Spoilers for Steven Universe follow.
"Nightmare Hospital" is one of the best examples of how Steven Universe fits in its 11-minute episodes depth and story progression that is just as satisfying as what many of television's most popular shows do in an hour. The series' main plotline is streamlined and straightforward, but also deceptively intricate, appearing less like an intertwined series of curving lines than a tree with branches. In this episode, one branch is finally connected back to the main storyline: That of Connie's family.
Connie and Steven have been a couple for a while now, and she has been working with the Gems on her sword fighting skills so she can help Steven defend the Earth from monsters and the Homeworld Gems. However, Connie hasn't really told her parents about this, and considering that her family has been shown to be strict and controlling, that makes her mother's discovery of the sword she has been using more than a little problematic. The premise starts off simple and relatively small-scale: Something has been taken by the kids, and knowing the parent won't give it back, they set out to retrieve it. In a lesser show, this might have given way to some awkwardness, but in Steven Universe, their attempts to retrieve the sword result not in an awkward encounter with Connie's mom, but with a tense face-off with monsters.
With monsters-specifically, the mutant gems revealed in the first season-closing in on them, Steven and Connie have to convince Connie's mother to give her the sword in order to save all of their lives. This scene, the centrepiece of the episode, is important for a few reasons. First of all, it's the point where Connie's mother first encounters the monsters that the Crystal Gems are protecting the planet from. Secondly, it shows that monsters have been in the hospital being treated as patients, showing that humans might be interacting with monsters in ways unknown to the Gems. This second point could very well become a big deal, if the show continues to go down that route. It's not shied away from big, game-changing plot twists in the past, to be sure.
The dynamic between Steven and Connie is particularly fun here, especially in the start. We first see them goofing around, before dropping Connie off, providing a nice, light start before the episode begins to get increasingly tense. Most of the comic-relief is front-loaded, and with good reason: Anything in the latter portion of the episode might break the tension, and the episode isn't long enough to need the tension to be broken. Like all the best episodes, "Nightmare Hospital" has no wasted time or unnecessary elements. Everything is in service of the main story, which is both self-contained and very likely to have an impact on the show's future.
Connie and Steven have grown to be a really good team in combat, as well. The interplay of Connie as the sword and Steven as the shield is as interesting as ever, and when it's finally let loose, it seems effortless. These two are ready for what the future may throw at them. This is, of course, helped by the show's smooth, gorgeous animation, which never seems stiff or sloppy and seems to get more and more confident as the show goes on.
There's a strange reference to an abacus being used to determine how grounded Connie is early in the episode, but aside from that, her mother is depicted as overly stern, but not unbelievably ridiculous. This is the kind of subtle nuance that Steven Universe excels at, with its razor-sharp writing and phenomenal voice acting. When she finally realizes that she's been too controlling, it's handled in a mature, sympathetic way, and it's never difficult to see that her concern is genuine and her heart is in the right place.
"Nightmare Hospital" is an example of a show running at peak performance. Steven Universe is as good as it's ever been, which means that it's some of the best television out there right now. That this show can supply a satisfying, self-contained, and nuanced episode while still supplying important, if not massive, plot developments is an impressive feat in itself, and that it does so with such brilliance is even more so. Will the show be able to keep this level of quality in the long run? That remains to be seen, but at least for now we're in very good hands.
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