“You ruined my lipstick!”

Sandwiched between the Week of Sardonyx and the Cluster Arc is the Mombo Combo, two episodes storyboarded by Raven Molisee and Paul Villeco about Steven and a friend dealing with that friend’s mother issues. This is the bad one.

I really wish it wasn’t. I like Sadie, and this is her first episode that isn’t also about Lars. Kate Micucci, who I first knew as half of Garfunkel and Oates, finally gets to show off her singing voice in the show. Speaking of, we get a song from Olivia Olson, whose soulful pipes helped put Rebecca Sugar’s early cartoon songs on the map back in her Adventure Time days. The plot of the episode revolves around Beach-a-Palooza, and my favorite episode is Steven and the Stevens. And one of the acts is Nanefua as a dummy that tells pizza puns. How did this possibly fail?

Well. Remember Annoying Steven? That kid from the very beginning of the first season of the show? Y’know, the one who had no idea how to read a room and massive gaps in empathy, who was killed off in Steven and the Stevens and replaced with the Steven we know and love? Well.

Uh.

It turns out.

It turns out he wasn’t fully dead, folks.

Character development be damned, Annoying Steven is back, and no episode could have recovered from this. He takes what might have been one of the greats and bludgeons it like a piñata, but he’s too stupid to realize there’s no candy inside. I. Hate. This. Kid. And the worst part, even beyond the general “it’s been over fifty episodes since Serious Steven” of it all, is that it doesn’t even make sense within the logic of the episode for him to act this way.

Not only do we know he loves the stage, the episode reminds us that he does by mentioning that he’s performed at Beach-a-Palooza before, then reinforces it through Nanefua’s confirmation that a surprise appearance screams Steven. So why does he put all his effort into pushing Sadie into performing a solo when he clearly wants to perform? If his motive is that he thinks she’d like it, why wouldn’t he suggest a duet? The guy clearly enjoys singing at Beach-a-Palooza and is used to teamwork. He just put on a show with Jamie. Yet he never even broaches the possibility.

He also just spent an episode with Connie’s overbearing mother, so he really oughtta be able to recognize Sadie’s discomfort. This isn’t at all a knock on Barb Miller’s character, even if she’s the antagonist here. We’ve only met her once before in Love Letters, where Kate Flannery gives her a gruff but wholesomely funny debut. We also know her indirectly as a cornerstone of Lion 3: her sandwiches prompt Steven to think about his own mom, and the heartwarming ending involves Sadie calling her. It’s terrific that Barb’s outgoing nature and devotion to her daughter, which are really all we know about her once we put together that she’s Sadie’s mom, are both felt in the reveal that she’s a Type A cheerleader mom.

It makes so much sense that Sadie grew up in a house with this person. She’s quiet because her mom is loud enough for the both of them. She’s easily pushed into doing things because she knows it’s easier to just go with it. I am all about this character development. But why isn’t Steven on Sadie’s side? Wouldn’t he encourage her to stand up to her mom? Wouldn’t he prompt a change through friendship rather than by doubling down on Barb’s behavior?

Steven is not the main character of this story, but unlike in Nightmare Hospital or the Week of Sardonyx, he sure does think he is. And unfortunately the episode agrees. Nowhere is this more obvious than the conclusion, and to emphasize how profoundly awful it is I’m gonna go ahead and spoil post-Disney Renaissance film Brother Bear, which is somehow not the only mediocre Disney movie involving a human turning into a bear if we’re counting Pixar post-acquisition. Trust me, you’re not missing much.

Anyway, Brother Bear involves a Big Dark Secret where our hero is hiding from his cub friend that, as a man, he killed said cub’s mother. We know that eventually the truth will be revealed, and it’s gonna be this big emotional scene, but son of a gun, Phil Collins is doing the soundtrack, and why would you have a well-written difficult conversation between our two main characters when you could have this?

Sadie’s Song doesn’t quite go full Phil Collins Phull Collins, but there’s nothing like having your episode’s resolution drowned out by a song. Sadie and Barb deserve more than literally three seconds (yes, I counted, it was easy because it was literally three seconds) of silent talking while Steven has his moment in the sun. But that’s all we get.

Part of what makes this episode feel so underdeveloped is that song. Like, not the song itself, which mind you is only okay, but the fact that we hear it three times (which for the record is over a quarter of the episode’s runtime) and two of those times, nothing of substance is happening. In the first, yeah, Sadie is singing, but it’s a pretty slow burn for the single beat of “Steven realizes Sadie likes to sing alone.” The second is actually the only important instance, because it’s played over a quick montage that’s necessary to include because there’s so little time to actually develop the conflict without a montage. Which, sure, but is this really how we’re using Olivia Olson on this series?

Anyway. The second unsubstantial version of the song is Steven’s. I’ll admit that there’s an attempt at depth here. The fact that it’s a boy dressed in feminine clothes is great and all, but this is the only time Steven Universe’s commentary on gender roles feels super forced, and more importantly, I don’t want him to be triumphant here. He’s a jerk who doesn’t care about his friend until she shouts at him that she’s hurt. Is that really the version of Steven we want to earn this moment?

This iteration of the song ends with Sadie singing alone with Steven, which would be great if she didn’t just get shafted by the very same song. Like, I get that it’s juxtaposition between Steven’s flashiness and her down-to-earth singing, but what does that tell us? That’s she’s happy singing alone? We already knew that. That Steven now accepts this? He should have done so from the start.

We obviously need to hear this song a few times in an episode about singing this song, but without a stronger story beneath it, the repetition just feels like padding. The message is muddied, the main character is treated like a side character, and Steven is the worst. This one’s just painful to sit through.

The best part about this episode is that the Cluster Arc is immediately after it so you don’t have to feel bad just skipping right over it. Until the you realize it’s a critical moment in Sadie’s development, so it’s not even something you can easily miss without losing a ton of what makes her evolution so impactful. There’s just no winning here.



At least it’s over, and while new fans will have to get through it, I don’t have to watch it again. Rest in torment, Annoying Steven.



Future Vision!

Sadie Killer and the Suspects might be the best thing the show does with its human brigade, and it’s so lame that this is where it starts. Not only does this episode introduce Sadie as a singer, but it shows her nervousness specifically around the Cool Kids, which turns around in the sweetest way when they become the Suspects soon after a jam session in The Good Lars. Most importantly, Sadie’s Song’s companion episode The Big Show plays the Sadie/Barb dynamic so beautifully, showing how much both have grown since their big talk here. It’s a terrific episode, but it probably would’ve been more terrific if we maybe, y’know, got to see more than a glimpse of the big talk?

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…



So apparently we’re meant to believe this episode takes place a year after Steven and the Stevens as opposed to immediately after Frybo, when Steven was still an oblivious kid. What a weird mistake to make.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

One of the many disappointing elements of Island Adventure’s casual depiction of domestic abuse is that it prevents Sadie’s Song from being my least favorite episode of Steven Universe.

Poor Sadie. I promise I like this character. At least we have Sadie Killer to look forward to.

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5. Horror Club

4. Fusion Cuisine

3. House Guest

2. Sadie’s Song

1. Island Adventure