Rating:
Life
has a funny way of sneaking up on you when you think everything’s okay and
everything’s going right.
Alternately, I could quote the John
Lennon aphorism that life is what happens when you’re busy making other
plans. Both would describe the action of
The Best Night Ever, which is a decidedly unsatisfying conclusion to the first
season. However, for once this is
actually by design. Le Grand Gala
Équestre was first introduced in Ticket Master and hinted at throughout the
rest of the season, but it’s taken until the final episode for us to actually see the event. Since the introduction was so long ago, a lot
of the first act recaps the reasons the mane six badly wanted to go to this
dance via a large production number that is actually quite appropriate. Everything goes smoothly for about the first
half or so, but a failed Pinkie Pie song marks the beginning of things turning
for the worse. The mane six’s plans all
start going awry no matter how much they try to fight it. Although this disheartening illumination of
Murphy’s Law prevents The Best Night Ever from ranking among the season’s best
episodes, it’s also the point at the same time.
In a season besotted by silly cartoon flourishes, this episode is a surprisingly
realistic interpretation of an event everyone has been waiting for.
Twilight spends the afternoon before
the gala with her friends attempting to create a fairy tale entrance to the
event for them. She turns an apple into
a carriage, but the mice she changes into horses run off when Opalescence jumps
on one of them. Although Rarity’s
swooning is usually portrayed as a serious reaction by her (especially in
Lesson Zero), this time she does so sarcastically to wonderful effect. She heads over to two nearby stallions and
charms them into pulling the carriage.
This has an added bonus later when Spike snaps their reins to ostensibly
make the horses gallop faster. They take
exception since they’re actually sentient, leaving Spike to sheepishly half-apologize
for his actions. These moments aren’t
necessarily entirely original (Spike had a similar problem with Twilight in A
Dog And Pony Show), but they do provide examples of when the show’s sense of humor
is at its best.
The rest of the act is taken up by “At
The Gala”, which recounts the mane six’s wishes for the dance as they make
their way to the castle. Fluttershy
hopes to meet all sorts of new animals in the courtyard, Applejack plans to
sell apple-related products and make money for her farm, Rarity will try to hit
it off with Prince Blueblood, Pinkie Pie just wants to party, while Rainbow
Dash and Twilight Sparkle desire to hang out with the Wonderbolts and Princess
Celestia respectively. All of these
sounded quite reasonable at first, but only when we see them happen for real
does it become apparent that most of them are rather silly. The mane six aren't necessarily at fault for things not working out, but one wonders why they preferred these activities to Spike’s
idea of them just chilling together. Unlike
the ponies though, Spike quickly gives up and spends the rest of the night at
the local bar Dunkin’ Donuts.
Since everything goes rather well for the mane six at first, they quickly assume they’re getting their wishes. Twilight rushes to Celestia’s side, and is delighted that the Princess wants to spend time with her as well (this is totally not creepy in any way). Rarity quickly tracks down Blueblood in the courtyard, where Fluttershy also finds a meadowlark (but sadly not of the lemon variety). Applejack opens up shop, and immediately sells an apple pie to famous Wonderbolt member Soarin. Disaster almost strikes as he drops the pastry while flirting with Spitfire, but Rainbow Dash saves it at the last second without even breaking the sound barrier. Spitfire actually remembers something that happened in a previous episode written by a different writer, so she invites Dash to hang with them in the VIP section. Dash may respond with “pourquoi pas?”, but she is totally stoked.
Unfortunately, Pinkie Pie’s plan to party with people who aren’t her friends is the first sign of trouble. Also troublesome is that it appears composer Daniel Ingram ran out of song ideas shortly after “At The Gala”. Going the public domain route this time, Pinkie makes up her own gala song to the tune of “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow”. Then she acts surprised when nobody likes it. I may not be a rabid fan of Ingram’s songs like the rest of the fanbase, but at least he’s vaguely original most of the time. To put this song and the later “Pony Pokey” in the two most important parts of the episode when both are covers is extremely confusing. They work well enough somehow, but is this what you’re really paying the guy for? Perhaps there are extenuating circumstances I don’t know about, but it’s not like Ingram was writing for anywhere close to every show in the first season. The songs don’t hurt the episode too much overall, but this is still a stunning departure from what we’ve come to expect from the series.
Chief Thunderhooves and Sheriff Silverstar would certainly change their opinion about “You Gotta Share” being the worst performance they’d ever seen if they were at the gala. Not only does Pinkie Pie bring the party to a screeching halt, but the badness of her song resonates to her other friends. All of them go from having great to terrible times in literally minutes. Rarity finally speaks with Blueblood, but soon finds that “chivalrous” is not in his vocabulary as he keeps a flower for himself. Fluttershy discovers the bird she has been chasing is actually the groundskeeper, and she scares away all of the animals she hoped to meet. Rainbow Dash and Twilight have a tough time conversing with who they want to since both the Wonderbolts and Celestia have to entertain the many other ponies in attendance, and Applejack’s first customer was also her last.
It appears a virtual certainty that the event will be a disaster, but unlike me, the mane six don’t give up so easily. With time still left for the gala (and the show), they all decide to make the night as good as they hoped no matter what they have to do. Fluttershy sets up a trap since the woodland creatures won’t approach her, but she only catches the groundskeeper (who is happy for the treat). Rainbow Dash manufactures some heroic situations, but nobody cares about those either. The best of these scenes is Rarity’s continued dealings with Prince Blueblood, as both absolutely refuse to be the man in the relationship. Blueblood won’t show Rarity the single tiniest courtesy, which gets funnier as the episode goes on. For now, he spots a puddle of water on the floor and insists Rarity put her cloak down so that he can step over it.
Pinkie Pie decides the solution is for her to perform another rip-off of a famous song, and she’s somehow able to talk the rest of the band into playing along with her. A cartoon law must exist that says you have to do whatever anyone whispers into your ear, so they really had little choice. The “Pony Pokey” is clearly the “Hokey Pokey” with a couple of notes changed to avoid a lawsuit since the song isn’t public domain yet. Even though this second borrowed tune is more annoying than the first, there’s something compelling about its craziness as the normal and uncomplicated song plays over events that depict the mane six losing control of everything. That the lyrics somewhat match up to the action ends up feeling more bizarre, because it’s unclear which aspect is taking a shot at which. Instead of a criticism, this is actually a compliment, since the effective point made by juxtaposing these elements is not found anywhere else in the series.
Although the song ends after a bit, the mane six just get angrier when things don’t go their way. The best moments again involve Rarity, as Blueblood refuses to pay 50 cents (4 bits) for a couple of apple fritters, and then gallantly moves Rarity in the way of the fancy cake Applejack hastily made that Pinkie Pie catapults into the air. Rarity isn’t half as angry as Fluttershy though, who spouts rage and catchphrases previously unseen in the series (“You’re going to love me!”) after she crashes into the main room behind all of the animals from the courtyard. Celestia and Twilight have recently entered as well, and it’s obvious that the other mane six members are behind the huge mess they see in front of them. Fluttershy has put the place up for grabs with the introduction of animals that should remain outside, so Celestia tells Twilight and her friends to run. Rarity does drop a glass slipper during the retreat, but her experience with Blueblood leads her to smash the trope into oblivion.
They all catch up with Spike at Dunkin’ Donuts, but he’s still decent company despite having had too many. Nobody noticed he was gone, and even though he finds out he missed a lot, he probably doesn’t regret disappearing when he did. They all figure that Celestia will be angry about the destruction of her ballroom, but once again the princess fails to deliver. Apparently the Grand Galloping Gala is so dull usually that Celestia is thankful for anything mildly out of the ordinary that happens, so she declares the clearly “worst night ever” to be the best Gala since at least it wasn’t boring. As she is plenty rich, the cost of repairing all the damage done to her palace is a small price to pay for a little entertainment. They do take some consolation in being able to spend time together, which Spike is sure to rub in. Hanging out in a donut shop for a few minutes doesn’t really make for a “best night ever”, but the mane six decide to pretend it does anyway.
The Best Night Ever is rare in that the episode uses quasi-independent film techniques to drive home its point (especially the “Pony Pokey” sequence, but also how everything goes completely wrong overall), which makes its most effective moments unlike anything else seen on the show. I’m not sure it was the right direction to push the mane six toward their worst qualities, but the plot and setup didn’t really leave much choice. We let a lot of the reasons the mane six gave in Ticket Master slide, but it’s amazing how downright stupid some of them ended up being. Applejack’s idea was to work some more instead of enjoying the evening, but how many apple related products can you actually expect to sell? If she really wanted to be successful, she needed to diversify y’all product. We don’t see currency in play a whole lot on the series either, and economic issues is yet another subject that should be added to the list of things preferably never brought up on the show (even despite the fun Rarity and Blueblood moment). Although it would explain why Rarity and Applejack dislike each other.
Fluttershy wanted to meet more animals, but that’s something she can do at home. Even if she was successful, what kind of a night would that have been? She can’t actually communicate with them, so she’d just spend the whole night talking to herself basically. They’re not coming home with her if they live in Canterlot, so all Fluttershy could do is give them some food and make pleasant comments. That’s one long boring evening. Pinkie Pie’s plan was the absolute worst though. Instead of partying with her friends, she wants to party with strangers who aren’t into that. Then she acts surprised that her bad karaoke doesn’t go over well amongst Canterlot’s elite. I know Pinkie Pie is all about meeting new ponies, but trying to do so at the price of ignoring the friends you already have is begging for the disaster she gets.
The other three can be forgiven since their plans were relatively sound but just didn’t end up working out. Both Twilight and Rainbow Dash want to hang out with other ponies they’ve already met but don’t get to see much, which actually makes sense. Basing your whole party activity on this is where they went wrong, since the Wonderbolts don’t like Dash nearly as much as she does them (despite her saving their lives), and Celestia just isn’t all that interesting. Everyone wants to see the ruler of all things, so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise when the princess says she hates the gala later since greeting an endless stream of ponies is probably all she knows of it. Rarity hadn’t met Prince Blueblood before, but she becomes the first of the mane six to seek out a significant other (ignoring the mess with Gilda). Unfortunately, she learns that the ponies you’re most physically attracted to aren’t necessarily the best ones for you, which is a tough lesson everyone has to discover at some point. Well, theoretically, since not everyone does. But the point is still valid and rightly made.
It’s somewhat incomprehensible that the mane six would split up at an event where they pretty much don’t know anyone else (outside of Celestia), so in that light their night was doomed as soon as they entered the castle. There probably aren’t too many real life parallels to where this situation would happen, but having to choose between new and old friends probably will occur at some point. That’s not really the point being made here, but ignoring your friends in favor of striking out alone really wasn’t a good plan for the evening. The mane six only hanging out with each other wouldn’t have been perfect either, so some sort of balance was necessary. They never even tried to achieve this, and pretty much got the expected result because of it.
Although the way The Best Night Ever makes its points is admirable, how much they actually come off is debatable. Having a strategy of what you want to do for a day or an event isn’t always a bad idea, and can often produce quite the opposite result. So it wasn’t so much that they thought ahead as it was their plans were poor. The old friends versus new friends angle was sort of hinted at but not really explored (again), as the mane six didn’t really seem to care that they weren’t together. Maybe the ponies just had to learn to deal with disappointment, but they practically trashed Celestia’s place and got off clean because the princess was bored. A lot of their anger reached unseen levels (especially Fluttershy), but there were no consequences for their actions even though things absolutely got out of hand. Then they laughed about how bad their night was and declared it the “best night ever” anyway. If the scene at the donut shop had been a bit longer, this might have been believable, but they didn’t actually hang out all that much or do anything there.
As interesting as it is to see the darker side of the ponies (especially Fluttershy), watching them do stupid things and get really angry isn’t all that compelling by itself. Add that to the inexplicably lifted songs and a few annoying touches (another “things can’t get any worse”? Really?), and The Best Night Ever doesn’t quite match the better episodes of the season. It still stands out though, and remains unique for a number of reasons. Not just from the storytelling, but also that the episode pays off a season-long arc. After all of the attention the gala received in earlier episodes, we absolutely had to see it, and it wasn’t a complete disappointment despite what happened. But after these events, it’s not really a surprise that the mane six wanted little to do with subsequent galas (if Celestia would even consider inviting them again).
Although it’s uneven and rather a downer most of the time, The Best Night Ever is still a solid season finale. The episode knows exactly what it is and how to say what it wants, and the Broadway show tune actually contributes positively. The events played out extremely naturally until the end (they’d have to be on the hook for some of that damage), and showed at least that things won’t always go your way. Nothing was too easy, and the episode didn’t try to be anything else other than what it was. The first season finale might be light on powerful moments, although the Flutterrage is a treat for some fans, and the Rarity and Blueblood “relationship” was so bad that I was sorry it had to end. Some details end up hurting the episode to prevent it from being what it could have been, but it still has plenty to offer as well. The Best Night Ever may not be a satisfying finale for the first season, but it is a fitting one. Some good moments, some bad, and the mane six are still together at the end. There’s not really much else to ask for.
Since everything goes rather well for the mane six at first, they quickly assume they’re getting their wishes. Twilight rushes to Celestia’s side, and is delighted that the Princess wants to spend time with her as well (this is totally not creepy in any way). Rarity quickly tracks down Blueblood in the courtyard, where Fluttershy also finds a meadowlark (but sadly not of the lemon variety). Applejack opens up shop, and immediately sells an apple pie to famous Wonderbolt member Soarin. Disaster almost strikes as he drops the pastry while flirting with Spitfire, but Rainbow Dash saves it at the last second without even breaking the sound barrier. Spitfire actually remembers something that happened in a previous episode written by a different writer, so she invites Dash to hang with them in the VIP section. Dash may respond with “pourquoi pas?”, but she is totally stoked.
Unfortunately, Pinkie Pie’s plan to party with people who aren’t her friends is the first sign of trouble. Also troublesome is that it appears composer Daniel Ingram ran out of song ideas shortly after “At The Gala”. Going the public domain route this time, Pinkie makes up her own gala song to the tune of “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow”. Then she acts surprised when nobody likes it. I may not be a rabid fan of Ingram’s songs like the rest of the fanbase, but at least he’s vaguely original most of the time. To put this song and the later “Pony Pokey” in the two most important parts of the episode when both are covers is extremely confusing. They work well enough somehow, but is this what you’re really paying the guy for? Perhaps there are extenuating circumstances I don’t know about, but it’s not like Ingram was writing for anywhere close to every show in the first season. The songs don’t hurt the episode too much overall, but this is still a stunning departure from what we’ve come to expect from the series.
Chief Thunderhooves and Sheriff Silverstar would certainly change their opinion about “You Gotta Share” being the worst performance they’d ever seen if they were at the gala. Not only does Pinkie Pie bring the party to a screeching halt, but the badness of her song resonates to her other friends. All of them go from having great to terrible times in literally minutes. Rarity finally speaks with Blueblood, but soon finds that “chivalrous” is not in his vocabulary as he keeps a flower for himself. Fluttershy discovers the bird she has been chasing is actually the groundskeeper, and she scares away all of the animals she hoped to meet. Rainbow Dash and Twilight have a tough time conversing with who they want to since both the Wonderbolts and Celestia have to entertain the many other ponies in attendance, and Applejack’s first customer was also her last.
It appears a virtual certainty that the event will be a disaster, but unlike me, the mane six don’t give up so easily. With time still left for the gala (and the show), they all decide to make the night as good as they hoped no matter what they have to do. Fluttershy sets up a trap since the woodland creatures won’t approach her, but she only catches the groundskeeper (who is happy for the treat). Rainbow Dash manufactures some heroic situations, but nobody cares about those either. The best of these scenes is Rarity’s continued dealings with Prince Blueblood, as both absolutely refuse to be the man in the relationship. Blueblood won’t show Rarity the single tiniest courtesy, which gets funnier as the episode goes on. For now, he spots a puddle of water on the floor and insists Rarity put her cloak down so that he can step over it.
Pinkie Pie decides the solution is for her to perform another rip-off of a famous song, and she’s somehow able to talk the rest of the band into playing along with her. A cartoon law must exist that says you have to do whatever anyone whispers into your ear, so they really had little choice. The “Pony Pokey” is clearly the “Hokey Pokey” with a couple of notes changed to avoid a lawsuit since the song isn’t public domain yet. Even though this second borrowed tune is more annoying than the first, there’s something compelling about its craziness as the normal and uncomplicated song plays over events that depict the mane six losing control of everything. That the lyrics somewhat match up to the action ends up feeling more bizarre, because it’s unclear which aspect is taking a shot at which. Instead of a criticism, this is actually a compliment, since the effective point made by juxtaposing these elements is not found anywhere else in the series.
Although the song ends after a bit, the mane six just get angrier when things don’t go their way. The best moments again involve Rarity, as Blueblood refuses to pay 50 cents (4 bits) for a couple of apple fritters, and then gallantly moves Rarity in the way of the fancy cake Applejack hastily made that Pinkie Pie catapults into the air. Rarity isn’t half as angry as Fluttershy though, who spouts rage and catchphrases previously unseen in the series (“You’re going to love me!”) after she crashes into the main room behind all of the animals from the courtyard. Celestia and Twilight have recently entered as well, and it’s obvious that the other mane six members are behind the huge mess they see in front of them. Fluttershy has put the place up for grabs with the introduction of animals that should remain outside, so Celestia tells Twilight and her friends to run. Rarity does drop a glass slipper during the retreat, but her experience with Blueblood leads her to smash the trope into oblivion.
They all catch up with Spike at Dunkin’ Donuts, but he’s still decent company despite having had too many. Nobody noticed he was gone, and even though he finds out he missed a lot, he probably doesn’t regret disappearing when he did. They all figure that Celestia will be angry about the destruction of her ballroom, but once again the princess fails to deliver. Apparently the Grand Galloping Gala is so dull usually that Celestia is thankful for anything mildly out of the ordinary that happens, so she declares the clearly “worst night ever” to be the best Gala since at least it wasn’t boring. As she is plenty rich, the cost of repairing all the damage done to her palace is a small price to pay for a little entertainment. They do take some consolation in being able to spend time together, which Spike is sure to rub in. Hanging out in a donut shop for a few minutes doesn’t really make for a “best night ever”, but the mane six decide to pretend it does anyway.
The Best Night Ever is rare in that the episode uses quasi-independent film techniques to drive home its point (especially the “Pony Pokey” sequence, but also how everything goes completely wrong overall), which makes its most effective moments unlike anything else seen on the show. I’m not sure it was the right direction to push the mane six toward their worst qualities, but the plot and setup didn’t really leave much choice. We let a lot of the reasons the mane six gave in Ticket Master slide, but it’s amazing how downright stupid some of them ended up being. Applejack’s idea was to work some more instead of enjoying the evening, but how many apple related products can you actually expect to sell? If she really wanted to be successful, she needed to diversify y’all product. We don’t see currency in play a whole lot on the series either, and economic issues is yet another subject that should be added to the list of things preferably never brought up on the show (even despite the fun Rarity and Blueblood moment). Although it would explain why Rarity and Applejack dislike each other.
Fluttershy wanted to meet more animals, but that’s something she can do at home. Even if she was successful, what kind of a night would that have been? She can’t actually communicate with them, so she’d just spend the whole night talking to herself basically. They’re not coming home with her if they live in Canterlot, so all Fluttershy could do is give them some food and make pleasant comments. That’s one long boring evening. Pinkie Pie’s plan was the absolute worst though. Instead of partying with her friends, she wants to party with strangers who aren’t into that. Then she acts surprised that her bad karaoke doesn’t go over well amongst Canterlot’s elite. I know Pinkie Pie is all about meeting new ponies, but trying to do so at the price of ignoring the friends you already have is begging for the disaster she gets.
The other three can be forgiven since their plans were relatively sound but just didn’t end up working out. Both Twilight and Rainbow Dash want to hang out with other ponies they’ve already met but don’t get to see much, which actually makes sense. Basing your whole party activity on this is where they went wrong, since the Wonderbolts don’t like Dash nearly as much as she does them (despite her saving their lives), and Celestia just isn’t all that interesting. Everyone wants to see the ruler of all things, so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise when the princess says she hates the gala later since greeting an endless stream of ponies is probably all she knows of it. Rarity hadn’t met Prince Blueblood before, but she becomes the first of the mane six to seek out a significant other (ignoring the mess with Gilda). Unfortunately, she learns that the ponies you’re most physically attracted to aren’t necessarily the best ones for you, which is a tough lesson everyone has to discover at some point. Well, theoretically, since not everyone does. But the point is still valid and rightly made.
It’s somewhat incomprehensible that the mane six would split up at an event where they pretty much don’t know anyone else (outside of Celestia), so in that light their night was doomed as soon as they entered the castle. There probably aren’t too many real life parallels to where this situation would happen, but having to choose between new and old friends probably will occur at some point. That’s not really the point being made here, but ignoring your friends in favor of striking out alone really wasn’t a good plan for the evening. The mane six only hanging out with each other wouldn’t have been perfect either, so some sort of balance was necessary. They never even tried to achieve this, and pretty much got the expected result because of it.
Although the way The Best Night Ever makes its points is admirable, how much they actually come off is debatable. Having a strategy of what you want to do for a day or an event isn’t always a bad idea, and can often produce quite the opposite result. So it wasn’t so much that they thought ahead as it was their plans were poor. The old friends versus new friends angle was sort of hinted at but not really explored (again), as the mane six didn’t really seem to care that they weren’t together. Maybe the ponies just had to learn to deal with disappointment, but they practically trashed Celestia’s place and got off clean because the princess was bored. A lot of their anger reached unseen levels (especially Fluttershy), but there were no consequences for their actions even though things absolutely got out of hand. Then they laughed about how bad their night was and declared it the “best night ever” anyway. If the scene at the donut shop had been a bit longer, this might have been believable, but they didn’t actually hang out all that much or do anything there.
As interesting as it is to see the darker side of the ponies (especially Fluttershy), watching them do stupid things and get really angry isn’t all that compelling by itself. Add that to the inexplicably lifted songs and a few annoying touches (another “things can’t get any worse”? Really?), and The Best Night Ever doesn’t quite match the better episodes of the season. It still stands out though, and remains unique for a number of reasons. Not just from the storytelling, but also that the episode pays off a season-long arc. After all of the attention the gala received in earlier episodes, we absolutely had to see it, and it wasn’t a complete disappointment despite what happened. But after these events, it’s not really a surprise that the mane six wanted little to do with subsequent galas (if Celestia would even consider inviting them again).
Although it’s uneven and rather a downer most of the time, The Best Night Ever is still a solid season finale. The episode knows exactly what it is and how to say what it wants, and the Broadway show tune actually contributes positively. The events played out extremely naturally until the end (they’d have to be on the hook for some of that damage), and showed at least that things won’t always go your way. Nothing was too easy, and the episode didn’t try to be anything else other than what it was. The first season finale might be light on powerful moments, although the Flutterrage is a treat for some fans, and the Rarity and Blueblood “relationship” was so bad that I was sorry it had to end. Some details end up hurting the episode to prevent it from being what it could have been, but it still has plenty to offer as well. The Best Night Ever may not be a satisfying finale for the first season, but it is a fitting one. Some good moments, some bad, and the mane six are still together at the end. There’s not really much else to ask for.
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