Mini Re-Reviews: "Apple Family Reunion" - Season 3 Episode 8

APPLEJACK: "Was there even any doubt as to the image for this cold open? This Apple Family photo here inspired so many countless similar photos of Bronies at conventions globally, it'd be a disservice to do anything else here."
APPLE BLOOM: "Ooh! Does that mean they're still taking photos like this these days too, sis?
APPLEJACK: "Well, uh..."

Oh Applejack. You silly little farm horse. No matter how much I love you - and I do, you are my favourite pony, after all - I'd be a fool to deny your starring episodes are very frequently problematic at the conceptual and script level for complicated yet pervasive reasons. The best Applejack episodes usually have her co-starring with another pony - "Look Before You Sleep", "Fall Weather Friends" - meaning the character mistakes can be shared between both characters as well as allowing them to have comic chemistry with one another (and the nature of Applejack's roots means every combination of her with another of the Mane 7 has some angle to mine there). There are also a select few that largely don't have her have a lesson to learn - "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" and the future "The Mane Attraction - and those also fend really well, with the latter being the perfect encapsulation of her not changing, but changing others in a moving tale.
But the sad fact is, that nearly all of the time when we have a episode focused on Applejack when she goes through an arc and learns something - in other words, exactly what springs to mind when you're told it's an [insert character name here] episode - they leave you unsatisfied on the level of her character. Almost always, this is because she's making mistakes she shouldn't be, and learning something she totally already knew. It is, in short, the problem that would come to be so common later in the show's run, except in Applejack's case, it's been there from the very start. On the heels of her leaving her close family behind to work off money she feels she promised in "The Last Roundup", now we have one where country horse mangles her approach to family activities.

Don't worry, Applejack. I love you regardless.

Let's start peeking into the episode itself. For a while, it seems like it's doing that thing we've seen in episodes past, where the plot direction it seems to be going in keeps getting circumvented. Not as much as past occasions - the focus of putting on a good reunion for a massive gathering of the Apple clan never leaves the focus - but it's interesting regardless. When Granny Smith pours over the album, sharing events and memories past, it seems like it might be an ongoing part of the story, contrasting past and future events. This is present, with characters like Applesauce and her recurring denture gags, and other threads like the never-ending quilt, but the episode never really becomes about telling stories past and present about all these other Apples to flesh them out. That's not an issue, and in fact, I have to respect the episode for at least dangling in front of us the plot thread of Applejack supposedly taking on the duties of arranging everything herself (her frantic pacing and frazzled burning of the midnight oil gives exactly this impression), only to whisk it away. Instead we get a quick, fun montage of all four Apples setting up the reunion, and Applejack going around town and getting all the help and supplies she needs from her friends. And then the rest of the Mane 7 aren't in the rest of the episode (there's no real reason for them to be, so I don't mind).

I'll admit it; there is some thematic level on which this works as a followup to "Applebuck Season", where Applejack is still about hyper-focus and control and living up to the pressure of the expectations of others' as she perceives them. Only instead of being stubborn and taking on everything herself, now she's micromanaging everything to go just right. There are still some issues in there - namely, that the foundation of "Applebuck Season" itself was questionable - but it's reasonable.

Where it falls apart is in two key things. Tying this to a family-centric episode and having her ruining various traditions to learn that the "who matters more then the "what" calls into question whether Applejack ever really got family bonds in the first place. Far more pressing then that, however, is the absurd length Applejack goes to in over-complicating and over-planning everything. No matter how much family matters to her and that the reunion was stressful and important, this just reads as wrong for her (Apple Bloom's "seriously?" after Applejack has finished describing the obstacle course in detail is as good an example of the episode reviewing itself as you're ever likely to find). Applejack has a straightforward and direct approach to solving any problem she finds in life, and in episodes past and future, she's become frustrated and critical of her friends when they complicate matters beyond the necessary. In fact, let's take that one step further - this feels far more like an Twilight episode (though Rarity and Pinkie would work too). Doesn't Twilight making things so complicated and micro-managing everything feel like a much better fit for her, with the right amount of nuance? Regardless, if anyone else was in Applejack's horseshoes here, she would totally be the one arguing against the things causing the issue in the first place.

What's all the odder, is that there's a nugget of a great Applejack episode in here if you invert the episode, albeit one that largely absolves her of a character arc to go through. imagine if there's something massive that needs doing and Applejack volunteers her and her family for the job, but meets resistance due to the other group being certain they can do it alone, and only relenting when they collapse. And when AJ and co step in, they get the job done lickety-split. It's no accident this has her teach the lesson she learned in "Applebuck Season" and while there's details to work out there, the concept is solid, and better yet, it plays to all her strengths: her family ties, her honesty and will, and her unmatchable strength when there's a job to be done. But I've dwelt on that long enough.

It boils down to the bones of this episode being quick rickety at the character level. But the margins, lots of things at the margins, now we're getting somewhere. Granny Smith is such a delight in this episode, in both her soft reminiscing mode, her usual crackly old mentor mode, and her soft tender mode when Applejack messes up. And Tabitha St. Germain kills as her; on top of making Rarity fabulous and Luna mysterious, she makes Granny Smith the coolest, edgiest grandma ever. Even if they were in the script, there are so many little details in there that add to her cooky yet lovable character (her sideways "Yeah" before recounting they never found Applesauce's teeth is the best example of what I'm talking about).
I'm still not sold on Babs as a character (and that Bronx accent never quite feels natural within this context for reasons I can't articulate), but the subplot of Apple Bloom and her just wanting to hang out and catch up and relaying the problem to us both hits home and provides some decent laughs and fun moments (the way they try to exchange info while balancing the plates is too real). Applesauce and Apple Rose are fun (I'd honestly forgotten they appeared here five whole seasons before "Grannies Gone Wild"), though it is odd Breaburn doesn't get a single speaking line. And the artists did superb at capturing every Apple in the series thus far, down to the gag relative from "Family Appreciation Day". The fruit bats are a delightfully quirky and colourful visual, even if they've been largely supplanted from memory by the other kind of fruit-eating bats next season. Raise This Barn is a catchy and fun rodeo jingle of a song (I'd say it'd be even better sung by bronies at conventions, but there's no sport in that - I've seen videos of just that happening). And lastly, the shooting stars quasi-confirmation as to the whereabouts of Applejack's parents still hits home for me, despite being no "The Perfect Pear".

What this leaves us with, then, is an episode that's fun in the moment, but doesn't stick with you, and when you do stop and think about is, disappointment and doubt settle in due to Applejack being given the Idiot Ball (I held back on the trope name all review, but it has to be said somewhere). Best Pony didn't get to run one of Ponyville's largest businesses being silly, clueless and shortsighted. Have to lob this one a 6.5/10, which is a slight shame. But hey, it's no "Applejack's Day Off", am I right?

STRAY OBSERVATIONS
- Baby Applejack shows up, and she is as adorable as you'd expect and more. "Mowe apple fwttews?" That is all.
- As it happens, this element of "Applejack complicates things when she's normally so straightforward" would resurface later, to even worse effect, in "Applejack's Day Off". And now I shall apologise for reminding you that episode exists.
- It should be said how frustrating it gets when watching Applejack micromanage and made everything so complex. Enough that we're all thinking, "Applejack, what are you doing?!?" every time.
- Didn't really spy anywhere in the review to drop this, but I should say that extended family gathering have never really being my cup of tea. Just don't have much of anything in common with most of them, so there's nothing to discuss beyond the usual dry topics of what you've been up to, really. Also, there's a generational thing, with few being in my generation, they're mostly younger or older. Don't think that affected how I perceived the episode - if anything, I admire close families in animation like this all the more as a result - but I felt it should be said.

Comments

[Culdee Fell]

I don't disagree with you here. Not a bad episode (and a great song) but it is the first in a run of slightly iffy episodes that lasts all the way to the end of Series Three.

[Norm De Plume]

1.bp.blogspot.com/-bhBdK7AeRCA/UNbJM2UQVOI/AAAAAAAAAK4/RWDvOB6hZrc/s1600/vlcsnap-2012-12-23-03h19m33s102.jpg

I will always love this image more, just for the ponies who have zero business being there. Sweetie Drops did indeed find a crowd to blend into.