Episode review: S8E15: "The Hearth's Warming Club"

"And if I ever, ever see Gak in this school again, it'll be too soon"

At last, I'm up to date with S8, on the Discovery Family schedule at least. I was really looking forward to "The Hearth's Warming Club". One reason was that I'm now a firm fan of the Student Six – props to the writers for making me care so much about characters who've been around for barely half a season. The other reason was that this episode was written by Brian Hohlfeld, who debuted with the excellent "Surf and/or Turf" earlier this season.

I'm happy to report that Hohlfeld is now two-for-two, as my American friends might say. This is an immensely entertaining episode, one which plays to the students' strengths and also gives us some backstory to flesh out their characters a bit. There's one significant problem I have with it, but that's really all. It's not quite as impressive as what "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" did for the Mane Six, but it's cut from the same cloth.

I don't think it matters at all that a "holiday" episode went out in the middle of summer. It's not as if people these days only watch cartoons on their initial airing, after all. Good enough storytelling will treat such things as minor inconveniences, and this episode creates a suitable atmosphere right from the moment Sandbar sings a line from "Hearth's Warming Eve is Here Once Again". It's just a good, well-told tale.

The Storm King demonstrating his feeble hide-and-seek skills

Talking of Sandbar, to me he remains by some distance the least interesting of the Student Six, though I do wonder whether his hilariously boring "doll not actually falling into the fire" story was deliberately written by Hohlfeld as a way of acknowledging and parodying that. I suppose a comedy group can always use a straight colt, but he still suffers a bit by comparison with his five more obviously interesting companions.

There's something of "Campfire Tales" in the structure of the episode's heart, but I think "The Hearth's Warming Club" did it better. I was impressed by the willingness to show aspects of different species' celebrations that really don't gel with pony culture – this was seen most vividly in Smolder's tale; I wonder whether she'll eventually change her mind about kindness. I also liked Yona's story in the way it both confirmed and subverted expectations about yak culture.

In all truth, it wasn't desperately difficult to guess that Gallus was the perpetrator – the giveaway for me was the fact that we didn't see his story when he emerged from Twilight's office; this implied that it would be the climax of the episode. I don't think this really matters, though: "Party of One" back in S1 demonstrated that knowing the destination isn't a bar to enjoyment as long as the journey is enjoyable.

"Or dive into my fruit punch lake!"

What I didn't see coming was Gallus's sad backstory. Given what we know of griffons (except Gabby, though even she looked grumpy here!), I wouldn't have expected his family life to be all sunshine and rainbows. However, we now know he has no family at all. While it's not explicitly stated whether they're dead or just gone, this was a real punch in the feels. The fandom spent all these years wondering about Scootaloo, yet here's a character who is canonically alone.

Silverstream's cheery tale tied into the movie, and we even got (stylised) on-screen appearances for the Storm King and Queen Novo, which I appreciated no end. Ocellus probably had the funniest story, though she may not have realised it. Twilight's precision clashing with the changelings' literal-mindedness was a joy to behold, and I am enormously tempted to sing carols in their way when Christmas comes around.

I only have one real complaint, which is that Twilight's choice of punishment seems extremely harsh. Telling a child (which is what these characters are) just as they're about to go home for pony!Christmas that they won't be seeing their family at all this winter break is brutal. I get that it's what makes the heart-warming ending work, and there's a fair case to be made that it was a bluff by Twilight to get the culprit to confess, but the use of such a harsh threat still doesn't sit right with me.

Some of the description of the griffons' holiday sounded worryingly familiar!

That's enough of a problem to me to prevent this episode quite being rated as an out-and-out classic, but like "Surf and/or Turf" before it, it's very much in the upper echelons of the series and left a smile on my face at the end. A lot happened, but it didn't feel rushed, and that's always a good sign. It really is a shame that we'll in all probability be saying goodbye to the Student Six in little over a year, as quite frankly I would happily watch a spin-off series. Well done, Mr Hohlfeld.

Best quote: Changelings: "Carols, carols, carols, carols, carols!"

Yays

• Excellent Student Six characterisation
• Interesting backstories
• A real emotional hit from Gallus
• Good pacing
• Highly attractive animation

Neighs

• The severity of the threatened punishment
• That train must be long gone by the end!

★★★★