'Toon Reviews 15: Steven Universe Season 2 Episode 19: When it Rains

When it Rains

Her previous appearance showed off her lack of understanding on Earth, mostly to humorous effect.  However, in this cartoon, this side of Peridot’s character is shown for more than just humor’s sake which makes her far more endearing. 

She continues to lock herself in Steven’s bathroom, refusing to talk about the Cluster as shown through humorous moments of her trying the patience of the Crystal Gems.  Since she's warmed up to Steven, she’s not only more open to talk to him, but it also brings her endearment.  There’s a storm outside and Peridot is frightened by the rain and thunder, particularly thinking that it’s the Cluster emerging.  Through all her fears, Steven reassures her that rain and storms are natural and nothing to be scared of.  It’s honestly interesting for a young kid like Steven acting as a teacher figure who knows what he’s talking about to a seemingly knowledgeable Gem who actually has a lot to learn.  It develops Steven and further shows the layers of Peridot. Peridot stepping out into the rain, realizing it’s harmless after all brings out great heart, and that it’s not as bad as she thinks.  It’s also silent, so you can better take in how big of a moment it is for her character. 

Regarding the Cluster, the simple gesture of Steven teaching her about rain gets Peridot to talk about the potentially destruction to Earth.  They go to the Kindergarten where all of Peridot’s logs on the Cluster are stored.  Its background is just like that of those strange Gem mutants we’ve already seen twice.  They were experiments done by Homeworld, whose leaders were plotting to make a geo-weapon to destroy Earth.  After countless forced artificial fusions of Gem shards, a singular gigantic artificial fusion with millions of shards was made and placed under the Earth’s crust to incubate.  Now, it’s close to emerging if the random smaller mutants emerging are any indication, and it will be so huge that it will destroy the planet when it does.  The forced fusions have already had a big scare factor, but now their threat is even bigger with an immeasurable one that can destroy the world, setting up something big to look forward to later. 

As for how the reveal is presented, it further works in the heart of Peridot’s character where little instances of her needing Steven’s help in accessing the logs foreshadow what happens.  Her lack of understanding of Earth is accounted for when she assumes that Steven will know how to stop the Cluster just because he taught her about rain, even though Steven actually does not have the answers to everything.  This is only further proven true when they’re attacked by more Gem mutants and Steven’s powers aren’t enough to stop them.  They’re stopped when the Crystal Gems show up just in time to truly finish them off.  All these instances together bring about one major change in Peridot when at the very end of the cartoon, she agrees to tell them all about the Cluster after her constant refusal to do so. 

This is only the beginning of her big change in attitude towards the group as a whole that will span through cartoons to come.  Even here, everything Peridot gets up to through learning about Earth and forming meaningful relationships amount to a great development and major boost in character appeal.  For that, this is another high-tier season highlight. 10/10

 

 

The Ranking

1. Sworn to the Sword
2. Keystone Motel
3. When it Rains
4. Friend Ship
5. Nightmare Hospital
6. Chille Tid
7. Cry for Help
8. Keeping it Together
9. Full Disclosure
10. Catch and Release
11. We Need to Talk
12. Reformed
13. Historical Friction
14. Joy Ride
15. Say Uncle
16. Onion Friend
17. Rising Tides, Crashing Skies
18. Sadie’s Song
19. Love Letters

The next Steven Universe review takes us back to the barn where as plans to stop the Cluster finally convince, we get more background on Pearl, a robot-building detour, and a chance for Peridot to bond with her.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is more excitement from Rocko's Modern Life with "Leap Frogs" and "Bedfellows."

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