Marble Madness

"Marble Madness" is the 44th episode of the first season in Steven Universe, and the 44th episode overall.

Synopsis
Steven and the Crystal Gems encounter another droid from space.

Plot
The episode starts with Steven and Connie on the beach. Connie introduces Steven to her favorite book series, "The Unfamiliar Familiar." The book is about a witch, who has a Familiar of a falcon named Archemicarus, as she goes on a quest to rescue her father. Connie begins dictating the story to Steven, when a droid (Plug Robonoid) suddenly crashes into the ocean. The droid rolls ashore, suddenly sprouting 7 legs. Garnet immediately jumps in to stop the droid from moving, calling on Amethyst and Pearl, who quickly dispatch it. The droid breaks apart, leaving behind a sticky blue goo. Pearl remarks that this is another one of Peridot's machines. Having destroyed the drone, the team scoffs at the question of its intentions, complacent in the fact that it was destroyed.

In the next scene, Steven calls Connie to attempt to make sense of The Unfamiliar Familiar, having read the books out of order. Mid-conversation, a large sonic boom is heard. The Crystal Gems run out to the balcony, and notice another drone has appeared, and landed on Mask Island. They immediately warp to the island, again quickly defeating the drone. Steven once again asks what the drones are trying to do - Pearl responds that she is not sure, while Garnet is just happy it was destroyed.

Cutting to Connie continuing to sort out The Familiar Unfamiliar, the conversation is once again interrupted by the untimely arrival of another droid. Amethyst lets out a bit of her frustration with the massive amount of drones, noting that this is the 5th drone to land in the past week. Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl warp to the desert to find the newly-landed droid, with Steven just behind them. He warps in to see them frustratedly beating on the droid. He yells for them to stop beating on it, reasoning that they should let it go and follow it so that they can figure out its purpose. Amethyst and Pearl are very much against this idea, but Garnet points out that they don't want to be fighting these drones forever.

The four hop on top of the drone, as it walks to the warp pad and warps to the Kindergarten. Pearl immediately sees malicious intent in the drone's actions, and starts to arm herself - only to be dissuaded by Steven and Garnet. The droid hops off the warp pad, and walks to a seemingly meaningless plot of land. The droid takes on an upside-down pyramid shape, and begins descending into the earth. It reaches the bottom, illuminating a green room in which stands a control panel with a single button. The platform, previously the droid, drops a smaller Robonoid from its apex, which runs over to the control panel and activates the button. The walls light up with diagrams, and Peridot appears via a holoscreen. She mentions that this is the Prime Control Room for Facet 5 of the Kindergarten. She begins to do a systems check, while the Crystal Gems hide out of site.

Pearl, horrified, realizes that Peridot may be attempting to re-activate the Kindergarten, which would destroy all life on earth. As they try to guess at her true intentions, Steven remarks that they should simply ask her what her plans are. Garnet, previously a proponent for Steven's curiosity, immediately shoots him down - noting that they are up against "an enemy we don't know, with technology we don't understand." A plan is formulated to wait for an opening to destroy the power source for the control center, mandating that Steven should stay where he is. They turn to see Steven already climbing up to face Peridot.

Steven stands out of view of Peridot, watching her fiddle with controls. As she works, she remarks that the Gem Technology that he is working with is very old - calling it "simply archaic." Steven pipes in, saying it looks pretty cool - much to the shock of Peridot. They converse, as Peridot attempts to figure out who or what Steven is, asking if Stevens have replaced Humans as the dominant species on Earth. Steven asks her what she is up to. Peridot says that she is "just picking up where we left off," simultaneously raising a fist to kill Steven. Garnet jumps in to save him, as do the others. Peridot is very surprised that any Gems exist on the planet, saying that the Red Eye, previously destroyed by the Crystal Gems, had not reported any Gem lifeforms on Earth. The team destroy the power source, severing Peridot's connection to the control panel, and stopping her plans.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Pearl
 * Garnet
 * Amethyst
 * Connie
 * Peridot
 * Dr. Maheswaran
 * Greg Universe (mentioned)
 * Lars (mentioned)
 * Sadie (mentioned)
 * Onion (mentioned)
 * Jamie (mentioned)

Locations

 * Kindergarten
 * The Desert
 * Mask Island
 * Connie's House

Objects

 * Plug Robopnoids
 * Flask Robonoids
 * The Familiar Unfamiliar
 * Red Eye (mentioned)

Songs

 * Peridot (Song)

Trivia

 * This is the first time we see Connie wear a cap.
 * Amethyst is confirmed to be 6,000 years old.
 * This is the second time Peridot has made an appearance, the first being "Warp Tour".
 * A much larger version of the Flask Robonoids appeared for the first time, called Plug Robonoids.
 * The Crystal Gems finally interact with Peridot.
 * It is revealed that the Red Eye was sent on a reconnaissance mission to Earth.
 * It is unknown what Peridot will "report" about the interaction she had with the Crystal Gems, but it's most likely to someone of a higher authority.
 * It is revealed that the Crystal Gems were not known to live on Earth. Peridot said that there was no more Gems present, as far as she knew, until they confronted her at the Kindergarten's Control Room.
 * When the Kindergarten's Control Room activated, a podium appeared.
 * In "Lion 2: The Movie", Lion took Steven and Connie to Rose's Training Cave and a similar podium appeared but with Rose's gem symbol.

Cultural References

 * The title of this episode is the same title of the 1984 arcade video game, Marble Madness.
 * The book series "Unfamiliar Familiar" may be a reference to the popular J.K. Rowling book series, Harry Potter, as well as The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman.
 * The large robotic hands manipulated by Peridot in the Kindergarten's control room resembled the hands from Andross, a boss character from the Nintendo 64 game Star Fox 64.

Continuity

 * The Kindergarten reappears in this episode.
 * Peridot still has the crying waffle sticker from "Warp Tour".
 * In the episode, Connie talks about "Unfamiliar Familiar". This is the book she mentioned in Steven Universe (Comic Series) #5.
 * The Red Eye was mentioned again, since "Keep Beach City Weird".
 * The island from "Island Adventure" reappears.
 * Its name is revealed to be Mask Island.
 * The "infestation of Stevens" speculated by Peridot could be a possible reference to the episode "Steven and the Stevens".

Errors

 * TBA

Transcript
View the episode's transcript here.

Videos
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