Episode review: "Bats!" (S4E07)

AJ's parents are dead. Batman's parents are dead. Hmm...

Apologies for the lateness of this review, but sadly I was without my PC for the last week owing to my being on holiday! Anyway, let's get this one done quickly, so that we can get back to something like the usual schedule for next time. This week's episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was pithily titled "Bats!", and – contrary to the rather glaring mistake on the captions – was actually written by Merriwether Williams, not Meghan McCarthy. I really hope that error is corrected for future showings of the ep. After the break!

This was an episode that I wasn't all that excited about from the synopsis. It really did feel as though it would be filler, and not by one of my favourite Pony writers, either. But oh boy, was I wrong about that! I'll spare you the suspense and say that this has bumped "Wonderbolts Academy" down into second place as the best episode Williams has written. It was interesting, intriguing, dramatic, surprising and funny, which isn't a bad combination! It even allowed Fluttershy's Stare to return without it seeming out of place.

The story at first seemed a rather slight one, with Applejack preparing for Applebucking Day (so it's been a year since "Applebuck Season"?) but being shocked to discover that much of her crop had been ruined by bats. Not by plain old fruit bats (mentioned in a nice callback to "Apple Family Reunion") but by their sinister cousins: the vampire fruit bats! AJ was all for getting rid of them with all speed, but Fluttershy – who else? – tried to persuade her that a gentler approach might pay dividends.

Anyone else have "Swarm of the Century" flashbacks at this point?

This brought us a song, which was really catchy, even by this series' standards. For the first time, we had a duet between Applejack and Fluttershy, although the former got the lion's share of the lines. This sequence was exceptionally well directed, with superb use of lighting and shadow demonstrating once again how far we've come in animation terms since Season One. It was also highly atmospheric, with something of a Tim Burton feel to the whole thing. That said, Twilight seemed to be caught up in things rather too easily.

I was absolutely delighted to see an episode that was heavy on the Fluttershy but didn't make her overcoming shyness the central theme. Yes, that can be done very well indeed (Exhibit A: "Hurricane Fluttershy") but she simply isn't that one-dimensional a pony. Ever since "A Bird in the Hoof" – an ep, incidentally, which I like more every time I watch it – I've yearned for another look at some other aspect of 'Shy. This time we got it, and Andrea Libman gave a wonderful performance in the role.

If this episode had a fault, then that was it: both Twi and (to some extent) Pinkie Pie sided with Applejack without really making their reasons clear. You'd think that Pinkie in particular — who has a history of standing up for 'Shy – might have been a bit less ready to get sucked in. I don't want to complain too much about this, though, since otherwise Pinkie was rather well characterised, and certainly a considerable improvement on the annoyingly flanderised pony we've endured a couple of times in S4. ("Fruitbat Roundup" was genius,)

Die Fluttermaus

The fact that it was Fluttershy who'd been eating the apples was really obviously signposted, perhaps too much so even for a little kids' show, but it was still a bit startling – and not a little creepy – when we first saw her in full-on Flutterbat guise. Rarity's Hazmat suit would have been more use then than earlier on! I wasn't entirely keen on the retention of a Flutterfang at the end, but I'll reserve judgement on that until I know whether it (like the Pony of Shadows) turns out to be of any importance later in the season.

That aside, I felt that the ending of this episode was very nicely handled. We had a very good moral, which didn't feel forced or shoe-horned in. Fluttershy's also tied in nicely with what she learned back in "Putting Your Hoof Down". Spike, who hadn't done much during the ep (and pretty much lampshaded that with his one prominent line!) seems to have kept his post as usual scribe. Pinkie's little "I vant to suck its jooce!" act was hilarious, and was topped off by the perfect squee.

There were other little touches as well, such as Twilight's laser grid (which I wasn't sure about at first) and Rainbow Dash's increasingly worrisome cider problem. All in all, this was one of those episodes that takes a seemingly pedestrian premise and makes it really enjoyable. That's something FiM has done well many times, perhaps most famously with "Suited for Success", and when it happens it's generally a sign that the show is in rude health. I suspect "Bats!" will be a go-to episode for me in the future.

Twilight seemed particularly scheme-y this time round.

Best quote: Rainbow Dash: "Think of the cider! Won't somepony please think of the cider?"

Yays

• Interesting and (partly) unpredictable storyline
• Showed another side to Fluttershy
• Excellent song, superbly directed
• Some very funny one-liners
• Satisfying moral
• Generally good characterisation

Neighs

• Twilight and Pinkie sided with AJ too easily
• Fluttershy's apple-tite was signposted in flashing neon

8/10