My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 409 - Pinkie Apple Pie

Rating:

For the first time since she joined the writing staff, Merriwether Williams hasn’t written the worst episode of the season.  Whether Natasha Levinger or the premise is to blame is uncertain, but Pinkie Apple Pie is literally comprised of filler.  Pinkie discovers that she might be a distant relation of the Apple family from Twilight, but a smudge in the genealogy records casts some doubt.  The Apples go on a journey to find that there’s another smudge in a different book, so they still don’t know.  Great.  Along the way, they get justifiably angry with each other, but not enough to break up or something.  Ostensibly the episode is about families sticking together through the tough times, but these weren’t really bad enough for the Apple family to be in jeopardy.  I had also hoped Pinkie Apple Pie might be the adoption episode which must be coming, but that wasn’t the case either.  Essentially, there is no point to Pinkie Apple Pie, and it’s more painful than any episode since the second season.  Unlike the previous outing, even two stars might be a bit generous.

Having a plot summary would mean there was actually a plot.  The Apples are happy to welcome Pinkie to the family (perhaps they feel sorry for the boring absent relations she has), but Applejack is skeptical of the lengthy scroll that alleges the connection.  They decide to road trip to the house of distant cousin Goldie Delicious, who apparently keeps her own copy of the large family’s tree.  At this point, I could skip ahead thirteen minutes without missing much of anything.  The trip consists of a pointless song full of clichés (the unexpected nod in the lyrics doesn’t excuse it) and practically everything going wrong.  Multiple vehicles are destroyed, and the absurd amount of luggage they brought with is completely lost.  Despite not wanting to bicker in front of Pinkie Pie, it’s hard to blame the Apple family for doing so.

Now with the episode almost over, they finally arrive at the cottage (but Goldie Delicious isn’t home at first because we need more filler).  This distant cousin is a crazy cat lady and a hoarder, but she’s not too bad otherwise (at least it explains why she wasn’t at any of the reunions).  She digs out a book of the family history, but the relevant entry is smudged too, because we wouldn’t want anything significant to happen.  With no possible answer now, the Apple family decides that if Pinkie can put up with them, that’s close enough.

(The bizarre “_____ yourself!” reference that Pinkie Pie and Goldie Delicious deliver in greeting is stretched over 17 minutes and almost certain to be missed by all viewers the first time.  Along with the craziness, this suggests the two are related after all, but that undermines the supposed message of not needing to know to consider someone family.  This therefore just adds to the mess and doesn’t help anything.)

Basically, Pinkie Apple Pie is the complete opposite of the previous episode, Rarity Takes Manehattan.  The song is in a similar spot, but serves no point whatsoever and clearly only exists to lengthen the episode.  We learn absolutely nothing interesting about the Apple family, unless the fact that they argue sometimes counts.  The journey isn’t anything but a waste of time, and the expected payoff doesn’t happen either.  Pinkie is sort of crazy on the sidelines for all this, but we don’t discover anything about her family life or why she would be so excited to suddenly have a different one.  Few episodes of the series have been this utterly devoid of content.

Levinger’s dialogue is decent, and the various different characters at least seem well defined.  A nice moment of the Apple family realizing they’re quarreling and not wanting that to be the sole impression Pinkie has of them is appreciated, but not nearly enough to compensate for the rest of the black hole.  Even Larson laid an egg the first time out, but Levinger brought absolutely nothing interesting to one shaky premise.  Many families have suffered through much worse (infidelities, drug use, deaths, etc.), so a few arguments on a road trip don’t ever seem like a threat to push the Apples apart.  There just isn’t anything else to say about Pinkie Apple Pie.  It’s a boring unfunny mess with no plot, blatant filler, and no resolution.  The fourth season should be beyond such episodes, but apparently it is not.