Episode Review: "The Big Mac Question" - Season 9 Episode 23 · 8:08pm Oct 5th, 2019
“…this review image kind of gives away the episode’s plot, doesn’t it?”
“Eeyup.”
“But then again, the episode title already does that, doesn’t it?”
“Eeyup.”
“So I suppose this doesn’t really count as a spoiler then, huh?”
“Eenope.”
We’re a mere three episodes from the end now, my friends, and this is our last week of both a normal, “solo” episode and also of a “filler” episode, at least as far as being an episode that bears no weight on the seasonal story. For many, this would be the space to wax a soliloquy on the show finally coming to a close. You’ll forgive me if I don’t do that, at least not within the body of the review. Instead, let’s just tackle this episode, the last before next week’s three-parter finale, as we would any episode this season. It’s our first since “Sparkle’s Seven” to be officially written by more then one writer. Now, Josh Haber and Michael Vogel team-ups do vary in quality, usually related to the season we're in but given this was filler on characters they hadn’t really handled before, that let some room for surprise in either direction, as far as the episode’s value goes. So, how did “The Big Mac Question” fare?
Quite well, actually. I think I liked this one quite a bit, easily the best episode since “She Talks to Angel” (which feels much longer ago then five episodes, given the early airings over in the Middle Kingdom). It’s an episode that does nothing obviously, instantly wrong or bad, and indeed most of its shortcomings can be laid at insufficient buildup in prior episodes rather then at this one specifically. Plus, it helps to reduce the slightly sour taste left for the CMC last episode, and that’s worth borrowing AJ’s Stetson once again to take off in respect. It continues the worthwhile tradition of pre-season finale episodes being relaxed slice-of-life affairs, and it certainly delivered there.
This is all despite having not just a premise spelt out from the title alone, but a plot setup you can see coming from a mile away – Big Mac figuring out the right way to propose to Sugar Belle, with comic screw-ups ruining it along the way, only for it to transpire that she was trying to do the exact same thing, and it’s all fine because simply showing your partner how much you love them is enough. A scenario like that’s about as stock a story skeleton as you can get so, it all comes down to the characters, direction and execution. This episode is in many ways quite similar to “The Break Up Break Down”, being a story where Spike and Discord are helping Big Mac in a relationship hurdle with Sugar Belle – enough so that I was surprised Nick Confalone didn’t also write this, given he’s done a fair few Spike, Discord and Big Mac episodes, as well as the man being a writer of comedy episodes. Using the episode’s main plot as a skeleton for comedy shenanigans is a fine approach, as Big Mac and Sugar Belle have never really being delved into all that much (intentionally?), though it does result in an odd issue for the episode’s final few minutes. We’ll get back to that later.
So, the episode initially consists of Spike and Discord helping Big Mac set up a simplified-yet-needlessly-complicated Easter Egg scavenger hunt for Big Mac to lead Sugar Belle to the farm. What follows is a multi-layered web of plans unraveling structured around decent gags, jokes and shenanigans, with little truly standing out but almost nothing failing to land either. Suffice to say, Discord means well but his chaos ends up causing a bit of trouble. The same could be said of Spike, ironically enough. It’s a third of the way through the episode, right as the commercial break hits and the plan seems to have truly come crashing down around their ears, that the episode pulls a surprise, of sorts, on us.
This surprise fits in with the framing device, shown at the start of each third of the episode and again at the end, where the characters involved – Spike, Discord, the CMC and Mrs. Cake – are reflecting on the episode’s main story. It’s very much in the mode of The Saddle Row Review’s framing device, except who they’re talking to is kept hidden until the end. Anyway, the second third of the episode is showing how the same plan falls apart but from Sugar Belle’s end, with the CMC and Mrs. Cake helping out. It’s also here where the episode’s main goal becomes clear – it wants to cap off many seemingly incidental moments in both previous MacBelle episodes, “Hard to Say Anything” and “The Break Up Break Down”, and tie them into both the relationship, but also how the other characters have played a part in helping it out. The episode is trying to make a trilogy out of the MacBelle episodes, in other words. And this episode gives it a heck of a try.
Anyway, the second third mostly focuses on the CMC trying to deliver a pie to Big Mac, though this element is undeniably padded, consisting mostly of them wandering around checking in random places until Granny Smith launches into a drawn-out “Star-Trek-but-in-a-dream” story and Discord’s chaos shows up to bring all our characters together and right back to where the episode’s first third ended. It’s also padded because it shows us a few moments again that didn’t need to be shown, or new things that were implied perfectly fine (while, ironically, having no explanation for how the Apples merged together, though whether one was needed is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose).
The episode’s final third has even more surprises for us – after all the side characters figure out exactly what happened and clear up the mess, we get Big Mac and Sugar Belle by the apple parent tree from Perfect Pear, and the typical “I messed the proposal up/no you didn’t, we can get through it like we’ve gotten through everything” is livened up considerably by structuring it around Big Mac wanting to live up to his parent’s legacy, and she reminding him that given all they went through, they’ll be fine. For my money, the Perfect Pear tie-ins feel not only earned, but welcome and a pleasant surprise (if nothing else, it shows how Haber and Vogel are not nearly as opposed to remembering episode before Season 8 exist as Dubuc was). The episode finishes with a reveal of the framing device being the characters telling the story to a tear-struck Applejack and the wedding being presided over by Mayor Mare, Discord capping it off with another tongue-in-cheek living apple joke (didn’t we have a comic two parter about those…?).
So, the things that help the episode quite a bit: after the CMC’s poor final outing last week, this one reflects much better on them, simply by virtue of them wanting to help Sugar Belle make the proposal perfect (which she structured as a throwback to past moments of theirs too), after they nearly ruined his initial get-together with her in “Hard to Say Anything”. It’s not much as their characters go, but seeing them be mature and tackle this problem rationally did for me, even if their chunk of the episode is the most plain and padded. It’s a similar deal for Spike; he may have lacked a good sendoff episode, but this one did well simply see him try to be helpful. Discord may not have needed a sendoff episode either, but the same applies there. And the framing device and “telling different aspects of the same story” angle, while padding, help to give this episode some comic edge, if nothing on the level of “The Saddle Row Review”.
As for the episode’s sweet final few minutes, it’s all perfectly constructed, with the right callbacks, nods and sweet moments exactly where they belong, and Sugar Belle is still a real sweetheart. Yet, the reason it’s not a tearjerker is… well, their relationship was never really developed all that much. Both previous episodes used their relationship as plot skeletons for comic shenanigans, and I honestly fell that the episode’s writers were far more invested in their relationship and believed we were too. Which is good, the passion for the relationship in those final few minutes undeniably helps the episode. It just means the ending is not at “Perfect Pear” levels of tears. More just “aww, that’s sweet.” We’re touched, but not all that much.
Still, “I was moved a little” isn’t a big complaint. While the episode’s decent-but-not-great comedy (thought the "I thought we were all saying each other's names" bit struck gold both times it happened) marks it as good rather then great, it does grand for itself, hampered otherwise only by inadequate effort to get the audience invested in previous episodes. The side characters get fine showings, even Mrs. Cake, and as a “nice cup of tea” flavour of episode before the big finale trio next week, I’ll gladly take this.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS
- MacBelle still remains the best ship of the three involving him - even if Marble Pie is related distantly enough to him that it's legally fine, it's still problematic territory for MLP, and whatever I love Cheerilee, having her and Big Mac actually get together after them initially hitting it off while under the effect of a love potion gives the wrong message for all kinds of reasons (it's as problematic as the "you can't marry someone you just met" thing Frozen makes fun of, though for different reasons).
- Having the framing device occur right after commercial breaks oddly makes this the rare episode that functions better WITH ads – fading to black and coming back right away wouldn’t have the same impact. Quite the reverse to “Rainbow Roadtrip” which felt very padded with its commercials, but whose pace worked better without them.
- The omission of the rest of the Mane 6 and Starlight from the wedding is very odd, though something more on the visuals then the writing. It bothers me far less then when Spike would be omitted from gatherings of the group in early episodes for arbitrary or unexplained reasons, anyway.
- Yes, this happened. I wouldn’t have seen it had it not been pointed out by others. I guess it’s a little saddening that it got to the point when Lyra and Bon Bon never appeared outside of “Best Friends!” type jokes hinting at their affection. I don’t really have a reaction to it myself either way. Canonizing shipping is always a dangerous thing, but no one (who cares about shipping) ever didn’t ship these two together anyway. It’s probably best it remained a background gag most will miss, as actually actively focusing on those two wouldn’t make sense in the slightest for all the children who watch the show, or anyone who’s not explicitly into the fandom of MLP (they exist, you know). It's such a missable thing that it wouldn't surprise me if much of the media misses making clickbait out of it, to be honest.
- That one Lyra/Bon Bon moment wasn’t enough, because in a moment where Apple Bloom mentions to “keep it cool”, she leans back in a very human-like pose. It works better then it sounds.
- …my gosh, the series really is ending next week, isn’t it? My reviews for the last episodes will be a few days late, being at UK PonyCon (my first Pony convention!), but still… even it I’ve only been hear for just under two years, how often is it that you bear witness to a cartoon ending after nine years? It’ll be a lot to take in, and I may have plenty of reflection pieces after the season has finally passed us by.
Still not her husband, though! Mr Cake hasn't had an actual speaking line since... well, I don't know without looking it up, but it's certainly several seasons ago now.
I'm biased, of course, but I think that's a good excuse.
5132727
You would, wouldn't you?
Nah, but it's not even an excuse, more a forewarning then anything.
And it hardly needs saying at this point, but looking forward to meeting you, my friend! And many others fellow fans too, of course.
Thanks -- and likewise!