Poisoned Chalice is the second episode of the animated television series Masters of the Universe: Revelation. It was released July 23, 2021.
Synopsis[]
Now mercenaries, Teela and her partner accept a job from a mysterious woman: to retrieve an old goblet from deep within Snake Mountain.
Plot[]
Some time has past since Teela left the Royal Palace of Eternos behind and Magic has left Eternia. She has built a new life retrieving lost artifacts together with her new friend Andra. After retrieving the Glove of Globolah from Stinkor for the Priestess, the are hired by an old woman who calls herself Magestra to steal an old goblet from Snake Mountain. Andra is intimidated, but Teela agrees immediately.
As they arrive at Snake Mountain, Teela is reminded of an earlier time she entered Wolf Gate together with He-Man.
Inside Skeletor's old lair, Tri-Klops now holds court. With the decline of Magic in the world, he leads a cult worshiping the Motherboard, or the way of the machine. Tri-klops forces his followers to drink from the very cup Teela and Andra are out to get. After doing so, the pilgrims become half machine, half human. Teela reveals herself to Tri-Klops and his accomplice, Trap Jaw while Andra goes for the goblet. A fight ensues, during which Blast-Attak self destructs and the Motherboard followers chase Teela and Andra down the caverns of Snake Mountain, but they manage to make it out unharmed.
Teela and Andra receive their payment from Magestra, who promises to pay them twice as much if they help her deliver the goblet to Castle Grayskull. This time Andra wants to go but Teela is not interested. Grayskull has been declared a Forbidden Zone by King Randor. It has taken on it's true form of the Hall of Wisdom. Inside, the Sorceress is holding on to the last ember of true magic left in Eternia.
Magestra walks up to the Sorceress, and Teela reveals that she knows Magestra is really Evil-Lyn. The stolen goblet turns out to be the top of Skeletor's Havoc Staff. When Teela throws a spear at Evil-Lyn, Cringer appears out of nowhere and catches it in his mouth. Evil-Lyn uses the remains of the Havoc Staff to strengthen the Sorceress' magic. The Sorceress tells Evil-Lyn to guard the last ember with her life, and allows her to add it to the magic of her orb wand. Teela gets the task to find the two severed halves of the Sword of Power in the two realms in which they were forged: Subternia and Preternia.
Cast and Characters[]
- Heroic Warriors
- Prince Adam (mentioned only)/ He-Man (appears in flashback)
- Teela (appears in present as well as flashback)
- Andra (first appearance)
- Cringer
- Man-At-Arms (cameo)
- Allies
- Sorceress
- Priestess
- King Randor (mentioned only)
- Evil Warriors
- Skeletor (mentioned only)
- Evil-Lyn
- Stinkor
- Tri-Klops
- Trap Jaw
- Whiplash (appears in present as well as flashback)
- Blast-Attak (first appearance)
- Locations
- Eternia
- Castle Grayskull
- Snake Mountain (appears in present as well as flashback)
- Swamp Town
- Temple of Globolah
- Vehicles
- Artifacts
- Glove of Globolah
- Havoc Staff (top only)
- Sword of Power (mentioned)
- Technology
- Doom Seekers
- Tracker
Cast[]
- Diedrich Bader - Trap Jaw/The Father
- Susan Eisenberg - Sorceress
- Sarah Michelle Gellar - Teela/Mercenary 2
- Mark Hamill - Skeletor (credit only)
- Lena Headey - Evil-Lyn/Old Hag/Majestra
- Jason Mewes - Stinkor
- Henry Rollins - Tri-Klops
- Stephen Root - Cringer/Battle Cat
- Tiffany Smith - Andra/Mercenary 1
- Cree Summer - Priestess
- Chris Wood - Adam / He-Man
- The end credits list Stephen Root as voicing Cringer/Battle Cat and Chris Wood as Adam/He-Man, but neither Battle Cat nor Adam appears.
Trivia[]
- There is an unspecified time jump between the previous episode and this one.
- The character of Andra first appeared in the Masters of the Universe Star Comics published by Marvel between 1986 and 1987. In this series she was a friend and colleague of Teela and served as a member of the Royal Guard.
- The respirator masks Teela and Andra wear are inspired by the vintage toy Road Ripper.
- The tracker used by Teela and Andra resembles the one used by the Heroic Warriors in the 1987 movie version.
- Teela's line Teela "Sorry about the mess" as she tosses a bag of coins to the stallkeeper is a reference to the same line being said by Han Solo in the original Star Wars.
- The original version of the Glove of Globolah made it's first and only appearance in a short story published in issue 5 of the Masters of the Universe UK London Editions Comic, released May 1986.
- The trap door with a net underneath the 'Wolf Gate' entrance was one of the action features of the 1984 Snake Mountain playset.
- The 1987 action figure Blast-Attak makes his first animated appearance.
- The altar of the Motherboard followers features a giant representation of Screeech. Also visible are the gargoyles that decorated the stone chairs in Skeletor's throne room in the Filmation series.
- Before the battle between Teela and the peasants that sacrifices themselves to Tri-Klops, the male peasant has his left arm transformed into a robot arm. However, during the fight, his robot arm gets chopped off. Later, when he is knocked to the ground, and when he uses his arms to get up, he is drawn with two normal arms, in one shot, then his left arm is drawn as a mechanical stump in the next. Then, when his robot arm is seen lying on the ground, it is drawn as his right arm instead of his left arm.
- Teela's quote "Cry havoc and let's slip these cogs of war" is a reference to William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, act 3, scene 1. The original line is: "Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war."
- Evil-Lyn previously used the false name of Magestra in the Filmation series episode The Shaping Staff. While she would often disguise herself as an elderly woman during this series, the guise of Magestra was instead that of a beautiful young sorceress.
- Cringer reminds Teela that she was first one to call him Cringer, as seen in the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe episode Battlecat.
- When the full voice cast was announced, it included Kevin Smith's daughter Harley Quinn Smith, said to be voicing Ileena, a one off character originally seen in the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe episode A Friend in Need. Although she recorded lines for "Poisoned Chalice", the scene was cut. It would have been revealed that Ileena had become the new Captain of the Eternian Guard, taking Teela's place. Together with a battalion of Royal Guards, Ileena was posted outside Castle Grayskull/The Hall of Wisdom to make sure nobody would enter it. Teela and Andra would end up fighting Ileena and the guards while Evil-Lyn snuck into the Castle during the battle.