Review: Steven Universe “Greg the Babysitter”

Steven asks his father how he got the job at the car wash. It turns out to be a somewhat complicated story.

Greg goes back to a time when he was dating Rose Quartz. While the two of the them had a great time, Greg was constantly broke. He didn’t want to grow up and get a job. One day, he goes to Vidalia’s house for food. Being the klutz that he is, Greg manages to spill his cereal all over him. As Vidalia tosses his clothes in the wash, he finds out that she has a job now. Her babysitter calls at the last minute to cancel. Desperate, Vidalia asks Greg to babysit baby Sour Cream while she is at work. Greg agrees.

Not really knowing what to do with a baby, Greg takes little Sour Cream to the beach. Rose Quartz finds them and is entranced by the fact that babies grow up to be adult humans. Gems are born knowing what they are meant to do with their lives. They don’t grow or mature or figure out who they are. They just are.

Inspired by Rose’s speech, Greg rushes off to write down some lyrics, leaving Sour Cream with Rose. When he returns to the beach towel, neither Rose nor the baby are anywhere to be found. Greg rushes around town trying to find them. Eventually, he finds them at the amusement park. Not knowing that she was supposed to stop him, Rose has allowed Sour Cream to climb to the top of the ferris wheel. Greg climbs up to save him but he can’t get down either. After destroying the controls, Rose grabs the revolving wheel and saves Greg and the baby. Greg realizes that, even though he is grown, he is still a lot like a baby.

Once Greg has returned Sour Cream to Vidalia, he gets a job at the car wash. And he has been there ever since.

We don’t usually get to see a lot of Rose Quartz in the show. In that aspect, this episode was rather cool. We got to know a little more about Gem life on the Homeworld and we got to see Steven’s mother. On the other hand, it’s rather sad to see that Greg has worked the same (dead end) job his entire life. Sure, he’s had his music to keep him happy but it would be nice to see him want a little more out of life. Ambition isn’t always a terrible thing.