Jail Break

"I am made o-o-o-o-of lo-o-o-ove."

"Jail Break" is the 49th episode of the first season in Steven Universe, and the 49th episode overall.

Synopsis
Steven and the Crystal Gems attempt to escape Jasper's clutches.

Plot
Following his defeat by Jasper, Steven wakes up in a prison cell blocked by a yellow force field. He is able to walk through the force field as he is half human, then he sets out to find the others. He sees an irate Gem prisoner named Ruby, who is surprised to see him penetrate the force fields so easily. They then hear singing from far away, Ruby recognizing it to be from her lover, Sapphire.

They run through the hallways, and as Ruby calls for Sapphire, Steven discovers that they are in the hand-shaped ship orbiting above Earth. They then find Lapis Lazuli, who is also imprisoned. Before Steven tries to free her, Ruby runs off to go find Sapphire. Then Lapis begs for Steven not to fight their captors and stays in her cell. Not wanting to allow his friends to be hurt anymore, he continues through the hall, promising to get her out.

As Steven nears Sapphire's cell, he overhears Jasper telling Sapphire to stop singing, then ordering Peridot to set a course for the Gem Homeworld despite her original mission to visit the Cluster, as Steven (mistaken as Rose Quartz) is top priority.

Steven then tells Sapphire that he likes her singing and frees Sapphire as she takes Steven to a large hall and passionately reunites with Ruby, and are then revealed to fuse into Garnet. Now whole again, Garnet apologizes to Steven for meeting her halves in this situation, before telling him to rescue Pearl and Amethyst and head to the control bridge, with the help of her future vision.

Garnet is able to hold her own and overpower Jasper in a rematch, while Steven rescues the others and take over the control bridge, tying up Peridot in the process. By the end of their battle, Garnet throws Jasper into the ship's core and causes it to crash land back on Earth, near the temple. Peridot escapes beforehand and falls to Earth in an escape pod somewhere in North America.

Everyone survives the crash, including Jasper and Lapis. As a last resort, Jasper convinces Lapis to fuse with her in an act of revenge, but Lapis' consciousness fights back. Using her hydrokinesis, Malachite chains her fused self and drags it into the ocean, saying that she and Jasper will remain on Earth together in misery. Lapis says, "I'm done being everyone's prisoner... Now you're my prisoner, and I'm never letting you go!" As Lapis drags her fused self into the ocean, The Crystal Gems stare at the ocean in disbelief and with the battle finally over, The ring tone is heard as a "Staccato Heaven" (Card synth patch from Roland D-50 Linear Synthesizer). Steven receives a call from Connie, whom he left a message for earlier. This leads directly into the events of the next episode, "Full Disclosure".

Characters

 * Steven
 * Pearl
 * Garnet
 * Amethyst
 * Ruby (debut)
 * Sapphire (debut)
 * Jasper (antagonist)
 * Peridot (antagonist)
 * Lapis Lazuli
 * Malachite (debut)
 * Lion
 * Connie (voice)

Locations

 * Gem Warship
 * Beach City
 * Gem Homeworld (mentioned)

Objects

 * Gem Destabilizer
 * Gem Warship
 * Escape Pod (first appearance)
 * Steven's Phone

Production Notes

 * This episode was originally the last season one episode; however, in order to air this episode during StevenBomb week March 9th-14th 2015, a few season one episodes had to be pushed back, which caused some episodes to air out of order.

Songs

 * Sapphire's Song
 * Stronger Than You
 * Love Like You (with lyrics)

Soundtracks

 * Reunion
 * Collusion
 * Malachite

Trivia

 * This marks the first time when the title card doesn't feature the Crystal Temple's hand.
 * This marks the second time a Gem has had a slight redesign, the first being Pearl in "Steven the Sword Fighter".
 * This is the first episode where two different fusions are performed.
 * Alexandrite was formed twice in "Fusion Cuisine." Being the same fusion in the same episode, Alexandrite would not count.
 * Opal would probably count as a third, but her fusion dance was once again unseen.
 * Garnet sings for the second time. The first was "Steven and the Stevens".
 * Two new Gems are "shown", but have technically been a part of the Crystal Gems during the entirety of the series; they are Ruby and Sapphire.
 * While "Jail Break" is Ruby and Sapphire's official debut, they were both seen in "Fusion Cuisine" when Alexandrite unfused.
 * Peridot and Jasper used an object called a Gem Destabilizer. Its function is to cause Gems to retreat to their gems, making them unable to fight.
 * In the case of a fusion, it immediately destroys their physical form, and forces the individual Gems to retreat to their gemstones.
 * The same technology is used to create barriers in the jail cells of the Gem Warship, preventing Gems from escaping.
 * Steven managed to pass through the barriers unscathed. This is due to his being half human, which causes the field to deliver a slight shock instead of injury.
 * After Garnet was destabilized and her component Gems were forced to retreat into their respective gemstones, Garnet re-emerges in a body suit with a different color scheme after Ruby and Sapphire fuse again.
 * Due to the differences in Garnet's outfit, it is possible that Ruby and Sapphire regenerated themselves, wearing different outfits than when they had previously fused as Garnet.
 * This could also be as when the Gem's regenerate with thought, they have different outfits.
 * This can also be seen with Opal.

Cultural References

 * In an effort to find Sapphire, they end up finding Lapis Lazuli instead, which could be a reference to how people have often confused the gemstone lapis lazuli for sapphires throughout history.
 * Peridot's line "Go to Earth, they said. It'll be easy, they said..." is a reference to the line from Warcraft 2 (1995). However, it could also be from the unnamed Roman soldier in the "Asterix and Obelix" cartoon film The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (1976).
 * Ruby and Sapphire's dance is a reference to Pazu and Sheeta in Hayao Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky".

Continuity

 * Prior to this episode, Garnet hinted that she was a fusion in "Alone Together", saying it wasn't hard for her to fuse.
 * Jasper alludes to when Lapis was a prisoner on Earth, as seen in "Mirror Gem."

Errors

 * When Sapphire grabs Steven's hand to run towards Ruby's voice, she holds his right hand. However, while she's running, she's holding his left hand. Then when she stops, she's holding his right hand again.
 * Peridot can be seen with a full hand during the song "Stronger Than You". This happens when Steven grabs onto the Gem Destabilizer.
 * During the song "Stronger Than You", when Jasper and Garnet are by the ship's core, Jasper's visor can be seen broken before it should have been, which happens just a few seconds later.
 * At one moment, Garnet's gauntlet is attached to her sleeve.
 * When Steven looks out of the window to find they are in space, the ship is shown to be a right hand but in every other scene, including "The Return", the ship is shown to be a left hand.
 * When Pearl, Amethyst, and Steven see Garnet entering the control room, Steven's black eye is a regular unbruised eye. Same thing happens when Steven grabs onto the Gem Destabilizer as seen in the Peridot's hand error photo.
 * Steven's ringtone is played in a different concert pitch, as heard in "Full Disclosure".
 * When Jasper grabbed Lapis' leg the moment she tried to escape, Lapis' upper leg wasn't in Jasper's hand.
 * The moment before Steven turned his head to look in Sapphire's cell, his eye was a normal, unbruised eye.

Transcript
View the episode's transcript here.

Videos
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