Review: Steven Universe “Gem Harvest”

We do a long over due check-in with Steven Universe!

Spoilers Below

During a trip to visit Peridot and Lapis, Steven finds a strange human yelling about the barn. Once the other gems and his dad arrive to help, Steven finds out that the weird human is Greg’s cousin, Andy. It turns out that the barn is a piece of family property. And “Uncle” Andy is none to happy that someone else is living there. Steven suggests they throw a party to get to know each other. However, no matter what Steven, Greg, and the gems do, Andy just keeps getting crankier and crankier. He only comes around when the gems decide to throw a party for every human milestone they could think of. A wedding, a birth, a funeral…you name it, they had it. Finding their antics hysterical, Andy tries to enjoy dinner…well, OK, the wedding cake. But when he sees everyone else acting like they family they are, Andy flies off in his airplane. Steven has Lapis fly him up to his uncle to talk about what was going on. Unfortunately, when Steven tries to climb onto Andy’s plane, he falls off and almost dies. Andy saves him and, realizing what a tool he has been, comes back to the barn. He allows the gems to stay at the barn with no further argument from him. It seems everyone is happy again.

In real life, our country is going through a turmoil similar to this episode. Andy is upset that the world is changing around him yet he is doing nothing to change with it. As a result, all he does is yell and scream and throw fits about things he isn’t really angry about. It isn’t until Steven talks him down that Andy realizes that he could have been participating in his family’s new lives this whole time. With that in mind, he sets off to a better member of his family. I hope we get to see him as a good guy farther down the road. We don’t really get to see Steven’s human family members. It would be great to see some other members of Greg’s extended family.