If you thought “Reunited” moved quickly, buckle up your space seatbelts—it seems like Steven Universe is going to keep up the fast pace, sending Steven, the Crystal Gems, and the Diamonds (!) back to Homeworld, with a new antagonist. “Legs From Here To Homeworld” has a lot of material to get through to make it to its chilling final image of Steven being tossed aside by White Diamond, but it handles the plot ably. Writers and storyboard artists Amber Cragg, Hilary Florido, joined by longtime Adventure Time crew member Tom Herpich, manage to soften the other Diamonds, nail the eeriness of White’s introduction, and even include a few jokes in the process.
In the wake of Steven connecting with Yellow and Blue Diamond at the end of “Reunited,” the pair are trying to come to terms with Pink’s deception, Steven’s existence, and what the news means for Earth. One of the episode’s secondary tasks is starting to humanize Yellow and Blue, to make them into plausible members of a broader Gem team—and though it’s a pretty daunting task given what they’ve done in the past, “Legs From Here To Homeworld” does a surprisingly good job of it. Largely, this happens by showing more of their relationship with Pink (even if they still think Pink is there), and by introducing White Diamond as someone even less likely to understand and empathize with Steven. Even the score motifs for the Diamonds feel less menacing, and are deployed for comedy in moments when, say, Blue can’t stop crying.
Steven, on the other hand, is shockingly blasé about the whole thing—at least until he realizes that the Diamonds can help him heal the corrupted Gems. Working together with Yellow and Blue, he manages to briefly turn Centipeetle back into Nephrite (voiced by comedian and excellent voice actor Aparna Nancherla), but the effect doesn’t last. He needs the help of the true, unseen leader of the Gem civilization: White Diamond.
I get that Steven wants to help the corrupted Gems, and I appreciate the show’s willingness to move things along, but it does feel like there’s some stuff he needs to work through with Yellow and Blue first, especially since they’re obviously terrified of White. (I would be really into a Steven Universe training montage that’s just practicing conflict resolution strategies, which I think it’s safe to say is not out of the realm of possibility.) It’s thrilling that we’re getting to White and more of Homeworld politics so quickly, but I would have loved an episode or two of Yellow and Blue awkwardly stuck on Earth, trying to get their bearings and talking to Gems they would never have thought twice about before. (Think of the Yellow-Peridot interactions!)
At least there’s some solid comedy in the team’s attempt to actually get into space, with the excellent of gag of Steven setting the team up for a long search through the desert for Pink’s ship, starting with the “pink pyramids” that of course turn out to be the legs. (Steven also activates the ship by running in what are essentially solid light stockings, which Amethyst correctly notes is a good look for him.) The visual jokes continue, with Blue and Yellow essentially stuffed into the sides of the ship that was built for the much smaller Pink Diamond—but there’s also a slowly building sense of dread surrounding what, exactly, will happen when they talk to White.
The ship is greeted by a horde of Gems, who seem to be celebrating the return of the no-longer-alive Pink Diamond. Instead of trying to explain anything to the rest of the Gems themselves, White Diamond’s Pearl shows up to bring Steven to White. (I love the character design for White Diamond’s Pearl, who has Princess Leia buns and a cracked face, continuing the anime villain motif from Aquamarine’s hyper-feminine design.) Just minutes after she’s first mentioned, we meet White Diamond: She’s blindingly bright, all sharp black-and-white contrasts, almost abstract in contrast to Yellow and Blue. In another series, she could be a god, or at least a kind and benevolent witch.
Instead, her simultaneously warm and ice-cold nonchalance, conveyed perfectly by Christine Ebersole, suggests something more malevolent and scary—a mom who doesn’t listen, who knows best, who refuses to consider her children as people, who literally sends Pink to her room without realizing that Pink isn’t even there. It’s a new type of villain for this show, and while I don’t doubt Steven’s ability to convert even the coldest Gems to his side (it’s one of the show’s thematic foundations, after all), getting White Diamond to listen is going to be a challenge. “Hello, Starlight” indeed.
Stray observations:
- Connie’s parents are perhaps too chill with their daughter going into space to visit the home of a hostile alien empire.
- Garnet to Greg, holding Cat Steven: “If you could water this for me while I’m gone it’d be a big help.”
- My favorite moment of this episode is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a very small Pearl and Steven moment, in which Steven wistfully says, “I bet when mom took off it was pretty graceful, huh?” and Pearl laughs softly before replying, “No, not really.”
- White Diamond’s Pearl is also voiced by Christine Ebersole and not Dee Dee Magno Hall, which is… interesting.
- We’ve got new episodes going up weekly for a while, leading into a one-hour special toward the end of January. Get ready, folks.
26 Comments
This episode marks the debut of Tom Herpich to the series. He storyboarded some of the best Adventure Time episodes. Can’t wait to see what else he does with SU.
really liked this episode and also looking forward to more Herpich! and more white diamond. I’m in love with her character design, it’s just perfect.
Yeah. “Hall of Egress” is one of my favorite tv episodes of all time. The SU writers were quite savvy to bring him on board.
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This episode came out in July. Why’s it getting a review so late?
I guess it hasn’t officially been released in the US yet. It was released somewhere over four months ago because there’s been 1080p torrents of it avaiable since summer.
The story is that this episode aired at the Steven Universe Comic-Con panel shortly after “Reunited” came out, and in what was likely (and wisely) an effort to combat leaks it then officially went up on the Cartoon Network app about a day later. It’s taken until now to air on television, though, which means that for whatever percentage of kids (and adult viewers) who don’t just watch everything when it appears on the app this is the premiere.For all the diehards, of course, we’ve had five months to properly digest stuff like White Diamond’s eerie beauty-mag-Metropolis vibe and Nephrite being totally worth flying to Homeworld for. Lots of White Pearl theories, unsurprisingly. It was kind of a perfect cliffhanger to go out on, if you watched it back then; I don’t know if the future events of Steven Universe have ever felt as uncertain as at the end of “Legs From Here To Homeworld”, especially for such a sustained period of time as the hiatus that followed. The answers start coming in next Monday, presumably.
It’s been available on PlayStation Vue’s On Demand offerings, at least. That’s where I watched it. In fact, I didn’t know until today that it hadn’t aired on TV.
I also didn’t know it hadn’t aired on tv. I also didn’t know that it premiered at Comic-Con. I watched it on the Cartoon Network website.
Saw this episode way back in July when it premiered during Comic-Con, but watching it again was just as great. White Diamond’s reveal is still as terrifying as ever. Couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come!
I recently bingewatched the first four seasons on Hulu and watched Season 5 on the Cartoon Network app, so I had no idea this episode hadn’t actually aired on television. I was kind of disappointed because I thought we were getting a brand new one tonight, not one that has been out for months. Why wasn’t it reviewed back in July when it premiered? And why is it still considered “Season 5” when the last one aired last summer?
putting my theory hat back on, I think we can all agree that something happened to white pearl right? she did not pop out of the ground with that giant crack. she’s also the only pearl that doesn’t have matching gem placement with her diamond. sus.
Not to mention that she’s got noclip mode switched on.
and her animations have glitched out.
In fact, her gem placement matches Pink’s and Pearl’s matches White’s.
And “our” Pearl has yellow, pink, blue and white tones, in contrast to all the others…
Pink Legs and PINK ASS!!!Also White Pearl’s floating frozen pose is particularly creepy.
Pink Butt aside…Now that we got a full view of Homeworld and how totally broken it looks, has anyone postulated the idea that White is the only thing holding it(and by extension the Gem empire) together? Cause it feels like one of the endpoints will be Homeworld completely falling apart, and with it probably the Authority.
So nice to see this show back! While I still have a bit of waiting before I can see it (I don’t have cable and watch everything by buying it on Amazon to stream) now I have some good stuff to binge on comes January!
No mention of the fact that White Diamond’s office (ship?) is a head and torso meaning that combined with Pink’s legs and Blue and Yellow’s arms, we have the potential for some Voltron-esque diamond mech action?
So, does anyone know if we’re almost at the end of the show? The Pink reveal, figuring out a way to fix corrupted Gems, really seeing and visiting Homeworld, and finally meeting White Diamond all REALLY feel like end of series stuff.
I have to say – when Steven eventually recruits all the Diamonds to his side and heals the corrupted gems… I am not sure where it might go after that. I suppose they could spin out some sort of “Well, the Gems are at war with some other race” thing but that’d end up feeling like just wheel spinning…
In the past, the show has managed to successfully go back to low-stakes stories after having huge epic cosmic conflicts.
They definitely seem to have been building to an ultimate finale throughout season 5. It will almost certainly be the end of the conflict between the Crystal Gems and the Diamonds.
It should be entering its denouement. It might overstay it’s welcome after 6 years
I got to see this for the first time last night. This show is amazing and I’m glad that I get to watch it with my girls (6 & 10). This has helped us tackle some pretty tough stuff as I’m currently separating with their mom. Next week can’t possibly come fast enough. I really hope Lars comes in at some point. I wasn’t a huge fan of his until Steven saved/ changed him. Im really looking forward to this journey.