Leap of Faith Review · 5:19pm Mar 30th, 2014
Quite the episode this came to be! :P I had a feeling it would be Applejack's "Key" episode, and I was right! So let's see, this episode has a dirty scheming character (or in this case, two!) returning, makes a proposition with a main character somehow, contains a tonic that cures ailments, and it turns out to be fake with the main character stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Well, that doesn't sound familiar at all! :P
So we have the Flim Flam Brothers striking again! And with a song! Okay, not nearly as fun or catchy as their original song, but it's still fun and perfectly appropriate. Their scheme this time is to cell a tonic that's meant to, apparently, cure any and all ailments. From sicknesses to bruises to cosmetics. Yeah, sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Well, spoilers, it is!
Granny Smith is given a little something added to her backstory, where it turns out that she was once a champion diver! Ooh! But due to an injury when she was young due to a diving stunt she'd done, she had been afraid of the water ever since. Now that she's old, it's no wonder she doesn't exactly feel confident in ever trying again.
Poor thing is suckered in to the scam and takes the tonic. But by George, it works! Granny Smith can swim again! Woohoo! But Applejack is quite skeptical, understandably so, and does some investigating. Sure enough, she's proven correct! The tonic is in fact just made with apple juice and bay leaves. But wait! The Flim Flam brothers, the ever sleazy sales ponies that they are, manage to convince her to LIE. Oh yes. All because she doesn't want to ruin Granny Smith's happiness. A little something in which the truth can sometimes hurt.
Of course, it leads to things just getting worse. Granny Smith is trying to enter a competition with Apple Bloom, and everypony seems to believe that the tonic works. Especially since the Flim Flam brothers are in fact making it look like Applejack is endorsing it. There isn't anything she can do at the moment, even though the truth is trying to come out. But when she sees Granny Smith making a reckless diving stunt, she swoops in with her lasso of awesome and saves her life. No kidding! Even a young person would never make it out of diving a six-story-high into a small PIE PAN without some kind of severe or crippling injury! Jeez!
This has Applejack fessing up to the fact that she lied and knew about the hoax of a tonic. It becomes a powerful moment for her, where she realizes that lying to avoid hurting someone's feelings will only have it grow into something worse. Along with that, Granny Smith learns that she had the ability to swim all along, she just needed the confidence to realize she could. Now, it isn't quite twisting the trope like previous episodes did, but they added another trope to work beautifully alongside it.
And it works! It's a very mature lesson to learn, they both are. Sometimes your honesty can hurt someone's feelings, but don't make it worse by lying to them. Sometimes you just need a confidence booster to do what you could've done all along. And of course, believing in something that's a complete lie, especially when you know it, is just terrible.
So I definitely liked it! I think it was a great approach for Applejack's key, it was interesting seeing the Flim Flam brothers again, and it all came together so well! :D Well done!
Oh, and it made a straight-up reference to Jaws! XD YES! I was collapsing in giggles at that part. Yes, please!
I agree that the song wasn't as catchy as their song in Super-Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. But it was still a pretty good song, and I fully expected one with those two scam-artists involved. So I was NOT disappointed.
And it wasn't exactly how I pictured Applejack's "key" episode happening, but I think it still worked out pretty well. No complaints here.
LOL, not at all surprised you caught the "Jaws" reference, mah buddeh!