I gotta say this episode left me with one of the strangest feeling after a new episode in a while. I’m not going to say it’s bad per se. But certainly fairly conflicted in places where I don’t know how to feel about it one way or another.

Though let me start with something a little small and inconsequential. When I heard the word Malwurth, I thought they were saying Malworm for the longest time so I was confused when the monster at the end of the episode didn’t turn out to be a worm at all, I guess I just didn’t quite hear Starlight’s description when it first aired.

Looks like Trixie’s been trying to learn to teleport. Though as always she’s calling it out like an anime attack instead of focusing.

But anyway, the main subject of this episode is of course Thorax’s brother. Who has remained with his brother’s hive but have not changed into the new form they’ve taken. The chief conflict about this episode is that Pharynx is like the old war general that on one hand is just trying to protect his country and/or local community after it’s been years since a war has ended but on the other gets concerned that the country is going too soft in his eyes. And despite it being peacetime, he’s still in that wartime mindset of looking for threats.

The episode can be seen kinda political too. Both Pharynx and most of  the other changelings have thoughts that are opposite but both have flaws to them. Both aren’t entirely wrong or right. The only thing that is fully wrong is what their solution plans were. That’s going back to the old ways which was full of atrocities, constant hunger, and other bad things in Pharynx’s case. For the other changelings and for a time Starlight’s plan as well, kicking him out isn’t an entirely good idea. Because there are a few things Pharynx actually seemed to be right about in that the changelings now are a little more timid and cowardly then they were back when they were loyal followers of Chrysalis. We saw what a Changeling invasion can do twice, and we know for a fact all the changelings in the episode were former followers of Chyralis that followed through with both plans that the ol’ queen planned. But after becoming their new forms they’ve somehow become so accustomed so quickly that it takes just a bit more time even after a pep talk from Starlight to get them to fight anything. It’s two extremes in conflict that have to find a compromise with each other which thankfully they seem to by the end of this episode.

Though besides even all the political side of the episode. It’s also somewhat muddled by Starlight’s actions where both the plan to try to get Pharynx kicked out because she believes they’re a lost cause (Which I have to say probably isn’t going to help her with the very critical. I mean, Starlight when she was evil did things far worse then Pharynx overall. For the pony who is reformed after brainwashing a whole town and nearly destroying the current timeline we know and love to call Pharynx a lost cause could definitely be seen as the equivalent of Starlight speaking with a megaphone in a glass house) plus leading the Malwurth to the hive are both actions that were really, really bad ideas. But somehow it all works out and the episode actually wouldn’t have resolved the way it did without Starlight’s actions. It’s like the polar opposite of Princess Spike. Where in that episode Spike did mostly try his best to let Twilight get get rest and it was only until late in the episode did he do anything bad where things started to go downhill. But here Starlight has sketchy ideas for nearly the entire episode but have the insane good luck of having it all work out in the end despite it. To be fair even the episode itself knows it, and Starlight gets  called out for it at the end really nice. But still can leave a bit of an odd aftertaste of the episode.

Overall, I think it’s a well-crafted episode with good lines and an interesting conflict. But still definitely a few things that make it hard for me to say one way or another how I feel about the episode. Maybe it will take some time to really figure that one out. Though on a more straight up positive thing about the episode I actually fairly like Phayrnx’s new look when he changed. If the changelings have had more subdued color palletes like his I think the new design would of been been better received then they were. Also he has antlers like Thorax does now. Which has made us wonder if this make him kinda like the Princess Luna of the Changelings. Which would actually be kinda neat. Though there is a few questions about Thorax’s brother that I’m curious about, like how does he really feel about Chrysalis. If he really preferred the old ways so much, he could of easily followed after when she escaped. But as it turns out it looks like his love for the hive and his brother was higher then his loyalty to Chrysalis. Maybe as much as he loved protecting the hive maybe he had some hidden issues with Chrysalis’ rules himself. And if that’s the case, I’d like to hear about that sometime. Would be even better to see him outright fight Chrysalis one-on-one to show us that kind of struggle. I doubt that comes this season. But I’d be all for a fight between the two in say Season 8 or so.

Next time is the return of Daring Do. Which also leaked not too long ago. And I did se it, but as always I’ll save my thoughts until I get to the next response. Seeya!