'Toon Reviews 6: Steven Universe Season 1 Episode 49

The Message

While it may seem like not much happens in this cartoon, if you follow it through all the way, you’ll find that it has some good instances of character and plot development.  Like most cartoons, it starts off nice and simple with Steven and Greg enjoying one of life’s pleasures which is their shared passion of music as they come up with album art and songs inspired by the time Lapis Lazuli stole the ocean to try and get home.  It even features a moving, albeit very brief, ballad about Lapis.  Then the plot gets more important when an ancient Gem artifact called a wailing stone picks up a message, but all the Crystal Gems can hear is a loud indescribable noise and the rest of the cartoon is them trying to make sense of the noise to hear the message.  It’s not exactly the most exciting thing for a plot to revolve around given that all the action takes place in one area and the long process of getting the message is mostly heavy on explaining what goes into it.  However, no matter how you may feel about what goes on entertainment-wise, it’s worth noting that what goes on is a good display of everything about Greg’s character.  Although he’s a mere human who wouldn’t doesn’t really understand the ways of Gems like the others do, he’s still willing to put in a good effort to help them out with everything he does know, mainly his knowledge on sound mixing showing the purpose of what we as an audience saw before the wailing stone was heard.  It’s hard to determine that his plans will work, but it’s still great that he’s trying.  Because of this, it’s easy to feel for him when his first plan doesn’t work and he couldn’t help the Gems all through a reworked version of the previous song.  However, there’s twist to the plan when the idea comes that while Greg’s audio equipment didn’t work, video equipment is the way to go, which also harkens back to something that occurred with Steven and Greg in the beginning.  Then, we get the most engaging part of the cartoon which is the message itself.  It’s of Lapis Lazuli informing them (mostly Steven) of how she’s found out that Homeworld has changed so much while she was trapped in the mirror, and more importantly that Peridot is coming to Earth, and she isn’t alone.  While this conclusion is a great triumph for Greg, it’s foremost a major foreshadow for what’s to come as we near the end of the season, and the worried looks of Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl sell how major it is that they’ll have to deal with Homeworld Gems again.  While this cartoon is on the slow side, it’s still easy to sit through it and get a lot of impactful elements out of it. 9/10

The Ranking

1. Rose’s Scabbard
2. Ocean Gem
3. Lion 3: Straight to Video
4. Alone Together
5. Coach Steven
6. On the Run
7. Story for Steven
8. Maximum Capacity
9. Mirror Gem
10. An Indirect Kiss
11. Space Race
12. So Many Birthdays
13. Steven the Sword Fighter
14. Lion 2: The Movie
15. Bubble Buddies
16. Monster Buddies
17. Laser Light Cannon
18. Winter Forecast
19. Giant Woman
20. Lars and the Cool Kids
21. The Test
22. The Message
23. Steven’s Lion
24. Horror Club
25. Watermelon Steven
26. Gem Glow
27. Steven and the Stevens
28. Marble Madness
29. Warp Tour
30. Open Book
31. Island Adventure
32. Rose’s Room
33. Cheeseburger Backpack
34. Future Vision
35. Secret Team
36. House Guest
37. Serious Steven
38. Joking Victim
39. Beach Party
40. Cat Fingers
41. Tiger Millionaire
42. Together Breakfast
43. Fusion Cuisine
44. Frybo
45. Shirt Club
46. Onion Trade
47. Arcade Mania
48. Garnet’s Universe
49. Keep Beach City Weird

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode when Homeworld's threat finds a way to affect the Beach City residents in "Political Power."

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