Today's episode brings another new feature to the table: the first non-supervillain antagonist. But will Gilda's gruff awesomeness be able to keep the episode fresh after so long? Let's find out as we look at "Griffon the Brush-Off."
TECHNICAL SPECS:
Season: 1
Episode: 5
Written By: Cindy Morrow
First Aired: November 12, 2010
SUMMARY:
It's another typical day in Ponyville, and Pinkie is being her usual hyperactive self. Rainbow Dash, a pony who wouldn't have given her the time of day before Nightmare Moon's return, tries her best to ignore her and continue her nap...until she hears that Pinkie wants her. Naturally, the thought of spending a day with Pinkie is enough to make Dash wet herself and she tries to flee, but no matter where in Equestria she goes, that pink pony is waiting for her. Finally, Dash gives up, and helps Pinkie with her most important project for the day: pulling a prank on Spike. As it turns out, both ponies are practical jokers, and the two bond over a series of elaborate pranks they pull on their friends. However, when Dash tries to use a squirting turtle on Fluttershy, Pinkie stops her, since Shy is far too sensitive to take a joke and it would only hurt her feelings.
The next day, Pinkie excitedly runs up to Dash's cloud mansion to propose some more pranks...only to find that a bird-like creature is already there. Dash introduces Pinkie to Gilda, her old friend from Junior Speedsters Camp who's come for a visit. Nonplussed, Pinkie suggests all three team up for some pranks, but Gilda turns her down to spend more time with Dash, and the Pegasus tells Pinks that they'll meet up later. Of course, for Pinkie, "later" means "ten seconds from now," so she proceeds to follow the two anyway, each time earning a stiffer rebuke from Gilda when Dash isn't looking. Finally, after rigging up a helicopter contraption, Gilda point-blank tells Pinkie to buzz off and sends the machine crashing into the ground.
Now convinced that Gilda is just a big meanie-pants, Pinkie tries to get Twilight on her side, but the Unicorn tells her that she's probably just jealous and that Dash has every right to spend time with Gilda. At first, Pinkie is livid at the very thought of being considered in the wrong, but once she has had time to cool off in the town marketplace she realizes that she might have judged Gilda too quickly. And then, by sheer plot intervention, Dash and Gilda separate for a while, with the griffon going to the same market to get something to eat while Dash finishes up some weather jobs. Pinkie watches in horror as Gilda first terrifies Granny Smith just for laughs, and then steals food from a stall using her tail. But the moment where every Brony wishes they could turn her into KFC is when Fluttershy accidentally bumps into Gilda, and she responds by screaming into her face so loud that it sends Fluttershy running away in tears. Pinkie has seen enough to know that Gilda really is a meanie-pants, and decides to solve the problem "Pinkie Pie-Style!"
A short time later, Pinkie has set up a big party in Sugar Cube Corner for Gilda, going so far as to invite everypony in town. At first, Gilda doesn't trust Pinkie, but she still tries to keep up a strong face in front of Dash. Unfortunately, the party has been loaded with pranks, from hot lemon drops to cans full of snakes, and the griffon hits every one. After slipping on a bit of cake to avoid another prank on the "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" game (which, ironically, wasn't booby-trapped like everything else), the griffon finally snaps, loudly tells off all of Ponyville, and tells Dash that they're leaving. Only one problem: Rainbow Dash was the one who set all those pranks. Pinkie just wanted to cheer her up, thinking that a party would cure her grumpiness. Humiliated and betrayed, Gilda storms off, while Twilight writes to Celestia about good friends and bad friends.
REVIEW:
While I think the episode is mostly okay, there's one thing at the end that bugs me. I'll get into why in a minute, but first, let's look at everything else.
This was the first episode to focus on Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, and as a result helped set the foundation for their characters for seasons to come. This was also the first time where two members of the Mane 6 clearly had trouble relating, which was a nice touch given how sudden their friendship was. The teaser bit was somewhat amusing (mostly because it gave me some nice "George of the Jungle flashbacks), but where this part hits its stride is when Pinkie is chasing Dash Pepe Le Pew style. The entire sequence wouldn't be out of place in a Looney Tunes short, and it and the prank montage are among the highlights of the episode; Celestia getting buried under a mountain of scrolls had me laughing for a good two minutes.
We also get to see both of our protagonists developing as characters in this first act. We learn that Pinkie loves to pull pranks not because she's a jerk, but just because it's a lot of fun and nopony gets hurt. Dash, meanwhile, doesn't have the patience to deal with all of Pinkie's antics, but once they discover a common bond she's more than willing to hang out some more. The best part, however, is when Dash is about to prank Fluttershy. Pinkie actually holds her back, since Fluttershy wouldn't be able to understand that it's a joke. This times in perfectly with why she loves practical jokes in the first place, seeing as how she doesn't like to see anypony get hurt because of something she did. Dash, meanwhile, shows that while she was willing to prank Fluttershy, she's still willing to back off once she hears why. She's still loyal to her friends, after all, and wouldn't want any of them to suffer just for a laugh.
And then we get introduced to Gilda. When she first appears, nothing really seems off. She's cold and passively aggressive, sure, but Pinkie didjust barge in during her visit to a friend she hadn't seen in a long time, and she and Dash clearly care about each other. Even after she loses her cool at Pinkie, I still felt some strange twinge of sympathy for her; after all, Pinkie has basically been acting like a possessive psychopath much of the episode, refusing to take a hint and just let Dash and Gilda hang out for a little while. And when Twilight tells her that she might just be jealous, the episode seems to be building up to Pinkie learning that just because someone might be mean to you doesn't necessarily mean they're a bad person.
And then we have the market scene. Here, the entire episode changes rails by intensifying Gilda's behavior to the point where she terrifies Granny Smith into very slowly running away from a rattler. Yeah, that's NOT something you ever want to do to a real elderly person, especially if they can barely walk like Granny can. And then she steals food, which bumps her up from "jerk" to "criminal jerk." And to top it off, we have the infamous scene where she roars in Fluttershy's face and sends her crying. This entire scene was pretty much designed to eviscerate any last shreds of audience sympathy for Gilda, which is the only way to make the last act (and the proper moral) work. We now know that Gilda is just a rotten person, and can enjoy watching her get what's coming to her. And the last act at Pinkie's party has some really good visual gags, such as Pinkie roasting marshmallows with Gilda's flaming breath, that wouldn't have worked without this scene. And now, YouTube...because I can.
This episode was important in helping to set up Friendship is Magic as a show that wouldn't fall into the same trap as regular "edutainment" programs. Each act seems to build up to a moral, only for the episode to suddenly change its attention to something else. Unlike The Simpsons,however, these changes do not completely alter the plot, but rather just move it in a different direction while keeping everything significant to the narrative. Here, we start with what could be a "pranks go too far" plot, only to change it to "the new friend is mean but isn't mean," and finally "the newcomer is a bad friend and must be stopped." On its own, this is a brilliant move, and the episode handles it very well. There's really not much here that feels disjointed, and the character bits make me like both Dash and Pinkie more.
The problem, however, is with the ending. The difference between Gilda and Trixie, for me at least, is that Gilda losing her friend is entirely her fault, while Trixie gets vilified for daring to do the same thing Dash does without being a main character. Gilda was clearly not a good person from the beginning, and her behavior during the party is just meant to finally break her down. Dash still gives her the chance to change her ways, but she refuses and leaves in a huff. So naturally, this should be a good ending. After all, now Dash has all these better friends, and doesn't have to hang out with that stupid griffon anymore.
And then you start thinking too much.
The thing I've noticed a lot of people seem to miss is how Gilda treats Dash. She obviously cares for her, and is even willing to do things like recite that stupid Junior Speedsters Camp cheer just because she's her friend. During the time they're hanging out, the two poke at each other in the way old buddies do, where they know everything that bugs the other and hit them not out of hate, but because they're having fun. Let's face it, the two are friends. And this episode is about how that friendship comes to an end. We see two childhood friends start the day the best of buddies, and end with them wanting nothing to do with each other. Dash never mentions Gilda again. She doesn't even try to go after her to see if she's okay. She just lets her former best friend leave, apologizes to everypony for not kicking her to the curb earlier, and that's the end of things. And let's not forget that Dash set the pranks to begin with; you'd think that, after the second or third time your old friend got hit, you'd start trying to steer them away from the rest.
Am I the only one who finds this kind of sad? I mean, Gilda was a complete jerk, and I won't argue that point. However, we didn't start figuring that out until Pinkie herself pulled a rather jerkass thing and began intruding on her attempts to spend time with Dash. Now, imagine if Gilda wasn't a complete jerk, but instead just a "Jerk With a Heart of Gold" like Dash. In that context, Pinkie would come off as the real bad guy here. That's why they had to shift the plot at the end; if we had any sympathy for Gilda left, then one of our heroes would be in the wrong, and that wasn't something they could do this early in the show, especially with the E/I tag still intact.
I don't like to put leather pants on characters that don't deserve them, but I can definitely see why Gilda occasionally gets some sympathetic attention from the fandom. Granted, it's still mostly her fault things ended this way, but watching any friendship fall apart is always rather sad, especially when she show is all about making and keeping friends.
CONCLUSION:
"Griffon the Brush-Off" is a pretty decent episode, although the show still hadn't quite solidified yet. Gilda gave us our first sympathetic antagonist (Nightmare Moon doesn't count, since our sympathy is for Luna, not her), and thus began the everlasting trend of redeeming every villain who ever appears. Pinkie and Dash got their first bits of development, and the writing was fairly solid. It's also nice to see Twilight in the wrong, as it sets up that she isn't always going to be the answer to everything. Were it not for this episode, our cast might have turned out quite differently.
It's just a shame that everyone working on the show got struck with an amnesia ray between seasons and forgot this episode when writing Pinkie. No, I am still not over that.
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