Fillies, Gentlecolts, and foals of all ages, welcome once again to another edition of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Recap/Review. With only 3 episodes left in this season, it’s definitely time to start pumping out some strong ones. But was that the case with this week’s episode? And with it being a Spike episode, did it really do well? Let’s find out with “Just For Sidekicks”
Owlowiscious and Chef Spike
We open the the episode at Twilight Sparkle’s library as Spike is busy making a jewel cake for himself. However, despite the attempted warnings from Twilight’s pet owl Owlowiscious, Spike unknowingly is eating all of his gems for the cake. However, he soon realizes when he runs out of gems.
But before Spike fully wallows in his cakeless sorrows, Fluttershy shows up. Since she will be going with the other ponies to the crystal empire for the equestria games opening ceremonies (which Spike isn’t invited to. You know, saving the empire really got him jack squat) she asks Spike to take care of her pet bunny Angel. Spike at first disagrees, knowing how much of a pain Angel can be, but when he’s easily swayed by the proposition of a jewel payment, he agrees.
Spike's pet sitting business doesn't go as planned
But the sweet taste of one jewel isn’t enough for Spike, so he goes about asking all of the other ponies to use his pet sitting services while they’re out of town. Provided they pay up of course. The rest of the mane six agree, despite a bit of concern from Twilight on if Spike is really responsible for the job. Of course, Spike ‘s too concerned with wanting to make his cake to realize what he’s getting into.
And as soon as the ponies leave, the pets run wild in the library. Spike tries his best to corral the critters, but Angel decides to flee the coop, leading Spike and the pets to chase after him. They find Angel at the Cutie Mark Crusader clubhouse, where the trio seem to be taking decent care of him. Spike decides to dump the pets off to them, but is forced to pay them a gem in return.
Pet sitting cutie marks denied
But it’s soon easy to see that the crusaders aren’t very good pet sitters. So Spike tries to find help with other ponies. Everyone from Zecora to Granny Smith end up fleecing Spike out of his gems. With two left, he hopes for an easier day remaining. But Angel, being the jerk he is, hops onto a train headed for the Crystal Empire.
Spike chaperones the CMC and the pets to get onto the train, spending another gem in the process, in hopes of getting Angel back. Unfortunately for the CMC, who really want to visit the empire, Spike informs the trio that this is going to be a quick trip.
The group arrives at the empire, and find Angel, who is just about to meet up with the mane six. In hopes of not being found out as un-responsible by Twilight and the gang, Spike sacrifices his last gem to ensure Angel doesn’t get found out. Spike, the crusaders, and the pets all return to the train, with a new problem. They have to hide from the other ponies all the way there.
Spike and the pets all become friends
But Angel being Angel tries to blow Spike’s cover, not before Spike finally apologizes for his actions, that he was too focused on himself to do what he was supposed to do, and that’s take care of the pets. Angel accepts the apology, and to keep Spike’s rumbling tummy from finding them out, he recovers the last gem in time.
And so the episode ends with the group managing to make it back without the mane six noticing, and Spike has his gem for his cake… which he unknowingly eats again before he makes the cake. Oh you silly little dragon.
Well this was a pet-filled fun fest, but was this sidekick filled episode a hit? Let’s break down some pros and cons
PRO
One thing that I really liked in this episode is that they explained what happened to Spike’s pet phoenix Peewee from Dragon Quest in the form of pictures seen in the opening of the episode. It appears that Spike wasn’t a good enough pet owner to be responsible enough to take care of Peewee, so he returned the little guy to his family. That is actually a brilliant way not just to write the character out, but to set the episode up as well. Showing early on that Spike isn’t exactly that good with animals. It was short and subtle, but it worked.
I loved the pets in this episode… well, maybe not Angel. They all were adorable, entertaining, and just fun to watch. It was especially nice to see Tank back, and to see that he’s not exactly the most agile flying tortoise.
Cameos and references galore in this episode. Most notably we saw Zecora and Screw Loose (the barking pony from Season 2’s “Read it and Weep”). We also saw Cheerilee and Big Macintosh together again, perhaps continuing their budding relationship. However, one grey pegasus remains missing in action. But that doesn’t hurt seeing some of our favourite characters.
And as we’ll see with next week’s episode, this one actually intertwines with the storyline in the upcoming episode. But we’ll get to that in the preview.
CON
Some of the running gags got old fast. Owlowiscious and Spike’s “Who” gag wasn’t strong in “Owl’s Well That Ends Well”, and it didn’t resonate all that well here. Same for Spike being too short sighted to realize that he was eating his gems before putting them on the cake. Those got tiring way quicker than they should.
The only other thing that bugged me about the episode was the fact that Spike, who saved the crystal empire, and got his own stained glass window celebrating it, wasn’t given an invitation to attend a big crystal empire event rubbed me the wrong way. It just seemed silly to do something like that, and continues to devalue Spike as a character.
“Just For Sidekicks” is a very strong filler episode. Filled with cute moments, and some great laughs. It wasn’t a necessary episode since we’ve already focused on Spike this season, but it still came out as far more enjoyable. Corey Powell’s 2nd and final episode for the season was well done.
RATING: 8.5 out of 10
In two weeks, let the games begin! We find out what went down at the Crystal Empire as the mane six try to help Princess Cadance prove that the citizens of the crystal empire are more than worthy to compete in the Equestria Games. Can they plead their case to the snooty games commisioner? Find out as we see what “Games Ponies Play”.
Until next time everypony!
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