The watermelons, as partial inheritors of Steven’s psychology, developed a culture that really celebrates Steven’s gender-queerness and in a larger sense, the queer ideology that makes Steven Universe special: baby watermelons are grown and distributed to gender-neutral adoptive families, and the only “gendered” watermelon family seems to be turning it into a game.
Still, don’t take that as a negative assessment. What kind of dialogue and character development can be eked out of this week’s episode? The Crystal Gems are Alexandrite for 90% of the episode, the watermelons don’t speak human languages, and the antagonistic Gems are left unconscious after they’re dismantled. Even without seeing the other episodes that come after it, it’s clear that the first episode of the third season is a holding pattern for more meaty stories. Yes, it’s satisfying to finally learn what happened to Steven’s ambulatory watermelons, but nobody’s character arc advances. Yes, it’s a delight to have Lapis and Jasper reintroduced to the show. Yes, it’s neat to see Alexandrite in action for the first time. Narratively speaking, “Super Watermelon Island” isn’t particularly important to Steven Universe. Unable to make it back to the Temple in time, the Gems tell Steven through his watermelon avatar that he and Peridot need to stop the cluster alone - and that they love him. Earthquakes cause the ground beneath Mask Island to shudder and crack, and while the Crystal Gems are able to save Lapis, Jasper falls into the rift. Still, the Gems’ victory is short-lived thanks to the Cluster beginning its mantle-destroying birth at the most inconvenient time. Still, through dint of sheer numbers and a lack of self-regard, the watermelon people manage to harry Malachite long enough for Alexandrite to get the drop on Malachite and destroy her fused form, breaking her into the unconscious Jasper and Lapis. The watermelon people aren’t initially successful against Malachite for the same reason that Bronze Age tribesfolk wouldn’t be particularly successful at fighting Transformers. He manages to give a rousing speech (in Watermelonese, apparently) and convinces his engineered species to go to war against Malachite. The watermelon people have retreated from their village and are hiding in a cave. Alexandrite finds herself on the losing end of the fight until the projected form of Steven goes to find the other inhabitants of Mask Island. Of course, fighting with a being who’s a millennia-old shock trooper and can control the planet’s oceans isn’t so simple. Taking into consideration Malachite’s size, it doesn’t take long for Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst to combine into their mega-fusion - Alexandrite (Rita Rani Ahuja) - in order to tangle with her. Steven announces to Peridot that he’s going to use his projection powers to help the other Gems in any way he can. A common thread in the elder Gems’ treatment of Steven is a benign condescension towards him, to which he usually responds with frustration. Considering Malachite’s level of danger a more immediate threat than the Cluster, Garnet (Estelle), Pearl (Deedee Magno), and Amethyst (Michaela Dietz) agree to deal with Malachite first, telling Steven and the flustered Peridot (Shelby Rabara) to stay behind. When Steven wakes up, he warns the Crystal Gems that Malachite has returned.
(We’ll leave the horrifying question of whether or not Steven was merely steering the body of an unconscious watermelon person for another essay.) Steven, who has apparently been refining his skill to surf into the consciousness of other beings, enters the body of a watermelon person, and eventually runs across Malachite, who devours the hapless tele-Steven. The result is that the two Gems’ unstable fusion is allowing Malachite to rampage around the periphery of Mask Island, the adopted home of Steven’s cucurbit culture. What’s more, Lapis Lazuli’s (Jennifer Paz) ability to control her worse half, Jasper (Kimberly Brooks), is finally breaking down.
Surprise! Malachite (Kimberly Brooks and Jennifer Paz) is back. Steven Universe: The Shadow over Innsmouth for all ages. A species with their own religion and culture and, apparently, a willingness to perform ritualistic sacrifices of their own to satiate a monstrous chimera off the shore of their island. We’ve now gotten explicit proof that Steven’s inadvertently capable of creating entire species of self-aware beings out of whole cloth. Season one’s “Watermelon Steven” at least gave us some plausible flexibility about the sapience of Steven’s (Zach Callison) watermelon people, but the writers of “Super Watermelon Island” have really done away with any ambiguity. The opening to this episode disturbed me once I thought about it.
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