Rose Buds
Official Synopsis: Steven gets a surprise visit from some old friends and an even more surprising introduction to some new ones.
Now that we've established the new world of Steven Universe Future with "Little Homeschool" and "Guidance", the show jumps into the legacy of Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz, where it will stay for the next two episodes. "Rose Buds" answers one of the questions left unanswered by the original series: what happened to all of those Rose Quartzes who got bubbled after Pink Diamond's disappearance?
The episode begins with Steven trying to find a different place for the painting of his mother that's been hanging in a prominent spot in his house since the beginning of the series. He tries a lot of different places, but none of them seem to fit. He tells Greg and Amethyst that after everything that's happened, he doesn't want his mom "hanging over" them. Conveniently at this moment, the Human Zoo ship pulls up outside Steven's house. Wy-Six and Jay-Ten appear on a screen, inviting Steven to visit. They're also very clear that Greg is not invited because he rejected them in the original series--modeling directness that Steven could have benefited from in this episode.
The Zoomans do not get much screen time although we learn that they are in control of the ship. Now that it's Era 3, life on the Zoo ship is basically like a never ending tropical vacation for the Zoomans and Amethysts. The only one upset about this state of affairs is Holly Blue Agate who complains that "No one answers to me and I answer to no one." Jasper isn't the only Gem who is upset at losing her place in the Great Diamond Authority. What we do learn about the Zoomans, though, is that they're very human. The whole point of making this field trip is so that Wy-Six can see the look on Steven's face when he introduces him to the Rose Quartzes. We only get to meet three Roses out of dozens on the ship. These three have been termed in the credits Shy Rose Quartz (whose face and hair look exactly like The Rose Quartz), Hippy Rose Quartz, and Superfan Rose Quartz.
Meeting these three Gems is the most awkward experience for Steven imaginable, which Wy-Six understands and relishes. Superfan and Hippy Rose Quartz immediately start in with questions and adulation. "The Tale of Steven" has clearly preceded him and before he can say a word, Superfan starts in by listing his good qualities. At the top are "supportive and kind." Superfan and Hippie start asking him questions about what life on Earth is like nowadays and what Steven's daily life is. He just kind of caves into the awkwardness and escalates things by inviting them to dinner.
Amethyst, by the way, has come to the ship, too, to hang out with the Famethyst. When she sees the Rose Quartzes, she has basically the same facial expression that Steven did, while Steven tries to pass it off as a "family reunion." I have to say, they had a lot of fun in this episode with cringey facial expressions. Steven, Amethyst, Pearl, Garnet, Greg, and even Holly Blue Agate all get to have some sort of amusing freakout reaction.
Down at Steven's house, the Rose Quartzes watch him eat dinner while Pearl and Garnet sit with them, looking awkward and miserable. Greg walks in and Pearl gives him a look that says, "Yeah, this is completely fucked up." Pearl and Greg don't really share that much screen time in Future, but I think this one moment is indicative of where their relationship is. They have come to terms with their history enough to be candid with each other about it in this moment. Asked if he'd like to stay for dinner, Greg says nope and leaves.
Given Garnet and Pearl's much longer history with Rose Quartz, it's no surprise that they run away from the awkwardness first. "I'm going to the bathroom," Pearl announces. It's funny because she knows it's a way humans extract themselves from social situations, but "going to the bathroom" for her literally just means that. Garnet follows and Steven lasts only a little longer before going to "check on them."
This bathroom conversation is the complete inverse of the one that will happen two episodes from now in "Bluebird". Steven is trying to convince himself that there's nothing weird about this situation, but the first thing Pearl says is, "Isn't this super weird?" Steven chastises Pearl and Garnet for bailing on the Rose Quartzes, but Garnet is honest about her feelings: "I know it's wrong, but I'm overwhelmed." Here we see Steven trying to convince himself and others to go against their instincts about their new guests. In "Bluebird," by contrast, Garnet and Pearl will try to convince Steven to go against his instincts about Bluebird.
Steven leaves the bathroom to be a good host to the Rose Quartzes. Once again when the awkwardness of their questions and adoration comes to a crescendo, he invites them to stay the night. We cut to his bedroom that evening, where the Rose Quartzes have finished watching a movie with him. (Side note: in the Steven Universe AU of Earth's history, did the DVD never get invented?) They load another VHS tape into the VCR and of COURSE it's the one that his mom left for him. He quickly shuts that down and announces that it's bedtime.
Where Steven got three identical NFL player-sized sleeping bags, I don't know, but he's clearly hoping that teaching the Rose Quartzes how to sleep will keep their awkwardness at bay until the morning. However, as they continue praising him and asking him questions, he falls into the same trap again and asks them to stay with him forever. They're finally a little incredulous at this offer--Superfan is all in, but Hippy asks if Steven really meant it and Steven starts trying to walk his offer back. Shy Rose Quartz finally interjects, saying that it's obvious Steven doesn't want them to be there. They get up and make their way to the warp pad in the greenhouse.
Steven follows and apologizes, admitting for the first time that he can't stand to be around them because they look so much like his mom. Shy Rose Quartz is finally honest about the fact that they're hurt because they were bubbled. Hippy tries to play it off, "It's fine, it's whatever," and Shy interjects, "It's NOT whatever." She apologizes for bringing it up with Steven, but he realizes that they've been sharing different versions of the same experience. Both he and the Rose Quartzes were made by Pink Diamond, which means that they're the only other people who can understand what it's like to have been made and betrayed by her. (Aside from all other Earth Gems she made, but that's kind of beside the point.) They're not like his mom at all--instead they're his siblings.
Things change between the four of them when they realize that they're all related. It's here that we find the Rose Quartzes haven't been honest, either, and they've been pretending to enjoy Steven's offers as much as he pretends to enjoy hanging out with them. The Rose Quartzes leave on good terms with Steven. The final punchline is that as they warp back up to the ship, Amethyst warps back down to the greenhouse and asks, "What'd I miss?" At the very end of the episode, Steven is peacefully asleep: the portrait of Rose has been removed from the house altogether and is now inside Lion's mane.
★
The theme of this episode is the negative consequences of not being honest about your feelings. Everyone is trying to be nice to everyone else because nobody wants to blame anybody for the past. The Rose Quartzes don't want to blame Steven because they know that it's not his fault they were bubbled. Steven doesn't want to blame the Rose Quartzes because they were unfairly punished for simply looking like his mom. And so both parties try to force the interaction along, pretending like everything is OK.
We're going to see this theme come up in the next episode, "Volleyball," when Pink Pearl dismisses the trauma she experienced because Pink Diamond "didn't mean to" inflict it upon her. And we'll see it again bigtime in "Together Forever" when Steven hides the fact that Connie absolutely crushed him by rejecting his marriage proposal. The lesson here is that if you're not honest about your feelings to yourself or others, they're going to come out sideways.
It's only at the end when Steven and the Rose Quartzes are honest with each other about how they feel that they understand more about each other than they initially thought possible. Just as Steven was inviting them to come over for dinner, spend the night, and move in out of guilt, they were accepting his invitations out of guilt also. Only once they are able to acknowledge that they don't want to be around each other can they move toward understanding.
I like that they bracketed this whole story with Steven's dilemma about what to do with Rose's portrait. He wasn't able to find a place for the portrait in the house because he couldn't be honest with himself that he just didn't want to see it anywhere. The interaction with the Rose Quartzes didn't solve the problem of how he feels about his mother, but it did help him be honest that he needs distance from her. I think this is the first and only time in Steven Universe Future that we see the pocket dimension inside Lion's mane. That was a place where Rose kept secrets away from others and while Steven understands the harm she created by doing so, he's not done keeping his own secrets yet.