After a long hiatus, Steven Universe is back with regular weekly episodes and you can find reviews and discussions about each new episode right here on Hello, Robots!
If you're new to Steven Universe, let me fill you in on the show and why you should be watching it. Steven is a excitable, innocent, and somewhat naive young boy, and one of the four "Crystal Gems", magical protectors of the planet Earth. Steven Universe follows Steven as he learns more about his powers whilst battling monsters and navigating the trials and tribulations of everyday life. The show is full of some of the most beautiful art direction and music I have ever seen in a cartoon, and Steven Universe is frequently praised for its diverse, female-majority cast. The story can get surprisingly intense at times as well as we learn the Crystal Gems are alien refugees and tackle some pretty raw emotional issues.
If you haven't already, I highly recommend giving Steven Universe a look. You can stream all of the episodes at theworldofstevenuniverse.blogspot.co.uk, including last week's episode 'Nightmare Hospital', which kicked off Steven Universe's return. Spoiler warning: don't read ahead if you don't want 'Nightmare Hospital' spoiled for you.
'Nightmare Hospital' kicks off with some pretty adorable-eth interaction-eth between Connie and Steven. I'm a big fan of Connie and Steven's relationship - it's really sweet and full of mutual respect, with Connie and Steven sharing their burdens equally, even when it comes to fighting, as we'll see more of in this episode. The kids' conversation also does a good job of exposition, reminding us about Connie's glasses and ongoing sword training, and the "creepy gem fusions", which is pretty essential for an episode that leans as heavily on previous adventures as this one does.
When Connie's mother confiscates Steven's mum's sword and takes it with her to the hospital, Steven and Connie try to retrieve it, only to come face-to-no-so-face with two "creepy gem fusions", handily referred to as gem mutants from here on out so as to avoid confusion with genuine fusions like Garnet.
Let me get two things straight here. One, Steven and Connie's immediate hand-hold when they enter the creepy hospital is ADORABLE. Two, the gem mutants are DAMN RIGHT CREEPY. I tend to find any degree of body horror unsettling, and the gem mutants' body-parts-forcibly-sewn-together vibe definitely fits the bill of body horror as far as I'm concerned. Don't get me wrong, I think it serves the story well as we learn more about fusions and Homeworld's attitudes towards them, and I would say the mutants' appearance in the episode is toned down from their introduction in 'Keeping it Together'.
This is a big episode for Connie, and for her mother, so it's nice to see some development for their relationship. Having Connie's mother learn to trust Connie more, and actually voice her feelings and fears to her daughter, really fleshed out the character for me, and upgraded her from a character I wasn't interested in, maybe even disliked, to one I care about. Connie standing up to her mother was great too, not to mention the glasses-off sword-drawn badass-reveal wherein she proceeds to CURB STOMP the gem mutants.
Steven had a few nice moments too. I really like Steven's nervous relationship with Connie's mother; the "How are you?"/"SITTING" exchange made me laugh, and reminded me of Garnet's panicked phone conversation with Connie's mother back in the episode 'Fusion Cuisine'. I may be wrong, but it's the first time I noticed Steven bubbling gems away too, which makes for a nice little nod to his ongoing development and control over his powers. And Steven's smile-fade-to-sad-look-at-his-mother's-sword when Connie and her mother reconcile is HEART BREAKING.
The last thing to mention is a new end credits song. A snippet of a new song to come, perhaps? I certainly hope so, as the songs are one of the highlights of the series to me.
No heartbeat... Ugh. Cheap hospital budgets.
All-in-all, 'Nightmare Hospital' was a really great episode. Despite my initial reservations, I think diving into a plot-heavy episode after the long hiatus was a great call and leaves fans asking more questions than ever, ensuring we come back every week for more. I'm looking forwards to finding out where those gem mutants came from - Connie's mother mentioned them being found at the side of the road, but did they escape from the kindergarten? Or has Peridot been continuing with the experiments? The only way to find out is to keep coming back for more episodes each week.
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