In the twenty-ninth episode of the first season of Steven Universe, Steven forms a secret team with Pearl and Amethyst to fix a mistake. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Steven Universe.
I once formed my own secret team with my brother. As a kid, my brother and I were prone to boredom, which gave rise to us trying to find anything to entertain us. Our parents were strict and they didn’t let us socialize outside of the house. So during the long summers between grades, we were often left to our own devices. We made up this game once where we used frisbees to hit dirt clods and try to make them over the back wall. You got a point if you did, but you lost a point if your clod burst on the frisbee.
I was the unlucky soul who grabbed a dirt clod that had an actual rock in the center of it, which sailed majestically through the air and broke one of the kitchen windows, high up in one of the upper corners. Our secret team formed practically immediately because we feared our mother’s disciplinary style. This is not a story about that but more about how our refusal to tell the truth made us do… well, really silly things. Like my brother getting a paper plate and use crayons and colored pencils to make something to cover the shape of the hole. I told him it would never work, but he was certain he could match the color of the sky and that no one would ever notice it, and then I laughed when he held it up because THE SKY CHANGES COLOR THROUGHOUT THE DAY, DUDE. (I then pointed out that it would look super obvious once it was nighttime.)
I ended up coming up with a brilliant plan: scotch tape and cling wrap, and y’all, our secret team succeeded for LITERAL MONTHS. No one noticed the small hole for so long!!! Of course, just when I got comfortable enough to not have to think about it, we got caught, and we probably got in more trouble for having lied than just telling the truth in the first place.
What’s interesting here is that Steven Universe has two ADULTS start the deception when they should know better, and Steven is dragged into this because of them. So, while this is definitely an episode that shows us why lying can be harmful, it also works to show how peer pressure can be negative, too! Amethyst and Pearl should never have involved Steven in their lie because… well, look how he reacted to it! He thought it was a game of sorts, and he projected a whole lot of silliness onto the Secret Team concept. He wanted to continue this deception because it was fun. And it’s even more fascinating to note that right from the start, he was willing to tell Garnet about the shards. He had the right idea from the very beginning!
Now, about those shards… were all those living pieces of other gems? Like, had some gems had their arms cut off or something? LOOK, I CAN’T HELP BUT WONDER ABOUT THIS. It makes sense, doesn’t it???
Anyway, I really liked this episode. It was cute and funny, and it further built up the super important relationship between Steven and Garnet. Garnet is always willing to support Steven and teach him important lessons even if she isn’t quite as available as the other gems. Here, she teaches him the importance of honesty (WHICH HE INSTINCTUALLY KNEW ANYWAY, I LOVE IT), and she gets to trick Pearl and Amethyst into telling the truth. Actually, there’s one final lesson we learn: never tear up loyalty cards, because you could get a free pizza.
The video for “Secret Team†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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