We start off were “Legs From Here To Homeworld“ ended, almost no cuts in the action, which is good I do hope this happens in every single episode it helps with the emersion and allows for one very long binge-watch of the ark when one rewatches it. It’s been assumed that, now that we’re on Homeworld, we’de get new Gems and this episode does give us that, mainly, under the form of Pebbles (the most adorable and cute Gems in the entire show!!!!) tiny little Gems that make a bed and a chair...stool...elevated surface for putting your butt for Steven when he askes for them. These Pebbles are quite interesting as they actively avoid being seen, which leads me to assume that they’re supposed to. And and it’s interesting to see some parallels between Pink and Steven, the Pebbles only came out when Steven thanked them, it’s when they “recognised” him as Pink as if they were the only beings who have ever thanked them (I also loved that the parallels continue, more explicitly, later on).
Right after all of this Pearl enters the room, and the Pebbles hide, Steven and Pearl have a quick chat about White Diamond not listening and Homeworld’s opinion of Pearl. This whole event took about 30 seconds, and think it was a perfect choice, yes it had to be touched, but that wasn’t the focus of the episode, the focus was Steven talking to the Diamonds, this can wait or, better yet, be shown, not told, throughout the ark.
Right after this short ordeal, Yellow Pearl (Who will be called YP and Yellow Diamond as Yellow when I talk about both) called Steven to join Yellow Diamond in her extraction chamber. And it’s on the way to said chamber that we get a very creepy scene: the walls are literally alive, they have faces, arms and are talking to each other, only to stop talking when they see Steven is watching them and blush when he talks to them. I really wanted an explanation and, at the very least, for Steven to have a normal reaction and freak out about it, like “Why the fuck are the walls Gems?“, not getting that was a wasted opportunity to show just how cruel the Diamonds are: "Fuck you, your only purposes will be giving me privacy and supporting the ceiling". After this, we get to the extraction chamber's doors, where we get one of the funniest scenes in the episode: Steven telling YP to call him Steven, then Just Steven then Lasanha, only to have Pearl tell him to stop that. I like how Pearl doesn't give two and a half fucks about her role and just tells Steven to stop it, it's in moments like this that the show only following Steven kind of backfires in my opinion, I would have loved to see YP, and later on BP, talk to Pearl, sometimes, although not the case, there are more important things than whatever the protagonist is doing and think the show sometimes looses some good scenes and dialogues because of this format and this was one of those times.
Inside the chamber, Steven tells Yellow that her sauna is cool and Yellow replies by saying it's new, which is confirmed by the new sigil at the bottom. In here they talk about White, about how 2 and a half words a record and how it's not enough to try and save the corrupted Gems and about how White doesn't her own head anymore and how it's unfair that Steven got to talk to her because of one failed colony while Yellow has hundreds of successful ones and doesn't get the same right. After Yellow says this, Steven suggests that she just failed, which makes Yellow laugh and say that, because she/he was funny, Pink/Steven was almost worth the trouble, which at first sounded condescending for the sake of being condescending, but after the second and third viewing sounded more like a joke, a poor taste joke, but a joke nonetheless. Right after this Yellow has too go and check the latest Citrine production, much to Steven's dismay, but not before she, literally, decides to sweat it out... I like this scene because it shows that the Diamonds haven't learned anything and continue to treat "Pink" like they always have, I'm quite curious to see how much more Steven can take before he has one of those speeches about love and caring, I'm also curious about how much the Diamonds will let him talk...
After all of this Yellow leaves and BP comes to tell Steven that Blue has summoned him. Steven, Pearl and BP all go to Blue, with Steven complaining that Yellow didn't give him enough time to discuss about White and that he knows that they're busy being dictators but he needs more time. I hated that the only mention to the Diamonds cruelty was a single, watered down, remark by Steven, the show better decide if it wants to go all in or if wants to be all rainbows and sunshine. I want to see Steven come to face with cruelty, to have to realise that talking won't be enough, this is not the way to go, you either show the Diamonds for what they are or have the cliché bad guy wasn't so bad storyline. Teasing that the Diamonds are cruel and showing it is simply put, a shity way to go.
When they get to Blue Diamond, Steven goes along while BP and Pearl stay behind to do things I really wanted to see... Steven's conversation with Blue starts by looking a bit more hopeful, with Blue calling Steven by his name, but it quickly becomes apparent that it will, also, go nowhere, with the most useful information being that Pink leaving marked the start of Era Two, which was good because it was long theorised and that was a pretty good confirmation. Soon after Blue has to leave and all of the water in her pool went into a drain that had the shape of the old Homeworld sigil, which shows that blue never did move on, was, and is, stuck in the past.
Back at Pink's room, we see Pearl talking to Steven and the latter asking what Pink did to get the other Diamond's attention. Turns out she threw massive balls, she also juggled (which should and did not surprise me). Pearl leaves to go and get something and Steven sings "Familiar", a beautiful song that shows that Pink's early story is identical to Steven's: they both craved for their family's attention and both their families thought they were immature, not ready and had other things to do. We also got to see Steven's sweat bring a Pebble to life, which leads me to believe that Pink created the Pebbles, food for thought.
During the song said Pebbles make Steven a set of clothes that look identical to his mother's which he immediately puts on, not that he had much of a choice, the darn thing was made around him...
Right after this Pearl arrives, notices what he's wearing, Steven says he dressed for the occasion and Pearl pulls Garnet, Amethyst and Connie from her Gems. The episode ends with everybody reunited and Steven deciding to have a ball in order to make a case for Earth.
This was a good episode. Not perfect, not bad, just good. There was a lot of wasted potential: the Gem walls and Statues, the Diamonds cruelty and how the two connect. But it also had some very good things to it, like setting up how hard it will be talking to the Diamonds and how they still haven't changed. And it did make want to see next one even more.
But that’s just my opinion, love to see yours. See you next time.
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