Two new episodes of Steven Universe officially aired last night, and the duo — for they are directly connected — deal with the mysterious circumstances around a major character’s disappearance.
Warning: Major spoilers for Steven Universe follow.
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Specifically, “Can’t Go Back” and “A Single Pale Rose” once and for all resolve the series’ biggest mystery to date: the shattering of Pink Diamond.
It’s been known for some time, officially and in-universe, that Rose Quartz shattered Pink Diamond as part of the rebellion of the Crystal Gems against the Homeworld Gems in the long, long ago. Though several Gems have previously told Steven this, he had struggled with the idea that his mother (and he, himself) had shattered Pink Diamond. The reality, it turns out, is far more complicated.
After seeing a vision of what looked to be Pearl shattering Pink Diamond while on the Moon in “Can’t Go Back”, Steven returned to Earth to confront her in “A Single Pale Rose”. After diving into Pearl’s gem in search of her phone, because Pearl herself seemingly physically couldn’t tell Steven the truth, Steven finally came face to face with the moment Pink Diamond was allegedly shattered — as viewed by Pearl.
It was at this moment the show revealed that Rose Quartz, leader of the rebellion and mother to Steven, was in fact a shapeshifted Pink Diamond. Pearl merely played a part in “shattering” her as a shapeshifted Rose Quartz as a ploy to allow Pink to live on Earth with Pearl and others without the interference of the other Homeworld Gems. Pearl-as-Rose palmed Pink Diamond’s, er, diamond and left false shards in its place. (As for how Pink-as-Rose works given the distinct shape of the gem: it’s flipped to wear the flat part of the diamond faces out.)
A preview of what’s coming next seems to indicate that the Crystal Gems, outside of Pearl, were totally unaware of this context; Sapphire goes so far as to teleport away after claiming Rose lied to them.
Steven Universe, in its fifth season, is scheduled to return for more episodes on Cartoon Network this summer.
