Episode Re-Review: Applebuck Season · 6:42pm Jan 23rd, 2021
So after a two parter pilot that was fairly impressive and a revised pilot that was considerably less impressive, the show really needed something to indicate what to expect from it and reassure people that it was indeed worth watching. With a writing team now fully assembled, Amy Keating Rogers was given the honor of penning the first truly stand alone episode of the show and what many consider to be Applejack's best focus episode. Has it deserved that reputation, and is it a relatively solid episode as most fans seem to regard it? Well, let's find out.
We begin with what was Big Macintosh's biggest speaking role up until "Brotherhooves Social". Due to an unspecified injury, he's unable to help with the harvest and it falls to Applejack to do it all by herself, or at least that what she's chosen to do. We get some dialogue that many fans interpreted as Applejack being dumb when she tells her brother not to use "Fancy Mathmatics", and there's also this weird bit where she emphasizes her loyalty rather than her honesty (many early fans felt Applejack and Rainbow Dash should've swapped elements). Still, she goes ahead with it despite appearing to realize what she's gotten herself into.
Well, before Applejack can even begin, the apples start to fall by themselves. But that's because there's a stampede of cows heading straight for Ponyville. Winona makes her official debut as she helps Applejack with herding the cows, diverting them away from Ponyville while her friends watch. One of the cows explains that another of them saw a snake and it spooked them. Applejack says she understands but tells them to "steer" clear of Ponyville, before she shows up to bask in the town's praises. This gives Twilight the idea to host a ceremony for Applejack for saving the town, and it's held a week later at town hall. Twilight goes to give a speech, but keeps getting cut off as Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and even Fluttershy all point out how Applejack's agreed to help them with various activities. It's been confirmed that there was going to be a plot with Rarity too, but it was cut due to time constraints (no word on what it would've involved). Twilight then gives up when Mayor Mare seems intent on taking the podium, and Mayor Mare announces a special trophy to give to Applejack. But Applejack hasn't shown up (I guess no one thought to go notify her). She finally does, looking noticeably sleep deprived yet only Twilight seems to think something is wrong. You'd think at least Rarity might suspect something after seeing Applejack's state of appearance.
Twilight goes off to see what's going on with Applejack and finds that she's busy with harvesting, kicking apples out of the trees. Worth mentioning is that the original draft had her headbutting the trees and going slowly crazy from the repeated blows, but they changed it because they didn't want kids trying to emulate what Applejack did. Anyway, we get a surprising early display of continuity when Twilight points out the relatives she saw in the pilot, and Applejack reveals that they all have their own orchards to tend to. Twilight also teleports frequently and with ease whenever Applejack keeps avoiding her. But Applejack doesn't want to accept help, so Twilight reluctantly lets her go. We then cut to Rainbow Dash waiting on Applejack, and by now Applejack's sleep deprived state is starting to become obvious. Rainbow, however, just wants Applejack to help her with a catapult trick, which lead to the famous video about how Applejack was made of dark matter for this to work. Strangely enough, Rainbow Dash also refers to Applejack as Ponyville's premiere athlete even though Rainbow is also a Ponyville native, and we know she and Applejack are fiercely competitive.
Applejack keeps missing the landing spot due to her sleep deprivation making it difficult for her to see. Then she ends up pinning Rainbow to the ground and then makes the landing, hurling Rainbow Dash through the air before she's ready.
Convientley, Rainbow Dash ends up crashing onto the balcony of the Golden Oak Library when Twilight is reading a book. It doesn't take long for her to realize what the problem is, but she just goes to confront Applejack without bothering to pull Rainbow onto the balcony properly. She tries to convince Applejack to stop, but Applejack refuses to do so even when she's literally beating a dead tree. Yet Twilight doesn't think to maybe warn her friends or see about staging an intervention. I think this is also one of the two times they made a joke about mules, followed by no offense and a mule saying "None taken" (proving that the joke existed before Equestria Girls sought to reuse it so many times). The next pony Applejack helps is Pinkie Pie, and we have our introduction to the Cakes. Before they were identified by name, I have to wonder if anyone thought they were Pinkie's parents (Lauren Faust did say they love Pinkie like a daughter, but there's no indication whether or not that was still the case after she stepped down). They don't seem to think anything is off with Applejack's appearance or behavior, perhaps confident that Pinkie is aware of it despite not showing it. Then Pinkie enlists Applejack's help to make the rain muffin recipe, and Applejack misinterprets the ingredients to mean chips, soda, a cup of squeezed lemons and earth worms. Somehow, Pinkie doesn't notice this at any point and offers the muffins to customers. One of the ponies who supposedly says it is Derpy Hooves (who owed her existence to an actual layering error that was supposed to hide her), which caused the fandom to believe muffins were her favorite food.
Later, we find that because Applejack mixed up the recipe, Pinkie Pie and several other ponies contracted food poisoning. This ends up violating the golden rule of slapstick, which is to make the pain cartoonish and over the top if your goal is to make the audience laugh. We also get a reminder that the ponies aren't fully realistic horses, since actual horses can't vomit like Pinkie does (though thankfully we don't see her actually do it). Twilight again goes to talk to Applejack and persuade her to get help, but for some reason she doesn't mention the food poisoning incident even though that should be setting off alarm bells. Then Applejack goes to help Fluttershy, ignoring her request to treat the bunnies gently and scaring them into stampeding through town in a call back to the cows doing so at the start of the episode. Twilight and Spike come across the town soon afterward, void of flowers due to the bunnies. And this is what causes Twilight to decide "Enough is enough". I'm sure they were going for comedic effect by having this be the straw that broke the camel's back instead of the food poisoning, but sometimes you gotta sacrifice comedy for the sake of having a better story. Anyway, Twilight talks to Applejack, who seems to have finally gotten all the apples off the trees only to find out from Big Macintosh that she still has several more left to go. And upon seeing them, Applejack collapses from shock and exhaustion.
Applejack eventually comes to and finally gives in, accepting help, much to Twilight's shock. This results in the first friendship lesson to Princess Celestia about how it's important to accept help, while we're treated to a montage of the rest of the mane six helping with the harvest (including Fluttershy apparently causing apples to fall into a basket just by staring at the tree). Then Applejack calls them over for a break as they all share apple juice, and she admits to having acted stubborn. But the episode ends on an attempted gross out joke when Spike reveals he fished out the bad rainmuffins from the trash and all the ponies rightfully gag at it (even Pinkie Pie).
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? It's about as good as I think everyone remembers it, maybe a little bit worse in parts when the food poisoning just gets brushed off like it's no big deal and the gross out joke at the end just serves to make Spike look incredibly stereotypical. Aside from that it's a pretty good story and everyone feels more or less in character. This being Applejack's best focus episode probably has to do with her overcoming her refusal to accept help, and confronting her stubborness and pride, which meant that subsequent episodes would have to find other ways to involve her in a conflict or find some other supposed "flaw" for her to overcome. The problem stems from the fact that Applejack was already set with her life at the very beginning, and her personality didn't lend itself to getting into situations. It's the big problem with the "straight man/every man" trope. They're good if they can play off others, but on their own they don't tend to have much of a personality to get invested in. There's still plenty of good jokes, though. This episode gets a pretty solid B+, it could still use a bit of tweaking but it was definitely a step in the right direction for the show as it was just starting out.
Well, next up is "Griffon The Brush Off" which introduced the first one-off (seemingly) antagonist in the form of Gilda. Considering what would go on to happen to Gilda, maybe that'll make her debut episode better?
This is an episode that I found kinda boring the first few times, but was better than I remembered when I rewatched it during my not-quite-marathon for the 10 year anniversary.
I still don't love it, nor is it among AJ's best episodes in my eyes, but it is enjoyable enough.
Uhhh, you made a goof here. Twilight was actually about to bring up what had happened with the food poisoning, but an sleep-drived and irritable Applejack cut her off before she could. So it didn't really get brushed aside like it was nothing except by Apple jack who didn't really hear what had happened because she was so cranky.
5440971 But why would Twilight not try to bring it up again? I don't care how sleep deprived or stubborn someone is, food poisoning an entire town isn't something to be just brushed off.
5441017
Not at that moment because Apple jack kept cutting her off. And she did mention it again near the end of the episode before Applejack passed out.
5441018 Yes, but something as serious as that shouldn't have been brushed off until then. You'd think Twilight would try harder to inform Applejack of that. And as I said in the review the food poisoning should've been what made Twilight decide enough is enough, not the bunny stampede.
5441022
Ever try talking to someone who is not only stubborn as an ox, but also in a seriously bad mood? I have, on a near daily basis. And let me tell you, it's very much like beating a dead tree. Twilight is smart enough to realize that Applejack was NOT in any mood to listen and would only make her more irritated and unresponsive if she kept pressing. Twilight probably figured she would give Applejack a chance to cool down before going on with telling her what happened when she was in a more receptive state. Twilight had no idea just what would happen with the bunnies. She ain't psychic! And you have to remember, at this point, she's still getting to know Applejack and doesn't really know how to deal with her stubbornness properly. If she had, Twilight probably would've just levitate Applejack to the poisoned ponies to show her what happened. But seeing as she was new to friendship at the time, Twilight wouldn't have thought it appropriate.