Review: Steven Universe”Doug Out”

A foreboding shadow looms over this episode…

Spoilers Below

The episode begins when Steven & Connie are having a quiet afternoon until Connie’s  father Doug (Voiced by Crispin Freeman) shows up. Doug is then sent on a stake-out by Mr. Smiley to investigate a report of someone sneaking into the amusement park after hours and he’s on the case to find out what’s going on and even offers Steven & Connie to tag along since he thinks it could be just a troublemaking teen.

We cut to night time as Steven & Connie are in the backseat during Doug’s stake-out and begin to hear a crashing sound with the only clue that whoever went through the security fence didn’t use bolt cutters. The rest of the episode becomes a game of cat & mouse as they try to trace the steps of the perpetrator but get stuck in an active amusement park ride until Steven manages to get them out.

Parts of the amusement park start turning on by themselves, random objects start to get tossed over and even broken as they manage to corner the perp but it turns out to be Onion. Since Onion speaks his own language that Steven can somehow understand, He tells Steven he was being chased by strangers much to Doug’s frustration but Connie assures him that she still loves and accepts her father no matter how dull his job usually is and Onion claims he had nothing to do with the way the fence that was torn open. The episode ends in cliffhanger fashion when two large shadows approach Onion, with one of them resembling a fairy.

Our Take

While the episode “Nightmare Hospital” delved into Connie’s relationship with her mother eventually accepting Connie partaking in Steven’s adventures, in “Doug Out” we got to see a different perspective in the form of Connie’s father who mostly wanted to impress his daughter despite having a mediocre job. It was also entertaining to hear my favorite voice actor Crispin Freeman from the Hellsing franchise do something kid-friendly. The large shadows looming over Onion seems to be the start of something big & foreboding and I’m looking forward to what it could possibly be.