Beta

"Amethyst, that 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.

Official Synopsis
Steven and Amethyst visit some friends in the country but Amethyst isn't being herself.

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 installed an aquarium in the hole in the wall. They have also created a museum of the objects that remind them of the past, called "meep morps", which Steven realizes is their form of art. They show Steven and Amethyst their various exhibits which include Peridot's tape recorder, baseball equipment, the leaf Steven gave Lapis, toilets, and a Camp Pining Hearts DVD playing on a loop with Percy saying, "I just feel trapped." Seeing that Amethyst is not impressed, Peridot decides to put on a show by levitating several instruments. She blows on her harmonica before dropping everything else. Lapis picks up an instrument, suggesting to Peridot they play together. As they perform, Steven talks with Amethyst, who feels that they do not have time to play with garbage while Jasper continues to roam free.

Peridot and Lapis abruptly stop playing and fall silent at the mention of Jasper. Amethyst, feeling apathetic about the museum and that she is wasting her time, 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 her up. She tells Amethyst that she is much better than Jasper, stating that she should not compare herself to Jasper because of their differences. Peridot explains to her that Jasper is a completely different quartz and was made on Earth in the Beta Kindergarten. Steven and Amethyst are intrigued, not aware of this before now. 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 Beta Kindergarten, Peridot explains that halfway through the Gem War, Homeworld needed more Gems, so they scrambled to make a second Kindergarten. She further explains that the Gems created here were rushed, shown by the 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 is at first discouraged by this. Steven is able to restore her confidence, however, by telling her that what she wants to be is more important than where she came from.

Amethyst states that she will defeat Jasper on behalf of 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 these aren't exit holes anymore. When they get close to one of the cages, a corrupted Gem similar to 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
 * Percy
 * Paulette (mentioned)
 * Carnelian (mentioned)
 * Greg's Aunt and Uncle (pictured)

Objects

 * Warp Pad
 * The Mirror (mentioned)
 * Injectors
 * Peridot's Voice Recorder (as a meep morp)
 * Peridot's alien prize

Locations

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

Instrumental Song

 * "Meep Morps"

Trivia

 * This episode's name was first revealed in the episode listing on the Cartoon Network website. This episode was originally named "Beta Part 1".
 * 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. It 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.

Controversy
There was some controversy when this episode aired. This was due to some overly aggressive fans of the show attacking writer Lauren Zuke over Twitter due to this episode's possible subtext of a hint of Lapis and Peridot having a relationship. Many fans of the show often like to come up with their own non-canon romantic pairs in shows (commonly referred to as "Shipping"). Many aggressive "shippers" of Amethyst and Peridot (commonly referred to as "Amedot") attacked and harassed Zuke for "negating" the Amethyst-Peridot ship in this episode. Some fans also saw the Lapis-Peridot moments in this episode as "queer-baiting", which means either (depending on context) teasing queer fans with a possible ship that never comes to fruition. This ultimately lead to Zuke deleting her Twitter account, which she commonly used to share art about the show, stating "I decided I don’t want to be accessible to thousands of people who think because I work on a TV show that I owe them myself all the time".

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 "Abbott 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' meep morps reference events from "Same Old World" and "Hit the Diamond".
 * Peridot's toilets reference events from "Catch and Release".
 * 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