“ |
Best dang mailman, woman, or animal on the force. At least until they catch me taking from the lost mail bin. But that's between us, eh? |
” |
—"Sadie's Song" |
Barbara Miller is Sadie's mother and an employee of the Beach City postal service. She is first mentioned in the episode "Cheeseburger Backpack" and made her debut as a cameo in "The Return", before having a speaking role in "Love Letters", and her first major role in "Sadie's Song".
Personality
Barbara is loud and overly enthusiastic about everything, especially if it is related to her daughter, Sadie. Energetic to a point where she's violent, strongly steeping around the house and pal-slapping Steven in "Sadie's Song". However, she is understanding once an issue is explained to her, despite her difficult fault of not being a good listener.
Appearance
Work Appearance
She wears a pale mint-blue shirt/blouse with a turned down collar and short sleeves with the logo of a letter emblazoned on it. She wears grayish-teal wide waist-banded shorts that end just above the knees. She has a tan support bandage around her left knee. She wears white high-leg socks and brown slip on shoes. She also carries a mail bag similar to Jamie's.
History
"Cheeseburger Backpack"
Jamie tells Steven that Barbara yells at her if he doesn't get any signatures during mail deliveries.
"Lion 3: Straight to Video"
Barbara packs many lunches for Sadie that are all kept in a freezer at the Big Donut, untouched. After Sadie views Rose Quartz's video tape, she calls Barbara and tells her that it is okay to bring her more lunches.
"The Return"
Barbara gets out of her car with Sadie to make sure that Steven is okay after flying out of Greg's van.
"Love Letters"
Barbara delivers the mail to Steven's house while Jame is emotionally distraught. She immediately recognizes Steven as Greg's son. She hands Steven a bag of coupons and leaves after telling him what Jamie had been up to.
"Historical Friction"
Barbara can be seen sitting in the audience to watch Jamie's play. She cheers for Mayor Dewey at the end of the performance.
"Sadie's Song"
Barbara brings home another stuffed bear for Sadie, like she has done many times in the past. Barbara admits to Steven that she takes from the lost mail bin occasionally. After realizing that Steven is trying to help Sadie sing at Beach-a-Palooza, she becomes excited and asks for Steven's assistance on getting Sadie ready. Sadie reveals that Barbara punched the umpire during one of Sadie's baseball games because they apparently cheated Sadie out of a double. Barbara and Steven come up with a dancing routine for Sadie. After Sadie reveals that she didn't want to be pressured into anything, just like how Barbara had been doing to Sadie her whole life, Barbara admits that she wanted everyone to see how talented her daughter is. She apologizes to Sadie for never knowing.
"Last One Out of Beach City"
Barbara and Vidalia invited Greg to play cards with them, and that Barbara threatened to hold his mail if he didn't play.
Relationships
Sadie
As her mother, she cares very deeply about her, even packing her lunch before she goes to work. She may sometimes go overboard and care a little too much about activities Sadie is interested in. When Sadie is interested in something, Barbara would take over her new interest to the point where it becomes something Sadie doesn't want to do. This is finally addressed in "Sadie's Song", and hopefully their relationship has improved from this.
Despite this, however, she's not above invading her privacy by making duplicates of all her daughter's keys, shown on "Are You My Dad?". She has also shown to have a degree of knowledge to Sadie's relationship with Lars, even knowing her "Island Adventure". She showed concern when Sadie went missing without any knowledge and immediately ran to find her, shouting at Sadie to hold on.
Steven Universe
Barbara views Steven as a friend to Sadie. She invested in him helping her dress up Sadie for Beach-a-Palooza.
Jamie
They are both work acquaintances. While she yells at him if he doesn't get signatures for deliveries, she does not speak ill of him and cares about him.
Greg Universe
While little of their relationship is shown, they seem to be well-acquainted enough to be on a first-name basis as she remarked, "Hey, you're Greg's boy!" upon meeting Steven. In "Last One Out of Beach City", it was mentioned that she threatened to hold his mail if he didn't make it to a game of cards he was invited to, mentioning that "she is not a woman of empty threats".
Vidalia
The extent of their relationship is unknown, but it's assumed they are friends. It was mentioned in "Last One Out of Beach City" that she, Barb, and Greg were to play a game of cards. It's unknown if this is a weekly hangout or not.
Lars
While Barbara knows about Sadie's relationship with Lars, it is currently unknown how Barbara feels about their relationship. It is implied that while she appears to be okay with her daughter's relationship with Lars, she has some apprehensions about Lars, shown by her displeased expression when she assumes that Sadie went on another "Island Adventure" with Lars, who Barbara describes as her daughter's "boyfriend".
Episode Appearances
Season 1 | ||||||||||||
Season 1A | ||||||||||||
1. "Gem Glow": | Absent | 14. "Lars and the Cool Kids": | Absent | |||||||||
2. "Laser Light Cannon": | Absent | 15. "Onion Trade": | Absent | |||||||||
3. "Cheeseburger Backpack": | Mentioned | 16. "Steven the Sword Fighter": | Absent | |||||||||
4. "Together Breakfast": | Absent | 17. "Lion 2: The Movie": | Absent | |||||||||
5. "Frybo": | Absent | 18. "Beach Party": | Absent | |||||||||
6. "Cat Fingers": | Absent | 19. "Rose's Room": | Absent | |||||||||
7. "Bubble Buddies": | Absent | 20. "Coach Steven": | Absent | |||||||||
8. "Serious Steven": | Absent | 21. "Joking Victim": | Absent | |||||||||
9. "Tiger Millionaire": | Absent | 22. "Steven and the Stevens": | Absent | |||||||||
10. "Steven's Lion": | Absent | 23. "Monster Buddies": | Absent | |||||||||
11. "Arcade Mania": | Absent | 24. "An Indirect Kiss": | Absent | |||||||||
12. "Giant Woman": | Absent | 25. "Mirror Gem": | Absent | |||||||||
13. "So Many Birthdays": | Absent | 26. "Ocean Gem": | Absent | |||||||||
Season 1B | ||||||||||||
27. "House Guest": | Absent | 40. "On the Run": | Absent | |||||||||
28. "Space Race": | Absent | 41. "Horror Club": | Absent | |||||||||
29. "Secret Team": | Absent | 42. "Winter Forecast": | Absent | |||||||||
30. "Island Adventure": | Absent | 43. "Maximum Capacity": | Absent | |||||||||
31. "Keep Beach City Weird": | Absent | 44. "Marble Madness": | Absent | |||||||||
32. "Fusion Cuisine": | Absent | 45. "Rose's Scabbard": | Absent | |||||||||
33. "Garnet's Universe": | Absent | 46. "Open Book": | Absent | |||||||||
34. "Watermelon Steven": | Absent | 47. "Shirt Club": | Absent | |||||||||
35. "Lion 3: Straight to Video": | Mentioned | 48. "Story for Steven": | Absent | |||||||||
36. "Warp Tour": | Absent | 49. "The Message": | Absent | |||||||||
37. "Alone Together": | Absent | 50. "Political Power": | Absent | |||||||||
38. "The Test": | Absent | 51. "The Return": | Debut | |||||||||
39. "Future Vision": | Absent | 52. "Jail Break": | Absent |
Season 2 | ||||||||||||
1. "Full Disclosure": | Absent | 14. "Historical Friction": | Non-speaking | |||||||||
2. "Joy Ride": | Absent | 15. "Friend Ship": | Absent | |||||||||
3. "Say Uncle": | Absent | 16. "Nightmare Hospital": | Absent | |||||||||
4. "Love Letters": | Appears | 17. "Sadie's Song": | Appears | |||||||||
5. "Reformed": | Absent | 18. "Catch and Release": | Absent | |||||||||
6. "Sworn to the Sword": | Absent | 19. "When It Rains": | Absent | |||||||||
7. "Rising Tides, Crashing Skies": | Absent | 20. "Back to the Barn": | Absent | |||||||||
8. "Keeping It Together": | Absent | 21. "Too Far": | Absent | |||||||||
9. "We Need to Talk": | Absent | 22. "The Answer": | Absent | |||||||||
10. "Chille Tid": | Absent | 23. "Steven's Birthday": | Absent | |||||||||
11. "Cry for Help": | Absent | 24. "It Could've Been Great": | Absent | |||||||||
12. "Keystone Motel": | Absent | 25. "Message Received": | Absent | |||||||||
13. "Onion Friend": | Absent | 26. "Log Date 7 15 2": | Absent |
Season 4 | |||||
1. "Kindergarten Kid": | Absent | 14. "The Zoo": | Absent | ||
2. "Know Your Fusion": | Absent | 15. "That Will Be All": | Absent | ||
3. "Buddy's Book": | Absent | 16. "The New Crystal Gems": | Absent | ||
4. "Mindful Education": | Absent | 17. "Storm in the Room": | Absent | ||
5. "Future Boy Zoltron": | Absent | 18. "Rocknaldo": | Absent | ||
6. "Last One Out of Beach City": | Mentioned | 19. "Tiger Philanthropist": | Absent | ||
7. "Onion Gang": | Mentioned | 20. "Room for Ruby": | Absent | ||
8/9. "Gem Harvest": | Absent | 21. "Lion 4: Alternate Ending": | Absent | ||
10. "Three Gems and a Baby": | Absent | 22. "Doug Out": | Absent | ||
11. "Steven's Dream": | Absent | 23. "The Good Lars": | Absent | ||
12. "Adventures in Light Distortion": | Absent | 24. "Are You My Dad?": | Appears | ||
13. "Gem Heist": | Absent | 25. "I Am My Mom": | Absent |
Trivia
- She seems to have a knee support band on her left leg for an unknown reason.
- Her physical appearance (i.e. her face and hair) greatly resembles that of her daughter, Sadie.
- She yells at Jamie if he doesn't get signatures, as revealed in the episode "Cheeseburger Backpack".
- This suggests she is Jamie's superior at the post office.
- In Brazil, she is dubbed by a man (Charles Emmanuel, the same voice actor of Peedee and Jamie).
- This was fixed in the dubbed version of "Sadie's Song", and she is now voiced by Márcia Morelli (Lapis Lazuli's voice actress).
- In the episode "Sadie's Song", it seems she treats Sadie like a child, giving her teddy bears.
- It is unknown if "Miller" is her last name as well, as Sadie's father has yet to make an appearance in the series.