What Lies Beneath S8E22 Review · 4:53am Aug 28th, 2018
I'm so done with this season I just wanna get it over with. I kept waiting for the season to start getting good and there's only four episodes left so I doubt...
...oh my stars.
Say hello to one of the best episodes of the season!
Okay, actual credit, this is another episode we should have gotten way earlier in the season, or at least the first three - the Tokens hanging out studying and talking about their classes and difficulties they're facing. One of the major problems of the season has been how embarassingly underdeveloped the Tokens are, and lack of scenes like this where they can just be on-screen doing stuff is why.
But then Cozy Glow shows up and, for anyone who hasn't figured it out yet, makes it obvious she's working for Neighsay by commenting on how the non-ponies are "disadvantaged" in their classes and then going on a tirade about how Sandbar has worked hard to help them and how much it must suck to be a member of a non-pony race. That's adorable, she thinks Sandbar has a personality. But, seriously, she goes into a rant about how the other races just don't understand friendship and expressing it isn't in their nature, and she thinks it's inspiring how hard they work at something they can't understand. You can pretty much see the cue cards Neighsay slipped her for this scene.
The Tokens are left to be grumbly when they find a trap door in the library that leads to a crystal cave. A hologram of Twilight is angered when they echo Cozy's words that they don't understand friendship, but when they mention studying for a test she suddenly agrees to test them, and let them go if they pass. The Six are placed in illusions based on their fears, and need to demonstrate counter-intuitive thinking to escape.
Gallus is trapped in a slowly collapsing cave, but it only closes in when he breaks certain-colored light beams, other colors make the cave expand to reveal an exit, so he has to keep calm and think through his actions - he's claustrophobic. Smolder is constantly confronted with a tea party of middle-aged ponies, and has to dress up and put on make-up and enjoy tea with them to be set free, demonstrating her secret love of girly things and fear of expressing it. Yona is afraid of spiders and gets them to back off by calling for the others, swallowing her pride to ask her friends to help her, and then makes friends with one of the spiders and realizes it isn't so scary. Ocellus is back in the changeling hive as Chrysalis in command of the old changelings and can't shift out of her form. Silverstream is on an abandoned Mt. Aris cornered by the Storm King and his troops (he doesn't talk, of course). And Sandbar is torn between helping the Mane Six with a mission and looking for his friends, challenged on his loyalties.
As they escape their illusions they begin searching the cave to help the others overcome theirs, but can't directly interfere, just give advice - Gallus can see the Storm King and his soldiers are just shadows cast by rocks, but Silverstream still sees them, so he has to encourage her to stand up to them and tell them off to dispel them.
Eventually the Six reunite and meet the Twilight hologram again, who reveals itself as an avatar of the Tree of Harmony, who has continued to grow stronger as all beings do. The Six each rejected freedom to search for each other, were strong when the others were weak, consoled and aided each other, and in doing so they have proven that friendship is in their nature. The trap door opens and the six escape.
If it hasn't become apparent by this point, THIS IS THE EPISODE THE STUDENT SIX HAVE NEEDED ALL SEASON LONG! Character depth, development, bonding moments! This one episode did more to endear the Student Six to me than every other episode up until this point combined.
The only letdown is Yona and Sandbar. Yona because her fear is very generic. Gallus' claustrophobia is nothing creative, but it makes sense because he's a griffon and likes to fly, and they express the claustrophobia in a great way, he has to stay calm and think to figure out how to make the cave recede. Yona just gets chased by spiders until she breaks into tears and they back off. Sandbar's is a letdown because he's such a non-entity, he has no personality or character and thus the episode has nothing to work with for his segment, manufacturing some trial about being torn between loyalty between the Mane Six and the Student Six, or making realizing his teachers are fallable and not heroes, or choosing between Equestria and friends. I'm not sure.
Fantastic episode, one of the best of the season. My only major complaint is that this should have been like, Episode 5. The Student Six have long needed this episode. And yes, I am calling them the Student Six now and tossing "Token Six" in the trash - the six have finally given me a reason to acknowledge them properly.
This really was a good episode. Oh, and Ocellus crying because she couldn't stop looking like the avatar of what she might become tugged at my heart. In defense of Yona, by the way, spiders are terrifying, and if *I* would have seen them approaching me like they did her, I'd have peed myself, rolled into the fetal position, and screamed at the top of my lungs until I went hoarse.
4926979
Went horse*
loljks
Anyway I must be stupid because I hadn't made the connection between Cosy's mannerisms and way of speaking, and Neighsay's horrible racist beliefs. The stinger at the end of the episode with her looking down at the trapdoor while barely disguising a look like all her birthdays had come at once actually made me think she must be Chrysalis in disguise, having infiltrated the school of friendship to search for a weakness in the Mane Six to exploit.
Not since s5e1 have I been so eerily unnerved by a character until Cosy Glow showed up.
4926983 - The moment I saw her I knew she was trouble. What set me off was the saccharine behavior. Yeah, ponies in Equestria are sweet, kind, and so on, but she was really laying it on thick. Secondly, her cutie mark is a red rook. There are a number of ways to take it. I took it to mean the old definition of being "rooked," (to be fooled by a con artist) with red simply being an indicator of what "side" she falls under. However, I also considered that in the game of chess, there is a move between the King and the Rook called "castling," which is a defensive play designed to protect the King, while also putting him in a position to act on the offensive. It is the only move in chess that moves two pieces at the same time.
Take of it what you will, but I figured she was carrying some bad juju the moment I saw her.
4926988
Oh yeah I felt something was off about her in the ep where she deliberately flunked her entrance exam with idiotic test answers, true enough. I just didn't know what.
Oh and I never actually realised what her cutie mark was because I usually watch episodes as soon as I can, meaning they're not normally higher definition than about 480p
This pretty much cements the fact that Ocellus is either a Changeling Royal or some caste that can be easily promoted to one. She knows that she's being groomed for leadership, which is one reason why she is so assiduous in her studies, and her greatest fear is that she will fail by becoming an evil leader.
4927014 - Ah, well, yeah that would make it difficult to see, but yes it's a red rook.
I think cozy glow is actually Queen Chrysalis.
4926979
Yeah, phobias are no fun. I like spiders but that’s why I’d have gotten the claustrophobia room.
4927298 - Tight places bother me, but yeah, I'd take the shrinking room over the spider room! <shudder>
Fuckin' spoilers. :|
This was actually okay. And definitely should have been, like episode four, after Cozy Glow was introduced. We needed this character development way sooner.
That said, I cannot abide anything that promotes the Spider Friendship Conspiracy, so this episode can burn in hell. >:V
4941894
I didn't know that going into the ep, but it was so obvious, dood.
4941959
Not to me. :( I'm only just now going, "Okay, Cozy's up to something."