Episode review: Bats!

Well, that was weird.

After two disappointing episodes, the show's back on track with possibly the funniest episode of the season. There were so many great jokes here that I burst out laughing. I rarely do that with this show. It was lovely. But the episode also got weird. It had a twist that was completely unexpected, partially because it came out of nowhere and was really unusual for the show. That said, the jokes were still excellent, which made the whole episode extremely enjoyable for me.

In addition, I should mention that the visuals were astounding. It was a gorgeous episode. The visuals, lighting, and virtual camerawork were all just plain brilliant. Between the comedy and the visuals, the episode rides high above average.

However, there were some problems. The main conflict, between Applejack and Fluttershy regarding the vampire fruit bats, was heavily skewed in Fluttershy's favour. I would have preferred if they tried to find a middle road, but the episode clearly took Fluttershy's side even though Applejack had a really good point. The episode went out of its way to make Applejack's position look bad and Fluttershy's position look good. It wasn't very fair. This was disappointing, but it didn't break the episode for me.

However, without spoiling, there's a twist ending that leaves the episode on a cliffhanger. The problem here is that this ending means that the main conflict is unresolved. This episode is not marked as part one, meaning that I'm left to assume that this is either gonna be a major plot point in the season or they want this to be permanent. I desperately hope against the latter, because that would be ridiculous.

This is a great episode. That said, its skewed perspective and lack of resolution frustrate me a bit. I don't want Fluttershy to be some sort of vampire. I feel that's too much of a change, perhaps. But I don't think the change works. Regardless, that doesn't keep this from being a great episode.