Steven Universe Review: “That Will Be All” (Season 4, Episode 14)

Don’t worry – I didn’t forget about Infinity Train. But I think it’s time to make some headway on Season 4 of Steven Universe. Nothing is set in stone, yet. So the review after this, well, I might be flipping a coin to decide if we’re looking at “The Crystal Car” or “The New Crystal Gems” first.

“Pearl, do something. Sing for her. Make her feel better…”

Holly Blue Agate: “My Diamond. My gracious, wondrous, luminous, lustrous Diamonds? *Gasp* Oh, my! It’s truly an honor to bask in your radiance-s-“
Yellow Diamond: “Get to the point, Agate.”
– When you’re too much of a smarmy kiss-ass for a dictator, you’re trying too hard.

Airdate: February 2nd, 2017.

Written By: Colin Howard, Joe Johnston, and Rebecca Sugar.

Plot: Steven and Greg manage to escape from the zoo. Turns out those Amethyst Guards have taken a liking to the Crystal Gem Amethyst, and they also hate their obnoxious superior. It all goes well, but Greg and Steven have to keep up the ruse until they’re off the planet. Accordingly, they wind up trapped inside Blue Diamond’s private room, all full of bubbled Rose Quartzes. They try and escape as she mourns… and as Yellow Diamond berates Blue, all while trying to contain her own emotions.

Review:

So, you created a TV show. A space opera and anime-influenced sci-fi dramedy, it gains critical notice and a solid cult following for possessing poignant cultural themes not often addressed in both genre and medium. However, you also decide to have a little fun with this show, and so decide to include a few musical numbers. Hey, you’ve become quite well known for crafting little ditties on other animated series; might as well indulge!

Need even more help? Get some musicians in to do voice work. Success there, as well. You nab a chart-topping UK R&B singer for one of your protagonists! Might as well get an alternative rock guitarist, a hip-hop star, a performer on the West End of London, a couple of comedians (one of whom sings as part of her act), a radio DJ… and before you know it, you’ve managed to hire Patti Freaking LuPone.

In a realm of outstanding voice talent selections, Steven Universe giving Patti LuPone the role of Yellow Diamond is surely one of the more brilliant casting choices. I mean, wow. In her very first appearance, she managed to make Yellow come off as every inch the snide, callous, hypocritical, and haughty threat – enough where a conversation with her proved to be the breaking point for Peridot’s declining respect for her, driving the technician straight into a Crystal Gem alliance for good.

Unlike some of the aforementioned “special voice talent” (Aimee Mann, we hardly knew ye), LuPone will reprise her role on multiple occasions. And what, you thought Steven freaking Universe was going to leave one of its core antagonists without any sort of development?

And at the end of the arc where Steven and the Crystal Gems go to Homeworld. My friends, the arc is being completed, characters are being fleshed out or finding some form of emotional closure… I think the title is ironic.

“That Will Be All”. Oh, this episode is deserving of a dissection in the best possible way.

Ironically, for as much as this episode peels back at the tragic antagonists that are the Diamonds, “That Will Be All” starts with the completion of another family with a missing piece of the puzzle. Turns out the Amethyst Guards patrolling the Zoo were from the Prime Kindergarten. And they noticed that one particular Gem was waiting to come out, but never quite made it.

The effects have haunted said gem ever since.

And now, Amethyst – our Amethyst – has found her spot in the Famethyst. Which, at first glance, is kind of fascinating. One of the aforementioned poignant themes that Steven Universe has maintained is something akin to the “found family”, as demonstrated via the Crystal Gems. The cliche is that family is the connections that one makes and the support system that entails from said connection. This is not untrue in the slightest.

But to some of those that have lost their biological family – either they were given up for adoption when they were young, or they were estranged from their parents and siblings for whatever reason, et cetera – there’s surely that nagging feeling somewhere. What do my biological family members look and act like? Would they accept me for who I am after all these years?

Thankfully, for Amethyst, she fits right into the Famethyst. Straight from the Prime Kindergarten, they’re all very similar to her in terms of personality, are made up of varying sizes and shapes – hell, there are even a couple of Jaspers from Beta, neither of whom look like our lamented antagonist. It does make for a somewhat clever geological joke – that sediment from a certain area will have similarities in composition, and the personality parallels work symbolically. But more importantly, it gives Amethyst a form of closure.

The Crystal Gems were all “odd ones out”, so to speak. For Amethyst, she was the apparent smallest of her kind, abandoned by Homeworld, left to be a head short and less physically stout than many Quartzes. Even within the Crystal Gems, the wild child, the slob, the Id, the least traditionally feminine of the gang (hell, even Steven is arguably more stereotypically “feminine” than she is), and while the Crystal Gems didn’t intentionally discriminate against her for any reason, she always felt this sense of self-loathing, this idea that she was a mistake. The “othering” has bothered her for some time, and even forming Smoky Quartz with Steven did little to assuage her self-deprecation.

Enter the Famethyst. Amethyst now has concrete proof to herself that she was not alone. That there could be a future for Gems like her. Yes, there are caveats – the Famethyst are verbally abused by Holly Blue Agate, it’s sort of implied that Homeworld’s stratified structure means that some of them are lucky to be working at all – but having this sorority of Gems, this group of sisters? She now knows that, in both her found family and her biological sisters, that there is a place for her. That her existence isn’t a mistake. And they might get her more directly, in contrast to the Crystal Gems – who certainly get her, but have had experiences that are different enough to create that je ne sais pas porquoi within.

Either way, in the words of the late, great Gerry Marsden, she’ll never walk alone.

She’s found her closure – at least, something approaching it. It really makes the Famethyst assisting in their escape not feel like a coincidence, but rather a natural bit of plot and character development.

As one gains a new family, another group in the zoo are lamenting about a lost loved one. And in the midst of their escape, Steven and Greg get a front row seat to another round of mourning, all while trying to remain incognito.

In a room filled with bubbled Gems… Rose Quartzes. Bubbled over the apparent slight of one individual. How bigotry corrupts – the use of one individual’s actions (actual or perceived) to condemn an entire social group as a perpetual “other” and to treat them as less than human. It’s happened here in America, and it could damn well happen again in the future if we don’t check our biases and stand up for said social groups.

But it could be worse. Blue Diamond retreats to the room where all these bubbled Rose Quartzes are left in perpetual limbo, where she can reflect on the death of her sister. The Rose Quartz gems were Pink’s creations, they are arguably one of the few remaining links to Pink’s existence, as well as the planet that Pink Diamond’s creations – such as Jasper – stemmed from. (The Quartzes being Pink’s creation are also a fine piece of foreshadowing, if I dare say so myself.) Not that it mitigates the sheer profiling and eternal bubbling of the Rose Quartz soldiers, but it does add another dimension to her treatment. After all, this is eternal imprisonment, a rather crude treatment in and of itself, but it does leave the feint hope of release. Cruel mercy, but there is that hope.

And in barges Yellow Diamond, who is wondering when the hell Blue is going to destroy these Quartzes and wipe Earth off the face of the galaxy. Because nothing says paying dues to the dead like a good old fashioned ethnocide! I’ve discussed Yellow’s facade of superego before, but it bears repeating that this is how it exists in prime form. In trying to convince Blue to stop such inefficient mourning, Yellow is proposing extreme actions – the utter genocide of humanity and Rose Quartzes, for starters – all while being totally inattentive towards her own sister’s feelings.

Blue Diamond is far from a saint, as Garnet will tell you, but at least she’s honest about being emotional, and her desire to hide and mourn in secret is not helped by her sister. Yellow’s attitude here is toxic, it’s venal and selfish, and it is as close to an absolute indictment of her character as this show gets to their core antagonists. And it’s glorious. I really like finding this character absolutely crude and arrogant, and that’s on Patti LuPone’s delivery. Every ounce as haughty as the character deserves, with as much cruelty to her loved ones as can be stood by the audience.

Could it get any better?

Well, Patti LuPone won a Tony Award for her role in the 1979 production of Evita. She was the deeply tragic Fantine in the West End production of Les Mis. She won a Grammy award for her role in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Do you think she was walking out of Steven Universe – Steven Bloody Universe, a show which one of its own characters described as “singing while crying” – without being told to belt out a musical number?

We get it here, on her demand to Yellow Pearl to belt out a song to cheer Blue Diamond up. With Blue Pearl dragged along – the active and relatively autonomous Pearl dragging along the utterly submissive Pearl – Yellow poses a rather brutal, cold, yet introspective question… “What’s the Use of Feeling, Blue?“

Why would you want to be here?
What do you ever see here
that doesn’t make you feel worse than you do?
And tell me, what’s the use of feeling, Blue?
Why would you want to employ her
subjects that destroyed her?
Why keep up her silly zoo?
Oh, tell me what’s the use of feeling, Blue?

Well, I’ll say this. It speaks to the level of songwriting quality in Steven Universe that this song isn’t in my top 5 musical numbers. (“Do It For Her’, “Distant Shore”, “Stronger Than You”, “It’s Over, Isn’t It”, and “Here Comes A Thought”, you beautiful bastards.) It really is charging for those top spots; it is deeply unlucky to not fit in. If “Here Comes a Thought” was Steven Universe diving into synth-soul, “What’s The Use of Feeling, Blue” is Steven Universe going Broadway.

Alternately, it’s “Yellow Diamond Gets Deconstructed”.

This first verse is basically an underscoring of what we knew about Yellow’s character given what we’ve seen in the song’s prologue, but with an added dimension. To her mind, surrounding herself with reminders of Pink Diamond’s Death is counterproductive to the art of mourning. In fact, even employing those Gems she vowed to protect – Homeworld gems – is causing distress, and she even argues are complicit in her demise. Damn the lot of them, she believes. Further, it underscores a stereotypical reaction to upsetting emotions and depression – snap out of it, you’re in pity city. Ineffective at best.

As if this wasn’t strong enough, she decides to cite examples…

An army has a use; they can go and fight a war.
A Sapphire has a use; she can tell you what it’s for.
An Agate terrifies; a Lapis terraforms.
Where’s their Diamond when they need her, Blue?
You’ve got to be a leader, Blue!
Yes, of course, we still love her.
And we’re always thinking of her
But now there’s nothing we can do.
So tell me, what’s the use of feeling? What’s the use of feeling?
What’s the use of feeling, Blue?

The concept of usefulness is imperative in this case. To the Diamond Authority, the caste system is logical, giving every class of Gem a desired goal and role in society. Desirable to the powers that be, mind you. But it all relies on the powers that be at the top. To Yellow Diamond’s mind, Blue’s retreat into continued mourning is not only a betrayal of her class, but it puts the entire caste system into disrepute and question. And for what? Pink Diamond is dead, and no amount of weeping can bring her back.

So might as well pretend she didn’t exist. “Drowning in all this regret/Wouldn’t you rather forget her?” The Diamond Authority is down a diamond in earlier episodes. And with her cry (“Let’s make a plan of attack/start looking forward and stop looking back“), she is willing to go that extra mile, to take everything even tenuously attached to the deceased and systematically eradicate it. This includes Earth. In the quest for closure, she’s willing to go to the furthest extremes.

And it’s all a facade. As the song progresses, Yellow’s emotional state begins to slip. Stoicism gives way to inflamed passion, logic gives way to illogical ideas, and even Yellow’s businesslike facade begins to break in favor of a more angry persona. What happened to Peridot is now happening to Blue Diamond, and the parallels – involving the implied or explicit desire to see Earth kerplode – are strong. This time, though, before giving way to pure rage, her emotions tilt into sadness…

Yes, of course, we still love her
And we’re always thinking of her
Don’t you know I miss her too?
But tell me…
(Voice breaking) What’s the use of feeling?
What’s the use of feeling? What’stheuseoffeeling…

By the end, it seems like she’s convincing herself that her attempts at erasing the past are logical. And she can’t even finish the song – as soon as “Don’t you know I miss her, too?” She turns away, storms to a ledge, and bends over, apparently fighting back tears successfully. The facade of stoic and stern leadership is giving way, and Yellow’s own resolve is falling apart. She has to be a leader, but for how much longer until the damage hits Gems under her watchful eye? Arguably, given the fates of the Ruby Squad and Jasper due to her arrogant and unmoving nature, it’s already happened.

The song ends not with a bang, but a near literal whimper. A glorious whimper. Steven Universe‘s iron antagonist has weakened under eons of emotional pressure, and god damn, it makes her a very relatable baddie. The best type of antagonist, in my opinion. And for a group of space autocrats willing to wipe out worlds and subjugate entire classes of Gem? Well, that’s brilliant voice acting and dialogue, there. I hate this woman, I feel bad for her in the same breath. Cast and Crewniverse? Pretty damn good.

Wait, what did I say earlier? This song was “competing for Top 5”? You know what? “Do it for Her”, take your bow – upon review, you have been succeeded by “What’s the Use of Feeling, Blue”? Mind you, 6th place for songs in this show is still pretty damn great. And we still have yet to get to “Let’s Just Think About Love”, “Change Your Mind”, “Other Friends”, “True Kinda Love”, and “Independent Together”. Yeah… we might be counting songs in a Top 10 or 11 soon.

Imagine a world where Rebecca Sugar got into writing pop songs. WBLI would actually be a preset in my car radio.

Well, now that we’ve explored the inner psyche of the Diamond Authority, that’s enough space-traveling for Steven Universe for almost the rest of the season!

Yeah, I’ll admit that the show could’ve embraced the space opera ways a bit more in its back half, fleshed out Homeworld that extra bit. It’s admittedly a weakness in Season 4 and why I rank it rather low personally, as well as why I think the franchise’s front half is just a tad bit stronger than its conclusion. It feels like it left a lot of sci-fi ideas on the table in the end. It doesn’t ruin the show for me, it just makes me wonder “what if”?

But let’s go a bit more immediate. This caper has run its course, Steven has rescued Greg, and Sapphire bailed the group out with creative use of future vision… albeit one that indicates that the Diamond Authority will return to Earth to get more specimens for the zoo. The Cluster has yet to emerge, as far as the Diamonds are aware. There’s time, but the clock could be ticking. The pressure is back on the Crystal Gems… Homeworld has been awakened. Steven found his dad and has had questions answered and replaced with further questions. How much longer until he and his friends and family are forced to defend Earth, for starters?

Look on the bright side – the Crystal Gems made it through Homeworld without exposing themselves. There’s no way the facade is going to slip now!

You can probably guess what happens just as the gang board the ship.

Complicating matters, this all occurs in front of our favorite least favorite professional kiss-ass. Holly, Holly, Holly… dear god, she’s a suck-up. Even the Diamonds can barely stand her. At best, it’s an inferiority complex – like pompously describing how she got to meet the Diamonds under an order from a Sapphire is meant to indicate her relatively low position on Homeworld. She holds power over certain types of Gems who barely hide their contempt for her, indicating that she does a less than brilliant job of being a terrifying Agate according to the caste structure. Even so, it comes off as brilliantly narcissistic.

It’s almost like they were setting her up to get humbled big-time in public by a group of misfits.

Well, here are your misfits. The Crystal Gems come out of incognito and stop Holly Blue Agate from laying down an electrified whip. She’s tied up, punched in the stomach by Garnet, laughed at by her subordinates (who rub salt in the wound by wishing Amethyst well on her path home), and probably most humiliating by Homeworld standards, gets told off by Pearl.

“You’re really gonna tell the Diamonds that you allowed a band of traitorous rebels to infiltrate a highly-secure facility and escape from right under your careful watch? Doesn’t sound like a wise thing to do, Holly Blue. So do yourself a favor and keep your mouth shut. That will be all!”

Oh, you just know that Pearl was waiting for that moment. And it’s appropriate that she gets to bring the final humiliation to Holly Blue Agate. Arguably the Gem that defied her social standing the most out of the Crystal Gems (if you consider Garnet a non-entity by Homeworld standards), Pearl has had to go back to a world she abhorred, that spat on her for being a Pearl. And she got a full blast of contempt by the pompous Holly Blue. She laid a mean hook on somebody who was acting like a bigot, so make no mistake…. she’s taken enough crap for one millennium.

The epitome of callous bureaucracy got put in her place by a former slave.

And the Famethyst drop all pretenses of being terrified and laugh as the Crystal Gems depart for Earth. An Agate terrifies? This Agate is likely terrified – her reputation and authority are irreparably damaged. Thanks to a small rebel group – one member, may I remind you, was most concerned about losing his favorite ice cream a short while back.

The rebel group escaped with their lives. But they cut it really close. Paradoxically, their path out exposes the fragile nature of Homeworld society. Discontent with the system is seeping through, and even at the upper levels, the leaders are starting to crack under their own expectations and pressure. Steven Universe‘s personal status quo has been revamped several times over, and now the broader status quo is breaking at the seams.

It feels out of this world.

And what a way to cap the arc of the same name off!

“That Will Be All” is one of the best “antagonist focus” episodes this show has done. What a performance from Patti LuPone, what a song from the pens of the Crewniverse, what a way to close out the arc. The changes are subtle, but you pick them out, and my god, this episode has aged gracefully. It’s unlucky to be in the same season as “Here Comes a Thought” – this is one of the best episodes this season.

Tidbits:

• Skinny Jasper, the brutal irony. She’s rather content and chill with everything. Her buff sister? Went slightly mad. The chase to prove one’s superiority absolutely ruined her.
• Oh, I forgot to mention, Deedee Magno Hall pulls triple duty today, not only voicing Yellow and Blue Pearl on top of our favorite Renaissance Gem, but providing backing vocals to “What’s the Use of Feeling Blue”. A fine job she does, but that’s not unexpected.
• “An Agate terrifies; a Lapis terraforms!” That one line is deeply ironic when you think about it. Holly Blue Agate, by the end of the episode, is utterly discredited as a boss, and the Famethyst no longer fear her attitudes and terrible management skills. Lapis Lazuli, meanwhile, managed to drain the Earth of all water, is probably the most powerful Gem in the series… and wants nothing to do with Homeworld, largely siding with the Crystal Gems thanks to Steven’s persuasion. Thus, Yellow’s philosophy is discredited further than it already was.
• In retrospect, if you put these five episodes together, they come out to about 50-55 minutes – about the length of your average Star Trek episode. Ergo, it makes sense that the last scene of the episode is the shuttle zooming back to Earth. Very Trekian in an arc that felt like it took inspiration from the seminal sci-fi franchise.

Wrap-Up:

Favorite Scene: “What’s The Use of Feeling, Blue?”

Best Character: Yellow Diamond. Consider this Patti LuPone’s least significant gong.

Memorable Quote: “You’ve got to be a leader, Blue!” So that means bottling up your feelings before you verbally abuse your own Gems and threatening to destroy Earth, huh? By the way, this means that Yellow Diamond scores a treble for this episode’s awards. Steven Universe, bloody hell.

Verdict: Platinum. What a fun way to wrap up the Out of this World arc. So great was this episode, it enters the power rankings in at #15, right behind “We Need to Talk” and ahead of “The Return”.

But we’re not all done with this arc. Yes, the five-episode event is over. But we get a bit of an epilogue – a “Lower Decks” analog, so to speak.