Episode Re-Review: Viva Las Pegasus · 5:07pm May 31st, 2021
A lot of people had become quite disappointed with the table map when it started sending ponies to places as familiar as Manehattan and Canterlot. And even its return for Season 6 hadn't been so stellar since Rarity's portrayal and a strawman critic overshadowed what few new elements there were. So with all that going on, the idea of a map mission to someplace entirely brand new was quite enjoyable. However, the writing team was something of a concern: Kevin Burke and Chris "Doc" Wyatt, again teaming up with Michael Vogel on the story like they had done for "The Times They Are a Changeling". Yet this episode seems to be among the better map missions and better Season 6 episodes, even though it was the third appearance of the Flim Flam brothers. I mean, it must be good if Applejack and Fluttershy got paired up again in Season 8 even though it seems "The Sounds of Silence" stole this episode's thunder. But has this episode deserved its reputation? Well, let's find out.
The episode doesn't waste any time, it jumps straight into the story as Applejack and Fluttershy find out they're being called to Las Pegasus. Applejack refers to it as a "Wild Vacation Spot" and Fluttershy mentions how overwhelming it is, but Twilight again expresses her confidence in the map (I mean, it hasn't been wrong yet) and so Applejack and Fluttershy accept their mission. We then cut to them in Las Pegasus (maybe Twilight teleported them given the pop sound we hear?) where it's even more crowded than they thought. They soon arrive at a hotel within the strip, though the depictions of gambling seem to have changed quite a bit considering the whole thing feels more like an arcade or entertainment complex than a casino.
The hotel does feature live performances though, and the hotel's owner is a pony named Gladmane. Basically, he's made to look like Biff Tannen from Back to the Future and he's an obvious Elvis Presley nod (complete with the obvious mannerisms and catchphrases).
Gladmane mentions that he's a "Friendship Conousier" (whatever that means) and offers to take Applejack and Fluttershy on a tour of his hotel since he knows they're friends of Princess Twilight. We get to see an acrobatics show as well as creatures called pink prairie dogs, a stand in for tigers since we have two stallions based on the famous yet controversial tiger tamers Sigfried and Roy. But just as the tour is coming to an end, Applejack overhears two very familiar voices. Sure enough, the voices are Flim and Flam who are now apparently competing against each other to try to sell tickets for the show. Fluttershy believes that this must be the friendship problem, but Applejack refuses to believe it due to her family's history with the brothers.
So Applejack goes looking for a "real" friendship problem while Fluttershy attempts to play family counselor/therapist to get Flim and Flam to talk to each other, but to no avail. Fortunately, Applejack overhears arguments between the acrobat and the director over how the show should go down, and we get a ponyfied Scooter from The Muppets (even down to having a similar voice).
There's also a disagreement between the pink prairie dog tamers over what they're supposed to be making. In both instances, this fighting makes it so that the performers are stuck working at Gladmane's place because they can't agree on anything. Applejack talks to Fluttershy about her findings at the food court, as we see a cameo of Svengallop looking rather washed up (I guess Rara spread the word about what a bad manager he was and got him blacklisted). They suspect that Gladmane must be involved somehow since he's the only one who benefits from all of this, but the performers all insist their problem is just with each other and not with Gladmane. However, Fluttershy finds out via the rabbit the acrobat pulled out of her hat and via the pink prairie dogs that Gladmane has been spreading lies to keep undermining the performers, pitting them against each other. This is a little bit too convenient for my tastes. Why not have Fluttershy learn about this from her separate talks with Flim and Flam, thus having her piece it together that way? There's more to Fluttershy than just talking to animals and being shy.
Plus, it would give more of a reason for Fluttershy to suggest using Flim and Flam to trick Gladmane into telling the truth. This is especially prominent considering it turns out Gladmane was lying to them too, and somehow the brothers never realized it or confronted each other over such accusations. They also claim that Applejack never lies, even though they were responsible for forcing her into a situation where she did (lying by omission). However, they do seem to agree to let bygones be bygones with Applejack in order to pull a con on Gladmane. To that end, they dress Fluttershy up as Impossibly Rich who is apparently a high ranking member within the Rich family (no word on if she actually exists or what she might be, at least one meme suggests she's Diamond Tiara's grandmother) and make it look like she's come to scout out the competition. Gladmane tries to play off his worries, even revealing to Flim that he has plans to expand and take over the entire Las Pegasus strip with similar hotels.
Eventually, Gladmane exposes Fluttershy and avoids the set-up to confess his "secret". You might think that this means Applejack and Fluttershy struck out, and Gladmane boasts about his apparent victory. Interestingly, when pressed on this he admits that what he's doing is mean but his mentality seems to be if "If it works it works".
However, it turns out that Gladmane walked right into an engineered confession. Flim and Flam even anticipated this, using the fake rich pony called "The High Roller Hustle" (which Gladmane claims he "practically invented") to lure Gladmane into a false sense of security. An interesting detail is that if you look closely, you can see Fluttershy leaning onto Gladmane's desk as he starts talking, which thus foreshadows the revelation that she had her hoof on the intercom the whole time. Gladmane is thus exposed and runs away, his empire crumbling around him.
In a reference that may fly over some people's heads, a statue of Gladmane is toppled in a fashion similar to the toppling of a statue of Saddam Hussien after he was captured during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 (though some historical artwork suggests that statues of ousted leaders have been pulled down throughout history). Applejack and Fluttershy express their gratitude to Flim and Flam for helping, mentioning how it must've felt good to put their talents to use for a selfless cause for a change. But the brothers insist it was a "Once in a lifetime" thing, and then use their snake oil salespony ways to get ponies to pay admission price for an empty entertainment venue. But hey, at least now they have a semi-legitimate business. There really is no reason why they had to keep on doing cons (especially in such a painfully obvious fashion).
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, I do like how it manages to surprise you. You might think that Flim and Flam are the only friendship problem, or that Gladmane is going to fall for the ruse of a fake rich pony. You might also think that Fluttershy or Applejack will spend most of the episode struggling to adjust to Las Pegasus, but none of that is what happens. It's clear that the map chose them because it anticipated their reactions: Applejack being determined not to work with the brothers under any circumstances and Fluttershy wanting to help them reconcile. For all the one off minor antagonists, Gladmane is definitely the best and he comes the closest to being a villain who doesn't see himself as one. I do question what the long term goal is of keeping all your performers fighting with each other, because that means they're not coming up with new routines and eventually audiences will get bored and stop coming. It's not like he eventually plans to replace them all either, he intends to keep using the same talent at least until he has the entire strip under his control. It is also kind of odd that Flim and Flam go back to being antagonists at the very end of the episode, but at the same time they could easily be pragitical villains (at least until they slip back into their old ways). However, the real disappointment is that there's no song in the episode even though Flim and Flam have done musical routines before, and Las Vegas is of course home to all sorts of Elvis impersonators (Elvis himself performed there late in his career). None of it sinks the episode though, giving it ultimately a borderline A-/A.
But sadly, it's all more or less downhill from here for Season 6 not that the rest of the season is completely beyond salvation. But it would still shoot itself badly in the foot with "Every Little Thing She Does", which would make Starlight Glimmer's entire redemption look questionable.
This is an episode that I've kinda come to enjoy less in hindsight.
It's still the best Flim flam brothers appearance, but that's not saying much.
I'd have liked this a lot more if this was either their last appearance or fi they genuinely reformed in the end.
5527771 I do agree, that's the one thing that drags down this episode. I mean, Flim and Flam have no narrative reason to do what they do in Season 8 now that they have Gladmane's establishment. It's just like The Penguin running The Iceberg Lounge even while he still has his illegal underworld dealings. It gives him a front to keep Batman and the GCPD from touching him.
Yup, he finally got his "Karma Houdini Warranty". Also, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who was expecting a future episode where Svengallop and Gladmane team-up to get revenge on Applejack for ruining their businesses.
Rest of season 6 is downhill? I don't know about that. 22-26 are all great.
5527900 No other episode is going to be better than this for the rest of Season 6. Some of them will be decent or good in their own rights, but none will top this episode's writing quality.
5527925
I mean that's fair I guess, though I would disagree. PPOV is much more memorable and funny than this, Top Bolt is really well written, and the finale, while not one of the strongest finales, is still really strong with the great chemistry comedy and uniqueness.
Out of curiosity...
Can you help me find more people who’d like to join the Gladmane group I recently founded?
5531260 I can try.
5531263
Thanks.
I haven’t had much luck in finding more members myself despite promoting the group, and I think part of that comes from not knowing how many people are actually a fan of the character.