Review: Steven Universe “Bismuth”

Spoilers Below

For the 100th episode of Steven Universe, we are introduced to one of the original Crystal Gems. Lion keeps trying to chew on one Steven’s favorite shirts so he decides to hide it in Lion’s mane. Once in there, he accidentally uncovers a gem. Garnet and Pearl ask Steven to describe the new gem. They find out that it is Bismuth, an original Crystal Gem that fought with them in the Rebellion. Steven brings Bismuth out of Lion’s mane and she has a joyous reunion with her two friends.

Steven and Amethyst, neither of whom know Bismuth, find out that the old gem forged all of the weapons the Gems used in the Rebellion. She gives Garnet a new set of brass knuckles, Pearl a piece to make her spear a trident, and an upgrade to Amethyst’s whips. However, when she tries to give Steven a new weapon when they are alone, Steven is horrified at what she created. Bismuth made a weapon that shatters gems. Bismuth, angry at both Rose and Steven for not wanting to shatter gems, fights Steven inside the forge. Steven defeats her with Rose’s sword and re-bubbles Bismuth. This time, though, he explains what happened to Garnet and Pearl. Saddened by their friend’s attitude, the put the bubbled Bismuth in the room with the rest of the bubbled gems.

On one hand, I was hoping that the new gem Cartoon Network has been hyping all week was going to be a fusion of the two corrupted gems from the episodes earlier this week. On the other hand, it was nice to see one of the original gems from the Rebellion. It is sad that Bismuth was kind of corrupted in her own way but it was cool to see how much Steven is like his mother. There have been a lot of references to Steven and his mother recently. I wonder if this means there is some sort of Rose Quartz reemergence coming soon.