Episode Review: "The Summer Sun Setback" - Season 9 Episode 17 · 5:53pm Aug 24th, 2019
Well, what do you know, this episode delivers on not one, but many things I said just last episode we were in dire need of by this point. Of course, how well it executes said things can only be found out by looking at the episode itself. Best to do just that.
Right from the start, the episode is intriguing, jumping back to the Equestrian Legion of Doom, not seen, mentioned, hinted at, or remembered at all since “Frenemies” nine episodes ago. Grogar heads out to find another source of energy in lieu of lacking his Bewitching Bell the others are keeping hidden and to themselves. Unable to get it to work, they decide to infiltrate Canterlot and find out how to use it from the archives. After the opening titles, we see Twilight planning the Summer Sun Celebration in her room in Canterlot. Celestia and Luna are very surprised everything is calm. And then Twilight…
“With the exception of the odd Trivia Trot, I’ve gotten much better since the Royal Swanifying ceremony.”
No. Surely they’re not…
“I have been known to freak out.”
“That was a joke.”
Yep, they are. Not content with just lampshading Twilight’s freakouts, now they’re having her have them in order, and lampshading that they’re expected. This continues as she calmly gives some small last-minute changes to her friends, all summed on a single notecard each, and sends them on their way, all while she remains level-headed at the Royal Sisters’ proclamation about this being the last celebration and her being ready to take over from them very soon.
So, yes, it’s quite disorienting to see Twilight in control with not a single freakout when she was doing just that last episode. It’s also clear from this that the staff intended, on some level, for Twilight’s freakouts through the season thus far to be so prominent and emphasised in the build up to this episode. They’ve been pushing it as part of her arc. Setting aside how grateful we should be that the overdone panic attacks seem to be a thing of the past, the main issue with this arc as it sits now is that at no point this season, or before it, was the change that led to her being such a panicky mess ever addressed, nor what had her slip out of it and back into a more traditional Twilight now. There’s also the matter of how, even if we are to have this arc, how said freakouts were presented along the way. All of that being the case, this has the effect of making an episode previously filler, “The Point of No Return”, now not a filler due to being a key stepping stone in her arc, despite not seeming so at the time. When does that happen in MLP? Hardly ever, it’s rarely being serialised even as mildly as this.
This episode is written by Mike Vogel, not always a consistent writer with characters (Rarity doing a 180 on staying true to yourself in “Spice Up Your Life”, anyone?), but usually quite good at handling an episode heavy on plot and incident, which this one certainly is. The rest of the episode bounces back and forth between Chrysalis, Cozy and Tirek causing chaos on the tasks Twilight’s friends were supposed to fix, and them trying to fix it on their own, afraid that Twilight will panic after finally getting her stress in order. As they do so, the Legion uses the chaos to snatch a guard’s security star and sneak through the castle (the episode shows off some of the security measures from “Sparkle’s Seven” in such a way that, though they get past them, they did make matters more difficult, so kudos for that).
Twilight eventually catches on, and while she understands why they didn’t want to worry her, she assures them she’s moved past needless panicking. Cue dialogue-free montage of them sorting out the sick ponies, chaotic weather and under-pleased firework unicorns, while the Legion grabs a book on the bell, and Twilight successfully lowering the moon and raising the sun. In an honestly heartwarming moment, she proclaims this day to instead celebrate Celestia and Luna’s legacy. The episode wraps up with Grogar (in a manner still leaving it unclear, perhaps intentionally, as to whether he knows they’re backstabbing him or not) saying he’s found what he wants and will get it tomorrow, at which point they will proceed again. The others set about studying the book they retrieved, though not before remarking how the way they turned various ponies at the celebration against each other is interesting food for thought.
Back to Twilight; as indicated, her friends actively avoided her leadership due to them being so accustomed to her reactions to setbacks, but were sorry they didn’t believe she could handle it. Having Twilight far closer to how she was in seasons prior to Dubuc’s reign (though obviously not all the way there; more nuance could certainly have been had) is certainly appreciated, but the episode does make this out to be a massive achievement. It’s hard for viewer to feel that, when all they’re done is rectify a huge writing mistake that should have never been made. If we are to have this "Twlight freaks out constantly but learns to manage herself" arc, it would have been better handled if this episode, or any episode really, had much of a perspective of how she viewed all this beyond the factual level. Observations to tie her character as represented over the whole show together, or a resolve for her to overcome her stress in times like this. What we get is the major bullet points of her arc, but almost all the growth between episodes. So while all the things regarding Twilight here are a massive improvement over much of everything else regarding her this season, and intentionally so on the story staff’s part, it still has to contend with being a questionable arc handled without nuance. How this will shift depending on what happens next, I cannot say.
That’s a lot of complaining for an episode that undeniably works – in fact, this is the first episode since “Frenemies”, nine episodes and nearly 4 months ago (by US airings, that is), that I had a positive opinion on without major reservations (given much of the above arc complaints cannot really be levelled at this episode specifically). As mentioned before, by my money, Vogel excels as incident-heavy stories, and while that does have the consequence of an episode with little character focused moments, I don’t mind too much given this episode makes no mistakes that aren’t minor or trivial, all things considered. And having an episode that deals with both seasonal arcs well, simultaneously, should not be sneezed at. The pace proceeds quickly while keeping everything lively and engaging. That most of what happens here is surface-level stuff naturally leaves little for intellectual discussion outside of Twilight’s arc, but suffice to say this is a really solid episode.
There are other minor quibbles – there’s some hand waving given how easily the firework ponies are swayed back and forth, and Discord truly contributes absolutely nothing (hence me not mentioning him) to the degree that removing him would only necessitate half a dozen dialogue changes at best, as well as an extra minute filled up via another means (makes you wonder why they wasted one of John De Lancie’s semi-regular guest appearances, gives him less for later). Atypical of Mike Vogel episodes, where he has lots of characters present and produces fast-moving, incident-heavy plots at the expense of much depth. But rarely for Season 9, it’s an episode that really works and has largely nothing to be embarrassed about. “The Summer Sun Setback”, welcome to the coveted Season 9 Quality Club. Be sure to join the other few episodes here in mocking the rest of season 9 on why they weren’t permitted access.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS
- Though the animation gets around some of it, the guards are still somewhat incompetent here. None of them question disguised Chrysalis trying and failing to enter without a security badge, nor does the one Tirek drains of energy and they steal a star from report them later (I suppose you could argue being drained like them can make one not remember the experience much, so if they returned the badge on their way out, maybe that’s not much of a problem). The first one, though, still slightly iffy despite Chrysalis trying to pass it off as a “glitchy medallion”. Same could be said of the weather pony guy not mentioning Cozy by description. As hiccups in a tight plot like this go, they’re minor ones. But worth noting all the same.
- No moment where Tirek seethes in ager at seeing Discord with the Mane 7 sans Twilight, oddly enough. He just remarks at the task being more difficult.
- As is the case with previous seasonal arc episodes, this one will seem retroactively better or worse depending on how well this all turns out. I am a little concerned regarding Grogar by now, given in his last two appearances, he’s been basically just an exposition dump that never sticks around long enough to show much personality beyond what was established in the Premiere, but I have no doubt we’ll be seeing a lot more of him real soon.
- If they have the courage to do an episode where the villains’ plots happen completely independent of a separate hero plot, that’ll given them plenty of space for further seasonal development. This episode was really good, but I feel this show won’t be the kind to have subplots within an episode that makes no sense when the episode is taken on its own. Though watched far more on Netflix then on cable, it’s still not a show (officially) optimised for binging for its (intended) young audience. Sure, it is for us adults, but that’s not how Hasbro builds it, is it?
I do wonder whether the "Useless Royal Guard" thing is now being done deliberately as a bit of fun. It's certainly going to be a bit of a shock when I go back to watch the early episodes where they actually did take themselves seriously!