“Change Your Mind” is a 44-minute special episode.[2] It occupies the production slots of episodes 29 to 32 of the fifth season of Steven Universe and episodes 157 to 160 overall. It is the final episode of the fifth season, as well as the series finale of the original series, as well as a sub-event of the Diamond Days event, advertised as “Battle of Heart and Mind”.
Conspiracy
Part 1
The episode begins with Steven waking up and realizing that he is still in the Prison Tower. Blue Diamond opens the prison tower door and enters, immediately admonishing Steven. As he tries to explain what happened during the frantic search for Connie, Blue keeps blaming him for not bringing organic life back from the Kyanite colony. Confused, Steven realizes that it was another one of Pink Diamond’s memories. Blue tells him that his little pets are chasing Pearls down the halls and scolds him for letting them loose in the ballroom. She freaks out that the alien caterpillar was on her neck, tells him to get rid of it, and reminds him that White is very unhappy with him and if he keeps misbehaving, she’ll take the Pearl from him. Steven’s form then transitions into his original Pink Diamond form where he tears up and apologizes. When he suddenly starts having surreal visions, one of which is a disgusted Yellow and Blue Diamond looking down on him while the other Crystal Gems are poofed. White, Yellow, and Blue Diamond raise their hands to perform a Corrupting Light attack. Frightened, Steven raises his hands in desperation before seeing his hands phase into different forms. Steven keeps changing from rose quartz to rose diamond over and over as he clutches his hair and screams as his form changes faster. Before the attack can fully begin, White’s eyes open.
Steven wakes up from his nightmare to find Connie present. Blue Diamond arrives at the prison tower, upset that “Pink” will once again not work as Diamond should. Steven notices a pattern from his mother’s memories in his dream, while Connie tries to convince Blue that they didn’t mean it badly, she tries to take the blame by asking Steven to the dance and that she’s not trying to cause trouble. Blue releases her and informs them that she will not leave the Tower until she apologizes for making a mistake at the 3rd Era Ball. But Steven refuses and tries to convince her that what she is doing to him and the crystal gems is wrong, only for Blue to attack Steven in a rage. She then calls her out and asks Blue how many times Pink has done that and made her cry.
In response, Blue Diamond has an epiphany, realizing that her and Yellow Diamond’s behavior towards Pink in the past made her feel miserable and misunderstood, and admits that Pink was right to betray authority. She adds that she always thought Pink’s Homeworld was failing, but since she finally understood if Pink was happier on Earth than here, it was the other way around. With a change of heart, Blue helps Steven and Connie find more crystal gems. But before that, she takes Steven and Connie to Pink’s old room where they eat snacks, change clothes, and say goodbye to Pebbles.
Blue then takes them to Yellow Diamond’s bubble chamber. They confront Yellow Diamond and Steven demands that Yellow let the Crystal Gems go. Yellow Diamond ignores him and tells Blue to take Steven and Connie back to the prison tower, but Blue refuses and the two Diamonds begin to fight. Just before Blue Diamond is taken down, Steven stops the fight and warns Yellow that building an empire based on perfection is destroying everything she loves, tying in with her father’s old quote: “If every pork chop was perfect, I don’t have hot dogs .” Yellow realizes she’s right and collapses to her knees, regretting everything she’s done. The combined Diamonds then fight before heading to Pink Diamond’s Ship. Arriving in front of Pink Diamond’s ship, Yellow tells Steven and Connie with Crystal Gems to get in. But before the two kids can enter, the White Pearl seems to corner them and declare that no one is leaving the homeworld, taking control of the White Diamond’s Ship and attaching it to the Pink Diamond’s Ship.
Part 2
As the Diamond Mecha ascends, Steven, Connie, and the Diamonds begin to panic due to White Diamond’s rampage. As Mecha stands above them, two sparks of light twinkle in the sky. They are revealed to be blue and yellow ships as they begin to fight the Mecha. The yellow ship overpowered the Mech and sent him into a series of buildings. The ships land and the controllers reveal themselves to be Bismuth, and a reformed Peridot and Lapis in Crystal Gem uniforms. Together they manage to connect the yellow and blue ships with the white and pink ships. Everyone then recovered to try to reason with White Diamond. However, White instead shoots white light from his mech’s eyes, hitting the blue and yellow diamond gems. The two lose their own color and turn white and immobile – as they are now controlled by White Diamond. Mech’s arms go limp as he does so. Lapis and Peridot fly and carry Bismuth and Connie. Steven slips and grabs Connie’s hand, accidentally dropping the crystal gems.
Steven chases after them and fuses with the Amethyst gem, begging her for a fix. With his encouragement, he starts the regeneration of Amethyst and creates Smoky Quartz. Realizing that he can use fusion to wake them up, Steven fuses with Pearl’s gem to form Rainbow Quartz 2.0.
In the end, all the gems land safely on the road of the Homeworld city. To give them a chance, Steven fuses with Ruby and Sapphire as the rest of the Crystal Gems look ahead in surprise. Suddenly the diamond moss stomps on the crystal gems.
Part 3
However, no one was hurt in the crash and that the new fusion between Steven and Garnet, Sunstone, has a leg up. They can push it out easily. Sunstone states that victory will require getting into White Diamond’s ship and changing its mind. She makes it a short distance with Pearl and Amethyst in hand before being knocked down by Diamond Moss, not melting in the process. Garnet says they need to “be bigger”. As the Crystal Gems are ready to fight, Steven states that the only way to get White Diamond to change her mind is for the four of them to team up.
