The episode begins with Steven’s alarm waking him up at 7:13 am, ready to begin another day running Little Homeschool. While he prepares his routine morning protein shake Amethyst shows up, asking Steven why he isn’t having a real breakfast. Steven replies that his protein shake has all the nutrients he needs for the day. Garnet hands Steven’s old cheeseburger backpack to him, packed and ready to go for the day. However, Steven tells Garnet that he’s already packed and he doesn’t use the old backpack anymore. On his way out, Pearl warns Steven that there is snow in the forecast and proceeds to bundle him up. Steven objects to all of these delays and insists he needs to get going and run his morning errands before the school day begins. The gems relent and Steven heads out.
Later that evening, the Gems surprise Steven with Pupcopter viewing party, complete with Pepperoni Pizza. Unfortunately, Steven passes on the viewing as he had adopted a vegetarian diet, and insists that Pupcopter is for six-year-olds.
The next morning, Steven sees the gems had created a "Together Breakfast" just like old times, but Steven passes yet again to begin his day, claiming that it's too much sugar. However, a snow storm had hit Beach City overnight and everyone is snowed in, forcing Steven to cancel school for the day. The Gems are overjoyed and begin planning activities to do on their day off, but Steven turns the down, opting instead to try to reschedule Little Homeschool activities thanks to the snow day.
- Amethyst: Man, you had a better work-life balance when the Diamonds were trying to destroy the planet.Steven: That was then, this is now.
Out of boredom, Amethyst gets a brilliant idea. She shapeshifts into Steven’s younger self and challenges Steven to a game of Steven Tag! The rules of the game is if you get tagged, you shapeshift into "Classic Steven". Steven refuses to play and runs from Amethyst and into the bathroom until Amethyst leaves him alone.
Steven emerges from the bathroom to find Garnet looking for Cat Steven. She tells him to look in the cabinet. As he does, he notices that Garnet is already petting Cat Steven. Without warning Steven!Amethyst pops out of the cabinet. Steven dodges the sneak attack, but Garnet gets herself tagged. Garnet shapeshifts and joins the game, Steven now trying to dodge attacks from two fronts, still refusing to play. He temporarily loses Garnet and Amethyst in Rose’s room, but Garnet quickly break loose. Steven tries to hide under his bed, but Amethyst is somehow already there waiting for him.
Amidst the chaos, Pearl enters the room and winds up being tagged by Garnet. Steven laughs at them because Pearl doesn’t shapeshift. However to everyone’s surprise, Pearl start glowing and shapeshifts herself into classic Steven as well.
- Pearl: The power of Steven Tag compels me!
Everyone is proud and happy for her, but the moment doesn’t last as Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl all give Steven a dangerous glare. Steven runs around the house fleeing as the gems try to tag him. He jumps out a window and onto the snowy beach, deciding to wait there until the gems can’t hold the shapeshifts any longer. However, he is interrupted by a loud crash. He turns around and sees that he had been found by Sugilite, who is also shapeshifted as classic Steven! Steven tries to snowboard away from Steven!Sugilite using his shield but soon finds himself dodging snowballs thrown by a Steven!Sardonoyx. Still refusing to play, he gets thrown off on the snow, and Steven!Opal tries to deliver the final blow by using her bow to launch Garnet to deliver the final tag. However, Steven tricked all of them by putting his jacket on a snowman. Hiding away in a corner, Steven realizes the Gems will not stop until he joins the game.
But then a giant shadow looms over him. He turns around and finds Steven!Alexandrite, launching a fire attack straight at him! He protects himself with a bubble and decides he has no choice and declares that the game is on! Alexandrite smiles and chases Steven around the snowy beach. Steven dodges each onslaught and leaps towards the lighthouse to hide out. But Alexandrite beats him to it and unfuses into Amethyst, Pearl, Ruby, and Sapphire, all ready to launch a final attack. Steven beats back Amethyst, Pearl, and Ruby who fall and crash into the snow. Steven is ready to declare victory and walk away but as he does so, he walks right into the palm of Sapphire.
- Sapphire: Tag.
Defeated, Steven floats back down to the other three. Sapphire rejoins them and fuses back with Ruby into Garnet. The gems tease Steven saying that he now has to shapeshift himself into his younger self. Steven refuses but the gems, and even Cat Steven, keep on insisting. Steven gives up and reluctantly shapeshifts down to his younger self. The gems are overjoyed, but Steven is furious. Despite how much he’s matured and grown up, the gems still see and treat him like the little Cookie Cat loving rascal he used to be. Steven shapeshifts back to normal and states that he wants the gems to see him not as the kid he used to be, but the man he is now. The gems apologize and say that they all missed him and the time they spent together and Steven admits that he missed them to. Pearl tells Steven that they understand if he needs to get back to work. Steven replies not by returning to work, but by tagging Garnet, who then shapeshifts herself into Steven’s current form, launching the four in another round of Steven Tag.
The next day, the family all rides to Little Homeschool in Steven's car together.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: Even as you mature, you're never too old or too busy to spend time and have fun with your family.
- Aesop Amnesia: Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl all want to spend time with Steven so much, they recreate his childhood, forgetting he has grown up. This is especially strange for Garnet, as not realizing Steven was maturing was why her Future Vision was messed up in "Pool Hopping".
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl together pat Steven on the head, much like in the second opening. This time, however, Steven is anything but enthusiastic, believing it to be childish.
- Big "NO!": Garnet belts one out after realizing she crashed into a snowman wearing Steven's jacket instead of the actual Steven.
- Boss Subtitles: Every fusion gets revealed with a freeze-frame emblazoned with "Ultimate Steven Tag Game" and "[fusion name] Steven" in huge text, along with a dramatic fiery background.
- Brick Joke: As Alexandrite and Steven jump over the house, Cat Steven pokes her head out the window Steven left open. Once the fight is over, she's followed everyone else to the top of the hill.
- Call-Back: Aside from the rest of the Continuity Cavalcade below, when Pearl is tagged, it's animated to resemble the time she was stabbed in "Steven the Sword Fighter".
- Alexandrite's role in the episode features a subtle nod to the first appearance. When she unfuses, she breaks into Pearl, Amethyst, Ruby and Sapphire, though unlike in 'Fusion Cuisine' Ruby and Sapphire don't instantly reform into Garnet.
- Character Development: Many millennia after that traumatic incident involving changing her form, Pearl finally overcomes her fears and shapeshifts again—to play Steven Tag.
- Condescending Compassion: Steven is put off by most of the activities the others planned for him, as most of them are skewed towards younger children (often ones he specifically hasn't enjoyed for years).
- Continuity Cavalcade: Most of Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl's ideas for hanging out with Steven reference activities we'd seen them doing together when Steven was younger. Garnet packs his cheeseburger backpack, they try planning a movie night with pizza, they make together breakfast, etc.
- Decoy Getaway:
- Opal fires Garnet as a projectile with her bow, but only hits a snowman Steven put his jacket on.
- In the middle of the Steven Tag chase, Alexandrite splits into all of her component Gems, including Ruby and Sapphire. Ruby, Amethyst, and Pearl then jump off the lighthouse after Steven, and he apparently mistakes the Steven-form Ruby for Garnet, not noticing Sapphire stayed on top to sneak up on him.
- Dual Age Modes: Steven can shapeshift to look younger at will, and even change his voice—though he really doesn't want to.
- Et Tu, Brute?: When the other Crystal Gems stand around Steven, chanting for him to change into "Classic Steven", Cat Steven stands over Steven and meows at him. Steven responds with a downcast "Et tu, Cat Steven?"
- Failed a Spot Check: Steven mistakes Ruby for Garnet, and misses Sapphire when Alexandrite breaks apart into her components, allowing her to sneak up and tag him.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Garnet asks Steven to check the cabinets for Cat Steven. When he turns around, we briefly see Cat Steven safely in Garnet's arms right as Amethyst jumps out of the cabinet.
- Freeze Sneeze: Steven sneezes after being outside without his jacket for too long.
- Growing Up Sucks: Steven is now so focused on Little Homeschool that he no longer has any time for hanging out with the rest of the Crystal Gems, or the old activities he enjoyed back when he was still a kid.
- Hourglass Plot: In the early episodes of the first season, Steven just wanted to spend time with the very busy Crystal Gems. Now, the Crystal Gems just want to spend time with the very busy Steven.
- Innocently Insensitive: Garnet offers Steven a pepperoni pizza, forgetting that he's recently become a vegetarian.
- Also, the gems blatantly not noticing or ignoring the many signs Steven did not want to play Steven Tag.
- Or the gems saying they preferred "Classic Steven" to the current Steven.
- Morphic Resonance: Every other Crystal Gem and fusion thereof takes on Steven's form. Besides the usual colors staying the same, Garnet still wears shades, Pearl keeps her nose, and Amethyst keeps her lips. All the fusions keep said traits and have the same number of limbs (though Sugilite's arms are split at the shoulder instead of the upper arm).
- Muggle Sports, Super Athletes: The episode eventually turns into Steven facing the other Crystal Gems in an unrestrained, super-powered, Fusion-filled game of tag.
- Mundane Utility: Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl form all of their Fusions during the course of the episode in order to play a game of tag. Particularly notable when contrasted with early seasons, in which they generally only fused to deal with major threats.
- Neat Freak: Steven is able to distract Pearl from tagging him by tossing his shirts on the ground. She yells, "I just folded those!" and folds them as Steven runs past her.
- Shield Surf: Steven uses his shield like a sled while fleeing from Sardonyx's snowball onslaught.
- Shout-Out:
- The logo for Pupcopter is designed after the one from the Air Bud series.
- Pearl's "The power of Steven Tag compels me!" is a riff on the classic "power of Christ" line from The Exorcist.
- Steven being credited as the "Ultimate Steven" for Steven Tag comes from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. When Sapphire tags him out, the screen shatters like the game would whenever there was a successful 'Break!' in an argument.
- The side shot of everyone running down the snowy hill (Amethyst on all four legs) mirrors the similar scene from Wolf Children.
- Snowed-In: Despite Little Homeschool being very nearby, Steven cancels classes because the snow has piled up so far it covers most of the windows. The "snowpocalyse" even renders the Warp Pad unusable because the other end is covered in tons of snow.
- Spin-Offspring: An In-Universe example. The Crystal Gems rent the movie Pupcopter, which is an obvious spin-off of Dogcopter, starring a puppy, and from what Steven says, it's a movie geared towards an even younger audience.
- Squee: Once they finally managed to tag Steven and he turns into "Classic Steven", the three Gems all swoon.How cute~!
- Wham Shot: Many small ones in rapid succession, but then again, it's because we haven't seen them in a LONG time!
- First:Steven: HA!! Joke's on you! Pearl doesn't shapeshift!
Pearl: [begins to glow, shapeshifts into Steven] The power of Steven Tag compels me! - Second, after avoiding the shape-shifted Crystal Gem trio, Steven jumps out of the side window of his house, hiding behind a snowbank:Steven: "*sigh* They can't hold those forms forever. I'll just wait until—" *WHANG* [The snow is violently knocked away, and a familiar-looking flail hangs over Steven's head, which pans up to a shape-shifted Sugilite standing on the lighthouse hill.]
- Third, After avoiding Sugilite, Steven sees a shape-shifted Sardonyx holding onto a tree, throwing boulder-sized snowballs at him.
- Fourth, Opal, shape-shifted as well, lands on the roof of the house, with Garnet in her bow!
- Finally, after avoiding all of the previous fusions, Steven feels the quaking of giant footsteps, and looks back to see Alexandrite, who is shape-shifted as well!
- First:
- Wild Take: When Alexandrite prepares to breathe fire on Steven, his shocked reaction
◊ is so ridiculous, he looks like a sock puppet. - Wingding Eyes: Amethyst's eyes briefly go starry at the end of the episode, when everyone says they're proud of how Steven has grown and just wanted to have fun with him.
- Written Sound Effect: When Steven punches Pearl, Amethyst, and Ruby away in midair, the words "POW!", "BAM!", and "SMASH!" are visible onscreen during the respective impacts.
