It’s not too late to write this, since technically Open Book was produced with the rest of season one. With Joy Ride, the first episode of season two not to premier during #StevenBomb, however, it’s time to make some predictions about what will happen over the course of the season.
There are fifty-one episodes to go, plus two more episodes from season one to air, and we only know what two will be about. It’s time to start speculating.
The easy guesses
Jailbreak gave us two plot hooks we’re pretty sure are going to be nibbled on by episodes before the season is over: Malachite and Peridot.
Between the two, Malachite is more likely to be dealt with first, perhaps even in the mid-season climax. The most obvious danger is that, deep in the ocean, Malachite realizes that both Gems who make her up hate the Crystal Gems. If this happens it only makes sense that she would go to try to hurt them; this would probably be our best chance to see Alexandrite in a fight. The easy way to resolve this conflict would be for Malachite to de-fuse when forced to decide what to do with Steven: Jasper will want to hurt him while Lapis Lazuli won’t want to harm him.
Peridot has a wide world of possibilities open to her, and will probably have at least a few episodes where she’s involved but her plot thread isn’t resolved. If she’s going to stay an enemy, it’s more likely that she won’t see a resolution until the end of the season, and her goal will probably be to try to get a message off to the homeworld. Hopefully she won’t make any moves on the Kindergarten, since she’d have to expect that the Crystal Gems would anticipate this and booby trap the place. If they don’t and she manages to do something at the Kindergarten expect us to cry foul.
Additions to the team
This would be Peridot’s chance to become an ally. She’d do a lot to move the story forward: since she’s a technician she would be able to update the Crystal Gems’ weapons to be able to stand up to the homeworld’s. Since she’s been portrayed as merely doing her job, switching sides could be believably done. Also important to note from a character design perspective: unlike Lapis Lazuli, Peridot would bring a new color to the Crystal Gems.
We’re still hoping that despite that, Lapis Lazuli makes it onto the Crystal Gems. It also makes a lot of sense: despite her dislike of the Crystal Gems, she does like Steven and he is taking more of a leadership role on the team. Also, unlike Peridot or Jasper, Lapis has nowhere else to go: the Crystal Gems are the only relics of ancient Gemkind she knows of, and she seems to have had a tough time trying to integrate into the modern homeworld.
Jasper is almost certainly the least likely Gem we’ve seen to far to join the team, but from a lore perspective is the one that we most want to join. She’s the only new Gem who would have good knowledge of the relevant backstory for Gemkind on Earth, and unlike the Crystal Gems she wouldn’t be shy about sharing it with Steven. If she does join up, then she would have to switch from thinking of Rose Quartz as a worthy foe to Steven as a worthy commander. It’s a long shot, but the benefit for lore hounds is huge.
Plot threads
If there was a thread holding the first half of season one together, it was a monster-of-the-week adventure that saw the Crystal Gems performing the mundane task of protecting humanity from the potential dangers left behind by Gemkind; the second half saw them preparing for the return of the homeworld Gems. What could we see tying season two together?
Of course they have to expect that the homeworld will soon be back (and in greater numbers), so preparing to repel a more properly sized invasion is probably in the cards. Even if Peridot joins the team and does it very early, however, protecting the planet from a roused homeworld with just six Gems would be a tall order. That means that rallying the troops will be important.
Steven’s potential ability to cure monstrous Gems and return them to their humanoid state was introduced more than half a season ago without any more attention paid to it (except for Pearl confirming that the monsters used to be normal Gems three episodes later). The Crystal Gems now have a crucial need for new members, though, so that might bring this ability to the forefront. It probably won’t be immediately successful, but that wouldn’t be satisfying anyway.
Ideally we’ll see them let the centipeetle out of its bubble and join the cast for a while as Steven tries to coax her mind towards lucidity. Then some time near the middle of the season Steven can succeed and add a new Gem to the team, then can go on to try to work on other monsters (the puffer fish from Beach Party probably being on the short list, though we wouldn’t count the monster from Monster Buddies out either).
No matter how exactly it’s implemented, we’re expecting to see something done with Steven’s ability to restore corrupted Gems during season two. We’re not prophets (only Ronaldo can truly claim that), but the smart money says that Monster Buddies was written for a reason, and it’s time for it to shine.
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Interesting predictions. I’m not too sure about Peridot joining the Gems, though, in my eyes, that’d take some serious persuasion. How do you see that happening?
In any case, I want to see where this is all going. For now, though, I guess things are still cooling down after the miracle that was #stevenbomb, probably one of the most fulfilling weeks of my life.
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#StevenBomb was exhausting, but I’m glad it happened: it would have driven me insane waiting for the finale otherwise. Still, I think any time someone asks I’ll recommend an episode order that has the last three season-one episodes shuffled back into their intended places: the show really needs them back in there to pace itself out.
As for how Peridot joins the team, I’m not sure how they’d do it but I think they could manage. Remember, Steven may have been used to foreshadow it when he wondered if she’d see how nice everyone was on Earth. It happened for Rose, so it’s feasible that it could happen for Peridot as well. The issue would be making it believable for her to have such a quick change of heart, but since she’s not ideologically devoted to the homeworld I think they have room to maneuver there if they want to use it.
True, I can tell she doesn’t care much for the homeworld, and she’s just maintaining (hence her job), but I think she has a large disregard for Earth and humans in general. Then again, so do some of the other gems, specifically Pearl. Still, I think it’ll be all up to Steven to get Peridot on their side, but it won’t be easy.
Speaking of that blatant disregard thing, I think I found the one thing I don’t like about Pearl. I never actually watched the Keep Beach City Weird episode, but damn, I was steamrolled when she said what thought about the human race. I wonder if the writers will look into that, more than the glimpse we saw in Political Power.
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They could easily have her become fascinated by life on Earth over time. It could easily be the first time she’s spent all that long on a non-Gem controlled world, so it would be believable to write her as intrigued by what she’s seeing. Like I said: the writers have options, should they want to take them.
I also wouldn’t be too harsh on Pearl for what she said about humans. Plenty of humans say pretty much exactly the same thing about other humans, so it’s really no surprise that an immortal, super-powered alien would say that.
You make a good point. In any case, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Perhaps being forced to live in the wilderness on Earth will soften Peridot up to the idea of Earth. Maybe she’ll take a liking toward Earth…hopefully. As for Jasper…I seriously doubt that she will join the team…
I can totally forsee a situation in which she and Steven are forced to cooperate and she becomes a temporary ally who tells him the hard truth before getting offed or something.
I could totally see Jasper defecting from Homeworld if Yellow Diamond or whoever tries to destroy her as punishment for failing her mission. That might shatter any semblance of trust she had for her rulers.
If only because I want to hear from Jasper herself that Amethyst was meant to be just like her, but was “overcooked” instead. What kind of fusion would Jasper x Amethyst be? Yellow + Purple = ?