I am thoroughly in favor of this episode

I have only two minor little overly-specific points contention that I feel detract from it, in fact. Both for the same reason:
- The "With sass!" line was great, but it doesn't have any payoff. I was confidently expecting to
see Sweetie Belle trying to "sleep with sass". I felt honestly gypped when they showed us no such thing. (I was really curious, too. What would she be doing? Punching the air while scowling? Snoring like "SSKNNNXXXXX HAY HAY HAY

" ?)
- The chimera's oddly conspiratorial little line about having an overprotective sister felt, too, like it was setting up for a big payoff—like maybe the resolution of the scene would be about Apple Bloom and the chimera bonding over having the same sibling problems. But no, it was just a throwaway line. I was like "Ohhhh?

... Oohhhhh.

"
But
literally every single other thing I thought was gold. I laughed quite heartily at and/or immoderately appreciated:
- Big Mac's parting "EeeeyuuuuUUUP!" They're
still finding ways to squeeze juice out of that turnip of a joke, Jesus Christ. That alone should earn them some kind of medal.
- The double helmet, of course
- AJ's little "hyuck" laugh during her "awww, ain't mah li'l sis so cute when she thinks she's grown-up" moments. Seriously great acting there.
- The gag of the Cajun pony dissing his poor old ma. WTF, pony show?
- AJ biting her hoof and little nail filings flying off. Also, later in the episode she bites down on it and it makes a little wrinkle. Holy shit

- The FUCKING MUSIC right after the cold open! Holy crap you guys, is William Anderson really earning his paycheck this year or what? And then again at the end in Not-Hollow-Shades. Lovely, atmospheric, and original. It made me WANT TO BE THERE.

And all this about Applejack being over-the-character or out-of-top or whatever, I just want to make sure I'm watching the same show you guys are. This is MLP:FiM, right? The one with that one episode in the first season where like seven episodes in, the main character and agency-holding protagonist suddenly turned into an infantilized little weeaboo who wanted to have her first slumber party at age 21 with a couple of local small business owners? I know some people don't think too highly of LBYS as an episode, or even consider its supporting-role-with-exaggerated-to-the-breaking-point character-traits treatment of one of the core characters to be somehow beyond the pale—but I for one think that that sort of storytelling is
fundamental to what this show is. Yes these ponies are all deeply and richly characterized. Yes they have had 80+ episodes in which to flesh out what "the norm" is. The writers put lots of work into making sure the characters read the same from one week to the next, and are well enough established that we can all get away with writing long essays analyzing their psychological problems while we count down the ticking hours of a ponyless summer. But that level of consistency is not some kind of edict. The show has
never been about the kind of soap-opera character continuity that you find in a show like, oh, Breaking Bad or Star Trek. It's a show that exists first and foremost to be
funny, and it happens to derive an awful lot of its humor from characterization. That means the characterization has to be well-established, naturally. But then once it's established the writers are free to
play with it. They love fucking around with the show's tropes! They
revel in it! That's why just as much as they can skewer themselves with a "We don't have time for a song right now" joke, they can turn Applejack for the space of an episode into an overprotective caricature of the very thing she was in Bridle Gossip—ignoring her sister's clearly demonstrated competence and independent streak and "Ah
am a big pony" in favor of her own misguided preconceptions about how to keep Apple Bloom safe. And going absolutely bugfuck insane with it.
I thought the helmets and the apple nets and the bubble wrap and the crib were gut-bustingly funny, especially in how
tragic they were. That's exactly the kind of unbelievable and unexpected upending of our expectations that this show does so well. It's like it
knows that we adult fans have somehow gotten ourselves worked up to a point where we expect this silly pony cartoon to turn in Emmy-worthy performances and flawlessly paced scripts about epic world-shattering events that perfectly illustrate rich and rewarding character development arcs that never once deviate from their intricately pre-planned trajectories or do anything that isn't 100% plausible and well-sourced in a real-world context... and they write with a knowing smirk on their faces and a mischievous twirl of their pens and typing fingers, knowing just how much of our world they'll upset with the simple deployment of a "hats and bows closet" joke. A joke at which everyone who enjoys the show for what it is and looks forward to whatever it decides to serve up week over week will accept with a hearty guffaw.
Give me more episodes like this or give me death.
