'When It Rains': Steven Universe Review

Plot development and character development abound in the latest episode of Steven Universe. When it rains, it pours. Spoiler warning: don't read ahead if you don't want 'When It Rains' spoiled for you.

Let's get this out of the way: CUTE MOMENTS. This week's superb CUTE MOMENTS include (but is not limited to) Garnet's declaration of love (OH MY GOD SO CUTE), Peridot's fear of thunder and rain, and Steven and Peridot's hand-holding.

Steven and Peridot's relationship continues to build in what is unusually a more-or-less direct continuation of last week's episode, 'Catch and Release'. Steven is so unbelievably sweet and patient and encouraging with Peridot, it just makes me happy to know that there is such a positive role model on the kids' television.

Let's take a minute here to appreciate the use of composition and space in Steven Universe. Steven Universe is not afraid to have big open spaces framing the characters off-centre, observing the compositionary rule of thirds. It creates some really stunningly beautiful images. And then it does this stuff to show and build and develop character relationships. When Steven and Peridot were enemies, they take up the full screen, they face one another, there's a difference in there sizes and stances. Now, they stand at the same height, close to one another, facing the same direction, sharing only a section of the screen, the rest giving way to the environment around them. They're closer as characters. Their relationship to one another is different and their relationship to their environment is different.

As mentioned, there's a lot of plot development in this episode. We find out what the cluster is - turns out my guess last week was correct, albeit I said hundreds when it turns out to be MILLIONS - and learn more about the fusion experiments. Peridot begins working with the Crytal Gems too, which I LOVE. I am a sucker for foes becoming friends, a trope which is a major contributor to my love for Power Rangers and Digimon and Buffy. Whether Peridot will truly become a friend remains to be seen, but considering how the last couple episodes have built up Steven and Peridot's relationship I would expect the Gems to give Peridot at chance to redeem herself, much as Lapis did.

'When It Rains' gets a huge thumbs up from me. Like I said, I'm a sucker for villain redemption arcs and together with 'Catch and Release', this episode has some really tight, beautiful character moments. The action scene towards the end feels a little off - both in terms of tone following the rest of the episode and production value - but it's perhaps a necessary consequence of such short episode lengths and doesn't reduce the quality of the episode for me.