Animal House

Fluttershy Leans in is arguably the hardest episode I’ve had to watch in a while. Not because the episode is dreadful, but because it left me very torn in so many ways. On one hand, there’s a lot going for it and its premise is good. On the other hand, you are left with some empty feeling at the end of it all. This is an episode that’s really hard to describe how badly it was done, but yet somehow still have some major good points too.

It’s a perfect example to show how far the character of Fluttershy has come. Since the very first episode of the show, we’ve seen her as timid and lives up to her namesake of being shy. However, this episode really gives us a good insight about how far Fluttershy has come since we’ve first seen her. Unfortunately, that’s as much credit as I’m willing to give this episode at all. Don’t get me wrong when I say this, but despite some really strong character development for Fluttershy and it hits every strong point of her, this episode quickly takes a nosedive into being boring and tedious.

After Fluttershy sees that the Ponyville veterinarian is overworked and her clinic is overrun with animals of all kind, she vows to find a way to help the animals. Fluttershy decides to follow her dreams of a career (something we’ve never really heard about unitl now) of building and maintaining an animal sanctuary for the critters to stay at.

Ignoring for a fact that this is something Fluttershy has never mentioned before, but isn’t her cottage technically already an animal sanctuary? In the past, we’ve seen Fluttershy’s house constantly have animals of all kind hanging around her place. Bears, rabbits, birds, and many more are constantly seen around her place. So if Fluttershy already has so many animals around her place, why doesn’t she turn that into a sanctuary then? Trust me though when I say this isn’t the biggest problem this episode has.

Along the way to help with her quest, Fluttershy is recommended by her friends three experts to help make her dream come true. Hard Hat, a construction worker. Dandy Grandeur, an interior decorator. Finally, Wrangler, who is a farmer who catches animals. A few questions come immediately to mind in regards to Dandy and Wrangler. Specifically, why were they called at all?

Hard Hat, I can understand since he’s a construction worker and as we see later on, they do build some things in the episode. However, what point did Dandy and Wrangler have at all? What is an interior decorator going to do at an animal sanctuary? Why did Rarity call him down at all to help? He is of no use at all in making the sanctuary. That would be like if I hired a demolitions expert to do some gardening, or a barber to do a paint job for my car.

Wrangler is just as much out of place in this episode as Dandy was. Like the latter mentioned, Wrangler had no real point in this episode at all. Her specialty in capturing animals and putting them into cages should have automatically been a red flag for Fluttershy to take her, but for some reason lets her do her job anyway. Maybe Wrangler would have worked in leading animals in, but the whole cage thing implies she captures animals alone and either sells them off, or do some other shady business. Again, you have to wonder why Fluttershy didn’t just decide to ditch her and Dandy from the start.

To be fair, the three experts aren’t exactly sure about why they were called here. They were just called by one of their contacts in Ponyville to come help Fluttershy, and most likely had no idea what was going on. However, there is something that all three experts share in this episode that really makes them irritable: they’re arrogant and idiotic.

We see Fluttershy explain to the experts in great detail about her plans and gives a diagram about what her plans are, but all the experts basically scoff at her and do their own things instead. While it’s true they are clearly not in their elements and doing something radically different from what they normally do, the experts come across more as arrogant jerks than anything else. If they’ve been doing this whole “my way or the highway” mentality for so long, then you have to wonder how they are still in business since I’m sure other clients aren’t happy with their work.

Now to be honest, part of this falls on Fluttershy’s part for bad management. She tells these experts what to do vaguely, and then just walks off and expects them to follow her vision. She doesn’t supervise or oversee the look of animal sanctuary to make sure they’re following her vision. It doesn’t excuse how bad the experts were, but Fluttershy is in the wrong here too. I commend the scene where she tells the experts off for what they did wrong, but it’s undercut by her own bad managing of the project.

Towards the end, she calls in another friend. To the surprise of everyone, it turns out to be Big Daddy McColt from The Hooffields and McColts. I’m not going to lie when I say this was a very nice surprise. I may not have been a big fan of the episode, but it was nice to see Big Daddy back again, and the continuity from it all. A very nice touch in this episode, but sadly can’t really save it at the end.

The comedy is something the episode also severely lacking. While it has some minor good jokes, there’s so little to laugh at all in this episode. There really isn’t anything visually interesting either aside from the sanctuary at the end. There’s really nothing in this episode at all that stands out all too well at all in terms of comedy, visuals, or even the new characters we get. They all just feel so underwhelming and boring.

That brings up the biggest issue this episode really has; it is so damn boring. There’s barely a conflict at all in this episode. For most of the episode, nothing is going on at all. The conflict doesn’t really take shape until more than halfway through the episode and is resolved rather fast Fluttershy doesn’t like what the experts did, she scolds them, and they walk off. That is literally all that we get as a conflict. There’s no major driving force or anything in the way at all. It’s just the experts being jerks and that is it.

If the three ponies had more of purpose in the episode and had learned to listen to their clients than insist on their own ways, then this could have saved the episode somewhat. However, they don’t learn anything. They’re lectured at and then just leave without being seen ever again and most likely will continue to be doing the same stuff they pulled on Fluttershy.

There’s really not much of a moral at all in this episode either. While it tries to explain that some ponies aren’t good in certain fields and you have to make sure you get the right help for the job, it’s bogged down by Fluttershy’s bad managing of the project. The others try to help her, but Flutteshy tells them to stop and have them do things to her vision. If it’s supposed to be some secondary moral about how you shouldn’t but in on your friend’s projects, that’s fine. The problem though is that we’ve had other episodes in the past, particularly The Cart Before the Ponies, show that moral and pull it off better. There’s really not much of a moral at all other than just listen to your clients. I commend the episode for having ambitions about some of this stuff, but the execution is extremely flawed.

The worst part about this whole episode is how badly botched it was in terms of execution. It had a good setup, some major strong characterization for Fluttershy, and could have been fantastic and a big change. In the end, what we get is a boring waste of an episode that has little coming out of it. Nothing is really learned and nothing really happens in this episode. It reminds me in some ways of Applejack’s Day Off, but at least that one there had some conflict in regards to Applejack’s stubborn ways. This one has nothing much to offer at all.

The one major thing this episode has going for itself is Fluttershy herself. She honestly has some of the best characterization I’ve seen in a long time and goes to show how much she’s come out of her shell since we’ve first seen her. Unfortunately, despite how fantastic she’s written in this episode, it can’t save it at the end of the day.

This episode wants to be simplistic, but yet it feels very ambitious too with Fluttershy’s goals. It feels like it wants to be something big and epic, but felt so small scaled at the same time. The illogical parts of the episode ranging from the experts to certain other plot holes don’t help at all. This episode took everything that was in place and squandered it all in the end. I don’t think I’ve seen an episode screw up so much in story telling aspects.

If you’re willing to put up with the overwhelming boredom and lack of anything happening, you may like this episode. Most likely though, you’ll watch it and once it’s over, you’ll shrug it off and go, “That’s it?” That is pretty much the same reaction I had once I finished watching this episode, and most likely you will too.

Obviously, this episode is at the bottom of the barrel so far for the season. Even managing to etch out All Bottled Up in terms of being poor. While that episode was poorly done, it’s biggest crimes were Trixie’s behavior and the pointless song. It had more of a conflct and was funnier too; unlike this episode. At least Fluttershy shined brightly in this episode. Too bad the episode couldn’t shine as bright as her.

FINAL SCORE: 5.5 out of 10 (C)

Season seven episode ranking list from best to worst:

Rock Solid Friendship
Flurry of Emotions
Celestial Advice
All Bottled Up
Fluttershy Leans In