Episode Re-Review: The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 · 4:48pm Feb 28th, 2021
So, what was on tap for Season 2 after "The Last Roundup" and all the Derpgate controversy that overshadowed it? Well, it was this episode penned by the same M. A. Larson who'd done "The Return of Harmony", "Luna Eclipsed" and then "Secret of My Excess" with that being the one that seemed to get him back to that high level of quality he'd been known for in Season 1. So, was Larson able to continue his rebound or did he only end up proving that his success with "Secret of My Excess" was a fluke? Well, let's find out.
We open up at night in Fluttershy's cottage, more specifically her bedroom. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash comes barging in and wakes Fluttershy up because it's almost the start of cider season. There's supposed to be a joke when Rainbow pulls back the covers, but it falls flat because nothing is explained or happens.
So while Fluttershy is still croggy, Rainbow explains how every year Pinkie Pie gets to the front of the line for cider season at Sweet Apple Acres and they always run out before Rainbow can get any. So she's hoping to be first in line for a change and expresses delight in being able to give Pinkie a taste of her own medicine. I guess because of this Rainbow deserves to have her hopes dashed (no pun intended) when it turns out Pinkie had the idea to camp out overnight, and others got the same idea. Sure enough, when cider season begins Pinkie Pie gets to the front of the line and plops down a whole bunch of bits. She then gets several cups of cider as Rainbow fumes. Interestingly, while Apple Bloom does help with serving the cider we never see her or any kid characters drinking it. The U.K. would eventually mandate that the cider be changed to juice to avoid being identified as alcohol (owing to cultural differences). Anyway, the cider eventually runs out fully and Rainbow Dash is dismayed that she doesn't get any. Pinkie Pie never offers Rainbow any of the cider she buys, and is unaware of how she's rubbing it in with how good it was. But Rainbow isn't the only one having a problem. Other ponies are complaining, claiming the Apples always run out. But the Apples do nothing about it, they just insist that they can't make more cider without diminishing the quality, even though quality is not the issue.
Then, suddenly a mysterious machine rolls up and two unicorn stallions introduce themselves as Flim and Flam (which taken together are another name for a con), and we get a nod to The Music Man with "The Flim Flam Brothers Song". This is meant to introduce them as con artists, even down to having the crowd chant "cider" over and over again when the brothers show off their invention, the titular Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 and ask for permission from the Apples to use some of their apple trees as a demonstration.
When Granny Smith objects, claiming the brothers' contraption can't match the quality of making cider by hoof, the brothers show that their machine has a built in quality control feature that only allows the best apples to go through. And Granny Smith tastes the cider and seems to be impressed, meaning the invention can make cider just as good as the Apples' brand. So naturally, Flim and Flam try to strike up a deal as the Apples are a little worried that the machine can do their jobs better (even though no one said anything about replacing anyone and the Apples willingly agreed to the demonstration). Flim and Flam propose a 75%/25% profit split with them getting the higher end of the bargain. The Apples say to themselves out of ear shot of the brothers about how they need the money from cider season to stay afloat. But they don't tell the brothers this and neither do they try to negotiate a better deal (why not try for a fifty/fifty split?). So Flim and Flam, upon being told no, decide that since they can't be business partners the only thing to do is drive out the competition. Flim and Flam become antagonists solely because they're not told why the Apples need more money, because from their perspective they believe the Apples rejected their offer for no reason even after agreeing to let them show off their product.
And what do the Apples do now that there's the threat of competition? Nothing. They don't change their practices at all. They let Pinkie Pie be at the front of the line again the next day and let her buy as many jugs of cider as she wants. Naturally, they run out before Rainbow can even get to the front of the line. And then the Flim Flam brothers show up with their machine again. Do the Apples report them for trespassing? No. They allow Granny Smith to be goaded into a cider making contest and bet the farm without even knowing if they can beat the machine. Heck, Applejack just stands there and lets it happen.
So now we get into a "John Henry v.s. The Steam Shovel" story and naturally the Apples fall behind. Worried about this, Twilight asks Mayor Mare if honorary family members can compete. Mayor Mare sees nothing wrong with giving the Apples more hooves, and asks Flim and Flam if they're okay with it. They're naturally confident in their machine and thus agree. So if their goal was to drive the Apples out of business, they failed to do so since why would they give their rivals any kind of a leg up? They were winning comfortably, they had no reason to do that. But of course, everyone is an idiot here. Twilight directs everyone to various stations and they all manage to catch up to and overtake the Flim Flam brothers. The brothers panic and decide to speed up the machine, which now sucks up entire trees. But in the process there are nothing but bad apples, so the brothers turn off the quality control to keep up. When the contest eventually ends, the brothers still come out on top and thus take over Sweet Apple Acres entirely.
However, the brothers then serve the bad batch of barrels to customers and are chased away along with their machine. Apple Bloom claims that because of the contest they now have enough cider for everyone. But when Applejack is delivering a "letter" that claims she didn't learn anything and was right all along about quality over quantity, we see the cider run out anyway. And it's only this time around that Pinkie lets Rainbow have some. So maybe the real moral is, if you're not willing to change your bad business practices don't be surprised when competition inevitably tries to challenge you and customers start to dessert you.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? There's no sugarcoating it, it sucks! Everyone is an idiot: The Apples don't change their ways despite numerous customer complaints even though there would be an easy fix such as imposing a "one cup per customer" rule or letting those who don't get any the first day be first in line on day two. Flim and Flam are supposed to be the antagonists, but only because the Apples never tell them why they need the money from cider season and don't try to negotiate a better deal. And then the Apples let Flim and Flam onto their property and agree to a contest that doesn't actually benefit them. Yet Flim and Flam willingly let the Apples gain an advantage even though they were earlier interested in driving them out of business. And all Flim and Flam would've had to do in the end was offer the original batch they made and discreetly get rid of the bad batch since there was no rule saying every barrel made during the contest had to be sold. Even Pinkie Pie looks bad because she is completely oblivious to the pain she's causing Rainbow Dash by hogging the cider to herself. This entire episode should be shown in business classes and business schools as an example of what not to do for anything (customer service, product marketing or selling, negotiating, etc.)! This episode easily gets an F-, it's that bad!
Next up is a rather interesting and ultimately significant episode even though at first glance it may not seem like it, "Read It and Weep" which marks the introduction of Daring Do.
This an episode that, on first viewing, I thought was decently okay, or at least enjoyable enough thanks to the song.
But with their subsequent appearances, I ended up enjoying this episode less and less in hindsight, and the song, while still good, just kinda annoys me now.
And with this re-review pointing out all the problems, I can safely say it's one of the worst episodes of the season.
I love the fact that it introduces Dash's love for cider, though.
Would you agree that later episodes do a better job of making Flim and Flam genuine antagonists?
5463984 Maybe only slightly, but Flim and Flam never needed to be antagonists. And their entire gimmick was repetetive and predictable, yet ponies kept falling for it.
This episode also attracted a fair bit of controversy because of people interpreting it as Luddite. I… honestly don’t really see it. There’s only like two lines of dialogue in the whole thing that actually even mention the Flim-Flam Brothers’ machine is a new development or for that matter much more sophisticated than the Apples’ own methods (which aren’t exactly purely by hoof), and the ending narration and just the basic structure of the episode places much more emphasis on the quantity-versus-quality tradeoff which is independent of the general methods used. The brothers explicitly alter their production line to sacrifice quality in order to drive up output, while the Apples refuse to do so.
I do think that the plot could have made this clearer, though. The episode doesn’t even bring up the quality of the product until the very end, and we never see a pony sample cider from Flim & Flam’s machine when it is operating normally- for all we know, it might be superior to the Apples’ methods in that mode. Establishing that Flim & Flam were cutting corners from the beginning, and/or demonstrating (either from the start or as some kind of reveal) that their cider is produced in essentially the same way as the Apples’ just with less concern for its quality, would have helped immensely.
Also, there is a legitimate purpose served by cheaper, lower-quality versions of a given product when the supply of the high-quality version is inelastic or, in this case, where only a finite amount of the high-quality version exists at all. In fact, I’m not actually sure why only a finite amount of Sweet Apple Acres cider is produced, since with additional labor the Apples are apparently more than capable of making enough for the entire town and just… opt not to. Honestly, it comes out looking like the Apples are trying to maintain an exclusive monopoly so that they can artificially generate scarcity and drive up demand. I mean, it’s still cider, but if someone was doing the same thing with antibiotics or bread or something that would be a serious problem.
Just in general the Flim-Flam Brothers’ business model is curious. They depend on Sweet Apple Acres for their raw materials, but also claim from the very start that they will run it out of business- only then do they make any kind of move to acquire that resource. If they made the threat specifically to goad the Apples into betting the farm, that’s really quite clever, but that’s also the only really underhanded thing these supposed con-ponies actually do in this episode. There is no indication that their machine doesn’t work as advertised or that they are tricking Ponyville into doing anything that would enrich them. Their business venture appears to be perfectly above-board.
In terms of quality I’m not really sure what to say about this episode. I certainly wasn’t bored while watching it, and while there were a few awkward bits it was a lot more polished than most of Season 1 (although it's also more on the didactic end). And, again, if the Flim-Flam brothers bluffing that they could run Sweet Apple Acres out of business in order to get what they’d need to actually run it out of business was intentional, that’s damn clever. I can see why it would be polarizing because there’s a lot to unpack and think about here, but both District 9 and The Room have “a lot to unpack” for very different reasons so that’s not really guiding me anywhere. I guess I could just describe it as “mixed” but I feel really unsatisfied about that.
Rather, I think the best way to approach this episode and get some kind of a handle on it is to ask what I'd to to fix it and make it more effective. And the answer to that question would be: "Make the Flim-Flam brothers more underhanded, clever, and dangerous." Cut out the remaining fooling-around, and the didactic elements. Instead, show them executing a serious, and complex but plausible plan to run the Apples out of business which is exposed at the end. Con movies, like heist movies, can be great fun, and also are somewhat unique in being able to function as entertainment that appeals to mature audiences without having to include anything not-kid-friendly, if written well.
Shame we didn't get that.