“It’s nice to have a new addition to the family.”

Gem Harvest debuted on November 17th, 2016. Nine days earlier, proud bigot Donald Trump got enough electoral college votes to override a nearly three million vote deficit and become the President Elect of the United States. So right off the bat, it’s important to note that the story this episode is telling was probably not taking into account the reality unfolding around its release.

This episode works so much better in a sane world, where one could easily separate Andy DeMayo’s longing for a simpler era from the horror of Trump’s base. Andy is someone who you can disagree with but reach, someone whose gruffness comes from a genuine place of love. Trump’s core base is neither of those things if you value, say, the safety and dignity and existence of women or racial minorities or queer people. They saw someone spewing hatred and were attracted rather than repulsed. And as someone with family members I love that voted for him, I utterly reject the narrative that folks were bamboozled into picking what they thought was the lesser of two evils: despite being a sentient slurry of lies, Trump is pathologically compelled to make it clear how he truly feels to as many people as possible. There’s not a huge difference between actively campaigning for dehumanization and being okay with someone who champions dehumanization if he also gets the things you want done. Anyone who thinks Trump’s pros are worth ripping brown families apart needs to be slapped in the face.

So yeah, it was a lot harder to be as patient with folks giving off Andy vibes on November 17th than it was when this episode was produced, because those vibes were now being emitted by people who were abandoning all pretenses and wearing their hate on their sleeve. But considering when Gem Harvest was made, and who made it, I think it’s safe to assume it’s more interested in defending the humanity of the run-of-the-mill grouches in our lives than defending people whose insensitivity comes from proud bigotry instead of ignorance or even stubbornness.

Which is good, because this episode would be a lot worse if it was about making someone overflowing with hatred feel better. Instead, it’s an episode about getting past differences not by ignoring or downplaying them, but helping cure the more toxic of these differences.

Gem Harvest is our second double episode after Bismuth, but it uses this format to tell a different type of story. Even the structure is distinct: Bismuth is a long but traditional triple act, but Gem Harvest is a vignette about Pumpkin followed by a fuller story about Uncle Andy. Bismuth feels more substantial, considering its contribution to the lore and ongoing plot, but Gem Harvest is no slouch, especially in retrospect.



(Not that Bismuth and Gem Harvest are fully dissimilar: both episodes debut a stubborn character, one that’s familiar to the older cast but new to Steven, preaching about the good old days but trying new traditions.)

Let’s briefly talk about that Pumpkin story, because it’s a cute but substantial sidequest that precedes the big event. This premise could’ve been stretched into an episode of its own: Peridot and Lapis are growing crops, Steven’s plant powers outshine them when he tries to help, the situation resolves peacefully, everyone wins. But by keeping it short, we get some crucial extra time with Andy without stretching that second story too long. Considering the Halloween element of Pumpkin and the Thanksgiving element of the feast, showing these two stories as one unit is an elegant solution.

I still love how well Peridot and Lapis get along at this point, especially because their friendship isn’t smoothed over by removing Peridot’s attitude or Lapis’s gloominess. These two have clearer antisocial traits than the classic Crystal Gems, considering they started off as villains, but they don’t need to fully abandon those traits to get along. And in terms of Gem Harvest as a whole, it’s helpful to introduce them in a situation that reminds us of how alien they are.

But my favorite part of the story is definitely the pumpkin carving sequence, which lurches the tone from sweet to morbid in a manner reminiscent of the show’s early forays into horror. Just carving a pumpkin without fanfare could’ve been enough for Pumpkin to switch allegiances, but the act is drawn out in delightfully gruesome detail. This is still more of a Thanksgiving episode than a Halloween episode, but I appreciate the nod to the spooky side of autumn.

Pumpkin’s story screeches to a halt when Andy flies in, and we’re soon greeted with the perfectly cast voice of Dave Willis screaming about his barn. Willis is perhaps best known for voicing fellow Jersey native Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force—I don’t think it’s official canon that Greg hails from the Garden State, but the Tom Scharpling factor and general feel of the character have always had a Jersey flavor to me—and he ingrains each line with just the right amount of surliness for the occasion. Considering how many conservative talking points he checks off upon arrival (gender roles, AM radio, hippies, xenophobia), a lesser actor and script would’ve turned Andy into a parody first and a character second. Instead, Willis’s delivery brings humor to Andy without undermining how he earnestly feels.

It helps that among Andy’s unreasonable qualms is the more understandable concern about his parents’ property being stolen. We learned all the way back in Space Race that the barn belonged to Greg’s aviating aunt and uncle, but no thought was given to the rest of his family until now. Even if he’s wrong about a lot of important things, Andy’s right to be upset that his family’s place, a place full of childhood memories, has been given away and altered without his permission. An anti-immigration message can be read into it for folks who want more things to hate about him, but unlike a country, which nobody owns and contains many histories of many people, the barn literally does belong to Andy and for his whole life has exclusively contained the history of his family.



And look, I get not liking Andy, he’s not a likable guy here and it isn’t hard to lump him in with some truly awful folks that sound an awful lot like him. But the thing that makes Andy work for me is that like Peridot before him, he’s a bigot that’s willing to try and understand the group that he’s bigoted against. Which frankly makes it hard to call him a true bigot, because bigotry inherently requires a closed minded; but then again, a true bigot by that metric wouldn’t work on this episode at all, because its point is that it’s worth trying to reach intolerant people if they’re honestly trying to evolve. Which is just one of the ways that Gem Harvest acts as a precursor to Change Your Mind.

Uncle Andy, like White Diamond, is a relative of Steven’s parent that our hero hasn’t heard of until they meet. Uncle Andy, like White Diamond, is disappointed that this parent changed their name, and instinctively calls Steven the old name instead of the right one. Uncle Andy, like White Diamond, has allowed stubbornness to distance him from his family. And Uncle Andy, like White Diamond, needs Steven to inspire him to change his mind.

He’s more open than White Diamond, of course. But that’s another thing that makes this episode work as a companion, because together, his and White’s stories tell a full lesson: when you can reach people, it doesn’t hurt to try, but if you can’t, it’s not your job to make bigots respect and love you. It’s important to try to understand and empathize with people you disagree with, but it’s also important to not let assholes belittle you for being who you are, and Gem Harvest and Change Your Mind present both halves of this nuanced argument.

A surprising factor in making us more sympathetic to Andy than the average bigot is seeing how frustrating the Gems can be with fresh eyes. Like Andy, they’re attempting to see the other point of view, and much of this is harmless fun; their variety of misfires in regards to holidays and tradition are played for laughs, and Andy’s gruff nature doesn’t stop him from laughing along. The problem comes when we get to the dinner table and they can’t stop talking about themselves.

This setup leads to more humor as the Gems host a hypothetical corn-based proxy war, don’t get me wrong. I appreciate that these characters can make fun of themselves, and Lapis provides the biggest laugh of the night as she gleefully reminds us of her traumatizing past. But these in-jokes isolate Andy right when he’s starting to cross the bridge, and the gag where everyone is thanked but him is a bummer.

Again, the messaging here is a fine line in the Trump era, because if someone legitimately hates you for who you are, you’re under no obligations to make them more comfortable. However, if someone is uncomfortable with new and different things but has demonstrated a clear desire to get over it, the Gems here show how important it is to be thoughtful and welcoming. You don’t have to bend over backwards, but at least try to include people who are making an effort.

I call this “surprising” because it’s a bold move to cast our heroes in a negative light to make us appreciate an outsider like Andy. Especially an outsider whose views, and I’m just spitballing here, aren’t shared by many of the creators or viewers of Steven Universe. The Gems aren’t monstrous or anything, but it’s a tricky thing to show how insensitivity can cut both ways without pretending that casual rudeness is anywhere near as bad as the likes of xenophobia or sexism. I understand if folks who aren’t as straight or cis or white or male as I am disagree, but I think all things considered Gem Harvest does a decent job at walking the tightrope.

It of course falls to Steven to extend an empathetic hand in our finale. He’s funny and charming throughout the Andy story, but quiets down a bit as the Gems take center stage. This silence pays off wonderfully when we get to the plane chase, as Steven finally blurts out how nice it is to have another human in the family.

Like Universe as a surname, which sounds cool to others but mundane when it’s your own name (as an actual human being named “Jay Lyon,” I can relate), we can take for granted how normal the Gems are for our hero. We’ve seen plenty of examples of him interacting with both worlds, but when it comes to family, Greg is all he’s ever known of an entire half of his heritage. It might be a treat for us to see the magic in his life, but it’s understandable that he’s drawn to someone who teaches him how to peel potatoes and enjoys cake.

Family, at its best, isn’t about obligation. Steven isn’t trying to include Andy based on a sense of duty, but because he wants this big lug to be part of his life. He treasures differences in a way that’s rare for Gems (and humans, if we’re being honest), and Andy is certainly different from the rest of his family. Would this episode work if Andy put his foot down and refused to respect others? Of course not. So unfortunately, not all families get to have resolutions as clean as this one. But if you’re going to write a fantasy show, you might as well hope for the best and see if it sticks in the real world.

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

Minor as heck, but I’m not sure how Bismuth, a far more dramatic episode, gets cute chibi character transitions for commercial breaks when Gem Harvest has even more characters but doesn’t get the same treatment. Sure, Chibi Peridot and Lapis would be swell, but the lack of Chibi Greg and Chibi Andy legit breaks my heart.

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

So many points off for not making Andy a teenager like the rest of the adults in this alternate universe, but considering these promos begin with an absurd amount of points it’s not that big of a deal in the grand scheme.

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



It’s not quite as terrific as Bismuth, but for an episode that’s a larger time investment than normal, Gem Harvest acquits itself nicely. I never disliked it, but it definitely moved up in my rankings when I realized how well it accompanies the end of the original series.



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