First of all, I want to start this review by apologizing for the uncharacteristic delay in getting it out. My little sister was home from college for the weekend, so my mom and I were pretty busy doing stuff with her, like watching the Olympics or going to a local ice carving festival, these past couple days, not to mention I had work yesterday. But enough about that, let's talk "Simple Ways"! In my humble opinion, we got yet another home-run this week! I'm not going to go so far as to say that "Simple Ways" was better than "Pinkie Pride", after all, few things could or ever will be as epic as Weird Al on MLP, but I still can easily include this latest addition to Season 4 among the shining examples of episodes we've had coming again and again ever since "Rarity Takes Manehattan". Like most Rarijack episodes, this one's a little less obviously impressive than some of its predecessors from previous weeks, but the high quality marks are still there, as we'll see in a moment. So without further ado, let's begin this review of "Simple Ways".

So let's get the big two elements of this episode out of the way first, those being, (1) Rarity and Applejack, and (2) the episode's surprisingly mature, nuanced theme, which a lot of people seem to have missed and think was just hammered in at the very end. Well first of all, as I've said very much in the past and recently given this episode's stars, I believe very firmly that Rarity and Applejack are the greatest pair of friends among the Mane 6. No two have really grown closer to one another since the show began, nor has this been so regularly displayed for any particular pair among the six as much as with these two. On top of that, their friendship in general is probably, on the surface, the most surprising among the whole group: one's an uptight fashionista with a penchant for fashion, high society, and the dramatic, while the other's a earth pony farmer who doesn't just not mind getting dirty, she loves it, along with putting in a hard day's work on the farm and doing the hard, backbreaking farm work her family's done for generations.

Beneath those superficial, though still very real, differences, however, are far more similarities than one realizes at first glance. Both mares are hard working, self-made business ponies, take great pride in their work, are probably the oldest and most mature members of the Mane 6 (despite Rarity's aforementioned penchant for the dramatic at times in her behavior), and older sisters to boot, which probably has a lot to do with the maturity they display in the group, especially in the way they've always treated Twilight (and other Mane 6 members when they're in need of help) in an almost older-sisterly fashion (interesting to note that Twilight, despite being the leader of the group, also has a little-sister POV being the youngest member of her own family). Ever since Rarity and AJ themselves first got past their superficial differences in the still legendary episode "Look Before You Sleep" (seriously, still one of the best Season 1 episodes), they've only grown closer to each other, and more than any other ponies in the Mane 6 this duo seems to appear together onscreen, whether in starring or supporting roles. Besides the similarities they truly do share with each other, as the devoted AJ fan Sugar Cube pointed out in another thread, these two are probably the most realistic, least cartoonish characters of the Mane 6 as a whole, so that's probably another reason that their friendship not only makes so much sense but also works so well in the show. So how did they work here?

Fantastically, really, they were both absolutely splendid in what I consider to be one of the best Rarijack episodes since "Look Before You Sleep", if not the best. First of all, the writers made absolutely the right decision in ensuring that this was a RARIJACK episode starring those two, not an episode starring those two with the rest of the Mane 6 unnecessarily crammed in (a major complaint I had with "Bats!" earlier this season, which I felt would've been a far better episode if it had focused more on Applejack and Fluttershy alone instead of involving all of the Mane 6 pretty equally). This balance in screen time helped ensure that there were really no pacing issues (yeah there was still a lot going on, but I honestly don't get why so many people seem to think there was a pacing problem in this episode, it was focused on two characters alone and did a perfectly fine job in the pacing department in my opinion).

Second of all, the theme of this episode fit these two characters to a T and highlighted their friendship and why it works so well more explicitly than any other episode since "Look Before You Sleep" (and this was doubly interesting in that it was very much a look at how their friendship is now that they've been friends for a good while since that Season 1 episode). So, just what makes Rarijack such a compelling duo? Simply this: they accept each other for who they are without batting an eye. Their friendship is really, when you get down to it, probably the greatest microcosm of, not only the friendships we get in the show between the Mane 6 as a whole, but the foundation and central tenets of the brony fandom itself; the idea that anyone can be friends with anyone else, no matter how great your differences may be. If you simply accept each other for who you are, and do good (or at least try to) by others, then there's absolutely no reason you can't be friends. AJ especially displayed that here, in perhaps one of the greatest displays of her element of honesty that I have ever seen in the show. I do wish that a Rarijack episode down the road would someday have Rarity teaching Applejack the lesson, just because it seems like more often than not it's AJ teaching Rarity the lesson (i.e. "Sisterhooves Social"), but still, it worked great here, and made perfect sense as well. Rarity, blinded by her crush on Trenderhoof, chose to become something she isn't in order to win his affections. Our dear Applejack certainly was having none of this, because she wasn't about to let her dearest friend not be honest TO HERSELF. Applejack cares more about honesty than anypony, and that includes being honest to oneself. She displayed that honesty quite easily throughout the episode; short of saying it to his face out of politeness, she made it about as clear as she could that she wasn't interested in Trenderhoof in that way, and she made it quite clear to Rarity as well that she felt the same way. She only resorted to her little ruse at the end simply because being honest with Rarity in her normal, blunt fashion didn't work, so she needed to pull a Rarity herself and do something over-the-top that would catch Rarity's eye, something Rarity herself would do. During that final sequence, the two ponies highlighted quite aptly just how well they understand each other, and even more so the entire episode just how much they accept each other. Yes they have their own likes, but they love each other for who they are, and so were both quite understandably distraught when the other pretended to be something she wasn't (though again, AJ was just pulling a clever ruse). Finally, the patience displayed by AJ was the cherry on top of this Rarijack smorgasbord that illustrated just how close they are. AJ really never blew up at Rarity despite the fact that she was being pretty silly, she just got really frustrated at her friend for not being herself. She made it quite clear, even at her angriest, that all she wanted to do was help her friend, and it was nice that we got to see her show Rarity the error of her ways without making any dumb mistakes herself.

Overall, this was an incredibly nuanced theme that really was being delivered, if you look at it closely, the entire episode from beginning to end, especially once Rarity started trying to countrify herself. It was all about honesty, so obviously AJ came out of this looking like the better character in a mature sense here, but it also excellently highlighted just what makes Rarijack work so well as a friendship. These two understand and accept each other more than anypony else does despite being polar opposites, and that fact was on full display here, quite clearly illustrating, in my opinion, that they truly are the best pair of friends in the show.

Alrighty, well, with that big chunk out of the way I shouldn't have too much else left to say seeing as this still was just a pretty silly and lighthearted episode despite having a pretty well executed theme. Our new character, Trenderhoof... I didn't like him that much. Now don't get me wrong, he seemed nice enough and he also gave quite a few laughs (I'll expand on that in a minute). I think what I didn't like most about him was (1) the fact that he was basically a hipster pony, but even more so (2) his voice. Good Lord, I hated his voice! It was very... grating, very unpleasant to the ears. It kept cracking throughout the whole episode and I found myself wincing quite a few times when Trenderhoof spoke. I don't know what they were thinking with the direction they gave this VA, but this voice was just plain unpleasant and distracting, so I'm not exactly looking forward to seeing Trenderhoof again in the future. I will say this to the episode's credit in the way it used Trenderhoof: THIS IS HOW YOU DO A CRUSH DHX!!!!!!! Let's contrast this to that... "thing" we got in EQG that DHX called a crush: in EQG, the crush made no sense seeing as how quickly it developed (not to mention the fact that Flash was a human), consisted entirely of stupid blushing and giggling, and only got about 5 minutes of screentime despite the fact that DHX was trying to sell us that this was supposed to be a legitimate, serious plot point. Here, although the episode revolved around the crush, it was mostly played for laughs, Rarity's and Trenderhoof's crushes were acceptable (she'd been obsessively following his work for years and he fell victim to love at first sight, the former being acceptable even when played up seriously and the latter acceptable especially when played up for laughs), and, most importantly of all, both crushes concluded with surprisingly serious, well-delivered letdowns for both characters. They both realized that Trenderhoof didn't like Rarity for who she was and AJ didn't like Trenderhoof for who he was, and thus neither pair was compatible. Sure Rarity and Trenderhoof were saddened by this, but they were able to accept it because, as they both learned, it's far better to find someone who loves you for who you are. That's a theme on crushes and love that you rarely see in any show, but especially not in a family/children's program, and my hat's off to DHX for how they used Trenderhoof to deliver this message.

The comedy in this episode was superb! In my opinion, it's the finest that the comedy has been all season in writing alone; there weren't as many physical gags as in previous episodes (though there was a bit of visual humor), but the dialogue was HILARIOUS! Rarity was her usual over-the-top, dramatic self, and Tabitha St. Germain had some absolutely riotous delivery in her lines. Applejack was very blunt and no-nonsense as usual, which always balances out Rarity's dramatics so nicely when they're onscreen together (I have to imagine that Ashleigh and Tabitha must have a blast recording some of those lines together themselves). Rarity and Trenderhoof were both very Pepe Le Pew-ish, especially when all three shared the screen with AJ, which made for some very funny set-ups (in fact, a lot of the humor, being so dialogue driven, was very Looney Tune-ish, more heavily reminiscent of those legendary sketches than most episodes of MLP I've seen since Season 2. Heck, there were even some sexual innuendos/visual humor throughout the episode that I was kind of shocked to see, something that most kids shows won't utilize these days but was always played up for laughs in the Looney Tunes, and I appreciated it very much here). Spike had probably the best 4th wall breaking moment of the season. And of course, the last third of the episode was simply legend (as a funny aside, I totally called AJ "Rarifying" herself before the episode debuted in a conversation with DashForever on Skype earlier in the week )! The accents donned by both Rarity and Applejack were to die for, especially Rarity's: Tabitha's refined/country accent hybrid had me in stitches every time she spoke with it. I think we can all agree that Rari-country and Applejewel was one of the finest comedic moments of this season so far, and overall, this was most definitely a funny, funny episode in the writing department.

Well... that's certainly a turnoff.

And yet, somehow, THIS was the most surprising sight of the episode!

Wow...

No wait, that 3 second clip doesn't do every bronies' collective reaction to Applejewel justice. Let's see... here we go, that should do. :comeatus:

Just got a few more things left to cover. Animation was lovely as usual; I especially loved the design they gave Applejewel, very, very chic, far more than I thought AJ could ever look (and the fact that she was totally comfortable in that look helped sell it, what a far cry from how AJ was concerning dresses and styling herself in Season 1). Derpy had a few nice little cameos, and the normality of her appearances is something I'm loving very, very much. I was glad that there wasn't any music, just because it's nice to get a break from the tunes in an episode every once in awhile. All in all, I've got nothing bad to say about this episode. Yeah it wasn't the best of the season, but it was a splendid episode all the same with some fairly subtle and surprisingly serious themes, and handily highlighted just what makes Applejack and Rarity such a great pair of friends more than anything else. Well done "Simple Ways", well done indeed.

One more time for good measure, DAYUMMMMMM... WHAT THE BUCK IS UP WITH THE DUCKFACES THIS SEASON?!?!