Dark Qiviut

The Summer Sun Setback! Now that is a return to S9 form! The Last Laugh's great, but it needed more. This episode does just that.

The Terrible Trio/Fallen Three remains as sharp as ever. Their dynamic continues to grow and evolve with hilarious and scary results. Little by little, they prove how manipulative, strong, and threatening they can be. With the right amount of chaos, they nearly successfully turned the Earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi against each other in under twelve hours. With the Bewitching Bell, spellbook, and Grogar leaving the hideout, they can now implement ideas from what they witnessed to hatch a plan.

The RM7 remain sharp as ever. Yeah, it was quite quick for Twi to suddenly get over her freakouts, but it's a refreshing sight this season to see her maturity come to play and not fall into an obvious trap. They began their friendship together, and now they're using their expertise to lead. With this one episode, they proved how far they came from just a few weeks ago and are close to ready to lead. Overcoming hidden obstacles, Twilight writes her best speech: In exchange for the last Summer Sun Celebration, she now commemorates them equally, which you couldn't really do during other SSC's while Luna was sealed away.

Discord is pure Discord. He could fix it all, but comprehends how doing it alone hurts them, like last time. And now he's all but certain.

There's plenty more to go this season, but for now, well done, Vogel! Your best episode so far!

Grade: A (and perhaps a current place in my top-20; we'll see)