STEVEN UNIVERSE S5:E11-REVIEW

Lars shoulda died seasons ago.

As mentioned previously, Lars has become much more interesting in recent episodes, here he's officially the show's badass. Seeing Lars commanding a ship is one of the coolest surprises of the show; I'm sure I'm not alone here, but I expected Lars' reappearance to be within the cave we last saw him in, it's nice to see that's not the case. Last we saw him, Lars was a braver man, less of a coward than the episode that capped off season 4, a growth that clearly continued as Steven moped around for a few episodes. While I don't expect Lars to become a major factor of the Crystal Gems after this, I do expect him to be more involved once the Diamonds carry a direct attack on Earth.

Let's go back a bit, the episode, beginning with a reunited Steven and Connie, features the two deciding to visit Lars with some gifts. As they arrive to Lars' whereabouts, they realize that Lars has stolen a ship with the Off-Colors, the group now ready to escape to Earth. The kids are obviously impressed with the new Lars, who now proudly embraces his weirdness, including saying "bingo bongo" as an action catch phrase. As they run away, Steven catches Lars up on what's gone on in Earth, upon realizing Sadie is doing well, Lars begins to get sad, feeling as if the lack of his presence was a positive, which Steven and Connie eventually convince him to stop moping like that. Lars, regaining his cool just as he's caught, forms a plan to stop the chase, it involves Stevonnie flying a smaller ship to attack, as Emerald, the Gem chasing them, does not want to harm the stolen ship. The episode ends with success, but Stevonnie's ship goes down, making it a bitter win.

I do think this is a really fun episode, reminiscent of classic sci-fi, like Star Trek, and it's a solid way to bring us back to Lars. Despite how fun this all was, I do admit I would've liked at least one Lars episode before this, one about him living with the Off-Colors, possibly a quiet episode, with him learning on his own, without Steven. The show decided to jump to seeing him escape, which isn't a bad choice, I liked the surprise, but it'd still be nice to get an episode showing more of his evolution, maybe even after this if we see Lars explain his story.

A good episode, with a good cliffhanger, while Lars once was a mixed bag to see on the show, he's become the best character to see this season.

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Written by Octaviano Macias