My Review of MLP: FIM season 8 episode 17 The End in Friend · 7:39pm Oct 28th, 2023
Grading Scale:
A (fantastic episode)
A- (an excellent episode with at least one flaw)
B+ (a great episode with a couple of flaws)
B (a good episode which still could have been better)
B- (a good episode with numerous flaws but still rewatchable)
C+ (a decent episode)
C (eh... it’s not terrible but not good either)
C- (it’s not worth rewatching although it does have good elements)
D+ (a bad episode with a few good things in it)
D (a really bad episode with wasted potential)
D- (a terrible episode with badly written characters and butchered moral)
F (horrible and unwatchable)
Greetings, everyone! This is Mr. J back with another MLP episode review for today. This afternoon, I will be reviewing the seventeenth episode of season eight entitled “The End in Friend”. This episode has some interesting twists and turns, to say the least. I actually expected this to suck ass, but to my surprise, it wasn’t all that bad. Still, it wasn’t that great either due to the selected main characters acting weird in this second to last season of the show.
The episode begins with Starlight bringing Rarity to class where Twilight was already teaching the students with Rainbow Dash beside her. They wanted to demonstrate to the students what the unique friendship between Rarity and Rainbow is like despite the fact that they have nothing in common. When they were questioned how they were even friends to begin with, both ponies struggle to provide an adequate answer.
This is where their conflict arises: they have zero interest in each other’s favorite hobbies except for the fact that they help each other on a special occasion. So when tasked to each participate in the other’s favorite activities, they each fail to compromise and resort to petty fights. So they had to be taken to a gem cave because they both love to treasure-hunt there.
It worked well for only a few seconds until Rainbow accidentally broke all the gems Rarity was carrying. Then they broke out in anger and decided to no longer be friends after everything they went through today. That whole bit just seemed a little…out of nowhere, in my opinion. They’ve been friends for a very long time, and this whole situation was serious enough to break their friendship apart? The execution of this premise felt very janky and awkward.
Here’s my issue with this show: they (especially the new writers) tackle very serious themes in a kid’s show and solve these issues under the 22-minute runtime. Themes like this deserve much more attention and care for at least a few episodes because it is not easy to repair a broken friendship—including a friendship that lasted for a long time. So this concept could have been written excellently if it took some risks.
Even though Gillian Berrow only wrote nine episodes (including this) for the show, at least she has a basic understanding of these characters and tried to do something unique with this premise even if it had sloppy execution.
But kids need to learn that some friendships may never be the same again, especially since everyone has different ways in expressing their feelings. Some can be remedied whereas others can’t. In Rainbow and Rarity’s case, this is just a type of friendship that needed a reminder of how much they mean to each other despite their differences.
And they only came to that conclusion once they were assigned to finding a missing artifact. As they sought for it together, they found themselves outside the school and within the forest. Following the blue glitter trail, they came to a stop once it reached its dead end. To look for more directions, they found a sensitive-hearing frog and asked for some information.
But they had to talk quietly and give some mint-tasting paste to the frog so they won’t smell his horrible breath. Then the frog told them where to look for the blue glitter trail. It simply pointed them…to look up. Just…like that. Look up. LOOK UP. They wasted two minutes with that beast just to be told to look up?! HOW COULD THEY NOT SEE IT IN PERIPHERAL VISION?! That was just a dumb scene to animate.
Anyway, they make it to the top where the trail led them to a cave. Rarity uses a lock piece from her fancy boot to unlock the door, allowing them to enter there. But it led them straight back to the school where Twilight and the others were waiting for them. It was then revealed that they set this whole thing up just to bring them together again. Wow, I totally didn’t see that coming. 🙄
So they learn their lesson about appreciating the value of friendship even when friends don’t have much in common or like the same things they like. So overall, it was a decent episode that had a fun concept to work with. I only wish it had better execution to make it more realistic and mature.
Gillian Berrow is a 50/50 writer at best. Her episodes range from boring and forgettable to decent. I think the only episode I found to be legitimately good is “Daring Done”. Other than that, she’s not that great or bad. At least she isn’t Nicole Dubuc-levels of terrible, I’ll tell ya that. This episode gets a C+!
Peace.
"Daring Done" was one of my favorite MLP episodes, so you're not alone on that. "Fluttershy Leans In", "Dance Magic", and "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" were also fun & engaging to watch in their own way. At least, in my opinion.
The episodes she wrote for Seasons 8 & 9, on the other hand...they weren't exactly ones that stood out to me, so to speak.
5752654
Ah, so you weren’t exactly pleased with this episode then?
5752669
That is correct.
In my opinion, this once again showcases why I believe hiring Nicole Dubuc as co-story editor for the 8th and 9th seasons wasn’t such a good idea. I mean, Josh Haber at least had history with the show, and it was clear that he took the time to acquaint himself with the overall world and characters, but when Dubuc came in the picture as co-story editor…well, for me, that’s when the show started going downhill.
5752671
That, I agree with. And I find it interesting that Gillian Berrow wrote less episodes than Nicole, yet they turn out to be less terrible than Nicole’s.
Pretty funny, eh?
5752673
Yeah, that is funny.
You’d think that given her history of writing both episodes and books based on G4, Berrow would be promoted to story editor for a season or more. But no, Hasbro had to go and hire somebody who was both completely new and had little understanding of the overall series for the job.
🙄Talk about terrible business choices.
5752675
Indeed!
Good luck with what I consider to be
The Worst Episode of the Whole Show.