“Now We’re Only Falling Apart” is the 19th episode of the fifth season of Steven Universe, the 147th episode overall, and the first episode of the seventh StevenBomb.
Official synopsis
Pearl tells the story.[2]
Conspiracy
After the revelation (in “A Single Pale Rose”) that Rose Quartz was actually Pink Diamond, Amethyst is shocked while Garnet remains stoically silent. Pearl laments how much she wanted to tell Steven, but Pink Diamond was under orders not to tell anyone to avoid being reminded of the past. Since the secret is out, she is more than happy to explain everything. Amethyst doesn’t take any of this personally and remains calm. Garnet is unable to process this information as she has a mental breakdown and splits into Ruby and Sapphire. A surprised and rational Ruby tries to comfort a furious, betrayed Sapphire. Sapphire yells at Ruby (taking stress out on her) and questions their relationship. Now that Sapphire knows that Rose Quartz is Diamond, she thinks that everything she led the Crystal Gems to was based on a lie. Sapphire warps to Rose’s Fountain, leaving Ruby in tears as Pearl and Steven follow her.
At Rose’s Fountain, they find Sapphire grieving, causing the area to snow. In her rage, she thinks that Pink Diamond was only using her fellow Gem rebels for her “little war” to torture them. Steven advises her that she should know that Pink didn’t mean to hurt anyone, but Sapphire says she didn’t know that. She explains that her negativity is based on her self-doubt because she hasn’t seen Pink’s true colors even through her future vision, implying that she knows nothing at all and still holds a grudge against Diamonds. Steven tells Sapphire that Pink didn’t mean for her to get hurt, but Sapphire still isn’t sure. Pearl tells Sapphire and Steven the true story of Pink Diamond and Pearl’s past: revealing why Pink chose to become Rose Quartz. She was bored with running her colony due to the long time of nothing happening, but one day amethysts started to appear. This made Pink excited and wishing she was there but couldn’t due to her duties and asked Pearl “can you imagine” in a rhetorical way but Pearl took the order literally and came up with a plan that involved Pink shapeshifting into a Quartz Soldier , to which Pink quickly decided in her excitement. After witnessing the soldiers emerging, they left and saw life on Earth first hand. This made her realize that the Diamonds were taking all life from the planet just to create more gems and leave nothing behind. Sapphire asks why Pink didn’t stop it since she’s a diamond, to which Pearl replies that she tried but couldn’t. She begged Blue Diamond and Yellow Diamond to leave Earth alone for years, trying different approaches with each diamond only to have them all fail. Because Pink wanted to preserve life on earth, they created a human zoo. Pink was the lowest ranked diamond and her status meant nothing to Blue and Yellow. Convinced that the other Diamonds do not respect her enough to stop the colonization of Earth, she decides to start a rebellion using her alias Rose Quartz.
Pearl explains that she wanted to intimidate all the gems at first, but that changed after she saw Garnet randomly spawn for the first time. This leads to what happened after Pearl and Rose left the Cloud Arena. Rose was stunned by the fact that two different gems had fused and wondered what it was like, only to be interrupted by Pearl picking her up in an adorable attempt at a “traditional” connection, but after they failed, they shared a heartfelt moment where Pearl revealed that because Pink never told her to stop imagining things, she never stopped and thought of many things including her own fake story about her running away and meeting Rose and how happy she is despite not being hers. She admits that she thinks the idea is ridiculous and begs her to tell her to stop, only for Rose to tell her to never stop. This causes the two to really almost bond. This leads Pearl to worry about what would happen if someone found out that they almost fused, and Rose to worry about what happened to Garnet. That was when they officially met Garnet after she fell to Earth. At first, Rose only fought for land, but after meeting Garnet, she also fought for all the gems. Sapphire returns to the house with Pearl and Steven, realizing they didn’t follow Rose; Rose followed them. However, upon returning, Sapphire is shocked to find no one in the now dark, empty house and a letter from Ruby.
Details
This is the first time the gem is seen emerging from Kindergarten.
The crosshairs on Pearl’s projected map indicate that Prime Kindergarten is somewhere in the Great Lakes region of the US, possibly Ohio or Indiana.
Pink Diamond is revealed to be the lowest ranking Diamond in the Grand Diamond Authority, as she cannot make her own decisions regarding Earth and must obey Blue and Yellow Diamond.
The Amethyst the Amethyst Guards have been waiting for, “8XM”, is the Amethyst from Crystal Gems (Facet-5, Cut-8XM) as mentioned in “This Will Be All”.
Pearl claims she was given to Pink Diamond several thousand years before Pink was given Earth. This means that since Pink Diamond started her colony on Earth 6,000 years before the series began, the pearl could have been given to her at least 9,000 years ago.
“Pink Diamond Backstory” and “Flashback Episode” were both boxes on the official Cartoon Network B.I.N.G.O sheet for the current arc.
At the end of this episode’s premiere, the credits appeared in tiny white font at the bottom left of the screen before it ended. This is the first time this type of “credit crawl” has been used on Steven Universe, although Cartoon Network has done it for other shows.
Cultural references
The title of the episode is a reference to the lyrics of the 1983 hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler.
Saphira’s pose while crying at the Rose Fountain is reminiscent of Cinderella after her stepsisters tear her ball gown and she runs away into the garden in the 1950 Walt Disney animated film.[3]
Continuity
The episode begins immediately after “A Single Pale Rose”.
Turns out it was Pearl’s idea for Pink Diamond to disguise herself as a Quartz soldier.
The result of Garnet unfusing is similar to the events of “Keystone Motel”, where the calm Sapphire tries to resolve the situation while the furious and contemptuous Ruby just wants to lash out and get angry elsewhere for being so easily fooled. In this case, as Garnet tries not to unravel, the roles are reversed, as Ruby happens to be the one who is calm and tries to solve the problem by talking things out, while Sapphire wishes not to speak and rages elsewhere.