Shadow Weaver and Catra are both imprisoned. The sorceress warns Adora of Hordak's ultimate plan, while Catra consigns herself to her fate at the hand of an enraged Hordak.
Tropes
- Alone-with-Prisoner Ploy:
- Inverted with Shadow Weaver, a prisoner who is only willing to speak with one "guard", Adora.
- Played straight by Adora and Glimmer when they sneak into Shadow Weaver's room. Adora proceeds to pass through the force field around their prisoner for another level of this trope.
- Bait-and-Switch: The previous episode ended with the implication Shadow Weaver was going to kidnap Adora, but Shadow Weaver collapses the next moment, and she had to get herself imprisoned because no one would believe her if she just came and told Queen Angela outright.
- Blood from the Mouth: A variation. When Shadow Weaver is in her cell, before being healed, at one point she seems to cough up shadows/magic in this manner.
- Call-Back: When Glimmer and Adora confront Shadow Weaver, Glimmer brings up the first season episode where Adora's memories of her time in the rebellion were about to be erased:Glimmer: After all your kidnapping and mind-wiping, I am just looking for a reason to serve up a little payback!
- Captured on Purpose: Shadow Weaver lets this happen in order to warn Adora about Hordak's plan to activate a portal and bring in the rest of the Horde's enormous army.
- The Chosen One: Light Hope on how Refusing the Call is not an option.Adora: Don't I get a say in what happens to me? Don't I get a choice?
Light Hope: No. This is your destiny. You do not choose. You were chosen. - Distinction Without a Difference: Hordak plans to exile Catra to Beast Island as punishment for letting Shadow Weaver escape, but Entrapta points out that Catra has improved the Horde's efficiency since she's so good at finding First Ones tech. So Hordak decides to send Catra to the Crimson Waste instead so she can find more tech.Catra: The Crimson Waste? It's a total dead zone. Nothing survives out there.
Hordak: (chuckles) Exactly. - Dressing as the Enemy: Adora tries dressing up as one of the guards to see Shadow Weaver. Her disguise fails miserably.
- Eye Am Watching You: Glimmer performs this gesture to Shadow Weaver when Adora takes over the questioning.
- Failure Montage: Adora's many attempts to sneak into the "prison" only to be caught by Glimmer every single time.
- Foreshadowing: The fact that Shadow Weaver could easily teach Adora to unlock She-Ra's healing powers while Light Hope doesn't, claiming Adora would have to wait years indicates Light Hope is clearly holding back on Adora.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: Adora tries to use the Dressing as the Enemy variant to take the place of Shadow Weaver's Bright Moon prison guard. It doesn't work.
- Healing Hands: With some tutoring from Shadow Weaver, She-Ra finally manages to access her healing powers, reversing Shadow Weaver's deteriorating health in the process.
- Heel–Face Turn: Downplayed. After her escape from the Horde in the Season 2 finale, Shadow Weaver turns herself over to Bright Moon with an offer to help defeat Hordak and get revenge for his betrayal.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Queen Angella is convinced Shadow Weaver is trying to pull off this trope. Naturally, she refuses to let the sorceress speak with Adora lest she has a nasty trick up her sleeve. Subverted; Shadow Weaver instead unlocks She-Ra's healing powers.
- Journey to Find Oneself: After learning the truth about her origins Adora decides to head to the Crimson Waste to find any information she can on Mara. Naturally Bow and Glimmer decide to tag along.
- Kick the Dog: Shadow Weaver gives two to Queen Angella in quick succession, proving that she has most certainly not changed even if she is offering her help.Shadow Weaver: You must be Glimmer's mother. I can tell by the way your voice grows shrill when you scream.Shadow Weaver: I'm not the one who got Micah killed.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Hordak's test with a portal brought Adora to Etheria, bringing in the girl who would grow up to become his worst enemy.
- Never My Fault: Shadow Weaver blames Catra for her fall from grace when it was her own fault for disobeying Hordak's orders regarding Adora.
- Catra, just the same as Shadow Weaver, cannot accept responsibility for what she has done, claiming she has done everything right, but doesn't get to win no matter what she does in spite of the things she did wrong, including letting Shadow Weaver trick her into letting her escape and then lying to Hordak's face about it.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: Shadow Weaver makes it quite clear that she is not offering her help to the Princesses because it's the right thing to do or because she had a change of heart — she just wants to get payback against Hordak, and right now helping Adora is her best bet for that.
- Oh, Crap!: Catra gets hit with one of these for the second time in two episodes when Hordak tells her she's being sent into the Crimson Waste.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Light Hope's reaction when Adora calls her out for not having a choice to Refuse the Call."It is happening again."
- Please Spare Him, My Liege!: Entrapta tries to talk Hordak out of killing Catra, actually pointing out that Catra has, despite Hordak's speech later, brought a number of improvements to the Horde. Hordak however refuses, until he gets the idea to send Catra into the Crimson Wastes to retrieve the First Ones tech.
- Pragmatic Villainy: The Crimson Wastes as so dangerous that even Hordak thinks sending troops in is a mistake. The only person he's willing to send in Catra and it's clear he doesn't expect her to come back.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Hordak and Catra gives two of these back to back, when Catra is summoned to the throne room for punishment.Hordak: There is nothing I do not know. Nothing I am not willing to do to punish those who betray my trust. Your former Force Captain has proven to be compromised, ineffective, and worthless. To the rest of you, take a lesson from this. This is what happens to failures.Catra:You're the failure. (the entire Horde gasps in shock. Catra laughs) You need me, just like you needed Shadow Weaver, because you have no idea how to run this place. All you know how to do is hide in your lab. Maybe that's why you can't defeat a group of teenagers.
- The Reveal: Adora is not from Etheria; she was taken as a baby by the Horde after Hordak briefly opened a portal between dimensions in the past. Furthermore Adora, and all previous She-Ra's, are descendants of the First Ones.
- Running Gag: People keep pointing out that the "prison" Shadow Weaver is confined to is just a converted spare room with the cushions removed—most of them, anyway. Even Shadow Weaver herself expresses confusion over this being a prison.
- Thought They Knew Already: Light Hope never told Adora of her origins as she assumed it was in her "memory banks." It takes Adora explaining it for Light Hope to realize infants can remember things that early.
- Truth Serums: Castaspella attempts to use a truth spell on Shadow Weaver to find out what she needs to tell Adora, but Shadow Weaver points out she isn't doing it right.Castaspella: For the last time, tell us what you know.
Shadow Weaver: I know that when you cast a truth spell, you should make sure you've drawn it correctly. - Verbal Backspace: Angella tells Castaspella that they removed the cushions from the "prison"/guest room that they currently have Shadow Weaver in, then amends it to most of the cushions. Sure enough, a view of the room from inside her confinement shows at least four cushions still lying around.
- Villain Has a Point: Catra calls, out Hordak as an incompetent leader who has no idea how to run the Horde and has to rely on others to do all the real leadership work. Considering that Hordak has mostly been hiding in his lab while Shadow Weaver, and later Catra, have been doing most the work against the Rebellion, she has a point. Hordak doesn't even have a retort.
- Villains Never Lie: Shadow Weaver tells Adora that she's not of Etheria, and that she was from Another Dimension. Adora, however, only trusts Shadow Weaver as far as she can throw her. The doubt it plants in Adora's mind is enough for her to seek out Light Hope, who confirms it is true. Adora needed a respected figure as proof.
- Wake Up Fighting: Adora wakes up and has her sword out before Shadow Weaver even touches her.
- We Need a Distraction: Bow distracts Angela and Casta long enough for Adora and Glimmer to sneak in.Bow: Heeeeeeeeeeeey, sooooo... *fans out a deck of cards* ...who wants to see a magic trick?
- You Didn't Ask: After Light Hope confirms that Shadow Weaver was telling the truth about Adora's origin Adora demands to know why Light Hope never told her anything. Light Hope is actually confused by this since she assumed, like herself, that Adora would be able to remember her origins and was unaware that babies are unable to access their memories until Adora told her.
- You Have Failed Me: Hordak summons Catra to the throne room, where his minions have assembled, to demonstrate what happens to those who cross him. His original plan involved several kinds of dreadful punishment, but he announces that Entrapta convinced him to show Catra mercy and give her one last chance: retrieving First Ones tech from the Crimson Waste. While Entrapta thinks she just saved Catra from a terrible fate, Catra and Hordak both know it's just a Suicide Mission.
- You Know I'm Black, Right?: When Bow and Glimmer insist that Shadow Weaver is evil because she is from the Horde, Adora points out that she was a member of the Horde as well. When they pass that off as her being an exception, she suggests its only considered such due to her nature as She-Ra.
- You See, I'm Dying: The magic Shadow Weaver used to escape from the Horde took everything she had so now she is dying. She's able to survive after helping Adora learn how to use her healing powers.
