Episode 43 – The Dream Zone

In which Skeletor dares to dream big.

Flogg’s science team have invented a machine called the Dream Explorer, which allows its user to enter the Dream Dimension. Skeletor is unimpressed, until the scientist explains that this will somehow allow the user to control the dreams of anyone else who is also in the Dream Dimension. For whatever reason, this means that someone using the Dream Explorer will be able to force Primus’ Council to lower the shield. I don’t understand why, but let’s just go with it.

Flogg: “Yes, we have a science team. Why is that so hard to believe?”

Skeletor, Quake and BH enter the Dream Dimension and manage to successfully start lowering the shield. I think the idea here is that the Council maintain the shield through mental powers which they can only successfully channel while they’re asleep and dreaming, and thus in the Dream Dimension. I’m only guessing here, though, because the episode doesn’t see fit to explain this.

Using his unerring talent for knowing exactly what’s going on at any given time despite having no information, Master Sebrien quickly realises that the Council are being attacked in the Dream Dimension. He-Man, knowing that the Mutants will attack as soon as the shield is fully lowered, tasks Sagittar and Flipshot with defending Primus from the Mutant mother ship. In the meantime, he uses a teleporter to transport himself into the Dream Dimension.

Sagittar: “So…. while we fight the Mutants, you’re going to be dreaming? You’re basically just having a nap?”

He-Man finds and confronts Skeletor, which proves to be a long and tedious scene. In case we get bored with this, the writers helpfully intermittently change the episode’s focus so we can watch the Galactic Guardians having a dull fight with the Mutants, or sometimes we’re lucky enough to get a scene showing Master Sebrien whinging while the scientists shriek incoherent rubbish.

Skeletor quickly gains the upper hand in his fight with He-Man, which is a relief, frankly. I’d be over the moon if he actually won this week, and the remaining 23 episodes of the series focus on him hunting down and shooting the various idiots who have annoyed me so much recently. But no. Instead, Master Sebrien calls on that bloody Sorceress for help, and she does some mystical mumbo-jumbo to give He-Man the victory. You’ve got to feel bad for Skeletor here. He was winning fair and square, then all of a sudden, He-Man just shouts “I have the Power!” and the victory is his? Not cool.

Skeletor: “This does seem to be a setback, I will admit.”

He-Man then compounds his dickishness by shouting taunts that sound disturbingly like a playground bully. Skeletor, Quake and BH beat a hasty retreat, the Council put the shield back up, and He-Man returns to reality. And that’s the end of that, thankfully.

In today’s adventure…

The scientists catch He-Man about to have a sneaky fag, and they warn him that he mustn’t smoke if he wants to avoid heart disease, reduced lung capacity, and cancer. He-Man reluctantly vaporises the cigarette, then addresses the camera to explain that heroes don’t smoke. Well, pardon me, He-Man, but that’s bollocks: Captain Picard has a cigarette in at least two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (The Big Goodbye and Manhunt, if you must know), and if Picard’s not a hero, I don’t know who is.

He-Man: “Guys, guys, I only have 20 a day.”

Character checklist

You’ll be pleased to hear that this episode involves Prince Adam, He-Man, Master Sebrien, Mara, Flipshot, Sagittar, the Sorceress, Elcon, Meldock, Gepple, Krax, Gleep, the various Council members, Skeletor, Flogg, Quake, BH and Stackhorn.

Excuse given for Prince Adam’s disappearance

Adam is wandering around alone in the corridors when he realises He-Man is needed. He does pause to make some droll comment or other, but whatever it was he said, it certainly wasn’t an excuse.

Prince Adam: “If I can’t have cigarettes, maybe I can find some booze round here.”

Insults

Quake refers to the Council as “wimps”, a comment which for some reason inspires Skeletor to call Quake a “dolt”. Other than that, there’s not a lot going on here this time.

Silence, Scientists!

Elcon gets a point for inventing a teleporter and being really smug about it; this point is awarded largely on the basis that I’m almost certain the Primans already have a teleporter, but I’m not sure and I can assure you, I have no desire to watch the preceding 42 episodes again to check. Meldock can have a point this week as well, because he drops a statue, which I’ll admit is a relatively mild offence, but I don’t like him so I’m disinclined to overlook it.

Meldock: 25

Gepple: 19

Krax: 14

Elcon: 26

Master Sebrien: “He-Man, I’m going to send you on an important mission to find out where Krax’s neck has gone.”

Does it have the Power?

I’m trying to think of something more inspiring to write than “better than last week”, but that really is pretty much all this episode has going for it. Well, actually, that’s perhaps unfair. As seems to happen quite often with this series, the idea behind this episode is pretty solid, but the execution is seriously lacking. I think the aspect of this series I find most infuriating is the over-reliance on the Sorceress to provide the solution; episodes all too typically get to the 16 minute mark, find He-Man in an insoluble mess, and simply have the Sorceress say some variation on “you can do it, He-Man” and then, without any internal logic, He-Man does indeed win. I’m not feeling favourable today, so I’m going to recommend skipping this episode. Sorry if it’s your favourite or anything, but I have decided I disliked it.

Episode 42 – He-Fan

In which I am driven right to the edge.

Right, well, going on the title, this one’s going to be about either an obsessed fan of He-Man, or an occasion on which He-Man accidentally transforms into a piece of air conditioning equipment. I’m hoping for the latter.

Unfortunately, it pretty much immediately proves to be the former. The obsessed fan in question proves to be a woman whose name I missed, but she looks and talks almost exactly like Arlene from True Blood, so we’ll call her Arlene because I’ll be damned if I rewind this episode to find out what her name actually is. Anyway, Arlene is prancing around the Primus Independence Day celebrations, trying to find He-Man, stepping on Flipshot’s foot, and generally getting on everyone’s tits.

Prince Adam: “I’m pretty sure I hate you more than Skeletor.”

Luckily for Arlene, Skeletor chooses this moment to stage an attack and actually break through Primus’ shield, which means He-Man has to put in an appearance. He doesn’t actually do much, though, simply taking the Starship Eternia up to the broken part of the shield and taking stealth photographs of the device that Skeletor used to break through.

When He-Man, Hydron and Flipshot return to Primus, Arlene takes a load of stalker-esque photos of him, then bustles up to offer her congratulations and pose for further photos with him. To He-Man’s relief, Mara comes charging along, and I’m sure she said, “He-Man, you’re needed in the lavatory.” No prizes for guessing what she actually said.

Flipshot: “Go on, He-Man. Knock her into next week. I’ll cover for you.”

Once he gets to the laboratory, He-Man learns that Gepple has analysed the photos of Skeletor’s device. Through a supreme act of will, Gepple manages to not be at all annoying as he explains that the device is a sonic resonator, which disrupts the shield by beaming sound waves at it. Sound waves, guys. Sound waves travelling through space. I’m sure that can’t possibly happen. I know people will respond to this by telling me that it is equally impossible to transform into a muscle-bound hero by shrieking “By the Power of Grayskull!” and I’ll agree with them, but it really does inexplicably wind me up whenever the writers of this cartoon do something stupid with regard to space. This incident seems particularly gratuitous: I’m sure they could just call it an atomic resonator and it would have zero impact on the effectiveness of the story.

Let’s move on before I burst a blood vessel. The sonic resonator is controlled from a base on Denebria, so He-Man takes Hydron, Flipshot, Tuskador and Sagittar on a mission to destroy the base. Predictably, Arlene stows away on board, and is only discovered once the ship is out in space. Equally predictably, our heroes decide they have no time to take her back, so she comes along on the mission, beaming all over her hideous face.

Flipshot: “You should have hit her, He-Man. Now look what’s happened.”

The rest of the episode basically consists of the writers seeing how far they can push me before I put a fist through the screen. I am convinced that Arlene is the most annoying character in the history of television, pipping Orko, Madame Razz, Uncle Montork, Yuckers, Acrobad, and even the Starchild. I don’t imagine I need to tell you, but in case you’re unfamiliar with how these things generally go, Arlene manages to single-handedly bugger up the entire plan of attack and get captured.

If I were He-Man, I’d shrug my shoulders and blow up the sonic resonator base anyway, but perhaps that’s why I’m a miserable civil servant and not a hero. Instead, he and the rest of his team rescue Arlene first, and only then do they feel free to destroy the resonator. The episode winds up with a hilarious segment in which Arlene transfers her attentions to Flipshot. How we laughed till the tears rolled down our cheeks.

In today’s adventure…

Adam delivers a little lecture on peer pressure, advising us that we don’t have to do things just because everyone else is. I have the distinct feeling that everyone else isn’t watching The New Adventures of He-Man, so I’d really like to bow to peer pressure now.

Prince Adam: “Look at those idiots Flipshot and Spinwit, going off to have fun. Not like me! God, I’m so alone.”

Character checklist

This horrific episode, which is almost bad enough to count as a crime against humanity, features Prince Adam, He-Man, Master Sebrien, Mara, Hydron, Flipshot, Sagittar, Tuskador, Gepple, Caz, Drissy, Arlene, Skeletor, Flogg, Slush Head, Quake and Stackhorn. There might be some others in it too, but I don’t know or care.

Excuse given for Prince Adam’s disappearance

Adam orders Mara to get Master Sebrien and Arlene to shelter, stating that he will “notify He-Man”. We also are witness to a genuine first today: the moral segment contains an excuse as well, ending with Adam drawing his sword and saying “I’ll go to get He-Man.”

Prince Adam: “I am so out of here. And I might even not come back when I’m He-Man.”

Insults

Arlene does most of the insulting today, and it’s just so, so funny to watch her calling Slush Head a “swamp worm”, Skeletor “buster”, Stackhorn a “moron” and Flogg a “goon Mutant”. Flipshot is evidently well suited to Arlene, since he also uses the word “goon”, this time to describe Slush Head, Quake and Stackhorn. Skeletor, as ever, is also big on insults, referring to Quake as an “idiot” and Slush Head as a “bubble-brained incompetent”. Disappointingly, he can’t think of anything better than “pushy Priman” for Arlene.

Does it have the Power?

Oh, Christ alive, no. I think that just about the only thing this episode has in its favour is a shot of Skeletor lounging around chatting on an actual 1990s style telephone. It’s incredibly incongruous, and it made me laugh my head off, though that might have been because I’d been driven to insanity by the rest of the episode.

Skeletor: “There’s literally nothing I can say to excuse this.”

Arlene is, as mentioned above, the most annoying character I’ve ever witnessed on any television show, and the voice actress turns in an incredibly grating performance. The episode also touches on the “implausible things in outer space” theme, which is guaranteed to get my goat, and it even quickly touches base with the notion of the “power of the good” inexplicably saving the day, just to make the whole thing extra irritating. In short, this episode is almost unwatchably appalling. I’d recommend you spend the 20 minutes doing something marginally more enjoyable, such as repeatedly banging your head against a wall whilst enthusiastically sandpapering your genitals.

Episode 41 – The Nemesis Within

In which Skeletor finally gets a working Faker.

Last week it was a wizards’ convention, this week it’s a science conference. I can’t wait to find out what Primus will be hosting next week. In order to avoid needing to lower the shield, all the visiting scientists leave their ships in orbit, and Tuskador is demoted to the role of a Park and Ride bus driver shuttling the scientists between their ships and Primus.

One delegation, the Filibriens, bring a new invention called a geneticator, but leave it in their ship while they attend a party. Skeletor, naturally, seizes this cast-iron opportunity to nick the geneticator – and incidentally, while doing so, he demonstrates that he too can be as illogical as She-Ra and survive in outer space. Though I suppose it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that Skeletor, being an animated skeleton, could actually do this.

Once the theft is discovered, Graznor – the leader of the Filibriens – explains that in the wrong hands, the geneticator could do untold evil. Adam enthusiastically bounds off to become He-Man, then gets in the Starship Eternia to take Spinwit, Sagittar and Clawber the robot bird to the Quagmi Swamp, to which the scientists have traced the geneticator.

Spinwit: “I wonder if Graznor meant that in the hands of these idiot scientists, the geneticator could do untold irritation?”

Once in the Swamp, our heroes indulge themselves in an unnecessary battle with Skeletor, Quake and Stackhorn before getting down to the serious business of allowing Skeletor to use the geneticator on He-Man. The effect is not immediately obvious; it knocks He-Man out for a moment, but nothing more. Still, Skeletor decrees this one a victory and quickly bustles away.

Ah. I should have seen this coming. We are now treated to an affectionate homage/shameless rip-off (delete as applicable) of Star Trek’s The Enemy Within, in which Captain Kirk was divided into his good and evil halves by a transporter accident, giving William Shatner the chance to indulge in some truly outstanding acting. In this He-Manic retelling, the geneticator has created an evil version of He-Man, and this version is tasked by Skeletor to destroy the original.

Evil He-Man: “Do you think the skull logo on my sword and strap make it a little too obvious?”

Skeletor and Bad He-Man sneak onto Primus to attend the science conference, where they immediately abandon all pretence at subtlety. I would have expected Bad He-Man to pretend – however briefly – to actually be Good He-Man, but he doesn’t even try. Instead, they simply start shooting at all the science delegates and challenging Good He-Man to pointless duels.

Good He-Man is initially unable to defeat Bad He-Man in single combat, but after receiving one of his periodic useless communications from the Sorceress, he learns that all he has to do is “trust in the power of the good”. I’m getting heartily sick of the power of the good. Once we’ve watched the two He-Men fighting each other for a while, Skeletor gets bored and tries to kill them both. This proves to be a bit of a boo-boo, since the He-Men join forces and send Skeletor packing. This conveniently comes at the cost of Bad He-Man’s life, sparing the cartoon the problem of having two He-Men running around.

He-Man: “God, I’m so sexy, I could even pick myself up.”

In today’s adventure…

He-Man warns Caz that he must always stop and think, and must not play with fire. I’m going to take this one as a tenuous link to the episode’s events, and suggest that Skeletor was metaphorically playing with fire when he created an evil He-Man. That makes this the first New Adventures episode to have a relevant moral. Congratulations.

Character checklist

In this instalment, we’ve got Prince Adam, He-Man, Master Sebrien, Spinwit, Sagittar, Tuskador, Caz, the Sorceress, Elcon, Gepple, Meldock, Krax, Clawber, Skeletor, Quake, Stackhorn, Skeletor’s pet Kerr, and of course the compelling character Graznor.

Master Sebrien: “With a delegation like this waiting to greet people, I’m really surprised so many visitors are getting straight back in their ships and leaving.”

Excuse given for Prince Adam’s disappearance

Oh, Adam, can’t you just for once give an excuse? Even a little one?

Insults

It’s Skeletor all the way this week, dispensing insults to all and sundry. He starts off by describing himself as a “nasty old villain”, then moves on to call Quake and Stackhorn “muscle-bound Mutants”, and reserves “walking coat-rack” for Stackhorn. He continues by referring to Good He-Man as a “meddlesome mass of muscle” and an “annoyance”, and finally rounds off with a grand finale of “fool” for Bad He-Man.

Skeletor: “I wonder if they’d accept this stupid animal at the Battersea Dogs’ Home?”

Silence, Scientists!

It’s been a blissful few weeks lately; there’s not been sight nor sound of the scientists since The Test of Time, except for in one of the morals, I think. What with there being a science conference on Primus today, though, it was too much to hope that their absence would continue. They all show up, but Gepple and Elcon are the only ones who bother to speak, and they each earn a point for having one of their traditional hilarious arguments over something or another, I don’t know what because I simply don’t care.

Meldock: 24

Gepple: 19

Krax: 14

Elcon: 25

Does it have the Power?

Apart from the infuriating gibber about the power of the good showing up at the end, this was a pretty good episode. It may have taken its inspiration (and title) from Star Trek’s The Enemy Within, but actually it follows an entirely different plotline, and is nowhere near so blatant a rip-off as Filmation’s The Arena was. Being honest, if the title hadn’t been so similar, I don’t think I’d have even noticed the similarity, even though I coincidentally watched The Enemy Within the other day.

In summary, this episode gives us a well-paced, reasonably interesting plotline, with sufficient but not excessive action, and a few well-timed interjections of humour, mostly from Skeletor. If you ignore the appearances of Elcon, Gepple and the Sorceress, there’s nothing to dislike here. A solid entry.

Episode 40 – The New Wizard in Town

In which He-Man forgets he’s ever met a wizard before.

For whatever demented reason, Primus is hosting a wizards’ convention, so wizards from all over the universe are on their way. One such wizard, Rammlan the Great, appears to have designs on conquering Primus, and the episode spends an inordinate amount of time showing him battling with the Mutants, seemingly just to establish his credentials.

Skeletor: “Rammlan, good to see you. You do look a bit stoned, though.”

Meanwhile, Master Sebrien is hanging around being a bit of a dick while Gleep does the hoovering, Mara arranges flowers, and He-Man makes smart remarks. Sebrien seems to be a bit apprehensive about the arrival of the wizards, but that’s no excuse for being rude. He even claims that He-Man has no experience with wizards, though a speedy perusal of Filmation’s back catalogue would quickly give the lie to that statement.

On the other hand, He-Man does seem to have forgotten all about his hundreds of billions of previous experiences with wizards, since when Rammlan arrives and performs some simple tricks, He-Man looks completely dumbfounded. Come on He-Man: Rammlan’s only making fruit levitate. Even Orko can do that. Despite He-Man’s inexplicable wonder, the other wizards – Dagar and Zontos – are not impressed, correctly dismissing the performance as “cheap parlour tricks”.

He-Man: “Christ alive, floating fruit????!!! This is almost beyond my skills of comprehension.”

Rammlan takes great exception to this, and that night, he comes sneaking into Dagar’s bedroom and steals all of Dagar’s magical powers. When the wizards’ convention starts the following morning, Dagar is missing and Rammlan behaves in a conspicuously evil way, so it doesn’t take long for He-Man to stick his long and humourless nose into proceedings.

It gives me no pleasure whatsoever to report that there follows a stupid magical battle between Rammlan on one side, and He-Man, Sebrien, Tuskador and Artilla on the other. While this is boring, it is at least enlivened by He-Man doing one of the worst pieces of voice acting I’ve ever had the misfortune to hear. There’s also a tedious return to the theme of He-Man having “the power of the good”, which means he can do literally anything – in this case, stand unharmed in a river of lava.

He-Man: “Plausibility? Never heard of it, mate.”

Eventually, He-Man figures out that Rammlan only has power if people attack him. Master Sebrien figures this out as well, about 10 seconds after He-Man says it. He-Man therefore refuses to attack Rammlan, and Rammlan consequently excuses himself and fucks off, to everyone’s relief. Now, if only the rest of the characters would do likewise, the remaining 25 episodes of this series might be better.

 

In today’s adventure…

He-Man puts in an appearance to advise us not to drop litter. Well, actually he’s advising Quake and BH not to drop litter, but I have the feeling that the message was being addressed to us.

Quake: “Yes, this is rubbish.”

 

Character checklist

The gang this week is comprised of He-Man, Master Sebrien, Mara, Gleep, Tuskador, Artilla, Caz, Rammlan, Dagar, Zontos, Skeletor, Flogg, Slush Head, Quake, BH, Karate and Stackhorn.

 

Excuse given for Prince Adam’s disappearance

As is relatively commonplace, Adam doesn’t see fit to show up this week, and no one seems at all interested in his whereabouts.

 

Insults

Rammlan manages to insult every single other wizard in the universe by claiming they are all “insignificant bugs” compared to him. Flogg’s contribution to the episode essentially boils down to calling Rammlan an “unfortunate fool”, and Dagar oddly refers to Rammlan as an “old dog”. Otherwise, we’re treated to Quake calling Slush Head a “baby”.

Rammlan: “Is it just me, or am I a bit out of place on this series?”

 

Does it have the Power?

I feel like it should have the Power, but it just doesn’t. There’s quite an interesting bit at the start, where we discover that Skeletor and Rammlan have tangled at some point in the past, and that Skeletor came off worst, but there’s nothing more given on this plot thread, since the episode instead chooses to focus on interminable magical battles and people spouting unenthusiastic threatening dialogue.

If I’m going to be generous, I could remark that it’s nice to see an episode dealing with a magical threat, rather than a technological one, as that gives it a nice old-school feel. But unfortunately, it’s just all incredibly dull somehow. He-Man doesn’t even break a sweat when dealing with Rammlan; he just trots out his tired old “I have the power of the good” malarkey and consequently wins, seemingly without having to put any effort or thought into it.

The episode ends with Rammlan escaping and going into hiding on the dark side of the moon of Nordor. If we’re lucky, he’ll just stay there. If we’re not – and I suspect we’re not – he’ll be back next week or at some other time in the future to bore us further.

Episode 39 – The Sheriff of Gorn City

In which Flipshot gets a new job.

Skeletor, Flogg and BH pop down to Gorn City for a nice meal out and a night on the town, but find themselves dismayed by the disreputable inhabitants and lack of respect for law and order. Over dinner, they discuss the best solution to this problem, and eventually decide that they need to elect a new sheriff for the city.

BH: “Got to ask, Skeletor – how do you eat? Being a skeleton and all?”

Rather surprisingly, their choice for sheriff is Flipshot, though of course they don’t offer him the job directly, instead going through more respectable channels. Prince Adam and Master Sebrien are nonetheless suspicious, on the understandable basis that Flipshot is an idiot and therefore no one could possibly want to appoint him to an office of any importance.

Disregarding their reservations, Flipshot accepts the job, and takes Spinwit with him to act as deputy. On arrival, they are attacked by a mob, but luckily a patrol of policemen shows up, accompanied by a blond lady called Zika, who introduces herself as the Mayor of Gorn City. I thought Zika was a virus, but apparently I was wrong.

Zika: “What a complete helmet.”

It won’t surprise you, I’m sure, to learn that Skeletor didn’t arrange for Flipshot to become sheriff out of the kindness of his heart. There’s a long and convoluted plan, involving the former mayor Korack, an outlaw called the Bilock Kid, some more outlaws called Trilock and the Ugly Bunch, and a bank robbery, but ultimately it boils down to a way to lure He-Man to Gorn City so Skeletor can attempt to dispose of him.

Once He-Man gets to Gorn City, though, Skeletor doesn’t even bother to show up, leaving it to the Ugly Bunch to attack on his behalf. Naturally, He-Man defeats them with ease, with the help of his old mate Meliak, who we first met in Quest for the Crystals and have subsequently seen intermittently throughout the series. As the episode ends, Flipshot resigns and Meliak takes over as sheriff, and he seems to be a much more sensible choice for the job.

Meliak: “Thanks for your help in getting me this job, lads. Now could I prevail on you to piss off back to Primus?”

In today’s adventure…

Gepple and Adam are having a lovely barbecue, which prompts Adam to – completely out of nowhere – explain to Gepple that if his clothes or hair catch fire, he should immediately drop to the floor and roll around. Gepple exhibits remarkable restraint by not saying, “That’s nice, Adam, but it’s got fuck all to do with the barbecue,” instead limiting himself to a sarcastic, “Why didn’t I think of that?” I’ll tell you why, Gepple – it’s because no one was talking about being on fire, so it wasn’t in the least bit relevant. I’m sure you would have thought of it if it had been necessary.

Character checklist

This week’s nonsense features Prince Adam, He-Man, Master Sebrien, Flipshot, Spinwit, Hydron, Tuskador, Meliak, Gepple, Skeletor, Flogg, BH, Zika, Korack, the Bilock Kid, Trilock, the Ugly Bunch, and various other halfwits.

Master Sebrien: “Gorn City can’t possibly want this guy to be sheriff, but you know what, let’s go with it. At least it’ll get him out of my long lustrous hair.”

Excuse given for Prince Adam’s disappearance

No one bothers with any excuses today, to my distinct lack of surprise.

Insults

Flogg refers to Flipshot’s predecessor as sheriff as a “boat-brained berzoid”, or something that sounds very much like that. Being honest, Flogg doesn’t speak very clearly at the best of times, and on this occasion it sounded like he was just saying random words and sounds. By contrast, things are a lot clearer when Skeletor refers to Flipshot as a “fool”, and when Trilock says that both Flipshot and Spinwit are “fools”.

Egg on your face?

Hurrah! After a long absence, there’s a surprise return for this category when BH gets a face-full of some unidentified foodstuff. This joke is never particularly funny, but it’s more amusing than usual this time, since it comes precisely at a moment when BH is trying to present himself as an ideal candidate for sheriff.

BH: “Couldn’t I just once have a good day?”

Does it have the Power?

I can’t really say it does, no. There’s an awful lot of setup in this episode that just goes absolutely nowhere: Skeletor and Flogg not only arrange for Flipshot to become sheriff, but they also go to the trouble of signing a temporary peace treaty, and rescuing Flipshot from all sorts of scrapes, all for the payoff of luring He-Man to Gorn City – but when He-Man finally does arrive, they don’t do anything, and it’s left to a second-rate baddy to try to shoot He-Man. I can’t help feeling it wasn’t worth their effort, and that leads me to conclude it wasn’t worth my effort to watch this episode.