Steven Universe S04E15, "That Will Be All"
Feb. 2nd, 2017 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kate_nepveuFINALLY, PAYOFF.
Watching these five episodes in a binge made me super-happy, but rewatching them made it pretty clear that a lot of that was this last episode, which is so great.
I mean, there was this charity raffle where the prize was seeing all three current Hamilton performances and meeting Lin-Manuel Miranda, and I entered and spent a while contemplating what, exactly, I would say to him if I won. I settled on recommending this show to him with "it could not be more relevant to your interests: it's got Estelle as a main character and Patti fucking Lupone as a guest star," and that was before she finally got to sing! And I love how that comma was so distinct ("what's the use of feeling, Blue?") and how off-kilter the song was and how creepy she was when she started losing her control, it was amazing. Also shout-out to Lisa Hannigan for pivoting on a dime between super-cold (when Sapphire and Ruby showed up) to lachrymose.
So the Diamonds are both processing grief in extremely unhealthy ways, Blue by hanging on (including alllll those Rose Quartzes that Pink Diamond made, how many there are my goodness, plus all the Amethysts and Jaspers, can you say "army"?) and Yellow by repressing and denying. And now they've met in the middle by agreeing to save more specimens from Earth before the Cluster destroys it. Which, I'm pretty sure that their ships are faster than the Rubies', are they going to beat the Crystal Gems back to Earth? Can they un-bubble and reactivate the Cluster? I hate to try to predict where this show is going to go with its long-term arcs but this really seems to be a major signpost.
I am mildly reconciled to the slowness of "The Zoo" now for two reasons: one, it establishes why they didn't try to bust the rest of the humans out immediately, and two, it underlines the distinction between Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz. P.D. liked humans, sure, but as cute puppies, while Rose tried to learn from them and ultimately decided to become one, or as much as she could. There's this fan theory floating around that P.D. was somehow "in on" Rose's shattering of her, which apparently is the last vestiges of refusing to believe that Rose purposefully did something that serious? and I think that this must put to rest any serious possibility of it.
Uh, what else? The version my cable company had -- both times -- was off-sync starting around about the song, which was seriously unfortunate.
I love that everyone working at the Zoo hated Holly Blue Agate and were totally willing to sell her out, I didn't see it coming and yet it made so much sense. And Amethyst, so delighted to find more family! (Her regular voice actor did all the Amethysts, and Jasper's v.a. did Carnelian and Skinny. Pearl's v.a. did all the Pearls.) I loved Garnet coming back and the Crystal Gems' effortless teamwork to take down Holly Blue, and Pearl getting to have the last word.
In conclusion: yay, the show coming back next Friday for weekly episodes!
Watching these five episodes in a binge made me super-happy, but rewatching them made it pretty clear that a lot of that was this last episode, which is so great.
I mean, there was this charity raffle where the prize was seeing all three current Hamilton performances and meeting Lin-Manuel Miranda, and I entered and spent a while contemplating what, exactly, I would say to him if I won. I settled on recommending this show to him with "it could not be more relevant to your interests: it's got Estelle as a main character and Patti fucking Lupone as a guest star," and that was before she finally got to sing! And I love how that comma was so distinct ("what's the use of feeling, Blue?") and how off-kilter the song was and how creepy she was when she started losing her control, it was amazing. Also shout-out to Lisa Hannigan for pivoting on a dime between super-cold (when Sapphire and Ruby showed up) to lachrymose.
So the Diamonds are both processing grief in extremely unhealthy ways, Blue by hanging on (including alllll those Rose Quartzes that Pink Diamond made, how many there are my goodness, plus all the Amethysts and Jaspers, can you say "army"?) and Yellow by repressing and denying. And now they've met in the middle by agreeing to save more specimens from Earth before the Cluster destroys it. Which, I'm pretty sure that their ships are faster than the Rubies', are they going to beat the Crystal Gems back to Earth? Can they un-bubble and reactivate the Cluster? I hate to try to predict where this show is going to go with its long-term arcs but this really seems to be a major signpost.
I am mildly reconciled to the slowness of "The Zoo" now for two reasons: one, it establishes why they didn't try to bust the rest of the humans out immediately, and two, it underlines the distinction between Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz. P.D. liked humans, sure, but as cute puppies, while Rose tried to learn from them and ultimately decided to become one, or as much as she could. There's this fan theory floating around that P.D. was somehow "in on" Rose's shattering of her, which apparently is the last vestiges of refusing to believe that Rose purposefully did something that serious? and I think that this must put to rest any serious possibility of it.
Uh, what else? The version my cable company had -- both times -- was off-sync starting around about the song, which was seriously unfortunate.
I love that everyone working at the Zoo hated Holly Blue Agate and were totally willing to sell her out, I didn't see it coming and yet it made so much sense. And Amethyst, so delighted to find more family! (Her regular voice actor did all the Amethysts, and Jasper's v.a. did Carnelian and Skinny. Pearl's v.a. did all the Pearls.) I loved Garnet coming back and the Crystal Gems' effortless teamwork to take down Holly Blue, and Pearl getting to have the last word.
In conclusion: yay, the show coming back next Friday for weekly episodes!
