Original airdate: April 30th, 2015
Production code: 1031-057
Steven, Garnet, and Amethyst chase after a monster loose in the temple.
Tropes:
- Anime Hair: Parodied when, in an attempt to emulate Pearl, Amethyst puts up her long hair in the same updo. It even hits Steven and Garnet when she twirls.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Amethyst doubts that the monster they're looking for even exists at first despite Steven having seen it, even though there are tons of gem monsters around and they deal with them frequently.
- Bait-and-Switch: Steven at one point asks Amethyst if she's taking the quiz seriously. Then it cuts to his phone, and this is actually a question on the test.
- Be Yourself: Things go a lot better for Amethyst's new form when she stops caring too much about the opinions of the other Gems.
- Black Comedy Burst: Amethyst finds a skull inside a gas mask in her room.Amethyst: And there's a prize inside!
- Blatant Lies: Almost all of Amethyst's answers for the Crying Breakfast Friends personality quiz are obviously the complete opposite of what she's like.Steven: Are you afraid of taking risks and trying new things?
(Amethyst eats a whole pile of food in one bite)
Amethyst: Terrified! - Body Horror: Amethyst's regenerations before her last one suffer various levels of deformity because she made them too quickly:
- The first has legs where her arms are supposed to be and a giant ear.
- The second, a mockery of Pearl's form, is mostly just strange-looking, but their very differently-shaped feet causes Amethyst to have what are either very oversized ballet shoes or feet with ends shriveled up like noodles.
- Her second-to-last is horribly and inconsistently muscular, with an arm and a leg bigger than their counterparts, and starts to break down when Amethyst begins exerting herself. Steven lampshades this, asking if the form hurts.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Garnet says that Amethyst should have taken her time with her regeneration like Pearl did, Amethyst interprets this as Garnet wanting her to be "more like Pearl" and regenerates with a new form that looks like a parody of Pearl's.
- Continuity Nod:
- This is the third time Pearl's helped Greg fix his van. The first was in "House Guest". The second was in "The Message", though Garnet & Amethyst also helped.
- Greg once again mentions how he doesn't get Crying Breakfast Friends.
- Garnet's ability to fire her Power Fists like rockets was first introduced in "Watermelon Steven". Here, it's shown that she is literally launching her fists off — everything above mid-forearm level has to be regenerated before she can do it again, with her gems at the end of her arm stumps.
- Pearl's long regeneration in "Steven the Sword Fighter" comes up again; apparently it took so long because she was putting a good deal of thought into it. Amethyst proves Gems can regenerate in under a minute if they really need to, and four hours is considered long for her.
- The fact that Amethyst frequently regenerates is brought up again.
- Among the junk in Amethyst's room is the "Foine" magazine summer special and a No-Home Boys book ("Mystery Train").
- Came Back Wrong: Amethyst keeps rushing her regenerations and distorting her form. Her last form is functional because she put an unusual amount of time into it (four hours).
- Death Is Cheap: Amethyst keeps regenerating throughout the episode, doing so a total of four times.Steven: Is it weird that I'm getting numb to this?
- Didn't Think This Through: Amethyst's new bodies are malformed because she keeps rushing her regeneration.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Amethyst gets annoyed over Garnet saying she should have taken more time with her regeneration the way Pearl did, like a younger sister jealous of her older sister.Amethyst: Pearl, Pearl, Pearl! You know I can hear you! I'm sorry I'm not like Pearl with her fancy form and her clean room with no monsters in it!!
- Empathic Shapeshifter: Amethyst's forms are highly influenced by the opinions of others—not because she's psychic, but because she's just trying to reconcile her regenerations with what she thinks others want when criticized. She regenerates unusually fast when Steven is distraught over her "poofing" which slightly messes up her anatomy. Then she regenerates as an approximation of Pearl when unfavorably compared to her. When she feels Garnet implies she's weak, she overexerts her form trying to be strong.
- Evil Slinks: The corrupted gem they fight is nicknamed The Slinker, and pretty much is a malformed mass of oozing, slinky tentacles attached to a plant-like bulb.
- Extreme Omnivore: Amethyst starts the episode trying to make a sandwich with motor oil on it, though she eats it without any when she can't immediately get it.
- Face Palm: Garnet hold her gauntlets to her face when Amethyst regenerates as Pearl.
- Grave Robbing: Towards the beginning, Amethyst briefly dons a gas mask as a joke. After she takes it off, she pulls a human skull out of it, thereby raising a lot of uncomfortable questions about where the mask came from and how she got it.
- Group Hug: The Crystal Gems all hug together at the very end.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Amethyst's thoughts on Pearl—that her perfectionist neuroses are her being needy for approval and her Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness an attempt to show off—are quite clearly tinged with jealousy.
- Hypocritical Humor: Steven tells the other Gems to be supportive of Amethyst's final regeneration, only to immediately complain that she's barely changed once she emerges.
- I'm Standing Right Here: Amethyst is irritated by Garnet telling Steven that she should have taken her time choosing her form while regenerating, and exclaims, "You know, I can hear you!" while pulling aside her hair to reveal a giant ear.
- In Medias Res: The Slinker had already been spotted around the temple before the episode begins and is still at large when it ends.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Amethyst shows some serious self-esteem issues over being scolded for her reckless behavior, being compared to Pearl and constantly wanting Garnet's approval while hiding her obvious frustration and stress with jokes until she finally snaps.
- I Resemble That Remark!: Amethyst gives answers to Steven's quiz questions while blatantly contradicting them.
- Iris Out: Over an embarrassed (but smiling) Amethyst.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- While looking through the Crying Breakfast Friends online quiz, Steven wonders aloud what it would be like to be a cartoon character.
- Amethyst says "Who wants to watch a cartoon about people crying?", when in literally EVERY OTHER episode of Steven Universe, you see someone crying.
- Luminescent Blush: Amethyst is blushing for good amount of scenes, as she gets really flustered over Garnet's criticisms of her recklessness. At the end, she does it out of embarrassment for being hugged and congratulated over taking her time on regenerating, getting a form that pleases everyone.
- Monstrosity Equals Weakness: Amethyst's rushed forms (especially the third one) are quite misshapen, and consequently impede her physical abilities. One of her arms ends up spontaneously deflating while fighting the Slinker.
- Musical Gag: When Amethyst takes a form that mocks Pearl's, the background music includes piano, an instrument associated with Pearl herself.
- Out of Character Is Serious Business: Pearl is surprised when she hears that Amethyst has put a few hours into her new form, saying that it's the longest she's spent regenerating.
- Running Gag: Multiple:
- Steven asking the other Gems a quiz to find out what Crying Breakfast Friends character they are.
- Amethyst getting "poofed".
- Shout-Out: Amethyst's room has a Tanuki leaf, a Gyroid, and a wicker basket of purple pansies among the stuff in her hoard.
- Tentacle Rope: The Slinker keeps catching Amethyst with its tentacles.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Amethyst gets poofed four times in ten minutes. Steven even lampshades how he's getting numb to it.
- Tunnel King: The Slinker can burrow large holes through the ground.
- Two-Faced Aside: Amethyst says the Group Hug she gets pulled into is dumb, turns her head away from the others, and smiles lovingly.
- Verbed Title: Referring to Amethyst's repeated regenerations, a.k.a reformations.
- Was Too Hard on Him: Garnet feels that her criticism of Amethyst were too harsh by the end of the episode.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: After being scolded for regenerating too quickly without thinking, Amethyst starts to use her constantly new chances to get a form "according" with Garnet's lectures and it's very obvious that the young Gem wants her approval.Amethyst: Well, what do you want?! Just tell me and I'll do that!
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never did learn which Crying Breakfast Friend Amethyst was, and they never catch the Slinker.Amethyst: (being hugged) We gotta go catch the Slinker!
Steven: No, it's hug time.
