“Turns out that when you’re with folks you care about, you don’t have to do much to make that time memorable.” ~Applejack

This week’s episode of Friendship is Magic wasn’t supposed to be the Apple Family one. The mysterious episode eight was pushed back in favor of this. Applejack represents the element of honesty. She’s the hardest worker and is always looking out for her family ahead of herself. (In The Best Night Ever she says in the song that she’ll make money not for herself, but for the Apple Family.) This episode is mainly about her, and the family. None of the other Mane 6 get any lines, (well, besides Pinkie Pie) which is fine, we could always use an episode starring Applejack. Reunion is definitely a fine episode and probably the best Applejack-centered one. (Yes, she gets a song to herself, and it’s awesome.)

Here’s the official episode description from The Hub:

When Applejack is granted permission by Granny Smith to organize the upcoming Apple Family Reunion, she is thrilled at the opportunity but she soon loses focus of the important things in her haste to put together extravagant activities.

The story starts in the house of the Apples, it’s almost time for the Apple Family Reunion. Apple Bloom says that pretty much everypony will be coming, so Applejack volunteers to run things this time around. While doing all the activities, she loses sight of the primary reason why these reunions exist: for families to catch up with each other. First off, it’s pretty cool to get a ‘slice of life’ in the house of Applejack. There’s a really touching scene of her and her sister Apple Bloom talking about the reunion and that Applejack is pretty excited about getting everything together. One of the notable things about this one is the return of Babs Seed, who made her debut four episodes ago in One Bad Apple. Some people like her, some don’t, I’m with the former. “Whoa, is that the finish line? It’s like a mile away or somethin’!” she says after seeing where Applejack had put the flag, that made me laugh. I think she’s a great character and will hopefully get more appearances in the future. Granny Smith also takes center stage in this one. We get some pretty nice flashbacks of her younger days, and even Applejack when she was just a baby pony. (Definitely an “awww” moment.) Big McIntosh doesn’t get any lines besides “Eeeyup,” still it was nice to get a few brotherly/sisterly scenes with him and Applejack, could always use more of those.

One could argue that Applejack might have been slightly out of character in some scenes. Like when Apple Bloom and Babs wanted to catch up with each other, she forces them to participate in the activities. I think normally she would have left them alone, but since her mind was so clouded with trying to make the perfect reunion she wasn’t actually paying attention. So when the barn falls, it’s a wake-up. (It was quite sad to see her tear up at the fallen barn, she worked so hard and to see it all crumbling down is quite disheartening for her and the viewer.) The Mane 6 all have their own songs. Twilight has quite a few, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash share May the Best Pet win, Rarity has Art of the Dress and Becoming Popular, and Pinkie Pie has countless. (Smile Smile Smile being my personal favorite.) But Applejack never really got to share a song or have her own, so Raise This Barn was a big thumbs up for fans. It’ll go down as a classic.

Overall, Apple Family Reunion is a fine episode. In the end, at its core, it’s an episode about family. The above quote summarizes it well. Besides the moral, we also get plenty of great Applejack scenes, the return of Babs, (whom I’m becoming a bigger fan of by the minute) and a great song that I’m sure you’ll be adding to your list of favorite My Little Pony songs.

3.5/5