Liar, liar, pants on fire

What is there to say about Applejack? Her hard work attitude, her value of honesty, love for her family, and being faithful to her friends. Also, to some of the biggest fans of MLP, in particular G1, a silly pony. She is tough as nails, but not heartless. Aggressive in what she does, but not unethical. She pushes herself for her family and her own friends. Sometimes she makes mistakes and regrets, but that's because she's not perfect, nor should she be perfect. There is certainly a lot to Applejack that makes her so likable and one of the easiest to relate to on the show. She remains usually consistent at the top for my favorite of the Mane 7 with how well written she usually is. But how did our favorite apple pony come to be the character we see today?

While we have seen brief moments of the Mane 7 pasts like in The Cutie Mark Chronicle, we haven't really had any episodes about how the Mane 7 came to be who they are today. The fact that we are six seasons in, and they haven't touched upon it yet is actually pretty surprising. It's especially amazing considering that there's potential in seeing stories about the Mane 7 when they were younger such as Rainbow beginning to get the hang of being a really good flyer, or Twilight and Spike having some sort of adventure in Canterlot Castle while she is still learning from Celestia. There is potential in looking more into the past of our main characters.

So for the first episode to explore more about the past of one of our heroes, it's Applejack who ends up being the primary focus. The emphasis here being about how she came to value honesty above all after an accident occurred at the farm. Now we all know Applejack is the Element of Honesty, and we know she can't tell a lie to save her life. Seeing a big part of the character be explored like this is a really good concept and gives us a better understanding about Applejack all together.

After nearly giving away a bunch of cider by mistake instead of the Zap Apple Jam, Apple Bloom is scolded by Applejack for lying to her like that. Applejack blames it on Apple Bloom, but since she did say that the crates were unmarked shouldn't she have some of the blame for not marking them? I mean it's not like it was hard to take a marker or some stamp saying what was cider and what was jam. So after that mess, Apple Bloom says she did it to cover up her mistake, and the Apple Family decides to tell her about how Applejack used to lie so much that it ended up with the family in the hospital.

The first thing to note about this episode is that we see that Big Mac and Applejack are really different when they were younger. For one thing, they aren't exactly on the best of terms, but since siblings do fight and have disagreements between them often, this is rather common. However, Big Macintosh is very polarizing and is nothing like who we see today. Instead of him being quiet and calm, he's actually more loud, boastful, and rather arrogant to be honest. In a way, it's actually pretty interesting to see that Big Mac was once like this. Admittedly, his attitude did get rather tiring as the episode went on, but since he was younger and hadn't learned much yet, I can let it pass.

As for the designs of the younger Apple siblings, I do like them. They fit who they are, and they actually look pretty good. Applejack looked really cute in those pig tails of hers, and Big Mac's mane looks a little weird, but kind of cool at the same time. Part of me did hope though that this episode would have taken place a little time after Applejack came back to Sweet Apple Acres. It may be me, but I always adored the filly designs of the Mane 7. But seeing them as teens, at least I assume they are teenagers, is also good as well.

It's not just the Apple Family we see though. We even get to see a younger Filthy Rich with a younger version of one of the worst pon...I mean, his wife to be, Spoiled Milk. Yes, apparently Spoiled's family were "kind enough" to name their child after something that smells rotten and tastes really bad. When you name your child something like that, you know you're setting them up to be nasty. The only way it could've turned out worse is if they named her Spoiled Bitch instead.

One thing I will say in this episode's favor is that it does a very good job showing how these characters were in the past and how they came to be in the present. Such things as why Big Mac is silent now, to Filthy and Spoiled getting together, and the reason why Applejack came to value honesty. They even show some more about how deep the ties are between the Apple and Rich family members respectfully. I for one welcome some more insight on the relationship between the Rich and Apple families since despite being opposite in some ways, they still get along fine. It's really nice to see this all come together and see how it will all come to be in the future.

The story itself is fine and all, but as an episode about lying leads to only more trouble, it ends up being rather cliche to be honest. If you've seen any episode involving the whole lying plot line, then this episode doesn't really deviate or do much different from it. Now granted there are some good elements to it like exploring the past of some of our characters, and it does have a twist in regards to one of the key plot points. I wouldn't go as far as saying this story is as boring and cliched as The Cart Before the Ponies, but it kind of ends up being rather predictable. However, it doesn't hurt the episode completely. The story is pretty good overall, and the pacing is not too bad.

The comedy relies heavily on a "comedy of errors" style. There are some decent jokes about it, but that's about as good as it can get here. Some of the gags do end up being pretty good, but nothing really amazing or anything. I was kind of hoping that we'd get some instances of Applejack or Big Mac trying to impersonate Granny to throw off Filthy and Spoiled. It would've made for some hilarious moments. Sadly, the most we ever see is Big Mac hiding to pretend to be Granny Smith. The comedy overall, much like the story, ends up being nothing to write home about.

At the end of the day though, Applejack does indeed end up learning a lesson about how lying can get you in more trouble. For the most part though, I see this whole thing as a way of Applejack trying to do something bad for the greater good. She wants to prove she can handle running the farm, so she ends up trying to create a win-win scenario for both her family and the Rich family. Her character arc is handled pretty well as a whole about her learning to be honest. The truth may hurt, but it does end up being better then creating more fabrications and lies. It's nice to see that this is the route they took for the character arc for Applejack, and I think they handle that well.

The whole thing about the Apple family landing in the hospital is actually a pretty good twist. A lot of people, including myself, guessed that Applejack did something so bad, that she ended up nearly destroying the farm and hurting her family by accident. But we were all completely wrong about it. The twist about how they ended up there is actually really clever and something I don't think any of us saw coming at all. I have to give the episode a lot of credit for doing something like that.

One thing though that I really was scratching my head at though was this; where was baby Apple Bloom? If Applejack's parents are dead at this point, then shouldn't we at least see Apple Bloom as an infant? If she's not here at this time point, does this mean that the parents aren't dead yet? Were they away while this was going on? Do they leave all decisions to Granny? I really wish they could've talked about it, or at least mentioned them. And no, don't tell me that it would be controversial to bring up Applejack's dead parents in a kid's show. Rugrats did that in the past with Chuckie's mom. So what's this show's excuse?

Where the Apple Lies isn't a bad episode, but it does end up being rather boring at the end of the day. The story, while creative with some of the plot elements like the hospital, are good, but the execution could've been better. The jokes kind of end up being rather flat and aren't that great. The lack of Apple parents disappoints me and feels like a wasted opportunity. There entire episode itself ends up being rather by the numbers and boring.

However, the interactions between the Apple and Rich family are really good. The way they show how the characters used to be in the past was really good, especially when it came to Big Macintosh and how talkative he used to be. The twist about the hospital was really clever overall. Best of all, we get to see Applejack have some solid character development as we see how she learns about one of the biggest things about her character.

While it does falter in some aspects like the cliched story and it ends up being boring in a lot of parts, it's not as boring as episodes such as Applejack's Day Off or The Cart Before the Ponies. As the first flashback episode and shows how some of our characters came to be, the execution isn't bad, but it could've been handled a little better. I do hope we get to see more flashback episodes in the future regarding the Mane 7. There's still a lot to explore about our characters and how they came to be. This episode is proof of that.

FINAL SCORE: 7 out of 10 ( B- )