Saturday, October 13, 2018

'Toon Reviews 23: Steven Universe Season 3 Episode 2: Gem Drill


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Gem Drill

We took a detour from stopping the Cluster in the previous cartoon, exciting as it was, but now the narrative focuses on that resolution. Stopping it happens quickly, but the adventure still leaves a huge impact. 
The adventure is instantly intense with the earthquakes from the Cluster’s emerging getting worse. Only Steven and Peridot are around to operate the drill to go down to the Earth’s core to stop it.  The mission’s magnitude persists considering everything that was said about the Cluster throughout the course of many cartoons.  A reminder of how the Cluster is a colossal Gem mutant that destroys planets starting with Earth is even given here, so you know what’s at stake. 
While they’re drilling to their target however, there’s room for calm chemistry between Steven and Peridot.  It includes a heartfelt moment when Peridot says that while she was made on Homeworld, she doesn’t have any real memories of serving that planet.  That said, she gets by knowing that she’s grown attached to Earth from bonding with Steven and the others.  The fact that she’s now trying to save it is meaningful her change in views. 
The calm moment is then broken by intensity with Gem mutant attacks on the drill.  The fact that they’re appearing in the Earth’s core where the Cluster’s incubating indicates that the main target is near.  Through it all, Steven feels uneasy about just destroying Gem mutants since it’s made of broken Gems hopelessly looking for their missing pieces that will just become monsters later.  It's appropriate that he brings this up considering what he ends up doing with the Cluster, not to mention this ties into his growing empathy and understanding of how Gems work. 
The actual confrontation with the Cluster is the apex of the intensity.  It starts with an establishing shot of the Cluster as a big ball of shards sprouting hands. Then there’s a frantic pace of Steven and Peridot trying to break its outer shell, which only breaks the drill.  If that’s not enough, Steven feels great pain as the drilling progresses, and Peridot’s worries for his well-being even if she has to weaken the drill.  It’s hard to comprehend what’s going on with Steven as he keeps seeing ghostly faces and ends up in a barren glowing area away from Peridot. 
It turns out his earlier empathy got him inside the Cluster’s mind. There he listens to its shards’ thoughts who just want to be whole.  Gem shards have been said to lose their sense of self, but this look inside their minds show that who they were still persists.  The presentation of the moment is also worth a mention.  The inside of the Cluster is a huge empty space going from light to dark with very little movement.  The music portrays the entire geo-weapon as huge and threatening when it’s about to form, but also small, intimate, and calm when it explains that it just wants to be whole.  It’s emotional all throughout, and it’s thrilling to see Steven stick through the whole moment no matter what.  In the end, he helps the Cluster decide to bubble themselves so they can find their shards and be whole without forming, right when it’s on the verge of that.  The final part of the scene brings beauty out of intensity when the Cluster’s shards bubble themselves, making it one of Steven’s biggest moments of empathy. 
While the Cluster being bubbled is a fitting end to this arc given what we’ve learned throughout the show, this conclusion would've benefited from being reached with more than one cartoon.  It makes what we see fall short of what several cartoons built the Cluster up and feels like a standard monster fight.  Still I can’t fault the staging and emotional aspect of what’s done with the Cluster. It may seem like a problem that the bubbled Cluster is left alone for more than two seasons at first.  However, what's done with it is not only beneficial to its bubbled state, but makes it being left alone for all that time work.  It's going to take some time before we look into that though. 
For now, bubbling the Cluster is a solid concluding point that leads to a greater good down the line.  It all unfolds in an intense and beautifully staged conclusion to one of the show’s biggest arcs.
A


The Ranking
  1. Gem Drill
  2. Super Watermelon Island
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Lapis Lazuli finally returns and Steven tries to convince her to make Earth her new home.
If you would like to check out other Steven Universe reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

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