S07:E23 - Secrets and Pies

[Megas 27,050]

I have to say. That ending was so hardcore with its ship fodder that I have a hard time believing it wasn't intentional

[StitchandMLPlover 930]

I saw the new episode that aired today about Pinkie's Pies. I liked that it showed how Pinkie has grown since "Party of One" where she tries to actually investigate the problem and confront Dash rather than go so quickly into a mental break. I wish the Rainbow Dash's reason for not eating the pies had been something more serious like "I'm allergic to pies" or some condition like that as that could have maybe added a bit more depth but the reasoning for Rainbow Dash not telling was indeed sweet and I loved Applejack's "I could have told her that" line at the end LOL.

[CypherHoof 26,479]

I find it odd that Pinkie, who is supposed to be able to magically know and remember everypony's likes, dislikes, birthday and so forth, never at any point asked dashie what baked goods they liked best?

[Jeric 46,834]

Every once in a while an episode drops that feels ... off. These episodes don't frustrate me or scream, "I suck." Such entries may even have amusing moments in it (and this one does). There may be elements that I think could have been done differently (also present here). That said, upon consideration of this episode, I find myself completely ambivalent. This is one episode that I will likely not revisit. It has some amusing moments, I suppose. It has some missed opportunities that may have made this episode far more interesting. I would rate this a meh, if not for the rather unessential use of gross out humor -- which will almost always be factored into my final opinion. Instead, I opted for a 2/5. 

I can understand why some might enjoy this one thoroughly -- I did not. 

[Castle Bleck 19,163]

Detective!Pinkie was a riot, as was Supervillain!Dash (when she lasered all those pies in Pinkie's "flashback").

[heavens-champion 1,893]

Twilight didn't have much dialogue in this episode. A shame. Still, this episode was funny.

[Misty Shadow 7,066]

I loved this episode. It was like Party of One, but a lot more engaging because there's no misunderstanding cliche this time. Rainbow Dash actually is a compulsive liar, Pinkie has every right to be acting insane, and the character conflict is just so...thrilling. It's not repetitive if Rainbow keeps finding new ways to avoid getting caught, and even the gross joke at the end works because it would have been appropriate comeuppance for Rainbow's gross behavior, lying to Pinkie all that time. One of my favorites from the latter half of this season.

[Dark Qiviut 22,160]

This one stunk. Badly.

1. Pinkie's characterization is easily the worst of the season. For so long, she genuinely fell for Dash "look-at-that!" trick and believed Dash enjoyed her pies. Pinkie, you're usually great. You became a mega-idiot here.
2. The entire story is a stretched-out, paper-thin ripoff of Party of One. The only true difference is Pinkie didn't become super deranged.
3. Rainbow Dash (as wrong as she was for lying and betraying Pinkie's trust) had to undergo the same, clichéd shtick of having to be taught a lesson. To the point of punishing herself to teach a lesson.
4. Almost every joke sucked. Each of them can be placed in one of three categories:
   1. Stretching for far too to the point of thin. After the first time, Dash's "look at that!" and all other variations got old. Fast.
   2. Degrading characterization. Dash was OOC for feeding Tank her pie. If she's a smart, responsible master, she wouldn't poison him in desperation to get rid of her pie. The fact she did it twice is even worse! As someone who takes care of two cats and sees them as my children, it really pissed me off!
   3. Disgusting. Pinkie's exaggerated, big-lipped face; the detailed fatigue in her eyes; and that detailed dumpster were completely disgusting. The worst here, the dumpster pie, is in exaggeratedly gross detail and pure nightmare fuel. One of the worst jokes of the series.

The only redeeming values here are Pinkie's imagination creating the evil Dash in her memory, Twilight and AJ, the moral itself ("Better to be honest to your friend than hold onto a lie so long"), and Pinkie waking up Dash.

No, it's not awful, but it's bad. It joins Infamous & Mistake-in-Storytelling (an objectively worse episode than S&P) as the second bad episode this half. So far, easily Hamilton's worst in the series.

Edited October 14, 2017 by Dark Qiviut

[Firedog 320]

loved this episode! 10/10 one of the best episodes of this season

[PinkiePie97 913]

I loved this episode. I had a lot of fun watching Pinkie and I’m glad the issue between her and Rainbow Dash got resolved.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,809]

This episode was a little on the cringy side...still, great resolution though. Pinkie scaring Rainbow was pretty funny, when she snuck in her bed...

[PacificGreen 1,163]

I didn't really like this one, to be honest, though it wasn't terrible. Sure, there were some funny moments (like Villain Dash), and the whole throw-away-the-pie shtick was funny the first few times, but the execution felt kinda cliched, the gags kinda got old quick and the episode did feel rather dragged out. I'm not even sure what was the point of the last scene where Dash was basically torturing herself to eat the sludge pie. Couldn't they just have left it at Dash admitting she should've told Pinkie the truth sooner?

So yeah, not really an episode I'll be rewatching anytime soon. Still, the season's definitely been improving over the second half, so I'm pretty optimistic about the closing three episodes.

Edited October 15, 2017 by PacificGreen

[Ivan The Adorable 304]

A pretty low entry in what would be my rankings of Pinkie Pie episodes. Feels more pointless than anything else. I guess the conclusion that both characters are willing to go to outrageous lengths for friendship is sweet, but then again that's more or less Pinkie Pie's entire being already. Maybe it's just uninteresting to me cause it's like, so what if Rainbow Dash doesn't like pies, Pinkie could just make her cakes or something else? The stakes have never been lower.

Not without funny or cute moments sprinkled here or there, but I'm just going to agree that the whole plot mostly felt like one drawn out joke with a punchline I already knew.

[Music Chart Fan 818]

Overall, I'm not really feeling this episode. The basic plot seems to be stretched too thin to cover a whole episode, and therefore much of the time is filled with gags, which could be amusing, but kind of wear out their welcome and can't carry the episode themselves. Pinkie actually wasn't as obnoxious as I was expecting, but she still exhibits several of her traits which I really don't care for. It was bad for Rainbow to lie and pretend to like all of Pinkie's pies, and that problem was probably made worse by trying to continue a facade that couldn't have been maintained forever. But I feel like Pinkie shares some of the blame here, considering how pushy she can be and how badly she can react to bad news. The episode makes a point of having Rainbow learn a lesson, but I can't help feeling that Pinkie probably needs to learn a lesson too - to accept with maturity when others tell her things that she doesn't want to hear, and not assume the worst about her friends without evidence. At least it's nice that Rainbow and Pinkie want to see each other be happy, and I'm glad that Pinkie's pies (for the most part) went to others who enjoyed them.

To start, the action that kicks off the whole chain of events in the episode is Rainbow's not wasting a second in ditching Pinkie's pie in the garbage can that's being wheeled out the door right in front of Pinkie. Wouldn't it seem significantly likely that Pinkie might see the pie in the garbage if Rainbow throws it out that quickly? Also, why doesn't Rainbow offer the pie to any of the other Wonderbolts (since they've apparently previously accepted Rainbow's mysterious monthly pie donations), or even the janitor himself? In fact, from what we see in the episode, Rainbow most often ditches Pinkie's pies by giving them to someone else to eat. There are a couple of times that Rainbow tosses the pie off-screen, and the time that Rainbow ties the pie to balloons, where it's not clear what would have been done with that pie later, if anything. But it seems like just straight-up throwing Pinkie's rainbow blueberry pie in the garbage is unusual. Did Rainbow somehow know that Pinkie's "art" of combining 73 different ingredients didn't actually produce a palatable result for anybody?

Also, a good part of the episode is spent showing various ways that Rainbow got rid of Pinkie's pies, with Pinkie apparently never being the wiser. Considering how many of these cases there have been, why hasn't Pinkie ever wondered (or asked) where her pie pans went? Surely Pinkie doesn't expect Rainbow to have eaten the pans themselves? Also, in all of these cases, did Pinkie really expect Rainbow to have eaten the whole pie (or pies) in just a few seconds? And of course, Pinkie falls for the "What's that over there?" trick over and over and over, while never seeing or hearing or sensing Rainbow ditching the pies. Even later in the episode, when Pinkie is actively looking to prove that Rainbow isn't eating the pies, Pinkie never confronts Rainbow about the pie pans, or supposedly eating 15 pies in a matter of seconds, or, in the last case, supposedly eating the whole pie literally in the blink of an eye. And yeah, we're probably just supposed to treat this all as one giant gag, but all of these things are supposed to have really happened, and the accumulation of them over the course of the episode just comes across more as stupid rather than funny.

For Rainbow's part, it seems she felt that she couldn't just tell Pinkie that she doesn't like pie, probably for reasons I discuss below. But even barring that, I can think of other ways that Rainbow could have handled being given all of these pies. Why is it that Rainbow pretends to have eaten the whole pie (or pies) every time? Would it not be acceptable for Rainbow to thank Pinkie, but say (perhaps even truthfully) that she's not really hungry right now, because she just ate, or because her stomach's not feeling right, or even without giving any particular reason? Or if Pinkie is giving Rainbow multiple pies within a few days (or even on the same day), then couldn't Rainbow say something like "I appreciate your making all these pies for me, but I'm a little pied out right now, and it's probably not healthy for someone to eat this much pie in this short a time anyway"? And after saying something like the above, then Rainbow could offer to take the pie for later or suggest giving it to someone else, along with perhaps suggesting that Pinkie can lay off making pies for her for a little while. But then, all of these proposals are kind of predicated on Pinkie's being reasonable about these things. Would Pinkie have just kept insisting that Rainbow eat (some of) the pie anyway, even if Rainbow said she didn't want to for any of the above reasons? Would Pinkie have simply refused to entertain the possibility of anyone not wanting to eat her pie, saying something like "Don't be ridiculous, everyone is always in the mood for my pies!"? Those seem like real possibilities, and that's one of the problems with trying to deal with Pinkie - that she might not take "no" for an answer.

And the motivation for this whole thing seems to be another one of Pinkie's issues - how badly she can react (and has reacted) to hearing things that she doesn't want to hear. We've seen in previous episodes how Pinkie's friends have felt that they have to walk on eggshells with her, for fear of her descending into deep depression and/or going crazy and doing stupid and dangerous things. An example of this in the episode is when Rainbow is talking to Twilight and Applejack about how to apologize to Pinkie, and Rainbow says "I guess I should've just eaten the pies in the first place". So that was supposed to be the solution? Rainbow was supposed to have spent the rest of her life forcing herself to eat pie she doesn't like, just because Pinkie couldn't maturely handle being told that Rainbow doesn't like her pies and doesn't want to have them made for her? How much should Pinkie's friends have to put up with in order to accommodate this issue of hers?

We also see in this episode how Pinkie can assume the worst and overreact to it. Pinkie spins this story to Applejack about how she "knows" that Rainbow has been laughing at her pies behind her back and scheming to get rid of them. And later, Pinkie yells to Rainbow that she hates Pinkie's pies. But what reason is there to believe that? Rainbow's ditching Pinkie's pies rather than eating them doesn't automatically mean that Rainbow hates them or revels in getting rid of them while secretly laughing at Pinkie, but that's apparently the conclusion that Pinkie jumped to.

So, to conclude, all of this kind of puts the lie to Pinkie's declaration to Rainbow at the end of the episode that she can "always be honest" with Pinkie. We've seen before that Pinkie can sometimes go dangerously crazy when others are honest with her. The end of the episode also illustrates one of Pinkie's other reactions, when Rainbow's honest statement about Pinkie's hugs being too tight is simply summarily dismissed. None of these reactions on Pinkie's part are exactly motivational for getting others to be truthful with her, and I feel like that's something that Pinkie could stand to think about and try to improve.

Now for the rest of my miscellaneous observations:

Pinkie's "cocoa bar" looks like your typical chocolate bar, and in fact, Pinkie refers to it as chocolate a few seconds later. But then I'm not sure why it's being called a "cocoa bar"; in my experience, the word cocoa by itself refers to cocoa powder, and there's more to chocolate than just that.

When Twilight asks whether Pinkie's chocolate bar is for the pie, Pinkie laughs and says "You don't mix chocolate into a blueberry pie!", with a tone that implies "duh!" after it, as though it's obviously stupid for Twilight (or the audience) to think that. But how was Twilight (or the audience) supposed to know that seemingly arbitrary rule? This is one of those Pinkie behaviors that I find really annoying.

The blueberries on top of Pinkie's rainbow pie seem unusually large.

It's a bit weird that Pinkie is using a spatula to cut a piece of pie. Is the specific pie server utensil not a thing in Equestria?

Pinkie dives into the partially emptied garbage can looking for the pie that Rainbow threw out, but it was on the top, so we would expect it to have been dumped already.

Pinkie says "I must be seeing things. I did have a lot of chocolate this morning". So what, eating too much chocolate messes with your mind and/or impairs your vision?

Spitfire asks Pinkie whether the Wonderbolts are under investigation, but then, is there any reason to believe that Pinkie has the legal authority to place them under some kind of "official" investigation?

Did Rainbow violate rule number one just before Pinkie lands on the runway? I suppose Rainbow could have looked both ways off-screen, but we can't say for sure.

Finally, what is the "pie" that Rainbow was about to force herself to eat? Some combination of concrete, mud, sludge, hair, and garbage? Where did that even come from? And how did Rainbow get the idea that eating that in front of Pinkie would make things right with her?

[DonMaguz 1,023]

Hello everyone.

I think this episode is the most random slice of life this season which feels odd for a season 7 episode, but at the same time feels a bit lighter than the usual and I enjoyed it for that.

Both Pinkie and Rainbow Dash crossed the line of cringe for me in this episode, but I'm ok with it because of what it meant for them to keep going with their stubbornness.

The issue I have with this episode is that it gave me nothing memorable, but at least it made me smile a few times.

I give it a 6/10 and will probably skip it next time I rewatch season 7.

Now, for the last two episodes! (I count two parters as one)

[Ganondorf8 11,118]

Even though I watched this one much sooner than expected--I watched the remainder of season seven via the leak that occurred last week--I did enjoy the hilarity that was Pinkie Pie going off the deep end as she struggled to expose Rainbow Dash for what she was doing. I was honestly expecting to see Pinkamena again but she managed to stave off of going that far. I've got to give props to Rainbow for coming up with so many different ways of getting rid of those pies even if some were bordering the realm of absurdity. It was also nice seeing Spitfire again who apparently isn't comfortable around Pinkie when she is going through one of her questionable phases.

[Midnight Blaze 98 1,138]

It was a fun, simple little episode to have before the finale, which I have seen through leaks, along with the rest of season 7.

It made me extremely hungry for pies; I've decided to bake an apple pie tomorrow!

Pinkie was rather creepy in parts of it- hopefully this won't spark Cupcakes 2.

That pie at the end though... Uggghh...

And how long will it take for evil Dash to get a fan name?

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,237]

Saw this one when it was leaked. Honeslty, I liked it for what it was. Pinkie was funny, I liked her interactions with the other characters and some of the visual humor, like the elaborate slide to give the pies to Tank. Really, this was a simple episode that had a simple premise. Is the overall plot silly? Totally, extremely silly, but I still enjoyed it. It was a silly concept that it had fun with and I can't ask for too much else in an episode like this. I can definitely see why others might not enjoy it but I had a good time with it. 

[DonMaguz 1,023]

11 minutes ago, Music Chart Fan said:

...but I can't help feeling that Pinkie probably needs to learn a lesson too - to accept with maturity when others tell her things that she doesn't want to hear, and not assume the worst about her friends without evidence.

That first one seems to be a deep ingrained issue of Pinkie, her little maturity is part of her character's charm but she seems to take things too personal even with her best friends whom she knows to love and trust her, that's too childlish even for Pinkie Pie.

[PacificGreen 1,163]

43 minutes ago, Midnight Blaze 98 said:

And how long will it take for evil Dash to get a fan name?

Apparently she's called "Evil Pie Hater Dash" on Derpibooru.

[Scootaloo Is Best Filly 576]

Guess Dash is a cake fan. Lol

 

I get why Dash would wanna do this. I do! She wanted to spare pinkie’s feelings and that’s admirable. I probably would have done the same thing for a while.

But...... I know you were trying to help . But, if you didn’t like all those pies she should have just said how she felt. There’s a way to tell people you don’t like something and if said right no pony’s feelings have to be hurt.

 

pinkie pie puts a lot of effort into her pies. It might have been better for Dash to politely tell her how she felt. It would have saved times on both ends. Pinkie pie wouldn’t have to go through all that hard work and focus on something you love.

And rainbow wouldn’t have had to go through all that hard work to get rid of them too.

 

all in all, great episode I just felt Dash could have saved a lot of trouble. Oh, and that evil over the top villain dash in pinkies imagination? Lol great work!

8/10

 

Edited October 14, 2017 by Scootaloo Is Best Filly

[Sonic5421 423]

For being an episode centered on Rainbow and Pinkie, with regards to the most recent comic of the main series that has been released, this was a pretty funny episode.

Rainbow only wanted to share the joy of getting pies from Pinkie by giving them to other ponies, but as far as Pinkie was concerned at first, Rainbow was enjoying them, but then realizes that Rainbow had been passing them on to other ponies, making her believe Rainbow hated her pies and had been lying to her about liking them for so long.

Everything Pinkie tries to get Rainbow to eat one results in where she keeps her eyes glued on Rainbow, hoping that she can prove her wrong, but when Pinkie blinks and Rainbow thinks fast with getting rid of it, that's all it takes for Pinkie to realize Rainbow hates her pies. Rainbow tries to reason with her, but when the pie she just got rid of splatters on Pinkie, that's the last straw, and Pinkie storms off in anger.

Talking with Twilight and Applejack about it later, Rainbow realizes there's only one way to apologize to Pinkie, and offers to eat a very disgusting and poorly made pie from garbage in front of her. However, Pinkie finally realizes the real reason why Rainbow did what she did, and the two friends make amends.

Pretty good episode, so I'll give it a 9/10.

[ShootingStar159 2,155]

2 hours ago, Kyoshi said:

Saw this one when it was leaked. Honeslty, I liked it for what it was. Pinkie was funny, I liked her interactions with the other characters and some of the visual humor, like the elaborate slide to give the pies to Tank. Really, this was a simple episode that had a simple premise. Is the overall plot silly? Totally, extremely silly, but I still enjoyed it. It was a silly concept that it had fun with and I can't ask for too much else in an episode like this. I can definitely see why others might not enjoy it but I had a good time with it. 

I agree, there was enough there for me to enjoy. But, I’ve always had a strong tolerance for repetition and silliness, so I guess this was just my kind of episode.

Speaking of Tanks food tunnel, anyone else notice that it’s underground. Inside of Dash’s cloud-house. In the sky.

Edited October 14, 2017 by ShootingStar159

[Toon4Thought 273]

It's perfectly fine for what it is. Mediocre premise and weak conflict elevated by witty dialogue, decent pacing, and an effective atmosphere. Nothing special, but it was definitely entertaining.

[Cirrus. 1,088]

I thought the episode was amusing enough, but seemed a little dragged out. Pinkie's "Laser Eyes Dash" construct was a random funny thing.

 

I don't fault Rainbow Dash for choosing to just "go with it" and not tell Pinkie about her dislike for the pies because...

she was the only one who came to this party...

AND had to deal with these stalker spazz attacks...

BECAUSE Pinkie was thinking people didn't like something.

 

So maybe she figured maybe it's just better to let sleeping dogs lie...

Can you really blame her?

 

Now I was getting REALLY worried about the crappy pie thing Rainbow Dash made at the end when I first saw it. I was thinking PLEASE don't let it be made out of the "73rd training" pie out of the garbage and/or whatever other old gift pie remnants Rainbow could find.

The show would've been officially be starting it's sad journey down the drain at that point.

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2017 by Cirrus.