It’s also a small thing, but I think it helps “Mindful Education” that we just saw Connie in the previous episode, in reasonably good spirits, getting ready for school. (Everything in seasons 2-3 happens in, like, a few weeks at most. It’s nuts.) Now, suddenly, this.

I’ve talked before about how I often consider Steven and Connie the two aspects of Stevonnie more than I do Stevonnie a merger of Steven and Connie. One of the reasons is the way “Mindful Education” uses fusion to discuss a duality of self, in a way that reflects other episodes.

Stevonnie is the most complex and challenging character in the show, the one who most clearly defines the show’s themes and arc and boundaries and interests. The one who would be unimaginable in any other show, who in their conception is both the most revolutionary and relatable.

When Stevonnie is there, the show has a chance to cover things it otherwise wouldn’t. We wouldn’t have an episode like “Mindful Education” without them. We wouldn’t have the framework for such nuanced discussions of consent and puberty and anxiety and gender identity.

They’re the most complete character on the show, and the most advanced canvas for ideas. You can pick out and identify the Steven and Connie parts of their personality, and study how that duality informs their sense of self, but they’re more than that. They’re a culmination.

Even in story terms, clearly it had to be Stevonnie who would kick off the revolution. It has to be Steven and Connie’s mixed memories, the fact of their comfort being one person, that offers a vehicle to understanding the past with Pink and Rose, and thereby the future.

Most of Steven’s powers, most of his discoveries, they all come to him when he’s with Connie. She’s learning about his world at just about the same rate that he is, and nearly as responsible as he is. As Stevonnie, they’re literal co-owners of that growth. Like sword and shield.

That right there is pretty much all you need, for symbolism. Connie and Steven, each only has half the puzzle. It’s telling, they’re the only fusion in the show with no extra parts. Even Garnet has that third eye. And when they’re not freaking out, they’re in no hurry to split.

Anyway. If low-key Greg is the real hero of the show, I think I can say that secretly Stevonnie is the real protagonist. Even if they’re only in it every now and then. Heck, they’re the only character other than Steven to carry a whole episode.

We know that, newly unfused, characters can get a little disoriented. The first time we meet Ruby, she’s fretting over being unable to use Garnet’s future vision. Given the slow growth that Stevonnie has, resolving their two personalities into one, one wonders about lingering effects.

Like, how often does Connie expect to be able to float or lift something huge, or summon something from her gemstone? Which… she doesn’t happen to have on her, as herself.

It’s hard to say anything new or interesting about “Mindful Education” as it’s such a pivotal, showcase episode for the show. But, God, seriously. What other TV show has done this?

In this case Garnet’s not saying “your fusion” to refer to the two of them. She’s referring to the individual. Which is to say, Stevonnie. Who is the stand-in for the viewer, because they’re the clearest vessel for a discussion of complex psychological and emotional issues.

That’s the thing about this whole fusion metaphor. It’s about relationships, right. Often that makes it a clear analog for sex. People who deny that aspect are kind of hilarious to me, because, you know.

But it’s such a broad and powerful metaphor that it can apply to damn near anything. “Mindful Education” is where the show double-underlines for you in case you missed it how the metaphor also works for one’s relationship with one’s self. Which is what Stevonnie is usually for.

Another thing that stands out about Stevonnie episodes is that they tend to be more experiential, environmental, focused on the internalized feeling of being in a moment regardless of any objective concerns. These are the moments the whole coming-of-age narrative becomes tangible

To wit:

Got to say, though, the circumstances around that Sugilite fusion sure cast a weird shadow on some later events.

I can never not cackle at this. “Magic stuff” indeed.

Cue a thousand pages of DeviantArt.

So, all right. Here’s an obvious thing that I don’t know I’ve seen anyone state outright, maybe because it is so obvious. After a few episodes of build-up, “Mindful Education” also serves to establish the tone and themes and announce the basic story of season four.

This is what season four is about, more or less. In particular, Steven’s own freak-out in the second half, running through all his trauma and guilt before settling on the glowering image of his mother, this is what carries us through to his… attempt at martyrdom, shall we say.

It may be putting too fine a point on it to say that this is the season that Steven becomes suicidal, but that’s basically where this is going.

And the episode that officially kicks off Steven’s downward spiral, particularly in relation to Rose, is “Mindful Education.” What happens at the climax here? In backing away from a looming spectre of Rose, Stevonnie loses footing and plummets into space.

One more example of the show being super duper literal with its narrative.

From here the season just keeps piling on, causing Steven’s actions to result in more and larger unintended consequences, warping his sense of identity, refusing to give him any kind of stability or catharsis. The season of doubt. Never far from the next stage of the breakdown.