Episode review: S7E20: "A Health of Information"

"It's everything I've always wanted to be!"

The schedule for UK PonyCon has been released, but that deserves a full post of its own, which will be along either tomorrow or Thursday. The latest episode of the show, meanwhile, was written by Sammie Crowley and Whitney Wetta, the team responsible for the okay-I-guess "A Flurry of Emotions" earlier this season. This episode was released in Russian almost a week early, but my review is based on the English-language ep. Beyond the cut, then...

I was happy with this one for the most part. The episode title is horrible, but very little else is. It reminded me quite a bit of "A Bird in the Hoof" back in S1, and that's an ep I've always felt is underrated. These days, Fluttershy being proactive isn't such a shock, but it was still nice to see a story that didn't depend to any degree on her having to overcome shyness. Top marks for the writers there.

Zecora made her second appearance running, and from the synopsis and short clip I'd seen, I'd expected this to be a team-up episode. It wasn't really, as Zecora spent most of it ill in bed. Swamp fever is among the scarier ailments we've seen in FiM, given that it's about as close to fatal as a TV-Y show can get away with, and incurable up until the events of this episode. This really was pretty dark stuff if you stopped to think about it.

"I'll need a lot more of your blood for my... experiments"

Fluttershy's partner in crime was, in fact, Twilight. Those two had a slightly unsatisfactory map episode together in late S5, but "A Health of Information" did a similar thing better. Twilight did come across as a little on the unsympathetic side once or twice, but not enough to seriously bother me. Her huge smile when 'Shy finally woke up from three days of sleep was pretty heartwarming, though.

As for Flutters, she had an excellent episode. I'm not sure about "mind over matter", which might have worked better had she been consciously quoting something she read in a book, but the rest was great. She was determined to achieve her goal, yet still caring and kind. Perhaps too determined, given that her failure to care for herself led to that three-day gap. It's just lucky for Zecora it wasn't longer!

Cattail was okay as a guest character, though not particularly interesting and a little bit too interchangeable with a number of other out-in-the-woods characters we've seen. His being descended from Meadowbrook was a nice touch, though, and it was fascinating to see more about that mage. Even if she had apparently lost her horn since she was an "Eastern unicorn" in Twilight's mention during the S5 premiere...

Equestrian wildlife gets ever more worrying

We didn't get any reference to Fluttershy being a tree, which was probably for the best – her actually saying "I'd like to be a tree" was six full seasons ago now. The Stare could maybe have done with being dropped, too; it felt just a little forced. Despite these minor complaints, this was Fluttershy's second excellent showing of the season, so it's hard to whinge too much. And indeed I don't – this episode made good viewing.

Oh, and of course they're Flash bees. How could they be anything else? :D

Best quote: Twilight, to Fluttershy: "Anypony who lives in a tree is okay by me." (So not you any more, Twi? :P )

Yays

• Fluttershy shines for the most part
• Surprisingly dark, yet still very much Pony
• Zecora returns to the show (again!)
• Some backstory for Mage Meadowbrook

Neighs

• The odd small characterisation niggle
• Did we really need the Stare?

★★★★