Another weekend, another batch of episodes of “Steven Universe: Future!” Episodes 13, ‘Together Forever,’ and 14, ‘Growing Pains,’ aired on March 13th and have both been quite heavy in story development even for a limited epilogue series to conclude the original “Steven Universe” storyline.
To start, ‘Together Forever’ starts off with Steven having a FaceTime-like conversation with his best friend, Connie Maheswaran about her planning on what to major in once she goes into college since her experience with establishing peace across the galaxy has gotten her into political science and sociology though she wants to stay on Earth. When Connie’s strict 15-minute study break is interrupted by an alarm and they hang up, Steven starts to wonder how he and Connie will remain in contact when she’s moving on with her life, going to ask one of the Crystal Gems, Garnet, for advice. Garnet, a fusion between two other gems named Ruby and Sapphire and their romantic love, splits into her two components as Ruby goes to teach a scouts lesson and Sapphire a lesson dealing with equations to show that while they love each other the two are still able to have separate lives. Going off of this, Steven comes to the conclusion that he should propose to Connie that way they can always be together, which he sends up going through. Connie, rather than giving an indefinite no as an answer, says that it’s a “not now” because she wants to be her own person first and they have plenty of time to decide if and when they want to get married later on. After this rejection, Steven is met with Garnet refused and there to support him knowing there was no timeline where Steven didn’t propose, telling him that “Your soulmate is your compliment, not your missing piece” and continues to comfort him as he stress eats as a response.
In ‘Growing Pains,’ the episode continues to expand on this conflict as Steven considers calling Connie and wants to ignore her call, but ends up answering it as parts of his body start to swell and act without being under control. On the call, Connie expresses that she is worried about Steven and, upon seeing his body act haywire, suggests he should see her mom who is a doctor. Reluctantly, Steven sees Dr. Maheswaran and she begins to examine him like a normal patient and only acknowledges his gem half when she shows him an x-ray of his entire skeleton, explaining that the body reacts to high levels of stress by releasing cortisol and that while he has healed physically there may still be psychological damage. This is unprecedented in any cartoon since most do not delve into mental health in any way even close to this as Dr. Maheswaran further asks if anything traumatic happened in Steven’s younger life and validates that his reaction to a handful of events from the series proper, even though it is only scratching the surface of traumatic events, all compiled into the body reacting as if he was going to die is serious, and even talks about how this reaction can intensify if he is losing supportive relationships or if he had a recent experience that was particular off-putting; the latter serves as a trigger for Steven’s out of control bodily functions. With a slight intervention by his father coming to the rescue after Connie called him, Steven opens up once he’s back at home that he thought getting married would help solve the personal problems he’s going through, but admits that he himself has to work on dealing with those problems.
These most recent episodes, ‘Together Forever’ and ‘Growing Pains’ are fundamental in not only showing plot progression but also opening up the importance of having conversations about mental health, wherever it may be. While it isn’t practical to expect to solve your problems all in one night the fact that Steven’s dad is there for him when it seems everyone else is drifting away is an important element in going forward with healing processes that may, or may not, be explored with a mental health professional. To see if this a plot point that is explored, tune in to episodes 15 and 16, ‘Mr. Universes’ and ‘Fragments,’ on Friday, March 22nd at 7:00 and 7:15 pm EST on Cartoon Network.
Written by Mordecai Russell
A loveable guy who loves playing Dungeons and Dragons, writing fanfiction, and watching many of his beloved YouTubers. Part of the LGBTQIA+ community and proudly living his truth!