Ya know how in my last review I said that I consider three of the last four episodes of Season 1 to be among the show's finest? Well... this is the episode that's not. If I'm being completely honest, it's one of my least favorite episodes in the whole show; not that I hate it or anything, but, it simply just doesn't really do anything for me. But, let's start with the positives first.

The best thing that I can say about this episode is that it's a great Spike episode, at least, in the sense that Spike's incredibly entertaining once again in the limelight. While I certainly think that "A Dog and Pony Show" portrayed the guy in a far more flattering light, Spike's characterization and mannerisms still seem on in this episode. I mean, he's a baby dragon, so a lot of his not-so-well-thought-out actions in this episode can simply be attributed to his age. Also, it's nice seeing just how much he does for Twilight being the focus of an episode. Finally, the little dude's just plain funny, no denying that, and he has some really funny scenes in this episode, especially the scene where he tries to frame Owlowiscious for a "mouse's" death.

The best scene in this whole episode for me is probably the opening five minutes when Twilight, Spike, and the rest of the Mane 6 and CMC gather to watch the meteor shower. It's a nice little scene that highlights just how far all these friends had come in the first season of MLP in their friendships without saying too much about it, and I wish we had scenes of Mane 6 get-together's like that more often in the show.

This scene... I LOVE this scene!!!

Well, that's the positives, but now it's time for the negatives. So what's the biggest problem I have with this episode? Namely two: (1) Owlowiscious, and (2) Twilight. First, let's cover Owlowiscious; I do not hate this character, no no, that's not right. If I hated him, I think I'd actually care about him more than I do, because at least he'd be evoking some sort of strong passion out of me, like Angel Bunny does on occasion. All of the other pets in fact have something going for them: Winona's fun and lovable, Tank's just plain awesome, Opalescence has her rocking attitude, Angel Bunny's a hateful bastard as much as he is Fluttershy's faithful companion, and Gummy's just... well, Gummy, but Owlowiscious? There is literally nothing that makes me particularly care for this bird in any sense of the word! He has ONE joke (which they hammer over the head any time he's a main or supporting character, quite lazy writing if you ask me), and just doesn't really do anything particularly noteworthy. Like I said, that's not to say I hate him, but... buck me, I can't say I care for him! He's just kinda there, and I could care less, and to this day there is probably no character in the show that I care less about than Owlowiscious. He's unnecessary in a bad way.

DO SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!

Now, as for Twilight, I would've said she was my #1 problem with this episode, if not for one thing: she actually recognizes what she does wrong in the episode. So what does she do? She simply assumes that Spike, a baby dragon who doesn't know any better and looks up to Twilight as a mother/sister figure, is not going to have any problems at all with Owlowiscious. That's incredibly insensitive! The worst part is when Rarity of all things gives that bucking bird the same exact gemstone bedazzled bowtie after knowing him for less than a day which it took Spike 24 episodes to get!!! HOW COULD TWILIGHT NOT THINK THAT SPIKE WOULDN'T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THIS?!?! In addition, there are plenty of scenes that seem to justify Spike's worry that Owlowiscious is trying to replace him, particularly when Owlowiscious finishes tasks that Twilight had specifically assigned to Spike! The only saving grace for Twilight is that she realizes her mistake by the end of the episode and admits as much to Spike, in a rather heartwarming scene; the only problem is, again, she should've fully explained why Owlowiscious was around from the very beginning instead of assuming Spike would just be hunky-dory with having Owlowiscious around.

So yeah, in conclusion, I don't particularly care for this episode. I don't hate most things about it except really for the way that the moral lesson is reached, but I don't care for it either. It ranks down there with episodes like "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" which I don't really care for, although again, at least that episode has a harmless enough of a lesson. The only good thing I can even say about Owlowiscious is that he at least makes it absolutely clear that Spike is not nor ever will be Twilight's pet, but beyond that... I got nothing good to say about that bird! I don't care for the lesson, I don't care about the new character, and I certainly don't care about the episode as a whole.

One of these things is completely unnecessary to the show. Can you figure out what it is?