Mark Watches ‘Steven Universe’: S02E19 – When It Rains

In the nineteenth episode of the second season of Steven Universe, this truly is one of my favorite tropes. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Steven Universe.

Seriously, as Baize pointed out at the end of this video, I am utterly obsessed with watching people who are normally on “opposing” sides work together towards a new, common goal. Granted, I wouldn’t exactly qualify Steven and Peridot as enemies; maybe only from Peridot’s perspective. Even then, one of the big elements of “When it Rains” is Peridot learning that Steven is not who she thought he was. He’s resourceful. Caring. Kind. And a million times smarter than she believed humans to be.

It’s a long journey to that moment, though, and initially, I thought this episode was going to cover Peridot’s fear of thunder. My best friend used to be frightened of them as well, but I don’t think this was about phobias as much as it was about knowledge. Peridot’s terror over the thunder arose from her belief that the Cluster was about to burst out of the Earth’s core. (More on that later.) Steven, rather than belittle her about not knowing of something so very basic about his world, kindly walks her through an explanation of it. His simple description of the water cycle was brilliant, but it was his frolicking in the rain that really did it for me. The whole sequence is animated with sensitivity and beauty, and it made me appreciate just how magical it is when it rains. (And hey, I live in a place where there’s been a longstanding drought. It rained here a couple weeks ago, and the very sight of water falling from the sky made me giddy.) Steven gave that experience to Peridot.

So it was no surprise to me that she opened up (in her own way) after this happened. Not only was it kind, but Steven demonstrated that he had knowledge. Given what Peridot knew of the Cluster, it now makes perfect sense to me that she relented, that she decided to tell Steven the truth about what the Homeworld had planned for Earth. What’s fascinating to me about this is that Steven and Peridot want the Cluster stopped for entirely different reasons. Steven, naturally, doesn’t want to die in an explosive apocalypse. Neither does Peridot, but if she weren’t on Earth? She would have not have had a single problem with this whole plan. Her involvement is entirely self-interest and self-preservation, nothing more.

I don’t think Steven realizes that at all, and I wonder if that’ll become part of a future storyline. Regardless, Steven offered Peridot his trust (and his hand, IN THE BEST SINGLE GAG OF THE WHOLE EPISODE you know which part I’m talking about) when she went with him to Kindergarten. Hell, even there, you can tell from the casual way she talks about everything that she still has no problem with Earth and its inhabitants being destroyed, despite that Steven is growing on her.

Which brings me to the Cluster. Y’all: WHY IS THIS SHOW SO MESSED UP. Again, we’re given more evidence that fusion is this fucked up concept on the homeworld. Natural fusion – like that between Ruby and Sapphire, or the hybrid nature of Steven – is considered unnatural or necessary. But artificial fusion and experimentation? Totally fine. The very idea of millions of gem shards fused into a single mutant that lives in the core of the Earth is bad enough, but one day, it’s gonna burst out of the Earth and destroy it??? WHY? Like, that’s my one question here: Why do they need to do this? Why is artificial fusion so important to them? What do they do with the Cluster once it hatches? Oh god, I just realized that Peridot used the word “hatch” because the Earth is the egg.

Great.

Anyway, this episode doubles down on my favorite trope because now Peridot is going to work with the Crystal Gems, too. Don’t mind me, just freaking out because this show continually gives me exactly what I want.

The video for “When It Rains” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

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About Mark Oshiro

Perpetually unprepared since '09.
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