Peridot’s escape has been hanging over Steven Universe since the season began. And while she isn’t inherently dangerous, she represents a technological threat. She was sent to do something in the Kindergarten, and the Gems are naturally opposed to anything of the sort.
Things start off with everyone helping Steven fold his mountain of star shirts. Garnet points out that the chore wheel Steven made was a good idea that failed.
There’s a short discussion about the need for clothing, since the Gems just sort of manifest theirs with their bodies. Steven insists that they’re necessary. Steven tries to float the idea that the folding would go faster is Ruby and Sapphire where there, but Garnet tells him that she’s not going to cancel her fusion for laundry. The subject of Peridot comes up, and Garnet asserts that it’s most likely that she’ll try to reactivate the Kindergarten. Garnet supposes that period’s first order of business would be to get the injectors back online, which confuses Steven. They explain that the injectors seed the earth with Gems, where they incubate until they reach maturity (of a sort), sucking the life out of the surrounding area.
They resolve to check the Kindergarten. Garnet insists on bringing Steven along over Pearl’s usual protests. They find the Kindergarten as dormant as ever, but make a sweep of the place anyway. Steven wanders off.
As he’s passing a large pile of rubble, he hears a voice, and Peridot rises from the command center, dictating one of her logs. As she mentions something about fusion experiments, she becomes aware of the fact that Steven is there. She asks him if the others are with him, and he begins to shake his head before deciding that there’s really no point in lying and nodding his head in an almost apologetic affirmative.
The Gems suddenly catch sight of her, and the chase is on. Peridot runs, and I have to mention that her run cycle is almost like something out of Scooby Doo; just lanky and unathletic, which is fitting when you consider that she really isn’t much of a fighter. Despite this, she manages to run up a sheer cliff face, with Steven lamenting the fact that he can’t do that. Pearl hurls her spear at her, missing Peridot directly, but sending one of the injectors crashing down on top of her. Peridot manages to come out of it unscathed taunting them with the fact that she already got what she needed. Pearl and Amethyst try to chase her down as she finger-helicopters away.
Garnet pulls Steven back from the chase; she’d much rather find out what Peridot was doing there. They go down to the command center to find it still deactivated. The place is strewn with cylinders of earth, and they wonder what she was up to. One of the cylinders begins to vibrate, and there is a sudden tonal shift to the episode. It turns to psychological horror.
Peridot was messing around with the concept of fusing shattered Gems into one shambling mess of a whole. She experimented, of course, with the remains of Gems that fell during the rebellion and were buried together as a sign of respect. She literally created a mockery of not just life, but the basic concept of respect for the dead. To put this in perspective, this is akin to someone creating a monster out of multiple corpses for the satisfaction of their scientific interests as well as their own personal and political benefit. It’s unethical at best, and proof that while Peridot isn’t imposing, she is terrifying. So much so, that this little horror show almost causes Garnet to defuse. The parts that make her are so horrified that they no longer harmonize.
Garnet manages to beat the creature and bubble the fused shard. She has an argument with herself over what the whole thing means. Steven snaps her out of it. Pearl and Amethyst admit that they lost Peridot, and then notice they crazy limb remnants all over the place. Garnet orders them to poof and bubble each one. Back at the temple, Steven runs int Garnet near the washer and dryer. He asks her if she’s okay, and she responds that he shouldn’t have seen that. She doesn’t consider what homeworld thinks of fusion is right. None of the Gems Peridot used were asked permission, and the whole thing reeks of the wrongness that caused the Crystal Gems to rebel against homeworld in the first place. She tells Steven about what it’s like to be fused for such a long time, and the episode ends on a lighter, sweeter note than the middle.
This was a good episode. I know I say that a lot. Most of the things I cover just seem to be fairly consistent, at least to my eyes. This episode managed to totally shift things to a place of fear and revulsion, which is hard to do for a show as bright and colorful as Steven Universe. Yet, somehow, the writers and animators manage to do it, and I’d argue that it is a testament to their skill.
Final Thoughts:
- “Her fingers were too fast for us.”
- Amethyst thinks a lot of things are funny.
- The washer and dryer work on magic.
About Author
