Week 4 of the biggest Stevenbomb ever continues with new Steven Universe episode “Bubbled,” starring Steven, Eyeball, and the endless void of space. The “Summer of Steven” began July 18 and gave us six new episodes, while Week 2 of “Steven’s Summer Adventures” gave us some time with Beach City citizenry before Jasper’s malevolent return. Last week, Jasper got up to shenanigans in “Gem Hunt” and “Crack the Whip,” while Amethyst broke our hearts and Bismuth broke them harder. Between “Beta,” “Earthling” and “Back to the Moon,” we’ve got more Steven Universe revelations than you could shake a stick at.
“Bubbled” begins with Steven floating wildly through space, just off the heels of “Back to the Moon.” He hides himself in his bubble to protect himself, watching the other Rubies tumble through space. The “eyeball” Ruby launches herself onto Steven’s bubble and starts pacing and ranting around his bubble, yelling about her report. She blames Steven for the result of the mission.
Steven apologizes for sending her platoon into space, but their conversation devolves until both angrily agree that they can’t wait to die alone in space. Eyeball yells that she should never have come back, but she couldn’t believe the Crystal Gems were still on Earth and that Rose Quartz might still be alive. She hoped Jasper might have answers, but it was all another trick. Like Jasper, Eyeball wanted closure too.
Steven admits that he knows where Rose Quartz is and then nervously explains that she… is him. Eyeball doesn’t believe it. “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me four times, you already fooled me and you can’t fool me again.”
Steven tries to convince Ruby by summoning Rose Quartz’s shield and showing her a photo of Rose on his phone so Eyeball can see the mother-son resemblance. Eyeball takes it all as cruel humor. Then they hit an asteroid field, sending Steven’s bubble pinballing through the debris. An asteroid gets Eyeball right in the, well, eyeball. Steven concentrates hard and pulls her into his bubble, then offers to heal her cracked Gem. That’s what it takes: Eyeball believes that Steven is Rose Quartz. She starts laughing hysterically at their situation.
Once the hysterical laughter ends, the attempted murder begins. Eyeball pulls a little dagger out of her eye and launches herself at Steven to retaliate for the shattering of Pink Diamond. As Steven tries to run, Eyeball cackles at the idea of being given her own Pearl for killing Pink Diamond’s killer. Steven tries to get Eyeball to understand: they’re lost in space and she won’t be able to get home anyway. Unable to stop Eyeball through words, Steven dissolves the bubble long enough to send Eyeball flying and then closes the bubble around himself, scared and alone.
What looks like the Ruby ship locates and pulls him in. It’s the Crystal Gems, looking panicked. Pearl and Amethyst clutch him, both sobbing, and Garnet takes off her glasses to wipe away her tears as “Love Like You” plays over a montage of their relief.
After the big touching reunion, Steven asks why nobody told him about Pink Diamond. Garnet explains that they did what they had to do during the war, and the Earth belonged to Pink Diamond, so Rose had to destroy her to save the planet. While Rose didn’t always do what was best for her, she did what was best for Earth, even if it meant shattering someone.
So, like…. free my girl Bismuth?
Eerie and sweet by turns, this episode seems to provide some kind of closure to the heaviness and revelations of the previous two by giving us another perspective on Pink Diamond’s shattering via Eyeball. The background work is notably beautiful, with dreamy shots of space that look straight out of concept art for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. While in “Back to the Moon,” it didn’t look like any of the Gems knew about the shattering, Garnet either knew about it or has come to terms with it quickly enough to explain it to Steven in a way he understands. Ending the episode with the credits song, and with Steven encased in bounds and bounds of love, brings us back to the heart of it all: love, love that battles and love that wins.
But still, like… free Bismuth. Introducing more context to the discussion around shattering by bringing Rose Quartz’s sins to the table can only be enriched by bringing Bismuth back. Shattering cannot only be okay when Rose Quartz does it. Let’s talk about it.
(And hey… if Jasper couldn’t get that closure she needed… can she please get clemency? Give her a shot at that closure? Some healing spit for that corruption? I’m still grieving the loss of our dynamic big buff cheeto puff and all the threat and antagonism she brought to the table. Her energy and the anticipation of her next appearance is much missed. How will they replace it? By bringing in more perfect, massive Jaspers? Yowza.)
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.
