Following his defeat by Jasper, Steven wakes up in a prison cell blocked by a electric, 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 and 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. Before he continues down the hallway again, Steven promises Lapis he will come back for her later.
As Steven nears Sapphire's cell, he overhears Jasper commanding 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 for Rose Quartz) is top priority.
After waiting for Jasper and Peridot to leave, Steven approaches Sapphire's cell and tells her that he likes her singing, freeing her. Sapphire thanks Steven for freeing her before hearing Ruby call her once more. Grabbing Steven's hand, Sapphire pulls him along too fast for him to touch the ground. After finding Ruby in a large hall, Sapphire drops Steven and she and Ruby reunite, embracing. After reassuring each other of their safety, Sapphire kisses Ruby and they fuse into Garnet. Now whole again, Garnet apologizes to Steven for meeting her halves in this situation. Steven then asks if he made a good first impression to Sapphire and Ruby, and Garnet responds that they already love him. Garnet then tells him to rescue Pearl and Amethyst then head to the control bridge, she kisses Steven's to give him future vision for this particular event.
Garnet is able to hold her own and overpower Jasper in a rematch, while Steven rescues the others and takes 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 her captors and falls to Earth in an escape pod somewhere in North America.
After the crash, it is revealed that Steven saved the gems using a protection bubble, and Garnet thanks him. Steven says he "can't believe [Garnet] was a fusion the whole time!" to which Amethyst shows excitement that he met Ruby and Sapphire, and Pearl shows dismay at Steven finding out. Garnet explains that she had planned to tell Steven on his birthday.
After this, Jasper breaks out from under part of the destroyed ship and insults the gems, hypocritically stating that if she had someone to fuse with she'd be able to defeat the Crystal Gems. After she says this, Lapis Lazuli reveals herself by breaking out from under another part of the ship. After looking around she attempts to fly away, but gets grabbed by Jasper. As a last resort, Jasper convinces Lapis to fuse with her in an act of revenge, forming the enormous Malachite.
However, before she can do harm to the Crystal Gems, Lapis reveals that she betrayed Jasper and uses her hydrokinesis to chain their fusion, dragging 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!" and drags the fusion into the ocean. Malachite attempts to un-fuse, but stays intact and vanishes under the water. The Crystal Gems stare at the ocean in disbelief and Garnet states that "[Jasper and Lapis] are really bad for each other."
After this, Steven's phone rings. It is a distressed call from Connie, whom he left a message for earlier. This leads directly into the events of the next episode, "Full Disclosure".
This episode was originally the last season one episode; however, in order to air this episode during StevenBomb week March 9–14, 2015, a few season one episodes had to be pushed back, which caused some episodes to air out of order.
Trivia
This marks the first time the title card doesn't feature the Crystal Temple's hand.
Garnet's shades changed in dominant color depending on whose (Ruby and Sapphire) behavior she was representing. Red if she's representing Ruby and Blue if she's representing Sapphire.
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, she wouldn't count.
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 him being half human, which causes the field to deliver a slight shock instead of injury.
By the end of the episode, Steven seems to only feel a slight vibration from the fields.
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.
However, when they fuse into Garnet again, Garnet's body suit's pattern shows a line going down her middle, where she split apart, rather than her previous form, which had her leg separated. It is possible that Garnet has previously un-fused due to injury, something happened to her leg.
This is also shown when Pearl reformed with a wrap around her middle after she was stabbed in the torso by Holo-Pearl.
However it could have been either Sapphire or Ruby who had the leg pattern, given that both Opal and Sardonyx have a wrap around their middle.
This could also be as when the Gem's regenerate with thought, they have different outfits.
It is shown that Garnet does not have her shades when she is formed and must instead create them herself.
It is possible that she does this in order to hide her third eye.
There are 2 versions of this episode with slight variations; one where Ruby kisses Sapphire during their reunion, the other variation being Sapphire kissing Ruby.
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 possible reference to a line from the game 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).
Garnet's glass-placing animation just at the beginning Stronger Than You is a reference to Mega Man 7, where in the intro cutscene as soon as the game starts, Mega Man places an incorrect helmet instead of his original, but later corrects it, the animations are very similar. Also, more proof to this was that the intro cutscene was a popular joke during mid-90s.
Ruby and Sapphire's dance is a reference to Pazu and Sheeta in Hayao Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky".[2]
The homeworld symbol seen on the floor during Jasper and Garnet's battle is similar to the appearance of the Triforce from the Zelda series.
Continuity
Prior to this episode, Garnet hinted that she was a fusion in "Alone Together", saying it wasn't hard for her to fuse and when she was euphoric that Steven had fused out of love, this is based on a theory created after "Giant Woman" aired.
The Cluster's threat is later described in depth in When It Rains.
Jasper alludes to when Lapis was a prisoner on Earth, as seen in "Mirror Gem".
The change in Garnet's shades is later seen in "Love Letters".
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.
When Garnet sings the line "Come at me without any of your fancy tools", we can see that Jasper has a Gem Destabilizer in her left hand, but when we see her later on Garnet's visor, it is in Jasper's right hand, after this, it is back in her left hand.
When Garnet sings the line "But I think you're just mad 'cause you're single", her glove is on her bicep instead of on her forearm where it should be.
Jasper's visor error
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.
When Steven looks out of the window to find they are in space, the Gem Warship is shown to resemble a right hand, but, in every other scene, the ship is shown to be a left hand.
This also happens in "The Return"; while the Gem Warship is seen through the telescope, it appears to resemble a left hand. While being hit by Opal's arrows, it resembled a right hand. However, upon landing on the beach, it is a left hand again.
Throughout the episode, the knot on the back of Ruby's head strap can be seen and not seen.
When Malachite appears, her back right leg is light green with a dark green stripe, then in the next scene, it is dark green with a light green stripe, then in the next scene, it is light green with a dark green stripe again. File:JailBreak Garnet!.png
Steven's eye error
The moment before Steven turned his head to look in Sapphire's cell, his eye was a normal, unbruised eye.
This happens again when Garnet enters the ship's cockpit after beating Jasper.
