Episode Re-Review: The Saddle Row Review a.k.a Saddle Row and Rec · 5:55pm May 21st, 2021
So, just a season after Rarity got her dream boutique opened (and nearly closed) in Canterlot, and just a few episodes after she went hunting for a location to establish a Manehattan boutique, we would get to see said boutique open. Nick Confalone was picked to write this episode, coming off his contested performance in "No Second Prances". So, was he able to redeem himself in the eyes of those who hated what he brought to the table for "No Second Prances"? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins in Ponyville with the rest of the mane six all rushing to Carousel Boutique to try to warn Rarity. Apparently, they blabbed to a newspaper reporter about what went down during the opening of Rarity's Manehattan boutique and are worried she'll find out. Fortunately, she hasn't read the papers yet but she's about to and even insists on not being spoiled. Then, we cut back to a diner in Manehattan either late at night or early in the morning as we get the framing device for the episode. The mane six (but not Spike or Starlight who are both inexplicably absent from this episode) are sitting down for interviews with a journalist who is only named in the credits: Buried Lead.
Rarity seems to have been confident from the get go while all of her friends offer varying ways of saying that the opening wasn't very good as far as they were concerned, and in some cases it was pretty bad. So this whole episode is being told more or less through flashbacks and interviews, probably one of the few instances I can think of where Season 6 is willing to try to be "experimental". Anyway, the day of the grand opening, Rarity took the rest of the mane six to her new boutique in Manehattan on the titular Saddle Row. Apparently, it's where all the best shops are located, at least fashion wise. So we are getting somewhat of a new location out of Manehattan. However, the boutique has yet to be even cleaned and it turns out that Rarity is only leasing the building her boutique is set up in. The land lord is a stallion named Mr. Stripes who is apparently quite pushy.
He insists that Rarity hire his daughter, Plaid Stripes. And when Rarity initially refuses he blackmails her by threatening to raise rent until she can't afford it. This happens within earshot of the rest of the mane six, but it's never acknowledged. I mean, they could've always just made Mr. Stripes a mob boss (even if he talks like a Russian).
Then there's another problem, the boutique is on the first floor of a multi-story complex, and upstairs is a club that blares loud music from the speakers. So loud in fact that the security has to wear earplugs for protection (on top of sunglasses to protect their eyes), and as a result they can't hear Rarity's offer to turn down the music. There's also a family of racoons that are apparently living in the store room (temporarily, according to Fluttershy) though they're treated more like hobos or homeless people than wild animals (Rarity even complains about how they smell). On top of all that, the clothes she ordered to set up within her boutique arrived all disorganized. And Coco Pommel, who Rarity hired to be the sole sale associate, is sick with either a cold or a flu. Oddly enough, this episode revealed something: Due to copyright issues involving Coco's namesake, she had to be referred to as Miss Pommel. And I'm willing to bet that these legal issues caused her to be phased out of the show so abruptly. Anyway, all of these problems are occurring on the day Rarity has already planned to open, which presents a major problem.
But this represents a big problem with the episode's story, many of these problems would've been easily detected had Rarity bothered to do any inspection work of the building before staking a claim to it and paying rent. She should not be waiting until the day of the grand opening to look over the building, negotiate with the landlord, get all her wears to the boutique and hire additional staff (because one sales associate is not going to cut it, especially not when you're competing against the best of the best). And the episode has also made it clear that this isn't Rarity's first grand opening of a boutique. Even assuming Sassy Saddles handled the business aspects of Canterlot Carousel and that Rarity just took over Carousel Boutique from a previous owner, you can't expect me to believe she would make this kind of rookie mistake. Even as someone who doesn't study business I can tell you that you don't wait until opening day to do what Rarity does here. You don't commit to an opening date until you're absolutely certain that everything is ready!
So each member of the mane six opts to take over various aspects of the opening to get everything ready, and meanwhile Rarity will just spend all that time working on the window display. I mean yes, it's nice that she trusts her friends to take care of problems, but at the same time is she really going to trust say Pinkie Pie to shut down a party or Rainbow Dash to take care of hiring more sales associates with no guidance? It feels like it's done just to get Rarity out of the story for most of the rest of the episode, much like how she just inexplicably let Sassy Saddles take over during "Canterlot Boutique". And yes, I know they need to have some story, but was this really the kind of story Rarity needed? It feels like the kind of story where you could be mistaken for thinking that it was not meant to be a Rarity episode, like they wrote it as her episode just because they wanted to give her one. Anyway, Rarity trusts her friends and we do get a good joke about Rainbow Dash impersonating her, which works a lot better than when she channeled Rarity during "Newbie Dash".
Then we have each mane six member carrying out their assigned tasks while asking themselves "What would Rarity want?", as if they somehow weren't given clear directions upon volunteering. What's interesting is that Pinkie Pie envisions a shoulder angel and a shoulder devil Rarity (the shoulder angel has a halo made of hay, a haylo), and it's the shoulder devil that actually tells her to do the right thing.
Pinkie manages to trick Vinyl Scratch into playing shopping music (hey, if it's public domain they can't complain), and interesting to note is that one of the dance goers has a pacifier dangling from their neck, which is usually something seen at raves.
There was also an earlier joke about clones, and we saw that apparently one Pinkie Pie clone escaped since she's wearing a hat with a horseshoe symbol on it. As for the rest of the mane six though, they go about their tasks about as well as they can in accordance with what they think Rarity would want. Applejack tells Plaid Stripes flat out that her ideas are terrible (because she earlier installed an antique bike horn to replace the bell above the door), Rainbow Dash opts to ask a bunch of fabric related questions to the various candidates for hire, Fluttershy orders the racoons to leave the boutique (only for them to go after her) and Twilight originally organizes things according to how she would do it, before thinking that Rarity might want it done differently. And it all goes wrong, even down to Vinyl Scratch having somehow remixed that shopping music. Twilight then pulls off an epic slow motion jump to lock Rarity in the window display so that she won't see how bad things are going.
Plaid Stripes has complained to her father, who insists that her ideas are good and that she should be hired. And this is why it's important to teach kids the meaning of the word "No". They can't always get everything they want. If they do they'll grow up spoiled and knowing that if they complain enough someone will cave in. Anyway, Twilight conveys an emergency meeting to ask what went wrong, and all her friends tell her that they did what they thought Rarity wanted. So then Twilight says that Rarity would've trusted them to do things their own way, and somehow this is all it takes to solve the problems. Vinyl Scratch is booked to be entertainment at the boutique, Plaid Stripes is allowed to stay on with her ideas, the racoons are made into wait staff and the sales associates are hired because of their speed. The only one that really makes sense though is Twilight, opting to go along with her original idea since I'm pretty sure Rarity would accept that letting Twilight organize means she's gonna do it the way that works best for her (all you really need is an explanation of how the system works). And then, just in time for the first customers, Rarity is freed from the window display that she's put the finishing touches on.
So the boutique's opening was actually better than it could've been considering the rookie mistake Rarity made, so why were the rest of the mane six so worried about Rarity finding out? It's not like they just hastily patched things up and hoped Rarity wouldn't notice. It really feels like the entire conflict from earlier was thrown in just for the sake of starting off the story, and now it feels like they're just tossing in a moral because they need to have one. The episode then ends with Plaid Stripes sipping soup at the diner with her spoon clothes (which to her credit was a good idea, the first good idea she had since being forcibly hired).
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, I do applaud its experimental nature and I wish we could've gotten more episodes like this, because this framing device feels unique but also very unpolished. The entire opening scene ends up being irrelevant to the ending. Heck, the beginning and ending don't really feel like they connect and are just there to pad out the episode to meet the run time. I think it's really saying something that this stands out as a Rarity episode, and yet she has at best an implied presence throughout it. Again, I can't buy her making the rookie mistake of waiting until opening day to do any of what she does in this episode. She should've been doing this when she settled on the shop location back in "Gift of the Maud Pie". And the whole "What would Rarity want?" is fine, but it feels like they opted to make things go wrong just because "reality ensues" would mean there's no plot. I mean, I'm pretty sure Rarity wouldn't want racoons in her boutique and wouldn't want Plaid Stripes to be proposing crazy ideas that have no place in a boutique. I think the best parts are seeing the mane six comment on what happened after the fact, it really captures their personality and feels almost like a director's commentary on a movie done in character. It's those little things that help to lift this episode, enough to give it a B- and again reinforce that Season 6 doesn't seem to be trying hard enough to stand out.
And now we're gonna come to an episode that could rival "Made in Manehattan" for its pointlessness in the form of "Applejack's 'Day' Off".
wh did you upload that twice?
doesn't seem to be trying to stand out? This is one of the most unique premises of the show (and one of the funniest episodes, which makes me give it an A I think, possibly an A+, there are just SOOOOOOO many of the best jokes this show ever had here)
FUN FACT: The famous brony analyst, Finn the Pony, considers this episode his absolute favorite of the entire Season 6.
5522648 I don't know how that happened. The duplicate has been deleted.
5522660
okay
Congrats on hitting 1000 blog posts, my friend!
Also, even though she hasn't been in the show nearly as often as Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and Mr. Cake, I would still like to share Coco Pommel's first and last lines ever spoken since this episode is her final physical appearance.
This is a fun little episode.