Rating:
The mane six share a rare night
together at a meteor shower as Owl’s Well That Ends Well opens. It is a fine moment that is relatively
unequaled in the series, and seems to be the setup for at least a decent
episode. Then Owlowiscious shows
up. This mysterious owl just invites
himself into Twilight’s house one night, but she doesn’t see anything weird
about that. Then he starts doing the
chores that Spike is supposed to be in charge of, which causes the “#1
Assistant” to get butthurt. Spike
repeatedly tries and fails to make Owlowisicious look bad, and eventually ends
up almost getting himself killed.
Twilight then explains something she could have earlier which would
have prevented a large chunk of the episode, but it’s TV logic that fortunately
saves Spike. Adding a new character
pretty much never stuck in the first season, and Owlowisicious is no different. Once the next episode rolls around, he’s long
gone, so Spike doesn’t have to worry anymore.
That just makes Owl’s Well That Ends Well doubly unnecessary.
Spike soaks up a lot of attention at
the meteor show since he was responsible for refreshments, but he just panders
for more instead of being modest. All of
this rare Spike love can of course only be a setup for a quick comeuppance. He passes out after drinking some “spiked”
punch (get it?), but the ponies mercifully don’t draw anything on him. Twilight puts him to bed at home and gets
back work, since she usually stays up to three or four in the morning (and
there’s nothing wrong with that). I do
most of my writing at night as well, so armed with a candle and a quill,
Twilight begins her 500-page treatise on comets. She’s quickly interrupted by those
bump-in-the-night sounds, which totally isn’t a freeloading owl looking for a
place to stay or stuff to steal.
Potential disaster strikes when Twilight’s great opening sentence and a
half flies out the window, but the amazing Owlowiscious retrieves the scroll
for reasons that don’t have anything to do with personal gain.
Spike sleeps “late” (all the way to
10am), and awakens to find he’s been replaced.
Owlowiscious did all the things Spike was supposed to already, and
Spike easily sees the writing on the wall through Twilight’s
manager-speak. He goes to meet
Owlowisicious in the library, which begins a one-sided Abbott & Costello
routine. “Who’s on first” was more
frustrating than funny the first time, so paring it down to just “who” makes a
tired concept even worse. Owls sound like they're saying “who”, get it? Having to sit through this only once would be
bad enough, but no. Something so funny has to be repeated three
more times (and again in Owlowiscious’ unfortunate return in May The Best Pet
Win!). Even though Owlowiscious somehow
communicated his name to Twilight during the night, he only ever says “who”,
yet everyone thinks it means the actual word “who”. This inexplicable misunderstanding is about
as funny as Pinkie Pie’s bad puns (she’s “‘who’ked”, get it?), which I can only
assume the other ponies laugh at out of fear that not doing so will cause
Pinkie to go insane again.
Even though Spike is still a “baby” and
doesn’t get paid for the things he does around the library, apparently
this equals a job to him. So Owlowiscious’
“helpfulness” will be sending Spike to the unemployment line if he doesn’t prove
himself useful, or at least that’s what he thinks. Spike tries to fetch a couple of books
quickly, and goes on a rather long quest to find a quill. He fails both times to the new assistant (who
surprisingly has feathers, by the way), but has a narcolepsy attack before he
can disappoint even more. Or so you’d
think. Spike awakens when Twilight finds
the astronomy book she was looking for earlier, which Spike told her was
missing. He sneezed fire and completely
burnt it out, but neglected to hide the evidence for some reason. This earns Spike the dreaded “I’m very
disappointed in you” admonishment.
Now Spike decides the solution to getting back in Twilight’s good graces is to make it look like Owlowiscious ate a mouse. He steals a toy mouse from Rarity’s place and spreads ketchup and feathers around the floor to make it look like the toy mouse was partially eaten, but his plan is foiled when he forgets that Twilight is still at home. Not being able to handle her being “truly disappointed” in him, Spike flees for a cave in the woods, and doesn’t ask questions when he discovers a large pile of gems inside. Hmm, which creature likes both eating gems and hording things? After ingesting as much as he can, Spike is shocked when a large green dragon returns and is angry at the uninvited guest stealing his food.
Even though they’re large and mean looking, dragons are portrayed on the show as kind-hearted giants who have been stereotyped by those who don’t understand them, so the dragon realizes Spike’s mistake and lets him go freely. Oh wait. On My Little Pony, dragons have no redeeming qualities and always conform to their stereotypes, so this dragon quickly tries to kill the intruder. Spike is small enough to try to make a run for it, but he doesn’t head straight for the entrance for reasons that aren’t explained. Right when it looks like all hope is lost, the great Owlowiscious appears. This tiny bird is smaller than Spike, but he’s also God, so he easily distracts the dragon while Spike escapes. Meeting up with Twilight at the door, the three flee to safety. It takes this large episode of acting out for Twilight to finally admit that Owlowiscious is only helping her out at night since he’s nocturnal. And nocturnal means never sleeps apparently, because Owlowiscious is just as active during the day too. Saying that Owlowiscious was getting third shift hours probably would have saved Spike from freaking out, so of course Twilight didn’t mention it until now so that he would and we’d have an episode. Yet another good example of the Anthropic Principle at work.
Spike doesn’t actually work for Twilight no matter what he says, but Owl’s Well That Ends Well is still apparently supposed to be something of a workplace drama. We all want to feel useful at our jobs, and it can be extremely disconcerting if a new employee starts doing yours better. Unfortunately, this episode misrepresents that dynamic. If you feel like you’re being replaced by a new employee, that is exactly what is happening. Anything you try to do will make you look as bad as Spike does throughout the episode, but there’s no reconciliation coming when you open up about how you feel. The only possible outcomes are a demotion or your firing, which telling your boss about only hastens. There are many things that people overreact to when they shouldn’t, but being replaced at work by a better and/or younger employee isn’t one of them. A bad pun in the title isn’t going to change that.
Even if Owl’s Well That Ends Well did depict its message accurately, it would still be a chore to sit through. There’s little fun watching Spike in angry submissive mode, and he just does progressively stupider things as the episode goes on. Worse is that he’s actually justified in being afraid, although Spike clearly gives little thought as to how his actions will restore his reputation with Twilight. But to top it off, he actually shouldn’t be afraid since TV logic dictates Owlowiscious is a virtual one-off who couldn’t possibly be a threat because then he’d have to be on the series. So all Spike really had to do was sit around and wait for the next episode to start. That would have been a boring show, but does make sense from a TV perspective. This means Owl’s Well That Ends Well wouldn’t have existed if Twilight just explained things right away, and shouldn’t have existed since Spike just had to lay around on his bed for twenty minutes and let future Spike’s life return to normal.
Apparently we’re supposed to think that a magic pet owl who says “who” and performs impossible feats is funny, but all of the so-called “jokes” strike out in Owl’s Well That Ends Well. This is especially true of Pinkie Pie, who only cracks puns that are Family Circus bad. No reason is given why we should care about Owlowiscious, since we don’t know who he is, he has no personality (unless you call the faux horror theatrics of turning his head around like owls can personality), and he'll barely be back. Episodes that concentrate on Spike have been rather shaky overall, and since he acts mindnumbingly idiotic throughout the show, it’s extremely difficult to watch or care about him either. This adds up to another terrible outing from Morrow, who took what little potential Owl’s Well That Ends Well had early and squandered it by introducing a Mary Sue owl no one wants to see again, and piling on the bad puns to make things even worse. There may be some truth to the message (not the one described at the end), but Owl’s Well That Ends Well still ends up being another in a long line of bad first season episodes.
Now Spike decides the solution to getting back in Twilight’s good graces is to make it look like Owlowiscious ate a mouse. He steals a toy mouse from Rarity’s place and spreads ketchup and feathers around the floor to make it look like the toy mouse was partially eaten, but his plan is foiled when he forgets that Twilight is still at home. Not being able to handle her being “truly disappointed” in him, Spike flees for a cave in the woods, and doesn’t ask questions when he discovers a large pile of gems inside. Hmm, which creature likes both eating gems and hording things? After ingesting as much as he can, Spike is shocked when a large green dragon returns and is angry at the uninvited guest stealing his food.
Even though they’re large and mean looking, dragons are portrayed on the show as kind-hearted giants who have been stereotyped by those who don’t understand them, so the dragon realizes Spike’s mistake and lets him go freely. Oh wait. On My Little Pony, dragons have no redeeming qualities and always conform to their stereotypes, so this dragon quickly tries to kill the intruder. Spike is small enough to try to make a run for it, but he doesn’t head straight for the entrance for reasons that aren’t explained. Right when it looks like all hope is lost, the great Owlowiscious appears. This tiny bird is smaller than Spike, but he’s also God, so he easily distracts the dragon while Spike escapes. Meeting up with Twilight at the door, the three flee to safety. It takes this large episode of acting out for Twilight to finally admit that Owlowiscious is only helping her out at night since he’s nocturnal. And nocturnal means never sleeps apparently, because Owlowiscious is just as active during the day too. Saying that Owlowiscious was getting third shift hours probably would have saved Spike from freaking out, so of course Twilight didn’t mention it until now so that he would and we’d have an episode. Yet another good example of the Anthropic Principle at work.
Spike doesn’t actually work for Twilight no matter what he says, but Owl’s Well That Ends Well is still apparently supposed to be something of a workplace drama. We all want to feel useful at our jobs, and it can be extremely disconcerting if a new employee starts doing yours better. Unfortunately, this episode misrepresents that dynamic. If you feel like you’re being replaced by a new employee, that is exactly what is happening. Anything you try to do will make you look as bad as Spike does throughout the episode, but there’s no reconciliation coming when you open up about how you feel. The only possible outcomes are a demotion or your firing, which telling your boss about only hastens. There are many things that people overreact to when they shouldn’t, but being replaced at work by a better and/or younger employee isn’t one of them. A bad pun in the title isn’t going to change that.
Even if Owl’s Well That Ends Well did depict its message accurately, it would still be a chore to sit through. There’s little fun watching Spike in angry submissive mode, and he just does progressively stupider things as the episode goes on. Worse is that he’s actually justified in being afraid, although Spike clearly gives little thought as to how his actions will restore his reputation with Twilight. But to top it off, he actually shouldn’t be afraid since TV logic dictates Owlowiscious is a virtual one-off who couldn’t possibly be a threat because then he’d have to be on the series. So all Spike really had to do was sit around and wait for the next episode to start. That would have been a boring show, but does make sense from a TV perspective. This means Owl’s Well That Ends Well wouldn’t have existed if Twilight just explained things right away, and shouldn’t have existed since Spike just had to lay around on his bed for twenty minutes and let future Spike’s life return to normal.
Apparently we’re supposed to think that a magic pet owl who says “who” and performs impossible feats is funny, but all of the so-called “jokes” strike out in Owl’s Well That Ends Well. This is especially true of Pinkie Pie, who only cracks puns that are Family Circus bad. No reason is given why we should care about Owlowiscious, since we don’t know who he is, he has no personality (unless you call the faux horror theatrics of turning his head around like owls can personality), and he'll barely be back. Episodes that concentrate on Spike have been rather shaky overall, and since he acts mindnumbingly idiotic throughout the show, it’s extremely difficult to watch or care about him either. This adds up to another terrible outing from Morrow, who took what little potential Owl’s Well That Ends Well had early and squandered it by introducing a Mary Sue owl no one wants to see again, and piling on the bad puns to make things even worse. There may be some truth to the message (not the one described at the end), but Owl’s Well That Ends Well still ends up being another in a long line of bad first season episodes.
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