Rating:
Holy shit! There are
bats in the west orchard! I mean, holy
shit, Merriwether Williams actually watched some other episodes of the
series! For some reason, Meghan McCarthy
was “mistakenly” credited as the writer early on, but I’m not entirely certain
she didn’t have something of a hand in this given the allusions and more “that
was easy” plot solutions. But nobody
does lightweight or fitting into her timeslot better than Williams, even if
Bats! is another episode that feels like it was written for years past. This perspective Williams apparently now has
is honestly extremely helpful, as it makes for a number of charming moments and
produces a watchable episode. Of course,
Bats! is also more filler with little plot and nothing much of consequence that
happens. For the second straight
episode, Williams actually shows decent characterization and writes a story
that almost takes place in the actual universe it’s supposed to. But then again, bats, ladies and gentleman,
bats. Vampire bats are a huge problem
affecting the farming community, or something.
Williams actually seems determined to counteract the racism present in
her previous episodes by having Fluttershy understand that the vampire bats’
culture is just different and not worthy of extermination over. If only the same understanding was shown to
dragons. Unfortunately, the bat problem
takes up the entire show, which makes it apparent that Bats! is nothing more
than a low budget bottle episode.
Even though the bats are later shown discarding the outer
apple and spitting out the seeds, apparently they also sort of suck the apples
dry while they’re still on the tree off screen.
So when apple-bucking season magically hits again, the apples fall in a
mushy mess instead of plumply into a basket.
Applejack hasn’t seen the problem before, but Granny Smith told her
about the one time it happened many years ago, and it sounded really
scary. Also, Granny Smith isn’t around
for budget reasons, and Applejack’s horrifically steroid-infused, I mean tender
love and cared for giant apple that is practically killing its tree is in
danger of being lost and costing Applejack an easy win at the fair. Needing help to get rid of this parasprite
bat infestation, Applejack calls on the rest of her friends, who are all
totally interested in helping out.
Except for Fluttershy though, who surprisingly describes
that the bats are just trying to feed themselves and their families. We only see them looking like fat lazy slobs
as they hastily consume the apples and spit out the seeds wherever, but I’m
sure they’re totally feeding their baby bats off screen also. With too many apples to patrol, the plan is having
Fluttershy use the stare on the bats while Twilight casts a spell on them to
curb their desire. Fluttershy doesn’t
want to go along with this, but eventually acquiesces. We’ll soon see why she wanted to pass on
participating.
The plan itself goes off pretty well though. Rainbow Dash and company round up the bats
more easily than a certain other pest, and they’re quickly captivated by the
stare. Twilight casts her spell, and the
bats no longer want to even look at an apple afterward. Problem solved, the end!
Not quite of course, which would have been obvious by
glancing at the clock. Take two of
apple-bucking season starts off exactly like the first, which shouldn’t be
possible since the bats still don’t want to touch the apples. Since this is a bottle episode, there’s
really only one possible culprit, and it’s given away when she gets a strange cigarette
apple craving shortly after the mane six’s stakeout at night begins. Somehow the spell backfired a bit and
transferred the desire for apples onto Fluttershy, but she doesn’t stop there.
Besides the cravings, Fluttershy actually turns into a
full-fledged bat herself. As the fastest
flier in Equestria, the rest of the mane six have no ability to catch her, and
she won’t respond to her name either.
Unfortunately, as a large part of the previous plan, there’s no way to
replicate it in order to cast a reverse spell on Fluttershy. But that would take thinking and time, and
the episode is almost over. So the mane
six use the same plan anyways. They lure
Fluttershy with the giant apple and force her to look at her own
reflection. She isn’t giving herself the
stare, but close enough I guess.
Positively horrified by her appearance or something, Fluttershy is frozen
long enough for Twilight to cast the spell and return her to normal. They set up (another?) orchard for the
vampire bats (who apparently like apples again), and Applejack admits she
should have followed Fluttershy’s long-term plan at first. Because crippling your business and only
means of income today will totally help in the future, or whatever.
Bats! would have made sense as the season’s Halloween episode
(and perhaps this was the intention), so why it was aired shortly after
Christmas is another in a long line of poor scheduling decisions. Not that it carried the weight of Luna
Eclipsed, but Bats!’ irreverence fits the tradition of that holiday. I also must admit that Williams is improving
as a writer for the series, but there’s still too much spotty dialogue (“that’s
not Fluttershy, that’s Flutterbat!!!”) to say the episode is
well-written. And again, this is another
Williams offering that not only requires you to refrain from thinking, but
seems to take place in an alternate universe.
With two arcs going on, are we really supposed to care about some stupid
bats? They’ve never been mentioned
before, probably aren’t a top concern of farmers, and these specific bats don’t
actually exist. Perhaps the episode
could work as some sort of PSA, but that’s compromised by the fiction. At least there’s some concern shown regarding
how the bats (and presumably insects or other animals) aren’t unfeeling evil creatures
but actually doing what they have to for survival. Of course, these specific bats are then only
shown in Fluttershy’s imagination and never elsewhere on screen. The actual bats are just caricatures who
don’t deserve the concessions Applejack makes at the end.
Even if Bats! is better than what we’ve seen from Williams
in a while, it’s obvious she’s still writing Spongebob episodes. No thought is supposed to be put into this
sudden problem of non-existent bats, or the absurd story of how Fluttershy
became a bat because the spell bounced off the bats somehow. Perhaps this latter point could be forgiven
if the episode was specifically Halloween themed, but not with all of the other
mess around it. There’s no reason we
should care about anything that happens in the show, and Williams’ surprising
message of tolerance feels like she was responding to a directive from above to
cut out the blatant racism. That messed
up early writing credit therefore seems like it was done out of hope that the
episode would be judged unbiased since Williams is derided in the community. As a writer who is only apparently capable of
penning filler episodes and has lost the confidence of her superiors, there
doesn’t seem to be much point in keeping Williams on the staff. Even with the small improvements shown in
Bats!, the episode still seems out of place and meant to be forgettable. For a series that is attempting to push forward
in both storytelling and animation, Bats! is a clear step back.
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