Episode Re-Review: Surf and/or Turf · 4:08pm Jun 25th, 2021
What little we did see of the School of Friendship in the episodes immediately prior to this one didn't bode well for it, it seemed to serve more as a plot restrictor since characters wouldn't be able to do things due to their need to teach. And yet the student/young six were not getting any focus at all. If not for what was being leaked far in advance, most people would've probably suspected Season 8 was going to be just like Season 7 and have no sense of direction at all for the longest time. But now we were getting something that was supposed to be at least indirectly related to the school, even if they weren't going to be using any students. A new writer debuted here in the form of Brian Hohlfeld, who had previously written for a Hasbro cartoon and a Netflix series based on a LEGO product. Supposedly though, he got the job because he happened to be friends with Josh Haber, and they always say in any profession to never work with friends. And he didn't get the best send-off considering "She's All Yak" was regarded as a disappointment. But we're talking about Brian's debut, so how did he do considering this tends to be among Season 8's better rated episodes? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with a rather questionable development. The Cutie Mark Crusaders are being called by the map, just the three of them with no one else. To where are they being called? Mount Aris, the very location we visited in the movie. Once again, just like when the map expanded back in "School Daze" it feels like they're trying to shamelessly plug the movie every chance they can get. And again, just shoving the movie in peoples' faces isn't going to make them like it any more. If anything, Hasbro should've been this aggressive with the movie when it was actually in need of promoting and actually needed to draw a lot of word of mouth outside the fandom (which Hasbro did not do even though it was their movie). Fortunately, Twilight is going to go with the CMC as a chaperone since even if they're normally well behaved the CMC are still going to be traveling out of country. Weirdly though, she also mentions needing to get a permission slip for Silverstream signed so Silverstream can go on field trips. And maybe boarding schools do something different, but don't permission slips usually get taken home by the student? Shouldn't Silverstream need to be taking this home, not Twilight? Also, what kind of field trips is Twilight planning?
The CMC can't help but teasingly suggest that Twilight just wants a vacation, a chance to see Mount Aris in all its splendor. Twilight tries to play it off, claiming her visit is "purely for research" but the CMC don't buy it. Kind of weird that Twilight is eager to go back to Mount Aris after what happened, and it'll be even weirder later on to see that she gets welcomed with no hostility or bad blood of any sort. Yeah, there's been a passage of time given the school's construction, but much like Discord selling out his friends to Tirek, the time passage robs us of a chance we sorely needed to see of a character making amends for a mistake that had serious repercussions for others.
An interesting detail is that on the train ride to Mount Aris, Apple Bloom relays the events of the movie and the story of the hippogriffs, but according to her it's Applejack who saves the day because that's what Applejack has been telling her. Kind of a shame we never get this followed up on, this was a very missed opportunity to potentially add character to Applejack by having her be envious of the attention her friends are getting while she doesn't seem to have anything to be recognized by. Just goes to show how much she'd faded into the background over the past couple of seasons.
So Twilight and the CMC depart at Mount Aris, and Twilight tells the CMC that hippogriffs obviously don't have cutie marks, so the problem isn't cutie mark related. Then she's greeted by Terramar, Silverstream's brother. They never mention it on-screen, and given the way Terramar acts you'd be surprised to learn that he's actually the younger sibling. There's supposed to be this subtext of divorce with the mention of "houses" and pondering how a hippogriff can have a seapony for a brother (before being told that asking such a question is rude), but it kind of doesn't work when we learn that the Pearl of Transformation was broken up to allow hippogriffs and seaponies to live on land and underwater and so they can change back and forth at will if needed (some like living on land, others like living underwater). Another detail later on will supposedly confirm the divorce allegory, but we'll get to that when we get to that. First up is Sky Beak, who we actually saw when Applejack visited Mount Aris in "School Daze, Part 2". Interestingly, with Sky Beak being voiced by Brian Dobson, we now have all three Dobson brothers officially providing voices here (Paul Dobson was the voice of two characters in "Campfire Tales"). Sky Beak is hosting the "Glad To Be a Hippogriff Festival", which he apparently hosts every weekend. Sounds like he's taking a page from Pinkie Pie, every day is something to celebrate.
We then spend time in a place called the Harmonizing Heights, these beautiful and tranquil hills that are full of lush trees, puddles, stones and birds. Sweetie Belle in particular is overjoyed at such a place, and Scootaloo mentions that Terramar being able to "swim in the ocean" allows him to have "two great places to live". And that turns out to be his problem, he can't decide where to live. So the CMC take it upon themselves to solve this problem even though it's outside their comfort zone. But hey, they've dealt with things over the past couple of seasons that were definitely not cutie mark related (mostly on their own though). However, before they can really do anything, the CMC accompany Twilight and Terramar down to Seaquestria. And I guess there's a special spell or seal that you can put paper into to keep it from getting wet, since Twilight takes the permission slip with her underwater even though you'd think that would ruin it. Immediately, Scootaloo is enthusiastic about swimming because to her it feels like flying. Kind of wish they didn't include this line because it just feels heartbreaking, yet again seeming to confirm that Scootaloo is indeed disabled even though she's made no real effort to learn how to fly aside from one instance.
Soon, we reach what is officially called Seaquestria, which is a name the fandom originally came up with to describe the seaponies' underwater kingdom. But most likely, given the scripts were worked on in 2016 before the fandom knew about the movie, they'd already decided on Seaquestria. It's here that we meet Terramar's mom, Ocean Flow. And what's interesting to note with her is that she doesn't have a Pearl of Transformation necklace, which means if her children want to stay with her or her husband wants to live with her, it has to be as seaponies. I think that's supposed to lean into the divorce angle, but it really doesn't feel like there's any hostility or uncomfortableness. It could just be that Ocean Flow has to stay in Seaquestria for her job (I mean, we never get to see Queen Novo but I would assume she can't rule two kingdoms at the same time). Anyway, she naturally takes the role of every parent ever when they have visitors and opts to embarrass her child with baby pictures.
The CMC soon afterward return to the surface as Twilight seems content to let them tackle Terramar's problem alone. Weird how she was being so much of a helicopter parent with Starlight when it was a mission involving the royal sisters, but she seems to totally okay trusting the CMC to handle a problem they just found out about even if it's with another child. I mean technically, Twilight didn't disobey the map by mointoring Starlight, but you'd kind of think she would have more of a reason to keep an eye on things here instead of being so hooves off. And at no point is it mentioned that this is specifically because she learned from Starlight not to be so nosy all the time.
Then the CMC decide to once again create a chart to help Terramar decide, even though trying to use a chart didn't work with Gabby. To be fair, this time it's just a simple compare and contrast. It kind of reminds me of the argument Tea made in the anime exclusive Duelist Kingdom duel between Yugi and Joey, about how they could just flip a coin instead of dueling to decide who got to face Pegasus. She was told that neither of them would want to solve it like that, they would want to settle it in a duel to ensure that the better man truly won. And I think it's kind of the same here, just flipping a coin isn't going to give Terramar the satisfaction he desires. He needs to be able to feel like whatever choice he makes is the best one for him. However, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo basically just write down what they like about Harmonizing Heights and Seaquestria, and in both cases it's clear that they're just focused on their own desires instead of Terramar's (fun fact, his name refers to being of the earth and the sky).
This leads into the song "Your Heart Is In Two Places", which may be most noticeable for the fact that Scootaloo gets a new singing voice here. Apparently, sometime during either Season 8 or Season 9 entering production, Madeline Peters moved to L.A., and much like with Twilight Sparkle it was easier to have a singing double instead of having Madeline come back on short notice to record separately. The song boats great visuals and does have a nice back and forth going for it, but Apple Bloom just sort of fades into the background while both her friends start fighting to the point where apparently they don't wanna speak to each other again. Naturally, Terramar complains that if even the CMC can't decide which place is better, there's no way he can decide and he storms away.
Twilight eventually shows up when Apple Bloom can't get Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to get over themselves, and we see Sky Beak and Ocean Flow trying to lure Twilight away for various activities. They're apparently quite comfortable around each other, which again to me at least sort of undermines the possible divorce angle. Yes, I know not every divorced couple is hostile towards each other. Divorced on good terms does exist, but I think with most divorced couples there's always at least a little bit of uncomfortableness being around your ex even if you do your best not to show it. It seems more like the children of multi-national or multi-ethnic parents, or parents who live in separate places due to their jobs (such as one parent is in the military and is away on duty, while the other remains at home). Supposedly, this gives Sweetie Belle an idea on how to fix Terramar's problem as she sees numerous other seaponies and hippogriffs come together on the beach.
The CMC then find Terramar on a branch overlooking the sea, meaning he's not on land or on sea and thus isn't choosing either one. Of course, it doesn't really work like that and the CMC make sure to tell him that. They then convince him to come with them to the beach, where he sees a picnic between hippogriffs and seaponies. And Sky Beak and Ocean Flow mention how they were told about Terramar's problem and that it wasn't their intent to make him feel like he had to choose. So he doesn't have to decide, he can keep going back and forth like he's been doing. Some may call this a cop-out, but I don't think it's the same as choosing not to choose when presented with a choice to take sides. This is simply being told that you don't have to commit fully to one or the other. And Terramar's case, he honestly really doesn't. If going back and forth is what makes him happy then that's fine, and he's probably not the only one who does it. If anything, the whole conflict was in his mind the entire time, though I can see how his parents may have unintentionally been influencing him by showing off how great their places of living were. And of course, this means the mission is complete as the CMC's marks glow.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, in terms of world building it's pretty good. We get to see a movie location (two in fact) in the show, and it looks nice in the show's Flash animation. We also get to learn a lot more about the hippogriffs and the seaponies and their respective kingdoms, shedding light on their species as a whole. In terms of character, Twilight is surprisingly in-character for a change, even though I feel like her presence should've gone to Silverstream if only because it makes sense for the student to bring home the permission slip and not the teacher. Terramar, Sky Beak and Ocean Flow are nice, though only Terramar is ever focused on long enough to feel like a fully fleshed out character. However, the CMC kind of make the whole thing worse and don't really contribute to the solution. In fact, the whole conflict feels tacked on and resolves so easily it feels like it was there just to be there. Heck, we don't even get to the "problem" until the first act, and then it's not until after we spend minutes in Seaquestria that we try to tackle the "problem", meaning the episode has spent a lot of time doing nothing really. It again feels like it was an eleven minute episode that they stretched out to twenty two minutes, and dare I say it it feels like at times it was more of a commercial for the movie than an actual episode. And yet somehow it's still good, divorced angle or otherwise. The moral about how you're more than where you're from is is incredibly important. I just don't think there needed to be a map mission in order to get that point across, especially in light of what will happen to the map next.
Ultimately, this episode gets a solid B. Kind of a wasted opportunity to utilize a student/young six member solo, even if Silverstream would get her own episode more or less a season later.
And since I've nothing new to say on "Horse Play" (the first true stand out for Season 8 in my book), we're now going to skip ahead to what's considered the ultimate disappointment and waste of potential in "The Parent Map" even though it's a Starburst episode and the two characters seem to be better together than on their own.
This episode is one of those good episodes in season 8 and is a good way to do world building for the hippogriff. I love Terramar even if we only see little of him. But I wish that Silverstream was in this episode since it would be a good way to see her point of view of her home nation and family
This is definitely one of the better CMC episodes overall, and I love the song.
5541046 Not sure it's one of the CMC's best. It's not one of their worst though.
I liked this episode, made the Hippogriffs more tolerable.
5541051
5541046
I say this CMC episode is in the middle, but a bit more on the good end for me
Good episode overall, though it would've been nice if they explained why Silverstream couldn't go get her permission slip signed in person. I mean, even a half-assed reason would be better than it simply being "because potatoes". Also, I'm pretty sure Twilight letting the CMC figure out the problem for themselves is meant to imply she learned from the events of A Royal Problem not to be interfere with map missions that don't involve her.
This is one of the few episodes in this trashy season that's actually enjoyable...
5541088
Agree, this along with Heart Warming Club and What Lie Beneath are the only enjoyable episode this season. Wish they didn't a poor job on most of these episodes and character