Wow, this was...something. Pat the Horse is just a flat out bad episode. But you what? Despite being a poor excuse for an episode, I still really find a lot of enjoyment out of this one. It's a so bad it's good episode, watching this ironically really seems to make this episode a lot better. As if Cuddle E. Hugs didn't have an insanely absurd plot, this one somehow manages to be just as weird as Cuddle E. Hugs, only not as boring, and more interesting.
The plot of this episode is ridiculous. I don't understand how a staff writer could come up with such an episode premise, look at it and say..."Yeah, that'll work."
Seriously, this episode was a pretty risk if you think about it. It's such a dumb premise, one of the most idiotic ones in the series. Yet, I find myself really enjoying this episode. It's a huge gamble, such a risk that can really put our main characters out of character, particularly Patrick. Yet, this episode turns out to be quite a treat.
You know why this episode ends up being a treat? It's funny. There might not be that many really funny jokes out there, but there are tons of small little chuckle worthy jokes, that really makes this one of the funnier episode of the Season. A lot of them are definitely subtle little forms of humor, from the "You Can Be Anything" book cover, to SpongeBob's hands hopping out of Patrick's mouth. I honestly thought the direction of this episode was going to be anything but good judging from the opening scene, but I was pleasantly surprised when I ended up enjoying the episode in it's entirety. It didn't end up like a My Pretty Seahorse ripoff. Quite the opposite, in fact. The plot, like I said, is an extremely dumb scenario, especially Patrick's random motivations to become a horse. Yet, I think Patrick's a pretty enjoyable character in this episode. He's annoying in the first scene, yelling like a child (Obviously with the analogy of SpongeBob as his parent being portrayed in the opening scene), but after that, he ends up being quite an enjoyable character, you even kind of pity him when he's tormented by Krabs. The plot is really simple, allowing it to fall back on the goofy shenanigans of the characters. And it really works out in this episode's favor, it's the type of plot that would only really work in this type of show. Just about any other show, I could see this plot failing, yet somehow Kaz managed to pull it off.
Like I said, a lot of the humor in this episode is really subtle. It won't really stick with you, but when you end up watching it, it's definitely funny for the time being.
I think the episode really improved in the second half. The first half was fairly predictable, and it seemed more annoying than funny. Squidward especially is quite annoying in this episode. His constantly gloating and bragging, thought typical of him, doesn't make the episode any more pleasant to watch. Still, he does get his comeuppance, which definitely pays off for his obnoxious arrogance that seems rather unnecessary. Krabs is his usual, typical self, stooping down as low as possible to earn a quick buck. SpongeBob, a caring individual makes for the standard enjoyable protagonist (That's something I gotta mention. While I notice there have been times throughout the Post-Prequel Era in which a character is written out of character, particularly Squidward and Patrick, I feel as though the crew really mastered SpongeBob, I've hardly seen any flaws in his character out of all of these episodes from Seasons 9B, 10, and 11. Great job guys and gals working on this series :thumb1: ).
Luckily, the second half of the episode goes in an insanely unpredictable route. SpongeBob's scene with Patrick in the desert was great (I really like how they brought back the desert, seeing it's so gorgeous in this show), it made for a lovely reconnection between SpongeBob and Patrick (Not to mention it even gave them a little bit of character development. Something I'd never expect from an episode in which Patrick tries to be a horse). Even better, the climatic race between SpongeBob and Krabs was pretty surprising, and was definitely the highlight of the episode. Goodness, I'd even call it the funniest part of the episode, so many gags were crammed into this scene, it was definitely very entertaining.
Though the ending felt kind of rushed, coming out nowhere, so did the start of this episode.
Overall, it's a Good Episode. Yeah, I'm still kind of surprised how good this episode turned out to be. Looking at it from a critical standpoint, the plot is embarrassingly bad, but seeing how this is a show that can get away with goofy plots such as this one, I feel as though this was a fairly entertaining episode. Not a masterpiece, but if you want to just see something silly, with some cleverness sprinkled in throughout, I recommend this episode. Or if you just want to make fun of how stupid this episode is, I still recommend it. Either way, you'd get lots of laughs out of both scenarios. I give this episode a 7.5/10