The One Where Pinkie Knows Review · 5:16pm Oct 17th, 2015
Last week was an unexpected mind blower, and my new all time favorite episode, so this episode had a tough act to follow. It was penned by G. M. Berrow, and at first glance you'd probably think she was a relatively new writer plucked from the depths of obscurity. But if you thought that, you thought
Berrow has actually written chapter books for the show, starting with "Twilight Sparkle and The Crystal Heart Spell", as well as a series of books based on Daring Do (and from what I've heard, many people like them more than her other books). Some of her normal chapter books have been good, others have been rather bad. So, how did she do with her first episode, featuring the tricky character that is Pinkie Pie?
Well, let's find out.
We begin with Pinkie Pie working on breaking her own record for a huge display of cup cakes, when Mrs. Cake comes in with a scroll, revealing that Shining Armor and Princess Cadence have placed a huge order for a big surprise. The surprise is, Cadence is pregnant, and the baby is likely the Princess Skyla doll from the toy line.
Mrs. Cake insists that Pinkie Pie not tell anyone, which I have to complain about. Yes, telling random strangers would be bad, but not telling Twilight feels rather absurd since she's the aunt to be. As an immediate family member, she should be the first one to know about this sort of information. I get that they want to surprise her, but considering what happened with the wedding, I really don't think that's a good idea.
Even so, Pinkie Pie swears to secrecy, even though she has a hard time keeping it a secret. This makes the episode feel like a second take on "Green Isn't Your Color" and you all know how much I don't like that episode. It even carries a similar concept of not telling a secret, even when the reason for keeping said secret isn't very compelling. I'm sorry, but I just can't buy this sort of premise. I'm not holding it completely against the episode, but it just doesn't make sense for Twilight to be kept in the dark. But let's see if they can hopefully not dwell on this too much.
Pinkie Pie arrives at Twilight's castle, and almost confesses right on the spot. Thankfully, she barely manages to keep her mouth shut, and promises to help Twilight get a surprise ready for Shining Armor. During this time, she confides in her friends about knowing a secret, though she's vague about who knows and what the secret involves. But her friends say that telling a secret to anypony is wrong, and you'll have to live with the guilt. This makes Pinkie Pie so uneasy that she actually smashes through one of the castle walls. It's been a while since we've seen Pinkie Pie this close to losing it.
Deciding to take the easy way out, Pinkie Pie vows to lock herself in her room until Shining Armor and Cadence arrive. But Mr. Cake points out that Pinkie Pie agreed to be his back up baker and make some deliveries. We get some very touching interaction between Pinkie Pie and Mr. Cake, as Pinkie Pie remembers that she never breaks a Pinkie Promise. She goes around town, trying to make deliveries, and the CMC approach her, asking if she's heard any good gossip because they're bored. I guess nopony in Ponyville is having trouble figuring what their cutie mark means.
Pinkie Pie darts away after claiming she knows nothing, and decides to go into stealth mode for the rest of her deliveries.
At last, with the deliveries completed, Pinkie Pie is convinced she has nothing to do until the next day. But Gummy reminds her that she has some Pinkie Promises that she needs to keep.
Said promises involve working as a balloon vender at the schoolyard (during which, Featherweight speaks and says he wants a baby pony), helping Mayor Mare file documents at town hall (and we get an anti joke in which it looks like she knows something, but in reality she doesn't. Guess she doesn't believe in spying), and bring over the food for when Shining Armor and Cadence arrive. At last, it looks like Pinkie Pie has nothing to do. But then comes a bombshell, Shining Armor and Cadence will be delayed until Saturday, and this causes Pinkie Pie to flip out. Her friends, sensing that something is wrong, suddenly decide to reverse their stance on secret keeping, and ask Pinkie Pie to tell them. In her mind, Pinkie Pie sees her friend's faces as balloons, tormenting her. Just like when Discord was playing mind games with her in the labyrinth.
(I wouldn't put it past Discord to mess with ponies for the fun of it from time to time. He never said he'd use his magic for good all the time.)
Fortunately, Shining Armor and Cadence arrive, but they decide not to tell Twilight for a little bit longer about their secret. Pinkie Pie angrily tells Shining Armor that what he's planning had better be worth it, and Shining Armor promises her that it will. It turns out that the plan is to set up a scavenger hunt, and at the end, there will be a prize for Twilight. During this point, we learn that even Mayor Mare has been told about the secret. And once again, I fail to see why she should take priority over an immediate family member, since Shining Armor and Cadence don't even reside in Ponyville.
Pinkie Pie becomes furious at how slow her friends are to realize what's going on, and claims that she knows a lot of things that her friends don't. She points them to the record room at town hall, as well as the furniture store (which is holding a sale for cribs), and finally to Sugarcube Corner, where the secret is finally revealed after it takes Twilight a little bit of time to process all the clues. (Anyone else suddenly getting a Blues Clue vibe from this?)
When the secret is finally revealed, Pinkie Pie breaths a sigh of relief, before she falls to pieces. And the episode ends with Princess Cadence asking her if it was hard to keep it a secret, to which Pinkie Pie says that it was a piece of cake, then she breaks the fourth wall to let us all know that it wasn't.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, despite the ridculousness of the premise, and what it had to follow, I think this episode did a pretty good job. Pinkie Pie was wonderfully in character, as were the mane six for the most part, though I really don't know if I can say the same for Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. It was interesting to hear Featherweight speak, and the CMC cameo was intertaining, though I would've liked to see Diamond Tiara appear during the schoolyard scene, possibly with Silver Spoon. We had some pretty good jokes, the best one involving Rainbow Dash commenting on Pinkie Pie's behavior. But the ending feels a bit anti-climatic, and we get no sort of closure on whether or not Pinkie Pie's friends would've forgiven her for spilling the beans about Cadence being pregnant, or why Shining Armor and Cadence decided to keep it a secret from Twilight until the party. In the end, the premise and a few questionable decisions hurt this episode a little, so I give it an A. This puts it above "Party Pooped" but below "Rarity Investigates" which had a better premise and story, as well as some good humor, it just needed to give Wind Ryder more of a motivate than a petty jealousy scheme (Scooby Doo does that all the time), and not make it so obvious it was him (a red hering or two would've been nice). For her first episode of the show. Berrow did pretty good, though I hope she gets a Daring Do episode if she stays on the writing staff for Seasons 6 and beyond.
Next week, we have "Hearthbreakers" in which Applejack is looking forward to spending Hearth's Warming with the Pie family, but discovers that her friends have different ways of celebrating the holiday. What's this? A Christmas themed episode in October? Is this "The Nightmare Before Christmas" all over again? All joking aside, it's written by the same person who wrote "Party Pooped", so I'm cautiously optimistic about it. He'll be on his own, and I think he'll do fine with Pinkie Pie, Applejack, the Apple Family, and Maud Pie (it's not that hard to write her, you just need to make sure you include some of her heart). It's Pinkie's family that I'm most worried about, I hope they won't be clones of Maud or as one note as The Yaks. I also hope it won't be a rehash of the story from "Pinkie Pie and The Rocking Ponypalooza Party" (which G. M. Berrow wrote), it's a good book, but I would rather they do something original instead of copying someone else.
This is easily in my top five for the season because of how funny it is.
I hope next weeks episode won't be boring, but it might Surprise me.
It was ok. Not the best but was enjoying to see different characters have a spotlight for once.
Also the joke about Applejack's birth certificate XD
3476936 I don't think it will be boring. If it were in the hands of a writer who's more consistently proven to be good, I'd have higher expectations. The writer picked probably won't do a bad job considering how well he did in "Party Pooped", though he had Jim and Jayson to help him out, so we'll have to see how well he can do on his own.
3477042 Yeah, I thought for sure Applejack was trying to hide something when she suddenly got nervous about the others seeing it.
I think i might know why they told mayor mare, i mean if two people walked up to you and asked " hey can we stick this note on a pony's birth certificate." I'm sure all of us would ask why.
besides the episode said that Shining and twilight used to love scavenger hunts so he was doing that to get her excitied
3477164 How it was either of those things?
HIGH-LIGHTS:
- The concept plays well with a rule in Pinkie Pie's religion (Judaism, according to various headcanons) that prohibits the spread of gossip.
- Pinkie Pie's portrayal here lacks a problem. In fact, she's the only character on-screen one could stand to look at.
LOW-LIGHTS:
- Abundance of unnecessary shots (like those of the other Mane 6 and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, both of whom are here for seemingly no reason whatsoever.
- It's kind of a skewing device, according to Dana Woolery, aka Dyslexic Foal: She and I would only see it as entertaining to the average juvenile and/or the average audience of the great Pinkie Pie; most older audiences need not bother...
3477043 It was nice to see Feather Weight talk again though, but his voice sounds a tad different.
I liked the episode overall, but there's one moment that immediately caught my attention
The waving inflatable pony outside the furniture store, that reference was so obvious!
3477420 When did he previously speak? I don't recall him ever speaking prior to this episode.
3478504 Nvm, I mistook his voice for that black spot and blue colt.
3478524 Yeah, I figured that they sounded the same. I just wish I knew who the VA for them is.