“And then you have to keep going.”

This is a good episode of Steven Universe. It’s also a bad one.

The Week of Sardonyx does so well at maintaining its momentum until Historical Friction grinds it to a halt to give us a great Steven and Jamie episode, but a lousy Pearl episode. We’ve spent Keystone Motel and Onion Friend with Garnet and Amethyst, so now its Pearl’s, right? Well, um, sort of? She’s there? And she’s the only Crystal Gem we see, so I guess she’s the episode’s Gem by default? But the focus here is so indirect that it leaves Friend Ship spending way too much time catching us up on Pearl’s status instead of sailing to the conclusion of the story.

Still, that’s a tricky thing to hold against the episode itself, because it’s actually pretty wonderful outside the context of the week-long arc. So let’s talk about what works before getting into why it fails in the big picture.

It’s only been ten episodes since Jamie’s first starring role, and by design he’s one of the more bombastic citizens we hang out with, so it’s impressive that his screen time in Historical Friction never feels like overkill. A big part of that is the direct continuity with Love Letters: he’s pursuing local theater, just like Garnet suggested! And we’re not spending an episode dwelling on her, which would be miserable!

Otherwise, we can thank Eugene Cordero’s continued ability to project real pathos onto such a goofy dramatist (and his impersonations of Estelle, Deedee Magno Hall, and Mopchaela Dietz don’t hurt). He captures the childlike passion that goes into everything Jamie does, and we can really enjoy it this time because, unlike his interest in Garnet, he actually has a chance at success here.

This episode easily could’ve been Jamie going full diva for his big break and having an attitude with Steven, and I’m thrilled that we don’t go anywhere near that direction. Yes, Jamie’s dedicated to putting on the best performance, but it’s realized in his valid criticisms of Dewey’s script instead of any annoyance with Steven’s hammy acting. Far from it, he welcomes Steven to share his passion with open arms, and puts his career hobby at risk by rebelling against his financial backer for the sake of the stage. For such a loud guy, there’s something quietly heroic about his commitment to what he loves.

It helps that the play is hilarious. Not in a way the characters intend (sorry, I know Steven wrote the jokes) but also not in a way where it feels too mean to laugh at the low production values. Look at these costumes. I somehow forgot before rewatch that Amethyst is a mop with an amethyst taped on and I’m mad at myself for it.

I’m also a sucker for characters telling in-universe stories and seeing how they’ve interpreted events in their own history; while used to different narrative ends, there’s smatterings of The Ember Island Players in Jamie’s production as we see the origin of Beach City’s settlers. And a play is one of Steven Universe’s many clever devices to tell pre-Steven lore, from video tapes to sketches from half-healed Corrupted Gems to weird moon dreams: here, we get that Beach City origin story, and a vague glimpse of Obsidian in action.

Seeing Mayor Dewey bouncing off Jamie is the sort of “combine two characters we’ve never seen interact” thing I loved about Connie and Pearl in Sworn to the Sword, and in this instance the shared trait between our leads is their stubbornness. And weirdness. But everyone in Beach City is some degree of weird, so let’s go with stubbornness. Dewey and Jamie stridently define themselves by what they do, refusing to let anything like “lack of talent” get in the way. This isn’t to say they’re terrible at mayoring and acting, but they sure aren’t as great as they project themselves to be. So it makes sense that they’d butt heads over how this production should go: the politician thinks it should be a campaign ad, and the actor thinks it should be true art. Art wins, because spoiler alert this is a show made by artists, but Dewey is wisely portrayed as more foolish than mean as tensions rise, and (as we’ll see in Dewey Wins) is willing to admit when he’s wrong.

This is the first collaboration between Hilary Florido and Jesse Zuke (credited as Lauren), twin masters of the Meaningful Hangout Episode (see: Log Date 7 15 2, Too Short to Ride, Last One Out of Beach City, Gem Harvest, and Beta’s magnificent art exhibit Morp Show), so it’s no wonder the goofy story of two friends putting on a show works. More than anything else, this episode is just sweet. I love how much Jamie and Steven encourage each other. I love that Barb gets Jamie’s autograph backstage. Heck, I love how many people just show up for his play; it’s not a packed beach, but local theater is a tough sell. People are nice to each other and everyone wins, which is perfectly fine every now and then on a show like this.

Buuuuuuuuuuut maybe not during the Week of Sardonyx, where the entire point is that not every issue resolves this easily?

Like, I guess I get the desire to lighten things up a bit, but Keystone Motel and Onion Friend have plenty of laughs to balance out the Week of Sardonyx’s inherent tension. This is the most we’ve seen of Pearl since Cry for Help, and we barely see anything. This episode could fit pretty much anywhere else in the series for how generically her sad mood is portrayed. The message of the play, and of the episode, is that everyone messes up and it takes bravery to keep trying anyway. It’s a good lesson, and it certainly applies to Pearl here, but it applies to Pearl everywhere. It’s honestly what I admire most about Pearl in general; even when she lets her sadness consume her, she manages to pull out of it time and again. We’ve known about this since Coach Steven.

What we need here is specificity. We don’t get to know how she’s really doing these days, how the isolation from Garnet is affecting her, how she feels about her changing relationship with Amethyst, how embarrassed she might be in front of Steven, how Steven actually feels about this awkward situation…seriously, I’d take any of those, or anything in a similar vein. This episode shouldn’t make any sense without seeing Cry for Help.

The structure itself isn’t even a problem; Onion Friend proves that you can have a meaningful Gem Episode without actually spending much time with one. Even the past acquaintance element shows the different levels of focus between the past two episodes: Vidalia is Amethyst’s old friend, but William Dewey is someone all three Gems knew. Pearl just happened to be the one that was home when Steven came in with the script. Any way you slice it, this is a serious weak link in the Week of Sardonyx’s five-part plot.

I’m aware that I’m writing all of this about an episode where Steven literally says “art doesn’t always need a reason,” and as someone whose favorite episode of the series is Steven and the Stevens. But sometimes art needs a reason, and this would’ve been a nice time for it.

I never enjoy criticizing episodes for what they aren’t, because I’m not here to write fanfiction or pretend for a moment that I could do a better job writing this show than any of the storyboarders on their worst days. But Historical Friction could’ve been an all-time great if it finally gave us some deeper insight into how Pearl sees her own toxic neuroses in the aftermath of a horrible action, and instead it’s just…good. Which is good! But it’s sort of a bummer for such a strong week.

Future Vision!



Turns out Buddy isn’t just Dewey’s nickname for his shipmate, but an actual historic explorer whom Steven will always envision as Jamie.



Dewey and Jamie don’t only share stubbornness in this episode, they share a dance of sorrow in Reunited!

I’ve never been to this…how do you say…school?



I’m honestly not sure how an episode with Peridot in a stageplay wouldn’t be my new favorite, Steven and the Stevens be damned. Her foray into improv in Letters to Lars shows serious promise.

So do I judge this on its own merits (good) or in the context of its surroundings (not so great)? The deciding factor is rewatchability, and on that front I still enjoy Historical Friction more than I don’t. I definitely like it more than Love Letters, regardless: this is premium Jamie, unhindered by a plot where we’re rooting against him. But I’d be lying if I said its weird flow-breaking placement didn’t keep it from ranking higher.

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