On this chapter of The Queerest Things I Watched Last Week, Steven Universe makes history with Heart of the Crystal Gems; Kat’s subconscious freaks her out on The Bold Type; and we meet Yolanda, the new lesbian character on GLOW.
- Steven Universe – Season 5 Episode 19 “Now We’re Only Falling Apart” [Live]
- Part one of the Heart of the Crystal Gems 5-night special starts right where we left off: Amethyst and Garnet just found out that Rose is Pink Diamond. Amethyst is all like, “Woah, Rose Quartz was actually Pink Diamond?” in a shocked but not upset kind of way.
Garnet on the other hand is so furious over Rose’s lie, she unfuses into Ruby and Sapphire. Ruby tries to calm Sapphire down who is raging with anger — it’s a total reversal of their usual roles. During their argument, Sapphire is so mad she portals away.
Sapphire portal-ing away after learning about Pink Diamond is so heartbreaking. #StevenUniverse #HeartOfTheCrystalGems pic.twitter.com/yPlGio1PoI
— LezWatch.TV 📺 🏳️🌈 (@lezwatchtv) July 8, 2018
Pearl and Steven chase after her to explain Rose’s motives and bring her back to Ruby. Pearl tells her, “You deserve to know everything.” Then proceeds to tell her the whole story.
Pearl was given to Pink Diamond to make her happy, but she never could because Pink was bored and unfulfilled running a colony. As they remotely watched the first Quartz soldiers emerge from the Earth Kindergarten, Pink wishes she could be there to see it in person.
Pearl says she can teleport them there, but Pink says they shouldn’t because Blue and Yellow Diamond will freak out if they find out. Pearl says they won’t find out because Pink changed her shape.
So it was Pearl who came up with the idea for Pink to change shape into Rose in the first place!
Rose is loving blending in and being perceived as a regular gem and not a diamond. Rose is ready to run off with the Amethysts, but Pearl stops her and tells her they can’t bring more attention to themselves. She suggests they go explore Earth instead.
At the end of a beautiful day spent seeing all of the wonderful things on Earth, Rose has a crisis. All of these great things will not survive her invasion.
After that experience, Pink tried convincing the other Diamonds to allow her to stop the colony and preserve life on Earth, but Blue and Yellow refused. Pink then decided to become Rose and eradicate all gems from Earth, but that changed when she saw Garnet the first time.
“I imagine that I ran away and met you here on Earth. A Rose Quartz. And I’m not yours, but I make you so happy anyway.” ❤️ #StevenUniverse #HeartOfTheCrystalGems #RainbowQuartz pic.twitter.com/PNedDvGsdw
— LezWatch.TV 📺 🏳️🌈 (@lezwatchtv) July 8, 2018
She wanted to fight for fusions like Garnet; she wanted provide a better, more free life for gems.
At this point Sapphire stops being mad and realizes Rose was following them.
Rose became Rose so should could live on Earth with Pearl forever, and Garnet inspired her to make that decision. Sapphire says she felt the same way when she first arrived on Earth with Ruby, then suddenly realizes she left Ruby in a fight and needs to get back to her right away.
They quickly portal back. When they arrive Ruby’s not there, but she left Sapphire a note.
- Steven Universe – Season 5 Episode 21 “The Question” [Live]
- In part two, “What’s Your Problem?” Steven and Amethyst go looking for Ruby after she’s run away (according to her note), but most of the episode is centered around Amethyst and Steven processing Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz stuff.
In this episode (part three) Amethyst and Steven find Ruby hanging out with with Greg on a hill by the beach. Steven asks her how she’s doing.
She says Sapphire was kind of right about everything. They stayed fused as Garnet, because Rose said they were the answer. Ruby went right from being a soldier to being Garnet, and she’s never had time on her own to think about herself because she was always checking in with someone.
Greg and Amethyst are down with Ruby’s new found freedom, but Steven is completely freaked out.
Greg tells Steven they can’t make Ruby be Garnet if that’s not what she wants. He eventually agrees to supporting Ruby’s quest for emotional growth and hands her a cowboy comic. Ruby says that’s what she wants – the open plain.
Greg drives them out to a field somewhere, and Ruby comes out of the van dressed as a cowboy. Amethyst morphs into a horse so Ruby can further play out her comic book fantasy. Ruby has a cute “finding herself” montage set to a song she sings about independence.
Late that night, Steven tells Ruby she seems really happy, and he’s sorry he tried to pressure her into fusing with Sapphire again. Ruby then tells Steven all that stuff she sang about wasn’t true; she did have fun, but she missed Sapphire the whole time.
Ruby says if she’s making her own decisions then she can decide to be with Sapphire, but it has to be different this time. Steven has an idea and shows her a page from the comic we can’t see.
In the next scene we’re back at the Crystal Gems’ beach house, and Steven enters the front door. Sapphire asks him if he found Ruby. He tells her with a very serious voice that she’s outside, and she has something to say to her.
Sapphire runs outside to Ruby who is still on a horse, in a cowboy outfit. Sapphire emotionally tells Ruby she was wrong and so sorry for all the things she said to her. Ruby says, “No you were right. Someone else told us we were the answer. But I don’t believe that anymore. At least not ’til I hear it from you.”
And then this happens:
The most amazing thing just happened on television. This is history making. Thank you, @rebeccasugar Thank you. Thank you. -T #HeartOfTheCrystalGems #StevenUniverse #RubyAndSapphire pic.twitter.com/QFDz5wPXoL
— LezWatch.TV 📺 🏳️🌈 (@lezwatchtv) July 5, 2018
Oh my goodness, I did NOT see that coming!
I really thought the series was going to end with Ruby and Sapphire making up in the last episode. I did not think we were going to get a big gem wedding! And how great is it that the episode’s title is “The Question” as a companion to “The Answer?”
- Steven Universe – Season 5 Episode 23/24 “Reunited” [Live]
- Night five of Heart of the Crystal Gems was a double episode! The night before was Steven doing wedding planning and unbubbling Bismuth so she could be a guest at the wedding. This night was Big Gem Wedding night!
The episode starts out with a musical number! Everyone’s getting ready for wedding, and Steven sings, “There’s an awful lot of awful things they could be thinking of, but for just one day let’s only think about love.”
And then, it happens — Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding!
Here is Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding. I can’t even imagine how seeing something like this as a kid would have changed the trajectory of my life. -T #StevenUniverse #stevenuniversereunited #HeartOfTheCrystalGems #RubySapphireWedding pic.twitter.com/Z76JGdCQ30
— LezWatch.TV 📺 🏳️🌈 (@lezwatchtv) July 8, 2018
I am a Steven Universe superfan. I love this show so much, and it is always exceeding my expectations. However, I have never fathomed that I’d be watching one of the sweetest lesbian engagements and weddings on a children’s show, on the Cartoon Network. Rebecca Sugar created a five-night special centered around the two major queer ships of the show: Pearl and Rose and Ruby and Sapphire (Garnet). This is literally going to save people’s lives.
I have repeatedly tried imagining how my life would have been if I had a show like this as a kid, but it is so far from what was my reality I can’t even start to do it. However, I can see what Steven Universe is doing for my 11-year-old kid and her friends. Her friends are a mix of queer, transgender, gender non-conforming, and straight allies, and they LOVE this show. Having a show like this with different characters you can relate to absolutely makes a difference.
Thank you, Rebecca Sugar, for doing this. I really hope you win an Emmy this year.
- The Bold Type – Season 2 Episode 5 “Stride of Pride” [Live]
- There wasn’t any Kadena in this episode because Adena was away at a retreat, but Kat runs into Adena’s ex, Leila, while she was out karaoke-ing with the girls. Leila tells Kat that Adena said she could borrow her tripod, and she wants to know when she can come by and pick it up.
I swear that Leila’s a troublemaker.
At the end of the episode, Friday night rolls around and this happens.
Kat, WTF. Girl, you need to not to do this to our hearts. #TheBoldType
Song: “Johny” by @SofiTukker pic.twitter.com/c3KxLGjaEd
— The Bold Type (@TheBoldTypeTV) July 6, 2018
Woah! I love dream angst as a plot device.
In the previews for this week they make it look like Kat confesses the dream to Adena and then Adena walks out of the apartment. I really hope they are misleading us like previews often do. Because dreams can be free-pass gifts from our subconscious and definitely not grounds for break up.
- GLOW – Season 2 Episode 3 “Concerned Women of America” [Streaming]
- The wife and I binged all of GLOW season two in a few days. We really enjoyed this season and meeting the new cast member and lesbian character, Yolanda.
I hope we get to see more of her in season three.
This week — PRAISE BE it’s the season finale episode of The Handmaids Tale. Also, The Originals comes back from a short break, and I hope we have some Freelin wedding plans.
