The upcoming Steven Universe DVD, titled “The Return,” isn’t your standard smorgasboard of every episode ever aired chopped up into seasons and organized by air date. Instead, Rebecca Sugar, the creator of Steven Universe , hand-selected the following 12 episodes for inclusion in this special DVD:
1. Mirror Gem (season 1, episode 25): This episode marks the debut of Lapis Lazuli, a conflicted and moody Gem with the power to control water. Her story is inextricably tied to the Crystal Gem rebellion against Homeworld. If anyone’s got dirt on both sides of that war, it’s Lapis.
2. Ocean Gem (season 1, episode 26): In this episode, Lapis straight-up steals the ocean in a desperate bid to make it back to Homeworld. When Steven heals her Gem, Lapis forms wings of water and flies back home. This sets off Homeworld’s renewed interest in Earth.
3. Space Race (season 1, episode 28): This episode tells us a lot about Pearl: how much she loves Steven, how much she still misses her home, and how much she loves space. It also confirms that all the Galaxy Warps are still non-functional.
4. Lion 3: Straight to Video (season 1, episode 35): Steven finally gets to know his mother Rose a little better when he discovers a video that she left for him inside Lion’s mane. This isn’t Rose the Leader of the Rebellion, but the loving and warm Rose who explains that she loves Earth and she loves Steven. Rose has sacrificed her existence to bring Steven into the world.
5. Warp Tour (season 1, episode 36): This episode marks the debut of Peridot, whose droids are discovered in the warp streams by Steven. Her droids repair the Homeworld warp, but when Peridot arrives she notes that the location might be compromised. After she warps away, Garnet destroys the warp pad once more with feeling.
6. Alone Together (season 1, episode 37): This episode is the debut of Stevonnie, the beautiful and ambiguously-gendered fusion of Connie and Steven. A fusion that Pearl considers impossible and even inappropriate is welcomed by Garnet, herself a fusion.
7. On the Run (season 1, episode 40): This episode shows us where Earth-born Amethyst came from: the Gem Kindergarten, a sinister place Steven doesn’t fully understand. When Pearl freaks out over Amethyst bringing Steven to such a place, it’s revealed that Amethyst struggles with feelings of inferiority and self-hatred over her origins, which Homeworld-born Pearl tries to understand.
8. Marble Madness (season 1, episode 44): The “marbles” in the title refer to Peridot’s increasingly persistent droids, one of which Steven finally convinces the Crystal Gems to follow to its destination. Peridot attempts to reactivate the Kindergarten remotely via her droid, but the Gems stop her. Peridot shouts that she’ll report what she’s found.
9. Rose’s Scabbard (season 1, episode 45): In this episode we see how deep the bond between Pearl and Rose went. Pearl rejects the idea that Rose might ever have had secrets from her, and in her pain she even rejects Steven, but the episode ends with Pearl accepting comfort from Steven and sharing some old stories of his mother with him.
10. The Message (season 1, episode 49): In this episode, Greg helps the Crystal Gems decode a message that turns out to be from a distressed Lapis Lazuli, who warns them that Homeworld is very different now and that two more Gems are on their way who know Steven’s name - information that Lapis, in another sign of her mixed allegiance, did not share.
11. The Return (season 1, episode 51): In this episode, the Gems from Homeworld arrive: Peridot and Jasper. Greg tells Steven a little more about the rebellion. The Crystal Gems are technologically outmatched, and ultimately Jasper takes the Crystal Gems hostage.
12. Jailbreak (season 1, episode 52): The iconic last episode of the first season where we officially meet Ruby and Sapphire and all of the Gems break free. This is also the debut of Malachite, the monstrous and powerful fusion between Lapis and Jasper.
Two of these episodes, “Jailbreak” and “On the Run” made it to this list of my favorite episodes. The episodes selected all tie into Steven Universe ’s overarching plot mysteries: Lapis Lazuli, Amethyst and the Kindergarten, the mysterious figure of Rose, the secrets of the Rebellion and the return of non-Crystal Gems to Earth. That makes this DVD a great intro to some of the fun, unique plot elements that make Steven Universe such an appealing, approachable show.
Steven Universe: The Return DVD is available on June 7 for $14.97.
