Save the Cat

**Save the Cat**

*May 15, 2020*

**Save the Cat** is the fifth episode of Season Five and forty-forth episode overall of *She-Ra and the Princesses of Power*.

It was released on Netflix with the rest of the fifth season on May 15, 2020.

## Synopsis

*Adora surrenders herself to Horde Prime hoping to buy time for Entrapta, Bow and Glimmer to rescue Catra and hack Horde Prime's server, only to find that Catra has been chipped.*

## Plot

Adora pilots Darla, Mara's ship, to Prime's space station with Glimmer, Bow and Entrapta, hidden outside the ship in space suits. She surrenders herself for capture upon touchdown in the *Velvet Glove*. While the clones take Adora to Prime the other three split up, communicating with radio-enabled earpieces. Glimmer goes to free Catra, Bow and Entrapta, so that they could hack the computer system. In a random clone room Bow dispatches two clones, and Entrapta finds who she thought was Hordak and gives him the Data Crystal. He attacks her but Bow knocks him out and disconnects him from the computer system. The Wrong Hordak then loses his connection to the hive mind and he freaks out. Bow and Entrapta bring Wrong Hordak along because he could lead them to the server room and open the door.

— Catra under mind control

In Prime's throne room, Adora tries to bargain with Prime using the threat of the Heart of Etheria. Prime calls her bluff, saying that she would never do anything to harm Catra. He then reveals that he is centuries old, he crushed the First Ones and knows that Adora is a First One. Prime then reveals chipped Catra, who is under his control. Prime tries using Catra as a bargaining chip; when Adora refuses Prime severs her communication with her friends; taunting Adora for challenging him and then leaves Adora and Catra to fight. Adora manages to damage the chip, temporarily freeing Catra, but Horde Prime possesses Catra and makes her fall off the platform they were on.

— Horde Prime about Catra

In the trophy room, Glimmer attacks three clones while Bow, Wrong Hordak, and Entrapta enter the server room where they are overwhelmed by clones. It is taking too long to hack the server so Glimmer, who found her way to her friends, stabs the computer with a lance, shutting it down.

    Surrounded by clones, a grief stricken Adora is able to summon her true She-Ra form and defeats them quite easily. She carries an incapacitated Catra back to the ship, uttering Prime's words back to him: "You miscalculated."

Entrapta summoned Darla when she and the others were surrounded by more clones. She-Ra shows up with Catra, and they board Darla and escape. She-Ra uses her powers to heal Catra's injuries. As Catra comes back to Adora, she weakly smiles and greets Adora with a "Hey Adora". The two hug for a long time, both with tears in their eyes.

On The Velvet Glove, a purified Hordak finds the Data Crystal. He seems to recognize it and mutters one word - "Entrapta".

## Characters

* Adora/She-Ra
* Glimmer
* Bow
* Catra
* Horde Prime
* Entrapta
* Wrong Hordak
* Hordak
* Horde Prime's Clones

## Organizations

* The Horde
* The Rebellion

## Locations

* Mara's Ship
* Velvet Glove
* Horde Hive Mind

## Trivia

* "Save the Cat" was a temporary joke name for the script of this episode that became the final name since it never got changed. It is most likely a reference to *Save The Cat* by Blake Snyder, which is a screenwriting book. The "save the cat" trope in media is the idea that "if you show your hero stopping to save a cat stuck in a tree as [their] Establishing Character Moment, you're putting the audience on [their] side forever", according to TV Tropes.
* This episode contains a few references to Star Trek: The Next Generation, notably the episodes featuring the Borg. First, chipped Catra’s reveal is a potential reference to the debut of Locutus of Borg, the assimilated form of Captain Picard from “The Best Of Both Worlds”. Catra’s trauma from being chipped is similar to the PTSD Picard had following his assimilation. Wrong Hordak’s debut is likely a reference to Hugh, the disconnected Borg from the episode “I, Borg”. Finally, Horde Prime disconnecting from his chair bears a resemblance to the Borg Queen’s scenes in both Star Trek First Contact and Star Trek Voyager.
* Along with the Star Trek references, this episode is also an homage to Star Wars, namely the scenes set on the Death Star from A New Hope and Return Of The Jedi. Notably the scenes where Adora lands onboard The Velvet Glove being similar to the Millenium Falcon landing on the Death Star and Adora’s confrontation with Horde Prime and Chipped Catra being similar to the climactic battle in Return Of The Jefi, where Luke Skywalker confronts Emperor Palpatine and must duel Darth Vader.
* The scene where Adora transforms into her new She-Ra form is similar to the scene where Goku goes Super Saiyan in Dragon Ball Z. Both scenes feature an alien tyrant (Freiza and Horde Prime) kill/almost kill someone close to the main characters (Catra and Krillin), provoking the protagonist to unlock their new transformation in a rage.
* This episode had been something ND Stevenson had wanted to write for an animated show for a very long time.
* ND Stevenson posted the original script for the episode to Twitter as an aid for aspiring animation writers, and challenged fans to spot the differences between it and the final product. In response to a comment about the final version of the episode cutting out a specific portion of Horde Prime's dialogue in the script, ND responded, "We felt that "you broke my heart" was more impactful coming from Catra, and elected to keep it simple!"
* The original script of the episode was posted to scribd.com by ND Stevenson (with permission from Dreamworks) to help aspiring animation writers.