Fillies, gentlecolts, and foals of all ages, welcome to another edition of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic recap/review. Bullies. Everypony hates them, right? Well, it was only a matter of time before Ponyville would have a run in with a rough bully. And unfortunately that bully has her eyes on the Cutie Mark Crusaders. How did our beloved fillies deal with “One Bad Apple”? Let’s recap.
Welcome to Ponyville, Babs Seed.
We open the episode at Sweet Apple Acres, where Apple Bloom is in a conundrum as to what she should wear for the arrival of her cousin from Manehattan, Babs Seed. Though considering that fact that Apple Bloom never wears anything but the bow in her hair any other time, this just seems odd. Applejack tells Apple Bloom to relax, and that she will have a lot in common with her cousin, mainly in being a blank flank. With the news of her cousin being without a Cutie Mark, Apple Bloom rallies the Cutie Mark Crusaders to welcome Babs upon her arrival to Ponyville.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders instantly try to bond with Babs, as well as show her their clubhouse, complete with their customs such as roll call, and lunch. However, despite their kind, yet in-her-face nature, they still haven’t been able to make Babs seem as excited as they had hoped.
Babs Seed joins the dark side
They also show Babs their float for the upcoming Summer Harvest Parade. But as they do that, local bullies Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon show up to mock the trio. However, things get worse for the CMC as Babs Seed joins Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon in their mocking of the trio, as well as breaking their parade float.
When Apple Bloom threatens to tell Applejack, Babs corners her and calls her a snitch, before leaving with the other bullies. The Cutie Mark Crusaders are left saddened, with no options to deal with the abuse of Babs.
And it seems that things for the trio get worse as the week progresses as we see in the episode’s song, that Babs torments the trio at every turn, making their lives miserable. And to make things even worse, the three bullies steal their clubhouse. Babs even steals Apple Bloom’s bed. This bad seed is really living up to her name.
Solid Gold Sweetie Belle
Knowing well enough they aren’t going to tell Applejack about the bully problem (sespite Sweetie Belle telling them to), the trio devise a plan to embarrass Babs. The Crusaders build a new parade float, and set it with a timer that will cause the float to go off a cliff into the mud below. Cutie Mark Crusaders attempted murder. Yay!
At the parade, all goes according to plan, as they trick Babs into going into the parade float, on to her imminent humiliation. The Cutie Mark Crusaders revel in their incoming victory… that is until Applejack tells them the truth about Babs Seed. That she was having problems of her own with bullies in Manehattan. Now realizing the error of their ways, the trio have to save Babs before it’s too late.
A new crusader is born
The trio try everything to get to the float before it reaches the cliff, including commandeering Pinkie Pie’s lettuce float. However, that plan comes to a halt, when the float crashes, creating a nice salad. The Cutie Mark Crusaders do manage to get Babs out of the float in time, but end up crashing into the mud below.
Later on, they fess up to Babs, who is now grateful for being saved, as well as apologetic for how she acted. With everyone now friends, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo decide to give Babs the ultimate honor of being the official fourth member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. And so the episode ends as Babs is headed home to Manehattan, now knowing that it’s not right to bully, and to tell her sister when she’s having bully problems. She also gets back at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon by warning that she’ll tell their mothers about their bullying habits.
So, this was certainly a “bully” episode, huh? Huh? … ah, let’s get to pros and cons.
PRO
I gotta admit, when I first read about this episode, I groaned a little. Mainly because we’ve already dealt with bullying in a previous episode (Season 1’s “Griffon the Brush-Off”). But upon seeing this episode fully executed, I gotta admit, they did a great job with a rather serious subject matter. While the way the crusaders handled this was a bit extreme, in the end there’s still some believability to it. We’ve all dealt with bullies, as well as the fears of trying to fit in. So, in that aspect, the way they handled a situation like that was pretty good. It’s outcome was predictable, but that’s not a problem honestly.
I also wasn’t too keen on Babs Seed upon first viewing as well, but she also was a character I warmed up to, and even found to be pretty adorable. You can understand her plight, and even though her actions were mean spirited at times, in the end you still got a rather nice pony. I also liked the little things such as her covering her blank flank with her tail in embarrassment, it does make you feel bad for her early on, despite how she was to act later on.
Another amazing song from Daniel Ingram. This time we got a very catchy pop song about the bad seed known as Babs Seed. Great vocal work from Michelle Creber and Maddy Peters as well as some great visuals really add to a quality song.
The show paid homage to the A-Team with a song and a montage. How awesome is that?
CON
The pacing of the episode was a little lacking. Not as horrible as some episodes, but nothing that hurt the episode too much.
I’d also say the whole “Let’s get revenge on a bully by throwing them off a cliff” was kinda silly, but again, the payoff doesn’t hurt it as much.
Not to mention a couple issues with questionable set pieces like movie theatres being canon, as well as ponies driving carts. But again, nothing that would hurt the episode. Just minor nitpicks they are.
“One Bad Apple” was a fairly decent episode for the season. Dealt with a pretty rough situation with bullying, and was another surprisingly well down Cutie Mark Crusaders episode. It’s definitely a fun episode for the season.
RATING: 7.5 out of 10
Next week, come one! Come all! Come and witness the return of The Great and Powerful Trixie! The magic mare returns to Ponyville to get revenge on Twilight Sparkle, with the loser being banished from Ponyville forever. Can Twilight survive the “Magic Duel”? Find out in seven days.
Until next week Everypony!