Manly tears
(This review contains
spoilers!)
Steven
Universe has never been afraid of taking its title character on an
emotional joyride, and this episode might just be the pinnacle of it all.
Overall this was an extremely quiet episode, as Steven was really the only
focus here, but it packed a punch as strong as the saddest Pixar moment.
After a fun night alone in the Temple
with Connie, Steven reminisces about how his opinion on Rose Quartz has changed
since learning about what she did to Bismuth and Pink Diamond. Wishing he could
meet her face to face, Rose’s Room opens again, giving us something I thought
we’d never see in the show: a meeting between Steven and his mother.
Only, it’s made clear very quickly
that this isn’t Rose, rather the room’s interpretation of her. Similarly to the
fake Connie from Open Book, this Rose
serves as a figment of Steven’s imagination, acting the way he thinks a mother
should. It manages to be both sweet and unsettling, as Cloud-Rose sort of
parrots things Steven knows she’s said via the video tape she gave him, but
also gives some genuine moments of Steven spending time with his mom for the
first time ever.
Of course, things take a turn for the
worse as Steven confronts her about her past and why she made him, even going
so far as to claim he was just a way for her to escape from the mistakes she
made. Rose disproves those fears and calms Steven down, disappearing. Leaving
the room, Steven reunites with Greg and the Gems, and the episode closes with a
happy moment between the four of them.
So, yeah. It’s some heavy stuff.
This is easily one of the quietest and
most subtle episodes we’ve seen from Steven
Universe in a while, yet it matters overall in a way that The New Crystal Gems didn’t. It’s so
interesting to see a meeting between these two characters that you would never
think would happen in this universe, despite one of them being a cloud
formation. Seeing the way Steven deals with everything about Rose and her
legacy when confronted by it feels incredibly realistic, and it feels like an
excellent culmination of the arc of Steven dealing with the consequences of
Rose’s actions, should the showrunners decide to end it here. Goodness knows
Yellow and Blue Diamond still haven’t forgiven her, but having Steven come to
terms with it is a great first step to getting there.
If anything, Storm in the Room shows that animation doesn’t have to be a
high-budget CGI feature film to be just as emotionally strong. Steven meeting
Rose is just as quiet as you’d expect it to be, and while their conversations
only last half the episode, they completely dominate it. This episode is as
powerful as Rose’s Scabbard or On the Run, perhaps even more so, and
for that it truly shines.
FINAL SCORE
8/10
Great
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