Crack the Whip! The show's 96th episode, and the second episode in the third week of the "Steven's Summer Adventures" event. And OH MY GOD.



MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. IF YOU HAVEN'T CAUGHT UP WITH THE SERIES, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!!!



Where do I even BEGIN with this one? Okay. Let's try something a little different, and get the NEGATIVES out the way first. The character models are horrendously off in this episode in some scenes.



And that wraps up the negatives.



This episode actually picks up RIGHT where Gem Hunt left off. Pearl and Garnet are returning to The Great North to try and find Jasper, who has been going around poofing corrupted gems. This puts Amethyst in charge of Steven and Connie for the day. Even though Amethyst is extremely irresponsible and tells them to take the day off, they decide to train anyway. Until Amethyst uses food to entice them out on a day of fun. Their day of fun is pretty standard, until... freaking BIGG'S JASPER shows up literally out of the briny blue, followed by OUR Jasper and her corrupted companion.



These two monsters were literally seen in the previous episode. Amethyst poofs the Bigg's monster, and then things get CRAZY. Jasper literally beats the SHIT out of Amethyst, both physically and mentally. And how does it end? Amethyst gets POOFED. It's VERY rare that one of the main gems on this show has actually gotten POOFED in a fight. As each episode passes, I can see the odds of Jasper redemption melting away little by little.



Jasper is literally planning to SHATTER Amethyst, until Steven and Connie intervene and... BAM! Stevonnie. Stevonnie then proceeds to beat the shit out of Jasper, Jasper then uses her corrupted companion that Steven and Connie were previously beating the shit out of, Jasper beats the shit out of it briefly, mounts it, and then Stevonnie beats the shit out of both of them. This poofs the corrupted companion, but not Jasper, who is EXTREMELY resilient. The episode ends with Amethyst reforming and Jasper retreating into the ocean, stating that Jaspers never give up, and always get what they want.



Wow. When I was watching this episode, I was literally like... oh for heaven's sake it's going to be filler. With all of Steven, Connie and Amethyst's moments of pissing around Beach City, going to the big donut, jet-skiing... then BOOM. EVERYTHING CHANGES once Bigg's emerges. This episode really does change as fast as the CRACK OF A WHIP. And man, it sure fooled me. I REALLY had absolutely NO IDEA this episode would take this direction. It shows that the writers of this show CAN still surprise me.



When I say that Jasper beats the shit out of Amethyst, I REALLY mean it. Amethyst is kicked repeatedly, punched over and over, rolled over like a rug, thrown to the ground, and eventually head-butted into a limbless cloud, all whilst being called her a failure, a runt, an embarrassment, a defect, and a product of Rose having very low standards. If you've seen "On the Run", you'll really know the power of these words. Amethyst had some REAL self-esteem issues about all of this back then. After that episode, she became much more sure of herself. The episode "Too Far" was a minor setback, but ultimately, she got over that too. But this was just too much for her. Being called all these things and having the living shit beat out of her set her self-esteem right back to square one. Instead of staying calm, Amethyst got mad and attempted to beat the shit out of Jasper, only to get the shit beat out of her ten-fold.



And at the end, when Amethyst reforms and sees Stevonnie already did the job, she closes off this episode by saying, "You didn't need me at all..." in a VERY hurt way. Jasper said some REALLY fucked up stuff to her, and it CLEARLY left a big imprint that I am guessing will be the focus of tonight's episode (the staff have confirmed that we ARE in an Amethyst arc now).



We really haven't had that many fight scenes this season at all. There was Malachite vs Alexandrite, and that's really... about it. I mean, yeah Jasper briefly tussled with the gem monster in Gem Hunt, and in that episode I complained we didn't get to see enough action, but now I realize they were saving it all up for THIS episode. We FINALLY had an episode with loads of action, and man this was a GREAT fight scene. Because there were two fights going on at the same time, right next to each other. Although the camera focused more on Jasper and Amethyst's brawl, Steven and Connie were also fighting the corrupted gem.



Connie ultimately took home from Gem Hunt that she failed the mission. Which was surprising, given how Pearl tried to comfort her. Also, we don't see much of Pearl in this episode, but the short time she is here was golden, as usual. Her reaction when she realized she forgot all about Connie's sword training was another crowning Pearl moment this season.



Even Steven and Connie training at the start was interesting. Steven actually uses his floating power, and Connie is able to deflect a load of Steven's shields and send them right back at him. Also, Steven pulls a TON of shields in this episode. But wow, this episode REALLY had me fooled by how light-hearted and silly it was in its first half. It really felt like a throwback to episodes like "On the Run" that made you feel it was going to be a goofy, silly episode, then absolutely SUCKER-PUNCHED you in the second half. When Jasper was beating the shit out of Amethyst and talking smack to her, you REALLY feel her pain. She's basically Jasper's cat toy in that moment!



Overall, between Jasper's sudden appearance, Amethyst getting poofed, and Stevonnie, this episode had QUITE a few surprises. And some REALLY great action sequences. This was the best episode in a LONG time, and definitely one of this season's standout episodes, which was really unexpected for an episode that was seemingly going to be about Steven, Amethyst and Connie having a day of fun on the boardwalk. Instead it ended in misery for Amethyst.



Oh Crewniverse, don't ever change.



Stray Observations

-Amethyst shapeshifted as Lars and totally had a flirt voice on at one point.

-Sadie was literally singing a line from "Pepe's Burgers". Wow that's two episodes in a row they had someone sing a line from an old song.

-Jasper is trying to build up an army of corrupted gems, but the Crystal Gems already have hundreds poofed and bubbled away back at the temple!

-Sour Cream totally got Bigg's'd.

-"Very irresponsible, Pearl" -Amethyst

-Amethyst has eyes on her feet now.

-"Pearlfect". That's a joke I should have made!