Episode Reviews: Games Ponies Play

Is everyone ready for high-stakes Olympic Committee-courting action? I know I am! Let's review “Games Ponies Play.”

TECHNICAL SPECS:

Season: 3

Episode: 12

Written By: Dave Polsky

First Aired: February 9, 2013

SUMMARY:

The Mane 6 have been invited to help earn the Crystal Empire the Equestria Games, an Olympics-styled event that goes to one of Equestria's cities. To do this, they have to woo the Games Inspector, Miss Harshwhinny, until she's convinced that the Crystal Empire is indeed fit for the challenge. This is personal for Rainbow Dash; when she was just a filly, Cloudsdale was passed over for a chance to host the games, thus traumatizing the poor pony for life.

After a train ride full of rehearsals and preparation, the girls arrive to find the Crystal Empire polished to a sheen and excited over the possible games. Cadance, however, is busy in the spa, getting her Ceremonial Royal Headdress treatment for the Games Inspector. Unfortunately, a messenger soon arrives to give the princess two bits of bad news: the only pony who can remember the headdress is sick, and Harshwhinny is on the next train in...which is in fifteen minutes. Rarity stays behind to work on the headdress while the others go out to meet the Inspector, who is carrying floral luggage.

They soon find the pony with the correct luggage, a country bumpkin with a seeming chip on her shoulder. Dash points out that the Games Inspector would no doubt be trying to throw them off-guard, and thus they invite the pony to the Crystal Palace to show off. At this, her mood completely changes, and she happily follows them to the palace. Unfortunately, she's also claustrophobic, so being in the tight, reflective confines of the royal castle is more than a little disconcerting. Still, the initial displays and cheers seem to be working...except that Cadance still hasn't arrived. Twilight goes to check on her and leaves the others to give the Inspector a tour...despite none of them knowing a thing about the palace.

As it turns out, Rarity taking shortcuts in the headdress process has rendered Cadance's mane a total mess. She manages to shoo of Twilight, and just in time; Pinkie is rapidly failing to keep the increasingly-panicky Inspector calm. She next turns to Shining Armor, who's coaching a team of runners on the hurdles. Unfortunately, before he can buy them some time, the Inspector charges out of the palace in a blind panic, smashing through the runners and hurdles before getting a pot stuck on her head. Rainbow Dash chases her through the town, finally managing to pull it off at the last minute...but not before she's propelled into the distance by inertia. Shining Armor and the others arrive to check on her, and she's happy to be out in the wide open spaces outside of the Empire...which remind her of her chicken farm back home.

Yeah, there was a small problem: this wasn't the Games Inspector. The real Miss Harshwhinny was abandoned at the train station, wanted through the streets herself, got splashed by water a couple of times throughout the episode, and by the time the ponies find her, she's in the spa with the false Inspector – and Cadance, who finally has a proper headdress. Harshwhinny very loudly berates the princess over the horrible reception, and the ponies are all downtrodden...but Rainbow Dash steps up to admit responsibility, as it was her desire to make up for losing the Cloudsdale games that got them into this mess. Fortunately, the chicken farmer's story about her own reception has convinced the Inspector more than any phony reception ever could, and the Crystal Empire gets the games.

And so our episode ends with the ponies returning home, along with some luggage mysteriously falling over. Everypony wonders about Spike, and Twilight says that is he's kept his calm, things will be working out fine.

REVIEW:

Oh boy, it's a mistaken identity episode. And it's right about now that I wish sarcasm could communicate via the written word. Episodes like this tend to be very polarizing, since it's far too easy to just make the cast turn into complete morons and make a totally absurd episode. (Doesn't help that it's a Polsky one.) So let's just break down how this episode handles this concept.

The opening serves as a nice bridge between this and “Just for Sidekicks.” (In fact, I expect someone to have these two episodes edited together pretty soon.) We see Twilight wish Spike goodbye, he closes the door...and then we see her freaking out as the entire library starts bouncing with utter chaos. But after that, we continue on to the train station to get our exposition dump. Turns out Cloudsdale had a chance to host the games once, but was passed over for Fillydelphia. Fortunately, they got their revenge years later after they “accidentally” dropped that box full of Parasprites on the city.

This scene is good for two reasons. First, we get a real feeling of how this loss affects Dash and motivates her actions for the rest of the episode. Considering she hates to lose and has loyalty to her old hometown, it makes sense that she would get some scars from being all hyped up only to lose out at the end. And second, we see Dash's father. This is the first time we've seen the parents of any of the Pegasus ponies. And it's about time, too.

This is carried over into the first proper appearance of the Crystal Empire since the opening. (“Just for Sidekicks” never left the train station.) We get to see all the ponies getting all worked up over the possibility of hosting the games, and even a couple of foals are excitedly waving their flags. Of course, Rainbow Dash then swoops in to scar one of them with the idea that all their joy and excitement will lead to is disappointment, rage, and depression. You know, kind of like all the Bronies who jumped ship because of the upcoming finale. And this is why I am not allowed anywhere near a children's playground.

The spa scene is interesting in a couple ways. First, we get the now-very-tired secret hoofshake between Twilight and Cadance, although they thankfully keep it in the background. Rarity is actually really well written this episode, fainting at the splendor of it all and eagerly taking up the task of fixing Cadance's mane. And then there's Pinkie jumping into green jello. They say it's mud, but I haven't seen mud yet with that kind of bouncy composition. (And if you say anything that rhymes the with the main character's name from “Saved by the Bell,” you will die.) And of course, the messenger has winged shoes a la Hermes from Greek mythology. So, nice touch.

One other thing to note, though, is Cadance showing Twilight how to take deep breaths to calm herself. Of course, we all know this won't amount to anything. Twilightalways goes crazy in episodes like this.

And so we get to the main crux of the episode, which is the cast mistaking a tourist for the real Games Inspector and going through the ensuing hijinks. Of course, the episode makes it very clear that this is not the real one almost immediately, but to its credit, actually turns that into a fairly funny running gag. The ponies keep passing the real Miss Harshwhinny, and she keeps getting splashed with street runoff. Meanwhile, the fake Inspector is actually pretty well realized for such a minor role, and the added dose of claustrophobia helps to elevate her up a few notches.

This leads to the obvious question of why they don't just ask her who she is. Well, there...is a bit of an answer to that, and that's Rainbow Dash. In her drive to make up for her past disappointments vicariously through the Crystal Empire, she figures the Games Inspector is going to be trying to throw them off before laying down the fatal blow. Thus, every time the characters seem ready to start asking questions, she steps in and keeps steering them towards keeping her entertained. While part of this feels like an Idiot Plot, a lot of it does seem to add up thanks to Dash.

What ultimately doesn't work out is Rarity's subplot. While her screwing up the royal headdress is fairly humorous, and her poofing up Twilight's mane to demonstrate is funny, the ending is ultimately a disappointment. She gets the headdress done in time for the Inspector to finally notice her, and...well, we'll get to that in a minute.

Shining Armor also gets to make an appearance, having been degraded to being a coach. Apparently the shift from military to civilian life is harsh, even if you go from Captain to royalty. He also makes a really good coach, and the way the scene alternates between him yelling in Twilight's face for the pansies to run faster and calmly talking to her is funny. Meanwhile, we have the others lying their flanks off to disguise the fact that they have no idea how the castle is even laid out. And this all ends with the fake Inspector having a panic attack, fleeing into the open air, smashing things, getting a pot on her head, and finally getting off just in time for the reveal.

(Dash sliding down the glass roof of the spa was by far the funniest moment this episode. Just thought I'd throw that out.)

Of course, the Games Inspector, the tourist, and the princess all meet up in a spa, where everything comes clean. Rainbow Dash confessing that she let her own bad experiences ultimately ruin the entire process is a pretty nice touch, and a good way to make her less of a flankhole. But what kind of ruins the ending is the idea that them giving the big show to the fake Inspector is somehow “more authentic.” I can kind of understand where they're coming from, but...it's still just not very good. And of course, they get the games.

The last scene on the train is also good, but there's a part of me that wonders if they would have worked better if the ordering was reversed. That way, everyone would see Spike, the pets and the CMC under the benches and wonder just how they got there during the two-week break. Still, seeing events occur from the other way around is fun. And Twilight...

Wait a minute. There's something wrong here. The end credits are rolling...AND TWILIGHT DIDN'T GO CRAZY! Holy crap, what is this? I thought Twilight was supposed to be the perpetually-nuts one who flips out at a moment's notice! You mean we're finally getting cool and collected Twilight..and she becomes a PRINCESSnext week?!

Deep breaths...deep breaths...

CONCLUSION:

Meghan McCarthy tweeted that an episode this season was based around Fawlty Towers, and this one definitely has that feel to it. While there's not a lot of originality here, the episode is just a lot of fun, with plenty of really good jokes and some surprisingly nuanced minor characters. Rainbow Dash gets some development here, Rarity gets to do something, and Twilight seemingly learns to stop freaking out at long last. And the way the two episodes are intertwined is actually pretty clever; I hope to see more of this in the fourth season. Overall, this was a pretty good episode. Not the best of the season, but still good.