I really enjoyed this episode, and while some seem to have a problem with Haber's eps, I've rather enjoyed them all. The stinger was enjoyable and set up the future problem well. We get some insanely cute AJ and another interesting flashback into Granny Smith's past. We see how fond the memories Granny has of these times are, and how much she dislikes not having the courage to enter the water again. This makes it understandable when she buys the tonic later. Next, we get to Flim Flam's re-introduction. I've seen some people complain how suddenly they are now playing Conmen, when before their machine actually worked. But I argue they were still conmen in the "Cider" episode. Keep in mind, they are introducing a machine to the town which could make cider out of Apples, and the machine does work well. However, Flim and Flam don't actively work to grow quality apples, and obviously have no interest in doing so. So what do they do--they bring their equipment to towns with an Apple supply, whip the town into a frenzy about having limitless cider, and reap almost all of the profits. But those apples just don't come from anywhere, they have to be grown and cared for by the apple farmer. This apple farmer has to put a lot of time and money into growing these quality apples. So, they back the apple farmer, in this case the Apple family, into a corner by showing their customers how much more cider their machine can produce, force them into a contract where the farmer gets almost none of the profits, and then utilize their apples at an unsustainable rate. The apple grower can't keep up with the demand given that they are making almost no money, and go out-of-buisiness. The Flim Flam Bros use the rest of the apples, maximize their profits, and move onto the next town. So: The Flim Flam brothers sell a ton of cider and receive almost all of the profits with almost no expenses for growing the apples, and then they just move on to the next apple supply once the apple farmer can't support their farm anymore. The apple farmer can't do anything because they cannot run the machine themselves--it requires Flim Flam's magic. This is totally a con, and matches up with the con in "The Music Man," which this episode is a homage to, quite well. In conclusion, it makes sense that once their cider business was ruined by the Apple family, they'd move onto another con that required even less effort on their part. The song here is another fantastic one, and borrows just enough from the previous one. My favorite part of the song was definitely the lyrics. Take some time to listen to them, as they are some of the best of the show. I love the almost subtle threatening nature of the line "you might slip and fall, break or sprain something here tonight." However, its the little parts of the lyrics that let us, the viewer, know their true intent that I like. Such as the over-general (and hilarious) line: "luckily for you we've got that thing you need" or the following line "It's just what the doctor ordered...I'm sure." Plus, the fantastic rhyming and alliteration when the brothers are going through all of these different ailments. Haber and Ingram really did a fantastic job here with the lyrics. And yeah, citizens of Ponyville are whipped into a frenzy again by Flim and Flam, but you could argue that many of the people here weren't at the cider event before, as these are a different group of injured ponies we haven't seen in the show before (even if many are reused background characters). And yes, this kind of stuff happened in the past, and continues to happen IRL, so it happening in Ponyville isn't odd. Flim and Flam are just masters of words. Now, I want to jump to probably one of the more controversial topics from the episode: Applejack and how she is portrayed. Personally, I though this was one of the best Applejack episodes and one of her best portrayals in the series. AJ has the tendency to be the "pillar" of the Mane 6, acting as the level-headed voice of reason in many episodes. So it's always great to see one of her episodes where she struggles with something. And in this episode we see her struggle with something we haven't really seen her struggle with before: her element. That's what I've liked best about this season--the key episodes where we see each of the Mane 6's elements tested, with them learning about the negative consequences their element can sometime have, and in the end teaching their element to another pony as they learn something about it themselves. I love the concept. I don't know why people seem to be so up-in-arms about AJ struggling with honesty in this situation. Just because it's her element, doesn't mean she can't struggle with it and have further development with it sometimes. All of the other Mane 6 have struggled with their element at some point in the show's history. Rainbow Dash has had many episodes where she struggles with loyalty, Twilight has learned a ton about friendship and magic over the show's course (she didn't even want to make friends in the first episode), Fluttershy has had episodes where she was unkind, Pinkie had episodes like "Party of One", and one of Rarity's main faults is how self-centered she can sometimes be. In the end of these episodes, however, they always come back to their element and stand true to it. And this episode is no different. AJ's honesty is challenged, she struggles with it, and in the end her honest nature prevails. I think this was one of the most believable element struggles of the series too. I've seen a few people mention that they think AJ is out of character because she doesn't tell Granny the truth and that AJ always puts family first. I agree: one of the most, if not the most important thing to AJ is family. But that's exactly why she is having trouble with honesty here in the first place! Granny is happier than she has been in a while here, and it's all due to this sham tonic. Applejack is legitimately concerned, as shown at the end of the episode, that by telling Granny the tonic is fake, that she will suddenly lose the placebo effect that gave her this new confidence. Her concern for Granny's happiness is so great that it causes Applejack to not tell her, and the Ponyville citizens, the truth about the tonic. Of course, her lie (and I don't really think it was a lie, but more she was just withholding the truth) begins to spiral out-of-control, with the Flim Flam brothers smartly taking advantage of it. But Granny Smith is still extremely happy, and it's becoming contagious to the rest of the Apple Family. AJ is between a rock and a hard place. But when this placebo effect causes Granny Smith to have too much confidence in her abilities, AJ realizes that her dishonesty is actually going to wind up causing more harm than good, and her element prevails. This was a fantastic test of honesty, and a believable one. AJ learned the hard truth that sometimes honesty can hurt, especially those closest to you. But even lies with the best intentions can build up and have extremely negative consequences. This is an extremely good and relatable lesson for the audience. Yes, Granny trying to jump into an extremely small water pool is a little crazy, but she's done this before with a shallow pool (albeit a little bigger) as a young mare, so with this new-found over-confidence its not completely out there. Plus, between this and AJ's bungie rope--keep in mind this is a cartoon and follows cartoon rules and physics a lot of the time. Sometimes you have to remember that. Overall, this is probably Haber's strongest episode yet, and I personally feel he's written AJ very, very well in his three episodes so far. We got a song with some great lyrics, an enjoyable and relatable story, and an actual challenge for Applejack's honesty--and it only took until season 4! AJ best pony: confirmed.
