"Leap of Faith" Review · 7:58pm Mar 29th, 2014
Was this a phenomenal episode? Absolutely. Applejack's best episode to date? Without a doubt.
So Granny Smith is getting old - like she's always been - and can't really do much. Applejack, Big Mac and Applebloom are having fun in a lake, but Granny is just chilling by the river-side. She explains it's because she used to be a really good diver back when she was young; but ended up screwing her hip, and now she's scared to swim. Fast-forward a minute and we see the Flim Flam Brothers! They're selling this new tonic which can cure a pony from any diseases or problems - coming from things like phobias. Granny Smith drinks some and she feels young again, and starts to swim, but at a dangerous level. Applejack ends up lying by saying the tonic was good, when for real it was fake. The Flim Flam Brothers gets mobbed again and Applejack gets her key.
Now, let's talk about how the episode went.
So this key episode was amazing. Applejack was a great character with some really good voice acting. The whole situation she's going through, with Big Mac or with Applebloom, worked. The Flim Flam Brothers were also awesome; and they stole every scene they were in. The whole idea for the plot was just really well done. The pacing was near-perfect, the dialogue was great and Applejack was her best here. This is a reason not to hate her. She was actually fun to watch. But if the tonic didn't work, why was Granny Smith swimming again? Being reminded of the past? Sure, but watch it for yourself.
Even the lesson at the end was great and really made sense. This is something which can teach people not to fear their inner phobias. The only problems I can really give were some weird animations at times during the episode. But these were very infrequent.
Huh... I... shit! There's no cons other than that that I can point out in this episode. It was pretty much near-perfect. Damn!
Pros
-Applejack's best episode
-Flim Flam Brothers were awesome
-Great overall ending and lesson
-Fantastic elements which make a story work
-Everypony got their key, Twilight! You're next!
Cons
-Some underwhelming animations
9.85/10
Honestly, if it wasn't for the moral, I wouldn't have liked this episode all that much. I just couldn't buy the fact that the FlimFlam brothers were being allowed back in Ponyville after what happened last time, and thus the whole premise sorta fell apart for me. But the moral was really something to be admired. Not only is it a good lesson on its own merits, but it's actually a subtle callback to a previous episode that I felt was very clever. That completely salvaged the episode for me.
Now that I think about it, that seems to be a thing with Josh Haber. The morals he presents are solid and well-executed (most of the time, anyway), but he seems to have trouble creating believable scenarios in the context of the show's canon.
Oh, flim and flam were in this episode? I need to start watching again.