#i believe if i got a steven stone shirt it would solve a third of my problems

[immamapletreekid]

today i saw a person with a freaking steven stone shirt

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 46*: The Message

“Have a little have a little have a little faith in me.”

In the past, Greg Universe wrote songs that yearned for a life among the stars. Then he met Rose Quartz, and in a way, his wish came true. More than any other human on the planet at this point in the show, his life is full of cosmic wonder. But while he may be surrounded by aliens with literal magic, he’s not one of them. He tried so hard to fly, but he was thrown.

Greg is never more distinctly human than when contrasted against the Gems, and The Message highlights these differences more than ever before; he’s not even boring ole Greg here, but in Amethyst’s words, he’s Gregory. We haven’t seen the Gems so uniformly dismissive of him since all the way back in Laser Light Cannon, but this time we don’t just have to take Steven’s word for his greatness. He has proven to be competent and loving, capable of understanding his son deeper than any of the Gems.

This is honestly still a problem forty-odd episodes later. Sure, I buy Pearl having no faith in Greg. Even if we ignore her Rose-based dislike of him, here’s her perspective of his handiness: in Coach Steven, she saw his cruddy makeshift gym; in House Guest, she had to fix his van because he couldn’t; in Space Race, she saw his go-kart explode against a rock, and certainly didn’t see him help make a spacecraft; in Maximum Capacity, she confirmed that he’s messy, which hits her very core. Pearl is allowed to be condescending.

But Garnet and Amethyst? The former is super open-minded and practical, and the other actively enjoys Greg’s company. Both have participated in making music with him and know that he’s an expert with sound. Both know him to be someone who tries his best to fix things. Hell, all three of them know that his human duct tape solution to the Geode worked. 

With this backdrop in mind, all three Gems react absurdly to his initial failure. Even Pearl, who’s most likely to want him to fail, is an expert in how the van functions and would understand the power failure. And his methods are clearly working before the battery shorts out, slowly shifting the senseless wailing into something that sounds vaguely like a voice. But instead of continuing down this path, the Gems give up the only lead they have. These are the same Gems that are bracing themselves for Homeworld after two encounters with Peridot and need all the help they can get, by the way.

The only conclusions we can gain from this is that the Gems are incompetent (which they aren’t) or that their stubborn lack of respect for Greg clouds their vision. Well, we’ve seen the latter in Laser Light Cannon, where, as a reminder, they assume a guy who keeps everything and loved Rose would’ve tossed something Rose gave him. But there, and here, this is nonsensical compared to their treatment of Greg in the rest of the series. Maybe Pearl would be petty enough not to recognize his value. But for Amethyst and Garnet to brush him aside ignores many episodes of rapport with him, and their knowledge that, oh yeah, he raised Steven by himself for years.

I’m not against the idea of the Gems having friction with Greg, but it comes up so infrequently that both of these episodes feel like oddballs. It would be easy enough to make this plot element consistent, but instead, the Gems (even Pearl) are far too cordial far too often with Greg for me to believe they suddenly see him as a total failure in The Message.

Like Laser Light Cannon, this tension does make for good conflict within the episode itself. Steven wanting to bring his two families together and prove his dad’s worth is a great problem to solve, and it lets Greg have a victory with stakes. But Steven Universe is a serial, and what works for a single episode doesn’t necessarily work for the whole. For a more extreme example, take House Guest: while I can’t stand Greg’s sudden shift to lying manipulator, it’s a perfectly decent episode if we ignore the context around it, which is that Greg never shows anything close to this sort of behavior elsewhere. But we can’t, and The Message shouldn’t.

One more issue before I get to the good stuff (because I promise, I actually do like this episode for all its flaws): it’s been a while since Lapis Lazuli flew back to the stars, and she hasn’t been mentioned since, so one of The Message’s duties is reintroducing her to the audience. This ends up being a mixed bag, because as much as I adore Steven’s song about her and our extended callback to Greg’s reaction to her ocean tower, it makes the sender of the titular message blindingly obvious. As soon as the Gems deduce the Wailing Stone is communicating from space, any viewer who understands foreshadowing (which admittedly excludes the show’s absolute youngest audience, but not school-age kids and up) will recall the focus on Lapis minutes earlier.

Considering the looming presence of Peridot in the wake of Warp Tour and especially Marble Madness, this episode could’ve easily led us to believe the green meanie was the culprit, with Lapis appearing as a genuine twist. As it is, her message arriving on the same night Steven and Greg happen to be discussing her (again, for the first time we’ve seen since her departure) feels contrived.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that the focus is on Greg and the Gems, and I understand that with only eleven minutes to spare it would’ve been difficult to do a genuine mystery plot justice while maintaining that central character study. But I’m tickled by the irony of an episode about a message being distorted by its medium getting distorted by the necessities of serialized children’s television.

Okay, so the good stuff. There’s a lot of it! Despite their out-of-character reaction to Greg, the Gems have fantastic interactions with each other: I get a kick out of the assumption that the Wailing Stone is a prank from Amethyst, and their different methods of trying to stop the noise are nice reflections of their characters. Steven and Greg are still great together, and Steven’s utter faith in his dad never gets old.

The music here is terrific. Greg expanding Steven’s melody about Lapis to express himself is inspired, considering they’re having a jam session before the episode picks up. I just love Tom Scharpling’s singing voice: I can’t imagine it’s easy to find so much oomph from the word “expertise,” but he nails it.

Even if its place within the serial makes some of the character beats ring false, the emotional truths underlying them are still done well. We feel how crushed Greg is, how hopeful Steven is, and the Gems’ full arc from discouraged to amazed to terrified. And Greg still gets to be a dad in an episode where he could just act like a buddy, calmly telling Steven to use his words when he gets too excited to communicate.

And dear lord, does Lapis continue to impress. With mere seconds on screen, the tone of the episode, and the entire rest of the first season, shifts into full crisis mode. It’s not just Jennifer Paz’s chilling performance, it’s the positioning of her small monitor to either fill the screen or surround itself with the Crystal Gems’ reactions. It’s the knowledge that the most powerful Gem we’ve seen so far is out of her league with Homeworld. It’s the confirmation that yes, they’re coming back to Earth. 

And it’s Garnet, trying desperately to play it cool while her team falls apart. Her headspace is still pretty much the same as her initial reaction to Peridot in Warp Tour, but now she’s got to pull everyone together. It’s crunch time.

But not until we get Steven goofing off a little, because this is still a show that wears its heart on its sleeve and Steven’s humanity still matters when the going gets tough. Even if he’s actually a robot.

Future Vision!

Apparently Steven says “Hold the phone. Now give the phone to me” enough to worm its way into Garnet’s lexicon come Mindful Education.

As the Gems leap away, Steven notably fails to make such a leap. Combined with his fall in Rose’s Scabbard, it’s a wonder it takes so long for Steven Floats to pop up.

Lapis points out that Peridot knows Steven’s name, which shows that she paid attention to such things during their Marble Madness conversation; given this, is it really surprising that she kept a record of Steven’s friends that comes back to haunt us in I Am My Mom?

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

A personal hot dog this time: why oh why didn’t I name this section “My mind is the internet, I know every continuity mistake ever made on television”?

I guess you could read it that way…

When viewed in the intended order, The Message comes right on the heels of Story for Steven, with mixed results. While Steven and Greg’s musical van hangout makes for an excellent link between the episodes, as does the focus on Greg’s relationship with the Gems, Story takes place at the car wash and Message on the beach. Sure, Greg could’ve driven them over, but they still seem to be mid-hangout when The Message begins. This really should’ve been a more solid location connection given the opportunity.

This also would’ve been the third Greg episode in a row in the intended order, for whatever that’s worth (thanks to Shirt Club). The Message works as a culmination of a Greg trilogy, but honestly I like it better on its own.

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

Like sister episode Laser Light Cannon, I do enjoy this episode on its own merits. But its flaws are easier to see in hindsight, especially when you aren’t as caught up in resolving the initial Homeworld Arc as you are in the first viewing.

Top Ten

Steven and the Stevens

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Rose’s Scabbard

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Winter Forecast

On the Run

Warp Tour

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

The Test

Future Vision

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

No Thanks!

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