In Like Flynn

This is one of those episodes that manages to be well written and entertaining yet also somehow misses the mark on what it’s trying to do. Let me explain. This episode sets out to achieve two things. First is to mend Eugene’s relationship with Frederic, which it does do, and the other is to humanize Frederic by giving him a rival for the audience to dislike instead of him. This is not quite so successful.

Summary:  When Corona is pranked by a rival kingdom, King Frederic sets off to prank it back, accompanied by Eugene who wants to gain Rapunzel's father's respect. The two sneak into King Trevor's castle; Eugene discovers that Frederic was planning to steal Trevor's pet seal. Meanwhile, Rapunzel tries to master the art of pranking. 

Frederic’s ‘Prank’ is Actually Worse Than Trevor’s 

Frederic’s playback plan involves stealing Trevor’s pet seal. 

A pet seal whom Trevor treats as his own child and loves dearly. In fact loves more than anything in the world, as so admitted by Frederic himself. 

Meanwhile all Trevor did was paint a statue of Frederic. 

Immature perhaps, but there is a clear difference between a harmless, easily fixable prank, and someone kidnapping another person’s pet. The first only hurts Frederic’s easily bruisable pride and the other is an actual crime that harms others. 

If the point of the episode was have us root for Frederic over Trevor then it fails, hard. 

Eugene Shouldn’t Be the One Apologizing Here 

So throughout the episode Frederic makes an arse of himself and winds up getting them both captured. Eugene rightfully goes off on him only to turn around and apologize for doing so. 

Like no! Frederic’s the one who has been in the wrong this whole time. He’s either screwed over or attempted to screw over everyone in this episode, but yet it’s Eugene, who’s only been trying to do what was asked of him this whole time and finally and understandably snapped in frustration, that somehow is the one that needs to say ‘I’m sorry’?

Also for his part Frederic only gives Eugene a pep talk about how he admires him and should listen to his ideas more. There’s no acknowledgment from him about what he’s actually done wrong here. 

So the episode does manage to put Eugene and Frederic on good terms yet somehow does so without Frederic actually changing as a person or growing. 

 Meaningless Parallels 

So if you’ve seen the show in full, you’ll realize that Trevor and Jr. here are a parallel to Frederic and Rapunzel. Like Rapunzel, Jr. loves his ‘father’ and home but feels trapped by the confines of his doting father’s overprotectiveness.   

The problem with this is... 

1. You don’t know from the episode itself that Jr. does love Trevor and we only find out in later seasons.
2. Unlike Frederic, Trevor can’t physically hear Jr. speak so it’s not as if he’s out right ignoring him like Rapunzel’s dad does to her.
3. No one learns from this. 

Frederic gleans nothing from Trevor’s interactions with Jr. Trevor himself is denied a chance to let his ‘son’ go on his own terms. Rapunzel’s not even there and doesn’t meet them until season twoo when her plotline with Frederic is over with. 

A parallel simply existing on it’s own is not clever. It has to actually tie back into the story in some way. Either the characters need to learn from it and grow, or it has to be a part of the plot. This series has a huge problem with dropping ‘parallels’ into episodes and calling it a day without actually doing anything with those parallels. 

Trevor is the Better King

Also if we follow this parallel to its conclusion,that means Frederic was willing to kidnap someone’s child. You know that thing that traumatized him for 18 years and caused him to prosecute poor people? Meanwhile, trevor’s ‘punishment’ is pretty tame all things considered. Like the episode tries it’s hardest to make Trevor seem annoying by overusing foppish tropes but in reality he’s is actually the better person. Equis also seems like the better place to live honestly. 

Conclusion 

Like I said, if this episode was meant to make anyone like Frederic then it fails pretty hard. However as an entertaining comedy and standalone story that futher’s Eugene’s arc, it’s pretty fun.