My Little Pony Friendship is Magic - Season 6 Episode 23 "Where The Apple Lies" (SPOILERS) · 4:01pm Oct 8th, 2016
Before we begin: I have watched the season finale that was leaked early in the UK. I have written my review of it. I will not post that review until the Discovery Family airing in the US. All I will say for now is that I gave it a 10/10.
Now, let's get on with the episode there's been a lot of buzz about...
So...for all of you who thought we'd finally see AJ's parents in this one? Well...sorry, looks like they'll remain forever unseen.
The Zap Apple harvest has come once again, and Filthy Rich has come out to the farm to collect his consignment of Zap Apple Jam. (Oh hey, it's a callback to season two that isn't cringeworthy! And Filthy Rich is behaving true to character!) As he leaves, Applejack asks Apple Bloom, who's been helping pack up goods in the barn, if she put the Zap Apple jam and the Sweet Apple Cider in the same crates. Apple Bloom proudly says that she did, but then hedges when Applejack asks her if she marked the crates so they know what went where. It turns out that Apple Bloom failing to label the crates means Rich got a consignment of Sweet Apple Cider instead of his Zap Apple jam, and Apple Bloom's about to be in serious trouble with Granny Smith.
Fortunately for the Apples, Filthy Rich is an honest businesspony, and once he catches the mistake, he brings the cider back and exchanges it for the jam--visibly nervous about getting on Granny Smith's bad side. Applejack reads Apple Bloom the riot act for lying. This eventually leads to a story of when Applejack and Big Mac were younger, how Applejack wasn't always the most honest pony, and how one of her lies ended in calamity for the entire Apple Family.
We get to see AJ and Big Mac when they were younger. Big Mac was...quite talkative. 
Applejack and Big Mac fought constantly over which one should take over the farm--Applejack with her big ideas, or Big Mac with his horse sense and brawn. Because "you can't plow a field with ideas".
While running an errand, the Apple siblings run into Filthy Rich and his fiancee, Spoiled Milk. (Dear god, what were her parents THINKING?!) Applejack makes a deal with Filthy Rich, who is about to take over running Barnyard Bargains, to give him three barrels of cider to sell at Barnyard Bargains, even though the Apples have had a long-standing tradition of not wholesaling their cider. When Granny Smith finds out, she is PISSED and declares that there will absolutely not be any cider sold anywhere except at Sweet Apple Acres. Granny Smith explains why cider sold early is a bad idea--simply put, cider spoils a lot faster than Zap Apple jam.
After Granny told her no and Big Mac went on and ON about how he was right and Applejack was wrong, Applejack went to Barnyard Bargains to tell Rich they couldn't keep the agreement. When Rich got angry and threatened to break off business with Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack told a HUGE lie about Granny being sick to smooth things over.
Applejack's lie gets out of control when Rich and Spoiled Milk show up to the farm to visit "sick" Granny Smith. Trying to cover for her lie leads to an increasingly huge snowball of lies and prevarications, with Big Macintosh covering for her with rambling stories and Applejack just making things worse every time she opens her mouth. Finally, it gets so out of control that Rich and Spoiled Milk expect to see Granny Smith in the hospital and head over to visit her because she's apparently somehow caught the blight that's hit the orchards. 
In order to get Granny to the hospital, Applejack lies to HER, telling her that ponies in Ponyville are getting infected with apple blight and the doctors need an expert to consult. Applejack's plan to keep Filthy Rich from finding out about her lies is ridiculously overwrought and doomed to EPIC FAILURE. Even worse than most of the CMC's schemes. 
Ultimately, Applejack is forced to confess to her ridiculous blizzard of lies when Big Mac nearly gets a leg amputated. Once Applejack fesses up and Big Mac owns up to his own culpability in the whole mess, Granny chews EVERYPONY out and cows Filthy Rich and Spoiled Milk into submission.
Holy CRAP Granny Smith! 
This is easily the BEST Apple Family based episode of the entire series. Even better than Brotherhooves Social! I'm beyond pleased to give this one a 10/10.
I think an anon in the stream chat where I watched it said it best.
"A story about being honest and shutting the fuck up."
It was a nice episode. Also, I think a number of episodes would have had fewer problems if they had been presented in flashback format like this.
For once, we actually 100% agree on something in this season... and not just once, but twice in the same post, because I also gave both the finale and this episode a 10/10
I was hoping, but I was also doubting.
There's always season 7, though.
At least it explains why she's so rotten.
One thing I only noticed now during the ending scene is that Apple Bloom's eyes are half red and half orange. And I can't believe I didn't notice that until just now.
Very fun in a sitcom-y kind of way. Also, is it just me or did this episode fly by? I was shocked by how quickly it got to the third commercial break.
So, Diamond Tiara has to be at least a year younger than Apple Bloom, maybe 2 right? I'm guessing Apple Bloom in the flashback was an infant sitting in a crib for most of it. Anyone want to place bets on whether or not Spoiled Milk "made sure" Filthy would have to marry her?
The interesting question is not what the Hell Spoiled's parents were thinking (or drinking) when they named her. The interesting question is what turned the pompous gasbag of the past into the humble, laconic character BM is now. My guess has a lot to do with the rejected script that had him seek out the company of a mare who'd let him get a word in edge-wise.
The main lesson of the episode is not to tell lies because they'll catch up to you, and learn to listen to others instead of only talking. The side lesson was Granny Smith is one tough bad-flank, and only she runs the farm!
Yep best Apple family episode ever.
AJ looks adorable with her twin pigtails and her frailer body. Big Mac was a real chatterbox and look like a rebel. Did anyone notice his side glance at Cheerilee.
Also Derpy was at the hospital with a bandage around her eyes. Did she tried to arrange them or is this where she start having a lazy eye?
Oh, I noticed, all right. Sometimes, you just have to throw shippers a bone.
I'm not super surprised that we never met AppleMom and AppleDad this episode, but I am rather surprised that baby Apple Bloom never made an appearance. Were the parents on some sort of second honeymoon at the time? Is Spike actually older than the Crusaders? That last one's a little off-subject, but I've been curious about that for awhile.
4246297 "Granny, the apple blight was a lie!"
"Oh... I have some bad news, Applejack."
Just remembered: Did anyone else see that doctor mare standing by the operating table? The orange one with a purple mane? I think we may have just discovered ScootaMom. Between that and the ice skater guy (was he playing hockey?) from Tanks for the Memories, I think we may just know who Scootaloo's parents are.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/10/8/1268000__safe_screencap_smiling_derpy+hooves_frown_bandage_worried_spoiler-colon-s06e23_where+the+apple+lies.png
DERPY WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU
Now I can't see this scene without thinking about this at 3:52.
4246526 how do you think she became 'Derpy'?
4246297 Yeah, some people forget this is a Y-rated show...
4246302 It actually kinda did, now that you mention it.
4246317 Unless Apple Bloom wasn't born yet...
Also holy crap I completely missed Derpy in this episode. Origin story much?
...wait, no, she was already derped when she beat Rarity in the Applewood Derby, and they were younger than this. Probably just had a bad accident...
I was afraid when the episode started but it turned out pretty good.
4246584
I like to think Derpy was there to try to get her eyes fixed, but it didn't take. (I had something similar happen, in fact - I have lazy eye in my right eye, so at rest it's pointed about 45° to the right, and I once had surgery on the inner muscle of the eye to attempt to correct it. It straightened out the eye at first, but it drifted back out over the course of the next month or so.)
Probably whatever Rich's family did with their names. No wonder they both decided to break tradition with Diamond Tiara...assuming that's not just a nickname because her own name is something horrible too.
Did anyone else catch the twins from "The Shining" in the hospital hallway? That was a nice little easter egg too.
I had very low expectations when watching this, but it was actually not bad. The writing and the morale was well placed for once. Oh and it was great to hear Big Mac talk a lot.
4246740 I saw them, but I didn't know they were from anything.
4246526 Oops.
I definitely liked this little flashback ep that shows how AJ came to be the honest mare we know her as. AJ was cute as a filly. Anyone else think this ep beats out Brotherhooves Social for most Big Mac lines, or at least comes close? I agree with your rating.
Ah, the obligatory hurricane of lies episode.
4246584 Well the parents are clearly dead in the flashback, so if Apple Bloom isn't born yet it means she's adopted.
4247216 Or that she's AJ's daughter.
4247234 That is also a possibility (or Big Mac's daughter).
4247245 Far more likely AJ's. Big Mac being the gentlecolt he is, AB's mother would be Mrs. Macintosh unless she's dead.
I can definitely see why, this show just keeps amazing me. Every time I think it's jumped the shark and is about to fade into a slow decline it just throws an absolutely fantastic episode at me that renews my love for ponies all over again. Quite a feat for a series that has just ended its sixth season. Hell, this season finale even made me adore a character I had an immense dislike for previously. It was just all around brilliant. In fact it was so good that it made the last season finale retroactively better.
But... if her parents were dead at the time of the flashback, why didn't Applebloom show up?
Then again, assuming Applebloom and Diamond Tiara are about the same age, her mother might not even be pregnant with Applebloom yet. Either the parents are already dead, in which case Applebloom has to be alive, or they have to be alive and she hasn't been born yet. Or maybe Applebloom was adopted all along, 
or is really Applejack's child. 
Did her parents leave for a vacation during the time this flashback took place? What about when Applejack got her cutie mark, weren't they implied to be dead at that time already?
This episode brings up more questions than it does answers.
What callbacks to season 2 were cringeworthty?
Two things regarding Filthy Rich and his appearance in Legend of Everfree, as that is very likely what you are getting at:
One, his most assholish behavior was in Gloriosa's memory, so this depiction might not be what actually happened but rather how she remembered it. I mean, who talks like that? "Imma gonna line my pockets with ALL THE PROFITS once I have bulldozed this hippie commune and built a strip mall on it, MWAHAHAHAHA!" Strawmen you made up in your mind by exaggerating traits a real person you don't like possesses, that's who. Side note: I really hope that this turns out to be a future plot point with Sunset, where she acts based on something she saw in someone's memory only to realize later that it was horrendously biased and not at all what really happened. A good way to deconstruct mindreading is by showing that minds aren't a very reliable source for most kinds of information.
Two, he was an alternate universe version of Filthy Rich, so I'll give the writers a pass for him not acting like his pony version as they are technically separate people, so it's technically not out of character.
Seems like Spoiled got even worse after she married Filthy. At least before she married him she pretended to tolerate life styles she clearly didn't care for, whereas now she might as well as a stingy uppercrust that would be right at home in Canterlot. Seriously, what did Filthy ever see in her?
So I finally got around to catching up on all the episodes I've missed
HOLY SHIT DID ANYONE ELSE SEE THE REFERENCE TO THE SHINING AT THE HOSIPTAL????
It was a blink and you'll miss it moment, but two fillies are standing in a hallway at one point, just creepily smiling at the camera