The "In Too Deep" event ends with a game of baseball and some stupid soldiers! Well, not all of them. This is "Hit the Diamond", the final episode of In Too Deep and the fifth episode of Season 3!



AS ALWAYS, MAJOR LEAGUE SPOILERS AHEAD. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS EPISODE, TURN AROUND NOW!



This episode is a weird one indeed. The title of this episode minus description was one of the titles released all the way back in August 2015, over nine months before this episode aired. Nine months is a hella long time for headcanons to form. And of course this was long before Message Received was even announced. So almost everyone believed this was going to be the first appearance of Yellow Diamond. Some, however, realized this title was actually a reference to baseball (to hit the diamond means hitting the ground with your baseball bat before swinging), and thought this episode may be about baseball. It was something of a joke for months that this episode wouldn't be about diamonds, but be about baseball. Guess which team was correct?



This episode is indeed about baseball. This is probably the strangest episode since Say Uncle, as the episode picks up right where Barn Mates left off, a squad of rubies having just landed on Earth. Turns out there are five of them, all with gems in different locations. And what I love about these rubies is that they all have slightly different character designs and they all have different personalities. For example, the navel-gem Ruby actually... thinks it's a nice planet... almost like Rose Quartz who also has her gem in her navel... yeah.....



Unlike The Answer, the rubies all felt distinct from each other, and donned Yellow Diamond logos. This episode really hits home (hehe) that Rubies really ARE common and there really are TONNES of them.



This episode is mostly a comedy episode, played for laughs. It's interesting that an episode about a squad of Homeworld gems coming to Earth was a comedic baseball episode. I usually don't like baseball or football things like this, but I feel it works here. It was nice to see Steven's spin (hehe again.. okay I'll stop) on the sport. This episode is also heavily driven by character interactions. Lots of characters interact here that don't usually interact. Lapis and Peridot seem to be getting on much better.



So in this episode, the squad of rubies is here to look for Peridot (or so they all believe), and Peridot hides in a box of baseball bats, which gives Steven an idea - use the game of baseball to try and dispatch this team of rubies. The gems all disguise themselves as humans, with Pearl calling herself Earl, and Lapis calling herself simply "Bob" in a nice call-back to Ocean Gem. I love Lapis in this episode. She is so deadpan and uncaring and it's hilarious.



But there is one other detail about this episode. GARNET UNFUSES INTO RUBY AND SAPPHIRE!! And this time it's VOLUNTARY, to trick the other rubies so that our Ruby can infiltrate the Ruby squad. THIS is the second appearance (our) Ruby and Sapphire SHOULD have got. THIS is what I've been waiting for all this time. Ruby and Sapphire FINALLY show up in a situation that isn't dire, and ISN'T MOTHERFUCKING KEYSTONE MOTEL (if you don't already know, I absolutely hate that episode, it's the only episode I really really hate, in fact I did a whole rant on it before). This episode is one of my favorites this season. Not so much for what it is, but for what it did. For what it is, it's a pretty 7.5-8/10 comedy story. But what pushes this episode into "Amazing" 9/10 territory is Ruby and Sapphire FLIRTING. Lapis even SAYS that they're FLIRTING, she says that exact word, totally deadpan!



Ruby and Sapphire are absolutely brilliant in this episode, and they really knock it out of the park (sorry, I HAD to put that one in), although at this point I'm willing to accept ANY Ruby/Sapphire content that bears NO resemblance to Keystone Motel. They are adorable in this episode, and Keystone Motel should have NEVER been made.



After Ruby and Sapphire flirt so much they almost throw the game away, Steven is finally able to convince Sapphire to focus on the ball, and there's a really cool fire-ice moment where Sapphire freezes the bat to counter the Ruby's fireball. They win the game, but Ruby and Sapphire accidentally fuse again back into Garnet, blowing their human facade. Enraged, all five Rubies in the squad fuse into Mega-Ruby, who is like, legit threatening.



At this point Peridot, who's been hiding in the barn the whole time, runs out, tripping twice, then running on all fours to sacrifice herself, because she now loves the Crystal Gems (and considers herself the new leader for some reason). Whatever, it's freaking adorable. Turns out they were here for JASPER, and not Peridot. Why is a mystery to me. Steven is able to send the rubies off planet forever through a simple ruse, and we learn that Rubies are dumb, but not all of them. Ehh, I really hate using this word, but the ending was a taaaaad anticlimactic I guess? I mean, Steven was able to get rid of them just by telling them Jasper was on Neptune, and off they went. The baseball game didn't even matter in the end. Another nitpick with this episode is that Ruby and Sapphire didn't interact with characters other than themselves and Steven as much as I would have liked.



But despite that, I still really liked this episode overall due to the character interactions, the comedy, and even the baseball game itself, when I don't usually like baseball. It was adorable in places, Lapis was great, and I really liked those rubies. But of course, Ruby and Sapphire's flirting made the episode for me.



Stray Observations

-This episode reveals that Sapphire does indeed have legs!

-Was Sapphire using her future vision to determine where the ball would go? Because her eye was covered and she kept missing (cuz you know, her future vision is like, super inaccurate).

-I have no idea why eyeball Ruby said "Thank you" at the end.

-Rubies don't appear to have boobs.

-That weird black fuzzy stuff above the Roaming Eye as it was about to leave... what was that?

-"I'm trying, but all I wanna look at is you" -Sapphire.

-Garnet called Peridot a clod! And she responded with "That's my word!". I love Peridot.

-"This plan sucks" -Lapis Lazuli. Is that the first time they've used the word "sucks" on this show?

-There's probably millions of things about the Rubies themselves I've missed. I've only watched the episode twice.



STILL HAVEN'T SEEN "STEVEN FLOATS" NO SPOILERS PLEASE!!