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spoiler Tanks For The Memories: An Allegory For Something Sadder?


Denim&Venöm

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It crossed my mind that this weeks episode may actually have been the writers attempt to convey the loss of a pet to it's audience in the safest way possible. Rainbow Dash's freaking out, irrationality, & panicked nature are a lot like those of a pet owner who find out their loved one isn't going to make it for much longer. Dash even goes through the 5 stages of grief. 

 

1. Denial: Telling everypony their wrong

 

2. Anger: Snapping at Pinkie and the rest of the remane 5. 

 

3. Bargaining: Trying to retake control of the situation. Going through any means necessary to Stop winter from happening so she has more time with her friend. 

 

4. Depression: Shutting down, even in the presence of her friends

 

5. Acceptance: Finally giving in and letting her emotions out, coming to grips with the situation, embracing the support of those around her, yet at the end of the episode privately deals with it by remaining at Tanks side, almost like saying goodbye.  

 

 

As a pet owner myself, I get what she's going through, having lost a number of my own over the years. I manages to skip the anger part but went through the rest of the stages with each of them. I can certainly relate. It was far from easy parting with any of my loved ones. Even as I was typing this, I had one of my cats on my lap. 

 

It's an important lesson and not an easy one to convey. Any kid blessed to have had a pet may have to unfortunately deal with parting ways with them. 

 

Think DHX went about this the right way? Was it the best they could do given the medium they're working with? 

 

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According to Cindy Morrow there was a "Bigger Message" and death or illness does fit beautifully. 

 

This was a personal episode for me and outside of saying that this was a 10/10 and easily in my top five episodes of the series ... I have to internalize this more. That bedside conversation ... I've had that conversation ... and it wasn't with a pet. 

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I think the episode was beautiful and and seeing how the message was presented in the episode touched me deep. And it made the episode special for me as I've been in those situations myself.

 

One of the most heartwarming episodes I seen easily

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Now, I'm not a big RD fan but I have to admit, she moves up a few notches in my opinions because of this episode.

 

For those who draw connections of the deeper meanings, I can say that this episode also pulls a closure for me and my dog of 16 wonderful years togeather, she past away about the same time that the episode "May the best pet win" premiered .

 

This will be my first mention of it to anyone because it was so hard on me that it's taken this long in dealing with it.

 

This episode was almost verbatim in how my spring of 2012 played out (only going from winter to spring) even had a huge snow storm her last week with me. For months, all I played was the find a pet song.

 

That's been 3 years now, I still hurt but I think I've found a new song to play so I for one am glad they made this episode

Edited by Argumedies
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This is easily one of my favorite episodes in the series. Having dealt with the loss of pets and loved ones, this episode touched on an issue that I, and so many others, know all too well. The subtle ways in which the writers hinted at the greater meaning (like when Fluttershy described hibernation as a "long sleep") conveys to me just how much thought and effort the writers put into this episode. How could they not? This is an issue that everyone has, and eventually will have to deal with, and the care with which the writers handled the issue is a testament to how important the message was to impart to kids. This episode was one of the few times (if not the first time) I have ever genuinely connected with Rainbow Dash as a character, and is also one of the even fewer times the show has ever brought me to the brink of tears. A beautiful episode with a powerful message.

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So wait wait, Tank is written out of the show now? It did sound like it was suggesting death with the five stages of grief, but it was also outright saying that Tank would be back after winter ends and spring starts. What, that's a lie to the audience and he's never going to wake up?

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I'm in agreement with you; I noticed the 5 stages of grief as well.

 

Rainbow Dash’s understanding and grieving over hibernation followed near exactly the 5 stages of loss and grief.

1. Denial and isolation: Rainbow Dash ignored the opinions of her more knowledgeable friends (Fluttershy and Spike) when they told her Tank had to hibernate. She convinced herself that Tank wasn’t going to hibernate, that they were wrong: denial by definition. She then isolated herself by pushing her friends away when they tried even indirectly to address the truth. Isolation is most clearly expressed when Rainbow Dash separates herself from Fluttershy, Spike and then Pinkie Pie, with the separation from Pinkie Pie leading clearly into the second stage.

2. Anger: This continues the isolation and denial. Not only is Rainbow furious about the truth she is slowly being forced to accept, she is in denial of her anger. Both of these factors contribute to her increasing isolation.

3. Bargaining: Aware now that hibernation is the issue, Rainbow turns to alternate solutions. She tries to avoid saying the word “hibernation”, thinking that it might be some placebo effect forcing Tank to sleep. She talks about the perks of winter, trying to convince Tank to stay awake, and then resorts to possible guilt-tripping: “Don’t you want to do those things with me?”

Getting more desperate, she realizes she can’t have both Tank and winter. She attempts to eradicate winter in exchange for Tank’s presence.

4. Depression: Probably the most obvious stage in this case. Rainbow Dash on the bed, exhibiting typical symptoms of depression (monotony, denial, lethargy, isolation, etc.), then bursting into tears and crying and stuff. I’m not going to explain this.

5. Acceptance: Rainbow taking the time to dig out a space for Tank to sleep, using the word “hibernate”, and even helping Tank fall asleep by reading him a story.

Bargaining was definitely the longest and most drastic of the stages for Rainbow. Do you think this accurately reflects people's response to loss in their own lives?

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If this episode showed me anything, it's that Rainbow Dash's incredibly selfish characterizations akin to Rainbow Falls are still very much active. 

 

I could not sympathize with her in the slightest. Because at the end of the day, this was not a matter of life and death. And yet, apparently, she thought that preventing her pet's hibernation, something that was necessary to his own health, as Fluttershy stated, was worth doing immeasurable damage to not only the seasonal cycle of Ponyville, but also to the very factory which provides weather to the entire country. 

 

And I'm supposed to be cheering her on because......why, exactly? Could anyone please explain to me why I'm supposed to be sympathizing with the one who is, essentially, putting herself before all of Equestria, including her own pet? 

 

Yeah, honestly, Tanks for the Memories might almost be as bad as Rainbow Falls, in my opinion. 

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Others have said it already, but I'm certain that the episode is about dealing with loss. 

 

I definitely understand where Dash is coming from. I'm very close to my two dogs, and will be devastated when they eventually pass.

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If this episode showed me anything, it's that Rainbow Dash's incredibly selfish characterizations akin to Rainbow Falls are still very much active. 

 

I could not sympathize with her in the slightest. Because at the end of the day, this was not a matter of life and death. And yet, apparently, she thought that preventing her pet's hibernation, something that was necessary to his own health, as Fluttershy stated, was worth doing immeasurable damage to not only the seasonal cycle of Ponyville, but also to the very factory which provides weather to the entire country. 

 

And I'm supposed to be cheering her on because......why, exactly? Could anyone please explain to me why I'm supposed to be sympathizing with the one who is, essentially, putting herself before all of Equestria, including her own pet? 

 

Yeah, honestly, Tanks for the Memories might almost be as bad as Rainbow Falls, in my opinion. 

 

Sounds like you can't see the forest for the trees.

 

Yes, on the surface it's just a kids show about a character overreacting to loosing her pet for a couple months but you must look deeper than that to see the true message. Rainbow dealing with the loss of Tank to hibernation is an analogy to loosing a loved one to illness and death. Tank's not really dieing but she acts as if he is.

 

If someone you loved was diagnosed with a terminal illness and you thought there was a chance you could save them, you would move mountains to do so.

With that thought, you might view Rainbow sabotaging the cloud factory in a slightly different light.     

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Now that I look at it, I see the message.


If this episode showed me anything, it's that Rainbow Dash's incredibly selfish characterizations akin to Rainbow Falls are still very much active. 

 

I could not sympathize with her in the slightest. Because at the end of the day, this was not a matter of life and death. And yet, apparently, she thought that preventing her pet's hibernation, something that was necessary to his own health, as Fluttershy stated, was worth doing immeasurable damage to not only the seasonal cycle of Ponyville, but also to the very factory which provides weather to the entire country. 

 

And I'm supposed to be cheering her on because......why, exactly? Could anyone please explain to me why I'm supposed to be sympathizing with the one who is, essentially, putting herself before all of Equestria, including her own pet? 

 

Yeah, honestly, Tanks for the Memories might almost be as bad as Rainbow Falls, in my opinion. 

I'm on the boat with you on this.

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To a degree, I can understand where Dashie was coming from in the episode. She spent most of her time with Tank, outside of her friends. It's kinda in the same paradigm as if you had a friend or family member that was deployed overseas.

 

However, to me, it highlights another possibility: that Rainbow Dash could possibly have some sort of psychological issue that's more than just her detachment issues. It appears that way to me because of haw much she played up the entire ordeal. It almost seems like it's setting up for a really emotional episode concerning Rainbow Dash's past down the line at some point.

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If this episode showed me anything, it's that Rainbow Dash's incredibly selfish characterizations akin to Rainbow Falls are still very much active.

 

I could not sympathize with her in the slightest. Because at the end of the day, this was not a matter of life and death. And yet, apparently, she thought that preventing her pet's hibernation, something that was necessary to his own health, as Fluttershy stated, was worth doing immeasurable damage to not only the seasonal cycle of Ponyville, but also to the very factory which provides weather to the entire country.

 

And I'm supposed to be cheering her on because......why, exactly? Could anyone please explain to me why I'm supposed to be sympathizing with the one who is, essentially, putting herself before all of Equestria, including her own pet?

 

Yeah, honestly, Tanks for the Memories might almost be as bad as Rainbow Falls, in my opinion.

This episode is an allegory to the loss of someone. With the cover of hibernation, this episode bringed us to a different level of Rainbow Dash's personality: if someone special to her dissapeared from her life, what would she do to not let it happen?

 

The pain of saying goodbye is something that stalks every single human being. We keep saying that, for example, death is there, or illnesses are there, or anything. But when it does happen, we are not ready, we want to fight it.

 

In this context, this may have been the most realistic episode of the whole show, both for giving a very important message hidden on such a clever way and for showing how deep can our ponies be.

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I'm in agreement with you; I noticed the 5 stages of grief as well.

 

 

Bargaining was definitely the longest and most drastic of the stages for Rainbow. Do you think this accurately reflects people's response to loss in their own lives?

Yes. It you are in a position were you think you can save a loved one, you will move mountains to do it. Not being in a position to move mountains usually brings a feeling of uselessness and longing to be able to affect change.

 

I would do the same thing as Dash 10 times over.

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I very clearly saw the message they were trying to send here, and I think they handled it beautifully. They told the "loss of a pet" story without having to kill off a character to do so, and to me, Rainbow Dash's reaction was still completely appropriate in that setting. Tank may not have been dying, but she clearly spends a lot of time with her pet, and was learning not just that she would have to be apart from him for 3-4 months, but that she would have to be apart from him 3-4 months out of every single year. I don't think it's fair for anyone to say that that isn't a big deal. Yes, Rainbow reacted very drastically, but she had effectively just learned that she had lost a fourth to a third of the time she thought she'd have with her pet. Even if this wasn't stated, I am convinced that Rainbow had in the back of her mind that this would happen every single year, and that that made her much more resistant to letting Tank hibernate at all.

 

This was a very well-told message, even in the context of a show with a reputation for handling morals very well. 10/10, all the applause, great job writers give yourselves a pat on the back and a cookie.

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If this episode showed me anything, it's that Rainbow Dash's incredibly selfish characterizations akin to Rainbow Falls are still very much active. 

 

I could not sympathize with her in the slightest. Because at the end of the day, this was not a matter of life and death. And yet, apparently, she thought that preventing her pet's hibernation, something that was necessary to his own health, as Fluttershy stated, was worth doing immeasurable damage to not only the seasonal cycle of Ponyville, but also to the very factory which provides weather to the entire country. 

 

And I'm supposed to be cheering her on because......why, exactly? Could anyone please explain to me why I'm supposed to be sympathizing with the one who is, essentially, putting herself before all of Equestria, including her own pet? 

 

Yeah, honestly, Tanks for the Memories might almost be as bad as Rainbow Falls, in my opinion. 

if you pay attention all rainbow did was drain some water tanks, tank drifting around into stuff half asleep and rainbow trying to stop him is what did the bulk of the damage to the weather factory

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I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, it kind of shows how sheltered kids these days are...freaking Dexter's Lab had an episode about dead fishy, that was even somewhat comical. The target audience of that wasn't that far from MLP's age range. I remember I was like 7 when I saw that and it didn't traumatize me. It kind of showed me that you have to learn to let go of your pet at some point. On the other hand,well, at least Tank may come back. So something was taught to the kiddies without loss, I guess.

 

I could be wrong about dead fishy, I haven't seen that since I was a child. But the lesson I learned was the same I think.

Edited by ArcheoPony
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My post has many generalizations. There are exceptions to pretty much everything I'm about to say, so please don't think I'm ignoring those cases. I'm merely referring to what I have observed (and what I assume others have observed) as the general consensus (can't think of a better word, sorry).
I'm also operating under the assumption that Rainbow Dash has not suffered much pain throughout her life.
 

If this episode showed me anything, it's that Rainbow Dash's incredibly selfish characterizations akin to Rainbow Falls are still very much active.


Rainbow Dash was selfish in this episode.
That is, in my opinion, a fact, and anyone who disagrees with it is kidding themselves (sorry). In this episode, Rainbow Dash is selfish. I'm not going to comment on her character as a whole, but here, she was entirely self-centered.

Now that that's been said. This episode was, indeed, an allegory to great loss or grief in real life. The scale in the show was off, inaccurate, bad, you might say. I think it's just a case of naivety on Rainbow Dash's part.
 

I could not sympathize with her in the slightest. Because at the end of the day, this was not a matter of life and death. And yet, apparently, she thought that preventing her pet's hibernation, something that was necessary to his own health, as Fluttershy stated, was worth doing immeasurable damage to not only the seasonal cycle of Ponyville, but also to the very factory which provides weather to the entire country.
 
And I'm supposed to be cheering her on because......why, exactly? Could anyone please explain to me why I'm supposed to be sympathizing with the one who is, essentially, putting herself before all of Equestria, including her own pet?


Grieving people are selfish. Grief makes people entirely, incredibly self-motivated. Grief in its four first stages does not make someone grateful or enlightened or mature. It makes them a bitch. (Again, generalizing here.)

Rainbow Dash is no exception.

When you are in pain, you try to make that pain stop. Rainbow Dash was in pain. Did the event at hand warrant a reaction like she had? No, absolutely not. This episode makes me think Rainbow hasn't experienced much emotional pain at all (which fits in with my perception of her as a character, but that's beside the point). In these fields, Rainbow is inexperienced and naive, and thus will react extremely to events other, more experienced people would consider trife.
We (people in my culture, my household, my life as I know it) typically learn about loss in small doses. Slowly we learn to let things go. First it's a toy, then a friend, a pet; we learn to let go gradually so that we can be prepared for the inevitable deaths of our loved ones. This episode makes me think that RD knows very little about loss. She hasn't been through the emotional training required to accept and recover from the (temporary) loss of things she loves.
She meets Tank, and her friends introduce her to the idea of pets. RD learns that pets are companions. So when she has to say goodbye to Tank--perhaps the first constant companion she has ever had--it doesn't matter that it's just for a few months. It may even feel like a betrayal. ("I took care of you when I was sick/injured, and now you're saying you can't handle a little discomfort to make me happy?")
Logic is involved in none of RD's reaction. She hasn't learned about loss yet.
 

And I'm supposed to be cheering her on because......why, exactly? Could anyone please explain to me why I'm supposed to be sympathizing with the one who is, essentially, putting herself before all of Equestria, including her own pet?


I don't think you were supposed to be cheering her on. I don't think any viewer actually wanted Rainbow Dash to stop winter in order to ensure her own happiness and security. We were instead hoping for her to fail so that she could grow and learn to accept what simply is a part of life.

RD, yes, put her own happiness before that of her pet. When you care about someone enough that your happiness is affected by their presence or absence, it's normal (I think?) to assume that the feeling is mutual. By that logic (or lack thereof), how could hibernating possibly be good for Tank if it took him away from Rainbow Dash?
It's like watching someone on their deathbed. They might want to die, but you want them to live, and it is your selfishness which drives you to ensure their medically-assisted extended life.
The difference between losing a pet and watching a loved one's body slowly deteriorate is huge, of course, but that's why it's an allegory.

TL;DR: This episode was for character growth. Rainbow Dash was selfish and she had to learn, at the end, to be less selfish (I'd say "selfless" but I don't think that really applies here). The episode was about loss, and grief makes people assholes.
This was about learning to accept grief and stop being an asshole.

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This episode held certain meaning for me as my mom lost her daughter to cancer a few years back, and her emotions were quite similar to RD's. Really, I wanted to hug and cry with her; my heart just ached. It's a deep and a DAMN good message they portrayed here, and they portrayed it in about the best way they could without actually going into death.

 

As for Dash herself she was the last to get her pet, is largely regarded as very loyal, and as such grew an attachment to Tank that the others probably didn't expect. Her actions were VERY understandable in my eyes, and I've grown a stronger appreciation for her as a result.

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Yeah, the way the crying in bed scene was shaped definitely implied a death, just without a death. I lost my cat back in February so this episode was rather hard to sit through to me, but I definitely know how Rainbow Dash felt, even though it was just "hibernation". When you get used to a pet, spending even a day without them is pretty uncomfortable. I still rather like this episode since it's the best they could do without showing a death and it did so in a rather straightforward way. The way they worded the scene where Rainbow was crying in bed made me think Tank was gonna die, with all the goodbyes and such.

 

They captured the 5 stages of grief fairly well imo. My only problem is that for some people the 5 stages of grief don't go by so fast (especially since it's been months and I'm personally still stuck in the depression stage), but with only a certain amount of runtime there's really not much you can do with it. Rather fine episode nonetheless and the only episode to date to make me upset.

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As an allegory towards the five stages of grieving, I found it to be a good allegory. But I also find it limited in that sense as well. 

 

I find it limited because, well mlp:fim still feels limited by its cultural position and still continues to occupy it.  No, I'm not going to go into an argument about saying the show needs to display death, but I'm going to say that it trying to allude to the loss of a loved one still doesn't feel fully executed, and that might be because mlp:fim still feels limited in its position imo.  The biggest criticism I have with that, is because you know Rainbow Dash is going to get tank back in the spring.  She's not losing him forever, she's just not going to be with him for four months, and that's a temporary loss, not a permanent one.   Imagine if tank was really dying in this episode and it wasn't just hibernation.  Dash may have gone through same processes, but the consequences of the latter would have meant permanency, and that's a much more different and difficult to handle over temporariness.  She would have had to deal with a future that involved a life-after tank, and that's much more depressing if she's grown extremely attached to him since his adoption.  Not to say this episode is flawed (I find this to be a good episode of season 5).  If we have gotten to the point, where we no longer find it acceptable to display or be blunt about the loss of an intimate loved one in a young children's cartoon show, then this is just a reflection of that.  But I find that also suggests standards have changed, people's perceptions have changed and that its a subject that no longer (or seems less) approachable in cartoons.  I also mean that mlp:fim cannot handle facts of reality very well; it can only partially represent that topic through its allegory since not all details are replicated back through it.  Again, not saying that's a downside or negative, it just seems that mlp:fim is still limited by current cultural perceptions of what can or cannot be conveyed through a children's cartoon.   But I don't feel that this episode really was trying convey a message about dealing with permanent loss (and not everyone who deals with loss goes through Kübler-Ross' five stage model or in the same way).  It might be more accurate to say, it was dealing with a short term loss.  But the major difference is that this one is still recoverable. It's only short term, Dash will be happy again when the spring comes, no doubt about that (which will probably be sometime later in the episode). This is probably as close as it gets to dealing with some aspect of loss (and small bite-sized aspect of it though) and that's me being realistic with it.   

 

The funniest shtick though is that Dash destroyed municipal property of Cloudsdale (the weather factory) and received no felony charges at all.  No investigation what-so-ever post after the weather factory mishap as well into finding Dash as the culprit.  Ah, only in the world talking technicolour equines do such silly shenanigans work out so well with consequence. 

 

As for views on Dash's character in this episode.  It's a character building episode, and RD was being selfish (but in character I felt as well).  I wouldn't really be surprised (actually I assume) this is her first time really dealing with a concept of loss and that she hasn't experienced this emotion before.  Her reaction, seemed really accurate to me. And  @@Abia,  post says everything else that I thought about Dash for this episode.   Still a good episode.

Edited by pony.colin
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It crossed my mind that this weeks episode may actually have been the writers attempt to convey the loss of a pet to it's audience in the safest way possible. Rainbow Dash's freaking out, irrationality, & panicked nature are a lot like those of a pet owner who find out their loved one isn't going to make it for much longer. Dash even goes through the 5 stages of grief. 

 

1. Denial: Telling everypony their wrong

 

2. Anger: Snapping at Pinkie and the rest of the remane 5. 

 

3. Bargaining: Trying to retake control of the situation. Going through any means necessary to Stop winter from happening so she has more time with her friend. 

 

4. Depression: Shutting down, even in the presence of her friends

 

5. Acceptance: Finally giving in and letting her emotions out, coming to grips with the situation, embracing the support of those around her, yet at the end of the episode privately deals with it by remaining at Tanks side, almost like saying goodbye.  

 

 

As a pet owner myself, I get what she's going through, having lost a number of my own over the years. I manages to skip the anger part but went through the rest of the stages with each of them. I can certainly relate. It was far from easy parting with any of my loved ones. Even as I was typing this, I had one of my cats on my lap. 

 

It's an important lesson and not an easy one to convey. Any kid blessed to have had a pet may have to unfortunately deal with parting ways with them. 

 

Think DHX went about this the right way? Was it the best they could do given the medium they're working with? 

It's funny that another character voiced by Ashleigh Ball went through those stages too. Right Blythe?

blythe__s_priceless_face_by_thatwyguyont

 

I've noticed said allegory too, while I saw Dashie's crying as funny due to the animation and the fact that Tank will not go forever, her friends joining in her sorrow made that allegory evident. If the reazon of her crying was tragic, I'd probably cry too

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Wow, she totally did go through the five stages!  I didn't pick up on that.

 

I definitely feel like this episode's theme felt deeper than what was actually happening.  In other words, it felt like Tank was dying, not just hibernating.  It was a good message, and RD's sadness and love for Tank was indeed touching.  That said, I had trouble really buying into this episode, because it seemed overly dramatic.  I mean, bascially it would have been perfect if Tank really was dying, but since he was only going to be asleep for ~3 months, the reaction was overdone, imo.  But I know they wouldn't actually have one of their pets die on this show, so if they wanted to deal with those kinds of themes, they did it in the best possible way, I suppose.

 

Honestly, (and I know this is a very unpopular opinion) I would have liked it better if Tank actually was dying.  I never liked him, and that would have made all the emotions of the episode more believable and genuine.  That would have knocked it out of the park for me.  But that's just a hypothetical.  I know they wouldn't deal with something like that on this show.

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