Rating:
Rainbow Dash finally achieved a renaissance after a string
of bad episodes featuring her in the second season, and the Apple family badly
needs the same. No other group has been
just downright boring, and they’re the stars of another clunker here. Somepony To Watch Over Me ruins a potentially
good premise with painful filler, which is much worse than the regular kind. Like other bad episodes in the series, it
pretends to arrive at a lesson without actually doing so. Scott Sonneborn is another newcomer to the
writing staff who deserves a pink slip upon the return of a certain other
member. He can’t complain about getting
stuck with a bad premise or impossible characters, as the lesson is one every
family must deal with at some point.
Apple Bloom is finally going to stay home alone, so the older members of
her family are understandably fretting.
But that could be too much fun, so it only lasts for about a
minute. Most of the episode consists of
Applejack being annoyingly stupid; an aspect difficult to stomach in Apple
Family Reunion that is no better now.
Then there’s a fight scene with an absurd three-headed monster, but
Applejack spoils the key to victory moments before the battle happens. Apple Bloom is legitimately close to being
killed, but Applejack decides that she’s somehow ready after all. Completely believable. Somepony To Watch Over Me is dull and
painful, and has no redeeming features whatsoever.
Somepony’s teaser definitely qualifies as one. The Apple adults are debating about letting
Apple Bloom stay at home alone, and the presence of her fellow Crusaders
suggests a wild sleepover is imminent.
But no, only Apple Bloom will be around.
They find in the affirmative, although this too ends up being a tease. Granny Smith will be visiting another made up
relative, while Applejack and Big Mac are making really important and dangerous
pie deliveries. They must be bringing in
a lot of money, but who needs that when you can be overbearing? Also, I’m sure Big Mac’s fine, so no need to
show him again.
Apple Bloom finishes every chore and is about to dance in
her underwear, but hopefully she enjoyed those fifty seconds alone. Applejack returns to spend the time left in
acts 1 & 2 being annoyingly concerned about her little sister. Even Apple Bloom has to get out of this
episode, so she hatches a plan that cleverly involves simply climbing out the
window while her friends wear spare bows in bed. No need to overthink when Applejack is being
so dumb, and it works even though she checks in on her “sister” every five
seconds.
Attempting to bring some action into the episode, Apple
Bloom sets out to finish the delivery so that they can all eat. The dangerous part is a fire swamp that hosts
a chimera: a beast that is somehow one-third tiger, goat, and snake. After Seabreeze’s feminine-looking appearance
in the previous Breezies, this very masculine creature is of course all female
(but only for a contrived “sisters” comment later). The chimera wants Apple Bloom and her pies in
some order, but the pony preserves both by doing a decent job in dodging. She’s not quite good enough though, so of
course Applejack rushes to save Apple Bloom after finally learning about her
deception. This battle is finished
quickly since Applejack already disclosed the solution before leaving. After how much Apple Bloom made a mess of
things, Applejack decides she can be on her own because she’s not worth the
trouble of no evidence whatsoever.
With Applejack’s domineering before, Somepony was obviously going to end
like this, so give the people what they expect I guess.
The very worst episodes repeat an action for “laughs” while
ignoring that there are none. Pinkie’s
“sense” in Feeling Pinkie Keen gives Twilight permanent brain damage, while the
twins won’t stop crying in Baby Cakes. A
Friend In Deed already featured Pinkie being spectacularly annoying, so this
aspect isn’t even original. We know
parents can be overprotective, but beating our heads with it to fill out two
acts destroys any interest in viewing.
This could have been a good lesson, since parents can have a hard time
letting their kids go after seeing them every day since they were babies. But no parents are this bad, and the message
is further undermined since Applejack isn’t Apple Bloom’s mother (although she
probably wouldn’t care so much if she was).
Whether accurate or not, the presentation destroys any integrity
Somepony might have had, and pushes it to the point of being unwatchable.
Applejack has done this before, so it’s hard to call her
actions out of character. Considering she
isn’t nearly so bad in episodes not featuring her, the fault must lay with the
writers. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie
have had similar problems and improved, so hopefully someone will figure out AJ
as well. Apple Bloom is really the only
sane character here, and it’s impossible to fault anything she does. I’d want to leave too, and she’s clearly old
enough to handle a little alone time (especially in the crime-free utopia of
Ponyville). Apple Bloom’s character
fares much better then, but she was lost in the bad material around her and
couldn’t do anything about it.
Debate is raised by the chimera suddenly talking, but not
because that shouldn’t be possible.
Strangely, this beast turns into comic relief as it becomes three
bickering sisters who can’t get along.
Clearly Sonneborn meant some sort of parallel to the Apples, but none
ended up being established. A throwaway
quote attempts to justify her existence, but the situations otherwise can’t be
compared. Personally, the episode wasn’t
exactly ruined by this creature speaking since it was already long dead. Unfortunately, the reason this happened is
clearly for length, since otherwise the fight would be quicker and less
interesting. Not that the talking was a
bad choice, although it only ends up feeling like more filler.
Somepony To Watch Over Me should have been an easy episode
to demonstrate its lesson, but Sonneborn just whiffs all over the place. He focuses on annoying characters instead of
giving the good ones more time (the Cutie Mark Crusaders actually seem decent
together, which hasn’t always happened).
Big Mac and Granny Smith disappear early, while we can only wish
Applejack would do the same. After the
build-up, Apple Bloom needs some time alone, but she never gets it. Then when she does screw up, Applejack
presumably rewards anyway. That makes
Somepony a huge mess, and plants it firmly among the worst episodes in season
four.
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