Before I saw this episode, I'd heard that it was apparently supposed to be dreadful. But I was skeptical of that. How bad could it be, really? Besides, it's a Cera-centric episode. That's always a plus. Needless to say, I was looking forward to this one.
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Well... now that I have seen it, I can see why it has that reputation...
I thought it was going to be a solid episode at first. We have a great opening chase scene with the belly draggers, and then Cera getting separated from her friends and getting trapped. I'd even go so far as to say that this is one of the best opening scenes out of all the episodes.
And then it all fell apart from there...
As soon as Cera's story began to take off, it became painfully obvious what the episode's moral was going to be. I could see it coming a mile away. Not that "lying is bad" is a bad lesson in itself. But it is often a predictable and overused lesson in fiction and entertainment. And it tends to fall victim to the "liar revealed" trope, which I am generally not a fan of as it is. However, that alone isn't where my issue lies.
What really bugged me was the way they handled the lesson here. Because Cera actually was being honest and humble about the whole thing at first. It was her friends and the rest of the Great Valley residents who blew things out of proportion and went out of their way to gush over her and heap endless praise upon her, even before Cera herself began to exaggerate any of the details.
And then of course once the inevitable reveal happens, everyone gets all mad at her, even though they themselves were just as responsible for the story getting so out of hand. At the very least, Topsy eventually owned up to his part in it. But it still bothered me how Cera got so badly punished for something that wasn't even really her fault, and nobody else ever got called out for how ridiculous they were being. And then the episode abruptly ends, and it didn't feel like there was any sort of proper resolution either. Why did Cera have to single-handedly take the blame for all of that? It doesn't make sense to get so mad at someone for being egocentric if you were the one responsible for building up their ego to that level in the first place. Yeesh!
And even if Cera really had done all those amazing things, why on Earth did everyone else react with such over-the-top awe? I mean, sure, scaring off those predators and protecting the Great Valley is a heroic thing to do. But Cera would hardly have been the first. We've seen countless examples in the series of characters fighting off sharpteeth and saving the day. Why does everyone suddenly decide to start treating Cera like she's some sort of god? No-one ever reacted like that in the past, even when a character did do something heroic. So why now? It kinda made the Great Valley residents look like a bunch of idiots. Ironic that it was really Cera who was the most level-headed character in this episode.
So, with all that said, was there anything I did enjoy? Actually, yes, there were a few positives. I liked the "Amazing Threehorn Girl" song. As ridiculous of a plot as this was, we at least got a catchy song out of it. We also get a pretty good fight scene at the end when Topsy charges in to save Cera from the belly draggers. Lastly, the final scene between Cera and Topsy was touching, when he tells her that she'll always be amazing to him no matter what. If nothing else, it's little moments like these that have made Topsy grow on me.
But alas, none of that was enough to save the rest of the episode. This one was a complete dud.
3/10
