Episode Re-Review: Too Many Pinkie Pies · 6:23pm Mar 12th, 2021
Season 3 had a bit of a writing shake up occur when Amy Keating Rogers did not return (and neither did Charlotte Fullerton) but Dave Polsky did after having been absent during the enterity of Season 2. Dave had written two rather funny but really controversial episodes, though "Over A Barrel" at least had kind of faded away as Season 2's missteps took center stage. Polsky was in charge of a Pinkie Pie episode, and his handling of Pinkie Pie in "Over A Barrel" was far from the best. But was Polsky up to the job and able to prove that he could write a good episode without controversy overshadowing it? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with Twilight practicing a spell that is apparently meant to turn an apple into an orange, but Pinkie Pie interrupts and distracts Twilight, causing the spell to instead hit a bird (turning it into an orange instead). Pinkie's excited by this and wants Twilight to cast the spell on her, but then Rarity shows up and reveals a new dress she made. This frightens Pinkie Pie because Rarity had fun without her, and so Pinkie rushes away to ensure she isn't missing out on anymore fun.
She eventually becomes exhausted when she stumbles across Fluttershy and has to be revived via a butterfly couch. Pinkie seems okay with asking Fluttershy to promise not to do anything fun, and then she decides to just have her friends run their fun requests through her. It seems like that will work, until she finds out that Applejack will be having a barn raising at the same time Rainbow Dash plans to hang out at a local watering hole. Kind of odd that the barn is apparently being put up again after a new barn was supposedly being erected during "Lesson Zero".
Pinkie's assured by both friends that they're okay with whoever she chooses to hang out with, but Pinkie decides to try and be there for both things. She even times herself going back and forth between the two locations, but Twilight tells her that it's impossible for her to be in two places at once unless there was more of her. That gives Pinkie Pie an idea and she zooms away, apparently recalling an old legend from her Nana Pie (no relation to Granny Pie, apparently) about a magic mirror pool/pond (they use pool and pond interchangeably throughout the episode, but pool seems like the better term since there seems to be no connection between the body of water and anything else). This also marks the first time where a pony ventures into the Everfree Forest and it's treated like it's no big deal. Of course, there was anypony who would do that it would be Pinkie Pie given how she literally laughs in the face of danger.
Recalling the legend, she ventures into a part of the forest with thick vines and dense fog and stumbles down a large hole. Sure enough, the mirror pool is there. Pinkie then pauses and scolds herself for talking to herself.
Pinkie Pie then recites a saying and appears to dive into the pool, cloning herself. The clone of Pinkie is almost exactly like her, but doesn't have the names down pat. However, Pinkie isn't bothered by this. She sends the clone to go attend the barn raising while she hangs out with Rainbow Dash, though not before briefly saying "Off to double my fun!"
However, the clone runs into a dilemma when she's offered the chance to attend a tea party with Fluttershy and her animal friends. So the clone runs into the very thing the original Pinkie was trying to avoid, and the clone starts freaking out. She even mentions "The walls are closing in!" before Fluttershy points out that they're outside. Meanwhile, the original Pinkie Pie reaches the watering hole but finds that Rainbow Dash is worn out from cloud busting. So she decides to show some consideration and have her fun quietly, even slowing herself in mid descent to avoid making a big splash. Interestingly, Rainbow Dash appears to be reading the first Daring Do book again (I guess she just really liked it). She briefly wonders how Pinkie can do what she does before happening to see another Pinkie, but shrugs it off.
The clone confesses to the problem of having to choose and breaks down in tears. Pinkie Pie consoles the clone and decides that the solution is to just make some more clones. She creates two more and decides that should be enough. But then those clones make clones and those clones make clones, and soon Pinkie Pies are everywhere. Pinkie Pie tells them to stop but all the clones seem to care about is fun. Still, Pinkie seems to have a look on her face that implies that she can't bring herself to send them away and believes that she can make it work. Of course, if you've ever seen any kind of cloning story you know where this is gonna go.
Pinkie Pie gives all her clones a pop quiz on her friends' names before trying to instruct them all on where to go. But the clones don't listen and run away, soon causing chaos as they keep shouting "Fun" over and over again.
The clones harass Rainbow Dash and cause the barn raising at Applejack's to go south, so everypony demands that Twilight do something about it (because I guess she's the only one they turn to in a crisis now?). She retreats into the library to look for answers, and Spike finds it in a never before seen and never seen again hidden cabinet. It's a book which just so happens to contain information about the mirror pool. But there's a catch, the spell to send the clones back doesn't distinguish between clones and the original. So the real Pinkie Pie could be sent back by mistake if they can't figure out who she is. Twilight asks if anyone can help identify the real Pinkie, and naturally every Pinkie Pie that shows up insists they're the real one (except for one who laments that no one can tell them apart).
Now the episode starts falling apart. Twilight and Spike see a Pinkie Pie all by herself just moping and being unhappy, and they don't think that maybe something's up when she's not hyperactive like the clones. Twilight points out that this Pinkie will of course say she's the real one but also claims "The Real Pinkie Pie would never sit that still." which seems to imply she thinks Pinkie Pie is only ever happy and bouncy. Then this Pinkie Pie proposes a test for the others, and while she doesn't know what it is the mere fact that she thinks of it means she has an unfair advantage. She does realize that if she doesn't pass she'll be sent back to the mirror pool and briefly blames it for her problems, before realizing it's her own fault. Then we get a redundant scene of the rest of the mane six hiding out in the woods with Fluttershy's animal friends until the Pinkie Pies go away, and while they're all worried about losing the real Pinkie none of them are helping Twilight identify who the real one is. No one thinks to potentially ask a question that only the real Pinkie might know (there's no indication that the clones knew even close to the number of ponies Pinkie knew). They don't even look to see if maybe one of the Pinkies has a mark or something that the others don't have. Yeah, maybe that doesn't automatically prove it's the real Pinkie Pie but anything that could make one stand out should warrant a closer inspection.
So what do they all do instead? They round up all the Pinkie Pies and herd them into town hall for the test. The test involves watching paint dry. Just before the test can begin, Rainbow Dash brings in a lone Pinkie Pie who was just sitting there and drawing frowny faces. No one thinks this is at all weird and Twilight orders this Pinkie to be placed with the others. Then the test gets under way. Gradually, some of the Pinkie Pies look away and get blasted by Twilight. But the thing is, she never gives them a chance to return their focus to the paint. As soon as they look away for even a second (some of whom are reacting to what other Pinkies are doing) they get blasted. This implies that the real Pinkie Pie could be in danger if she so much as coughed, sneezed or blinked. I'm going to assume Dave Polsky got ahead of himself having fun with the episode, and then realized he'd written himself into a corner and needed to quickly wrap it up to meet the twenty two minute deadline. But a resolution like this is kind of sloppy because it makes Twilight look too trigger happy.
Eventually there's only two Pinkie Pies left standing, one of which looks ready to break and the other of which is just staring at the wall. Rainbow decides to end it by calling out a distraction, which causes one of the Pinkies to look away and get instantly blasted. The Pinkie Pie left is told she can look away, and everyone just assumes they got all the clones and that this is the real Pinkie Pie. They don't ask any kind of question to confirm it, they just assume. And yeah, status quo says it's the real Pinkie Pie but there were a lot of fics written in the immediate aftermath of this episode where that actually wasn't the case. And we'd later learn that at least one clone got away.
Pinkie doesn't seem to really apologize for letting things get so out of control but does agree to start choosing now. Then she dictates a friendship lesson to Spike while we see a montage of Pinkie and Twilight covering up the mirror pool's entrance with a huge boulder (and nothing else). This is one of only two times throughout Season 3 where a friendship lesson will be explicitely written out. Not sure if that was intentional or not since it does mark an uncermoinous end to something established at the end of the pilot. Anyway, Spike sends the letter and then Pinkie's friends all show up and offer to do something with her as a group. But Pinkie Pie is worn out and falls asleep, so her friends giggle and leave her to rest.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, throughout the first two acts it's pretty good. There are a few odd details such as the barn raising and Pinkie Pie being okay with Fluttershy not doing anything fun without her, but otherwise it's a solid story without any real nitpicks. The third act though is where it all falls apart, the idea that Pinkie's friends don't think anything at all about a Pinkie Pie just sitting there and being gloomy raises a lot of unfortunate implications about how they seem to view their friend (thinking that Pinkie can never be anything but happy). And the "test" not only benefits the Pinkie Pie who suggests it but also involves Twilight giving the clones no chance to come back and resume what they were doing. The third act and its resolution needed to be polished because they were pretty sloppy. They don't completely destroy the episode, largely because the first two parts were really strong and were very fun. But the third act drags down the enjoyment a fair deal (even despite the jab at G3 when one of the Pinkie Pie clones styles her face to look like G3 Pinkie. Interestingly enough, the promo for the episode had Pinkie doing this to Fluttershy and Rarity but in the episode itself Pinkie is doing it to another Pinkie). So in the end this episode gets a borderline B+/A-. If the third act and the conclusion had been handled better it probably would've been a near flawless episode.
So Season 3 had gotten off to a relatively good start but there were signs that it might be getting bogged down in the details, and just when the season really needed something to keep its reputation afloat we instead got the bullying episode "One Bad Apple" which is just chalk full of bad decisions and implications.
This episode is one of two that are right in the middle of the season for me in terms of how much I enjoy them, but this is the upper of the two.
Mostly because of those issues with the third act you mentioned.
Isn't this one heck of a coincidence? The last episode before the Season 2 finale and the first episode after the Season 3 premiere are both Pinkie Pie-centered ones.
The mane 6 not thinking Pinkie could be sad is a bit of a problem, but I think the clone 'killing' is more Twilight just sending them back into the lake, so I don't have much of a problem with it.
5474186 It wouldn't be so much of a problem if not for the episode itself raising the possibility that Twilight might send the real Pinkie back if she's not careful, and then Twilight throws caution to the wind and starts zapping the clones as soon as they look away for any reason.
5474246
Well it's not for just any reason. Like at the end, the last fake Pinkie darted her eyes around a little, but she wasn't zapped. And I think the idea is a good one. Pinkie doesn't have much of an attention span with a lot of things, but the real Pinkie does still value staying friends with the mane 6 over a little in the moment fun, unlike the others. It's not flawless, but they couldn't just keep all the Pinkies running around town 24/7.