Episode Re-Review: Just For Sidekicks · 5:21pm Mar 20th, 2021
Although this episode was the eighth in production order, it was bumped to the eleventh episode to air so that it could directly tie in with the episode coming immediately after it (something the show would only do once more throughout its run). It was a Spike episode, one written by newcomer Corey Powell at that who had penned the impressive "Sleepless in Ponyville" all by herself. So now she was moving from Scootaloo to Spike, a big step up even if the episode was labeling Spike a sidekick rather than a main character (which he definitely was). But considering Spike had just come off of "Spike At Your Service" where he was written horribly, another Spike episode had a lot to try and make up for. Was Corey Powell able to somehow turn things around for Spike? Well, let's find out.
We begin with Spike baking a jewel cake as Owlowiscious watches. We also see a series of framed photos that show Spike had to give Peewee back to his family. It turns out that the writers actually forgot Peewee even existed, so this was a last minute attempt to explain why he wasn't around. Already not a good sign. And what's even more of a "not a good sign" is Spike eating all the jewels for his cake and failing to realize this until Owlowiscious exposes him. I fail to see how this is supposed to be funny.
Spike begins moping and feeling sorry for himself when there's a knock at the door. Fluttershy is there with Angel and mentions that she needs someone to pet sit since she and her friends are going to the Crystal Empire to welcome an inspector. And Spike is inexplicably not invited despite the fact that he helped to save the empire. I guess they couldn't think of how to fit him into the next episode, but surely they could've found a way instead of having him not be invited to the place where he's a big hero and where he got his first big break.
Fluttershy happens to have a really big jewel on her hooves, so that gives Spike the idea to become a pet sitter. And he decides to do it for all the other pets in exchange for jewels, really channeling his inner Money Bags (he even says at one point to Pinkie Pie when offering his services "It doesn't come cheap.") even though he's a dragon and not a bear.
Oddly enough, during this time we see Opal apparently start to develop feelings of affection for Tank (who is rather clumsy due to the magic propeller attached to his shell), and Pinkie Pie mentions getting Gummy a bigger pond and flossing his gums (which, why would she need to do that unless he was growing teeth?). Anyway, everyone agrees and brings their pets over to the library. Twilight is rather skeptical of this but still decides to let Spike pet sit Owlowiscious as she and the rest of the mane six head to the train station. But as soon as they leave the pets start acting up, Angel chief among them since he even slips away.
Spike eventually finds him in the care of the CMC, and decides to let them have all the pets while he goes shopping for more ingredients for his cake. However, Apple Bloom rightfully points out that Spike was supposed to watch them and demands compensation for Spike trying to pawn off his responsibilities. He gives up a small gem Rarity gave him (the smallest of the whole lot too), but later drops everything when he fears the CMC did something to Tank. Except it turns out Scootaloo forgot Tank could pull his head into his shell (guess she hasn't been hanging around with Rainbow Dash that much). And he can't get the gem back because the CMC already spent it on an industrial sized dryer. So Spike takes back the pets as we see Big Macintosh and Cheerilee in the background on what appears to be a picnic date, but the pets tie him to a tree. Zecora then shows up, and instead of helping Spike she takes one of his gems and donates it to charity because she thinks he's being greedy. So a frustrated Spike rolls up all the pets into a ball.
Granny Smith sees this and demands a gem as payment to keep quiet, tricking Spike out of another one. Then Spike finds Angel has gotten loose and is boarding a train. But the conductor refuses to let him board by himself because he needs a chaperone. So who can he take to accompany him and pass off as such? The Cutie Mark Crusaders, who were about to try getting sky diving cutie marks. He doesn't even have to buy tickets for them (though he does have to give up a jewel as a bribe), he just rushes with them onto the train to catch Angel. But it's too late, the train leaves the station and heads to the Crystal Empire. Upon arriving there, the Crusaders want to go see the empire but Spike refuses and insists they stay in their train car. So in response, Apple Bloom takes a feather from Scootaloo and tickles Spike into submission.
When the pets break free as a result, Spike has to give up another gem in compensation for damages to a vendor's cart. The CMC are delighted by the snowglobes at the train station, but Spike has to avoid being seen by the mane six as they're returning home on the next train. And he sacrifices the gem Fluttershy gave him to make a baggage cart spill its load on the platform and block Angel from meeting up with Fluttershy like he wants to. Then he, the pets and the CMC are all forced to hide under the train car seats in the same car the mane six are occupying. Spike's stomach threatens to expose him, and Angel looks primed to give away their position. But a heartfelt apology from Spike about how bad a pet sitter he was is enough to convince Angel not to go through with his plan and give that green gem (which he obtained somehow) to Spike to keep his stomach under control. With a little bit of stealthy manuvering, Spike and the CMC get off the train with the pets without being seen by the mane six.
Sweetie Belle almost gives them away, however, when she mentions the snowglobes and Rarity questions how Sweetie could know that. As for Spike, no one knows how ineffective he really was and it seems like he'll get by on the skin of his teeth. But then in a rather stupid ending twist, he eats the gem he was planning to use for his jewel cake and is now out of jewels again.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? It feels like it was written solely because they didn't wanna put Spike into the next episode, so they had to come up with something for him to do. Unfortunately, this something seems to have the same problem as "Apple Family Reunion" in that it doesn't seem like they knew how to write Spike but were determined to give him an episode all the same. It's supposed to be implied that he only cares about the jewels and not the pets, but we see time and time again that he does to the point where he forefits his jewels whenever he could be outed as a bad pet sitter. It feels like one of those episodes where the whole universe is against the character of focus, but I wouldn't say it's a torture porn because nothing outrageously bad happens to Spike that doesn't feel deserved. It's leagues above anything Squidward endured in any of his infamous torture porns. But much like "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well" they make Spike too sympathetic when we're not supposed to be rooting for him. In fact, I think most of us root for him over Angel because Angel again acts like a spoiled brat and is the only one who intentionally causes trouble. The CMC just feel tacked on and they too seem to exist solely to be mean to Spike because the episode says so. It's kind of a shame that, to my knowledge, this is the most they ever interact with each other because I would think Spike and CMC episodes would've been a plenty given that Spike is still somewhat of a child (to what extent is debatable). It is better than any of the unholy trilogy of Spike focus episodes, but still far below what "Secret of My Excess" and "The Crystal Empire, Part 2" brought to the table for him. So in the end, this episode gets a C-. I feel like I should be more upset with this episode than I am, and that seems to be because it can't decide if we're supposed to root for Spike or not.
So what's that next episode I keep talking about? Why it's none other than "Games Ponies Play" which would try (key word being "try") to do a Fawlty Towers kind of plot.
I actually have a bit of fun with this episode, to the point where I put it in the upper half of the season for me.
Remember back in your re-review of Feeling Pinkie Keen when I said Kyle Norty reviewed that episode as part of one of his series; Kids Are Smarter Than This? Well guess what. He reviewed this episode for another one of his series, Fixing the Flops, where he talks about episodes that he personally feels did something better than the episode he covered on KASTT. in the case of MLP: FIM, he used this episode to show how it does a better job of torturing a character for comedy purposes than Feeling Pinkie Keen. Here's a link to his review:
5479571 I don't know if this is necessarily an "Improvement". The comedy in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" was fine, slapstick humor at its finest and ultimately harmless in the grand scheme of things. The comedy here though, usually seems to come directly at Spike's expense even if he hasn't done anything.
5479592
Well you know what they say; humor is subjective. What you like others might not and vice versa.