SPOILERS? Mariusioannesp Reviews: "The Saddle Row Review" · 5:12am May 23rd, 2016

WARNING!!! The following contains SPOILERS for the latest episode of MLP “The Saddle Row Review”.

Not “Saddle Row & Rec” for some reason.

Now, without further a-Welcome-to-New-York-It’s-been-waiting-for-you-do, here is my review of “The Saddle Row Review”.

Rarity has opened that new shop of hers in Manehattan, Rarity For You! She just got the newspaper with the review in it, and can’t wait to read it with her friends. Her friends though fear the worst because they accidentally revealed to the reporter doing the interview all the things that went on that they didn’t tell Rarity that would have spelled disaster for her store’s opening. They screw up by trying to do what they think Rarity would want them to do. Did Rarity’s friends learn what it really means to do what Rarity would want them to do?

So what’s the verdict?

I was expecting something a bit different, but what we ended up getting was great!

So yeah, I liked it!

We begin not at the beginning but actually close to the end of this episode’s story. That’s right. This episode presents its story in a way that’s never been seen before with a series of flashbacks to the various incidents in question. Anywho, the episode starts with the Mane 6 sans Rarity, or Remane 5 if you will, scrambling to get to Rarity’s house before she gets to the newspaper with the potentially damaging review of her Manehattan store in it. They regret having blabbed to the reporter all the sordid details behind the scenes that spelled disaster for the opening. Rarity opens the door once they arrive, having been expecting them.

Because she wanted to read the review together! Rainbow Dash tries to dissuade Rarity from reading the review and Twilight Sparkle tries to explain what happened, but Rarity insists on no spoilers.

Rarity begins reading the review of the opening of her new store Rarity For You on Manehattan’s Saddle Row, the pinnacle of the Equestrian fashion industry. The review begins harmlessly enough, but Fluttershy decides to hide in a dress rack with their gala dresses from “Suited For Success” and “The Best Night Ever” way back in Season 1.

Continuity!

It then transitions suddenly to a flashback of Rarity in a Manehattan diner being interviewed for the article in question by the reporter Buried Lede.

Wait a minute.

J. Jonah Jameson? Is that you?

Either way, Buried Lede doesn’t actually figure that much in this episode. He mostly acts as the framing device through which the audience experiences hearing the story of what happened from each of the Mane 6 from their own perspectives to a certain extent.

The Remane 5 seem rather candid about how badly the opening went, though Rainbow doesn’t seem to grasp that the reporter is going to write everything she says down.

Anyway, we then have a flashback back to the hours before the opening of Rarity’s new store Rarity For You on Manehattan’s Saddle Row. It’s the street lined with the most fashionable boutiques in all of Equestria. They arrive at the spot Rarity picked out earlier this season in “The Gift of the Maud Pie” and find that it’s in a bit of a state of disrepair. Rarity is confident they can have everything ready for tonight though. That’s when Rarity is paid a visit by her pushy landlord Mr. Stripes, who is accompanied by his daughter Plaid Stripes.

Let’s take a look at this for a second. Mr. Stripes is a Russian-accented pony wearing a tracksuit, who is also Rarity’s landlord. The foreign-born landlord and tracksuit-wearing foreigner is something you see more often in media directed at a more adult audience; it’s something children might not get. Nevertheless, Mr. Stripes is the second Russian pony we’ve seen this season. Does this mean perhaps we might be seeing something like Stalliongrad made canon this season? Maybe I’m reading too much into this.

Anyway, Mr. Stripes also collects doll furniture. It’s the third thing he loves behind being pushy and his daughter, but he’d gladly part with it to make his daughter happy.

He puts it in no uncertain terms that he’d like Rarity to hire his daughter to work in her store, or he will raise her rent until she can’t afford it.

Despite this nepotism, Plaid Stripes is clearly qualified for this job. She suggests they should sell glow-in-the-dark teeth instead of clothes.

I’d also like to note that Plaid Stripes is the first clear example of a teenaged pony. I remember years ago, Digibro speculated that the Mane 6 had to be in their teens because there was no clearly teenaged pony body type. Well, now there is.

Moving right along, Rarity then finds there’s an infestation of a family of raccoons in the back of her store! Rarity requires Fluttershy’s assistance to get them out.

They show up during Fluttershy’s interview segments after they appear in the other flashbacks.

Next, they notice loud music reverberating through the ceiling from one of the floors upstairs.

Pinkie Pie and Rarity are rather divided on this.

Rarity goes up to get to the bottom of this.

I don’t know why, but I found this particularly funny.

Rarity finds a full-on dance club on the third floor.

Why does that pony look like Pinkie Pie? Could it be one Pinkie’s clones from “Too Many Pinkie Pies” way back in Season 3 escaped?

Her cutie mark is different though. Could she have mutated somehow and her cutie mark changed?

Turns out DJ Pon-3 has a residency at this club.

DJ Pon-3! Vinyl Scratch! This is like the third episode this season that’s had Vinyl Scratch in it.

Rarity tries to get to them to turn the music down, but it’s a no go.

That’s like the same security guard from “For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils” and “Equestria Games” in Season 4. Is there like one security guard in all of Equestria?

Back in the boutique, Twilight tries to make the best of the situation by sweeping to the beat emanating from upstairs.

Back in the diner, suddenly Applejack and Rainbow are being interviewed together for some reason.

Right, Applejack and Rainbow. It wasn’t catchy.

Rarity freaks out at a honking noise caused by a horn Plaid Stripes has installed at the top of the door because she thought it would have more pizzazz than the usual tinkling bell. She explains all this when she is interviewed at the diner!

Notice the spoons in her ears. More on that later.

Then, Rarity receives the shipment of clothes for the store from Ponyville. Unfortunately, the clothes got completely disorganized in transit. Luckily though, that’s when Rarity’s new sales associate for Rarity For You Coco Pommel arrives.

Yay! It’s Coco Pommel! And she’s working for Rarity now! Hooray for her! Hooray for everyone!

Unfortunately, Coco Pommel is feeling a tad under the weather and can’t work at the store tonight. She’s still sick when even she gets interviewed.

With everything that’s going on and everything going wrong, Rarity begins to crack!

Everything needed to be perfect for the opening because that’s how you roll in Manehattan. Even with all the Mane 6 working together, it won’t be enough. They can’t postpone the opening because it’s the last night of the fall season. Last night of fall, you say. I will keep that in mind when I add this episode to my chronology. Anywho, Rarity thinks the only solution is to make copies of herself. In Pinkie’s subsequent interview segment, she references the events of “Too Many Pinkie Pies”. Continuity!

Wait! Let’s take a closer look.

It’s another Pinkie Pie! And she’s wearing a hat! Perhaps there were some clones from “Too Many Pinkie Pies” that got away.

Back at the boutique, Twilight insists they can do this all while staying true to Rarity’s vision. They just have to divide all the remaining tasks among themselves. Fluttershy will get the racoons out. Applejack will handle Plaid Stripes. Pinkie Pie will reluctantly quiet the party club upstairs. Twilight suggests that she could organize Rarity’s shipment. Actually, suggest is not strong enough; she pleads to do it!

And Rainbow Dash will hire Rarity’s staff. Rarity will then be able to focus solely on the boutique’s window display.

Rainbow Dash is impersonating Rarity… Yet again. Eyup. This is the season where every Mane 6er impersonates each other.

As Rarity dedicates herself to the window display, Pinkie first heads up to the Vinyl Scratch’s dance club to put a stop to their noise. Pinkie wonders what would Rarity want. She imagines a shoulder angel and shoulder devil Rarity telling her to keep the party going, before reminding her that Rarity would never say such a thing.

Hay! Wait a minute…

Rarity, I can see your haylo
Hay, it won't fade away!

Anyhay, Pinkie brings the party to a screeching halt by insisting Vinyl Scratch play a record of shopping mall music.

On the employee hiring front, Rainbow is selecting employees for Rarity’s store from this rather eclectic group.

That pony on the end… Is that a mare? Because it kind of looks like a stallion, and this is New York… You know what, never mind. This group of ponies is apparently inspired by a group of real life fashion professionals.

But this Karl Lagerfeld is a man, and this is a mare supposedly… You know what. I’m not going to think about this.

Rarity’s boutique requires only the best employees, and for Rainbow, that means the fastest. But then Rainbow also wonders what would Rarity want. So, she instead has the prospective employees guess what kind of fabric she’s presenting them, something called organza in this case. Problem is, as Rainbow puts it in her interview segment, Rainbow knows nothing about clothes, only whether or not something is clothes.

That’s about where I stand as well.

Moving on, Applejack is trying to handle Plaid Stripes’ eccentricities. Plaid Stripes wants all the clothes to be made of spoons. In her interview segment, Applejack confesses that she thinks spoon clothes would be a good idea. Really, Applejack. I admit, I don’t know anything about clothes, but I know clothes made out of spoons would be ridiculous. Applejack finds herself also thinking what would Rarity want. I’m sensing a theme here. So, she tells her no, but this has disastrous consequences.

On the clothes organizing front, Twilight has successfully organized all Rarity’s clothes stock by color. Then she wonders herself what would Rarity want. Perhaps not by color. So, Twilight starts over.

On the raccoon front, Fluttershy approaches the raccoon family and despite her personally wanting them to remain there in perpetuity, after wondering what Rarity would want, she reluctantly asks them to vacate the premises. This also has disastrous consequences.

So now everything is a disaster! Rainbow doesn’t know who to hire and just has them guessing fabric. Applejack has to contend with an angry Mr. Stripes over her rejecting Plaid’s spoon clothes idea.

Pinkie Pie panics when Vinyl starts remixing the shopping music. Fluttershy has to contend with angry raccoons running amuck.

Twilight is still scrambling to organize Rarity’s stock in a way that would appeal to her. In the midst of all this chaos, Twilight notices Rarity is about to exit the window display. She leaps across the room in slow motion and locks Rarity in with a broom.

I think this is a reference to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. That’s another movie I’ve never seen.

Rarity makes the best of her current situation and decides to continue working on the window display. Twilight parleys with the rest of her friends to get to the bottom of what went wrong. They all reach the exact same conclusion. They did everything the way they think Rarity would want. Twilight realizes that Rarity knows them all so well that she trusts them to solve these problems their own way. That is what they should do. That is a lesson I can stand behind! So the Remane 5 go off to rectify the situation before Rarity finds out how badly they screwed up. Fluttershy apologizes to the raccoons and allows them to stay as long as they want, but she requires a favor from them. Pinkie returns to Vinyl’s dance club to apologize for trying to sabotage her music. She proposes a way to make her party even better. Rainbow returns to the prospective employees and declares she will hire the pony who can make it to the river and back the fastest. Applejack apologizes to Mr. Stripes and Plaid and suggests a way to put some of Plaid’s ideas to good use.

Later in the evening, Twilight finally lets Rarity out of the window display.

Rarity finds that the entire store is finally ready to go.

Twilight managed to organize everything by style, cross-referenced by size, and reverse-indexed by fabric. You can find anything in three seconds flat. She calls it her finest work.

My aren’t we smug.

Rarity opens Rarity For You to find a whole line of ponies waiting to come in! Rarity wasn’t anticipating such a crowd, but Rainbow ended up hiring all the prospective employees. Despite them being too slow for Rainbow’s liking, they finished the race and knew a lot more about fabric than Rainbow did. Vinyl Scratch is also there getting everything turnt up. Pinkie thought a boutique/dance club would be a great idea. It kind of is.

My gosh! How much does Pinkie Pie eat?!

Rarity also finds the raccoons are well-dressed and serving everypony tiny bowls of… I want to say soup.

After thoroughly bathing them, Fluttershy asked the raccoons to help out, and they were more than willing. Plaid Stripes is also there with her spoon couture so ponies can eat the soup.

Seems Applejack was right about the utility of spoon clothes. I die unconvinced!

In the end, we return to the present in Rarity’s boutique where the review ends by noting that even though they got off to a rocky start, the grand opening of Rarity For You was a stunning success. Rarity wonders why her friends didn’t tell her there were so many problems. They admit that they thought she had enough on her mind, and they didn’t want her to think it wasn’t perfect. For Rarity though, nothing could be more perfect than knowing she can always count on her friends.

But right before the credits roll, we get one last odd scene of Plaid Stripes eating soup in the interview diner with her hoof spoons.

And now for another installment of amusing background pony moments!

Once again those are the pony versions of the protagonists of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles that we saw in the last Manehattan episode “The Gift of the Maud Pie” and last season’s “Hearthbreakers”.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Still, a movie I haven’t seen.

Nope, you’re eyes do not deceive you. Those are pony versions of Jules and Vincent from Pulp Fiction!

Pulp Fiction. That is a movie I have seen. In fact, I consider it to be two-thirds of a good film.

I’m surprised that diner didn’t get robbed in the end.

This episode is the second this season written by Nick Confalone, the first being “No Second Prances”. At this point, it’s easy to see Mr. Confalone’s specialty is a weird sense of humor that I can’t help but find amusing. He really takes advantage of this episode’s unique temporal framework to craft some really bizarre, but funny moments. For me, it was when somepony you didn’t expect ends up being interviewed by Buried Lede in the diner.

Speaking of the temporal framework, that’s the thing that makes this episode so unique. This episode utilizes a very unique timeline consisting of a flashback with a series of further flashbacks. Or actually, it’s a series of flashbacks that flashback to the same flashback… Or something like that. Nonetheless, there has never been an episode of MLP like this before. In fact, I don’t recall ever seeing a show that attempted anything like this before. You usually have a flashback or a series of flashbacks, but never both and from one to the other.

To a certain extent, this episode gives us what we didn’t see in “Canterlot Boutique” last season. I believe some felt robbed of the chance of seeing all that Rarity would have to do to get her boutique running in last season’s “Canterlot Boutique”. In that episode, the Canterlot Carousel was ready for it’s grand opening within the first few minutes of the show. Of course, “Canterlot Boutique” wasn’t about the struggles Rarity encountered getting her boutique ready. It was about Rarity’s struggle when everypony just wants this one dress. That’s what that episode needed to be about. This episode is about the hijinks that arise when Rarity tries to get her boutique ready. That’s what this episode needed to be about.

As for what I didn’t like,… I got nothing. This was a very solid episode.

The only thing though is where is that swan boat?! I predicted in the past that this would be the episode with the Rainbow, Pinkie, and Maud Pie with swan boat, but it wasn’t! Frankly, I wouldn’t put it past them that there will be yet another Manehattan episode this season. I guess only time will tell when it comes to swan boats.

Overall, “The Saddle Row Review” was a really fun episode with a really unique framework to tell its story.

What did y’all think of “The Saddle Row Review”?

God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.