Nora Universe
(This review contains
spoilers!)
This has been an…unfortunate season
for poor Steven Universe. Hot on the
heels of the spectacular Season 3, Season 4 has boasted less time with the
Gems, more time with annoying town characters, little to no action, and a lot
of missed opportunities. Take out the “Out of this World” StevenBomb and all
you have are a few fun episodes that don’t have much to do with the overall
plot such as Last One Out of Beach City and
Room for Ruby, as well as lazy
attempts to fill empty episode slots with characters like Ronaldo and Mr.
Smiley.
So when I saw the title for this
episode, I breathed a sigh of relief. Lion still has plenty of questions
surrounding him, including what’s inside the chest in his mane and what his
relationship is with Rose.
This episode answers neither of those
questions, but it’s still entertaining enough and has plenty of Steven Universe’s trademark heart to
make it worth watching.
Lion gives Steven a giant key, and
upon discovering it doesn’t fit into the mysterious chest (noooooo!) the two go
on an adventure trying to figure out what the key unlocks.
They visit several locations from
Season 1, like Rose’s armory and her fountain, which is a nice callback for
those like me who’ve analyzed this show way too much and remember basically
everything about it. The quest ultimately leads them to the desert where Lion
was first found, and the lock the key fits in is finally discovered. Inside is…
Rose’s garbage dump.
Steven also stumbles across a
videotape identical to the one he received in Lion 3, except here Rose addresses someone named Nora instead of
him. It’s pretty obvious from the get-go what this is (at least to an older
viewer like myself), but a visit to Greg explains that Nora was what they were
going to name Steven if he had been a girl. It’s a sweet ending that makes up
for what it lacks in big gamechanging revelations for what it has in heart.
But I can definitely see why people
would find this episode underwhelming. Outside of the bomb the only real
episode this season that delved into gem lore and backstory was Buddy’s Book way back at the beginning.
Plus, Lion is one of the series’ first major mysteries, and three years later
we’ve only tiptoed closer to finding out where he came from. Despite having his
name in the title, Lion only serves as a catalyst for Steven to learn a bit
more about his past, and it’s a tidbit that we really could’ve lived without.
Despite my qualms, Lion 4 is still leaps and bounds beyond
pointless episodes like Rocknaldo and
Tiger Philanthropist. It’s a very
sweet and funny self-contained story that serves as sort of an epilogue to the
story that ended in Storm in the Room.
It’s a fun last bit of goofiness before the season finale begins, and while it
certainly isn’t one of the more memorable episodes, it’s still worth seeing.
FINAL SCORE
7/10
Good
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