As of now "The Summer Sun Setback" is one of the highest rated episodes of Season 9. This did have potential to be one of the season's best episodes with a premise as good as the one here, one of the stories is primarily set up but set up that sounded really interesting. It was proven earlier on in Season 9 that the show could do villain-oriented episodes well with the very good "Frenemies", so it was hard to not expect something on that level.
Sadly, "The Summer Sun Setback" didn't reach that level, and didn't come close. While not one of the very worst episodes of the season or of 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic', this was a waste of great potential. While "Between Dark and Dawn" earlier on in the season was proof that the show could do two stories in one brilliantly, "The Summer Sun Setback" was a case of falling in the potential traps (for this structure) of feeling too much like two episodes in one and being disjointed.
"The Summer Sun Setback" does have good things. When it comes to the as usual excellent animation, the most noteworthy standouts are the very wide ranging and expressive facial and body expressions and the intimidating character design of Chrysalis. The rich colours are also great. The music is full of character and atmosphere. The voice acting all round is very, very good, especially from Tara Strong and Kathleen Barr.
When it comes to the structure of the story, "The Summer Sun Setback" has two subplots and it does feel like two stories in one. One thankfully is much better than the other, the Summer Sun Celebration is both fun and charming. Some didn't like Twilight in the previous episode (didn't like her at one point), but she is true to character here, by Season 9 Twilight standards she is also quite calm, and easy to like. It actually feels like the Twilight that had progressed hugely rather than the one that had regressed in the previous episode. All the characters work in this subplot. Also loved Celestia and Luna's sympathetic roles.
Unfortunately, the more conceptually promising subplot on paper (that of the three villains Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow) underwhelms and quite badly. It is basically set up for the season finale, and the subplot really would have made a lot more impact if it was spread out as a season story arc rather than shoehorned in in exposition manner in one episode. The dialogue has some intrigue, but can be too serious and too talky. The only one to make an impression of the three is Chrysalis, namely down to her character design and Barr's voice acting. Her motivations are not as clear this time though and almost petty.
Very like Tirek too, who was great in "Frenemies" but has too little to do here and is portrayed too straight. His biggest contribution to the episode being the absorbing of earth pony bakers' powers. Cozy Glow made a big impression in Season 8, but it was like the writers in Season 9 didn't know what to do with her. Here she is far too bratty still and while the other two were given motivations and reasons for their actions, there was a feeling that Cozy Glow was bad for the sake of being bad which is still the case here. The motivations are on the too petty side and it was very hard to buy how they were not recognised by the Equestrian population, or at least the population seemed oblivious. Can understand with Chrysalis, but Tirek not being recognised was hard to swallow with him being a notorious character.
Concluding, a disappointment and that is not intended to sound horrible. 5/10.
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