Episode Review: "A Horse Shoe-In" - Season 9 Episode 20

"Since this episode's selection process demands preexisting characters so the audience are satisfied, three of you have been resurrected from the writing grave. Enjoy your at-max-half-dozen lines before you're returned there!"

Totally new writer this week, in the form of Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim. Probably the last time this series will have a new writer, with only 6 episodes to go after this one. She has very few credits to her name otherwise, and the only one I recognised was a single episode recently written for the Disney Junior show Vampirina, a not half-bad show for little kids that, while largely devoid of any adult appeal, nonetheless has little to be embarrassed about in entertaining the 8-and-under set (it’s also produced in Ireland by local animation studio Brown Bag Films, so, you know, I always root for the home troops a bit). Given that, you have to wonder what Shepherd-Oppenheim might pull off with a show like FiM that’s far more of an all-ages kids’ cartoon. Let she’s what she’s cooked up for us!

Turns out it is finally time for Twilight to pass onto Starlight the position of Head-Mare at the friendship school. As to how she’ll fare with this… well, the way she was talking to her office plant doesn’t exactly alleviate concerns. While walking with Trixie later and discussing the matter, Starlight indirectly gets the idea that, to help ease herself into the role and reduce her stress and workload, she should hire somepony to be a Vice Head-Mare, an idea Twilight agrees with and which she gives Starlight full permission to forge ahead in. No sooner has Twilight left then Trixie applauds Starlight for the idea, saying she’s looking forward to Starlight choosing the right pony. Then she says ‘wink’, while winking. Starlight’s response that she’ll have to have a proper interview process is met with an identical statement and a verbal description of the act of shutting a single eyelid.

What follows is basically a thematic reskin of “All Bottled Up” and “A Matter of Principles” merged together that also shares more then a few plot details with those two episodes, crossed with a shade of nepotism as presumed from Trixie. More then that, it echoes other StarTrixie episodes too, namely “No Second Prances” and “On the Road to Friendship”. Let’s be honest, most StarTrixie episodes, at least ones that actually focus on their friendship (so, “To Change a Changeling” naturally doesn’t count), have, as their crux, rising tension between the two rather different friends, often personified in frustration on Starlight’s part at Trixie’s ineptitude at a given task or her lax attitude towards one. As the episode moves through Starlight’s three-step process for weeding out the unsuitable candidates, seeing how the prospective ponies perform at substitute teaching, parent-teacher conferences and field trips, all the beats you’d expect happen; Trixie demonstrates clearly, time and time again, that she isn’t fit for the role by her lax attitude and effort, Starlight keeps holding onto her in the vain hope she’ll turn a leaf, despite being fully aware it won’t happen, and, when Trixie majorly screws up at the end, Starlight loses it on her, resulting in a split.

As you might expect, one’s surface-level enjoyment for this episode is likely to be somewhat inversely proportional to how irritating they find Trixie here. If this is not as big a flaw as the very similar issue Discord poses in “A Matter of Principles”, given Trixie is simply being ignorant and overconfident to the point of not trying, while Discord was downright mean and swayed to subterfuge, it still results in an episode with a small hole at the thread where its heart and moral should be, at least as far as wondering why Starlight and Trixie remain friends, or why Starlight isn’t fairer.

The episode is actually quite structurally sound otherwise, given a nice layer of callbacks to Starlight’s building tension at the issue and struggle on what to do and how to justify it to herself. More so, despite being a newcomer to the show, something that is quite obvious when you analyse the episode’s structure more then a bit, Sheperd-Oppenhelm gets the universe of FiM really well, better then most current writers. Nowhere is this more evident then in the speaking return of three old characters as potential candidates for the job; Spoiled Rich (hilariously and rightfully booted out early on for emphasising money in a substitute loyalty lesson), and the one-two punch of fandom favorites and “Slice of Life” veterans Doctor Hooves and Octavia. Amazingly, it seemed as though the episode is going to retain those two to being mute, as they are during the first day, which makes it all the more surprising when they do speak. It’s a bit of a fan sop, having them here when any ponies would probably do, but given a script that just calls for four other candidates to drop out at each stage, they fit the bill fine and supply plenty of amusing moments along the way (Octavia’s usage of musical terms to describe Ocellus’ budding confidence and her partnering with DJ-Pon 3 for a concert are notable standouts). Big Mac rounds out the quintet of ponies being scrutinised.

The episode even has a really well-thought out ending; after Starlight muses to Twilight how she really wanted a friend to be working with her and that blinded her until it was almost too late, and gets the obvious-in-hindsight advice to have not strung Trixie along, the two friends have a not half-bad nuanced apology, and the episode doesn’t do the obvious thing of giving Trixie the job anyway. No, instead it builds off her strengths shown throughout the episode of being a loyal caring friend, perhaps in an unnaturally assertive way, and has Starlight instead offer her the now-vacated position of Guidance Counselor. But only after she hits upon the brilliant-in-hindsight idea of Trixie’s suggestion of Sunburst for the Vice Head-Mare position instead. And let me tell you, the moments where the characters soliloquy why he is such a perfect choice just as we realize the same is quite satisfying indeed, given the poor stallion’s spend most of his time as an off-screen babysitter for Flurry Heart (who is reportedly “getting older”, hence him no longer being needed). Even if we’ll never get to see much of Starlight and Sunburst working together, the mere fact of them now actually having an opportunity to further grow their strong-but-wobbly friendship is quite satisfying.

In the end, Trixie being an irritable butt throughout is only a minor problem. Oh, it stings the episode a little, sure, but no more then an average case of a character being jerkified up for the plot’s case, and actually less so, given Trixie had never truly let go of her front of boasting and overconfidence to mask her fears anyway. In other words, far less so that most cases this season by quite some distance. Put it this way – it’s far easier on the audience’s part to accept Trixie acting like this then it is any of the Mane 6. And Trixie isn’t truly made a jerk, just her usual egotistic self with a shade of neopitism. And unlike most reskins of past episodes, this one actually outdoes "A Matter of Principles", and not be a tiny distance either, even if that's not saying all that much.
This leaves us with a good, solid episode; not too inviting to come back to much, but not one that has much to be embarrassed about either, mostly due to how entertaining the shenanigans, lines and Trixie being Trixie continue to be – it certainly also helps how subtly yet skillfully it stresses that Starlight makes for a better Head Mare then Twilight ever did. Only took a newbie to the show to get it!

STRAY OBSERVATIONS
- It’s upsetting then being merely “good and solid, if undeniably flawed” is enough to put this episode well into the season’s top half, but that’s just how it is.
- It bears mentioning that the episode's focus on Sunburst's role in the last scene mostly manages to divert from the fact that, while Trixie fits the Counselor role better then the Vice Head-Mare one, she's still far from a good fit for it. This is less of a problem then it might be because of the episode's focus during those last few minutes, and because it doesn't ultimately matter, given there's only 6 episodes to go and they're all tied to other characters and plotlines. If the show had another season left, it'd be more annoying.
- Throughout the whole episode, Starlight keeps using the term ‘Vice Head-Mare’, despite 2 of the 5 candidates being stallions, and she uses this term even when talking directly with Big Mac. No “Vice Head-Pony” term? Honestly, I’m not really bothered, there’s been plenty of jobs throughout human history whose titles would seem to indicate a man when that might not be the case (even ones that don’t simply end in ‘man’).
- Twilight pointing how that friends aren't always right for every job is almost laughably woeful advice given how mixed a job her 5 best friends have done as teachers - the only two we've ever seem doing more then tiny snippets of teaching, Rainbow Dash and Applejack... let's just say it wasn't their best hour. I'd guess the other three would do better, being less prone to stubborn, hot-headed moments, but that's faint praise.
- Ocellus is spelt ‘OCellus’ in the credits. Then again, this is the same show that used to consistently mix up whether it was ‘Apple Bloom’ or ‘Applebloom’, as well as her voice actress’ name’s spelling at one point.
- Only 6 episodes left now! Gee, I’m really curious as to what’s coming folks. Though I’m doing my best to keep my expectations as low as possible, so when the end turns out decent or better, it’ll feel like a victory. I’ve avoided the bulk of leaked spoilers, the odd screenshot excepted.