Well, at least I can say we’re back to building up towards something, but…too little too late? Alright…I really don’t know how to feel about this batch of episodes. It’s the penultimate installment to the series finale. They were at least centered on something relevant, I’ll say that. They gave me a lot to think about, which is also good. But I have a lot of conflicted feelings about what’s transpired here that I don’t know if I can properly convey. Well, nothing else to do but jump in, I suppose.

Mr. Universe

This episode starts off with Steven and his father going on a road trip in the hopes it will help Steven find himself. We see a heartwarming montage of them bonding over their travels, set to a reprise of Dear Old Dad from earlier in the show. However, it doesn’t seem as though Steven is truly relishing the time. Greg then culminates the trip with a visit to his parent’s house where they dig through mementos of his past. This was a moment I’ve always looked forward to, seeing how Greg was raised so we could compare it to Steven’s upbringing.

As they go through his old belongings, Steven gushes over his father’s old life, while Greg simply cringes. They finally find an old CD album by a David Bowie-type singer which contains the song that inspired Greg to take the name, Mr. Universe. Strangely, Steven seems appalled to learn that this is where his name originated…Well, where did you think he got it, Steven? Did you think Universe was a Dutch name?

More to the point, this conversation spirals into an argument that deconstructs Greg’s upbringing of Steven. While he’s been shown to be a genuinely caring and loving father throughout the series, Greg resented his own parents’ controlling yoke to the point where he overcorrected with his son. Now Steven laments at the lack of structure or normalcy in his life, and not unjustly from what we’ve seen in the show. From allowing the gems to take the reins with his childhood, Steven now lacks any ability to relate to or have a healthy relationship with his human peers. He has no ability to live his life outside of being a gem.

As Steven points out, much like Rose (Pink), Greg wanted to give his son the freedom to choose his own life. However, that freedom didn’t come with any context for what life he should want, so it wasn’t really a choice, just a question without an answer. Before their argument gets that deep, however, Steven encounters another outburst of Pink’s energy and crashes the van. Greg tries to talk him down, but now his advice seems more like a litany of platitudes meant to slap a smiley-face on the proceedings. We part from the episode with the feeling that Steven has finally crossed a threshold and become alienated from the person he was closest to.

From all that, what can I say? It’s episodes like these that show me what I admire about Steven Universe. It’s not just some soupy, saccharine, feel-good show. It’s brave enough to show people struggling with real problems. This one especially hit home for me considering I personally know someone who’s experiencing these very same problems. Someone who’s spent years carrying her family on her shoulders only to be rewarded with a seemingly empty void of a life…Someone who’s lashed out at those closest to her and borne the brunt of abuse…It’s so…real…

But, at the same time, it feels like the show is underselling all the ways in which Steven has changed for the better. It’s not that I can’t appreciate the trauma he’s gone through, but that never slowed him down before. In the prior series, we watched him blossom into a leader and an adult, and the Crystal Gems become more than a cause; a family. Steven Universe Future bore the promise of an optimistic, upbeat celebration of how the characters have all grown:

“Here we are in the future and it’s bright/ I can’t believe we’ve come so far!/ Steven Universe Future, here we are!”

…Only for it to seem like a false sell. If I wasn’t so sure it was Pink’s subconscious doing all the talking, I’d almost say Steven has forgotten all the lessons he learned and himself preached. I can appreciate them giving this arc some attention, but there are some others that deserved just as much…speaking of…

Overall: 8/10

Fragments

I had some lingering fears that the first episode of Future was going to be Jasper’s last swan-song, so I’m glad they finally revisit her in this episode. Steven’s finally grown tired of the Crystal Gem’s cloying and runs off to Jasper’s camp, seeing it as the last place they’d look for him. Jasper, on the other hand, is only itching for a rematch, which Steven will only grant her if she teaches him to channel and control his resurgent Diamond powers.

They spend the next few days undergoing grueling training, which pretty much consists of destroying everything in sight. Along the way, Steven sharpens his survival skills, constructing shelter and fishing to feed himself. Overall, he’s gained in Jasper a much needed sink-or-swim mentor as a counterbalance to the Crystal Gems’ doting. However, they take their roughhousing too far to the point that Steven nearly succumbs to his base Diamond urges and shatters Jasper.

He quickly rushes back to his beach house and uses the essence of the other three Diamonds in conjunction with his own to resurrect her. She then kneels to him and pledges her service to her new “Diamond”, which Steven rightly does not meet with relish. Ironically this was his moment of weakness that Jasper chooses to lavish with awe. Hopefully in the next few episodes, she will come to realize this. Perhaps it might’ve helped if she had been present to witness Lapis impart her thoughts on the matter several episodes prior, but with any luck, she’ll get a mouthful from the other gems in the episodes to come.

This is the sort of episode I’ve been waiting for. The only part I regret was how late it came to the party. The final episode awaits us next week, a four-parter which I’m still not sure will give us enough time to tie off Jasper’s arc, not to mention the Diamonds. I’m filled with excitement, but also no small amount of dread or sadness. Steven Universe is coming to an end, for better or worse…

Overall: 9/10