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Episode 47*: Political Power

“We'll face the night together, and we'll survive.”

Political Power is a strange beast. On the one hand, it’s a return to Steven hanging around Beach City, which he hasn’t done much of post-Lion 3. On the other hand, it’s an intense Homeworld Arc episode that transitions us to the finale. And on a mysterious third hand, it’s a crucial episode in Steven’s personal arc, containing a life-changing epiphany. Oh, and it’s also funny!

Let’s start with that last bit, because humor greases the gears for these three major elements to work in harmony. Mayor Dewey may drive around with a giant head that endlessly shouts his title, but the man himself is hardly as bombastic as fellow agents of comic relief like Onion or Ronaldo. A big part of that is voice actor Joel Hodgson, the comedy legend behind Mystery Science Theater 3000. Have you ever watched a funny video review of a bad movie? Or by extension, a bad television show, or a bad game? Literally any filmed comedic review of any bad media? There’s a good chance you have Joel Hodgson to thank somewhere down the line of that reviewer’s influences.

Hodgson imbues lines like “Car wash kid” and “Let’s all scream for...ice cream” with just the right inflection and timing to make them shine, and Political Power gives him plenty of room to flex. But beyond Dewey’s great delivery, he stumbles upon some of my favorite situational humor of the first season. In particular, I love his exasperated declaration that Beach City is a “magnet for disaster”, and the reveal that his entire career hinges on distracting its citizens. Awareness of the Crystal Gems’ exploits has always been ambiguous on this show: as I put it all the way back in my Beach Party review, this is a world where magic is unusual, but not unheard of. Even then, characters are either uninvested in the details or, in the case of Ronaldo, failing to see how strange incidents correlate with the Gems. But Bill Dewey is smarter than he looks and acts, and when a crisis hits, he immediately deduces that the Gems are the source.

At his core, Dewey does want to help. But he’s a normal guy in a magical world (not unlike previous episode focus Greg) and at a certain point all you can do is hand out glowsticks and hope for the best. This isn’t to say he’s flawless, as his inner politician laces his most well-intentioned actions with self-aggrandizing pins. Moreover, his Band-Aid of a plan is vastly inferior to helping his citizens prepare for a major emergency, but—and this is one of the few times you’ll hear me use this excuse—hey, it’s a kid’s show. You’re allowed to have well-meaning but exaggeratedly dopey adults in this medium without the foundation of reality crumbling apart, so long as it’s true to the character.

Making Dewey a parallel to the Gems is a masterstroke: I don’t think anyone in their wildest dreams would’ve associated the two before this episode. Even here, we see Dewey’s freakout as comedic while the Gems’ freakout is dramatic. But both lie about the truth to protect people, and neither is correct to do so, a conclusion Steven comes to midsentence as he protects Dewey from the wrath of Nanefua’s mob (did I mention Nanefua finally returns?).

This is a pivotal revelation. Steven has always felt left out from what the Gems are doing, and his growing competence has lent a dramatic edge to this exclusion, but before now we’ve never seen him seriously stop and consider why. We may learn from Future Vision that Garnet, and by extension Amethyst and Pearl, keep him at a distance to protect him, but he’s too busy losing his grip about his many imminent dooms to realize it. With Peridot coming and the Gems going into overdrive, something had to give, and this was it. Now that Steven has an idea of why he’s in the dark, he can work through it and actually contribute to the team.

It’s no coincidence that this episode is immediately followed by The Return, where Greg provides another major revelation about the Gems that doesn’t come from the Gems themselves. Our heroines are too set in their ways to change without prompting, so Steven needs these external sources, like Dewey and Greg, to start the process of real communication. And I love that once it gets rolling, the Gems don’t hold back. They admit that they’re outclassed, and that they’re scared. This is similar to Pearl’s admission that the Gems don’t know what’s going on in Marble Madness, but coming clean about how this affects their emotions is a big step.

As a hangout episode...again, Nanefua’s back, and that’s all we need for a successful Beach City outing. But beyond any sane fan’s favorite citizen, we get Onion threatening with a bat, Pop Fryman getting real about his sons, and Suitcase Sam in all his eyepatched glory. There isn’t as much interaction as in previous civilian episodes, but then again, this isn’t just a civilian episode.

I love that we jump between the humans and the Gems instead of focusing entirely on one or the other. A standout sequence is Steven eavesdropping below his deck, showing only the Gems’ feet as he gets hears snippets of information and spots the Quartizine Trio hiding under a tarp. We have time to stew on this, as well as their about-face when they notice he’s around, when we get back to Beach City proper. But we’re already stewing on what’s going to happen come sundown. By offering twice the tension, Political Power ramps us up from the end of The Message to the beginning of the finale.

Tension and comedy go hand in hand; one of the most popular theories of humor, the Relief Theory, posits that the basis of humor comes from relieving a situation’s tension. There have been a few instances of this in Steven Universe before: think the endings of Rose’s Room and Mirror Gem, which close a nail-biting sequence with a goofy joke. Political Power takes a different approach: it’s funny, sure, but it isn’t trying to defuse the looming danger of Homeworld. One needn’t look further than the closing credits, which to this point have always included a version of “Love Like You,” but here contains crescendoing static.

Bad things are coming to Steven Universe. Bad people are in power in our universe. But if we devote ourselves to the love and truth of a healthy family and community, the light will return one day.

Fusion Vision!

Nanefua’s particular disdain for Mayor Dewey pays off in a major way for both characters in Dewey Wins, the distant retort to Dewey’s perspective on politics. Mayor Pizza is also far more effective at implementing emergency plans with the power of her Nanaphone, as seen in Reunited.

I’ve never been to this…how do you say…school?

For the first time, but not the last, Hilary Florido’s High School AU is the only promo art we get. This is me not complaining about that.

I guess you could read it that way…

Obviously this episode looks a bit different after Shirt Club, but honestly I think the biggest change is the lack of time between Steven Hangs Out episodes more than its examination of the Deweys. Without Shirt Club, this is the first time Steven’s mulled around Beach City since Watermelon Steven, not counting fusions.

Not to be a broken record on preferring the aired version, but I feel that Shirt Club works way better after we’ve gotten to know the Deweys more in Political Power and Joy Ride. We only get a glimpse of Buck here, and focusing on the pair separately lets us better understand how they might clash when put together.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Political Power does pretty much everything right, but in the end, it’s still a set-up episode that struggles to stand on its own. Even if Steven learns something big, the tone doesn’t treat it as that much of a deal compared to other climaxes, because there’s bigger fish to fry. It makes it into “Love ‘em” by a hair, but it still makes it!

Top Ten

Steven and the Stevens

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Rose’s Scabbard

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Winter Forecast

On the Run

Warp Tour

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

The Test

Future Vision

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

No Thanks!

4. Horror Club 3. Fusion Cuisine 2. House Guest 1. Island Adventure

#political power #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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