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Peridot! We've always had something to fix together! The Cluster, the Diamonds, or Spinel! I don't think I know how to be a friend without something to fix! But I- I just can't do it anymore! I'm so tired. Now I'm even doing it in my dreams! I'm sorry I can't do this for you! Please don't leave...! Don't... Leave... |
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| āSteven | ||
"In Dreams" is the 11th episode of Steven Universe Future.
Official Synopsis[]
Steven's dreams start broadcasting onto his bedroom TV.[2]
Plot[]
The episode starts with Steven walking to his house at night from the beach. Music and lights are coming from within his house, so he remarks that he's finally getting the chance to party. When he approaches the door and grabs the handle, suddenly the windows and door fade away, leaving the bare wall. Steven bangs on the wall, and a loud booming voice speaks to him from above, which turns out to be the temple with the head of a giant glowing cookie cat, and suddenly the deck under him splits open and he falls into a seemly endless void, similar to the one created when Rose's Room was unable to keep up with his wishes. He suddenly wakes up in his bed and questions why he keeps having such "horrible dreams".
From downstairs, Peridot calls for him and he opens the door for her, who is very excited to watch the Camp Pining Hearts reboot. He teases her about not having recorded it on tape for a minute before they both go back upstairs to watch. After they watch the taped episode, both Peridot and Steven exclaim that they feel that the series has been ruined. Once Peridot begins to calm down, Steven's dream from the night before suddenly begins to broadcast on the TV, giving them the idea to re-write the episodes to their wishes using Steven's new ability. They discuss the "web of lies" that the new CPH series had created, and Steven creates his own CPH original character, "Stefan", who is a muscular lifeguard.
That night, after eating a bowl of chili (which Steven claims will make his dreams more vivid), he goes to sleep with the script the two made in mind. The dream begins with Stefan talking with another CPH character named Jasmine. He says that he heard that she really likes birds, and then claims that an island down the river has lots of rare birds she can see. This turns out to be a ploy to get another character, Rodrigo, to go with him to help save Jasmine from the island that actually turned out to have dangerous birds on it.
The two begin to canoe down the river, and strange things begin to happen within Steven's dream. A blue dolphin with Blue Diamond's head on it hops from the river, and in the background, White Diamond's feet are shown and a giant pineapple with Yellow Diamond's face on it turns to look at him. Rodrigo cries out in alarm at Stefan's sudden changes, where he then turns into Steven, who goes into his pink state. The dream ends and Steven wakes up to see Peridot who congratulates him but questions "what [Steven] was going for" at the end. Steven begins to fall asleep more and more to try and perfect the dream, but in each one, something is wrong about it. The first time, instead of Rodrigo, Dogcopter replaces him and flies away. The second time, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl replace Rodrigo, each staring ahead with wide eyes, and fly away like Dogcopter. The third time, Rodrigo is not replaced, but Spinel's Injector is seen looming in the background behind him, and suddenly Stefan is shown to be baby Steven. Each time Steven wakes up more distressed and with darker and darker bags under his eyes.
The next morning, Peridot slams a giant stack of papers onto the table where Steven is eating. These papers end up being storyboards Peridot had written and drawn in one night, and they portray Stefan luring Rodrigo to the island to help save Jasmine, but Stefan ends up getting together with Jasmine and kissing her. Steven opposes the idea at first, but when Peridot seems to reject him and start to leave, he panics and accepts.
The dream begins like the original. Rodrigo canoes down the river by himself, talking about how wonderful Stefan is, only to stumble upon Stefan and Jasmine about to kiss. Stefan looks down at Jasmine, who has suddenly turned to Connie, and she has an angry look on her face. Stefan turns back into Steven. Suddenly, Connie begins to grow much taller, still keeping her face, but has Obsidian's body. She lifts her foot and begins to step down on Steven, similar to how the Diamond Mech did before the redemption of White Diamond. He screams and Steven wakes up in his room, seeing Peridot over at the TV. He calls out to her, but she does not respond. He beings to panic, since she seems to be ignoring him, but when he turns her around, her gem and visor have been filled in with the SMPTE color bars and the rest of her face is neutral.
The static from the TV causes him to put his hands on his head, and then he is brought to a giant void. He calls out for Peridot, running to find her. He finds his house floating in the void with him, the lights and music from the party back. Peridot is seen emotionlessly walking to the door. When he encounters her, the windows and the door fades away again, and he begins telling her how "[He] just wanted to hang out with [her].". She has no eyes, and her face is still neutral. The deck begins to fall out under him again, but he jumps out of the way in time, only standing on a thin board of wood. He begins to crawl towards her as the wall of his house and the surrounding void becomes the color bars, and as he cries, he vents about how he doesn't want anybody to leave him and how feels like he doesn't know what to do without someone or something to fix or help.
The dream ends with a visual similar to removing a tape from a VCR. Steven is in his bed crying as Peridot calls out to him with a tone of worry in her voice. She says she saw the whole dream and tells him it's fine and that they don't have to keep doing what they were doing. They hug each other and Peridot blames herself for Steven's nightmares. Both Steven and Peridot agree that they don't need an excuse to hang out with each other and the episode ends with the two watching the remaining episodes and making fun of them.
Features[]
Characters[]
- Steven Universe/Stefan (dream; Stefan)
- Peridot
- Garnet (dream)
- Amethyst (dream)
- Pearl (dream)
- Cookie Cat (dream)
- Dogcopter (dream)
- Connie Maheswaran (dream)
- Lars Barriga (dream)
- Rhodonite (dream)
- Padparadscha (dream)
- Fluorite (dream)
- Rutile Twins (dream)
- Onion (dream)
- The Cluster (mentioned)
- Spinel (mentioned)
- Yellow Diamond (dream)
- Blue Diamond (dream)
- White Diamond (dream)
- Obsidian (dream)
Objects[]
- Steven's TV
- Cookie Cat (dream)
- Spinel's Injector (dream)
- Camp Pining Hearts
- Steven's PlayStation 2
- Kindergarten Holes (dream)
Locations[]
Music[]
Instrumental Songs[]
Trivia[]
- This was the first episode to air in 2020.
- Peridot and Steven were the only real characters to appear in this episode; everyone else was either a TV character or a dream.
- This episode reveals that Peridot's visor is removable and that her eyes are dark green.
- Despite being in a dream, this is the first time since the time-skip that Connie is shown with her hair down and without hair clips.
- This is the first time that Spinel has been vocally mentioned in the epilogue series.
Cultural References[]
- The SMPTE color bars are seen during Steven's dream when he talks to Peridot.
- On Steven's TV shelf, a Sony PlayStation 2 with a controller (by Peridot's leg later on while agreeing to make a movie on the floor) and a wireless Dualshock 2 with some games can be seen.
- Steven telling Peridot about wearing tin foil hats is an allusion to a real-life "Tinfoil hat" myth, in which it involves wearing a homemade headgear made of aluminum foil. If worn by the user, it protects the brain from any psychological or mental control such as mind-reading, mind-control, and/or electromagnetic fields, usually associated with aliens or quasi-government institutions. This myth is considered a pseudoscience and is often acquainted with alien myths and conspiracy theories.
- The promo image for this episode is most certainly a reference to the CD cover for the musical La La Land.
Continuity[]
- Peridot's love and obsession over Camp Pining Hearts began after Steven introduced her to the show back in "Log Date 7 15 2".
- Steven refers to Camp Pining Hearts as a "classic Great Northern teen drama". The Great North was a snowy location visited in "Gem Hunt".
- It is implied that the Great North is the name for this universe (with its alternate history)'s equivalent of Canada.
- In real-life, Canada has the nickname "the Great White North". The show's alternate history has also named other locations after their real-life nicknames: Pennsylvania is called Keystone, New Jersey is just Jersey, New York is Empire State, and Delaware/Maryland/Virginia are all part of Delmarva.
- Camp Pining Hearts featuring a version of the Canadian flag (green instead of red), as well as the show's references to poutine and some of the characters' and actors' French-sounding names, implies that the show is from Steven Universe's equivalent of Canada. (Additionally, the real-life series of Total Drama and Degrassi ā real-life inspirations for Camp Pining Hearts ā are also from Canada.)
- It is implied that the Great North is the name for this universe (with its alternate history)'s equivalent of Canada.
- Dogcopter appears in one of Stevens's dreams for the fourth time, after appearing in his dreams in "Lion 3: Straight to Video", "Chille Tid", and "Kiki's Pizza Delivery Service".
- Spinel's injector can be seen in one of Steven's dreams. This is a reference to the events of Steven Universe: The Movie, where the injector was threatening Earth.
- When Steven "wakes up" within his dreams to see Peridot sitting in front of the TV unresponsive, they're in his old bedroom from the original series.
- Steven's original character Stefan resembles the adult form of Steven in "So Many Birthdays".
- In that episode, adult Steven wears a shirt reading "Professional Beach Hunk" after searching for an occupation. Meanwhile, Stefan has the occupation of being a lifeguard (a job one can have at either the pool or the beach).
- In Steven's drawing, Stefan's right hand is crossed out ā a reference to Steven stating he's "bad at drawing hands" in "Barn Mates".
- Peridot telling Steven to "press play, you monster" was a possible foreshadowing towards Steven's transformation in "Everything's Fine" and "I Am My Monster".
Errors[]
- While Steven's friends are dancing in his dreams, Lars' scar isn't colored pink.
- The moon goddess statue on Steven's shelf is holding a pink gem but in "Cheeseburger Backpack" it holds a blue/ white gem.
Video[]
Transcript
View the episode's transcript here.
Gallery
