The Legend of Zelda TV series retrospective: Episode 10, ‘Hitch in the Works’

I warned last time that we were now heading into a decline in The Legend of Zelda TV series’ quality. That was certainly the case from the mediocre “Stinging a Stinger,” which followed the contrasting and excellent pinnacle of the cartoon, “Underworld Connections.”

“Hitch in the Works” continues this trend, skirting dangerously close to becoming the most boring episode in the series. Thankfully, the episode is saved somewhat in the final sequence, but overcoming the filler beforehand is a trial that even Link would hesitate to pursue.

Doofing around

Link tells Doof about his plan to simultaneously drop his cleaning duties and win Zelda’s affection. It goes about as well as you’d expect.

There is a surprisingly ominous opening to this episode, with a castle door slowly opening and a suspicious shadow being cast across a dimly lit room as foreboding music plays. As it turns out, the mysterious figure is just Link sneaking around, navigating his way out of North Castle to go fishing before Princess Zelda can find him and force him to do chores. It’s a fun and compelling little opening sequence while it lasts, but things quickly become much less engaging from here.

Zelda inevitably finds Link and orders him to get back to his duties. Link avoided chores before in “Cold Spells,” wherein he faked a cold to avoid the labor. He doesn’t get off so easily this time, which is unfortunate for both him and the viewer as watching him bumble around the cellar is a chore in itself.

Allow me to quickly run you through the first half of this episode to save you time and boredom: Link does chores. Link meets a robot. The robot breaks. The robot belongs to a man called Doof, the castle handyman and Link’s friend. Doof fixes his robot. The robot makes a mess. Moblins arrive and break the robot. Link fights the Moblins. Doof fixes the robot again. The robot collapses yet again and Link is scolded by Zelda for goofing off. Link resumes his chores. We’re now halfway through the episode, but this robot seems important, right?

It isn’t seen again for the remainder of the episode.

Far too much screentime is given to Doof’s robotic cleaning servant, which contributes very little to the episode.

It’s not that I wouldn’t be open to seeing more slice-of-life scenes in this series; it could be a refreshing change of pace to watch Link and Zelda spend more time at North Castle, rather than adventuring in Hyrule or the Underworld. The problem is that nothing interesting happens in the first two-thirds of this episode, and certainly nothing that makes me think, “This is The Legend of Zelda.”

As for Doof himself, he is similar to Sleezenose in the previous “Stinging a Stinger” episode: a non-canon character with a single-episode appearance and very little to offer the series. Despite the amount of screentime Doof has, he has very little relation to the final Underworld sequence, which feels incredibly detached from everything that leads up to it. In other words, everything that occurs before the final five minutes of the episode feels like filler.

Zelda overhears Link’s plan to make Doof’s fake Moblins capture her and decides to play along.

After Link is done cleaning up the assaulting Moblins, Doof’s robot crashes into him, rendering Link unconscious. Zelda wakes Link up and accuses him of sleeping on the job, refusing to believe the castle was ever under attack. Link, still determined to get out of doing his assigned chores, asks Doof if he can use his magic and craftsmanship skills to make some fake Moblins. Link’s plan is to fool Zelda into thinking she is being captured, giving him an opportunity to “save” her, win her affection, and get out of his cleaning duties. Unfortunately for Link, Zelda overhears his plan, and when real Moblins attack again, neither of our heroes attempt any resistance against what they perceive as Doof’s manufactured minions. Following this error in judgment, Zelda is kidnapped more easily than ever.

Thank Hylia for Ganon, who’s about to save this episode from all of the tedium endured so far.

The princess bride

Ganon’s Jewel of Control is designed so that anyone who wears it obeys the evil wizard’s orders.

With the princess in his clutches, Ganon plans to use his new device, the Jewel of Control, on her. This is a necklace that forces the wearer to obey all of Ganon’s orders. Ganon announces to Zelda his plans to marry her so that he may become the new ruler of Hyrule, and while she initially and unsurprisingly refuses in disgust, she promptly agrees as soon as the Jewel of Control is placed on her. Like the Force Field Ring in “Doppelganger,” the Jewel of Control is another item that is exclusive to the TV series and not based on any of the items from the games, but it feels like a plausible enough device that may be used by a Legend of Zelda villain.

Link inevitably arrives to crash the wedding, but Zelda isn’t in a hurry to be rescued after becoming a slave to Ganon’s command. She insists on marrying Ganon, which confuses Link and puts a halt on his escape plan.

Having Zelda hypnotized into serving Ganon introduces an interesting dynamic for the series that, unfortunately, isn’t explored enough

Having Zelda hypnotized into serving Ganon introduces an interesting dynamic for the series that, unfortunately, isn’t explored beyond Zelda mindlessly agreeing to get hitched. If only the episode hadn’t wasted so much time before this point, the Jewel of Control’s influence on Zelda could have had much more potential. It would have been fun to see Zelda conform to Ganon’s orders as his new servant, stealing the Triforce of Wisdom from North Castle under the guise of the ordinary Princess Zelda, and being forced to fight Link. It’s an interesting concept that feels squandered and rushed by being crammed at the end of a dull and failing story, rather than being used as the core of the adventure as it deserved.

Let’s not lose our heads, though

When Link’s rescue mission goes south, Ganon summons the Gleeok for a rematch against Link.

Ganon has an ace in the hole to deal with Link’s interruption and unleashes a familiar face (or three) from “Kiss ‘N Tell,” the Gleeok. The heads of the Hydra-like hellion aren’t as talkative this time around, roaring in anger rather than blathering amongst themselves. It makes sense, of course: Link made a mockery of the Gleeok last time they met, and there is no time for goofs as vengeance burns in all six of those eyes. It may not sound exciting to watch Link repeat the same fight as before, especially after already watching him battle the commonplace Moblins and Stalfos to reach this point, but there is one aspect of this fight that makes things incredibly entertaining.

After avoiding the beast’s incoming flames, Link zaps the Gleeok three times. A successful series of Crissword zaps usually results in enemies vanishing back to the Evil Jar, which is the case here — but only the creature’s body disappears. The Gleeok’s heads remain, flying through the air, chasing Link, and spewing fiery breath in his direction. This is a special moment, as this is what happens when Link fights the Gleeok bosses in the original Legend of Zelda game.

This time, the Gleeok enters its second battle phase, with its detached heads flying furiously at Link.

Fighting a Gleeok is a little more graphic in the game — at least technically. The simplicity of the game’s sprites and animations help keep the gory details of Link’s battle vague on the screen, but the game’s manual says, “Heads that Link cuts off from its body fly around in the air.” Rather than having Link sever the Gleeok’s heads with his blade, which may have been too violent for a children’s cartoon, the TV series cleverly gets around this by instead having Link using sword zaps to make the Gleeok’s torso disappear.

With the heads furiously flying toward Link and relentlessly hurling flames at him, Link decides to avoid confronting them directly. Instead, he runs toward Ganon, luring the heads to crash into their master and explode upon impact, allowing Link to take Zelda and escape back to the surface.

There aren’t any new enemies introduced in this episode, but there is something very familiar about the monster who presides over Ganon’s wedding ceremony. This Grim Reaper-like figure looks almost identical to the Magician from The Adventure of Link’s artwork, with the purple cloak, white skin, red eyes, and lined face making the appearance uncanny.

From a Zelda lore perspective (within a non-canon story notwithstanding), it could also be interpreted as a Wizzrobe with a scythe. Either way, the creature is never addressed by a name or title, so it’s assumed to just be a generic creature that resides in the Underworld. The influence of the visual appearance is very clear, however, and makes sense considering that the TV series’ production team was likely given many materials to work from, including official Zelda game artwork. It feels like a fun little homage, even if the context is vague.

Hitch your wagon elsewhere

Ganon looks about as bored as me watching this episode. At least he made the right decision to shake things up toward the end.

There isn’t a whole lot more to say about “Hitch in the Works,” especially as the majority of the episode is very forgettable. Zelda doesn’t get the chance to engage in any action this time around, and even her role as a mind-manipulated damsel is dull and underplayed. As is a common problem within the TV series, the dialogue isn’t particularly inspired, either. Link delivers the most lame and slapdash comeback ever when arriving at the wedding and giving his reason why the couple should not be wed: “Yeah, I got a reason. And here it is: Back off, Ganon!” Speaking of Ganon, however, he remains the best part of this series and is the saving grace of this episode.

We still have another poor episode to go before the series picks up in quality again, but let’s not end this review on a downer. After all, I may have been a bit harsh on “Hitch in the Works.” That’s right, I lied: There is one magical moment aside from the Underworld battle. I don’t need to describe it to you. Just observe the animated GIF below.