Episode Review: "Frenemies" - Season 9 Episode 8

"Common Ground" may have been written to mirror the situation of its guest stars as well as with them in mind. "Sparkle's Seven" may have been a fitting tribute to the 5 actresses that did a lot to make the show's main characters as endearing and entertaining as they have been over the years. But they are, in the end, behind-the-scenes stuff that might not be instantly, aggressively obvious within the episodes alone (okay, Sparkle's Seven clearly feels unique when watching it; point still stands). Ultimately, they have nothing on "Frenemies", which has so many firsts for the show, in its ninth and final season, that I don't even know where to start.

How about from the beginning, my friends?

So, following on from the Premiere, Grogar's trying to plan his... evil plan, but is constantly interrupted by his Legion's minions' inability to tolerate one another for more then ten seconds (it feels that way, anyway). He leaves them alone for a while to settle their differences. When that hilariously fails, he sends them on a quest to retrieve a MacGuffin necessary to further his evil plot, in the hope they'll learn to work together rather then constantly undermining each other.

On its own, both the episode's concept and that plot synopsis wouldn't be unusual for any other cartoon. I can name a good few cartoons with villain-centric episodes throughout their run (the Powerpuff Girls has two in its first season alone). But there's more to this episode then simply being a villain-centric episode; the only character here aside from the 4 in the Legion of Doom is an incidental pony on the mountain. Not a single main or secondary character from the show in sight (this also makes it the episode with the smallest amount of actors and characters in quite some time).
Unlike those other cartoons, MLP is not really a show with recurring villains. Excepting to reform them, villains never become even semi-recurring. Just the nature of the show: Friendship Is Magic, after all. So given villains are usually episode-exclusive, maybe popping up in a later season if they're lucky, small wonder it took until a seasonal arc introducing a season-long villain to get a villain-centric episode. No character here has appeared in more then 9 episodes in the show's whole run (11 if you count non-speaking or background appearances). So for this show to suddenly focus on characters who've been in less then 5% of its run, at the expense of any regular players, is quite unusual and exciting indeed.
Plus, filter the "villain-centric episode" concept through this show's unique lens of characterisation is still going to produce different results then if another show did it.

Now, this would all be mere trivia, just ways of noting how the episode does stand out in some ways, except for one thing: this combination of firsts for the series, and the way it allows for this episode to spend its time in territory ordinarily untouchable, make it one of the show's freshest in years. Some of that's down to how much more you can do with characters who don't have a moral compass, especially when they don't need to be presented as characters the audience is supposed to look up to. Some of it's down to these being characters who haven't been spotlighted too much before, so there can still be room to peel away layers of characterisation as we learn about them (let's be honest, we haven't been able to say that about the Mane 7 or the CMC in several years, if not since Twilight became an alicorn). Mostly, though, it's just down to stellar writing. Fair play to Michael Vogel, a usually-reliable modern-era writer who does have his notable blips - he knocked this one out of the park.

There are two ways to approach and enjoy this episode, and its a joy that they both work so well. If you're on board the seasonal arc, you'll be happy to hear this furthers that on quite a bit, both in plot and character and motivational development. This is an important episode that (I'll bet) the season could not function without, and while the string of non-arc episodes since the Premiere has been consistently solid (the two Student 6 episodes excepted, of course), this comes along at just the right time.
However, the real treat here is the way that Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow play off of one another. Given their personalities are basically "the power hungry persuader", "the crazed fallen evil queen", and the "sickly sweet child manipulator", there ends up being a lot of dynamics and possibilities to the way they can interact with each other. Much stronger characterisation then you might expect for characters who were never designed to be recurring. It's telling that throughout the episode, we not only get clear insight into what exactly each of the three thinks of the other two, but also every possible combination of two of them against another.

All that would be enough to result in a solid episode. The episode goes much further then that. It has one of the show's best songs in quite some time, only the franchise's second tango (after Capper's ditty in the Movie), with featured not only Daniel Ingram at the top of his game, but spirited, gleeful performances from all three. Even Tirek, who was clearly not originally cast with him ever singing in mind, manages to suit the song really well. Couple that song with the zinging lines of dialogue interwoven throughout the episode, and you have one of the show's best when it comes to sheer entertainment value No hyperbole, folks.

Other things worthy of acclaim are the new angles for the characters that their quest finds. It's been ages since Chrysalis did anything past get crazier, and her solo attempts to scale the peak were a nice treat of what she used to be like. Tirek especially for, correctly, waiting patiently for the others to gather info on the impenetrable trek, rather then exert energy himself. Cozy surprised me most: it's on the record that I didn't find her an effective villain last season at all, so I'm flabbergasted how well she worked here (this was my main fear coming into the episode). Maybe this is what happens once we're past her early episodes of a false front; maybe this is what happens when she doesn't have to be the whole anchor of an evil plot as muddles as School Raze's was. Either way, her failed manipulations and building tempers were a riot.
Finally, the episode ended perfectly, by having them work together to succeed in their quest and almost admit friendship isn't all that bad, before good 'ol Chrysalis steers the ship away from that port. It does so in such a way that the season could go either way on reforming them, and the same applies to Grogar's angle on this episode's events and what role the bell will play in the future. By giving us several telegraphed possibilities for the future, this episode avoids the "predictable plot" feeling common of plot-furthering episodes like this.

There wasn't nothing wrong with the episode - the characterisation of Grogar hasn't yet manifested beyond "menacing strategist", though he appeared relatively little in it, and the season seems to be positioning him as the charismatic character who isn't supposed to be reformed or identified with. Basically, if the others are this season's Tempest, he's its Storm King, just with power of his own.
Past that... I honestly have no real complaints. It's a perfectly-paced episode that develops its characters in a consistently entertaining way, full of lines hammy and not that the characters chew on delightfully, and progressive of the seasonal story in a non-obtrusive way. It's sheer pleasure for every second of its runtime, and at this point in the show's life, where it's typically problematic no matter what strengths are being displayed, that's a real miracle.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS
- Loved the variety of creatures. Not just the return of the cragidile, but another creature from Greek mythology in the Ophiotaurus, a bull-snake hybrid. It's a small thing, but the show's variety of dangerous lifeforms is quite commendable, and one thing rarely displayed these days is the danger of its Bestiary.
- The campfire scene where they reminisce over their past efforts against Twilight was pure gold. Nothing much to add. Just the one where they got to chew the scenery for the longest. I love me a good reformed villain, but I love me a good "I enjoy being evil" villain even more. Let's be glad the show gets to have both!
- There's plenty dark moments in this that they probably only got away with because of villains doing it, characters kids clearly won't imitate. I think of the Ophiotaurus cocooned up during the campfire scene, as well as some of the lyrics and actions in the song.
- For some reason, Chrysalis' impression of Twilight doesn't imitate her voice too, instead being Kathleen Barr doing an intentionally poor Twilight impression. Changeling can always imitate vocally, so not sure what's going on here. Could have been a script decision, though I'm thinking they decided it wasn't worth paying Tara Strong her L.A. unionised fee for a single line id dialogue in an episode she otherwise wasn't in. A bit odd either way.
Next week's episode, "Sweet and Smoky", also features something new - a Mane 7 teamup that hasn't been done before, in Spike and Fluttershy. I anticipate it not really being about their dynamic all that much, given the episode synopsis and screenshot, but still, colour me excited; one of them is my 2nd favourite character! And hey, I like the other one quite a lot too.