Steven Universe Season 5 Episode 9 Review: Sadie Killer

This Steven Universe review contains spoilers.

Steven Universe Season 5 Episode 9

Maybe this batch of episodes isn’t about running away from your problems. Maybe it’s just the way different people deal with them. Dewey attempted to sweep them under the rug. Lapis ran away. Steven was impatient and tried to solve them too quickly. Peridot internalized them.

Here? Sadie just accepts them.

She just believes her life will be nothing special. That she can’t have fun. That Lars was the only bright thing in her day-to-day life, which says a lot since Lars was usually pretty awful to her. 

Why doesn’t Sadie think she deserves more? Was it her mother always signing her up for a million activities? Was it just working retail for long? Honestly it’s probably the retail. From all my friends who have worked retail I can tell it’s pretty soul sucking.

Sadie sees her job as normal life. It’s bad but at least it makes sense. She knows it. Singing in a band would be fun but, like “Sadie’s Song” proved, it could also come with complications. There were no stakes at the Big Donut. 

Doing something you’re passionate about? Those are some of the biggest stakes ever. There’s room for failure. For judgement.

Sadie asking Steven, “you ever feel so bad you feel good” speaks volumes. That crushing sense of normalcy can almost be comforting. Not reaching for your dreams or just accepting you’ll always feel sad brings you a false sense of security.

Thankfully Sadie breaks free of this. We don’t know exactly why yet although I’d hazard a guess that the next episode will take place at the gig so we’ll hopefully get to hear more from her.

It’s interesting to compare the emotional state Sadie is in during this episode to Peridot and her depression. It seemed as though Peridot had been struggling with, in her words, hopelessness. Is Sadie the same way? I don’t think so. I think Sadie is more in a funk. The fact she was able to bounce back so fast seems to lend credence to that but I’ll hold off judgment until the final episode in this batch.

So far three out of the five episodes in this batch have been real winners and one of those will probably be a series classic (“Raising the Barn”). “Sadie Killer” could enter that category if the next episode directly carries on from it.

Also, can we get an EP of music from the band? I was really digging their sound.

Extra Thoughts

– “One coffee with milk and sugar. Hold the coffee.”

Dead. 

– “I know! We followed you. Sorry if that’s weird.”

Only Steven could make that sound adorable.

– “Not everyone appreciates Bulgarian horror. 

…I’m sure.

– “A lot of things could be a lot of things.”

That is the most profound bit of nonsense I’ve ever heard.

– “You can’t help being cute no more than I can help being cool.”

Put that on a shirt. 

Shamus Kelley is also going to need an EP of Beachcore. Follow him on Twitter!