“Things didn’t exactly work out for either of us.”

The biggest shame of the infamous leaked promo of this episode is how shocking the premise was even five episodes ago. Peridot and Lapis Lazuli both began as antagonists, even if the former was on the road to reforming and the latter was sympathetic in her opposition to the Crystal Gems. An episode focusing on the first two new Gems we met, butting heads but not outright fighting, was something that would’ve been difficult to see coming without Cartoon Network deciding to make it easy to see coming. I’m not about to knock the episode itself for something out of its control, but it’s worth making a note of because of how damaging spoiled content can be for the enjoyment of a story, even years after the fact. I’m so grateful I avoided the mega leak of Season 5, I’d have been devastated.

Anyway. Peridot and Lapis. Two outcasts, both with exceptional debuts and wildly different arcs, together again at last. While it’s been established that Lapis doesn’t get along with anyone but Steven, we haven’t seen her interact with any character but Steven for any extended period of time. And it turns out she’s a huge jerk! This isn’t a criticism, it makes perfect sense that she’s a huge jerk, but it’s fascinating that Peridot, who began as an outright villain and was an antisocial mess even after allying with the Crystal Gems, is the one who has our sympathies. She’s grown, but Lapis hasn’t.

Barn Mates at times feels perfunctory, leaning into traditional sitcom tropes like splitting a room in half and sticking to a formulaic “series of failures until a success” structure. It’s paced like Kindergarten Kid in this regard, and owes a lot to the Looney Tunes formula of using the full runtime to tell a series of jokes, with the key difference being that the more hapless character in the pair (the Daffy Duck to the slick Bugs Bunny) gets a happy ending.

Still, it’s effective in telling a story about two characters that were bound to clash. While the episode makes clear that part of the issue is a failure to communicate, I think what matters more is that Peridot never genuinely apologizes to Lapis. She wants Lapis to understand that she’s changed, but she hasn’t changed enough to realize how important it is to say sorry and to mean it. The culminating speech is more about wanting to help Lapis through a rough transition, which is still nice, but it makes sense that Lapis remains mad at someone who appears to have no regrets about wronging her.

Steven at least pays lip service to the idea of Peridot apologizing, and she does try in her tone deaf letter, but we never get the sense that remorse is an actual factor at play. A lesson downplaying the importance of apologies isn’t ideal, but Peridot isn’t an ideal person, but I think Barn Mates gets by thanks to her ability to sincerely explain what she does feel, which is a sense of kinship with Lapis and the desire to help someone in the way she was helped. Even three seasons in, it’s still refreshing to see that this show is more interested in realistic and relatable characters than morals of the week.



Now, communication failure still matters here, and Peridot’s last gesture is her most interesting in this regard. While I normally appreciate subtlety on this show (and most shows), I actually think it’s a missed opportunity that Peridot’s “What, were you trapped in a tape recorder too!?” wasn’t met with any variant of “Uh, yes.” Because, yeah, that’s pretty much what Lapis was up to during her imprisonment in The Mirror, and making this clear not only to younger audience members but to Steven and Peridot would continue the episode’s motif of Peridot’s intentions missing the mark in concrete ways. Her letter doubles down on the notion that Lapis was more valuable for her knowledge than herself, the lake clumsily forgets that Lapis was trapped underwater until like yesterday, and the recorder just as clumsily forgets about Lapis’s longtime inability to speak outside of recordings. It may be fun to “get it” when a plot point is subtle, but I think the episode would benefit from a more explicit escalation.

Especially because without this clear connection to Lapis’s past, her destruction of the recorder and response to Peridot’s heartfelt speech about not being alone goes from understandably irked to outright malicious. Her attitude makes sense, but it’s jarring to see her swing this far from who she was in Same Old World without a solid explanation.

This may be an episode about a tense argument, but this is still Zuke’n’Florido, so we get a ton of laughs to grease the wheels. Steven has moved from his Guitar Dad style to classic “kid who got into anime” style, and god bless him, he can’t draw hands. This is the sort of characterizing humor I come here for.

It’s already established that these two boarders excel at writing for Peridot, who shines in her new conspiratorial role with Steven. But I’m so glad this is the team that introduces us to Peridot and Lapis as a pair: two ornery misfits, one small and antsy, the other tall and angsty, who somehow manage to get along. Lapis may be less overtly comedic than Peridot, but she’s so dramatic in the face of Peridot’s goofiness that the tension itself becomes funny. This is also the premiere of Lapis as the world’s driest water witch: Jennifer Paz’s “But…thanks…for the lake” is a deliciously brutal punchline.

Peridot may have grown a lot since her debut, she’s not exactly at the finish line. Again, she displays no remorse and is bad at communicating, but there’s something so perfectly Peridot about spending an episode trying furiously and impatiently to explain that she’s empathetic and patient now. Even after she puts Lapis’s needs first, she comes right back to make it all about herself. This wouldn’t have been half the episode it is if Peridot had any idea how to be a good friend.

It might be convenient that outside forces come right on time to bring Lapis and Peridot to an understanding, but there was no realistic way that Lapis would ever come around without interference. She’s still super messed up, so it’d be a bit ridiculous for her to start trusting someone who betrayed her after a few faulty gestures and a speech. I love that after an episode of simmering anger, it’s only with an outburst of rage directed at the Roaming Eye that Lapis is finally able to connect a little with Peridot: this isn’t a perfect relationship, and it shouldn’t get off to a perfect start.

Barn Mates has a far different tone than Same Old World or Hit the Diamond, so it’s amazing how seamlessly the three episodes fit together thanks to back-to-back cliffhangers. What’s even more impressive is that this is the second episode in the row that’s largely setup (what Same Old World is to Lapis’s arc, Barn Mates is to Lapis and Peridot’s relationship) but feels watchable in a vacuum. I’ve said before and I’ll probably say again that I wasn’t huge on the first two episodes of this season, but the World/Mates/Diamond trilogy more than makes up for it.



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



How is this episode not called Space Invaders? It’s about two aliens literally invading each others’ space, and ends with a UFO dropping by. It even fits in with our next episode’s title belying its non-cosmic plot. Come on, people.

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



So is Steven a teacher or an administrator in this universe? Either way, this is a great picture.

The formulaic vignettes and Lapis’s understandable but off-putting attitude would, in most cases, place this pretty low on the rewatch list. And let’s be clear, it isn’t super high either. But it’s saying a lot that an episode with so much theoretically going against it can be this enjoyable.

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