Line #37 Recap/StevenUniverseS5E17CantGoBack


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/that_distant_shore.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''♪ Maybe I'll find myself sitting on that distant shore\
3	Maybe I'm not alone ♪'']]
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5	'''Original airdate:''' May 7th, 2018
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7	'''Production code:''' 1053-147
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11	Steven gets ready for bed one night when Ronaldo knocks on the front door, screaming that he's spotted something strange on the Moon. Tired and somewhat irritated, Steven accompanies Ronaldo to the lighthouse observatory and tells Ronaldo that he's already aware of the Diamond Moon Base. When Ronaldo asks Steven why it looks like a barn, Steven is shocked, and looks through the telescope to find that it's ''the'' Barn, which Lapis took with her when she left, meaning she may be on the Moon.
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13	Steven arrives on the Moon with Lion and finds the Barn abandoned. He tracks Lapis down to the Moon Base's upstairs and starts talking to her. It turns out the mysterious orb on the Moon base first seen in "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E27ItCouldveBeenGreat It Could Have Been Great]]" is an observation device. Lapis reveals she has been using the observation orb to keep watch over the Crystal Gems. She tells Steven that she planned to flee further into space, but couldn't stand the thought of losing all connections to Earth and decided to stay on the Moon. When Steven asks her why she won't just return to Earth, Lapis says that she's disgusted by her own decision to flee, feeling that the Gems, and especially Peridot, will never accept her back.
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15	Nonetheless, Steven draws Lapis into a conversation (and eventually, a song) where she confesses that despite her struggles to adapt, Earth was the only place she'd ever felt loved and accepted. She feels lonely in space and bored living on the Moon, but is afraid to come home because she fears something bad will happen. Steven asks her "what if something good happens?" causing Lapis to react with incredulity. Nonetheless, after further conversation with Steven, Lapis seems open to the possibility of returning to Earth. All seems to be going well until Steven falls asleep...
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17	Then Steven experiences a traumatic dream, witnessing Pink Diamond enduring a lecture from Blue and Yellow Diamond about the Rebellion on Earth and how she needs to act like a leader to keep her subjects strong. Shortly afterwards, Steven witnesses a vision of Pink Diamond's shattering. To Steven's surprise, her killer turns out to be ''Pearl''.
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19	Steven snaps awake and relates his dream to Lapis, who immediately panics and assumes that the Diamonds are soon returning to Earth. Despite Steven's pleas to stay, Lapis flies into space, leaving Steven alone with Lion in the Moon. Steven is upset over Lapis' departure, but even more shaken by his dream. As the episode concludes, he turns to Lion and demands that he take him to see Pearl.
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21	[[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E18ASinglePaleRose By the way, have you been wondering if all of these Pink Diamond plotlines would ever meet their payoff?]]
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24	!!Tropes:
25	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: "Would you rather be alone?!"
26	* ArtisticLicenseSpace: It's more than a little implausible that Ronaldo could make out small buildings on the Moon with a conventional telescope. Even if it could, [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale it's very unlikely he could find any of them]] — the visible area of the Moon is several times that of the continental United States.
27	* ArtShift: During Steven's dream, everything is stylized two-dimensional silhouettes like in ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena''.
28	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Even before it killed her, Pink Diamond regretted wishing for a colony because she couldn't or wouldn't keep it under control.
29	* BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord: When Lapis reveals that she's using the Moonbase Orb to watch Beach City:
30	-->'''Steven:''' You're spying on us?\
31	'''Lapis:''' Well, I wouldn't call it spying, because that would make me feel bad.
32	* TheBusCameBack: We finally see Lapis again, this time on the Moon.
33	* ContinuityNod: Ronaldo is using the telescope Greg got him, discussed in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E16LettersToLars "Letters to Lars".]]
34	* DeathGlare: Past Pearl gives one to Steven during his dream, frightening him awake.
35	* DoubleMeaningTitle: The title can either refer to Lapis not wanting to return to Earth out of fear, or Blue and Yellow Diamond telling Pink Diamond that she can't give up on the colony she constantly asked for.
36	* FreudianSlip: Steven makes it clear he's not going to ''demand'' Lapis come back to Earth, but as he falls asleep while trying to her into it, he mentions what she could do "when" she comes back. Luckily, Lapis just finds his choice of words slightly amusing.
37	* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Isolated on the Moon, Lapis feels like she may as well have put herself back in the mirror.
38	* HopeSpot: It looks like Lapis has decided to return to Earth... but then Steven scares her off with his dream of the Diamonds, and she leaves again, this time for real.
39	* JumpScare: In Steven's dream, a silhouette approches Pink Diamond, and pulls out a sword, ready to attack her. Once Steven realises the silhouette in question might be Pearl, it suddenly turns around to throw a DeathGlare at Steven accompanied with what sounds like a [[HellIsThatNoise heavily distorted screech]].
40	* OminousVisualGlitch: The observation orb's projection glitches a few times before and during Lapis' song, which isn't of any literal significance, but they're timed to punctuate her descriptions of anxiety.
41	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Lapis seemed to be considering coming back to Earth, but when Steven mentions his vision and doesn't properly articulate that it was a memory of the past, she freaks out and leaves.
42	* NoodleIncident: The first three times Ronaldo bothered Nanefua.
43	* NotEvenBotheringWithAnExcuse: Lapis doesn't want to call watching Steven and the Crystal Gems spying... because "that would make me feel bad".
44	* PoorCommunicationKills: When Steven wakes up from his dream and tells Lapis that he saw the Diamonds, Lapis automatically assumes that they are coming to the Moon. Unfortunately, Steven is too frightened from the sight of past Pearl's DeathGlare to tell her that it was only in the past. Although even if he had, she may still have stuck to the reasoning that he would only be getting Diamond visions because they're near.
45	* PuppetKing: Blue Diamond's dialogue in the flashback implies that she and Yellow had effectively reduced Pink to a figurehead for her own colony.
46	* TheReveal: The strange orb on the Moon is an observation device that can generate a real-time hologram of any location on the planet, though evidently it can't play sound.
47	* SinisterSurveillance: The Moon base orb let the Diamonds observe wherever they wanted on Earth.
48	* SmallUniverseAfterAll: Lapis had already ''left the Milky Way'' by the time she decided to turn back.
49	* ThemeSongReveal: If there wasn't enough other evidence the Pearl holding the sword in the flashback is the same one who joined the Crystal Gems, as she draws it the opening notes of "Do It for Him/Her" play.
50	* TrappedInVillainy: Blue's lines in the flashback implies Pink only kept fighting the Crystal Gems because Blue and Yellow wouldn't let her abandon the colony.
51	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Steven accidentally drives Lapis as far away as possible thanks to the above PoorCommunicationKills.
52	* WhamEpisode: Steven has a dream about the Diamonds which involves ''Pearl'' showing up out of nowhere and drawing Rose's sword with a threatening expression.
53	* WhamLine: Steven tells Ronaldo that what he found on the moon was just the Diamonds' base, but Ronaldo replies "Why does it look like a barn?"
54	* WhamShot:
55	** The barn on the Moon.
56	** Pearl's silhouette in Steven's dream... approaching Pink Diamond with Rose's sword and a threatening expression.
57	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Once Steven sees the barn in the telescope, we cut to him riding Lion through a portal to the Moon base. What Steven told Ronaldo, who was asking questions about the base and wanted to be taken there, isn't specified.
58	* YouDidEverythingYouCould: Lion seems to silently relay this to Steven when he nuzzles him in comfort after Steven fails to stop Lapis from fleeing again.

Context Recap / StevenUniverseS5E17CantGoBack