Have You Seen This Filly?

This mutated from an episode review to an Applejack character study. Even more remarkable is that 5 minutes in, I was sure I was going to HAAAATE "Going To Seed". I figured there was only two ways this would play out:

A) Applejack gets way too angry at Applebloom, forcing a lesson onto her about letting kids be kids (basically a worse version of Hey Arnold's Snow episode). Or B) Applebloom was going to be screwing up the entire harvest operation by refusing to work, and laying traps that "comedically" wreck everything. THEN Applejack blows up at her, but instead of being justified, the episode would paint her as the villain for wanting to keep her farm afloat.

But to a heady mix of relief and wasted dread, the two sisters have a totally natural conversation about it, and Applejack has a totally reasonable, responsible edict as Applebloom's authority figure: help us do the work, and then I'll help you with your hobby. So there's that disaster averted. That's a good example to set, but I like this episode beyond "it didn't suck."

Instead of trying to play this as a grade school-level mystery story, by the middle the audience is plenty clued in that this is being caused by Big Mac. The emotional heart is the sisters being together, and being happier for it. Applejack knows how to have fun, but this is her reconnecting with her childhood. Watching AJ & AB trying to defy their sleep schedule reminded me of when I stayed up late at home for the first time with my Dad, or the 'powwows' at Indian Guides. Reconnecting with your inner child isn't reliving things that you've outgrown. That's closer to a nostalgia trip, and what Rarity was trying to recapture in "Forever Filly." Being childlike is doing things that are pointless, and probably going to accomplish nothing for material gain.

Applejack has always been the hardest to write spotlight episodes for, because she's already where she wants to be. She's never expressed a desire to leave the farm, skip out on Ponyville, earn any kind of promotion, or extend and franchise the family business across the nation. The only time she had that kind of exploring, enterprising attitude was while setting up shop in the Grand Galloping Gala to win over the Canterlot elite. Applejack also doesn't have some skill she feels the need to drastically improve or compete in like with Rainbow Dash, and she has no social failing or emotional imbalance she seeks to correct like early Twilight or Fluttershy. This is why she fits better into support roles for other characters in center stage.

If you were to ask a show fan to label AJ's greatest character flaw, they might might think back many years ago to "Applebuck Season" or "Last Roundup", and say that it's her tendency to shoulder too much responsibility. But that hasn't needed to be breached for most of the show's lifecycle.

One conflict that we've all imagined and feverishly hoped taking place for most of the lifecycle is the reveal of Applejack's parents (and presumed fate), and then studying the blowback of it to Applejack and her whole family unit. But despite the Apples so clearly not being a nuclear family, the show was seemingly barred from addressing something that was probably obvious to any child of the intended demographic. We got only one reference that played into the story, and we otherwise just had to imagine what they were, and what effect their absence DID to Applejack.

"Not everypony can make it to the reunion."

But "Going To Seed" has now retroactively conjoined those two issues, like a splitting tree branch.

The episode explicitly states how she was so disappointed in herself for not being able to help out with the harvest one year after falling into her own trap. A pretty major implication is that just a few years later, her parents would end up dead. So she blames the thought of the Great Seedling, and her own gullibility, for wasting the precious time she had left with Bright Mac and Pear Butter. The embarrassment over that incident probably helped lay the foundations for her workaholism. Even without the vow against the Great Seedling she made while sitting at the bottom of her pit trap, Applejack's chances at fillyhood silliness were probably greatly limited with picking up the slack from her parents' passing. So when she's staying up in the tree fort, letting go of any concerns beside her sister, Applejack is getting back the portion childhood she denied herself.
---
Outside of the two sisters, I was never predicting that Big Mac could be doing it all in his sleep. This guy is a BEAST. Besides the joy of being surprised, it also helped avoid the treading of old ground. If Big Mac had been going through an elaborate disguised performance for the sake of recapturing his sister's childhood, that would have been very reminiscent of Orchard Blossom.