In the double premiere of Steven Universe’s new season and the launch of the “In Too Deep” special event, we saw Steven astrally project himself into little watermelon Stevens in “Watermelon Island” and take down the Cluster armed with a very big drill and the power of love and understanding in “ Gem Drill.” In trailers, previews, and sneak peeks for new Steven Universe episode “Same Old World,” we see Steven and Lapis sharing some quality time together as Steven tries to find a place on Earth that Lapis might like. Does he succeed?
“Same Old World” starts with Peridot giving a gushing, enthusiastic description of her and Steven’s encounter with the Cluster to the attentive Crystal Gems. (“And Steven was all, my feelings!” ) She graciously allows Steven to tell his part of the story, but Steven is distracted by his concern for Lapis Lazuli. He goes to check on her as she sleeps in the barn.
Garnet follows, comforting Steven with a gentle reminder that Lapis will need time to recover after “the emotional and physical strain of that type of fusion.” Steven accepts this, but still camps out just outside the barn in the most adorable little caterpillar sleeping bag you’ve ever seen. It’s a great spot: it means he catches Lapis just before she flies away. Steven is disappointed, but understanding, and he wistfully watches her go.
The next scene is Peridot, who announces that she is not interested in living with the Crystal Gems as she is now accustomed to the barn and wishes to fix it up. Greg and the Crystal Gems are all packed into Greg’s van to head home, but Steven opts to follow along with Lion. He takes his hot dog duffel bag (what a perfect accompaniment to his famous cheeseburger backpack) and marches around the barn, searching for his big pink feline friend. (“I have a big steak here in my hand for you! Whoops, I dropped it, and it fell out of existence.”)
While searching for Lion, Steven sees Lapis on the roof of a grain tower (water tower? I’m from New York, okay). Lapis seems melancholy. She has nowhere to go; she can’t go back to Homeworld, but she’s not a Crystal Gem and she can’t stay here. Steven protests that she can go anywhere she wants and rattles off a few names of places: Aqua Town, Bayburg, Surf City, Sea City. (Why, Steven Universe, how positively diluvian.)
While Steven only knows the tri-state area, he holds up his GPS-enabled phone with a grin. “Ready, Freddy?” he asks. “My name’s Lapis,” she responds in some bafflement before they take off together. Cute.
Lapis and Steven explore the countryside, Empire City, and even Jersey.
Each time, Lapis doesn’t seem to be feeling it, but each time, Steven shares the wonders of each locations through his eyes. The countryside has acorn pies and squirrel friends and beautiful, color-changing leaves. Empire City has glamorous coffee shop jobs and wacky roommates. And Jersey, in one of the funniest Steven Universe bits ever, has smog and, well, Jerseyites. “The people here seem to hate the Earth too!” Steven says brightly, right on cue as a Jerseyite yells, “Quit flying in our sky, you mooks!” Too real, too true.
Without committing, Lapis heads up above the clouds, where she livens up and tosses Steven around playfully. They pass over the ocean, where Lapis sees the Galaxy Warp. She seems arrested by the sight, her grip on Steven relaxing dangerously. She almost drops him before she catches herself, alighting gently on the Galaxy Warp.
“This is where I was abandoned,” Lapis says. She paces forward, letting everything become subsumed by water, and activates her mirror-like powers to show Steven her story.
“I was only meant to visit for a short time, but I got caught in the middle of a war. It was awful. I tried to run, but… I was picked up by a Homeworld soldier and confused for a Crystal Gem and used as a tool. They’d ask me, show us your base. Where is your leader. I didn’t know, and I couldn’t say I’m not one of them. It soon became clear there was no hope in stopping the rebellion. All of the Homeworld Gems left. In all the panic of escaping Earth, I was left behind. And there I stayed. Freedom in my sight but out of reach for ages. Until I was found.” (By Pearl.)
Telling the tale exhausts and depresses Lapis. She takes Steven back home. She still feels trapped, she says. But Steven points out that she’s not underwater or in a mirror: she’s free and whole, and even if she is on Earth, she has the choice of what to do and where to go. After centuries in a mirror and what must have felt like centuries fused with Jasper, Lapis scarcely seems certain what having a choice even means, and self-deprecatingly comments that it’s funny how little of Earth she saw.
“That’s not funny. That’s super sad,” says Steven sorrowfully. Oh, kiddo.
Ultimately, Lapis decides that she actively wants to see this planet she knows so little of, and that she actively wants to make this place her home. It sounds like the first real choice Lapis Lazuli has made for herself in centuries. Cue Peridot, who waltzes over to see what’s going on. Lapis thought she could make literally this place , the barn, her home, but Peridot’s already put her claim in.
Looks like Steven’s stuck between a rock and another rock.
We all knew that Lapis’s story would be heavy, given how Lapis alternates between defeated by circumstance and completely jaded by it. Still: years kept captive, centuries forgotten, more years kept captive, and finally the living nightmare of trying to keep Jasper prisoner in a volatile fusion are heavy stuff. And that’s without us knowing why Lapis, with her extraordinary power over water that would give her such an advantage on Earth, was on this planet in the first place. She’s designed like a member of Blue Diamond’s Court and seems to carry herself with the melancholy grace exhibited by Blue Diamond’s Pearl and even Sapphire. What's going on with all that?
But Lapis has made the same enthusiastic, assertive and active choice to renounce her old allegiance and make a new one -- not to the Crystal Gems per se, but to Earth and to Steven, whose rose-tinted glasses make everything shine. We’ve seen Lapis Lazuli give up, held prisoner by Jasper on the Homeworld ship, so resigned to her dire fate she turned away from even the hope of rescue. But now we see her make a different, healthier choice, prompted by Steven’s enthusiasm and affection. For a cynical, weary Gem like Lapis, his childlike positivity must ache as much as it soothes, but all the same, Steven’s optimism rubs off on Lapis in empowering ways. It turns out that Steven’s love is just as much a healing power as his mother’s tears, no matter how deep in the soul that wound lies.
For me two questions remain: where did Lion go, and will Jasper even be open to the same transformative love and affection that has worked such wonders on Peridot, Lapis Lazuli, and even the monstrous Cluster? Is Steven going to hug Yellow Diamond into loving the Earth??
The "In Too Deep" special event for Steven Universe began Thursday May 12 at 7 PM with “Watermelon Island” and “ Gem Drill” back to back and continues for the next three weeks with one episode per week. Cartoon Network has also promised a " Summer of Steven" running June through August.
Make sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com after next week’s episode of Steven Universe this Thursday, May 26 at 7 PM, titled “Barn Mates.”
