The Washouts Review · 5:11pm Sep 8th, 2018
With Australia now airing the finale the early releases are finally starting to come to an end. And meanwhile the show is going through a really weird phase on Netflix where they keep bumping back the expiration date (though as of now only Seasons 1-4 are still available, Seasons 5 onwards have been removed, and it's only for the U.S. not overseas). Anyway, I'm still tagging this with spoilers for those who were waiting for the official U.S. airings for whatever reason. Nick Confalone penned this episode, and his previous work has been disappointing to put it mildly "The Break-Up Break Down" was cliche and confusing (largely because the show has used the secondary characters label interchangeably so it's hard to define) and "Rollercoaster of Friendship" has to be the single worst piece of Equestria Girls media I have ever seen. Apparently though, Nick is still writing the third and final special for that spin-off involving Sci-Twi and Sunset getting trapped in Equestria. So with a full writing plate, was Nick able to redeem himself after his recent setbacks, or did he just prove that Hasbro would be better off giving his writing endevors to someone else and letting Confalone have a break? Well, let's find out.
We begin with a nearly shot for shot recreation of the opening of "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well" to the point where I almost thought it was a repeat instead of a new episode. Once Scootaloo adjourns the meeting and shoos everyone out, she reveals a secret fanclub all to herself for the Washouts, a group of stunt ponies. Rainbow Dash is more than a little upset about this apparent betrayal.
Rainbow decides to complain about this to her friends who more or less just let her ramble on, though Applejack not so subtlely indicates she'd be upset if Apple Bloom started liking stuff besides apples (kind of funny but at the same time kind of mean). They all decide to go see a Washouts performance since they're in Ponyville, and Rainbow continues to complain about how they're totally ripping off the Wonderbolts. That is, until the performance begins (complete with an announcer who sounds like Iron Will, if memory serves though Trevor Devall voiced the announcer for the Best Young Flyers competition where the Wonderbolts had their first major appearance, and he also voices Iron Will. So it's likely they intentionally cast him as a bit of a casting joke) and three ponies (including one who looks very familiar) show up. They proceed to do some incredibly dangerous stunts, which impresses Rainbow. After the performance she and Scootaloo go to meet the team, which consists of Rolling Thunder and Short Fuse, ex-Wonderbolts (Rolling Thunder was kicked out for disregarding the rules about inclement weather and Short Fuse doesn't give a reason but I suspect it's his hair trigger temper, doesn't do you a lot of good to be on a team if you'll fly off the handle at the slightest remark). And the captain of the team is none other than Lightning Dust, which shocks Rainbow to the core. The two briefly get into an argument.
On the surface though, Lightning Dust doesn't seem all that mad that she got kicked out and even seems to be friendly with Rainbow Dash. There's also a continuity error where Scootaloo doesn't know Lightning Dust despite including her in her report for "Parental Glideance" but considering the real reason for that was just to have a pointless recap (which we didn't need) I'm willing to let that slide. Plus it could be that she only knew what Rainbow told her and Rainbow may have exaggerated or left out certain details (which I wouldn't put past her). Lightning then offers to let Scootaloo take Rolling Thunder's place on the team since she got injured during the finale of the show, and Scootaloo even suggests joining the Wonderbolts just to drop out and join the Washouts. And Rainbow decides to take Scootaloo to see Spitfire in the hopes she'll talk some sense into the kid. Spitfire tries to do so, but way hams it up.
Convinced Scootaloo has seen the light, Rainbow decides to take her back to the clubhouse and rip up all her Washouts posters and flyers. But Scootaloo, furious at Rainbow not seeming to care about her own desires, storms off (despite the fact that Rainbow earlier mentioned she didn't want Scootaloo to get hurt). Rainbow sets off to look for her and bumps into Twilight, who was going to get a signed poster. Kind of interesting that she would be fascinated by the Washouts, guess she moved on from her worship of Starswirl after meeting him in pony.
They meet up with Lightning Dust and learn that Scootaloo will be the Washouts' newest member (after Twilight mentions that Rainbow can't make Scootaloo's decisions for her). They try to talk her out of it to no avail, and Scootaloo even snaps at Rainbow claiming that she won't be able to follow in her hoofsteps, because unlike Rainbow she'll never fly. I think this more or less confirms Scootaloo is disabled, but at the same time I think she's prematurely giving up. Even if there's something wrong with her wings, there are plenty of options she could pursue to fix it: Corrective surgery, wing transplants (assuming that's a thing), magic spells or amulets, or even artificial wings (we saw them in the Sombra timeline back in "The Cutie Re-Mark" so who's to say they don't exist in the normal timeline). Kind of makes me wanna see fanfics involving Scootaloo as Dumbo in the magic feather scenario.
Reluctantly, Twilight and Rainbow agree to back off (though I feel like this would've been the time to introduce Scootaloo's aunts or even her parents "Riddle of the Rusty Horseshoe" establishes that she does have parents but they're always away due to work, thus Holiday and Lofty are her caretakers and legal guardians, at least from what I can make out). Then we get to the climax, Scootaloo finds out just what the stunt she'll be doing involves and starts to have second thoughts (though honestly she should've been smart enough to ask those questions before the show started, especially since she wasn't given a chance to rehearse). And Lightning Dust not only ignores her concerns but presses the button to launch the rocket. Scootaloo flies down the ramp, but her scooter snags on a rope and it looks like she's about to crash! Fortunately, Rainbow swoops in and saves her (the scooter doesn't appear to blow up, but it's later seen charred and being extinguished, so it likely fell into the flames).
Lightning swoops in and berates Scootaloo, saying that if she'd known she was going to bail she would've done the trick herself. And she ends up doing just that because the rope has snagged around her leg and sends her flying ala Team Rocket style.
The episode ends with Rainbow calling to order the first ever Scootaloo fanclub, and in a really heartwarming scene Twilight carries Scootaloo so she can watch the club from outside the clubhouse window.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, call me crazy if you will, but I think everyone's harping on it for very ridiculous reasons. There was plenty of foreshadowing throughout the episode that Lightning Dust was still as reckless as ever and that she didn't care the least bit about personal safety or anything of the sort. She even flat out stated that she felt the Wonderbolts safety rules were just an excuse in her mind to keep their club exclusive, and Rainbow rightfully retorted that the rules exist for a reason. They did go a little overboard at times with Rainbow's behavior, but they were able to balance it out by having her be worried about Scootaloo (for those who say it's hypocritical of her to be worried about Scootaloo doing dangerous activities, I can easily see the counter argument from her being "I did a lot of crazy and stupid things as a child, I don't wanna see the kid make the same mistakes I did.", the argument Spitfire was trying to make). If anything I'd say Scootaloo is the one who comes across as annoying, she is a little thicker than I think is necessary (she really should've been asking the hard questions sooner) and it feels a little sudden for her to decide she'll never fly so she'll never be a Wonderbolt. I understand that she's a kid, but this is kind of something that I'd expect from Seasons 1-3 , or even early Season 4 Scootaloo. It's not completely OOC of her, but it does feel like she regressed a bit in mentality. Still, she does learn her lesson and feels guilty about it. In the end, despite this story being rough around the edges (it feels like an attempted do-over of "No Second Prances" one of the more contested episodes of Season 6, except this time it's a little more one-sided in favor of the mane six member) I'm willing to give it a very narrow borderline A/A+ putting it above "Surf and/or Turf" which from a story perspective was really weak and having the CMC be called by the map started to open up a lot of questions, but below "Horse Play" which for all its faults (and it does have some) was the Princess Celestia episode we'd waited the enterity of the show for and it did not disappoint (plus it finally addressed Twilight's idol worship of Celestia and the dangers that might come from it).
Next week we have "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place" which involves Rockhoof struggling to adapt to the new world around him. Kind of feels odd that this is only the second episode focused on the pillars (feels like they were among the characters shafted in favor of this school setting) and Rockhoof isn't high on my list of pillars. But it still should be an interesting episode.
I think you're being way too hard on Scootaloo. She's essentially a teenager going through a rebellious phase. It's not so much that she doesn't like Rainbow Dash anymore, but that she wants to be a part of other fandoms too.
To her, The Washouts are more appealing than The Wonderbolts because they're more inclusive and less ableist. Plus, there's the whole appeal of doing extreme stunts.
But yeah, this is a stellar episode. It may have actually eclipsed "Parental Glideance" as my favorite Rainbow Dash episode. It's that good.
4933434 This episode was "Parental Glideance" done right, that episode treated Rainbow as being in the wrong just for snapping at her parents for their embarrassing behavior, but never did anything to show why her parents acted the way they did or how they were actually good parents despite what we saw (seriously, what parents keep the diaper their child was in when she spoke her first words, or the apple she bit into when she lost her first tooth? That's creepy).
Yeah, this didn't feel like character derailment at all. This felt so Lightning Dust really. She'll always be reckless and stupid. It just caught me off guard on how reckless and stupid she was going to be with Scoots. ...Welp, I'd say the Washouts are all going to be washed up once word gets out. Unless Princess Twilight doesn't do something first and uses her Royal Power (Not just a fancy title) and shuts them down.
4933438 At the least I think Lightning Dust needs to step down as captain.
4933436
I'm sorry, but hearing the phrase "Parental Glideance done right" majorly pisses me off everytime I see it. I'm not attacking you for having an opinion, I just hate seeing people compare that episode to ones that were trying to accomplish different things.
(If you can't tell, I really liked that episode).
4933439
I really don't think that'll happen, as ponies would probably stop coming to see her and their shows after this little stunt. Nearly killing the honorary sister of one the Heroes of Equestria? Can't be good for PR.
4933436
Also, I think you're overthinking the logistics of her parents. It's a cartoon, of course it's going to be a little exaggerated.
4933438
Exactly. She works much better as a foil to Rainbow Dash.
4933443 She's what Rainbow Dash would've been like had she never matured, never learned to let go of her ego and see the bigger picture.
4933444
Mhmm.
I think a much better comparison for this episode isnt "Parental Glideance" (Which IS a great episode), would be is "Somepony To Watch Over Me" done right.
It has a similar moral, but it executes it with more nuance, heart, subtlety, and complexity.
For me, this is the 6th best episode of the series and the 4th best of the season, which was a bit of an upgrade from when I first saw it.
It's also my new favorite episode for Dash and Scoots.
The Spitfire scene is among my favorites of the series.
As for Scoots snapping at Dash, I see her word choice as her letting her anger at Dash overwrite her love for her in the moment, thus leading to her saying stuff I don't think she really means.
Thus, it doesn't mean anything in terms of whether she'll eventually fly or not.
It's hard to say how I feel about this episode because I'm in a full body wing-and-hoof cast drinkin' through a straw!
this didn't really confirm her being disabled to me, It felt more like she was giving up too soon, Scoots never even said "I'll never fly" until she says these words I'm just assuming she's a late bloomer.
4934548 She said "I can't fly!", so it sounds to me like she's more or less officially been rendered disabled and has accepted that fact. As I pointed out in my review though, there are ways she could still achieve her dream of flying even with her disability, just as there are ways for the disabled to walk and live normal lives in ways that were unthinkable just decades ago.
4934586
I'll wait until the series is over to see if they touch this subject again. Could she also fly by say getting robotic wings? I also still believe magic should be able to fix her wings, there has to be away.
4934679 That's exactly what I meant by artificial wings.
My biggest problem with this episode was the major continuity blunder the writers made.
4942258 You mean, Scootaloo not recognizing Lightning Dust? As I mentioned in the review, I hated the recap from "Parental Glideance" so that doesn't bother me. Plus, for all we know, Scootaloo only knew of Lightning Dust through what Rainbow Dash mentioned and wasn't aware of the "Kicked out of the Wonderbolts" bit.
4942319 How could they possibly make a blunder like that!? They even reference this episode directly at the end of the episode. There was no need for her to say that Lightning Dust had been kicked out of the Wonderbolts, as that was clearly implied from Scootaloo's dialogue. Furthermore, I find it very hard to believe that Scootaloo doesn't know this story because I'm almost positive that Rainbow Dash has told her this story multiple times.