Wherein Steven demonstrates that he’s willing and able to manipulate people for their own good. Also wherein we shake our legs for Mr. Greg!

Not that it’s bad that Steven finally helped Pearl and Greg get over their historical animosity (even if it was, admittedly, a speedy transition), but Steven is very much his mother’s son. He doesn’t look as good in a tux as Pearl does, but I suppose nobody does.

It’s a musical episode in a very musical series, so it’s no wonder that so many people love Mr. Greg! Even the Pepe’s Burgers jingle that Like A Comet was turned into is great, with Marty being as glorious as he knows how to be (not that Marty could possibly top the Stray Pearl Strut from It’s Over, Isn’t It, but he gets points for thinking he could).

Thankfully, no matter how big Le Bill was (and there have been various calculations made by many people), we know that Greg ends the episode with a very large percentage of his newfound fortune intact. Far too often cartoons will give a character a lot of money only to rip it right out of their hands, and while Steven Universe breaks a lot of tropes this kind of devotion to status quo is so strong it still feels refreshing to see it averted.

Knowing that Greg somehow managed to make it through the whole Steven Nuke a rich man (though not as rich as he started) makes this small victory all the sweeter, but It’s Over, Isn’t It was probably enough to put Mr. Greg over the top no matter what.

Real talk you guys: Steven is strong. We know that now (heck, did you see Joy Ride?), but this is the first time a character commented out loud about it (if you don’t count a “Whoa!” from Peridot in When it Rains).

But, real talk, we’re not going to spend this whole post real talking with you (though, real talk, we really like to real talk): Marty totally violated the sanctity of the real talk. He does stuff like that, apparently.

Why he would hitch his horse to a loser like Guacola is beyond us, but apparently he needed them a lot more than they needed him: according to Ronaldo, Guacola was sponsoring anyone who could feasibly get them any exposure at all. Apparently Marty isn’t as good a pitch man as he says he is (what a surprise).

So we get a rapprochement between Sour Cream and Yellowtail, which is great, but we also get a check for ten million dollars being put into Greg’s hands which will directly cause the next episode, Mr. Greg to happen.

Marty may not be good for much (least of all promoting things, or being a dad), but he’s sure good for moving the plot along when it needs it. He also has buttons makes Zoolander references!

Steven really said it for us: hello Beach City, it’s great to be back!

If there was one surprising revelation in this episode, it would probably be that the Crystal Gems weren’t heading back to the Temple daily when work was done. Come on: the nearest warp pad isn’t even that far away!

Of course if there were two, it would be that Steven’s a very accurate thrower (hitting someone with a flip-flop at any distance can’t be easy).

The third surprising revelation is probably the necessity of someone other than Sadie or Lars working at the Big Donut (the donuts were already made when Sadie showed up, and you know Lars didn’t get up early to make them).

What an episode though. “Dude, summarize!”, Garnet breaking into Kofi’s car, casually dropping a boat, plus talk of jet packs and complicated feelings! Steven Floats heralded a return to episodes focused on Beach City rather than the imminent destruction of the Earth, but centered around the magical twist we always manage to get in those kinds of episodes.

(Oh and yes, there’s no way you can make sense of how far up Steven jumped—the answer is and will always be “as high as he needs to be up for each shot to work”, and that varies quite a bit shot to shot.)