Warning: This review will contain spoilers, and also I am going to be talking about depression quite a bit in this review.

Stray Observations

Future Boy Zoltron. The 108th episode of Steven Universe and the third "Post-Steven's Summer Adventures" episode. This episode aired a week ago, and I apologize for not writing this review sooner. This is a difficult one, and I've been so motherfracking busy. Also, it's not like I didn't write a review in the last week, because I finally FINALLY got to my "Alone at Sea" review.This episode is about when Steven goes to Funland and sees Smiley setting up a new attraction - a robot that can supposedly tell the future. It's extremely old. And it doesn't work. Basically you pay your quarter and it gives a canned response. Yeah it's one of those machines that's a total rip-off and people actually buy it. But Steven accidentally breaks the machine. Not wanting to be banned from Funland again, Steven steps in as Zoltron. Obviously he is able to generate much better responses.And there is a brief moment here where we see Sadie and Lars. Lars wants to skip work and go to a movie WITH SADIE. Guys, Lars ACTUALLY learned something from "The New Lars". I guess Lars being possessed by Steven is what was needed to ACTUALLY make Lars a better person. It's little touches like this that make this cartoon stand out above others. I hope Steven never loses these going forward.After Steven empties out the queue, he feels glad that he was able to help so many people. Then this mysterious man appears. Pacing, guys! This is main plot of this episode, Steven helping this man out. And the timestamp at which he first appears is 5:03. Almost half the episode gone. Too much time was spent setting this up. This may not be the WORST paced episode of the show, but they should have probably set this up in three minutes, four tops. I think the part where Steven helps the townsfolk is fine, but I think it took too long to get to the part where Steven breaks the machine and has to step in as Zoltron.Steven meets this mysterious man, and he speaks in riddles with a British accent. And I absolutely love this voice acting. I am not really interested in the casting of this show and guest stars or anything like that, but I can tell that Mr. Frowney was probably voiced by some famous British guest star. After asking several really complex questions that Steven is unable to answer, Garnet (who ironically also speaks with a British accent) suddenly shows up, and transfers her future vision to Steven through her kiss. Garnet's brief appearance in this episode is one of the highlights.Steven tries to use his temporary future vision to see three possible futures for Frowney, but they're all sad. It's interesting to note that every time Steven has used future vision, its manifested itself differently. This was probably the least interesting visually, but still cool nonetheless. Frowney finally says he was here to see Mr. Smiley, but gets on a bus to leave. Mr. Smiley appears and Steven says that Frowney was here, and he's about to leave town. Steven then looks into the future again to see outcomes for Smiley, but they're all sad again. Smiley chases Frowney, and they reunite.Now, if you're any older than ten, you probably realized that Mr. Frowney suffers clinical depression. I myself do not have depression, but I know a LOT of people who do. And I can say they actually showed it pretty spot on. Minus the fact this episode grossly oversimplified the issue. And that is probably my biggest gripe with the episode. This show is no stranger to handling some very deep themes. Heck in the previous episode they handled inner demons MASTERFULLY. They've also handled discrimination, grief, PTSD, abusive relationships, consent, anxiety, bereavement, and even addiction, all very well, better than many ADULT shows are able to. But I feel this time, they just didn't do it as well as they usually have. Basically, they say that Mr. Frowney could never be happy, even off-stage. Because he simply isn't made that way. Guys, with the right therapy and stuff, ANYONE can make a full recovery from ANYTHING. No matter how far gone they are.It turns out Smiley and Frowney were a comedy duo back in the day. Their polar opposite personalities bounced off each other, and they tried everything to make it work, but they were too different to make it work off-stage. It was nice to finally get some Smiley backstory, but personally, I just don't care that much about Mr. Smiley. Throughout the show he's one of those characters that's kinda just been there. Yes he runs Funland and Funland Arcade... all by himself... but he's never really done much. So really, I don't have much of a reason to care much about his backstory. But I mean, any backstory drop is at least mildly interesting.Their act didn't work because Frowney thought Smiley was turning his depression into a joke, and Smiley felt Frowney was making him sad. At the end, however, they DID find it in themselves to reconcile and do a bit of an act in front of Steven, which Steven sees (by future vision? Has it worn off yet?) them onstage together. The episode ends with Steven returning to the Zoltron machine, as he still broke a machine that cost thousands of dollars.Now, lots of people, and I mean LOTS of people, have looked into that ending and have concluded that there was some sort of romance between Mr. Smiley and Mr. Frowney. I really don't believe this is the case, personally. I think this is just another Bubblegum/Marceline event. I know this show features gay stuff quite a bit, but not EVERYTHING and EVERYBODY on this show is gay. I honestly believe that they were two friends that had a falling out. And before you go around calling me a homophobe, don't forget that "The Answer" is one of my favorite episodes of all time, and the gayness of the episode makes it fifty times better. I am a straight ally to the LGBT community. This show absolutely does feature a lot of gayness, but I think sometimes people see a bit too much into it. There is no sign that there was ever any romance between them.And I will talk again about them oversimplifying the issue here. The message of this episode really comes across as "Some people can just never be happy and there's nothing you can do about it". Which I have to call bullshit on. Anyone can be happy. Anyone can make a full recovery from clinical depression. Even Quentin Frowney if he had the right therapy and made big changes to his thinking patterns. But from what I've heard, season 4 will have quite a bit about self-pity. So let's hope they explore this deeper, as I feel it was really brushed over in this episode.Ultimately, this episode just wasn't as interesting, exciting or feelsy as it should have been. I like the little touches, I like Mr. Frowney as a character, this episode definitely has its moments, and I can give this episode points for TRYING, but come on, this show can do much better in handling deeper themes, as has been proven time and time again. This episode was a little disappointing quite frankly, and in the end, just balances out to decent. It was complacent. It floated. It was okay. It wasn't great, it wasn't bad, it was just okay.-The lucky numbers are 16, 47, and. What could this mean?-"The robot came to life!!" -Mr. Frowney. A funny line from this episode said by the show's saddest character to date.-I really thought this episode was going to be a parody of the film "Big".-Suitcase Sam makes a brief appearance in this episode, as does Ian Jones-Quartey.-When Smiley turns Frowney upside down, Frowney laughs. An upside down smile is a frown. Nice one Smiley.-I bet Frowney and Smiley aren't their real names.-Onion's basically become nothing but a master criminal. I cannot wait to see "Onion Gang".