For this post, I will be reviewing the final three episodes for this week's Summer of Steven Event - "Back to The Moon", "Bubbled", and "Kindegarten Kid" as these have already been aired in Canada, and to further get a better view of the current story arc.
We start with "Back to The Moon", where the Rubies are encased in water bubbles by Lapis. Apparently, they are still looking for Jasper, completely unaware that she had been poofed. Amethyst then makes a crazy idea and shapeshifts into Jasper to learn more of the Rubies' true objective. Apparently, the Rubies were Jasper's No. 1 fans, so to speak, most especially Eyeball, who actually fought in the rebellion. Which is why they jumped at the chance to look for her.
The Rubies explained they were assigned to bring Jasper back to Homeworld and to report to Yellow Diamond. Amethyst, as Jasper, makes up a story that she needs to stay behind in order to keep the Crystal Gems "prisoners" on Earth. The Rubies determined they must file a report on the situation, so they all headed for the Moon. There, Eyeball explained that the Earth was originally under Pink Diamond's control until Rose started the rebellion that resulted with Pink Diamond's death, as Eyeball said she witnessed the whole thing. This completely shocks Steven, who refuses to believe her mother would go that far.
When the Rubies find the control panel was destroyed, Amethyst instructs the Rubies to head for Homeworld and file the report themselves. The Rubies then return to their ship just in time before Amethyst could no longer hold Jasper's form. However, one the Rubies opened the hatch to suggest sending the gang back to Earth and found out they've been tricked. The Rubies fused into giant Ruby, but Steven opens the air lock and, with the help of Sardonix, pushes the Rubies into space. However, Eyeball managed to grab Steven and he was sent flying as well.
The story continues in "Bubbled", where Steven created a bubble to provide himself oxygen as he is jettisoned into space. He then encounters Eyeball, who is more upset of not being able to file her report than being tricked by Amethyst.
While the two remain adrift in space, Eyeball explained another reason she went to Earth was in order to know what became of Rose Quartz, hoping that Jasper may have the answer. Steven explained that he is Rose's incarnation, but Eyeball refuses to believe him even after several attempts. They later pass through an Asteroid Belt, but Eyeball's Gem was cracked along the way. Steven then shows a new power by expanding his bubble to catch Eyeball and uses his healing spit to repair her Gem. Eyeball is finally convinced that Steven is Rose, and takes this opportunity to finish him off. Out of desperation, Steven removes his bubble and tosses Eyeball away before restoring it, and shrinks the bubble as he breaks down from the revelations regarding his mother.
Eventually, Steven is rescued by the Crystal Gems using the ship the Rubies left behind. Garnet reaffirms Eyeball and Jasper's accounts that Pink Diamond was indeed killed by Rose as part of her cause, and that of the main cast. Although still uneasy of what his mother had to do, Steven nonetheless thanks Garnet for telling him as they return to Earth, ending the episode.
We end the Summer of Steven with "Kindergarten Kid". The gang returns to Jasper's Kindergarten to recapture any Corrupted Gems left there when one was able to get away. Peridot and Steven decide to capture the runaway Gem themselves, which resulted with the entire episode become literally a parody of the Road Runner/Coyote shorts from Looney Tunes.
I totally lost count on how many times Amethyst shape-shifted. While there's reason to believe any Gem can perform shape-shifting, as we see in the case of Steven, we never really did see the other Gems do that and it would appear that Amethyst is the only one who can take any form to her liking. I'd give my hats off to Charlene Yi, who played all the Rubies with different personas and do them very well. And I think this is the first time a Gem gets butt-slapped as Amethyst gives one to Pearl in this scene. The "Bigger on The Inside" bit is obviously a reference to Doctor Who. And some of you may not notice but when Garnet was pretending to be upset over being captured, she did mention the word 'Cross', which is a British-English term meaning you're mad. Yes, Garnet does speak with a British accent as she is voiced by British R&B artist Estelle. But this is perhaps the first time we get to hear Garnet use British terminologies as opposed to American English.
It's weird that Back to The Moon and Bubbled have different tones despite being part of a single continuity - Back to The Moon has so much comedy thrown in that I laughed out a lot at the wackiness the characters are doing. While Bubbled does have a few laughs, it is mainly a more somber one as Steven has to come to terms with learning the truth about what his mother did. This revelation would mean a huge change in Steven's character in the episodes to come.
One thing though, how could Rose manage to destroy Pink Diamond? If you recall the Bismuth episode, she said that Rose's Sword was made to poof Gems, but not shatter them. So how could Rose shatter Pink Diamond's Gem? This is just a crazy theory, but could it possible Rose DIDN'T shatter Pink Diamond and that the latter may have died by some other means? We know that according to Jasper, there have been numerous incidents of Gems behaving outside of their programming and thus the order they need to be purged. I'm guessing Pink Diamond may somehow decided to side with Rose, make the change, until she was shattered by something or someone other than Rose.
Then Homeworld made the narrative of Pink Diamond's demise and Rose being responsible because she is acting out of her programming. This further creates the stigma that any Gem that operates outside the caste system are to be destroyed by any means necessary. This would explain Homeworld's relentless assault on Earth because it remains a symbol for the rebellious Gems to fight for change. By putting it back under Homeworld control, or destroy it totally with the Cluster, that movement will be stopped in its tracks.
That's just a theory, of course. Then again, Rose may have indeed intentionally killed Pink Diamond. Not only did Garnet, Eyeball, and Jasper all say the same thing, but it also goes with Bismuth's tale that Rose refused to shatter Gems when the former introduced the Pile Bunker. As I said in my Earthlings review, it's possible Rose was willing to shatter Gems until Pink Diamond is killed, then swore never to do so ever again.
As for "Kindergarten Kid", it is a Looney Tunes parody, so not much to say other than it is a pretty funny episode and deserves repeat viewing because of the nostalgia of the Road Runner/Coyote shorts.
Well, that was an incredible 20 episodes. If I were to give my Top 3 favorite episodes of this event, it would be "Mr. Greg", "Restaurant Wars", and a tie between the Peridot episodes "Too Short to Ride" and "Kindergarten Kid", and "Monster Reunion". I'm glad we're getting deeper into the lore of the series and a change for some of the characters. Other than a few bad episodes and issues with the 11-minute timeframe on the plot centric ones, overall, everything turned out great. If I were to give a rating for this event, it would be a 4 out of 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment