We finally take a look at Bow’s background…

This is the last episode of Season 2. If you’re thinking, “That’s it? Hardly anything even HAPPENED!”…well, you’re not alone! This isn’t even the shortest season of the series (that honor belongs to the next season), but most of it is just episodic narratives that don’t move the plot along (aside from last episode). Structurally, this show has a lot in common with Steven Universe, right down to the way in which both shows have their worst seasons be the even-numbered ones. This season basically just served as a segue into arguably the best season, so I can’t hate it too much.

Anyhow, on to the actual episode!

Glimmer’s worried about Bow because he left Bright Moon without saying where he was going or why, just leaving behind a note that he’s “fine”, but telling them not to follow him.

Glimmer: He’s not fine! If he was fine, he would’ve told us he was leaving! And after finding out that signal was about Mara-

Adora: Okay, okay, Glimmer? Just calm down. I agree, okay? So where does Bow go when he’s not at Bright Moon?

Glimmer: Uh…

Adora: Seriously? How long have you two been friends, again?

Glimmer: Look, Bow really values his privacy! He’s never talked about his past or where he came from. Never! And you know how talkative and open Bow usually is! Something’s wrong. What if he’s in trouble?

But Adora’s able to track him fairly easily (mainly thanks to his incredibly distinct bootprints), leading them to a library in the middle of the Whispering Woods.

Adora: We’ve got your arrows. Who are we fighting?

Bow: No one! You guys shouldn’t be here! You need to leave now, before-

George: Who’s there? Who are these people?

Bow: [whisper] Play along. [aloud] This is Adora and Glimmer, my friends from the academy. Adora, Glimmer, meet my dads.

George (on the left) is clearly a callback to the Bow of the original series, right down to being named after his voice actor. Lance reminds me a lot of Ayame from Fruits Basket, but slightly tempered by age. It’s pretty clear that Bow inherited traits from both of them (mostly George’s build, but with Lance’s hair), which combined with the fact that Bow is supposed to have BROTHERS, confirms that they just make babies differently on Etheria…

George: Adora, Glimmer!

Lance: We’re so happy to finally meet Bow’s school friends!

Meanwhile, Catra’s particularly antsy due to, y’know, a very important prisoner escaping on her watch, so she tells her underlings to look out for “suspicious activity” and report it directly to her. Naturally, everyone finds this order extremely suspicious, especially since they already noticed that Shadow Weaver’s cell is empty. And it doesn’t help that she’s literally jumping at shadows.

And there’s just awkwardness all around at the library!

George: You girls must love attending the Academy of Historic Enterprises with Bow.

Glimmer: Uh, yes! Absolutely.

Adora: Yep! Wouldn’t change a thing, at the Academy that we all go to…

Lance: Oo! I’ll bet you’re here to see our collection of First Ones artifacts. We got some new pottery shards…uh, what was I doing?

George: Snacks. […] The pottery is really something. Bow’s older brother sent it.

Adora: Oh. Bow has an older brother? How nice.

Lance: Youngest of thirteen! All historians just like us. And just like Bow when he graduates and takes over the library, right, Bow?

Of course, Bow tries to take Adora and Glimmer aside to explain a few things, but he’s never very forceful in conversation at the best of times…

Bow: Okay, thanks for the tea and the snacks, but I think my friends would really like-

Lance: A tour of the library! Of course our Bow would find people who share his zest for history! Just wait til we show you the oldest part of our collection: A shard from an ancient defunct runestone!

George: If it wasn’t of historical value, that thing would be long gone. No need to keep a reminder of the princesses and their war here.

Glimmer: Uh, but the Horde started the war, and the princesses are fighting to save Etheria.

George: You’re too young to remember the first failed Princess Alliance. I’m not. I enlisted, fought for what I thought was right…

Bow: Dad, can we not-

George: But when I came home, there was nothing left of my village but ash. I vowed then that my family would never get mixed up in fighting or the princesses again.

They are a cute couple, even if their parenting leaves something to be desired.

Lance: Well, I know what’ll lighten the mood: Baby pictures! I’ve got some great ones from Bow’s first bubble bath.

Bow: I’m gonna show Adora and Glimmer my room now!

Adora: I wanna see the bubble baths!

Bow: Now!

Bow: My dads don’t know I’m a rebellion fighter. They think I’m at boarding school, and I’m supposed to be on break right now.

Glimmer: So this is why you never talked about your past? I thought it was because it was dark and painful for you, but your dads seem so nice and normal!

Bow: Look, I love my dads, okay? I never mention them because, they decided when I was a little kid that I was going to be the one to stay home and take over the library when they retired. I wanted to travel, to fight! So I did the only thing I could. I secretly taught myself archery, ran away, and pretended I was at a made-up boarding school!

Adora: That seems really elaborate, Bow.

Bow: You saw what they’re like. They don’t listen to me! They just assume they know what I want. And if Lance knew I didn’t want to be a historian…worse, if George knew that I’m a Rebellion soldier, fighting alongside princesses? It’d kill them.

Glimmer: So you’re just gonna lie to them, forever.

Bow: Not forever. Just…for the foreseeable future. It’s worked so far. Please! For me? Besides, my dads have the biggest collection of First Ones artifacts and writings in Etheria! This is the perfect place to look for answers, about She-ra, the Mara message, Serinia, everything!

That at least convinces Adora to play along, even if Glimmer is still (justifiably) upset about the whole situation. So he briefs them on his cover story (Glimmer is a physics major, Adora is an art major, and none of them have powers) and heads back in.

Meanwhile, Scorpia tries supporting Catra the only way she knows how: Hugs and blanket burritos! (which is generally a terrible idea for cats, btw)

Catra: What are you doing?

Scorpia: Just let all your cares go. You’re safe here.

Catra: Stop it! Stop! Let go of me! Are you crazy?

Scorpia: There’s nothing we can’t handle-

Catra: I lost Shadow Weaver! How are we supposed to handle that? […] Shadow Weaver escaped. I have to find her before Hordak learns the truth.

Scorpia: Well, you don’t have to do this alone. I’m here, and I bet Entrapta could whip up some sort of locator.

Catra: No! Entrapta spends all her time with Hordak, and is bad with secrets. The minute we tell Entrapta, she tells him, and then it’s all over for me!

Scorpia: Then we make sure that doesn’t happen. We’ll find Shadow Weaver, the two of us, and not a word of it will leave this room.

And guess what little imp is eavesdropping in the vents? (it’s not Entrapta, unfortunately)

And naturally, Adora starts asking about She-ra.

Lance: Accurate translations are hard to come by, but we think the name was actually “Her-Ra”.

Adora: Well, that’s not right…

Bow: But you don’t know that for sure, Adora.

Lance: She’d fight for the power of Grayskull-

Adora: It’s for the honor of Grayskull!

Lance: And rode on a dragon!

Adora: Wait, she got a dragon? I wish I had a-

I’m sure past She-ras got all manner of steeds! But Bow manages to shut her up before she blows their cover.

Lance: Anyway, where was I?

George: Princess nonsense.

Lance: The runestone shard. It’s the oldest First Ones object in our collection. But enough about us! Tell us about your studies, Adora and Glimmer.

Glimmer: Uh, you know, the physics are good…

Adora: The history is also good.

Lance: Uh, I thought you were an art major. 

Bow: Ah, she’s a double major!

And while Bow’s busy cleaning up that mess, Glimmer has a little chat with George.

George: It’s really great to finally meet you, Glimmer. Gotta be honest, we thought Bow was making you up.

Glimmer: Really?

George: You know how Bow is…shy, quiet. Not too many friends. From his letters it sounds like you really brought him out of his shell.

Then Bow gets the idea to present the Mara message as a First Ones puzzle they have to solve for “school”, which his dads are more than happy to help them with.

George: Serinia was the name of a mythical First Ones hero, although some of us think she was a real person.

Lance: Mm-hm. Some of us also think the Elberon vase dates back only one millennia.

But then Adora slips up when she starts reading the First Ones writing.

Lance: Wait! You can read First Ones writing?

Adora: Ah, I also study linguistics! It’s- it’s a fifth major- fourth major? Losing count.

And naturally, the dads want her to read all sorts of things for them (including a tattoo, which was meant to say “love” but reads as “lunch”), so she’s swiftly caught up in other matters.

I have to mention that the whole library ambience is great!

Bow: We’re still getting nowhere. What does a mythological First Ones hero have to do with Mara? Hey, Glimmer? What’s up?

Glimmer: What’s up with you? You have a secret family, and you’re supposed to be a historian, and you apparently hate pirates, and you never told me about any of this! I feel like I don’t know you at all!

Bow: Glimmer, you know everything about me! The real me. I act like someone I’m not with my family because the truth would hurt them.

Glimmer: And it’s making you miserable! Bow, your dads love you. I’m sure they’ll love the real you, too.

Bow: You don’t know that! They’ve had a plan for me since I was a baby, but the truth is, I’m nothing like the rest of my family. I’ve tried to tell them before, but they don’t want to hear it. So, I pretend.

I’m a little conflicted at this development. On the one hand, Bow’s exactly the sort of person who would fall into this sort of behavior! He hates conflict, so he tries to be whoever the people in his life want him to be. But on the other hand, this conflict felt much more at home in Steven Universe, where the characters were younger and still figuring out what they wanted to do (not to mention that their parents were a much bigger presence in their lives). Bow’s more framed as a college (high school?) student whose views have come to be different from his parents since he’s been away, and he’s struggling to confront them about it.

Anyhow, they take her to this thing, which turns out to be a robot! Because there’s got to be a fight sometime!

Adora: It’s an elemental! This’ll be a piece of cake.

Bow: Adora is a sixth major in She-ra?

Of course Glimmer promptly joins the fight as well, demonstrating pretty clearly that they’re both princesses.

George: You are going to tell us what is happening right now, young man!

Bow: Now, we have to act before the elemental turns on us!

Lance: You know what that is?

Bow: We’ve run into them before. They only attack when they’re trying to protect something, so what is it trying to protect?

George: You’ve run into them before? Who are you?

At least Lance has the presence of mind to tell Bow that it was discovered in the same area as the runestone shard.

So that appeases the elemental, but he still has lot of explaining to do.

George: What is going on?

Bow: I-I lied to you. There is no Academy of Historic Enterprises. I’ve been living at Bright Moon, fighting in the Rebellion alongside Adora and Princess Glimmer.

Lance: But, why?

Bow: I don’t want to be a historian. I’ve never wanted to be a historian! I’m not a shy bookworm, I’m not a genius like you two. I make things, I’m a soldier. This is who I am, and I can’t lie about it anymore! Even though I know I’m breaking your hearts.

George: What’s breaking our hearts, is the fact that you thought you had to lie about who you are.

Bow: You’re not mad? But I’m a fighter, and you hate fighters!

George: I could never hate you. Never. If you feel like you belong in the Rebellion, that’s where you belong.

Lance: Oh, Bow, why didn’t you just tell us?

Bow: I tried, but you didn’t listen. You only listened to me if I said what you wanted to hear.

Lance: We had no idea you felt that way. We- we were just trying to encourage you to pursue your dreams! We thought we were being supportive, when really we were being terrible!

George: We love you the way you are, Bow, and we’re proud of you, no matter what path you take in life.

It’s more or less what I expected from this kind of show (although Bow “coming out” as a SOLDIER to his gay dads is bizarre, to say the least).

But anyhow, he proceeds to explain the full context of the Mara message and show them his tracker pad, which gives them a vital clue.

George: Wait a second. Lance, what does this pattern look like to you?

It turns out that Serinia was the name the First Ones had for an Etherian constellation, which they used to navigate back when they still had stars. I don’t believe there are any constellations from Earth called Serinia – it might be a reference to Sailor Moon, as the original English dub renamed Usagi “Serena”.

George: The constellation Serinia would only appear in summer, and only over one place.

Glimmer: The Crimson Waste.

Adora: Then that’s where we have to go.

Lance: What? You can’t just go into the Crimson Waste! It’s a no-man’s-land! A giant lifeless desert. No one’s ever made it that far and come back alive!

George: Promise me, you kids will stay away.

But they never actually make such a promise…

And meanwhile in the Fright Zone, Catra’s lies are finally catching up with her.

Catra: You wanted to speak with me, Lord Hordak?

Hordak: Yes, Force Captain. I wish to “touch base”, as you put it. See how my orders are being carried out.

Catra: Everything is running smoothly.

Hordak: Does this mean Shadow Weaver has been transferred to Beast Island, per my orders?

Catra: Yes. I sent her yesterday, just like you ordered. Believe me, we’re never going to see her again-

Imp: “I lost Shadow Weaver!” “Shadow Weaver escaped. I have to find her before Hordak learns the truth.”

Hordak: You lied to me.

Then he starts SUFFOCATING HER again, and he KNOCKS HER OUT this time!

Hordak: I know your lax security allowed Shadow Weaver to escape. I know you’ve been covering it up, lying about her whereabouts. But worst of all, I gave you the chance to come clean, to prove your worth to me, to the Horde. This was a test, and you failed.

It really was a no-win situation for her. The only lighter side is that at least she knows that the leak was Imp (as opposed to Scorpia), but that will only add to her paranoia.

And finally, Shadow Weaver reaches her destination, completing the setup for Season 3.

Until next time…