Ah, yes. Peedee Fryman. A victim-in-law of a corrupted gem attack. Ronaldo would be a saner person (and Lars a less antagonist one) if they hadn't collided with the lighthouse gem and this means that Peedee would have more free time to be a positive influence on someone who's not only losing his innocence but also his…

Hmmm. A moody jerk and a well-meaning klutz's punching bag would seem to fit the Sitcom Archnemesis niche, wouldn't they?

What it has to do with the episode is that none of these people really seem to notice the crazy crap that Steven has to go through every day. All they see is a goofy, smiley-faced oddball who's kinda squirrely and tends to break stuff.

And he's also Babu Bhatt from Seinfeld. I expected him to do that wag-his-finger at Steven and call him a very bad child.

Oh, of course. He's had it in for Steven for years.

They're so punch-drunk on weirdness, they've turned into Ash Ketcham.

I should think that perhaps, Steven vaguely wishes he could poof Onion and spare himself a headache or fifty.

But with with someone able to think outside the box in the mix, Garnet can see all things and realize how great free will is.

The interesting thing about breather episodes such as this is that we ask a different question than we normally do. Usually, we have to ask

Well, that was certainly interesting. He's still trying to come to terms with what he had to and what he couldn't prevent and the realization that the more power one has, the less freedom of action one has. Hmmmm. I wonder if the image of Rose Quartz means that he's afraid of disappointing her or of becoming her. At…

But she really didn't like that much, did she? Given "Love Like You", she's probably the goddess of heroic self-deprecation and also self-loathing.

The interesting thing is not that we have a jumping off point to new adventures as Steven expresses curiosity about Blue Diamond's palanquin. It's not that Buddy assumes that there are only THREE gems on Earth because, for some reason, Rose was wandering the earth like Kwai Chang Kaine two or three centuries ago. It's…

Call it an explosion of joy.

If Garnet is made of love and Malachite made of hate, it seems to me that Smoky Quartz is made of empathy: Steven's compassion for someone he sees as having too much placed on her and Amethyst's friendship for this being who's seen her at her lowest ebb. Also, there's a little self-doubt in the conversation.

Or he could die like Fox Mulder is supposed to. Rossi and Reed would then spend the episode asking if anyone knows how to perform auto-erotic asphyxiation properly.

Make it really stupid and undignified. Have Hotchner choke on a fishbone.

I noticed something else about last night's episode: the end credits didn't have a hint of 'Love Like You' at all. Just the pounding of the surf against the shore. This means that the song's purpose has been served now that Steven is starting to become aware more of Rose's (and his own) imperfections and compromises.

Steven did learn one thing the other Gems had yet to tell him: Corruption is an Earth-only phenomenon. Jasper might have mistakenly thought that that Earth ruins everything it touches but it's obvious that Peri had never even conceived of things like the Desert Runner until she got to Earth. Also, you forgot the…

Yep. Everyone on that world is their sponsored child in Uganda.

It also tends to explain why most Homeworld Gems don't know who Pink Diamond was. Since she got shattered by her own warrior, the other three saw her as being defective and thus made an unperson of her.