Fillies, gentlecolts, and foals of all ages, welcome once again to another edition of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic recap/review. And we’re officially at the halfway point. 13 episodes deep into season 4. If it was the same time last season, we’d be finished up by now. So, what went down this week on the pony show? We had some Rarity, some Applejack, and some country craziness. Let’s find out exactly what ensued with “Simple Ways”.
Rarity meets Trenderhoof
The episode opens in Ponyville town square as everypony in town is wondering who will be the one to organize the upcoming Ponyville Days festival. And the winner is Rarity, who comes up with a theme of “small town chic”. She has all her friends help out, while she is more focused on gaining the attention of Trenderhoof, a famous travel writer that Rarity is smitten with. And by smitten, I mean has a full blown obsessive crush.
Rarity finally gets to meet Trenderhoof (who prefers to simply be known as “trend”), and shows him around Ponyville. They make it to sweet apple acres, and it seems that everything is hitting off on all cylinders with the two. However, Rarity’s dreams get shattered when Trend notices Applejack and becomes head over hooves in love with her. This causes Rarity to get extremely jealous and upset, not understanding what it is that he sees in Applejack. So, she comes up with an idea.
Trying to catch the affection of Trend
That Idea, of course, is to start dressing more like a farm pony, and act as if she has any knowledge of farming. And as we see, her graceful nature is far better than any farm tending abilities she has. However, her attempts to get Trend to notice her still fall on deaf ears. Applejack is also getting annoyed by Trend’s affection with her, and tries to avoid him. However, she learns that Rarity is far from done trying to go “country” to get the attention of her crush. So she goes full redneck and changes the festival theme to “simple ways”.
Rarity has now gone completely in denial with how over the top she’s going, and it’s finally annoying Applejack, who knows that Rarity is nothing like who she’s pretending to be. So, to give her a taste of her own medicine, Applejack changes her name to “Applejewel”, and begins to dress and act fancy. This leads to both of them mocking the others traits until Rarity jumps in some mud, causing the dress to get messy.
Applejack gives Rarity a taste of her own medicine
Messing up the dress is enough for Rarity to come to her senses and apologize for going too far. Doesn’t help matters that the dress she ruined was one of her own. Trend also dresses country and wants to move to Ponyville, but Rarity teaches him the lesson she learned. It’s wrong of you to change who you are for someone else. If someone doesn’t like you for who you are, it’s their loss. And the episode ends with the festival being a complete success. But then again, the best pony is running it. How could it have not been a hit?
This episode was “simply” crazy. So, how did things boil down with pros and cons? Let’s find out.
PRO
Tabitha St. Germain deserves an award. No, wait. Tabitha St. Germain deserves every award. Her vocal range is just unbelievable, and how she handled making Rarity into a redneck was work that honestly couldn’t have been done with a lesser voice actress. She had to do a Mid-Atlantic accent trying to do a country accent. And she pulls it off amazingly. Not to mention all the little squeaks and screams that make Rarity such a fun character. Meghan McCarthy claimed that this episode broke Tabitha, and it’s not hard to see how.
The exchange between Rarity and Spike with how Spike would never understand unrequited love followed by Spike’s reaction was simply priceless. It may easily be Spike’s best moment in the series so far.
Applejack was in top form in this episode. Trying to be the foil to Rarity’s plans since she knows Rarity isn’t being who she really is. And the end bit with Applejewel was fun as well.
CON
I’d say the biggest problem with this episode was that Trenderhoof was quite the unremarkable character. In fact, he’s pretty forgettable. Compare that to other ponies Rarity has had the affection for, and he’s just pretty bland. Though I will give the show credit for not making him a villain.
The ending did feel a tad rushed. How Rarity just easily snapped back to common sense did feel a tad like they were running out of time to settle the conflict.
Also, remember how last week I was wondering if they’d keep Pinkie written competently, or if she’d just be comic relief again?
Sigh, the latter won over in the end.
Simple Ways was a fun episode. Wacky concept, fun conflict, and an amazing performance by Tabitha St. Germain as Rarity. Continuing the furthering proof that the character has yet to have a bad episode in the series. Plus, co-starring Applejack made this one more special as well for me, since she’s easily 2nd favorite in my preferences. In the end, it was a simple episode and one of the best of season 4.
RATING: 9 out of 10
Next week, there’s music in the air. When a member of the band “The Ponytones” has to leave the group, it’s up to Fluttershy to ensure that the show goes on. But will her acts of kindness be her undoing? Find out with Filli Vanilli.
Until next time everypony!