Steven Universe (Season 2)

While I definitely enjoyed the first season of Steven Universe, it definitely had some growing pains, especially with its pacing. Season 2, on the other hand, is a massive improvement, and is far more confident to boot.

Season 2 is primarily about the redemption of Peridot, who was the main antagonist of the previous season. When Peridot got stuck on Earth during the Season 1 finale, she reveals that there's an apocalyptic geo-weapon buried in the center of the Earth that can destroy everyone, including herself. While much of the season has the Crystal Gems and Peridot fight with each other, they eventually team up to stop the Cluster from destroying the world. Peridot's development this season is fantastic, watching her slowly get along with the Crystal Gems and adjust to Earth is really fun, and the penultimate episode has her finish her redemption in a satisfying and surprising way. The Cluster is an imposing threat, especially knowing that it could get bad pretty much any second.

Season 2 has a lot more serialization than the first, with nearly every episode having some sort of major impact on the overall plot and plenty of subplots, like Pearl and Garnet having an argument that spans several episodes. As a whole, the pacing is a lot stronger both on an episodic and season-wide level. It hardly ever felt like the episodes ended abruptly anymore, and there's a nice amount of light-hearted and standalone breather episodes to break up the main story arc without any of them feeling aimless. However, I don't think the season quite sticks the landing. While the penultimate episode is fantastic and a strong end to Peridot's arc, the actual finale is pretty standalone and doesn't resolve the other major plot threads like the Cluster and Lapis being trapped underwater. Considering Season 3 starts by immediately resolved both, it's odd that the writers chose the ending they did.

With a much stronger overall quality, this season had a lot of fantastic episodes:

Sworn To The Sword: This episode feels like a blend between Steven The Sword Fighter and Rose's Scabbard, but it's so much better than both of them. I love the main theme of how Steven and Connie are equals and not sidekicks for each other, the sword fights are fun, the musical numbers are fantastic, and Pearl gets some great development.

We Need To Talk: Alien-human interspecies relationships aren't entirely rare in fiction, but the species difference tends to be hand-waved over in favor of "they just love each other". So it was really fascinating to see Greg and Rose deal with the fact that the former isn't a gem, most likely can't fuse, and fears that Rose is just using him.

Friend Ship: The "Week Of Sardonyx" was a solid story arc about Garnet getting pissed at Pearl for using her to fuse, but Friend Ship was the big finale to the arc, showing the two gems finally make up and get over their issues. It's funny, heartwarming, and just plain satisfying.

Catch And Release: The big turning point of the season, Catch And Release has the Crystal Gems finally take down Peridot and lock her in their bathroom. Between the introduction of the Cluster, Steven's predictable compassion towards Peridot, the dark atmosphere, and Peridot just being a hilarious gremlin, this episode has a lot to like.

The Answer: This episode could have just been a standard flashback episode about how Ruby and Sapphire met, but the presentation elevates so much. The Utena-esque shadow people (this show really likes Utena, doesn't it?), the beautiful fantastical visuals, it's like a gay fairy tale and I love it.

Message Received: Great and lovable Peridot, indeed. This was a fantastic cap to her redemption arc because the events of this episode were entirely her decision. Peridot decided to contact Yellow Diamond to ask her to spare Earth only to call her a clod when she decided to leave Earth to die. Even when everyone thought she was going to betray them, Peridot did what was right, and that's why everyone forgave her. 

Overall, outside of an unsatisfying finale, Season 2 was another big improvement for the season, with stronger pacing, a great central story arc, and plenty of great episodes. 

4/5 Stars