A reflective, funny episode of Steven Universe finds Steven going through the motions for his mom
TV Reviews RecapDuring Steven’s last visit to Homeworld, he was a prisoner on trial for murder. Now, he’s basically Gem royalty, and bound up in all of the obligations that new status entails. “Familiar” digs into the details of what the Diamonds actually do all day, and what it means that the Diamond ranks now include Steven. It’s a frequently awkward and uncomfortable episode, but also quite beautiful, and downright odd. That makes sense, considering that in addition to seasoned Steven Universe storyboard artists Amber Cragg and Hilary Florido and returning artist Tom Herpich, “Familiar” was also storyboarded by Adventure Time creator Pen Ward, which rules.
Ward and Herpich’s handiwork is most visible in the Pebbles, little domestic servants that we learn toward the end of the episode are created by Pink’s (now Steven’s) life-giving abilities. (Basically, they’re like the Watermelon Stevens, but they live entirely in Pink’s room on Homeworld.) The Pebbles are cute, squat, and also a little creepy, evoking Herpich’s work on Adventure Time episodes like “Walnuts And Rain.” They seem to have some degree of control over Pink’s room, creating shelves, beds, and moving the walls at Steven’s command—and, at the end of the episode, helping him into a newer version of Pink’s old uniform, which further blurs the lines between Steven and his mom.
“Familiar” is full of details that make Homeworld seem a bit softer, less cruel and calculating. Besides just seeing some of the spaces where the non-Crystal Gems spend their time, there are weird, captivating details that suggest that this galactic empire might be a bit wackier than we expected, like the big, expressive Gem faces lining a hallway. Steven tries to say hi to the Gems, who are seemingly engaged in the time-honored practice of court gossip, but they retreat away from Pink Diamond. What’s these Gems’ story? We probably won’t find out, but at least we know they have one.
For the most part, Steven learns about the workings of Homeworld through a series of meetings with Yellow and Blue Diamond, trying and failing to get their input on how he should handle White. Patti LuPone and Lisa Hannigan are both excellent in these scenes, furthering the project of humanizing the Diamonds more than I thought possible in just a couple of episodes. (As Steven puts it in my favorite, laugh-out-loud line of the episode,“I get they’re, like, busy ’cause they’re dictators and everything.”)
Yellow takes her meeting with Steven in the Extraction Room—a sauna that deeply fits with Yellow’s current energy, which is increasingly reminiscent of Kendall from Succession or like, a more ruthless Michael Bluth. She starts to give off the impression of a child who has totally invested in their parent’s approval, only to fail utterly at getting it for some inexplicable reason. Yellow grimly calls the two and a half words Steven spoke to White Diamond “a record,” and when he suggests that maybe she should just fail in order to get White’s attention, she laughs—genuinely—and replies, “Oh Pink, you always did have quite the knack for making me laugh.”
Blue, meanwhile, actually calls Steven by his name—though she still thinks of him as some disguised form of Pink—and reminisces about the time the Diamonds used to spend together as a family, as they sit together in a pool. As she tells him about the games Pink used to play, Steven starts to realize what’s going on: The Diamonds are a dysfunctional family struggling to stay together, not unlike the Crystal Gems at the beginning of the series.
I’m not sure how I feel about the analogy being made here. I appreciate the pacing, and the way we’ve slowly gotten a sense of what actually drives the Gem Empire in a way that adds dimension to Yellow and Blue. But it doesn’t quite feel like that absolves them of all of the terrible things they’ve done in the name of that family, and it really doesn’t address whether those things are going to keep happening after Steven inevitably wins over White. I really hope this gets addressed at some point, because it’s not enough to just understand and befriend villains, if they don’t change. I get that no one on Steven Universe is an irredeemable monster, but even the fundamentally decent (and non-genocidal) Crystal Gems figure out how to make amends when they’ve done something wrong. Is there a future for the Gem civilization?
While we wait to find out the answer, Steven is going to throw a party. Once he gets back from his meetings, he sings “Familiar,” a song exploring the discomfort of experiencing deja vu in his mother’s old life. This is really some of Zach Callison’s best singing on the show—the song feels a little closer to a sketch, but that’s at least in part because it mirrors the uncertainty with which Steven is approaching his current predicament. By the end of the song, he’s wearing an approximation of Pink’s outfit.
Though there will of course be Gems who argue that Steven is just Pink in another form, his epiphany is a little different: That Pink slotted into the Diamond family the way Steven himself did at the beginning of the series. As a goof capable of bringing very busy and irritable Gems together, Steven has some experience with this kind of family dynamic. And an extravagant party is just the place to test it out.
Stray observations:
- When Pearl shows up, she tells Steven, “I’m only here because I’m bringing your things… and they consider me one of your things.”
- I loved Steven and Yellow Pearl’s Abbott and Costello routine that ends with Steven asking the Pearl to call him lasagna.
- Seeing Steven in Pink’s uniform must be super weird for Pearl. Like, weirder than normal.
- Next week: Steven has a ball, and is “Together Alone.”
35 Comments
I don’t really have anything relevant to add to the conversation other than OMG THE PEBBLES ARE SO CUTE I LOVE THEM!!!
I need some plushie pebbles like yesterday.
First of all, I love the Diamonds’ family dynamic. It seems like the right time of year to introduce complicated, slightly unsettling family crap.But White’s strange Pearl is still bothering me from last episode, and in this episode Our Pearl offhandedly mentions that Pearls can be broken. Clearly White’s Pearl is broken — her face is cracked! She speaks with White’s voice and not with the regular Pearl voice! How did she get broken? Did White break her? Why hasn’t she been fixed? I fear there’s some dark shit that’s going to be revealed soon.
Gems don’t have names. It has been clear they have been calling each other the equivalent of black, asian, white for a while now. Hell the most human gem is amethyst because she apes Greg, unlike Steven that apes 90’s era sitcoms.
When I first saw that Pearl, I immediately assumed White had broken her in a fit of rage or as punishment. Once we meet White though her distant and aloof persona didn’t really gel with that, so now I’m not too sure. It’s got to be something dark, and I’m guessing White is the first gem, which would likely mean her Pearl is the first Pearl, older than the rest, either a flawed prototype or somehow corrupted? But then why would a society that practices widespread eugenics and values stiff conformity keep a broken Pearl around in such a position, unless there was something sentimental there?
“unless there was something sentimental there?”Or… possibly more of something of a symbol of what can happen if a gem were to disobey a Diamond?
When Steven said he used to be kind of irritating, I really expected Amethyst to chime in and agree with him.
Neither Garnet, Amethyst, or Connie’s VA were paid to record lines this week, and once you notice it makes their unsettling silence really uncomfortable.
Eh, it’s kinda similar to the end of “Lars’ Head”, where they’re just present in the very closing seconds and don’t get a line.With Connie, the weird thing is just how much she’s jumped into the “go with the flow” attitude of late.Blue Diamond has disabled the gems? Screw it, charge ahead with Rose’s sword.Steven’s knocked out but you can feel his presence? Yeah, classic ghost scenario sounds about right.Steven and the gems need to go to Homeworld? Sure, that’s not scary at all.Pearl says “Hey, I’m gonna put you in my gem to smuggle you into Steven’s room”? Fuck it, sounds like a plan!
I don’t see the Diamonds as a dysfunctional family, but more of a family dealing with the loss of Pink. White is in denial, Yellow is angry, and Blue has depression. The finding of Pink has alleviated their grief somewhat, but they’re just coming out of it, and need more time.
So are the gem temples… alive?
Just thinking about how fucked up and traumatized Lapis was by being an object… and it turns out there are way more situations like that, on Homeworld and possibly Earth and the other colonies? That’s very casually horrific.
When Steven realised that the Diamonds were treating him the way the Crystal Gems were treating him in season one, my mind went straight to his failed mission at the Lunar Sea Spire. Was the Moonstone Gem’s body that temple, and did Pearl want to lock her back into that form?
Yeah that’s some body horror shit that’s really unsettling for me. I guess homeworld structures are grown rather than built much like the gems themselves?
Well the entire point of Bismuth is to build gem temples.
I’m a little concerned that between “Familiar”, Steven taking his mom’s old uniform, and him planning a party to get everyone together, he might actually start to lose himself in being Pink Diamond. After the first Yellow Pearl scene, he totally gives up on trying to correct anyone on who he is, which is a change from his prior interactions with Homeworld gems like Peridot where he took a lot of care to explain how he wasn’t Pink/Rose.
I noticed that as well. I half wonder if maybe that isn’t going to be part of this story arc… imagine if Steven were to truly lose himself into the culture of the diamonds? And if he were to do that then Earth would be in the crosshairs of the new Pink Diamond…
“Call me… Lasagna.”“Steven, stop. You’re going to break her.”It’s a good thing White Diamond’s Pearl wasn’t around to hear that.
It’s true, White Diamond hates lasagna. She also loves Mondays.
Eric’s got a good point about Steven being perhaps too ready to play nice with the Diamonds after all the horrible things they’ve done. But it’s understandable given that he’s still absorbing the shock of being treated like a Diamond himself, and he’s still processing the fact that his mom was a Diamond (albeit one who turned against Homeworld after half-assing the conquest of just one colony, while the others have each subjugated thousands of worlds.)
That said, the line where Steven casually describes them as “dictators” is both really funny and very concerning. I don’t want this show to just let a bunch of murdering tyrants off the hook, but I’m also not convinced it will. The show is self-aware enough that to recognize its own tendency to redeem characters and has even made fun of it (as with Navy conning the Crystal Gems out of a spaceship by pretending to be redeemed, or Kevin making up a tragic backstory and then throwing the lie in Stevonnie’s face.) But I don’t think that Steven is aware of this, so there might be an impending conflict between the Crystal Gems’ values and his willingness to forgive.
This might be why Bismuth rejoined the team so recently. If anyone would object to amnesty for the Diamonds, it’s her, and I don’t think the show would portray her as being wrong for feeling that way.
I took a class once in college that was entirely about democratization – the transition that various states have made from dictatorship to democracy. One of the main takeaways from the class was that from a short- and medium-term, outcome-based perspective it’s better to give some kind of partial escape path for dictators and their supporters, because that gives them an incentive to step down peacefully. Like you let the army keep running economic sectors, or you give the dictator immunity or whatever, and in exchange they just quietly leave. If you go all “no quarter, justice and/or revenge now” that gives them an incentive to be as brutal as possible in staying in power, which either ends with them crushing the rebellion (Syria) or else doing way more damage before they’re thrown out (Iraq).
It’s a shitty calculus, because these people are doing legitimately very bad stuff. And most examples of democratization that we have are from the past, like, fifty years, so it’s still an open question whether “ignore past atrocities” is better in the long run for a state/polity. So it’s not like there’s a definite right answer – but I do think there’s a defensible argument for that kind of strategy. I also don’t know if the show is thinking about this on such a granular level, but its political analysis has been pretty great so far so I think it’s at least plausible.
Those are valid things to think about both in terms of this show and… well… in terms of certain other things going on in the more general world of US politics.
Perhaps the show is setting things up for a bigger twist in plot… that sometimes enemies can’t be made friends with and sometimes there just isn’t any way for them to make things right again?
Man, I’m really behind. I need to start watching SU again, ASAP!
I’m not gonna read this in till I watch the episode but why is Cartoon Network dumping a new episode of Steven Universe on Christmas Eve? That’s concerning.
That was a super “Disney princess” episode. Steven is trapped in a high-up tower, his only companions are some magical servant creatures, eventually he sings a wistful song about wishing that his situation was different, and it ends with the magical servant creatures sewing him a pretty dress to wear to a party that will change his life. I mean, I think it subverted that enough (because the song ends with him making a concrete plan about how to improve his situation instead of just sighing, and also because he’s a boy) to not fall into the usual pitfalls of that genre, but still.
Something that’s also odd and not brought up is that Pink has a gem destabiliser on her vanity.Yellow Diamond’s extraction chamber also has the Era 2 diamond insignia in it, whilst Blue’s pool still has the Era 1 insignia. Blue also seems terribly lonely since the comb was singing to her “as long as you are combing, you will never be lonely”.Also, how can Yellow sweat? What is she extracting? And where is that water going once it’s drained?
I think this arc is going to be about Steven learning that you can’t redeem everyone and sometimes you do have to fight for justice.
Two thoughts:1. The Pebbles were too cute, and I don’t mean that in the usual/positive way. More like, on a twee level of adorability that I feel like the show should be maturing out of which is an odd feel because the show is only 5 years old.2. I’m totally cool with how this show gives no fucks about gender and messes with traditional depictions of masculinity and femininity, but does Steven’s new version of Pink Diamond’s uniform have to be SO DAMN GIRLY?? It takes a real man to wear pink, and we’ve already established that Steven is one hundred percent cool being himself. Hell, he put on Sadie’s dress and performed a pop ballad in front of a crowd, so clearly he’s fine showing a feminine side to him. But does his outfit HAVE to have a goddamn skirt?! If it just lost that one element, it’d still be very feminine, but still have some dignity to it. It’s not like Gem society doesn’t understand masculine elements; Yellow Diamond’s ensembles lean towards male silhouettes all the time. I had to role my eyes when I saw it. I feel like this show exclusively highlights Steven’s feminine side, and that’s not always very balanced.
I liked the bit where Steven wonders about when Diamonds have time off, because it sort of gets a bit towards the idea that the Diamonds in their own way are also trapped in a role, since it sort of implies that they don’t have time off, as both the “sauna” and “bath” seem to have had functions (they both seem to have involved producing something).
I noticed that as well… Both Yellow and Blue had water draining into something that included colors of all 4 Diamonds. And the episode seemed to call attention to that.
And Steven’s tear made a Pebble. Now I’m thinking that those Kindergarten drills are maybe full of Diamond secretions.
That would be an interesting image to utilize for a show like this… Gems presented as female placing “Secretions” into a phallic symbol of a drill to create new gems…
I’m also starting to think that’s why Era 2 Gems tend to be smaller, if that’s the resource that Homeworld is lacking, after losing Pink and White shutting herself up “in her own head”.
That theory actually fits together really well.