Episode Review: The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone

Spoilers are back!

The Cutie Mark Map is back! Twilight's passive meltdowns are back! Gilda is back!

The episode starts off with Pinkie being her usual self and on a baking marathon. I'm starting to wonder where Carrot and Cup Cake are in all this, as Pinkie seems to have taken over the kitchen. Pinkie gets The Call, and leaves the baking in the immobile claws of... Gummy? Well, at least the cake or whatever was in to bake for fifteen hours, and the Cakes are sure to step in once they realize Pinkie's gone. Right?

As DRWolf pointed out, we haven't had a PinkieDash episode since 'Griffon the Brush Off,' which was Gilda's only episode until now. Even though she seemed like a one-off character then, I'm glad the writers took the opportunity to write her in here. It's CONTINUITY, and besides, not every Griffon had to be new here.

We also get some world building and lore, thanks to Twilight and Gilda's grampa. These moments make the Ponyverse all the richer because they help to populate it with greater variety and, well, richness. Unfortunately all the lore builds the Griffon Kingdom up to be so grand that you know it has to have fallen somewhat by now. I just didn't think it'd fallen into complete disarray. I thought Dragons were greedy, but I think the Griffons have them beat. Then again, Dragons seem primarily interested in gems, while Griffons like bits. Maybe that's why they're not at war, but then again Dragons and Griffons cannot help but remind me of Warcraft II.

Besides a rough reunion between Dash and Gilda, we also get a disagreement between Dash and Pinkie about what the problem is here. They each take their own approach, with Dash going after the lost treasure, while Pinkie goes in search of answers in what passes for a library in Griffonstone. While I don't like her chatting up a statue, I am with Pinkie on the research trip. I also agree with her that it's a good thing Twilight didn't get to go along. It's like the map knew that if she'd gone, she'd have spent the whole time trying to fix the library or something similar.

Anyway, the plot demands that Pinkie stick with Gilda for further answers, and that Dash get stuck. Gilda ends up being the one with the Painful Choice: gold or not-quite-friends. Surprisingly, she chooses friends -- perhaps because Pinkie reminded her of the way Dash stood up for her when they were small. Pinkie helps Gilda with her friendship baking (and makes an infomercial while she's at it), and Gilda makes 'three friends.' Neat, but how's she going to convert that into a town of friendship on her own? Maybe we'll find out, and maybe we won't. The episode ends by returning to Sugar Cube Corner, where Gummy... has done absolutely nothing productive all day. At least the writers haven't forgotten about him. And at least the place is not on fire.

While there wasn't as much humour or adventure in this episode as there usually are in adventure episodes, I still enjoyed it. We got to see more of the world, and some lore with a neat presentation, and a new creature, the goat cyclops. I also liked that the Map didn't have to send the entire Mane6 to solve the friendship problem, making it feel like a smaller adventure. There were some places where the pace seemed to stumble a bit, but seeing more of Gilda as a character made up for a lot. There was also that bit where Dash imitated Twilight. We've seen Pinkie imitate the others in a fancomic, but this is canon. It's awesome! I'm calling it 'Rainbow Sparkle.' So I guess my only complaint is that the episode didn't feel like it was written as tightly as it could have been. But it was nice to see a new (or old) dynamic that went against the expectation for an adventure episode. Nicely done.

I give this episode a B++, and 8 of 10 stars.