All of Steven Universe season 3 is dropping every weeknight for the next few weeks, a massive Stevenbomb now into its second week. The “Summer of Steven” started last week and gave us six new episodes. This week started off with a new episode, “Restaurant Wars,” a filler episode focused on wacky Beach City citizen hijinks between Fryman and Kofi.
Tonight’s episode, “Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service,” doesn’t advance the Homeworld plot in any way. It does, however, give us a meaningful emotional plot between Jenny and her twin sister Kiki, whom we really haven’t seen much of in all of Steven Universe.
“Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service” opens with Kiki delivering a pizza to Steven at the Temple -- on foot. Jenny has busted the car by blasting one of Sour Cream’s mix tapes, so Kiki is covering for her. She puts a cheerful face on it, though she is running through summer heat with a dozen pizzas.
That night Steven launches into a dream sequence where he saves Kiki from a giant cheese monster attempting to drown her in pizza. "Anything is possible when you have rockets for bones!” he yells, defeating the monster. The next day, he is excited to tell Kiki about his dream, but walks in on Jenny begging Kiki to cover for her yet again. Though Kiki has been covering for her for two weeks, she finally agrees and Jenny zooms off to enjoy her concert.
Steven proceeds to tell Kiki about his dream. She’s freaked out at first, because this was a real dream, once she shared with him. Steven apologizes, horrified - he hadn’t meant to invade her dreams - but Kiki is relieved. Steven has freed her from a nightmare she’s been having for weeks. She asks him for help staving off the nightmare, and Steven cheerfully agrees.
That night, Steven ties a band around his head, punches his fists in the air and yells, “I’m a dream warrior!” He cuts off the cheese monsters’ hands with a pizza slicer. In another dream he hits it with a cheese grater. Jenny continually dumps her work on Kiki, and Kiki continues to suffer from nightmares.
Finally, Steven becomes too exhausted to be effective. When Kiki shows up to check if he’s okay, he advises her to quit her job. Kiki says she doesn’t mind her job; she just wishes the dreams would stop. Steven agrees to help her get to the “sauce of the problem,” but warns her that he will no longer be able to help her afterward. (This is a healthy establishment and acknowledgment of boundaries that “The Real Lars” could have used.)
That night, Steven and Kiki head towards the source of the cheese, which is a giant Kiki head. They fly through it and hear someone moaning in the distance. They stop at a lake of cheese, where Cheese!Jenny emerges, featuring creepy, empty pepperoni eyes.
Cheese!Jenny reaches out for Kiki, but when her arms latch onto Kiki’s, cheese starts slowly crawling up Kiki’s body. Cheese!Jenny thanks Kiki for delivering the pizzas, but when Kiki says she doesn’t mind at all, a giant fist emerges from the cheese lake, spreading cheese over more of her body.
It doesn’t take a therapist to realize that continually bending over backwards in endless sacrifice for Jenny’s frivolous reasons is taking a toll on Kiki. Steven points out that she clearly does mind and that her feelings matter. He even goes a step further, reminding Kiki that Jenny cares about her too and would never want this to happen to her - nor does Jenny even know that her behavior is affecting Kiki in this way, because in trying to be a good sister, Kiki is failing to communicate her emotional needs.
Finally, Cheese!Jenny asks Kiki to cover for her again. This time, Kiki says no. Cheese!Jenny pretty much just… accepts this. The cheese collapses all around them and the landscape becomes a clean, sweet oceanic blue, with pizza slices stuck through it in more reasonable proportions.
The next day, Steven says hi to Jenny at the pizza shop and asks after Kiki. “This morning we had a twin talk,” says Jenny, who is covering for Kiki’s day off. While Jenny might not understand Kiki’s reasoning perfectly, she loves her twin and is fine with covering her. Steven spots Kiki running on the beach, this time without pizzas in her hand, glowing with happiness and clearly well-rested. Pleased but bleary, Steven falls asleep on the spot as Jenny pokes him in concern. End episode.
As far as episodes that don’t advance the overarching plot go, I’d definitely choose today’s cheesy variety over yesterday’s cute, but ultimately pointless and petty one. The conflict between twin sisters Kiki and Jenny is a lot more natural and common (and its resolution more valuable to Steven Universe’s young audience) than the problem between Kofi and Fryman, which seems to have been invented just for “Restaurant Wars” and has little relation to the messy emotional realities that this show tackles with such grace.
We’ve seen that Kiki is gentle and quiet, so Kiki as someone so self-sacrificing and self-effacing that her mental health suffers is a reasonable extension of her personality. We’ve also seen that Jenny can be impulsive and loud, so making her someone that doesn’t necessarily recognize her impact on others’ behavior is also a reasonable extension of her personality. It’s notable that Jenny isn’t villainized - instead, Kiki is rightfully reminded that she should tell those she loves how she feels. It’s no one’s job to be a doormat, but it’s no one’s job to be a mindreader either.
The "In Too Deep" Steven Universe special event for season 3 kicked off with “Watermelon Island” and “Gem Drill” back to back and ended with “Hit the Diamond.” Cartoon Network is delivering the "Summer of Steven" in the biggest Stevenbomb yet. Steven Universe will be airing new episodes every single weeknight for over a month, July 18 through Aug. 12, so make sure to check back with iDigitalTimes every weeknight after Steven Universe airs for recaps, analysis and news.
