Familiar (episode)

"Familiar" is the 26th episode of the fifth season of Steven Universe, the 154th episode overall, and the second episode in the Diamond Days event.

Synopsis
With many changes going on in his life, Steven tries to find his place in the world.

Plot
Starting where the last episode left off, Steven wanders around Pink Diamond's room. He wishes he had a bed to sleep on, only to find that a bed is instantly made for him. Looking down, he notices some very shy pebble gems. Once Steven thanks the Pebbles, they recognize him as Pink Diamond and crawl all over him excitedly. Pearl then enters the room with Steven's duffel bag, explaining that Garnet, Amethyst, and Connie are still in Pink Diamond's ship. They heard the Diamond chime Pearl knew that Yellow Pearl has arrived and enters to summon Steven to Yellow Diamond's extraction chamber.

Pearl informs Steven that he will be more comfortable in trunks than in jeans. In the hallway leading to Yellow's extraction chamber, Steven notices that the walls are in fact animate and attempts to interact with them. Steven tries to get Yellow Pearl to acknowledge him as just 'Steven', to which she calls him 'Pink Steven'. This goes in for a few more seconds, and ends with Steven asking her to call him 'Pink Lasagna' before finally entering Yellow's extraction chamber.

Yellow Diamond tells Steven, as Pink Diamond, to take a seat. She proceeds to ask how the meeting with White went. Steven answers how he was only able to get a few words in, to which Yellow replies how two and a half words is a record in regards to speaking with White. Steven then mentions how two and a half words isn't going to be enough to convince White Diamond to help heal the corruption. Yellow wishes Steven luck, and then explains how White has isolated herself in her head and almost never lets anyone in, and then laments about how she hasn't gotten to see white despite her hundreds of successful colonies, while Steven got to see her just for failing to operate one. Steven then comments how Yellow could just fail if she wanted to see White, causing her to break into laughter and comment about how Pink was always so good at making her laugh. A chime plays, and Yellow excuses herself to turn off the sauna and have to check the latest Citrine production reports. Steven attempts to get a few questions in before Yellow walks off without answering. While Steven is still standing there dumbfounded, the Diamond chime plays again and Blue Pearl informs Steven that Blue has requested Pink's presence.

While walking up to Blue's extraction chamber, Steven tells Pearl how he and Yellow barely talked about White before she rushed off to her report, and states that he understand that they must be busy, and that he needs more time to talk with her, then states that he should have asked her what she has planned after the reports. Pearl then explains that when Yellow isn't overseeing gem production of her colonies, she's leading her army to take more colonies. Steven asks if the Diamonds have any days off before Blue Pearl informs them that Blue is awaiting them. While Steven waiting, he looked around and saw the wall statue's eyes blinked.

Pearl informs Steven that Blue is just up the stairs, and that she'll wait for him. Steven says that he'll be back in a bit and runs to meet Blue. Blue Pearl says "Welcome back." to Pearl before the camera cuts back to Steven. Comby (another Pebble in the shape of a comb) is heard singing before Blue acknowledges Stevens' presence. Blue saw Steven and invites him into the water with her, to which Steven sees as an invitation to backflop into the water.

Steven jokes about living near the ocean, yet going to space to swim, to which Blue laughs, and states how Pink hasn't changed. She then elaborates how Steven is still as silly and still small like Pink was. Steven comments how he's not done growing, but doubts he'll ever be as big as Blue and Yellow. Blue states how it's nice to have Steven back, specifically calling him 'Steven', causing Steven to get excited about Blue possibly starting to understand who he is. Blue then mentions how 'Steven' and 'Steee-von' is such a funny sounding name, and commends Pink's creativity for coming up with it, causing his excitement to die down. Blue then asks Steven about the time she let Pink name a batch of Pyrite as 'Fools Gold', and that it made White livid. Steven states that he doesn't remember. Blue then asks if he remembers the game Pink used to play where she would sink to the bottom and sing, while Blue, Yellow, and White would try to guess the song from above the water. Steven asks if they can do that at that very moment, to which Blue replies that they stopped coming to the Chamber together after Pink left, and that her departure was the start of Era 2, and that none of the remaining diamonds what to be there with Pink's spot empty. Steven states how despite the other diamonds have duties to run their colonies, they should make the effort to spend more time together. A chime is heard and Blue Pearl announces that Blue has an upcoming appointment. Steven states that the wanted to talk with Blue about White, and she responds that they can perhaps talk about it later. The pool drains as Blue leaves, then Steven calls for Pearl because he got water up his nose and Pearl surprised and says 'Oh dear' and pull the string to get Steven out.

Steven is seen drying himself off in Pink's room, states how everything going on at this point was weird, and asks if it was a spa day or something, and about what purpose Pink had on Homeworld. Pearl answers that Pink threw massive balls before she got her first colony. Steven misunderstands this and interprets that Pink was a juggler. Pearls replies that, while she did juggle, she also threw massive parties for the other Diamonds' accomplishments that every gem from every court attended just for the chance to see all four Diamonds' radiance at once. Steven asks about how even white would attend. Pearl affirms this and wonders about the remainder of Pink's court, reminding of her of something, causing her to excuse herself, stating that she'll be back. Steven wonders where he would even head off to. Steven wonders if he's accepted the role of just being Pink, and asks the Pebbles about who Pink was, breaking into duet with the Pebbles, singing the titular song: Familiar.

Steven realizes that he's been in a similar situation before, except with the Crystal Gems, where he isn't accepted as being competent enough to be given tasks yet. Steven states how he knows what's going on, and that he's had practice with this situation, thus bolstering his confidence in his next plan to stop the Diamond Authority from "...Spreading Their Terror across Space."

Pearl returns and is surprised to see Steven in Pink's old outfit. Steven replies that he felt he should dress for the occasion. Pearl then states that she also has a surprise, wherein she summons Garnet, Amethyst, and Connie from her Gem. Steven the asks them to remember how, despite how annoying he was, and unable to go on missions, they would still drop everything to hang out with him, then stating how he believes that Pink was in the same situation, just with the other Diamonds. Steven then announces his plan to throw a huge ball where everyone is invited. The episode concludes with Steven in a triumphant pose.

Characters

 * Steven Universe
 * Pebbles (debut)
 * Pearl
 * Pink Diamond (mentioned and pictured)
 * White Diamond (mentioned and pictured)
 * Yellow Pearl
 * Yellow Diamond
 * Blue Pearl
 * Blue Diamond
 * Comby (debut)
 * Four Topaz Guards (debut, non-speaking cameo)
 * Citrine (mentioned)
 * Pyrite (mentioned)
 * Connie Maheswaran (non-speaking)
 * Garnet (non-speaking)
 * Amethyst (non-speaking)

Objects

 * Hot Dog Duffel Bag
 * Steven's Phone
 * Pink Diamond's Ship
 * White Diamond's Ship

Locations

 * Gem Homeworld
 * Unknown City
 * Diamond Ship Docking Bay
 * Pink Diamond's Palace
 * Yellow Diamond's Extraction Chamber (debut)
 * Blue Diamond's Extraction Chamber (debut)

Songs

 * Familiar (song)

Instrumental Songs
TBA

Trivia

 * The episode shows that Gems (at least the Diamonds) seem to engage in some human-like recreational activities, like being in a sauna (or "extraction chamber"), bathing, or playing in a pool.
 * All four Diamonds used to bathe together in Blue Diamond's pool and had fun together. But, after Pink rebelled and was allegedly "shattered", they stopped this activity.
 * Pink Diamond's function is mainly throwing parties and balls to honor accomplishments of Blue, Yellow, and White.
 * Yellow is jealous with Steven as he gets to see White while White barely talks to her.
 * Pink Diamond knows how to juggle, as mentioned by Pearl.
 * The yellow walls in Homeworld are shown to have faces and whisper to each other, blushing as Steven says "Hi" to them. One of the blueish statues blinks as Steven enters the room. These walls and statues (with gemstones seemingly embedded in them) seem to be (at least somewhat) sentient and conscious, possibly Gem-powered or even Gems themselves.

Cultural References

 * The Pebbles creating a Pink Diamond dress for Steven is likely a parody of the scene in Walt Disney's Cinderella where Cinderella's mouse friends help create a dress to wear at the ball.

Continuity

 * This episode continues where "Legs From Here to Homeworld" left off.
 * The title card uses the same image of White Diamond's ship as "Off Colors" and "Lars' Head".
 * Pearl had Garnet, Amethyst, and Connie teleported inside her gem, which is what she did to Steven in "A Single Pale Rose".
 * Steven asks his friends if they remembered when he was "little and kind of annoying" therefore making him unable to go along with them on missions, referring to his early naive personality in Season 1.

Errors

 * The credits of the episode have multiple errors and irregularities:
 * Patti LuPone's name is in a different font, as it was in the previous episode.
 * Deedee Magno-Hall is credited as "Pearl, Yellow Diamond, and Blue Diamond" instead of "Pearl, Yellow Pearl, and Blue Pearl."
 * Pearl's right arm is not colored in when she goes to check on Steven in Pink Diamond's Palace.