Spoiler Policy: All spoilers up to and including the currently discussed episode will be unmarked. Spoilers for episodes beyond the current point will be enclosed in Fast Forward blocks, which will include spoilers for the entire series.
House Guest
Official Description: After injuring his leg, Greg comes to live with Steven and unintentionally interferes with Steven’s powers.
Here we are, finally in Season 1B, which is maaaaaybe my second-favorite season after 2. Unfortunately, we’re starting off with one of the weaker episodes overall, but the good stuff is just around the corner!
We open at It’s a Wash. Check out that sweet advertising standee that Greg has. Pearl is trying to fix the damage to Greg’s van that happened during the events of Ocean Gem. I believe this is the first time in the series we’ve seen Pearl’s engineering aptitude — something that will be critically important later on. Personally, I love that the outwardly delicate and elegant Pearl is not-so-secretly a mechanical genius. She’s not very familiar with cars, but is confident she can figure it out and fix it up.
Greg rolls up on an office chair. He sustained a broken leg last episode when Lapis threw his van with him inside it, and now he’s patched it up with duct tape and a ruler, and is using a hockey stick as a crutch.
So, Greg apparently does not have health insurance, which seems like a problem. Seriously, Amethyst has a ton of treasure just sitting around her room, they can’t scrape up enough money to send Greg to an actual doctor for his broken leg?
Greg says he has something to help Pearl fix the van, and produces a roll of duct tape, which he claims can fix anything. I agree with Greg, which is why I ended up with all my furniture and windows patched with duct tape for most of my college years. Pearl scoffs at the idea of using the tape.
Greg tries to get up to help her, but can’t, prompting Steven to apologize, since the condition of Greg’s leg and van are his fault. Greg tells him not to apologize so much, which is a lesson Steven will need to learn more than once. He regrets tagging along on the adventure, but “at least [he] got to spend time with [his] fave guy!”
There’s a couple of things to unpack here. Greg pretty much has learned his lesson about participating in Steven’s adventures at this point — I can’t think of another instance where he does so voluntarily. On the other hand, this episode is all about Greg wanting to spend more time with Steven, and to some extent, his feeling alienated due to Steven’s increasing participation in Gem activities.
Steven suggests that Greg could come live with the Gems while he heals. Greg jumps at the idea, but worries he may get in the way of Steven’s training. Pearl is quick to agree. We’ve had a couple of instances now of Pearl really not seeming to like Greg — Laser Light Cannon is probably the most obvious.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]If you’re in the spoiler boxes you probably don’t need a reminder, but this is, of course, lingering resentment over Rose choosing Greg over Pearl. The two will be on much better terms after Steven gets them to talk to each other in Mr. Greg.[/spoiler]
Amethyst suggests Steven can use his healing powers. Pearl is enthusiastic about this, because “no one will have to live with us!” Steven licks his hand and slaps it on his dad’s leg. Greg tries to stand up, but declares that it didn’t work.
Up until this point, the sparkles have been a shorthand for Steven’s healing actually working, which is a pretty clear indication of what we’ll learn later in the episode — that Greg is lying about his leg still being broken.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]When Greg cheerily says that he and Steven will have to spend more time together, Garnet responds with a skeptical “Hmm…” It’s likely she saw what was really going on with her Future Vision.[/spoiler]
This leads into the first song of Season 1B, Dear Old Dad. I’ll be honest, I think this is one of the weaker SU songs. The scenes of Steven interacting with Greg are cute, but the song itself is one that I’ve left off my SU playlist.
We see Steven and Greg hanging out. Here, Steven’s making a meal very similar to the Together Breakfast from the episode of the same name. They watch a terrible reality show together, and Greg spills soda on himself, leading to Steven hosing him off in the front of the house.
Steven and Greg playing guitars as the sun sets is pretty cute, and shows how similar the two are.
Greg, Steven, and Amethyst are making paper airplanes on the couch when Pearl comes in, covered in motor oil. She wipes it off in a scene that is, uh, kind of weirdly animated. Garnet shows up to tell them that the Geode is cracked and they need to leave immediately, including Steven. It’s nice that Steven pretty much gets automatically included in Gem missions from this point on.
As the Gems leave, Greg does a bit of woe-is-me whining about how he can just crawl on his arms if he needs anything. (Steven never really gets sick or long-term injured in the series, but I can absolutely imagine him acting this way if he did.)
Pearl tells him “there’s no need to be so pathetic” and gives him a Warp Whistle, a device that lets him skip levels in Mario 3 allows him to use the warp pad to signal the Gems if he needs them.
They arrive at the Geode. Pearl starts to explain that it’s a synthetic storm contained in a barrier, but is cut off by the warp pad activating.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]The Geode location will appear again in Warp Tour, where they’ll see that the duct tape is holding nicely.[/spoiler]
Steven warps back to the house to see what Greg needs, but it turns out he’s just testing the warp whistle, so Steven returns to the Geode.
Amethyst: Hey, did Greg fall down and break his butt?
Garnet: (deadpan) That’s not funny.
Amethyst: (sadly) I know.
The warp pad activates again just as Pearl launches into her explanation a second time. Steven returns to the house, and Greg asks him where the remote is. Steven agrees that that was a very important reason to use the warp whistle.
Pearl finally gets to finish her explanation: if the Geode breaks, the storm will be unleashed and their bodies will be vaporized. That’s kind of interesting phrasing given that we know that a Gem’s body is made of hard light and can be fairly trivially reformed after disintegrating. It’s possible that the storm would also vaporize their gemstones, or that it’s mainly a danger to organics and not to Gems.
Garnet encourages Steven to use his healing powers on the Geode, but there are no sparkles — it doesn’t work. The Gems tell him not to beat himself up over it, another lesson he’s going to need to learn multiple times.
Steven despairs, and starts to say “How can I call myself a Crystal Gem if I can’t even –” He’s cut off by the warp activating again.
Steven is now allowed to go on missions, but his insecurity over being a “real” Crystal Gem will be his main character conflict throughout Season 1B. Although he was able to control his powers better than ever in Ocean Gem, he is still not fully acclimated to them, and he’s still figuring out his place on the team.
The Gems head back to the house, where Steven finds Greg passed out in front of the TV. It turns out there was no emergency and Greg actually just used the warp whistle so Steven could see a funny commercial. Steven is irritated that Greg keeps using the warp whistle for non-emergencies, but since they need time to figure out what to do with the Geode, he agrees to go get Greg a snack from the Big Donut. The other Gems head back into the Temple to figure out a plan, Amethyst throwing out some encouraging words before she goes: “No worries about earlier. You’ll get a hold of your powers before you know it!”
Steven heads out the door, but realizes he didn’t get Greg’s donut order, and so goes back inside, only to find Greg dancing around on his bad leg. Greg momentarily pretends that his leg is still broken, but Steven calls him out, and Greg admits that Steven actually did heal his leg back at the car wash.
Steven is seriously angry with Greg here, and for good reason. He points out that Greg’s lie made Steven think his healing powers didn’t work any more, and now they really don’t work, which makes sense given that Steven’s powers are fueled by his emotions. Steven reiterates what he started to say before, that he finally felt like a Crystal Gem, and now he feels like he can’t do anything.
Greg, for his part, has a very sympathetic motivation: “I just wanted to live with my son again!”
Part of the reason this episode is a little frustrating for me is that this exchange is actually very interesting for both of their characters, but it goes by pretty quickly while the rest of the screentime is taken up by less compelling things.
First of all, we have Steven’s desire to be a real Crystal Gem, and how his human father has, he believes, hindered him. Steven thankfully doesn’t have a secret identity or anything like that, but the conflict between his human and Gem lives is very real throughout the series, and there are many instances of Steven having difficulty balancing them.
Secondly, we have Greg’s statement to unpack. I’m not really talking about his desire to live with his son, which is pretty straightforward — the two are obviously close and have a lot in common, so it’s no surprise that Greg misses him when he doesn’t see him as much. The real question here, which the show never fully addresses, is why Greg sent Steven to live with the Gems in the first place. It makes sense that everyone involved would want Steven to spend more time with the Gems as he grows into his powers more, but they theoretically could have had an arrangement where Steven still lived with Greg and just visited the Gems for training. They’re clearly not very far away from each other even when Greg is at the car wash.
One likely explanation, which you can see in a few episodes, is that Greg is at least a little bit scared of Steven’s Gem abilities. A good example is in Cat Fingers where he recoils from the idea of Steven learning to shapeshift. Greg wants to be around his son, but would rather not have to deal with Gem stuff more than he has to, and these two desires are at odds. There’s also the issue that the Gems often need to deal with urgent missions at odd hours, and if Steven is not living with them, he won’t be there when they need him once he’s fully trained.
Steven tells Greg it’s his fault he can’t fix the Geode, and runs out of the house. He spots their two guitars sitting next to each other and feels guilty, and goes back to apologize, only to find Greg standing on the warp with the warp whistle.
The storm is raging even harder around the Geode. Greg tells Steven to get out of there, and that it’s his responsibility to fix the Geode since he’s responsible for interfering with Steven’s healing powers. Steven points out that he was able to heal Greg’s leg after all. Greg smiles and encourages him to try his healing powers again.
Steven confidently races up to the Geode, licking both his hands and applying “double healing powers!” Nothing happens.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]In fact, I believe his healing powers won’t work properly again until Monster Reunion.[/spoiler]
It’s okay, though, because Greg has another idea…
He patches up the crack with duct tape and it actually works, because duct tape fixes everything.
Back at the house, Pearl has fixed up Greg’s van good as new and is talking as though she’s been a mechanic for years. Greg crushes her in a hug, prompting her to shudder and hide behind Garnet.
Greg hands him a role of duct tape just in case he needs it. We get a quick shot of Steven’s nightstand with the duct tape, a Cookie Cat alarm clock, and a Sailor Moon manga. Steven Universe is, of course, heavily inspired by magical girl anime like Sailor Moon (and Utena, as I keep getting reminded I should watch.)
Iris out on a cute double heart.
Overall, I find this episode to be a bit weak, which is a shame because Greg is one of my favorite characters. I think they spend a little too much time on a forgettable song and the obvious plot of Greg abusing the warp whistle, and too little time on the central conflict of Steven wanting to come into his own as a Crystal Gem and how that sometimes clashes with Greg’s desire to spend more time with his son.
Space Race
Official Description: Steven attempts to build a spaceship to let Pearl revisit the wonders of the cosmos.
This is the episode that sold me on Pearl, my second-favorite Gem.
The episode opens on the Galaxy Warp. This was mentioned in Mirror Gem as the place where they found Lapis’ mirror.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]This location will play an important role in a few upcoming episodes, notably Warp Tour.
…it’s Season 1B, are we to Peridot yet? Not quite? Okay…[/spoiler]
The Gems are checking to make sure all of the warps are inactive. Steven sticks a Crying Breakfast Friends sticker on each warp as it is checked. This is an incomprehensible in-universe cartoon that Steven loves and everyone else seems baffled by.
Amethyst questions why they need to check the warps. Garnet insists that they have to make sure they’re all inactive. This is almost certainly because of what she fears might happen as a consequences of Lapis making it off-world in Ocean Gem.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]The Red Eye in Laser Light Cannon was sent by Peridot as part of her mission, so Peridot using the warps to come to Earth was going to happen regardless of what happened with Lapis. The Gems have no way of knowing this, of course.[/spoiler]
Steven asks where all these warp pads go.
Pearl: Well, Steven, these warp pads were used to travel off-planet. They were our connection to Gem Homeworld and to Gem controlled planets all over the universe.
This is kind of a small bombshell. We’re past Mirror Gem now, so it’s time for the show’s actual lore to come into play! This is one of the first times Homeworld is mentioned, and it’s the very first time we learn that Gems control many planets.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]We’re going to learn a lot about Homeworld later on, although never as much as I’d like. I’m honestly dying to see more of Era 2 Homeworld (and really, Era 3 Homeworld in Future). I understand why the show focuses on Steven and isn’t Space Lore Hour, but… I can’t help it. I find Homeworld fascinating.[/spoiler]
Steven is excited about the idea of going into space, but Amethyst points out that all the warp pads are broken.
Steven asks if they can be fixed, and Garnet bluntly says, “No.”
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]Soon, we’ll learn the reason why they don’t fix the warp pads is because they really, really don’t want hostile Gems from Homeworld visiting the Earth.
Even if they did want to fix them, they probably couldn’t. Peridot was unable to find a way to fix the warps without her Homeworld tech, and at times in the series where they could have been useful — such as when Steven turns himself in to Homeworld — they don’t try using the warps.[/spoiler]
Pearl has a thousand yard stare as she says,
Pearl: It’s fine. I’ll always have my memories of other worlds. But now I’m here. On Earth. Forever.
Steven: With me!
Pearl: Right, with you.
This is the first indication we get that Pearl isn’t entirely happy to be living on Earth. Steven’s assurance doesn’t seem to cheer her up any.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]One thing that becomes clear in the series is that, out of the original Crystal Gems, Pearl is the least attached to the Earth, and in some ways, she didn’t even like it.
Amethyst was born on Earth and has never known any other planet. Garnet willingly defected so she could remain a fusion. Pearl, on the other hand, was primarily interested in following Rose, not protecting the Earth.
It’s never stated outright, but it is implied that Pearl was perfectly content to remain on the Earth as long as she had Rose. Now, with Rose gone forever, she appears to harbor some serious regrets about being stranded here. Steven pointing out that they’re together would, at that moment, only serve to remind her of how she lost Rose, which is probably why it isn’t well-received.
In her life on Homeworld, Pearl belonged to a Diamond who genuinely cared about her, which likely gave her a better life than the vast majority of Gems on Homeworld, who might not look on their lives so fondly.[/spoiler]
Pearl says she wishes Steven could see space. He places a Crying Waffle sticker on the largest warp.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]Peridot will find this sticker in Warp Tour and realize that the Earth’s warps have been compromised. In Marble Madness, she’ll demand to know what the “bizarre symbol” is.[/spoiler]
We cut from the sticker to the actual TV show Crying Breakfast Friends. This cartoon shows up a few times in the series, and it seems to consist simply of various breakfast foods sobbing. It’s possibly a meta-joke about how Steven Universe is infamous for making people cry (and its nickname “Singing and Crying.”)
Steven is talking to Dad about how the Gems used to go into space and how much Pearl misses it. He asks Greg if they can build a spaceship. Greg points out it’s a little out of his skillset, and how he could instead make “a bunk bed with wings.”
Steven: No way! We could totally build a spaceship! People have done it before, and we’re people!
Greg: We are people…
Greg reluctantly agrees. “How hurt could we get?”
It’s the first appearance of the barn, where interesting characters and their subplots go to die one of the most important locations on the show! There’s a lot of junk in here — you can even see an Apollo lunar lander off to the left.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]This will, of course, later be where the Gems build the drill they need to stop the Cluster. Afterwards, Peridot and Lapis will move in, Lapis will flee to the moon with the barn when she fears the Diamonds are coming to Earth, and finally, the barn will be destroyed when Lapis drops it on Blue Diamond from a great height. The location where the barn is now will later become the location of Little Homeworld.[/spoiler]
Greg mentions that the barn belonged to his aunt and uncle, who “held onto every belonging they ever owned,” similar to Greg’s storage unit. He wonders if his family has a hoarding problem.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]This throwaway line about how the barn belonged to Greg’s aunt and uncle will become important later in Gem Harvest, where it’s revealed that the barn actually belongs to Greg’s cousin Andy deMayo.[/spoiler]
Steven declares the barn to be Universe & Universe Universal Space Travel HQ. He draws a cute spaceship on a chalkboard, and he and Greg start building something out of wood and duct tape.
Steven brings Pearl to the barn as a surprise, showing her this wooden toy spaceship he built with Greg, which is honestly super charming. Pearl is skeptical, to say the least.
Greg lights a sparkler and prepares his son for “takeoff” at the top of a hill. He offers this advice: “If you run into any trouble out there, you can always bail. There’s never any shame in bailing.”
Steven rolls down the hill toward a ramp, but before he reaches it, the “spaceship” starts to fall apart. He remembers what Greg said and jumps out before it crashes.
This is all extremely non-subtle foreshadowing for what’s going to happen later in the episode.
Pearl: I think your calculations may have been off.
Greg: Well, they can’t be off if you don’t do any.
Pearl starts drawing an actual spaceship schematic on their chalkboard. Greg is confused, but Steven is thrilled.
One thing that’s interesting about this is that Pearl is often looking for ways to bond with Steven. In this episode, and in a few others, Steven shows a clear interest in engineering projects. Despite this, Pearl never seems all that interested in training him in engineering, or even learning if he has an aptitude for it. It’s a contrast to Steven the Sword Fighter, where Pearl is very eager to train Steven in sword fighting. It’s perhaps a blind spot of hers that a half-human may not be able to understand Gem technology.
Greg thinks she can’t possibly be serious about building a real spaceship, and Pearl laughs and says that she isn’t — but then immediately starts talking out the ways that it could be possible.
Pearl: I hear what you’re saying, and I agree, it would be incredibly dangerous, a fool’s errand. This chair is disgusting. But aren’t the true fools the ones who don’t seize an opportunity, despite the inherent risks? And I’d be able to show Steven the wonders of the cosmos! And maybe just for a second, from a distance, I could see what’s been going on without me.
This moment right here is what totally sold me on Pearl’s character. For one thing, I definitely have a weakness for obsessive scientist / engineer characters, and this is the first episode where that aspect of Pearl’s personality is really on display. The way the normally sensible Pearl talks herself into this frankly ludicrous idea is both worrying and hilarious.
At this point, we have no idea what Homeworld or the other planets are like, so we don’t have a real frame of reference for why Pearl wants to see what’s been going on without her.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]Lapis’ frantic message later in the season reveals that quite a lot has been going on without her. Homeworld tech has advanced to the point where society is nearly unrecognizable for Lapis, who has been gone for less time than Pearl has.[/spoiler]
There’s a montage of Pearl, Steven, and Greg working on the spaceship together. Pearl is doing most of the real work while Steven and Greg do things like toast sandwiches with a welding torch. They build a prototype engine that explodes overhead, in another bit of obvious foreshadowing.
They construct an engine-powered glider that Steven takes out for a test flight. This looks incredibly fun. Pearl and Greg are on the ground, acting as mission control. Greg is worried that they’re taking this a little too far, but Pearl has hardly begun.
Pearl asks Steven to bring it in for a landing. As soon as Steven lands, the wings fall off and the ejector seat fires. Greg is concerned about its safety, and Pearl fails to reassure him by blithely stating that the kinks will be worked out in the next one.
It finally sinks in for Greg that Pearl is actually serious about this. She asks if there’s a place she can buy F-1 single-nozzle liquid-fueled rockets, and states that they’re going to need a spacesuit for Steven so “he doesn’t freeze or explode.”
Greg, freaked out, forbids Pearl from taking Steven into space and tells Steven he’s grounded — literally grounded, as in not allowed to leave the Earth.
This can be seen as a continuation of his development in the past two episodes. In Ocean Gem, the sight of Steven nearly drowning causes him to question whether or not it’s safe for Steven to go on Gem adventures. In House Guest, Greg interferes with Steven’s Gem powers out of a desire to be closer to him. Here, he’s understandably terrified by the prospect of Pearl taking Steven into space in a hastily-constructed, barely-tested spaceship.
Steven is disappointed by his “grounding”, but Pearl is downright angry. She storms off, saying she’ll build the spaceship herself, “not like it’ll be much different.” Greg once more reiterates that “you gotta know when to bail.”
The following is one of my little pet peeves.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]The barn is RIGHT THERE. Look how close it is to Beach City! It’s ridiculous that Steven doesn’t visit Lapis and Peridot more often, or that they aren’t involved in more of the storylines. At least Peridot would likely want to go on missions and help with Crystal Gem business, even if Lapis probably wouldn’t. This makes it even more ridiculous in episodes like Gem Harvest where Steven has no idea they’re growing crops until he comes to visit. He could probably see them growing crops fro the hill above the temple!
Yes, I will die mad about a lack of barn episodes, why do you ask?[/spoiler]
Steven’s little caterpillar sleeping bag is impossibly cute. It shows up again in a couple more episodes, like Same Old World.
Pearl wakes him up, asking him if he wants to see something really cool. Overly enthusiastic Pearl is something we don’t get to see often enough.
Pearl opens the barn door to reveal the Universe Mach 3. Steven is ecstatic. He climbs the ladder to the cockpit, noting the Mr. Universe panel (stolen from Greg’s van) on the side. “And if your dad asks, we’ll say we borrowed it,” says Pearl.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]The way normally uptight Pearl is so eager to break rules here reminds me a lot of her behavior in Last One Out of Beach City. It’s always interesting to get glimpses of the Pearl who was willing to rebel against everything she knew if it were for someone she really, truly cared about.[/spoiler]
The cockpit contains the chair Pearl called disgusting earlier. Steven wants to press all the buttons.
Pearl offers to take Steven out for an engine check, and somehow magics on a spacesuit.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]In something I missed on the first time (because it seems inconsequential), but is really obvious on a rewatch, Pearl has a pink diamond on her spacesuit. If you’re reading the spoiler boxes I hope I don’t have to explain that it’s because Pearl once served Pink Diamond.
It may be a coincidence, but it’s interesting that Pearl dons a pink diamond insignia in an episode that has her very focused on the past and unusually adventurous.[/spoiler]
Steven and Pearl take off. The fact that they have only the one chair and Steven has to sit in Pearl’s lap is adorable. Greg hears the spaceship taking off, realizes the side panel and the tires have been removed from his van, and freaks out.
He gets on the walkie-talkie from earlier and demands to know where they’re going. Pearl tells him they’re just going to pop over to the nearest star system and will be back in fifty years. “What?! I’ll be dead in fifty years!”
Pearl normally has a better understanding of human lifespan than that, I think, so this is an indication that she’s way too focused on her mission to the detriment of Steven’s safety. Also, how old is Greg? I always figured he was probably in his early 40s and prematurely bald, so thinking he’ll be dead in fifty years is reasonable.
Pearl ignores Greg’s protests. Steven himself begins to worry, but she ignores that too.
The spaceship starts to fall apart as they exit the atmosphere. Steven panics as warning lights begin to flash and an alarm sounds.
Pearl ignores everything that’s happening around her. “I’m gonna show it to you.”
Her single-minded obsession with showing Steven space to the exclusion of all else really made her character far more interesting to me than she had been. At this point in the series, it raises so many questions. What’s in space that she wants to see so badly? If she cared about it so much, why did she leave it all behind? Why is she trapped on Earth now? Why is it seemingly only Pearl interested in this mission, and not the other two Gems?
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]I talked about this above, but this season is where we learn that Pearl was really on the Earth more for Rose Quartz’s sake than for any other reason. In that light, it makes perfect sense that she would desire to take Steven away in to space with her.[/spoiler]
Steven releases the hatch, which finally gets Pearl’s attention.
Steven: We need to go, Pearl! We’re not gonna make it!
Pearl: But we’re almost there!
Steven: Pearl, I know you miss space, and I know you worked hard, but sometimes, you just gotta know when to bail.
Pearl sheds a tear as she holds onto Steven and pulls the ejector seat.
This is the first time Steven acts as the voice of reason for Pearl. It won’t be the last.
I love how they’ve built up her motherly, protective personality so well over the course of the first season that it’s genuinely jarring to see her acting the way she does at the end of this episode. Seeing her realize she’s put Steven in danger and finally making the decision to give up on the spaceship is a relief to both Steven and the viewers as a result.
The spaceship explodes just as Steven and Pearl eject. Greg is screaming and scans the sky for them, collapsing in relief when he spots them in the chair. “This kid’s killing me…”
Pearl: I’m so sorry. I almost got us killed.
Steven: It’s okay. I’m used to it.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]There are a few times in the series where Pearl nearly gets Steven killed. In Last One Out of Beach City, he comments that he’s the most scared he’s been since the last time Pearl almost let him die, which is probably referring either to this or to the events of Rose’s Scabbard.[/spoiler]
Steven: I’m sorry I couldn’t help you go to space. We’ll get there someday — I promise.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]They eventually do get to space, of course![/spoiler]
Pearl: You know, I think I’d rather be here on Earth.
Steven: With me!
Pearl: Yeah. With you.
Her smile is genuine this time, and excuse me, I’m having some feelings.
[spoiler title=”Fast Forward”]This episode is all about the bond between Steven and Pearl, but it also begins to hint at Pearl’s mixed feelings for the child that replaced her beloved Rose Quartz. This will be explored more in this season, most notably in Rose’s Scabbard.[/spoiler]
It should be obvious that I love this episode. It’s not necessarily one I would hold up as the very best, but it’s a personal favorite. It has great humor, beautiful animation, and a touching ending. Most importantly, it’s the best character development we’ve had for Pearl yet, and the episode that cemented her as one of my favorite characters.
Next time on Steven Universe Rewind! Why can’t you let yourself just be somewhere different, whoa-oh, why don’t you let yourself just be wherever you are? It’s Secret Team and Island Adventure!