Episode Re-Review: Molt Down · 4:32pm Jun 28th, 2021
Season 8 hadn't been focusing on the school or the student/young six all that much up to this point, and when it had it usually wasn't for the best considering the utter disaster that was "Non-Compete Clause". Meanwhile, we had a lot of episodes using cliches or plots that had been done before, and it seemed like they weren't putting enough of a unique take on them. So it was that we had a Spike episode, which was not automatically a guaranteed success considering Season 7 had given him the insanely predictable "Triple Threat". This time, Josh Haber was writing for Spike, something he hadn't done before. Haber's track record had been pretty good up to this point, but a Spike episode carried with it a lot of potential baggage. Was Haber able to produce one of Spike's better outings? Or was this episode's aging up of Spike the only thing it deserved to remembered for? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with Spike visiting Peewee alongside Rarity, revealing that phoenixes are apparently not supposed to be domesticated. But it's been confirmed that Peewee being sent back to his parents before the start of "Just For Sidekicks" was because the writers forgot about him, and that was their way of working around that problem. We also see that Spike is suffering from a break out of stone scales, which thankfully we only zoom in on one just to see how painful it is. This is how you do gross out humor properly, you don't do anything in excess. There's even a little bit of shipping fuel as Rarity calls Spike "precious pants", before suggesting Spike pay Zecora a visit for a cream, only to advise him against the shampoo. Except it wasn't the shampoo that caused the problem, it was Rarity taking the wrong vial because Zecora didn't label them properly.
However, the visit to Peewee is mostly just fanservice disguised as foreshadowing since we see him all grown-up and yet still living near his family's nest. It's basically to tell us what's going to happen to Spike in this episode. Anyway, the next morning comes and Spike has been sleeping late. But his stone scales are getting worse and his face is all itchy. Twilight tries to reassure him, at one point suggesting that it might be "stress related" from spending time with Rarity yesterday.
Twilight also mentions getting breakouts herself and seems to be jealous that Princess Celestia supposedly "never had a blemish her whole life", before she insists that Spike help her practice an upcoming lecture she's gonna give at the school. But Spike's flame breath suddenly becomes more intense and he can't control it, prompting Twilight to send him away for her safety (and his). Spike goes to sulk by himself near the school, but he starts to have problems with a smell and a lack of volume control that causes him to alternate between whispering and shouting. And this while he invents the cover story of giving a guided tour of the school, which turns out to be an actual thing that's done by Pinkie Pie. This honestly feels like it's just like the scene of Spike singing the Cloudsdale National Anthem, it's intended to be cringe comedy where we laugh at Spike's misfortune. But it falls flat because Spike hasn't done anything to deserve being put through the wringer, so instead we sympathize with him.
Spike proceeds to burn through his disguise and goes to hide in a broom closet, where Smolder finds him because of the smoke and the smell. She reveals that Spike is going through a molt, which is something every dragon goes through. And it results in their parents kicking them out of the nest, Smolder mentioning that she had a brother. There were those who speculated her brother might be Garble, but most likely they'd already decided ahead of time that Garble should be related to Smolder (or when it came time to write the scripts for Season 9 they decided to do it because they somehow thought it wouldn't be too predictable). This does manage to fix the mistake made from "Secret of My Excess" which suggested that the only way Spike could ever grow up was if he started hoarding things, stating that that's different from the molt. This also helps to provide the world building information that "Dragon Quest" failed to provide by its fixation on outdated and uninspiring stereotypes.
However, Smolder does seem to be kind of oblivious to Spike's clearly visible discomfort and concern. It's probably an animator's error since Smolder's tone of voice sounds sympathetic. I guess they weren't clear enough in that regard, so the animators interpreted as teasing? I get that Smolder doesn't know everything about Spike, but you'd expect her to have a little more sympathy towards him instead of basically making all his fears worse. From there, we get a wasted joke from Pinkie Pie about a shouting closet (Pinkie Pie's role in this episode really didn't need to be here, it contributes nothing of substance). Then we have Spike visiting Zecora as we see that the smell is only eluded to and not shown directly, which again is how you do gross out properly. The reactions should sell it more than the visuals. Anyway, Zecora is repulsed by the smell but seems to know about the molt for reasons unknown (maybe she did some research on dragons at some point?), and offers up something to alleviate the effects since the molt can't be cured, only treated. However, from there we have Spike hiding when Rarity stops by and it's revealed that she has lost her ability to hear due to working with phoenix feathers. The problem is, she talks to herself while she sews in order to help herself think.
In a sign of how little this really matters, we have a noticeable mishap when Rarity talks normally right before she goes back to shouting when she has yet to be cured.
Fortunately, Zecora has a cure for Rarity's hearing problem and then finds Spike outside where he's hiding from a huge bird called a roc. He tries to fight it off, but his stone scales itch so much that he has to stop to take care of the problem, and that allows the roc to snatch Zecora. Soon afterward, Rarity comes back since she can't make out the directions on the drops Zecora gave her, and she too is captured by the roc as she mentions how this isn't the first time she's been in this situation.
Twilight happens to come upon the scene a short time later, finding Spike itching and scratching himself against the trunk of a tree.
Twilight learns from Spike what's going on and takes off to fight the roc, but it's hard for her to hit a moving target while it's holding two others hostage in its claws. Meanwhile, the itching reaches a fever pitch for Spike before it suddenly stops. Then he's encased in a stone cocoon before it hatches, revealing him to be slightly taller and with wings.
I'm kind of dismayed they didn't physically age Spike up more, even if they would've just recycled Smolder, Ember or Garble's model. I'm sure they could've had Cathy Wesluck lower the pitch naturally without needing to modify it in post-production. Anyway, Spike can apparently fly pretty well with his new wings even though Twilight seemed to struggle. But people forget that in "Magical Mystery Cure" Twilight could fly just fine from what little we saw, but then come "Princess Twilight Sparkle" it was revealed that she wasn't able to fly that great. So most likely it's the same thing, Spike is operating on pure adrenaline and isn't thinking about how he can fly. It's like those old Looney Tunes cartoons where you can walk on air until you look down.
So Spike is able to help Twilight defeat the roc, ultimately scaring it off with his flame breath. Kind of a shame he doesn't try to burn it all, even just a little. It's not like he'd turn it completely to ash when it's holding Rarity and Zecora.
It's also weird that Smolder didn't mention wings being a part of the molt, and I don't think it would've really killed the episode if they just put in a line or two about that (obviously, the wings were meant to be a surprise but you'd think Smolder would know about in-universe). Spike then decides that he has to leave since he's putting everyone in danger due to his molt, but Twilight tells him that even though he's growing up that doesn't mean he has to move out. He then opts for a piggyback ride on Twilight since he's "not that old", though the last scene we get is him being used as a model by Rarity as she seems to think his new wings could be useful for helping with certain outfits. Not sure if this is her being oblivious or just playing hard to get. I mean, she knows about his crush.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, I do appreciate the allegory for puberty here (body odor, your voice getting deeper, getting taller, hormonal changes, etc.) and for someone like Spike the fear of growing up is very much real. This episode helps to fix the missteps committed by Season 2 when it came to world building, these are details we should've been getting much sooner instead of so close to the end. And it's nice that a member of the student/young six actually gets to be in the spotlight for a change, as well as seeing a mostly more positive light for the school. But it feels like a very noticeable first draft that needed a lot more polish. Smolder is completely oblivious to Spike's feelings even when he's pouring his heart out to her about how worried he is. Rarity's hearing loss jokes getting old very quickly and quite honestly she doesn't need to be in this episode outside of the climax, Zecora getting captured is enough to raise the stakes. It's nice that Twilight cares about Spike, but there was a missed chance to show more of that instead of her indirectly contributing to the problem by sending him away (she should've accompanied him to Zecora's for help, and we could cut out the unnecessary touring segment). Heck, the whole lack of volume control thing could be cut since it just gets played for laughs all the time and they just pick and choose when they want it to apply. I also don't get why they didn't age Spike up physically more, they could've easily made a new toy (or just recycled an old one) which is the whole reason the school concept was created. Honestly though, this should've been like episode 4 or 5 of Season 8. This is the kind of stuff we needed to be getting much sooner instead of all these cliches unrelated to the school. The first draft nature of the script and some of the problems stemming from it are enough to hold this back, ultimately giving it a solid B. With some polish, it could've been a contender for best Spike episode, but it was leagues above what "Triple Threat" and "The Times They Are a Changeling" had to offer for him.
Too bad the rest of Season 8's first half would be utterly ruined from here on out with both "Marks for Effort" and "The Mean Six" falling flat on their face. But I've nothing new to say about either of them, not even in light of what the rest of Season 8 had to offer and Season 9 would do (though both serve as unfortunate warning signs of what was to come in the villain department). Instead, we're going to do separate re-reviews for Season 8's second half's double premiere, starting off with what might just be Discord's worst outing of all time "A Mater of Principals". And considering all the bad stuff Discord has done before and since, that's saying a lot.
This episode I done mind watching and very much enjoy
Honestly, I consider this to be Spike's best episode overall.
Considering Josh Haber's first episode had Twilight dismissing Spike for most of its runtime, this episode shows that he's improved showcasing how much she does care about him.
Also, I don't know if you've ever seen GoldenFox's review of this episode, but he really got a kick out of the moment where Spike burned Twilight's notes with a fire belch.
This is one of the few decent episodes of Season 8...
I thought the episode was okay nothing special in my opinion. Spike should have gotten his wings in a earlier season instead in the tail-end of the show.
5542863 Hey, better late than never, right?
5542876
I guess, the episode could be better if they give Spike a different design, like make him the same size as Smolder instead just give him wings out to nowhere.
Was a bit peeved at Smolder at the end.
I hope Rarity as a teacher assigned Smolder extra homework around that time!
Stinks that we didn't get to see Peewee much. Oh well.
Anyway, always nice to see Spike finally get a pair of wings now!!!
I dunno who's about due for a bigger apology,
Discord in that episode, Rumble in that CMC episode, or Twilight in that Cozy Glow meets CMC episode......
5542896 Yeah, that's the one thing that mifs me about it. You can't possibly tell me it would've been too difficult to take Smolder's model, recolor it and give it to Spike. The school alone meant they were willing to have new toys be added. I guess they just didn't think of it.
5542897
I'm gonna go with Twilight in Marks for Effort, if only for the fact it has the same writer as A Matter of Principals. I mean, say what will you will about what Twilight did in the former episode. At least she realized her mistake and made it up to the CMC in the end. Not to mention she didn't put their lives in danger.
5542938
Exactly.