Review: Steven Universe “Know Your Fusion”

Not the Ford variety.

Spoilers Below

Steven and Amethyst finally tell Garnet and Pearl that they can fuse into Smoky Quartz. As Smoky Quartz, they start showing off their yo-yo skills. Since they didn’t want the house destroyed, Garnet and Pearl fuse into Sardonyx to stop her. However, now Sardonyx wants to know everything about Smoky Quartz. It turns out that, while Sardonyx exists, she has a secret room in the temple. Strangely, the room is set up like a talk show set.

Sardonyx proceeds with interviewing Smoky Quartz but Smoky has no real answers to any of the questions. Smoky only existed for a few minutes, after all. Unsatisfied, Sardonyx decides that there has to be more to Smoky Quartz and sets up a number of trials for her to complete. The first trial is a arrow shooting challenge, based on Opal’s accuracy with a bow and arrow. Smoky fails. The second trial is strength challenge, based on Sugilite’s strength. Smoky fails again. The final trial is a a simple target to see if Smoky has fire breath like Alexandrite. Again, Smoky fails. This time, Smoky starts making self-deprecating jokes.

Realizing that, by trying to make Smoky something that she’s not, Sardonyx ruined Smoky’s moment in the spotlight, Sardonyx unfuses into Garnet and Pearl. Unfortunately, this means that the room around them begins to fall apart. It only exists as long as Sardonyx does. With Garnet and Pearl at opposite ends of the room and the door high above them, there is no way for them to escape. Until Smoky Quartz uses her yo-yo as a grapple to pull everyone back into the house. Smoky unfuses and Amethyst begins to apologize. But Pearl points out how useful the yo-yo weapon is. Thanks to Pearl, Steven and Amethyst now have a chance to explain what really happened at the Beta Kindergarten.

When I saw the name of the episode, I thought this was going to be some sort of lesson on how fusions work and who can fuse with whom but there was none of that. This was all about Sardonyx (and Pearl, to an extent) figuring out that she shouldn’t try to fit people into boxes and they can just be who they are. While Pearl did give Amethyst a little bit of confidence at the end, Sardonyx spent most of the episode tearing Smoky Quartz down, making her think she wasn’t good enough for anything. It just goes to show that sometimes people don’t realize when they are being a bully.