Mr. Greg

"Mr. Greg"
Steven Universe episode
Promotional art for the episode by writer Joe Johnston
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 8
Directed by	Ki-Yong Bae (animation) Jin-Hee Park (animation) Jasmin Lai (art) Joe Johnston (supervising)
Written by	Joe Johnston Jeff Liu
Original air date	July 19, 2016
Running time	11 minutes
Episode chronology

"Mr. Greg" is the eighth episode of the third season of American animated television series Steven Universe, which premiered on July 19, 2016 on Cartoon Network. It was written and storyboarded by Joe Johnston and Jeff Liu. The episode was viewed by 1.549 million viewers.

This musical episode shows Steven traveling to Empire City with Pearl and Greg, who recently received a check for $10 million after one of his songs became a success. However, Pearl still heavily resents Greg since Rose Quartz, the love of her life, chose him over her, the love relationship essentially being the cause of Rose's absence. To improve their relationship, Steven tries to show Pearl and Greg that they have more in common than they think – they both love and are loved by Steven, the product of Rose.

Plot

The episode begins with a commercial for Pepe's Burgers playing on screen, in which Marty (Jon Wurster) sings "Like a Burger". Steven (Zach Callison) is in awe of the jingle's success, as it was derived from Greg's song "Comet" (from "Story for Steven"). Greg (Tom Scharpling) and Steven debate what they should do with the $10,000,000 Marty gave Greg for the jingle, mutually believing the best things in life to be free ("Don't Cost Nothing"). Eventually they decide on taking a vacation to Empire City, with Steven suggesting that Pearl (Deedee Magno) accompany them ("Empire City"). Despite Pearl and Greg's reluctance, Steven optimistically states that it will be just the three of them, while revealing his gem and adding, "and don't forget Mom!".

In Empire City, the trio book a stay at Le Hotel, where the staff join them in a song about the hotel's opulence and the fun they're having there, together ("Mr. Greg"). Greg asks Pearl to dance with him, but she refuses, abruptly ending the song to the staff's disappointment. Greg explains that his relationship with Pearl has always been this way. Later that night, while Steven and Greg are asleep, Pearl sings about her feelings regarding Rose Quartz's and Greg's love, expressing her regrets and her inability to move on since Rose ultimately chose Greg and created Steven ("It's Over, Isn't It?"). Steven and Greg awaken during the song, and after Pearl realizes this, Greg laments, "Nothing is going to fix this, is it?".

Steven reveals to Pearl that he invited her along specifically so that she and Greg could finally work out their differences. Getting them together, he plays a song on the piano ("Both of You"), urging them to talk about their feelings over what happened with Rose. Once they've successfully discussed these matters and danced with each other, they are cheered by the hotel staff, and Greg is presented with the bill for their service ("Don't Cost Nothing" reprise). The episode ends with the three departing from Empire City, with Greg and Pearl openly chatting together while Steven happily observes that they are on better terms ("It's Over, Isn't It?" reprise).

Production

Episodes of Steven Universe are written and storyboarded by a single team. "Mr. Greg" was written and storyboarded by Joe Johnston and Jeff Liu, being Johnston's final episode as a storyboarder as he now serves as the show's supervising director full-time,^[1] while Ki-Yong Bae and Jin-Hee Park provided animation direction and Jasmin Lai served as art director. The scene during "It's Over, Isn't It?" in which the camera spins around Pearl was inspired by a similar scene during "Crazy World" from the film Victor/Victoria.^[2] Shelby Rabara, voice actress for Peridot, provided the audio of Pearl and Steven tap dancing during the song "Mr. Greg".^[3]

Music

This was a special musical episode featuring seven songs: "Like a Burger", "Don't Cost Nothing", "Empire City", "Mr. Greg", "It's Over, Isn't It?", "Both of You" and a reprisal of "Don't Cost Nothing". "Mr. Greg" was written by Joe Johnston, Ben Levin and Jeff Liu, with Liu playing guitar and Levin playing bass.^[4] "It's Over, Isn't It?" and "Both of You" were arranged by Aivi & Surasshu, the music team for the series, and written by series creator Rebecca Sugar, with strings performed by Jeff Ball.^[5] Sugar had to rewrite "It's Over, Isn't It?" several times during production, calling it "the hardest song I've written to date".^[6]

Broadcast and reception

"Mr. Greg" premiered on July 19, 2016 on Cartoon Network. Its initial American broadcast was viewed by approximately 1.549 million viewers. It received a Nielsen household rating of 0.43, meaning that it was seen by 0.43% of all households. This was the third episode of the "Steven's Summer Adventures" event, where a new episode aired every weekday for four weeks of the summer vacation.

This episode was received positively by critics. Eric Thurm of The A.V. Club, while feeling the episode was "a little on the nose, even for Steven Universe", described it as "delightful" and gave it an A- grade.^[7] KK Bracken and Laura B of thegeekiary.com praised the episode for "the catchy music, the bombastic animation, the great one-liners and the hilarious visual humor".^[8] ND Medina of iDigitalTimes called the songs in the episode "some of the catchiest tunes this side of Hamilton", and singled out "It's Over, Isn't It?" as "the most magnificently gay thing Steven Universe has done since Ruby and Sapphire got their own episode".^[9]

References