. Ultimately averted as no consequences come of Evil-Lyn, Teela, and Andra trespassing there.
- Gory Discretion Shot: At one point in the Snake Mountain fight, Andra escapes Trap Jaw by turning a buzzsaw on his head... but the camera avoids showing the hit, playing only a horrible wet noise. (Later, however, we see that Trap Jaw survived!)
- The Idealist: In contrast to Teela, Andra is eager to go on quests and help people.
- Machine Worship: The basis of Tri-Klops' new cult.
- The Magic Goes Away: This episode makes it clear that the end of magic is in full swing, with spellcasters desperately clinging to their dwindling power and more people (both heroic and villainous) embracing technology.
- Magic Versus Science: Near the beginning, Teela makes a statement bitterly rejecting magic, extolling the virtues of technology instead. Ironically, she later witnesses Tri-Klops doing the same thing with a much more religious (and sinister) tone.
- Master of Illusion: Evil-Lyn disguises herself as an old woman to gain the duo's trust, though they ultimately see through her deception.
- Mood Dissonance: At one point during the cultist brawl, the transformed pilgrim grapples Teela from behind, choking her with his tentacle-like eye stalk. Before the duo regain the upper hand, Teela's desperation (and the soundtrack during those seconds) feels more like something from a slasher flick than the heroic battle that is the rest of the scene, yet it still works.
- Passing the Torch: Adam implicitly passed the responsibility of defending Eternia to Teela before making his Heroic Sacrifice. Unfortunately, Teela rejected the call out of fear of taking on such a great responsibility, which she's been masking with anger, as Cringer points out. The end of the episode finally has her taking up the mantle of protector.
- Paying for the Action Scene: After sending Stinkor flying out of his hut, he lands on a poor rat villager's fruit stall, but Teela pays for the damages when they pass by him.
- Punched Across the Room: Stinkor makes an impressive entrance, but Teela knocks him out of his hut and onto a village vendor's stand with one blow.
- Rat Men: A few of them are seen in the village where Stinkor's hideout was. Hilariously, they have clothespins on their snouts, undoubtably to mask the smell that emanated from his hut.
- Refusing the Call: Teela initially wants nothing to do with saving Eternia.
- Robotic Reveal: The first cultist that the duo encounter seems to be a normal human, until he turns to glance towards their hiding spot, revealing a robotic left eye. Later, the pilgrim's daughter (who we did not see drink from the chalice) reveals in a creepy way that she, too, has been converted to a cyborg.
- Shout-Out: Like another embittered and cynical mercenary, after concluding a hostile confrontation Teela tosses money to a hapless proprietor and remarks, "Sorry about the mess."
- Slasher Smile: After their conversions, the pilgrim and his daughter both have these when they attack Teela.
- Stock Ninja Weaponry: Andra is not officially a ninja, but she is adept with hitting targets with shuriken, even while running away from them.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: At some point after becoming a mercenary, Teela adopted one of these as her weapon of choice.
- Time Skip: The episode opens some time after the ending of "The Power of Grayskull" (though the exact duration of that interim is never explicitly stated).
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Teela is definitely more bitter and cynical than she was in her former life under King Randor.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: How Cringer makes his appeal to Teela.
