The biggest Stevenbomb of all time has launched into its third week, with new Steven Universe episode “Steven vs. Amethyst” airing tonight. The “Summer of Steven” began July 18 and gave us six new episodes and Week 2 of “Steven’s Summer Adventures” gave us some time with Beach City citizenry before astonishing us with Jasper’s return. In week 3, we’ve seen that Jasper is up to some creepy business in “Gem Hunt,” times two in “Crack the Whip.” Now that Connie’s cleared to go on Gem missions, what’s next for Team Earth?
“Steven vs. Amethyst” is all about getting Amethyst’s confidence back and tackling some of the anger and inferiority issues that Jasper’s taunts have brought to the surface, while also exposing some of the same issues within Steven.
Noticeably unhappy after Stevonnie’s amazing victory against Jasper (and her own loss), Amethyst spends her time eating full jars of mayo and throwing eggs down the garbage disposal. But when Steven begs her to come to one of Pearl’s training sessions with him, she surprises him by doing so.
Pearl’s got a hilarious but effective training routine where Steven earns “Pearl Points” for punctuality, perseverance and positivity. Get enough Pearl Points and you earn a Pearl Prize Pouch. It’s hard to decide who’s more pleased with themselves: Pearl for coming up with all of this, or Steven for earning some “p’great” stuff from the Pearl Prize Pouch. (“P’mazing,” deadpans Amethyst).
Training begins, and Amethyst is baffled as Steven pulls ahead in all three of Pearl’s challenges. Pearl seems to think Amethyst is failing on purpose, giving her a wink and a nudge: “Going easy on him will build his confidence!” They must race, dodge Pearl holograms and fight off even more Pearl holograms, and Steven wins each time. Amethyst doesn’t say anything, but the look on her face speaks volumes.
Later that night, Steven invites Amethyst to play a video game with him. Dejectedly, she agrees. He is obviously throwing the match, oohing and awwing over her plays. When Amethyst points it out, Steven admits he was only trying to make her feel better.
“Great, and now you’re even more mature than me…. Now I’m the worst Crystal Gem,” says Amethyst. This hurts and offends Steven, but Amethyst tries to explain that she’s really just mad at herself, and when she’s mad at herself she fumbles everything she tries to do. Steven yells that he’s way worse than Amethyst, so they decide to fight to prove how terrible they are. Back in Pearl’s training ring, the competition is on.
Every time Amethyst does something, she derides herself while at the same time pointing out everything awesome that Steven does. For example, Steven puts spikes on his bubble and lodges himself in a pillar. But when Amethyst says it’s awesome, Steven yells that it was an accident. At one point Steven finally remembers to use his new floating power, which he often forgets he has, and almost floats away from the training ruins before Amethyst brings him back with her whip.
Finally they’re so exhausted they aim for each other, completely miss, and fall over onto the ground, laughing wearily at the sky. Amethyst admits that she knows what the problem is: she’s not what she’s supposed to be, and she can’t even be the thing she was built for. Steven commiserates: after all, he’s Not Rose Quartz, and that’s why he’s been working so hard.
The episode ends with Pearl bursting into the training are and screaming, “You’ve ruined the ruins!” Steven hangs his head: “I don’t think we’re gonna see that prize pack for awhile.” End of episode.
We’ve known for a while that Amethyst’s issues with herself run deep, but this episode really spelled them out for us. She becomes her own worst enemy, an ironic echo of her advice to Connie about being too much in her own head. Hearing her angrily dismiss her own cool moves while perfectly able to see what was awesome about Steven’s was painfully relatable.
While the episode closed on a positive note for Amethyst because she admitted her problem with openness and honesty, it didn’t come close to resolving it. But Amethyst does best when she’s able to get her emotions out, whatever they are, so I expect she’ll be okay for a bit after having it out.
Still, faced with Jasper as the living embodiment of combat superiority she was supposed to be, there’s no way the raw nerve of Amethyst’s self-esteem won’t get plucked again. Just as Pearl’s issues with her self-image and with Rose are too complicated to get wrapped up neatly in a single episode, Amethyst’s inferiority complex and self-hate deserve their own rich series of episodes to address. I just hope we get to see Amethyst at real peace with herself one day.
As a side note, I enjoyed that Steven expressed his hurt and offense freely. Standing up for himself proactively, even against those whom he loves, is an important lesson for him to learn. It’s heartbreaking to see how much his existence as Not Rose Quartz has impacted him. Kids really are sensitive to even unspoken currents within a household. Luckily, the communication between him and Amethyst remained clear and open through to the end of the episode, helping to lead to a positive resolution.
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 .” Now 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.
