Pearl’s burgeoning relationship with this girl proves that Steven Universe - which returns to Cartoon Network with new episodes on January 30 - isn’t just trafficking in clever innuendo. Up until that point, the show dealt mostly in the realm of a playful subtext: What appeared to be a same-sex relationship could be passed off as something that transcended gender and sexuality. They hit it off, the girl gives Pearl her phone number, and just like that, the mysterious pink-haired girl is revealed as the show’s first explicitly queer human character. The season-four episode “Last One Out of Beach City” takes place at a rock concert, where a character named Pearl meets a butch rocker with long pink hair and a lip ring. In one simple scene earlier this season, Steven Universe finally confirmed what many queer viewers have long suspected to be true: This is a show with people like us in it.
