'Toon Reviews 15: Steven Universe Season 2 Episode 15: Friend Ship

Friend Ship

After a couple of cartoons of each of them on their own, the Crystal Gems regroup to try and catch Peridot, and it all unfolds in a satisfying end to the Sardonyx conflict. 

There’s a great display of character all throughout with Steven looking on the bright side of what happens right down to socializing with the enemy, Amethyst wanting the team dynamic to go back to normal while doubting if it can, and Pearl bent on catching Peridot, even if she just gets in the way to Garnet’s annoyance.  Even Peridot herself has a lot of enjoyable moments.  It may seem hard to believe since she’s an antagonizing force from the planet the Crystal Gems are rebelling against, but Peridot is simply too hard not to like.  She never seems menacing, which is remarkable considering her first appearance, but more annoyed about her enemies constantly showing up to get in the way of her work and getting off Earth.  Even when she leads the Crystal Gems into a rundown Gem ship so she can trap them inside to kill them, she’s far more disgruntled and frustrated than heartless and evil, and it's funny watching her struggle with figuring out how the ship works.  This gives her a smidge of humility that makes her frustrations sympathetic even if you don’t want her to succeed in killing our heroes.  Given what’s eventually done with Peridot, I’d say it’s a good thing she’s not too villainous. 

As for those trying to catch her, every time they get close, Pearl barges in without second thought and walks everyone further into the trap, and from her tone of voice, you can tell how desperate she is to make herself trusted again. So, in addition to being somewhat humorous for her crazed ways of getting forgiveness especially since we don’t normally expect boneheaded moves like this from her, she’s highly sympathetic from the reasons behind her actions.  Her sympathy really grows when she and Garnet get trapped in an enclosed pit and have no choice but to talk things over about the conflict between them while the pit’s walls close in on them.  She confides that even though she tries hard to be strong, she’s too beat down about being a weak Gem, hence why she’s desperate to be with someone stronger like Garnet so she can feel the strength she can never get herself.  It’s both sad and insightful for Pearl to feel worthless as she is, something I think no one should ever feel, which ties into her past attachment to Rose. 

An admirable thing about this is that Garnet is considerate of these insecurities and makes Pearl feel better that even someone strong can have weaknesses, such as how the conflict made her unfuse.  She’s also reassuring of Pearl by reminding her that Pearl has strength she needs to realize so to follow her own power and not latch onto someone else.  This heartwarming instance of understanding leads to a definitive resolution to the fallout when Pearl and Garnet fuse to escape the danger, signifying that while it’s debatable if Pearl is completely forgiven, now that her insecurities are known, there is hope that she’ll overcome them.  Also, with things as resolved as they are, everyone is able to work as a team to track Peridot down and catch her, or at least her foot.  However, with it being removable, it’s a solid foreshadow to what we learn about her in her next appearance. 

For this cartoon though, it’s a grand collection of character moments with believable instances to flesh them out to resolve what’s between them that lead up to satisfying conclusions. 10/10

The Ranking

1. Sworn to the Sword
2. Keystone Motel
3. Friend Ship
4. Chille Tid
5. Cry for Help
6. Keeping it Together
7. Full Disclosure
8. We Need to Talk
9. Reformed
10. Historical Friction
11. Joy Ride
12. Say Uncle
13. Onion Friend
14. Rising Tides, Crashing Skies
15. Love Letters

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where a frightening trip to the hospital leads Connie's mom to learn a plethora of truths about her daughter.


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