Hello and this is the third week of the Summer of Steven event on Cartoon Network. As I mentioned in the last video, the third week will feature more appearances of Jasper, in addition to the upcoming 100th episode that will feature the character Bismuth. It is also worth noting that these episodes will be continuous as they are part of an ongoing story arc.
We start off with Gem Hunt and it begins with Connie joining Steven and Pearl in her very first mission to locate and secure a corrupted Gem in the Himalayas, or whatever snowy region they happen to have warped to.
Turns out there were two corrupted Gems running amok so the team splits up to find each of them - Connie and Steven with one, and Pearl with the other. At this point, the episode focuses heavily on Connie being a 'NEEERRRDDD!', boasting on her knowledge of Survival Skills through research. Steven meanwhile, laments on the condition of the corrupted Gems due to his experience with Centipeedle in Monster Reunion.
The two then finally caught up with one of the Gem monsters and Steven tries to communicate with it, but fails. Connie, meanwhile, gets cold feet when attempting to go at the Gem monster, but regains her composure and contacts Pearl for assistance. The monster is quickly taken down, but instead of Pearl, it was actually Jasper, who also managed to obtain the second Corrupted Gem. Pearl arrives and is shocked to see Jasper, but Jasper gloats at the trio and leaves with the Corrupted Gems in hand.
As I said earlier, Gem Hunt is part of an ongoing story arc and this will continue throughout the week. It's clear that since Jasper cannot fuse with Lapis anymore as the latter 'One Punched' her out, Jasper is seeking the Corrupted Gems instead for her own use and we'll be seeing her plan in fruition next episode. That said, it is disappointing that this is the second time we see Jasper appearing for only a few minutes. Hopefully in the next one, she'll be around for much longer.
The rest of the episode focuses mainly on Connie showing how much she is a 'NEEERRRDDD!', and what some would call a 'weabo' too (however you spell that), since that one episode where she gave the phrase 'Itadakimasu' when receiving food from Greg. I have to admit, Connie's nerdiness did made me cringe, but at the same time, I get it from her perspective thanks to her upbringing by her parents, and Steven being her first friend ever. So in a way, she does have some social issues as a result. We never ever see Connie interacting with the other Beach City inhabitants.
I also enjoy the episode having some comedic moments, especially the part where Pearl talks a lot in the walkie talkie while ironically telling Steven and Connie to stay quiet, when her talking made the situation worse. In a small case of logical errors, so to speak, Pearl seems to know exactly where Steven and Connie are even though they are separated and rendezvous with them as soon as Jasper appears. Either Pearl has some GPS system that allows her to track the two kids, or is just another small case of Cartoon Logic. Also in part because there's just no time to explain that.
Which is basically the major drawback of an 11-minute show such as Steven Universe. A long story arc like this means there is just very little time to present that story in detail, unlike a full 30 minute show like Gravity Falls. And while one solution is cut the story arc into parts, as we see here, it also means that there will be segments like this where there's not much going on.
Nevertheless, this is and interesting start of the third week, even though not much happened in this episode other than Jasper's latest arrival. If you watched the leaked previews, you know a LOT of stuff is going to happen, and the next one is going to be something big.
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