So saw the first two tonight …
I liked.
Cluster denouement seemed a bit too easy though. Did like the one male dressed watermelon Steven sending the female dressed one off to battle.
Well, the “In Too Deep” event started off with a bang! Or a non-bang since the Earth didn’t explode. The episodes are “Super Watermelon Island” and “Gem Drill”.
Steven Quartz Universe is officially a Big Damn Hero. He saved the Earth more or less single-handedly, and his dreaming/mental projections power was the key in both episodes. And the Crystal Gems had total faith that he would find a way to do it.
Looks like no more island getaways for Sadie and Lars, as the warp pad to Mask Island was destroyed in the fight. Probably wouldn’t be too peaceful with all the Watermelon People running around, anyway. Speaking of Watermelon People, the entire ritual sacrifice scene, including the camera POV from inside the monster’s mouth as it moves towards the victim, feels like a homage to something, but I’m not sure what. Mothra, perhaps? Or another Japanese monster movie?
With the Cluster dealt with in the second episode of the season, one wonders what the next few episodes of “In Too Deep” will focus on.
Maybe Steven and his dad van cook a few burgers and shenanigans ensue.
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Wouldn’t be a bad idea? Outside of Greg and Connie, when was the last time we saw an inhabitant of Beach City? However, I think the rest of “In Too Deep” will mostly be about heavy-duty stuff…
First, the gang has to deal with Lapis, who is not happy with Peridot or the Crystal Gems. Then, previews show that there’ll be a ship full of Rubies that arrive looking for Peridot.
And since the Crystal Gems had Jasper in their grasp and let her slip away, the question is… what will happen with Jasper? Is Jasper dead or injured? Will she need healing from Steven? Will she get a redemption arc like Peridot and join the Crystal Gems?
My points…
- Jasper’s obviously still alive and will be back
- I doubt Jasper is broken. She took a lot more damage in “Jail Break” without getting a scratch on her, or even getting poofed.
- Jasper might get a redemption arc, but IMHO it’s way to soon to start one. Lapis will/should be main priority.
- Also, I can’t see Jasper joining the Crystal Gems as long as Lapis is around. (She would leave if Jasper joined)
- Just because Rose and Jasper are both powerful quartz warriors doesn’t mean that Rose’s conversion to Earth’s cause has any bearing on Jasper. Rose is a nurturing, maternal type with healing tears and life-giving powers. It’s natural that she would see the value in non-gem life. Also, Rose is more of a “Lady of War” type and I see Jasper as the “Axe Crazy” type.
- Jasper probably thinks that fighting the Rebellion was the best time of her life. Notice how bored she seems in the Return and how she gets angry when she’s denied a rematch with Rose Quartz? She might be discontented with Homeworld because a) there is nothing challenging for her to do and b) modern tech and weaponry has rendered the old-school melee-weapons battling of the Rebellion’s time obsolete.
- Even if Steven healed Jasper, I could see her resenting it. I certainly can’t see her as a mentor for Steven. If anything, I see Jasper damaging Steven’s faith in Rose by telling him about something horrible that Rose did. She might do this maliciously, or might even think she is helping Steven by toughening him up.
- I think the most likely path for Jasper is as a noble enemy who respects the Crystal Gems but relishes battling them. If she does forsake Homeworld, it will be much later in the series, when she is torn between respect and her personal code and the orders of the Diamonds.
whaddyathink?
And another strong episode this week: “Same Old World”.
Nothing much happens in it. It starts with the Gems and Steven relaxing after their victories over Malachite and the Cluster while packing up to move back to the Temple. Lapis regains consciousness during the night and Steven catches her before she flies off but can’t persuade her to stay.
Peridot opts to stay at the barn and to work on repairing the hole she made with her robot. Steven stays behind to look for Lion and finds Lapis, who released that she has no where to go and now that she is finally free, she doesn’t know what she want to do.
Steven tries to show her that the Earth, which Lapis admits she really knows little about despite all the time she spent on it, could be a good place for her to live. They take a flying tour of some nearby areas (the nearby countryside, Empire City, Jersey), and Steven persuades her that the Earth is constantly changing, and is not the same as the world she was imprisoned on. She agrees to stay at the barn…until Peridot walks into the frame in the last scene and the episode ends.
Points:
-The Galaxy Warp is out in the ocean, apparently not too far from the East Coast
-The audience pretty much all of Lapis’ backstory in this episode.
-Lapis displays a new power, like she wasn’t powerful enough already.
-New Jersey is just Jersey in the Stevenverse.
-Steven proposes Lapis might like living in Jersey because the people there seem to hate the Earth, too!
-Steven describes life in Empire City as a mashup of NYC sitcom tropes.
-Bismuth appearance?
It’s just in the middle of a string of really good episodes. This thread actually got me to watch the show.
Oh, and can I say how nice it was to see a Lapis Lazuli that is relaxed, happy, and confident rather than beaten down, stressed out, or angry?
Excellent quiet relaxing episode with some cute bits.
Some fleshing of backstory, major character development, and some relationship development.
She did more than agree to stay at the barn. She made an active decision to choose to embrace being on earth rather than being trapped there.
Pacing being what it is I suspect the next week will be the new threat.
And “Barn Mates” continues the run of “In Too Deep” episodes, picking up exactly where “Same Old World” left off. Steven tries to sell Lapis on sharing the barn with Peridot and Peridot tries to convince Lapis that she has changed, but it doesn’t go so well since Steven is overly optimistic and oblivious to the depths of Lapis’ feelings and Peridot has poor communication skills, even when she means well.
Peridot then plaintively asks Lapis what she want her to do and she will do it. Lapis tells Peridot to just leave, so she does. And promptly comes back pursued a Hunter Eye. Lapis seems like she’s willing to leave Peridot to her fate until she sees Steven move to protect Lapis. Lapis water-swats the Eye into the ground and the other gems arrive, having tracked the Eye. It looks like a happy conclusion until
The Eye opens and a Ruby emerges. Iris out
The baseball game bit was either an intentional homage to, or a rip-off of, the “Baseball Blues” episode of Samurai Champloo in which the main characters also play a game of baseball as a stand-in for battling, to comic effect. Unless they had ripped it off themselves from some earlier source …
Is Jasper sought to punish or …?
Oh, my read was that it wasn’t Steven’s protecting her that got Lapis to step up to save her but Peridot’s willingness to sacrifice herself for her friends.
Rewatched and wrong.
“Hit the Diamond” picks up where “Barnmates” left off and concludes the series of “In Too Deep” episodes. Steven and the Crystal Gems retreat inside the barn while five, count 'em five, Rubies emerge from the Hunter Eye and start to fan out, their mission to find “the leader of the failed Earth mission”.
Garnet has a plan that surprisingly doesn’t involve violence: she unfuses and Ruby will infiltrate the Rubies! However, the plan relies on our Ruby being able to stay cool and act casual, so instead she points out the barn to the other Rubies and then drags out Steven to show that there are only humans in the barn. The Ruby leader still wants to search the barn, so Steven gets her to agree to a game of baseball. If the “Humans” win, the Rubies leave Earth and if the Rubies win, they can search the barn.
Even though our Ruby is a ringer for the Ruby Team, Steven and the “humans” are still losing, mainly because Sapphire and Ruby can’t stop flirting with each other. Sapphire finally bears down enough to hit a game-winning walkoff homer, but as she runs home, she joyfully jumps into Ruby at the plate and fuses into Garnet.
The Rubies fuse into Giant Ruby, and it looks like there’s gonna be a fight. Peridot runs out of the barn and says she’ll surrender herself rather than risk her friends. However, the Rubies are there for Jasper and only want to know where she is. Steven tells them Jasper went to Neptune so they happily head off.
Probably the funniest SU episode in quite a while.
-Rubies are apparently pretty dim for the most part. Our Ruby is able to infiltrate them because the leader forgot to count herself when counting to five.
-The Gems “disguise” themsleves as humans by covering their gems with the baseball uniforms and equipment found in the barn.
-They also take human names. Amethyst is “Amy”, etc. Lapis uses “Bob”, from when Steven called her Bob in “Ocean Gem”
-The Rubies all have slight differences in uniform, gem placement, and personality.
-They are "named: in the end credits, even though they all call themselves Ruby:
Doc: The leader. Wears overalls and a visor. Gem on chest.
Eyeball: Gruff and focused. Gem in left eye.
Army: Gung-ho and aggressive. Gem on arm
Navy: Nice. Serene. Gem on navel.
Leggy: Clueless Noob. Gem on Leg
-Steven and the Gems are horrible liars and actors. It still works because the Rubies are so dense.
-Lapis: “This plan sucks.” She spends the episode acting like one of the disinterested cool kids, although she starts warming up as the game goes along.
-Peridot curling up and hiding under a box. She has a big moment when she comes out to face the Rubies.
That’s it for Steven Universe until this summer, folks.
I wonder if the ep was inspired by, an homage to, or ripped off from, the"Baseball Blues" episode of Samurai Champloo? It shares the basic feel and is played in the same comic styling.
Is Jasper sought to be punished? Rescued?
Has she ended up as part of The Cluster now? Is she gone? Or does she have a redemntion arc?
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Possibly. However, the baseball battle episode has been a common manga/comics/anime trope for a long long time.
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I say rescued. As far as Yellow Diamond knows, the Cluster is still preparing to hatch any day now. She doesn’t need to track down Peridot, as the Cluster will take care of her and the Earth soon enough.
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If that crack Jasper fell down is deep enough to reach the Cluster, which is deep in the mantle, it would be a planetary-scale disaster. As for other Jasper theories, I made a longish post higher up on the page.
I’m assuming that the show is going back to Beach City episodes after all the time away.
I like that Lapis is a dick. I hope that sticks. I don’t want her to become chummy with the Gems or with Peridot. I like the idea that she likes Steven and that’s it.
Is it? I know I missed a few in the middle, but…
… the one where Steven learns he can jump really high and then float down slowly doesn’t come after “Hit the Diamond”?
It does. “Steven Floats” is the last episode in this batch, coming after “Hit the Diamond”.
“Steven Floats” is a leaked episode and will not actually be broadcast until this summer.