“Reunited” is a 22-minute special episode. It occupies the production slots of episodes 23 and 24 of the fifth season of Steven Universe and episodes 151 and 152 overall. It is the last episode of the seventh StevenBomb.
Official synopsis
Steven brings everyone together for a special reunion.[2]
Conspiracy
The episode opens with Steven singing “For Just One Day Let’s Only Think About (Love)” Through this song, Steven expresses that the Crystal Gems continue to be plagued with painful emotions regarding the renewed threat to Homeworld and the Cluster, the departure of Lapis Lazuli. (in Peridot’s case) and the hugely surprising revelation that Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond all along. Although no one is quite used to the dramatic turns their lives have taken lately, Steven encourages them to focus all their efforts on making Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding day a true celebration of love. He goes around helping everyone get ready for the wedding that is taking place on the beach in front of the temple and is attended by the Crystal Gems and the people of Beach City. After Steven gives his opening speech, Ruby and Sapphire say their vows. Ruby declares how happy she is to be herself with Sapphire and her determination not to let anyone come between them. Sapphire explains how Ruby saved her from her fate and opened up new possibilities. They kiss and merge back into Garnet.
Rupphire kisses and Garnet returns
During the reception, Steven begins to cry, first believing it to be his emotions and later realizing it is Blue Diamond’s presence. The Diamonds arrive in their armships and attack the ground above the Cluster with the goal of awakening it. Despite Steven’s attempt to calm Cluster telepathically during sleep, Cluster is free of bubbles and takes the form of a giant arm above the ground. However, he remains in control and attacks the Yellow Diamond ship before giving Steven a giant thumbs up.
Meanwhile, Blue steps onto the beach and is unaffected by Steven’s attempts to talk to her. He attacks and subdues everyone with his aura of sadness except for Connie and Lion (who are not Gems and are not affected). Connie attacks Blue Diamond, but Blue catches and snaps her sword, recognizing it as Rose Quartz. Grenade goes forward despite the emotional attack and is able to distract Blue long enough for Lapis Lazuli, who has returned from the moon, to slam the Barn onto Blue.
Lapis officially joins the Crystal Gems; Peridot and Steven are happy to see her. Blue recovers and restores her aura, but it has little effect on Lapis, who “felt worse”. Lapis restrains Modra with water chains (just as she did as Malachite from within) and deactivates her aura again, allowing the gathered crystal gems to attack together and bring Modra to her knees. Yellow Diamond’s ship is disabled in the fight with the Cluster and thrown at Blue’s, which in turn falls on top of Blue (and the front of Steven’s house). Exhausted and flawed, the cluster withdraws into its bubble. Unfortunately, the Diamonds regroup: Yellow Diamond abandons her ship and frees Blue from the wreckage. Peridot taunts Yellow and asks him if Diamond remembers her; Yellow scornfully denies this and instantly sinks Peridot with a lightning attack. As Steven tries to explain to the Diamonds, Yellow runs up and stomps him to the ground, knocking Steven unconscious.
Steven wakes up outside his body on an abstract psychic plane. He realizes that he can interact with people’s thoughts when he is disembodied, and watches as Lapis gets high as well. After giving his friends encouragement, he tries to contact Diamonds, but still believing him to be the enemy, he psychically attacks him. Steven resists and manages to create Pink Diamond’s aura, which convinces the Diamonds that she is still alive.
Steven reawakens with the Crystal Gems, including Greg and excluding Peridot and Lapis, and the Diamonds standing over him in surprise as Blue tearfully states, “It’s you… Pink!”.
Details
This is the third half-hour episode to air in the series (the first being “Bismuth” and the second being “Gem Harvest”) and the first to feature a song.
Another promo
The promo art for this episode features Kelsey and J.P. from Craig of the Creek, another Cartoon Network series that has several references to Steven Universe (including a reference to Li’l Butler existing in the previous series).
The wedding takes place eight months after Steven’s birthday, on August 15, which makes the wedding in mid-April. Coincidentally, April’s stone is a diamond.
This also means that all of the events of the last three seasons took place within eight months in space.
This also means that Steven is now 14 years and 8 months old, while Connie is 13 years and 5 months old.
This is the only episode where the fusion involving Garnet melts down due to a stability disturbance that does not show the silhouettes of Ruby and Sapphire.
This is the first episode in which both the blue and yellow diamonds appear without their respective pearls.
The title of the episode refers to Ruby and Sapphire reuniting as Garnet, Lapis and Peridot reuniting, and Diamonds reuniting with Pink (Steven).
The flowers in Ruby’s hair are hydrangeas, based on the flowers Rebecca’s friend had in her hair at her wedding.[3]
The hydrangeas appear to be a cultivar of the H. macrophylla species called “Harlequin”.
Reflecting on herself, Yellow Diamond says, “I knew Pink couldn’t handle the colony, but I gave up and now I’m to blame for her fate.” This means that it was Yellow who granted Earth to Pink Diamond and that it may have previously been listed as one of her colonies.
This “permission” could have been caused by Pink Diamond pushing Yellow Diamond, like the tantrum shown in “Jungle Moon”.
This is the first episode where the ending card song “Love Like You” has been changed again. This time Rebecca Sugar sings it slowly.
Bismuth is shown to have finally understood the Crystal Gems way of bubbling gems instead of breaking them, as shown when Blue Diamond arrives and she calls out to the others: “Come on you rocks, let’s put her in the bubble!”.
As the Crystal Gems attack Blue Diamond one by one, only Steven and Lion take damage; Lion’s earth shattering roar made her wince and Steven’s spiked bubble brought her to her knees. This is probably because Steven and Lion contain another diamond magic (Pink’s).
The episode was nominated for a 2019 Creative Arts Short Form Animated Emmy Award. Other nominated episodes are “The Witness” (Love, Death & Robots), “Why is it Wet?” (Robot Chicken), “Plankton Paranoia” (SpongeBob SquarePants) and “Nostalgia is no substitute for a real story” (Teen Titans Go!).
