So... for the record... I'm uncomfortable with people declaring their interpretation of this episode as "The One True Way." Please don't do that. I'm a white, cis-gendered, Southern male and everyone assumes I'm the most horrible racist to ever walk the face of the Earth. We will leave out the inbreeding, outhouses, and amazement that we wear shoes comments that I get all the time.

But I'm a registered Democrat. I voted for Bernie Sanders even though Hillary Clinton is actually a friend of the family. I shit you not. I was engaged to be married, before she passed away in a car accident, to not only a woman of color but an immigrant. I've never moved past that in twenty years after it happened. Until I moved home to care for my invalid mother after my father passed, I lived in a town that routinely ranks in the top 5 places to live in America and its right here in Arkansas. And Liberal as fuck. Pardon my French.

The map is not the terrain. The file is not the man.

Pink Diamond was effectively a child when she was handed her colony. Earth. Peridot, to name another character, has shown multiple times that she was basically a child soldier. They are going to make not only bad choices but horrific choices. The last ditch stand in the rubble of Berlin was by Hitler Youth who were barely in their teens. Do we blame them for that or that vile monster who orchestrated it?

Yes, I invoked Godwin's Law. But if we were ever to invoke Godwin's Law... the Gem Hierarchy is where we would invoke it. Compared to them the Emperor from Star Wars is Frosty the Snowman.

So we have a child who was handed complete control over a thriving planet... and she had second thoughts. And fucked things up royally. Again, pardon my French here. The horrible thing is if you look at it as Pink Diamond was a spoiled child who tried to do what she thought was the right thing, it all falls into place.

The First World War, which set the stage for the Second World War and all that followed, really came about because the spoiled rotten German Emperor was jealous that his cousins (the Royal family of Great Britain) had a big navy. So he decided to build a navy equal to them and then, by golly, they would respect him.

Pink Diamond was a monster. She tried to do the right thing but she did it in such a way as to make things even worse. Well, I hate to say it, but we have no great shortage of historical figures (many of who we would regard as progressive) who have done the same thing. Lenin spawned Stalin. Chavez spawned Maduro. Sometimes you can do the right thing, but do it in such a way that it becomes the wrong thing.

Sometimes you fight the monster. Sometimes you are the monster.

This is people we love, being people we love. With all their flaws on display.

So yes, Lapis is spying on Earth. Specifically on Beach City. Very specifically on Peridot.

But Lapis is not defined by her weird, wonderful, and horribly mixed up relationship with Peridot. She is her own person. Just as Peridot is not defined by her relationship with Lapis. Though, for the record, If something was to hurt either of that pair I would not care to be the target of the Roaring Rampage of Revenge the other might unleash.

Lapis being scared, being overwhelmed, being... someone that has already had too much laid on her shoulders... I can relate to that. I can relate to everything just going to hell in a hand basket. Just when you think you've got a handle on things it all falls apart. And you already have just too much trauma to deal with in the first place.

You want to take that step forward but every time you do the universe pushes you back two.

And then there is Pearl. Pearl's very complicated arc has always appealed to me because she isn't the cool mom (Garnet) and she isn't the fun one (Amethyst). She's just... Pearl. Complicated and fucked up Pearl.

So. I am going to watch the next episode now. And if everyone dies I will be so very annoyed at everyone for not dropping spoilers like don't watch the next episode no matter what.

I'm late to the discussion, by sheer bad luck Mark watched these episodes while my computer was down and I was waiting for a replacement part to get it up and running again. So, new power supply in place, here I am.

Has there ever been a show, not just a cartoon mind you, that is so willing to dwell on the consequences of character's actions and show the real pain those actions can bring?

The fallout from Lapis leaving can't really be blamed on anyone. Well, perhaps the Diamonds for being as destructive and vindictive as they are. But it has very real consequences for Peridot who did everything she thought she was supposed to do... only to have it blow up in her face.

Which happens in real life all the time. Its important for children (and adults) to understand that sometimes bad things happen to good people. Sometimes its not anyone's fault that it happens either. All you can do is keep living your life.

As always Shelby Rabara steals the show with the pitch perfect "Oh, of course!" line when the flower turns out to be a corrupted gem monster. Much like Stranger Things always seems to hit it out of the park with their casting the folks behind Steven Universe have a knack for matching the right actor with the right part.

He is a very cheerful and uplifting Death, or at least he tries to be. Granted many of his attempts to be friendly don't have the intended effect but the effort is there.

AbFab also spoofed that with the line "What shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and loses his hair?"

To his credit Tolkien also realized there were racist overtones in his descriptions of the Orcs and struggled with it (and the concept that all Orcs were born evil which was out of touch with his own religious beliefs) towards the end of his life.

For an author who was outspoken in his dislike of prejudice towards Jews and had written about the evils of Apartheid (“I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones...”). it must have been a horrible realization that he had indulged in it himself. We all have, after all, racial prejudices that are terrible to realize that we, at some level, believe in.

Pratchett, who works through his own prejudices which pop up in his works from time to time, is in some ways the conscience of Tolkien... an author that he had a complicated relationship with. He roundly disagreed with Tolkien on some aspects of the Lords of the Ring but would gush on for hours how much the series meant to him. Pratchett takes some Tolkien elements and says "this is wrong" and others and says "this is wonderful" and builds on it.

In some respects being an author is like being a scientist. You take the work done before you and build on it, expand it, make it your own.

If we had not had Tolkien would we have Pratchett? If we had not had Pratchett and Tolkien would we have Seanan McGuire? Thirty years from now we will be asking if we did not have Seanan McGuire would we have...

I used to live in Destin, Florida... affectionately called the Redneck Riviera. I'd take offense at the term but the locals are the ones who came up with the term and seem too adore it.

Regardless, I lived for three miserable years in one of America's great tourist traps and tourists tend to be clueless no matter where they came from. Midwesterners were stunned and amazed that you will go to the hospital if you lay out all day without sun tan lotion. Canadians kept trying to pay us with Canadian money and complained that the local bars didn't stock (shudder) clamato drinks. Europeans complained about the heat. People from the Northeast complained about everything.

Yet, for the most part, they were all really nice people. They were just way out of their element down on the Florida Gulf Coast. Scotland, for example, is not known for the large amount of "Palmetto Bugs" living there. Which is a folksy name for the giant armor plated flying cockroaches that infest Florida and battle it out with the fire ants for insect hegemony. I worked with the public in my job and it gets to where you can answer their questions before they ask them.

Where is the best seafood restaurant in town? Red Lobster believe it or not. Where do the locals go swimming? In public pools because Destin has sharks all over the place and the currents kill people each year (I used to work next door to the Coast Guard station and I could never do their job). Why is the traffic so bad here? It isn't for 8 months out of the year and then all you tourists come here and clog up our roads.

A little research would have avoided a lot of misery but people expect the place they go to on vacation to be... well like the place they live only with different places to eat. It is so refreshing to see Vimes actually sit down with someone from the area to try and understand the place he is going too.

Something that Pratchett himself was sometimes guilty of not doing I should add. Neil Gaiman loves to tell the story of he and Pratchett deciding to walk to a radio interview since it was only a couple of miles away... only to discover that San Francisco has more challenging terrain then most places.

Well yes but when you think about a monster episode wouldn't have worked quite as well. As odd as this is going to sound Peridot and Lapis can probably wipe the floor with the Gems. We know Lapis can on her own and Peridot seems to be growing more powerful by the day. Put them together and they are god stompingly scaryl. They are the dangerous comedy relief right now.

I am sure you did fine but remember... for those sort of roles... play it big and broad at first. Then narrow it down so they can see what you put out at first is just the first page of a long story!

Character development for, of all gems, Blue Diamond. I deeply respect SU's willingness to flesh out every character on the show. Well... OK... maybe not the Mayor but he's perfectly funny as he is.