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Day in Fandom History: July 16…
Steven is asked by Jamie to be in a play funded by Mayor Dewey about the founding of Beach City, and when Steven shows Pearl the script of the play, she intervenes and provides a more historically accurate script about the town’s founding. “Historical Friction” premiered on this day, 11 Years Ago.
Round 2: Easy
Which Episode is Best?
Historical Friction
Friend Ship
J is for Jamie
Steven Universe Season 2 Episode 14: Historical Friction
I threw a Halloween party yesterday. I dressed up as Amethyst.
One of my friends came as this version of Jamie.
Yes, he even had the mop.
Throughout the night people kept claiming they were confusing me with the mop and couldn’t tell us apart.
LOL!
That's also perfect! Amazing!
Garnet would be proud. Too bad she's not here to see this masterful performance.
Ha. Omg that’s really great. Love the birthday hat as a nose XD
So they were there on “behalf” of Rose? Why couldn’t she drag her lazy ass out there herself?
A BOX for Garnet’s HAIR. THAT is perfect.
HOLY SHIT and that’s supposed to be AMETHYST?
This is fucking beautiful. I guess I don’t hate Jamie as much now.
Ohhh shit! Is that centipeedle???
Historical Friction S2E14
Ah yes, the perpetual struggle between patronage and authenticity in the arts. Always end on a joke, kids.
Jamie invites Steven to audition for his first play while running his mail route. Steven is excited about acting and agrees to be there. This is the first time we’ve seen Jamie since “Love Letters” and it’s good to see that he’s taken Garnet’s encouragement to heart, producing a community play.
Steven is the only one to show up for the audition and lands the part of William Dewey in the slightly exaggerated tale of the founding of Beach City, as written by the current Mayor Dewey. Steven and Jamie do a read through with Jamie playing every other part other than William Dewey and it becomes clear that the script is not accurate as it features a perfect Captain Dewey growing 50 feet tall and carrying the boat to the future site of Beach City through a storm. Mayor Dewey is very pleased with his work and reminds Jamie that he’s funding the production and the script shouldn’t be altered. Jamie is despondent because William Dewey as written in the script is bland and flawless. This is reminiscent of the earliest depictions of Rose in the series. Her only flaw was not being alive anymore for a long time, giving Steven and the Gems someone to look up to but not being very realistic as a character. Jamie rants about how to be human is to be flawed and Steven is inspired but realizes that the script he’s holding is inadequate.
Steven heads home and finds Pearl in the living room, contemplating. We can reasonably assume she is regretting the events since “Cry For Help” as every episode since has touched on the conflict. She asks if she can help Steven and he starts venting about how boring William Dewey is in the play. Pearl talks about having met the man in person, and reading through the play points out how it’s historically inaccurate. She does a rewrite as someone who was there and Steven takes the revised script to Jamie the next day. Jamie is floored by how realistic and dramatic the rewrite is but bemoans that there is no way Mayor Dewey would approve of the changes. Steven convinces Jamie that this is Jamie’s struggle to overcome and the two get to work revamping the show for opening night.
At opening night, the stage is set and Pearl is there to support Steven and see her play. Mayor Dewey tries to flirt with her for a second time (the first being in “Political Power”) and she just up and leaves him sitting like a fool. Jamie and Steven share a moment before the show starts, Jamie being incredibly nervous that this play could break his acting career hobby. The show starts and it is clear that William Dewey has been rewritten as a very incompetent character that struggles with self-doubt. Jamie plays first mate Buddy Buddwick, who’s exploration journals are explored by Steven and Connie in “Buddy’s Book” (they also imagine his role filled by Jamie), is kind and supportive of the captain.
Mayor Dewey gets nervous seeing William Dewey portrayed in a less than rose-tinted perfection. He all out panics when the play shows the Crystal Gems coming to warn the ship to stay away from the area. Jamie pretty much nails his performance of all three, from his very gay depiction of Pearl, the call back to “Love Letters” and Garnet’s line about being a really good swimmer, and flat out just making Amethyst a snarky mop.
William Dewey ignores the warnings of the Crystal Gems and the boat gets lost in a storm, miles off course. Suddenly the ship is attacked by what seems to be a corrupted gem. Buddy is taken overboard and the corrupted gem threatens the ship. Suddenly, Obsidian comes to fight the gem, which looks reminiscent of Centipeedle, and carries the boat to shore. William Dewey is thankful and Obsidian warns she may interfere again if the humans choose to stay. The clues in the episode include the dark charcoal grey arm that Steven interacts with, Jamie’s husky voice for the fusion, Steven naming her a “giant woman” (like he does Opal) and the fact that the giant woman gives a “quadruple noogie” to the corrupted gem. Joe Johnston has also confirmed the fusion to be the Rose Quartz version of Obsidian. Speculation also says that this rescue could have inspired the creation of the temple but that’s neither here nor there. Obsidian leaves and William names the area in honor of Buddy, but quickly renames it Beach City after Buddy washes up on shore still alive.
The play ends with a campaign slogan to vote for Mayor Dewey and the crowd loves it! Afterward, Jamie is signing playbills, replacing the “a” in his name with a star and Mayor Dewey asks for a moment alone. Dewey offers to make Jamie the head of the community theater, as long as he promises to stay under budget in the future. Steven gives Pearl credit as an inside source and she expresses confusion about the campaign slogan at the end as she didn’t write it. Steven straight up admits it was to keep Mayor Dewey happy and that the play needed to end on a joke. The episode ends on an uncomfortable silence.
At this point in the show, Rose is still heavily idolized by everyone and no one admits that she had serious flaws and failings as a leader. Mayor Dewey wanting to idolize his ancestor to the point of rewriting history practically foretells Pearl’s long arc and being able to admit the truth about Rose. It's clear that Pearl’s been doing a lot of thinking as she acknowledges how flawed she is and takes Steven’s monologue about persevering despite imperfections to heart in order to help him with the play and as we will see in the next episode steps up her game to try and atone to Garnet.
