Fillies, gentlecolts and foals of all ages, welcome once again to another edition of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic recap/review. Another week has passed us by, and another new episode has given us its good graces. Not only that, but it’s an episode about Scootaloo, as well as a new show writer in Ed Valentine. Can Mr. Valentine handle one of the show’s biggest elephants in the room? See what I mean as I review Flight to the Finish.
Coach Dash
The episode opens in the Ponyville schoolhouse as Cheerilee introduces the class to the Equestria Games director Miss Harshwhinny, as well as Rainbow Dash. They’re at the school because the fillies of Ponyville have a chance to wave the town flag at the games. The best team with the best performance will win. Rainbow Dash is, as expected, super excited to be coaching the fillies, but Miss Harshwhinny constantly tells Dash to contain her enthusiasm and be professional, or else she’ll be fired.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders find this to be a great idea, and decide to work on their own performance, which will show how Ponyville is a place of friendship for unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies. These three fillies may be small, but they have hearts as strong as horses, as represented by the first song of season 4. However, as expected, the trio have to deal with longtime enemies in Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, who try their old tactic of mocking their blank flanks to no avail.
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon mock Scootaloo's inability to fly
The crusaders show off their amazing performance, and despite Dash wanting to proclaim how awesome it was, she remains professional, telling the trio that the performance was okay. Diamond Tiara comes up with a new plan to shake the confidence of the cutie mark crusaders. That plan being to full on mock that fact that Scootaloo is a pegasus pony that can’t fly. This ends up shaking Scootaloo’s confidence badly, making her believe that if she can’t fly in the performance, they’ll lose for sure. The trio end up trying to help her fly all through the night, which makes their final showing of the performance before the group goes to the Crystal Empire a disaster. On top of that, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are getting tired of Scootaloo making the focus of the entire thing about trying to get her to fly.
Before the crusaders head off to the Crystal Empire, Scootaloo tells the others that she won’t be coming with them, believing that she’ll be the weak link. Apple Bloom has finally had enough of Scootaloo, and with her being a quitter, both her and Sweetie Belle go without her. Rainbow Dash learns about them leaving Scootaloo by herself, and reminds them that they’re a team.
Dash and the CMC go to Scootaloo’s house (yes, she actually isn’t homeless like so many fanworks suggest), and Dash tells Scootaloo that maybe she’ll be able to fly one day, or maybe she won’t, it doesn’t change how awesome she is. The episode ends with Miss Harshwhinny picking the Cutie Mark Crusaders to represent Ponyville, and she even forgets to show professionalism. Scootaloo then comes up with the idea that maybe they’ll finally get their cutie marks in flag carrying.
So, how did this episode fare? Let’s burn down some pros and cons.
PRO
For a story involving a character’s disability, Ed Valentine managed to make it work perfectly without it feeling offensive, or overly sympathetic. You want to see Scootaloo finally fly, and you do get to see how it does affect her to not be able to. But on the other hand, it’s such a non-issue with her friends, that it makes this less of an issue. Scootaloo’s an interesting character, perhaps the member of the CMC with the most obstacles to overcome. But we also see how awesome she is despite her shortcomings.
This was easily one of the best written Rainbow Dash appearances ever. If there was ever an example of character evolution in the series, that honor easily goes to Dash. Look back at Dragonshy and how she was annoyed by the very notion of bringing Fluttershy along, and look at her now. Caring and concerned about her friends, as well as the little filly she’s taken under her wing. Plus, every scene with her trying to act professional was hilarious.
The show is killing it in the animation department this season. For a Flash-based cartoon, it’s starting to look more and more like something traditionally animated. Also, the facial expressions on Miss Harshwhinny were some of the best I’ve ever seen on any character in this series. If that’s any indication, this season is going to be fun when we focus more on Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie.
The muscle-bound pony Snowflake appears once again in this episode. That’s a win always. Apparently he’ll be appearing again later this season, and it’s rumored that he will have the official name of Bulk Biceps.
CON
I’d say the biggest con is some of the pacing. Again, this seems to be an issue with episodes that have songs, and since this had not just a song but a reprise at the end, it cut into a lot of possible ideas for the episode.
The song in the episode was great as always. But why am I giving this a con? Because honestly, it felt like filler. Instead of showing scenes involving the duo coming up with ideas for their flag carrying presentation, it’s just a bunch of training montage scenes. Granted, it gave us the awesome visual of Snowflake scared of butterflies, but it really felt like two minutes that could have been spent moving the plot along.
Speaking of the plot, is it just me, or does this episode feel like it was a whole other episode before being changed mid-way? They put a lot of focus on it being a competition between the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, but then shifts in the middle of the second act into a story involving Scootaloo’s lack of flight. Maybe I’m just overthinking as always, but it’s not too hard to consider it being the possible reason.
Flight to the Finish is a great episode, proving my point that Scootaloo may be perhaps the show’s most interesting side-character. They handled something as heavy as a character’s disability with just the right amount of class, and also continued the storyline involving the Equestria Games. There were a couple bumps in the plot, but it was still a solid, and adorable episode.
RATING: 8 out of 10
Next week, holy comic book parody! Spike and the ponies end up being sucked into a comic book world, and the mane six become the Power Ponies. Can these newly powered up ponies defeat the evil Mane-iac? And can Spike prove that he’s more than just a sidekick? Find out this Saturday.
Until next week everypony.