TV Review – Masters of the Universe 200X – Episode 09: “The Ties That Bind”

Posted on October 13, 2022 in Reviews, TV

Original Air Date: 25th October 2002
Writer: Dean Stefan
Director: Gary Hartle

The latest episode of MYP’s 200X Masters of the Universe series opens with a large-scale battle on the doorstep of Grayskull where Teela is gravely injured. Requiring a blood transfusion, Man-at-Arms brings her, barely conscious, to the Sorceress, and when she awakens, she finds herself able to hear the thoughts of those around her. Obviously this requires that she is kept away from Prince Adam, but it also sparks a curiosity in her regarding the Sorceress and the source of her newfound powers.

Throughout the course of the episode we get to see the formative moments of Teela’s life when the Sorceress, her biological mother, handed her over to Man-at-Arms to raise as her father due to her commitments protecting Grayskull. We also get some allusions to her eventual “destiny”, which was undoubtedly one of the most exciting unresolved plot threads for MOTU fans – until they actually resolved it in the Revelation Netflix series, at which point everyone seemed to hate it with a passion for some reason. Go figure.

As you might expect, Skeletor and Evil-Lyn find a way to manipulate Teela’s newfound powers, luring her into a trap by projecting false messages and forcing the Masters to battle several hulking Sandworms in the Sands of Time. In a tasty bit of toy advertising, we get to see Ram-Man piloting the Bashin’ Beetle (basically a less cool Bashasaurus) during the fight. It all goes a bit horribly for the Heroes until He-Man comes and saves the day once again, as you might expect.

To this point in the series, Teela had been a fairly one-dimensional character, serving as little more than a vocal critic of Adam and an extra sword in the frequent battle scenes. Here however, we get to find out a little more about her actual personality, her insecurities and vulnerabilities. The exchange between the Sorceress and Teela in Grayskull at the end is top quality stuff, as are any scenes featuring Man-at-Arms and the Sorceress.

This is another really good episode that focuses on a supporting character, giving them a lot more depth and development, with plenty of action to keep things moving. When the series did this sort of thing well, it did it extremely well, and while there are definitely some hit-and-miss offerings along the way, this is most definitely in the ‘hit’ category.

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