Episode Re-Review: The Maud Couple · 6:09pm Jun 24th, 2021
Hey, remember how great "Rock Solid Friendship" was from last season? Well, I guess Nick Confalone wanted to do a sequel to it here. I mean after all, Nick is writing this episode and it's focused on Maud and Pinkie. The whole point of this episode was that Maud was getting a boyfriend that Pinkie couldn't stand. Yet many regard this as the first true misstep of Season 8, especially with the ship it introduced. And considering the many blunders Season 8 committed that's saying a lot. But has this episode deserved the reputation it's been stuck with? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with quite possibly the worst opening sequence in the entire show, bar none. We open up late at night with Maud Pie doing stand up comedy at the hayburger, and only Pinkie Pie is really supporting her. This tells us absolutely nothing that we don't already know, that Pinkie sees Maud with sisterly eyes. And newcomers don't need to know this since a later scene will establish this all the same. In fact, this contributes to one of the biggest problems of the episode, the entire first act is wasted on stuff that we really don't need to see. Anyway, Pinkie asks Maud if she wants to hang out but Maud says she's busy. The next morning, Pinkie goes to Maud's cave only to find Maud missing and so she assembles a search party. Eventually, she goes to confront Starlight who reveals that Pinkie was going to go birthday cake shopping for Maud and offers to continue the search in Pinkie's absence. Pinkie then goes to a cake shop (I guess she couldn't just pick it up from Sugarcube Corner), only to find a stallion holding up the line while he decides on something.
The stallion ultimately explains that he was deciding on whether to say "Goodbye" or "See You Later" and gets all technical over the differences, refusing to apologize for doing so as he causes Pinkie to miss her window (the cake shop worker goes out to lunch). Fortunately, Pinkie bumps into Maud. And after a very drawn out scene she introduces her boyfriend, who Pinkie initially thinks is a rock but turns out to be the stallion from earlier, now named Mudbriar. His cutie mark is even a literal stick in the mud.
And Mudbriar is basically a male version of Maud, except he's into sticks instead of rocks (sticks and stones). The problem is, he's so annoying and in your face about his behavior, and always insists on "technically" in every sentence. He doesn't even accept Pinkie's offer to start over because he claims they've already met. Some accuse Mudbriar of being an autistic stereotype, but I don't think there's anything to suggest that he himself is autistic like some speculated Maud to be after "Rock Solid Friendship". I can't really attest to what Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory was like, so I don't know how much Mudbriar is a reflection of him. But it does kind of seem like Mudbriar is like Sheldon from Young Sheldon in that he's very self rightious.
So Pinkie goes to complain to Starlight inside her room at Twilight's castle (despite the School of Friendship now being featured in an overhauled title sequence that places it front and center), basically showing what the earlier sequence in the first act established as Pinkie mentions how Maud is nothing like Mudbriar while describing what most ponies would see Maud as. Starlight wisely suggests Pinkie needs to spend time getting to know Mudbriar in order to have him help work on planning Maud's surprise birthday, while Starlight keeps Maud busy with kite flying. To that end, Pinkie takes Mudbriar to her secret party planning cave.
Down there, Mudbriar drops a bombshell when he reveals that Maud doesn't like surprises. Pinkie Pie is shocked to learn this and more or less confronts Maud, who tells Pinkie that it's true. Maud only likes how these surprise parties make her sister feel, and she'd rather do something small and personal within her immediate circle of friends for her birthday. Much like "Secrets and Pies" I absolutely detest this logic of not telling Pinkie because she won't understand. She values her friends' happiness, so she most definitely would understand. Keeping the secret from her is worse than just telling her the truth.
So Pinkie Pie storms away in unhappiness even though Maud and Starlight try (only a little though) to get her to stay. Then Pinkie wonders if maybe it's opposite day.
Thus, Pinkie is bombarded by "opposite" versions of her friends as they circle her head.
As a result, Pinkie apparently runs all the way out of Ponyville back to her family's rock farm since she mentions coming back "in the middle of the night". Limestone suspiciously denies being jealous of Maud having a boyfriend, before Pinkie pleads with her sisters about wanting to accept Mudbriar but can't find anything to even like about him. So that end, Limestone and Marble show Pinkie a geode, mentioning the need to look beyond outward appearances and accept that someone makes someone else happy. Not a bad message but kind of an idealistic one. Just because someone makes someone else doesn't mean they're necessarily good, and if you have reason to believe that that someone is bad you should speak up about it.
Pinkie Pie hugs both her sisters and then goes back to Ponyville, offering Mudbriar (who is trying to wrap a present for Maud) a literal olive branch as a means of apologizing. But Mudbriar claims it's not "technically" an olive branch, so he doesn't have to apologize for anything even though he really should. However, his idea for the birthday party is to use a cardboard cutout of Maud for the surprise party while the real Maud watches from a hillside. Hey, it beats cloning her with the mirror pool.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, the first act is a complete waste. We could easily have the search for Maud and Pinkie's first encounter with Mudbriar told via flashback, we don't need the opening sequence. Because of that, we waste time on stuff that isn't relevant, stuff that is repeated to us later on about how Pinkie sees her sister. And we also waste a lot of time on cartoon Pinkie antics that just pause the episode and break up the pacing, as if this episode were written for eleven minutes and needed to be stretched out to twenty two. The main issue though is Mudbriar himself. He's meant to be a rule 63 version of Maud, except with sticks instead of rocks. But he's written so arrogantly that it's hard to like him, and yet it's Pinkie Pie who has to apologize to him instead of the other way around. Starlight and Maud are handled fine for the most part, though the revelation that Maud has been lying to Pinkie about surprise parties paints Maud in a bad light. It's not even like she tried to explain herself but was ignored, she just kept up the lie rather than tell Pinkie the truth. The message is good if kind of idealistic, and if you can look past Mudbriar's behavior and the filler antics there's enough for this episode to be watchable, barely. So I'm willing to give it a borderline C+/B-.
Now, as I've nothing new to say on the next couple of episodes, we're going to jump ahead to the first map mission of Season 8 and the show's return to a movie location (Mount Aris) with "Surf and/or Turf", an episode supposedly dealing with divorce which is a topic even Sesame Street struggled with even though they could tackle many other issues well.
I actually enjoy this episode a fair amount.
And I like Mudbriar despite his arrogance
Mudbriar is basically Sheldon, except minus playing bongos in the middle of the night and having a blood feud with Will Wheaton.
But yeah, I GET not wanting to tell someone something that may hurt their feelings, but it will hurt them more in the long run
I wonder what Jim Parsons and Iain Armitage, the actors for adult and child Sheldon respectively, would think of Mudbriar?
Honestly though Mudbriar is a bit annoying but he didn't do anything to deserve Pinkie's huge overreaction so yes her apologizing was good. And Twilight saying she doesn't read is amazing.