Rising Tides, Crashing Skies

"Beach City, a sleepy seaside town. From far away, it looks ordinary, but take a closer look, you start to notice the cracks in the façade."

"Rising Tides, Crashing Skies" is the 7th episode of the second season of Steven Universe, the 59th episode overall, and the second episode of the second StevenBomb.

Synopsis
Ronaldo does some investigative reporting on whether Steven and the Crystal Gems are safe for Beach City.

Plot
The episode begins with an official looking video introduction: a blue background with the words "Studio Fryman Presents" in white letters. This then fades into a camera view of Beach City, with Ronaldo narrating in the background, stating that Beach City seems peaceful until one takes a closer look. The scene then changes to Ronaldo in his office, attempting to introduce himself by rotating in his swivel chair to face the camera, but he rotates too hard and is forced to start over. After clearing his throat, embarrassed, he briefly explains the purpose of his blog (Keep Beach City Weird) and states that though people often ignore his observations, no one will be able to deny "the truth."

The scene cuts to video taken by Ronaldo of Peridot's ship descending. He states that Beach City needs to be saved - but from what? A picture of the Crystal Gems appears, followed by the title of the presentation.

Ronaldo is shown interviewing different townspeople about the "invasion". Nanefua talks about how the fish she was preparing fell to the ground (accompanied by Ronaldo's animation), before she saw the ship. Next, Peedee tries to talk about it, but Ronaldo cuts him off, asking "Were you scared?" Peedee trys to say no, but video taken by Ronaldo shows him clinging to the shop, crying and refusing to leave. Ronaldo then gives his brother an awkward hug.Ronaldo narrates footage of the family leaving town when suddenly, the ship explodes. Though there is no actual footage of the ship exploding, Ronaldo provides an accurate representation of what happened using his hand, a soda can, and a board before getting pinched by a crab. He asks who saved the town before cutting to footage of Sadie at work. He asks who she thinks saved the town, and she says Steven's family. He then asks Kiki, who talks about the time the two families had a picnic before getting attacked. Jenny interrupts, calling them crazy (but she's not mad). Next, he asks Mayor Dewey, who credits the voters with choosing someone trustworthy as mayor. Ronaldo tries to correct him, but Dewey thinks he's talking about a cover-up and has security escort him out. Ronaldo decides to get to the bottom of things, so he goes to the temple. He is about to knock when Steven opens the door and greets him. Ronaldo explains that he is shooting a documentary and asks if Steven would like to participate in an interview, which Steven accepts.

Steven explains that the ship had been coming for "us", meaning the Gems, but Ronaldo interprets the statement to mean that if the Gems weren't in Beach City, none of these occurrences would be happening. He decides that the Gems are to blame for all the danger, as both the saviors and destroyers of the town. Ronaldo goes back to interviewing people, but no one seems too concerned with the Gems. That night, he goes to the beach to find the Gems fighting a crab monster. He approaches Steven and accuses him and the Gems of being a danger to the city. Steven says the Gems are protecting everyone, but Ronaldo counters with the point that all the monsters seem attracted to the Gems, putting the city in danger. Pearl says that the Gems were here long before the city, but Ronaldo is not swayed. Garnet abruptly decides that they should all leave, and they walk away, leaving Ronaldo to feel satisfied.

In the shop, Ronaldo compliments himself on getting rid of the Gems, but Peedee mentions that without the Gems, the strange happenings would stop and Ronaldo would have nothing to blog about. Ronaldo realizes the error of his ways and runs back to the temple, pounding on the door and begging them to stay. Garnet opens the door, and he begs her to stay. She says okay and closes the door as he thanks her. As the "documentary" ends, Ronaldo decides he might have a future in intergalactic diplomacy, and expresses his gratitude that the Gems keep Beach City weird. The episode ends with Steven and the Gems watching the documentary on the Internet. Amethyst points out that they are the only ones who have seen the video, and Steven clicks the like button.

Characters

 * Pearl
 * Amethyst
 * Garnet
 * Steven
 * Ronaldo Fryman
 * Peedee Fryman
 * Crab Gem Monster (debut)
 * Watermelon Stevens (pictured)

Speaking

 * Nanefua
 * Sadie
 * Bill Dewey
 * Jenny
 * Kiki
 * Mr. Fryman

Non-Speaking

 * Onion (non-speaking cameo)
 * Frybo (mentioned)
 * Kofi (non-speaking cameo)

Objects

 * Gem Warship (videotaping)

Locations

 * Beach City
 * Beach Citywalk Fries
 * Fish Stew Pizza
 * Beach House
 * Brooding Hill
 * Mayor's Office

Music

 * "Steven's Confession"

Trivia

 * This episode was originally believed to be a two-parter and has since been revealed to be a single episode with a double title, but this episode has only one title with a comma instead of a slash.
 * This episode was hinted at in the promo art promo art with Ronaldo's head.
 * Pictures from Ronaldo's blog, Keep Beach City Weird!, were seen as videos.
 * The Gem monster the Crystal Gems fight looks similar to the one eyed crab that bit Ronaldo when he was reenacting the Gem Warship's destruction.
 * Pearl refers to Ronaldo as "Frybo" when he asks the Gems to leave.
 * On his real-life blog, Keep Beach City Weird, located on Tumblr, Ronaldo indicated he had been busy working on the documentary that is this episode, and how he's been struggling to stay awake and finish the project on time. (Unlike most KBCW posts, this one was made before the episode aired.)
 * This episode was aired before "Sworn to the Sword" in Australia.
 * According to the tumblr page the documentary was taken down for "copyright reason". Ronaldo thinks it's because "someone doesn't want the TRUTH about Beach City to be known" but it's hinted it's because of the music he used.

Cultural References

 * The set design for Ronaldo's webcast may be a reference to the set of Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis.
 * The music when Ronaldo starts the project sounds similar to the intro of the popular song "Never Gonna Give You Up".
 * The website Ronaldo posted the video on looked similar to YouTube.
 * According to Ronaldo's blog, this site is called TubeTube, which was first mentioned in "Winter Forecast." It is most likely a parody of YouTube.
 * Onion cutting himself off when about to speak may be a reference to how in many animated shows, a silent character will have an excuse to why they do not talk when attempting to, this being Onion's social awkwardness.
 * The computer Steven was using looked a lot like a MacBook, with a banana logo instead of an apple.
 * The style of Ronaldo's documentary resembles the style of sensationalistic teletabloid investigative journalism shows from the early nineties.
 * Some of the video effects (like the video introduction and credits page) look like those used in the Windows XP and Vista versions of Windows Movie Maker.
 * Ronaldo uses Comic Sans for his title, a font notorious for being used by amateur graphic designers.
 * The picture of Steven's stomach with "BABY MAYBE?" and arrows pointing to him references Hollywood gossip blogger Perez Hilton's website and photo-editing style.
 * Ronaldo's "high five of the third kind" comment is likely a reference to the 1977 sci-fi film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The title of the film refers to Hynek's UFO sighting scale.
 * Amethyst saying "Back to the Danger zone" could be a reference to the theme song to Topgun.
 * The giant one-eyed crab monster's appearance may be inspired by the recurring Gohma bosses from the Legend of Zelda series, who often resemble one-eyed crab, spider or scorpion monsters.

Continuity

 * From "Steven's Lion", a picture referring to when Ronaldo thought Steven was pregnant was shown from his blog.
 * During Sadie's interview, her scar from "Island Adventure" is visible.
 * The events of "The Return" and "Jail Break" are both mentioned and shown as video footage in this episode.
 * One of the pictures in the beginning shows the Watermelon Stevens from "Watermelon Steven".
 * In the scene when Ronaldo talks to Kiki and Jenny, a version of the soundtrack Steven's Confession from "Secret Team" can be heard.
 * In the same scene, Jenny said, "One of them tried to knock me in the face". This is a reference to "Joy Ride" when she jumped in the path of Garnet's fist right before she was going to destroy the Escape Pod that Steven was trapped in.
 * Also when Ronaldo was talking to Kiki, she says "Once they made us hamburgers and we were having a pretty good time, but then we were attacked by a huge creature!", making a reference to "Beach Party".
 * Sadie is called a "Horror Movie Enthusiast". This is a reference to "Horror Club" where she watches a horror movie with Ronaldo, Steven, and Lars.

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