Steven Universe: Keystone Motel

July 14, 2015 5:21 PM - Season 2, Episode 15

Steven, Greg, and Garnet go on a roadtrip out of state.
posted by Small Dollar (31 comments total)

LAFFY SAFFY.

Poor Pearl! Dear lord, let her have some growth/resolution, otherwise she is going to kill herself and everyone else.

Greg seems unsurprised, so apparently it's happened before.

The State of Keystone. The Keystone State! Home of square pizza.
posted by emjaybee at 5:46 PM on July 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

When Garnet walks into the motel, what is the giant sandwich thing she's carrying? An actual sandwich?

Also: hooray for that adorable kissing.
posted by ocherdraco at 6:26 PM on July 14, 2015

It's the cheeseburger backpack from Season 1! It has its own episode!
posted by emjaybee at 6:41 PM on July 14, 2015 [4 favorites]

* I love the little alternate world touches in Steven Universe. I bet there's a Jefferson State on the west coast in Steven's world.
* Garnet knew she wasn't going to be able to work her issues out as Garnet, but I think she's reluctant to defuse in front of the other Crystal Gems in general, especially in this case. She "Always has to be the bigger gem." The road trip was her chance to work out her issues.
* Steven mentions the feeling of car wash brushes on fur, a callback all the way to Cat Fingers.
* I remember someone talking about how Ruby seemed too over the top in Jailbreak and was a serious team liability the way she was running around the handship screaming. This episode reinforces that she's not a super great ally by herself. She's got major anxiety and anger issues, so clearly she benefits from Sapphire's long view and superficial calm. I think the fire/ice thing is a little too on the nose, but since it's foreshadowed all the way back in the pilot episode I can't blame them.
* Steven's reaction is great, since it's typical for his age. Steven may be super open and loving, but he's still a preteen that doesn't have interpersonal relationships super worked out. His freakout reminded Ruby and Sapphire that their issue extended beyond themselves and was affecting other people. Cue Garnet taking the first step to forgiving Pear(l).
* Steven's cheeseburger backpack is his defacto luggage, I like how it keeps turning up (last seen in The Return).
* Ruby's weapon is at least one gauntlet, like a lesser version of Garnet's. Since the showrunners recently confirmed Lapis's 'weapon' is water control, perhaps Sapphire's is Future Vision. Combining the weapons of the constituent gems seems like a fusion's MO, but if there's not two weapons to combine maybe you can get a beefed up version of the one weapon? Hopefully we see Malachite's weapon, which by this theory should be a beefed up hammer helmet.
* Fuck square-cut pizza. As a kid I always went for the corners, since those were the most like actual pizza. A pizza slice without a crust edge is unnatural. This and the magic sausage finger in the last episode are those human touches that makes Steven Universe so awesome.
* Poor Pearl. I hope they do something with pearl and amethyst's relationship after Amethyst stepped up to defend Pearl in Cry for Help. I want to see those two come to better terms.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:49 PM on July 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Another episode of Crying Breakfast Friends (Steven at the The Best Diner in the World).

Also: Amethyst and Pearl having a heart-to-heart at the end!
posted by glass origami robot at 6:52 PM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

"Son, there will come a time in your life when you learn to accept ALL pizza."

No, Greg. NO.
posted by ursus_comiter at 7:06 PM on July 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

* If I just needed to pee I wouldn't let a frozen toilet slow me down. P.S. I assume Steven's bathroom is the doorway under his bed opposite the stairs, but they've never once addressed it. Weird to suddenly address bathrooms here. Sapphire's predictions and talk of fate was amusing here too.
* Like emjaybee said, Greg seems familiar with Sapphire and Ruby already. I bet he knows a lot of Crystal Gem secrets, maybe even stuff only Rose knew, depending if she felt he needed to know. If the "pink diamond" theory is true you can be sure Greg knows all about it. Anyway, what other traumatic events could have caused Garnet to split up? Oh right losing their beloved leader.
* Didn't notice the pearl/amethyst heart to heart until glass origami robot pointed it out. Hopefully they're finding some common ground.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:13 PM on July 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

The motel was such a spot-on motel.

I'm wondering what would happen if Pearl and Amethyst decide they want to find strength in each other, and permanently fuse into Opal. "We are the Crystal Gems: Garnet, Opal, and Stevonnie"?
posted by glass origami robot at 7:21 PM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

It's the cheeseburger backpack from Season 1!

Oh, duh. *facepalm* I should especially have recognized it given how many hours I've played Attack the Light and heard Steven say "Cheeseburger Backpack!" every time I needed to use an item.
posted by ocherdraco at 7:33 PM on July 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'd say Pearl and Amethyst are too dissimilar to make a permanent Opal, but Ruby and Sapphire are almost literally night and day opposites so I guess love can always find a way. I think that would be a weird direction for the show to go, but I bet Opal will appear soon as a way of indicating the sardonyx storm has passed and our heroes have emerged more closely bonded as a result. Also the show is clearly setting up Stevonnie fighting with sword and shield and I want to see it SO BAD.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 8:19 PM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Aren't Garnet's glasses also a weapon/item? When fused into Sardonyx they still had glasses looking things, while the gauntlets and spear turned into the hammer. And Sugilite also has eye gear. I loved the single stream of tears from Sapphire's one eye and the subsequent reveal of her cyclops state. We haven't seen Sapphire without her bangs in the way while she is using future vision. So I think Garnet has two power items and the glasses just don't combine with the weapons of others, but they all get mutual power ups.

I loved how Greg met an Internet person. I have absolutely returned from meeting online people IRL and reported "well she wasn't an axe murderer!" All of Greg's moments since the first Stevenbomb have been wonderfully written, so careful but with so much reality.
posted by Mizu at 8:24 PM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh, actually, maybe it's squared, because if Ruby has one gauntlet, Garnet has two. And if Sapphire needs one lens for her one eye, Garnet's indicates that they cover two eyes. SQUARE MOM SQUARE MOM SQUARE MOM MOM SQUARED
posted by Mizu at 8:28 PM on July 14, 2015

Garnet's glasses appear and disappear the same way as other summoned weapons, so it's plausible. Best summoned weapon glasses since Gurren Lagann?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 8:47 PM on July 14, 2015

Between Square Mom, Bird Mom, Purple Sis and Guitar Dad, Steven does all right, family-wise. No more effed-up than your average human family.

AV Club dinged this episode for being too "cartoony" with Sapphire and Ruby, but I liked that, personally. It's a cartoon. You're allowed to be cartoony. Ruby was pretty funny and Sapphire illustrated how irritating Zenlike composure can be.
posted by emjaybee at 8:54 PM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

New headcanon: Greg is a reformed old-school computer nerd. "forum moderator," meeting people from the Internet IRL, an O'Reilly book on Onix programming in his garage.... One day Pearl will find out and they'll become besties.
posted by glass origami robot at 9:14 PM on July 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Don't forget that Square Mom is also sometimes two tiny lesbians in a trench coat!
posted by Mizu at 9:18 PM on July 14, 2015 [10 favorites]

Zenlike composure until you REALLY make her angry. You think it was cold in that Motel room? Y'all ain't seen nothin'.
posted by ursus_comiter at 9:28 PM on July 14, 2015

Best summoned weapon glasses since Gurren Lagann?

Nope. Since Ultra Seven.
posted by ursus_comiter at 9:30 PM on July 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Considering Greg's musical specialty was space opera rock I don't see how he could be anything other than an old-school nerd. Don't tell me he wasn't in the A/V club in high school.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 10:16 PM on July 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

I cannot handle how adorable Ruby and Sapphire are together. CANNOT. HANDLE. That cheesy yet romantic line of "I get to look at you"! The giggles! The blushes! The kisses! AAAAAHHHHHHHH IT'S TOO CUTE.
posted by yasaman at 10:30 PM on July 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Most of what I would say has already been said by you guys! I think a lot of the matter over fusion comes from it being a relatively new thing to gems (homeworld seems to mistrust it, I'm thinking maybe Rose or Garnet invented it), different gems seeing it in different ways, and those differences are the root of the conflict here.

BTW, I have yet to watch Call For Help. I've read about what happens in it, and I don't think I could handle watching Garnet's rage, or Pearl's joy turned to self-loathing. It seems incredibly uncomfortable.
posted by JHarris at 12:52 AM on July 15, 2015

Ruby's poses while enraged reminded me heavily of Ren from Ren & Stimpy. Especially when she would go tight-mouthed with bulging eyes.
posted by history_denier at 8:23 AM on July 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

BTW, I have yet to watch Call For Help. I've read about what happens in it, and I don't think I could handle watching Garnet's rage, or Pearl's joy turned to self-loathing. It seems incredibly uncomfortable.

Well, but you also get Sardonyx, and Amethyst sings, and there's Crying Breakfast Friends jokes. The show is good about mixing upbeats into sad stories. I also have a low tolerance for "character I like gets humiliated/screws up" but that's really not the whole of the episode.
posted by emjaybee at 8:42 AM on July 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

The ice survived a trip across PA.

Does Garnet inherit the ability to manipulate temperature on top of future vision?
posted by Slackermagee at 8:52 AM on July 15, 2015

Or Greg had a cooler in the van.

(I LOVED THIS EPISODE.)
posted by nonasuch at 9:35 AM on July 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

I was wondering how the ice made it back too, but a guy living in his van better have some form of refrigeration.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 10:33 AM on July 15, 2015 [3 favorites]

a guy living in his van better have some form of refrigeration

My van that I DON'T live in (but could) has a fridge. It's a thing.
posted by flaterik at 7:07 PM on July 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

Tumblr is freaking out because a bunch of fans left fake negative reviews on the actual Keystone Motel, and then a bunch more left 5-star reviews out of guilt, and people are claiming that this will end in the cancellation of the show.

Is this a thing that's likely to happen?
posted by divabat at 9:35 AM on July 18, 2015

Who knows what the heck network executives are thinking when they make decisions. Even so, it seems very unlikely; Steven Universe is one of Cartoon Network's most popular shows. It regularly gets better ratings than Adventure Time.
posted by JHarris at 10:38 AM on July 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Interesting that Ruby's gauntlet manifests on her right hand. Her gem is on her left. I had kind of assumed that the gauntlets projected from the gems, just like how Pearl and Amethyst draw their weapons out of their gems. I guess she did put her hands together, which means she might have been sort of materializing it from her left hand but onto her right. But that's definitely not how it works when she's Garnet.
posted by baf at 10:45 PM on July 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm watching this right now and I just wanted to point out that Sapphire's voice actress, Erica Luttrell, voiced Keesha Franklin on the Magic School Bus!!!
posted by numaner at 7:38 PM on October 5, 2015