Episode review: S7E03: "A Flurry of Emotions"

It's looking as though we're in for another example of the US not getting an episode first. The UK doesn't have the honour this time, though: episode five will be shown in Canada next Sunday, the day after E04 and six days before it airs south of the border. EqD is now reporting that the same thing will happen with E06. I haven't yet decided what to do about review scheduling here.

"They'll be dancing on air when they meet you..."

Back to episode three now! I'll confess that I wasn't looking forward all that much to "A Flurry of Emotions". This was partly since I hadn't really warmed to Flurry herself and partly because I was fearful of a rehash of "Baby Cakes", one of my all-time least favourite episodes. We had new writers for this ep: Sammie Crowley and Whitney Wetta. They'd apparently worked together before on The Loud House, but that meant nothing to me. How did they do? Well...

Actually, not badly! To my enormous relief, I enjoyed this episode a good deal more than I did "Baby Cakes". While it's no classic, it fulfils the main requirement of being 22 minutes of fun. It's certainly my favourite Flurry Heart episode, although that's not exactly terrible! More importantly, the new writers seem to get the show, which is always important. I didn't think everything worked, but enough did that I'd be happy to see them write for MLP again.

Twilight in this episode is one of the things that seems just slightly off. Her obsession with being Best Aunt Ever (BAE. Really, guys...) feels a tiny bit forced at times, though I'm inclined to be forgiving as it keeps the story together. Cadance and Shining Armor are adorable throughout, though, especially when they were being reminded of their daughter the whole time at the art show. All that said, doesn't it seem a little bit odd not to have any capable foalsitters in the Crystal Empire?

Of course, Twilight, you could offer to do it. Just saying...

The supporting cast this time are good. Spike really does seem to have come into his own since "Gauntlet of Fire", and I really enjoyed his backup role here. It didn't hurt that he wound up reading a story about Grogar. Grogar! Could this be foreshadowing? Oh, I do hope so. Cheerilee was also great with her hilarious "I am too professional to break things" demeanour. Only a teacher with many years of experience behind them could have kept so calm-not-calm at the blackboard thing.

Then there's Flurry Heart herself. I am not really all that fond of OOOP Flurry, since that's a joke that I think is already becoming rather old – especially as we've seen it before with the Cake Twins. I'm not sure she'll really be able to carry a whole episode until she can talk, however cute she looks and however much she can break. Twily does indulge her a bit too much at times – the shopping "cart" (trolley) racing is outright irresponsible and I'm glad she doesn't get off scot free.

Talking of irresponsible – for all Spike's cheerful good humour, is it really a good idea to be mixing so closely with a bunch of spotty foals? I presume that Nurse Redheart (now with Red Cross-friendly cutie mark!) had assessed them and decided they weren't contagious, but still. Oh, and there's Pinkie's cameo; it's good to see the writers showing her organised, businesslike side rather than just turning up the zanymeter, though for reasons I can't quite pin down the scene didn't quite convince.

Cadance has a rather scary wide-eyed look for a few seconds in this scene

And that's about it, I think, other than to mention that parasprite plushies are a thing in this world too (I have one) and that Spearhead is the most interesting Royal Guard we've seen yet. (Not against terribly strong competition, granted.) Like its two predecessors this season, "A Flurry of Emotions" is a solid-but-not-spectacular example of Friendship is Magic storytelling that still makes me feel that S7 hasn't quite got out of third gear yet. I'm slightly happier than I was at this point last season, though, so optimism remains!

Best quote: Cheerilee (wearily) "Great. Now I'll just write it up again... with my mouth."

Yays

• Flurry is moderately cute, thank goodness
• New writers seem to understand what the show's about
• Cadance and Shiny are excellent
• Good stuff from most of the supporting cast
• Grogar mention!

Neighs

• Twilight is a little inconsistent in her behaviour
• The setup stretches credulity a little
• Flurry is still rather a boring character

★★★