Bismuth (episode)

"You didn't even tell em'. You bubbled me away and didn't ever tell your friends — my friends."

"Bismuth" is the 20th & 21st episode of the third season of Steven Universe and the 98th & 99th episode overall. It is a 22-minute special episode.

Synopsis
An item from the Gems' past is discovered inside of Lion's mane.

Plot
Steven is playing a video game while the Gems watch and encourage him. They are interrupted by Lion chewing on one of Steven's shirts. Steven retrieves the shirt from Lion's mouth, and puts it on his drawers, stating about his memories in Funland's Thunder Bird Coaster. Lion starts becoming persistent and continues stealing and chewing the shirt. Steven reaches a decision to put the shirt in Lion's mane so that he can no longer chew it. Being on a branch and hanging a shirt there, Steven points out how resilient the branch he was standing on was. Suddenly the branch breaks and Steven accidentally pops a bubble containing a gemstone and falls out of Lion's mane. In an attempt to fix the situation, Steven re-enters Lion's mane to try and bubble the gem, but before he gets the chance to, the gem reforms, recedes in fear like she was in a battle, and sees that there's no one there except Steven. They stare at each other for some time, and Steven gets out of Lion's mane dimension. Steven reports to Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl that there is another Gem inside of Lion's mane. Steven explains her appearance until Garnet requests he bring her out. When Steven enters Lion's mane one last time, the giant gem appears and tells Steven that they are both alone in some place and that he must help her find a way out. Steven holds out his hand and brings the gem out. The Gems look at her and Amethyst shouts "Wow, a total stranger!" Pearl suddenly cries and runs towards the Gem yelling "Bismuth!", the strange Gem hugs Pearl and says that the Pearl she knew would never come for a hug. She asks whether someone lost one and asks her to whom she belongs to in a friendly yet sarcastic way, and Pearl responds "Nobody!" in a way that suggests it's a friendly dialog they used to share. Garnet reveals that her name is Bismuth and that she was a member of the original Crystal Gems. Bismuth acts very friendly with Garnet and Pearl because she knew them during the war. Bismuth points out several things about their new base, for one being who made the house out of wood. Bismuth asks where the other Crystal Gems were and her question was answered shortly in the Strawberry Battlefield, where she cried knowing the Gems who fought beside her were gone. Bismuth releases her anger realizing that the Homeworld gems still want to take Earth and throws an axe towards the ground. She takes the Gems to the Forge, the place where the whole rebellion was suited for war. It was revealed that she made all of the material weapons for the rebellion including Rose's Sword. She gives Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl extensions for their current weapons.

Later, Bismuth, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl are seen "training" outside while Steven is watching. Bismuth asks Steven to join in and Steven replies by saying that it is too intense, and he then shows Bismuth some of his rituals.

Later in the episode, Bismuth takes Steven back to the Forge to show him the Breaking Point, a weapon that shatters gems on impact and Steven finds out that Bismuth was bubbled inside Lion because she was going to try to shatter Homeworld gems with the Breaking Point. It was revealed that Rose did not think it was right, and she had ended up bubbling Bismuth and lying to the other Crystal Gems that she went missing in battle. Steven showed the same point of view, and this angered Bismuth, thinking that he lied about being a different person than Rose. A showdown ensues between Steven and Bismuth with her venting about how Rose thinks of her enemies lives more than her own army, how she could have ended Homeworld's tyranny, shattered the Diamonds with the Breaking Point, and liberated everyone. Steven manages to subdue her for a moment with a statue and tells her that this has to stop. Bismuth yells at him to just shatter her, but Steven refuses. Bismuth takes the Breaking Point from him and raises it, but Steven is quick to grab his sword and jab it through Bismuth. Bismuth tells Steven (Rose) that she should have shattered her before so that she did not have to know how little she mattered to her. Steven promises to tell the others about what happened to her, and Bismuth laughs, stating that he "really is better than her" and finally poofs. After Steven tells them everything, the Crystal Gems put Bismuth in the bubble room. They meet Steven outside on the deck, and the episode ends.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Bismuth (debut) (semi-antagonist)
 * Garnet
 * Amethyst (also as Purple Puma)
 * Pearl
 * Lion
 * Rose Quartz (mentioned, pictured)
 * Ruby (mentioned)
 * Sapphire (indirectly mentioned)
 * Peridot (indirectly mentioned)
 * Unknown Crystal Gems:
 * "Crazy Lace" (mentioned)
 * "Biggs" (mentioned)
 * "Snowflake" (mentioned)
 * The Great Diamond Authority (mentioned)
 * Nephrite pilot (mentioned)

Objects

 * Rose's Sword
 * Rose's Scabbard
 * Breaking Point
 * Warp Pad

Locations

 * Beach City
 * Beach City Funland (mentioned)
 * Beach House
 * Steven's Room
 * Lion's Dimension
 * Gem Battlefield
 * The Forge
 * Gem Homeworld (mentioned)

Music

 * TBA

Trivia

 * This is the official half-hour special of the series; previous "half-hour special events" were two-part episodes combined and aired together (i.e. Mirror Gem/Ocean Gem, The Return/Jail Break, Super Watermelon Island/Gem Drill). Because of this, the episode has a unique title card, appearing after the first minute within the episode, instead of at the beginning like they usually do and also features two of the shows characters, along with additional cuts to commercials.
 * Despite only being the 98th overall episode, it is marketed as the 100th episode by Cartoon Network.
 * According to Matt Burnett, Cartoon Network considers it the 99th and 100th episode due to counting all of the digital shorts as a single episode and "Bismuth" as two separate episodes.
 * Bismuths belong to the worker caste of Gem society. They are made to be construction workers, responsible for erecting such structures as spires, arenas, and temples.
 * Bismuth was the one who forged Rose's Sword, along with every other material Gem Weapon and armor used by the Crystal Gems.
 * Additionally, physical enhancements can modify summoned Gem weapons.
 * Bismuth was poofed roughly 5,300 years before the show, which is around the start of the Bronze Age.
 * This is the first time Steven has poofed a non-corrupted Gem.
 * This episode confirms that Gems can speak in airless (or at least oxygen-less) environments such as Lion's Mane Dimension, where Bismuth was capable of speaking to Steven while he could only hold his breath as usual.
 * This implies that while there is no oxygen in Lion's Dimension, there is some non-oxygen-based atmosphere, as the sound is unable to travel through a vacuum.
 * Bismuth reveals that Rose was made on Earth.
 * However, in "Rose's Scabbard", Rose (voiced by Pearl) referred to Homeworld as her "home".
 * It is possible that Rose was created on Earth, however, moved to Homeworld, and that was her home.

Cultural References

 * Steven's drink use is similar to the famous "Coca-Cola" brand of cola.
 * Following each commercial break is an eye catcher signaling the return to the show. They feature chibi versions of the Crystal Gems using a Warp Pad, alluding to the style of similar eyecatchers used in anime, such as Sailor Moon R and Yu Yu Hakusho.
 * Due to the size and the characters on the blade, the large sword blade seen on the wall of the forge may be a reference to Omegamon's Grey Sword from Digimon.
 * The Breaking Point has a similar appearance and function to the Big O's piston punch from the anime The Big O. 
 * Steven throwing Bismuth's weapon into the lava is very similar to John Connor throwing the Terminator endoskeleton arm into the molten steel from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Continuity

 * The unknown bubbled object first seen in "Lion 3: Straight to Video" is revealed to be Bismuth.
 * The Lonely Blade movie from "Steven the Sword Fighter" returned.
 * Pearl now understands that movies do not have to make sense since "Steven the Sword Fighter".
 * The Corrupting Light is indirectly mentioned by Garnet as Homeworld's "final attack".
 * Pearl mentions Rose protecting her and Garnet from the attack, something first mentioned by Greg in "The Return".
 * Steven indirectly mentions Peridot's redemption when he says that most gems he meets always try to kill him, and it takes forever before he becomes friends with them.

Errors

 * When Bismuth blocks Pearl's attack, her pants are missing.
 * When Steven first pops the bubble Bismuth is trapped in, the gem is facing towards him with the notch on the top left. In the next frame with Bismuth's gem, the notch is on the bottom left. Then when Steven goes back into Lion's mane Bismuth's gem is facing away from him with the notch on the bottom right.
 * When the Gems stare at Bismuth's bubbled gem, the bottom half of Garnet's bodysuit is reversed.
 * When Garnet is standing by Steven outside in the night, the heels of her shoes are white.
 * When Bismuth tears a part of the floorboards of the beach house, two of her dreadlocks interchange colors, returning to normal on the next scene.
 * Before being poofed, in a few shots Bismuth's headband turns into a dreadlock.

Videos
Bismuth