Beta

"Amethyst, it doesn't matter. Who you are isn't about where you came from! It's who you wanna be! It's what you worked hard for. It's what you care about! That's what really matters."

"Beta" is the 22nd episode of the third season of Steven Universe and the 100th episode overall.

Synopsis
Amethyst acts strangely when she and Steven visit friends in the country.

Plot
Steven and Amethyst visit Peridot and Lapis at the barn. When they arrive, they find Peridot and Lapis watching and commenting on Camp Pining Hearts. There they discover that Lapis and Peridot have "customized" the barn and made an aquarium where the hole in the wall was. They've also created a museum of the objects that remind them of the past, called "meep morps", such as a Camp Pining Hearts DVD playing.

Amethyst, bored with Peridots and Lapis's museum, angrily storms outside. Steven reveals to Peridot that Amethyst had been defeated by Jasper in a fight and is now obsessed with getting a rematch. Peridot goes outside and tries to cheer up Amethyst. While doing so, she casually mentions that Jasper was also made on Earth. Steven and Amethyst are intrigued, not aware of this before now. Peridot explains how halfway through the gem war, Homeworld needed more gems, so they rushed to make a second kindergarten, dubbed the "Beta" Kindergarten. Peridot decides that they should go to the Beta Kindergarten so they can see how others like Jasper were made. Steven, Amethyst, and Peridot arrive via warp pad. As they walk through the kindergarten, Peridot explains that the gems here were rushed, shown by unusual exit holes. They stumble across Jasper's exit hole, and after checking it, Peridot claims she has never seen an exit hole this perfect. Amethyst states she'll defeat Jasper to avenge all the gems who have imperfect exit holes, and points out multiple other botched exit holes as examples. Peridot claims one of them is new, and leads Steven and Amethyst to another area filled with more new holes, with bars over them forming cages. Peridot realizes that those aren't exit holes. When they get close to one of the cages, one of the Great North Monsters swipes at them. They find that many corrupted gems are trapped inside the cages. After wondering who would do such a thing, the trio looks over and sees Jasper in the distance.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Amethyst
 * Peridot
 * Lapis Lazuli
 * Jasper (non-speaking)
 * Various Corrupted Gems
 * Cluster Gem
 * Percy
 * Paulette (mentioned)
 * Carnelian (mentioned)

Objects

 * Warp Pad
 * Injectors

Locations

 * The Barn
 * Beta Kindergarten
 * Gem Homeworld (mentioned)

Music

 * TBA

Trivia

 * This episode's name was first revealed in the episode listing on the Cartoon Network website.
 * The episode reveals that Jasper was made on Earth in the Beta Kindergarten and that her formation was "perfect" when evaluated by Peridot, a certified kindergartner.
 * It also reveals the Beta Kindergarten was a quick alternative Kindergarten Homeworld used to create Quartz soldiers during the war.
 * This episode was first aired in Canada on Friday, August 5th, 2016. Then aired in the US on Monday, August 8th, 2016
 * The title card features the barnyard rather than the temple hand; the first to do so since "Hit the Diamond".
 * When Peridot asks the season of the episode of Camp Pining Hearts that Lapis was watching, Lapis says "3" which is a reference to the season that this episode is in.

Cultural References

 * Beta is the second letter in the Greek alphabet, often used to denote a second in command or subsequent testing period.
 * The Beta Kindergarten seems to be located in the Grand Canyon.
 * It also bears a strong resemblance to Antelope Canyon, located in Arizona.
 * Peridot wearing a bow tie, and her eccentric personality contrasting with Lapis' more laid back attitude references roommate shows and buddy comedies such as the "odd couple" and "abbot and costello".

Continuity

 * The Beta Kindergarten mentioned by Peridot in "It Could've Been Great" appears for the first time.
 * Amethyst's whip upgrades from "Bismuth" appear again.
 * Peridot says "home away from Homeworld", a direct quote from "Same Old World".
 * Lapis' Meepmorps reference events from "Same Old World" and "Hit the Diamond".
 * Peridot appears to have a better control of her ferrokinesis, which was discovered in "Too Short to Ride".
 * Peridot's Plush from "Too Short to Ride" returns.
 * Peridot now wears the bow tie from the plush herself.
 * It's mentioned that Amethyst has been training since "Steven vs. Amethyst".

Errors

 * During the scene where Peridot explains "What if we made music but instead of sounds, we used things?", Lapis' body is a brighter shade of blue.
 * When Lapis walks up to Peridot after seeing her failed attempt at impressing Steven and Amethyst with her "one gem metal band", Lapis' gem is missing.

Videos
Beta, Part 1 Beta pt-br:Beta Beta