SPOILERS! Mariusioannesp Reviews: "Somepony to Watch Over Me" · 4:51am Mar 9th, 2014
WARNING!!! The following contains SPOILERS for today's MLP episode "Somepony to Watch Over Me".
Now with that out of the way, here is my review of "Somepony to Watch Over Me".
Granny Smith, Big Mac, and Applejack decide that Apple Bloom is old enough to stay at home on her own while Granny Smith goes on a trip and Big Mac and Applejack are delivering pies. However, Applejack becomes so anxious about leaving Apple Bloom on her own that she forsakes the pie delivery and rushes home vowing to never leave her side again. Apple Bloom quickly becomes smothered by Applejack’s constant attention and concocts a plan with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to sneak out and make Applejack’s pie delivery, which passes through a very treacherous swamp. Will Applejack learn to give Apple Bloom enough space to letter her properly grow up?
So, what’s the verdict?
It was okay.
Don’t get me wrong though. It wasn’t a bad episode, but it wasn’t that great either. It was a middle of the way episode. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
There was still quite a few things to like about this episode. First off, there’s the premise of the this episode. Apple Bloom gets to prove that she can handle being on her own and taking care of herself. It’s quite a milestone in a young child’s life when they get to stay at home on their own. Much like “Twilight Time” this is another sign that Apple Bloom and the CMC are growing up. And it seems Apple Bloom is quite capable of taking care of the Apple Family homestead on her own. She finishes all her chores right before Applejack shows up to check up on her. She’s totally ready to do her own thing like listen to music or read books.
Applejack’s reaction to Apple Bloom being on her own is another good part of the episode. There seems to be a concerted effort this season to round out Applejack’s character beyond the honest but stubborn apple farmer. In “Pinkie Apple Pie”, we see a bit of that perfectionist side of Applejack that we saw back in “Apple Family Reunion”. “Simple Ways” showed that Applejack can pull off being an elegant fashionista. Here, we see that Applejack has a bit of what I saw as an abandonment complex. Before initially leaving for her pie delivery, Applejack leaves Apple Bloom a list of helpful suggestions, including overly detailed instructions on how to eat soup. As she’s walking along she’s worried about things she may have left off her list, such as noting when you have to open a drawer. Anyway, Applejack’s return shocks Apple Bloom to the point that it causes a mess in the kitchen, and Applejack decides to stay home and watch over Apple Bloom. Applejack then proceeds to baby Apple Bloom, putting nets under the trees to catch apples being bucked, covering everything in plastic, and even has her wear a helmet… and then a second helmet for good measure. All this is in spite of Apple Bloom’s continual insistence that she can take care of herself. She even turns Apple Bloom’s bed into a crib, and even checks on her like every five seconds when Sweetie Belle is pretending to be Apple Bloom taking a nap.
It’s clear Applejack has some issues, which I will attempt to dissect. On one level, Applejack is concerned with Apple Bloom getting hurt. This is the reason for Applejack effectively baby proofing their house. On another level, Applejack is trying to continue to treat Apple Bloom like a baby. Perhaps on a subconscious level, the prospect of leaving Apple Bloom at home on her own has reminded her that Apple Bloom is going to grow up one day and eventually go off on her own. This is the reason for treating her like a baby. It’s a hollow attempt at trying to prevent this from eventually happening. Essentially at the root of these issues is a fear of abandonment. Applejack is afraid of Apple Bloom leaving her by dying or by growing up. Applejack even says when she finds out that Apple Bloom snuck off to make her pie delivery “I may never see my little sister again!” It sounds silly at first until you actually see what the pie delivery route looks like.
But what could be the source of this fear of abandonment? Perhaps she feels she has been abandoned by a significant other before. In my review of “Pinkie Apple Pie”, I suggested that Applejack’s desire to make her family appear perfect so Pinkie Pie would be willing to accept them as her family was rooted in her awareness that something is missing from her family: her parents. I submit that her parents being dead is the reason for Applejack’s abandonment complex. If this is all intentional on the part of the writers then I commend them for it. At least it's another example of Applejack's stubbornness not being the source of the conflict in one of her episodes.
Moving on, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo show up to provide some support for Apple Bloom. They then concoct a plan to have Apple Boom sneak out and make Applejack’s pie delivery to prove to her that she can handle things on her own. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo will stay behind and wear Apple Bloom’s bows and pretend to be her asleep in case Applejack comes to check on her. Herein comes two of the episode’s funniest moments. Apple Bloom begins to sing a song in the typical manner of the CMC until Scootaloo stops her because they don’t have enough time for a song because Applejack is coming! Then, Sweetie Belle gets into Apple Bloom’s bed to pretend to be Apple Bloom asleep when Scootaloo hiding in the closet points out she has to sleep like Apple Bloom. When Sweetie asks how Apple Bloom sleeps, Scootaloo responds “Like she does everything! With sass!” I have to admit that made me laugh.
Anyway, after incessantly checking on “Apple Bloom” every five seconds and nothing happening to her, Applejack realizes that perhaps Apple Bloom can be safe on her own. Scootaloo cheers alerting Applejack to her presence in the closet and leads her to discover that is was Sweetie Belle in bed instead of Apple Bloom. They confess that Apple Bloom went off to make Applejack’s pie delivery. Applejack freaks out especially after learning that Apple Bloom didn’t take fireproof boots, a snake charmer’s flute, a lion tamer’s chair, or a hunk of ricotta. (It seems kind of silly given the way Applejack’s been acting so far, but we eventually see what all that is for.) She then goes off after Apple Bloom.
Next, we see Apple Bloom making her way with the pie wagon through a swamp with flaming geysers. (What kind of delivery route is this?) Here, Apple Bloom encounters a chimera! I’ve seen chimeras brought up in fanfictions here and there and now they are canon! Though this chimera has a tiger head instead of a lioness’, but it’s explicitly female just like the chimera of Greek myth. What was kind of surprising was that this chimera is sentient. Then again, for mythological creatures on MLP, it’s often a crapshoot whether they’re sentient or not. (Manticore and Cerberus vs Dragons and Griffons) But one of its heads is a goat and its back legs are cloven goat hooves. It might tacitly prove that Goats are sentient.
So, Apple Bloom manages to stay out of the chimera’s clutches and keep the pies safe. It still manages to corner her and when all seems lost, Applejack shows up wearing fireproof boots. She puts the snake tail asleep with the snake charmer’s flute, fights off the tiger head with the lion tamer’s chair and jams its head into a tree, and distracts the goat head by feeding it ricotta. It’s clear Applejack has dealt with chimeras on this route before. When she sees that Apple Bloom is relatively okay and still has the pies after getting this far into the swamp and facing the chimera, Applejack realizes that Apple Bloom doesn’t need her watching over her all the time.
They successfully get the pies delivered to a town populated by Cajun ponies. (Just had to squeeze in some world building.) While Apple Bloom is still going to be in trouble for sneaking out to make the delivery, Applejack apologizes for babying her and admits that she will trust Apple Bloom to take care of herself on her own.
The only problem this episode has is that its moral is not very clear. You can see that shouldn’t baby people or go off to try to prove you can handle thing on your own in a reckless way, but it’s not made very explicit.
Overall, “Somepony to Watch Over Me” was an okay episode. It wasn’t really anything to write home about.
What did you all think about “Somepony to Watch Over Me”.
God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.
I thought it was an okay episode as well with some fun moments and interesting concepts scattered about here and there.
I definitely agree. I thought the episode was solidly entertaining, but nothing more than that. A mild positive. It was funny, but Applejack's exaggerated helicopter parenting irritated me somewhat. I don't mind them expanding on her character, but everything we've been shown before leads me to believe that she's pretty relaxed with Apple Bloom. I mean, she gave the CMC her old clubhouse so that they could have some privacy for their antics. That's like the opposite of what we saw here. It would have made more sense to me if she was concerned with Apple Bloom blowing up the farm, rather than just that Apple Bloom was incapable of surviving on her own.
1910386 That is a very valid point.
I will say though that Applejack's overprotectiveness of Apple Bloom was brought on by the potentially subconscious realization that Apple Bloom will grow up and go on to leave and live on her own. Such a drastic change is probably enough to bring on an episode like Applejack has here I believe.
Everytime someone says her parents are dead I want to kick a puppy
1979162 Lauren Faust, the Maker herself, admitted this was the most likely answer to why Applejack's parents aren't around.
And they even seemed to hint at it in "Apple Family Reunion" with the two falling stars.
1979188 Lauren isn't on the show anymore (and she didn't create MLP), so what she says isn't really canon. And representing =/= being dead
1979240 She said that when she was on the show.