Ah, the sleepover. Such a milestone in a young girl's life, or at least that's what television, movies and literature want us to believe. So of course, the new My Little Pony has to tackle the issue itself. So let's take a look at "Look Before You Sleep" and see if this series can pull it off.
TECHNICAL SPECS:
Season: 1
Episode: 8
Written By: Charlotte Fullerton
First Aired: December 3, 2010
SUMMARY:
Due to some missed rainfall, the Pegasus ponies are pulling in a huge storm, and the rest of Ponyville is helping to clean up to prevent any damage. Rarity, however, is spending her time turning twigs into pony figurines, while Applejack is tearing them down to get things done as quickly as possible. Needless to say, the two are at each other’s throats, even as the rain begins to fall. Fortunately, Twilight (Spike is gone on royal business) invites the two of them to the library to wait the storm out...and to hold them hostage so she can throw a slumber party like she’s always wanted. Both Applejack and Rarity are none too pleased at the idea of spending more time with each other than needed, but with all the rain and lightning going on outside, they really don’t have much of a choice.
And so Twilight guides them through a checklist of standard slumber party activities, while her friends take every opportunity to dig at each other. They tell ghost stories mocking each other’s foibles, argue over how to eat s’mores, use Truth-or-Dare to humiliate each other, and finally end things with a massive pillow fight. Sensing that her party is doomed, Twilight decides that they should turn in for the night, but since she only has one guest bed, AJ and Rarity have to share. This leads to even more tussling as the two argue over how to get in bed, how the covers should go, and just continue to act like five-year-olds. Finally, Twilight can take no more of their bickering, and foolishly asks if anything else can go wrong. Celestia obliges by making lightning strike a nearby tree, causing its top to lean precariously towards another house.
After rubbing Rarity’s face in the reason why they had to pull all the branches down rather than make them look pretty, AJ lassos the treetop and pulls it down. Unfortunately, she ignored Rarity’s warnings about where the tree would land, causing it to fall right through Twilight’s window and into the bedroom. With the rain pouring in through the open window, a giant tree branch taking up the rest of the space, and Twilight incapacitated trying to figure out where the tree branch fits into a slumber party, it’s up to the other two to save the day. Rarity uses her magic to whittle the tree down into the same figures she was making earlier, leaving only the trunk, which AJ carefully drops before closing the window.
Now that they’ve had a chance to work out their differences, the three return to the slumber party as friends rather than enemies. Twilight writes Princess Celestia the week’s letter, telling her that even two ponies that seem to have nothing in common can still become the best of friends.
REVIEW:
“Look Before You Sleep” is pretty much a straight bottle episode; that is, an episode done as cheaply as possible, using as few of the actors and sets as they can get away with, in order to save money for other episodes in the season. About two-thirds of the episode is set inside the library, only three characters are used, and the story is about as simple as it comes with this show: a slumber party. So, how does this one work out? Well…
The opening basically establishes everything you need to know about Rarity and Applejack this entire episode. The former loves to beautify the scenery and doesn’t see the point of the storm, but is also fussy and doesn’t think about the big picture. The latter is practical and straightforward about getting things done, but also fails to notice the smaller points along the way. Needless to say, the two get at each other almost immediately, setting up the entire conflict for the rest of the episode. Twilight’s just there to provide them with a place to be and an event to disrupt.
Also, Rarity’s obsession with dirt is on display here. And by “on display,” I mean she’s developed a severe phobia of anything messy, to the point where she refuses to do any of the heavy work simply because it would muss up her appearance. Again, the first half of Season One seems to be doing everything it can to make me dislike Rarity.
But none of that matches what happened to Twilight this episode. Remember how she was a studious bookworm who never wanted any friends? Well, now she’s always wanted a slumber party, and despite supposedly being an adult, she’s acting like an eight-year-old who’s just devoured a shipping crate full of Pixy Stixs before swimming in a vat of Red Bull. It just doesn’t gel for me…that is, unless Twilight actually wanted friends at one point and tried to organize a slumber party but then nopony came and she was all alone and cried herself to sleep and decided that she’d never have friends because… Oh, why do we do things like this to these characters? Still, her adhering to a checklist of activities and going “by the book” is in character, so…I don’t know what my point is anymore.
It doesn’t help that the rest of the cast is behaving in a similarly childish way, with Applejack and Rarity taking both direct and passive-aggressive jabs at each other every step of the way. It’s just incredibly off-putting to see them behaving this way, especially when you consider this episode in relation to the rest of the series. Heck, the episode before this was “Dragonshy,” which had them taking on the responsibility of saving the nation, and the one after this was “Bridle Gossip,” which managed to make the ponies ignorant without skewing their characterization. Change a few names here, and this wouldn’t be terribly off from a G3 story.
Also, I have to wonder how they got away with the title for the book: Slumber 101: All You Wanted to Know About Slumber Parties (But Were Afraid to Ask.) I guess they just thought it’d sail over the kids’ heads.
The makeover scene is mostly just there to get Applejack hooked into the party, but it still has two amusing parts. The first is when AJ eats the cucumbers, since hey, they’re good eatin’ and not doing anything to one’s eyes. The second is when Twilight checks off the makeovers, and instantly undoes their effects, returning the three to their former state.
The ghost stories are my favorite part of the entire second act. I just love how the two just dig into each other here by framing their stories to take potshots at each other, but what really sells it is when Twilight tells her tale of the Headless Horse. It’s a short scene, but the lighting and terrified expression on both AJ’s and Rarity’s faces just makes it hilarious. Not to mention Twilight hopping onto her hind legs and draping a blanket over her head in less than a second for a final jump scare.
And then we have the s’mores. Honestly, while I berate early Rarity a lot, she’s absolutely right. There’s a definite science to s’more making that Applejack just doesn’t seem to get. If everything is not just perfect, the s’more will be forever ruined, and you’ll just be left with some melted marshmallow and chocolate slammed between two dried-out graham crackers. And I wouldn’t serve something like that to my worst enemy, let alone two of my best friends. Still, I…don’t care much for how excited Twilight sounds at seeing a s’more. She’s honestly never seen one?
Truth-or-Dare is significant for a couple of reasons. First, it marks the turning point in Twilight’s little story, as she finally begins to see just how badly the two are getting along. Second, Twilight apparently has an assortment of extremely frou-frou outfits just off screen, given how short a time it takes for Applejack to get dressed. And finally, Rarity’s mane gets flattened, and I actually prefer it that way. Still, most of the scene is just them continuing the same running gag of digging into each other while dancing around Twilight. And the pillow fight scene is just a repeat of this, although once again I have to wonder why Twilight cannot comprehend how “pillow” and “fight” would work in the same sentence. Rarity has some good form with her magic-controlled feather-stuffed head cushions, while Applejack can lasso and toss them well enough, but of course, Twilight is the only one who ever gets hit.
They repeat the same conflict AGAIN in the bedroom, only this time over a blanket and how one climbs into the bed. By this point, though, all the bickering is fast wearing on my nerves. It’s just so…amazingly childish. I know all the characters have their moments of immaturity, but at the same time they’ve never behaved like…THIS. About the one funny moment is Rarity slowly crawling under the covers so that she doesn’t disturb them; everything else, however, just causes me to feel apathy for the entire episode. It’s not even worth getting worked up over. It’s nothing.
The tree branch is the shining moment of the episode, but even that has some things that bug me. On the one hand, it showcases the flaws in both characters, and how their own pigheadedness is what ultimately caused the situation to escalate. On the other hand, Twilight becomes as dumb as a post trying to figure out if tree branches in your bedroom are part of a slumber party. Rarity, of course, refuses to help do anything but pick up some dislodged books out of fear of being dirty, and doesn’t just, you know, magic the tree down to size until Applejack apologizes and asks for her help. And for all my griping, I do like Applejack putting the cucumbers on Rarity’s eyes. It’s a very sweet callback.
For the most part, the rest of the episode just reinforces the lesson, with Rarity and Applejack starting to get into a fight, only to catch themselves before things can get out of hand. And thus Twilight’s first slumber party is a success, meaning it’s letter time. The moral is actually a good one, albeit woefully generic, and it basically sums up one of the underlying themes of the show: anyone can be friends with anyone, regardless of how similar or different they are from you.
CONCLUSION:
I can’t really say this is a good episode. There’s just so much here that feels way off, like this would have worked better with the CMC than the Mane 6. The characters act way younger than they actually are, the story is nonexistent, and it’s just average all around. Still, they did pretty well considering it’s a slumber party episode, the third act is better than the others, and the moral is good, so I can’t call it a bad episode, either. It’s just very much in the middle.
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