Steven Universe: Season 2, Episode 29 – “Log Date 7 15 2”

This episode acts as the conclusion of the week’s spate of new episodes, as well as a denouement to the info-dumping and action from the last four episodes. There’s a sense that “Log Date 7 15 2” is, so to speak, the breather after the storm. That shouldn’t be read as a criticism, though. Where other action-adventure shows might falter without anything for their characters to do, Steven Universe has always thrived just as well in its low-key episodes as it has in its up-tempo ones. One of the big themes of the show is that life on Earth, because of all its beauty and idiosyncrasies and people, is worth fighting for. So there’s never been any thematic inconsistency in showing Steven (Zach Callison) and the Crystal Gems just doing mundane things: fixing trucks, going to the arcade, visiting human friends. There’s this sense that Steven Universe is a show that puts fighting Lovecraftian monsters on the same narrative level as getting donuts from the place down the street and meddling in the romantic lives of the two awkward teenagers who work there.

“Log Date 7 15 2” is an epistolary episode that begins immediately after the conclusion of the previous episode, “Message Received”. In the middle of the psychological breakdown caused by cutting ties with the Gem Homeworld, Peridot’s (Shelby Rabara) taken for a breather by Garnet (Estelle), and leaves behind her tape recorder, which she’s been using for about a month to log her reactions to Earth and its inhabitants. Steven takes it and begins to listen, curious as to why Peridot and Garnet suddenly have an (awkwardly) positive relationship despite Peridot’s previously stated disgust about Garnet’s unique “biology”.

Each “log” is a little vignette recounted from Peridot’s perspective. But rather than limit it to one character, this episode plays to Steven Universe’s strengths by showing off its ensemble cast and playing on subtle little interactions between the characters. For example, this episode marks the return of the fusion Opal (Aimee Mann). Her constituent Gems Pearl (Deedee Magno) and Amethyst (Michaela Dietz) had been shown in previous episodes to have such friction in their personalities that initiating and maintaining Opal’s fusion could only be done in the most crucial of situations. “Log Date 7 15 2” shows Pearl and Amethyst repairing their relationship enough to effortlessly fuse into their joined form for a mundane task. It’s the little things, like I said, that make this episode such a treat.

Peridot’s method of learning about Earth culture has been a process of understanding certain phenomena on the planet, and then attempting to act upon that information. It’s a clever call-back to the fact that Peridot’s spent her whole life as a mathematician and engineer: it’s instinctual for her to want to systematize everything and fit her experiences into the schema she’s built in her own mind. This leads to clever moments, like when Peridot finally begins to comprehend Garnet’s permanent fusion by seeing it through the lens of her tendency to ship power couples on Earth’s television shows, as well as funny ones, like when Pearl makes a joke, and despite finding it neither funny nor comprehensible, Peridot forces out a big, fake laugh because her human book on comedy informs her that people are supposed to laugh at jokes their friends tell. But there are also disturbing errors in judgment, which was a theme of the previous episode, “Message Received”. Seeing a ladybug flying, Peridot assumes that all Earth organisms can fly, leading her to casually push Greg (Tom Scharpling) off a barn roof to watch him “fly”.

And for the first time, the audience gets to see how Garnet and Peridot form a relationship. We’ve seen in previous episodes that the different Crystal Gems have formed bonds with the Homeworld runaway in different manners: Steven gives her the same loving kindness he attempts to give everyone; she and Pearl’s rivalry and drag-out fight led to a professional respect for the other’s skills; and Amethyst and Peridot have enough in common that the sparks of intimacy are kindling between them.

Until this episode, though, Garnet and Peridot have been estranged enough to not have any real interaction past chilly hostility with one another. But Garnet really approves of Peridot’s efforts to understand the Earth, and when we take this week’s “The Answer” into consideration, we begin to understand that Garnet sees herself in Peridot. After all, Garnet was the only Crystal Gem that was a refugee on Earth. Rose (Susan Egan) started the rebellion, Pearl chose to stay by Rose’s side, Amethyst was “born” on Earth, and most of Steven’s native to the planet. Garnet, however, was an inadvertent refugee on Earth, and she can empathize with the difficult situation that Peridot’s been forced into. But where Ruby (Charlyne Yi) and Sapphire (Erica Luttrell) had each other, Garnet seems to recognize that Peridot doesn’t have somebody to play that role for her. There’s a sense that Garnet is impressed by the amount of progress Peridot’s made in only a month, and all by herself.

What happens at the climax of the episode is a radical shift in the relationship between the two Gems that I shouldn’t spoil, but it’s a touching close to this week’s episodes. What began with the newly Earthbound Garnet being welcomed to the planet by Rose Quartz (Susan Egan) five millennia ago, now concludes with the newly Earthbound Peridot being welcomed by Garnet with the same gentleness and understanding.