Serious Steven

"Serious Steven" is the eighth episode of the first season of Steven Universe, and the eighth overall episode of the series. This was the first episode after a brief hiatus.

Synopsis
While navigating out of an Ancient Maze, Steven tries to prove himself worthy to Garnet.

Plot
The episode begins with Steven waking up in Funland. He then sees that all of the teacups on the teacups ride have flew out of their position with everyone else riding in them. The episode then surges to two weeks after the incident with Steven and the other Gems in the teleporter, Garnet mentioning that this is their first serious mission. Steven, for an unknown reason, brought his ukulele, but it floats away, causing Steven to go after it. Eventually, the warper leads to a large field full of large strawberries, causing Steven to fall out of the warper into some stawberries, getting covered in stawberry jelly. Suddenly, Steven is attacked by a small swarm of butterflies.

While walking through the stawberry field, Pearl mentions how it used to be a battlefield for the Gems, which was probably represented by all the swords in the ground. Eventually, the Gems find a large, upside down pyramid, which is what they were looking for. Inside, there were many murals of some of the journeys of the Crystal Gems. Steven finds a strange, smaller pyramid and touches it, causing it to flip over, and causing everyone inside to gravitate towards a hole in the ceiling. Eventually, they fall into a large room with many doors. Pearl decides the group should split up, and suggests that she should stay with Steven. Amethyst then picks Steven up, saying she will go with him, but Pearl takes Steven back, saying that Amethyst and Steven are just a disaster waiting to happen. Garnet then chooses to take Steven with her while Pearl goes with Amethyst.

Garnet and Steven travel through three trap rooms, with Garnet doing most of the work and Steven usually needing to be saved or carried. In the third room, which was incredibly dangerous with axes, fire, spikes, and lava, after feeling queasy, Steven has a flashback to the Fun Land trip two weeks ago, where he and the Crystal Gems go on the teacup ride. Pearl was riding with Amethyst, with Amethyst asleep while Pearl had a teapot, misunderstanding the point of the ride. Meanwhile, Steven was riding with Garnet, but Steven eventually gets sick and falls out of the ride, landing on Mr. Smiley and breaking the lever, causing the ride to speed up too fast, sending all the teacups flying with the riders inside. Mr. Smiley then banned Steven from all the rides forever after Steven woke up. Back in the present, Steven wakes to realize Garnet carried him through the third room because he fell asleep.

After exiting, they find themselves in the room where they started. Pearl finds them and tells Garnet that no matter which path they take, after three rooms, they always arrive back where they started. Amethyst is seen running through the doorways, trying to find an exit, but gets progressively more injured by the traps and hazards. When Pearl admits she doesn't know what's going on, Amethyst flies out in a block of ice, and as Pearl goes to free her, Steven asks Garnet what they should do. She says they'll have to keep going in as long as it takes for them to find the exit. Horrified by this, Steven has a small breakdown as he believes it's his fault he's in this situation, and when Pearl tells him not to think that way, he realizes that the temple must have been like the teacup ride. That each room they enter rotates to connect them to another room, sending them out another door in the main chamber.

Garnet breaks through the floor and they all fall into a large mechanism that causes the temple's rooms to rotate. Garnet then throws Steven at the centerpiece and he removes the gem controlling it, causing the temple to explode. The Gems emerge from the rubble and compliment Steven on his ingenuity. The episode ends with Steven strumming on his ukelele, singing the Serious Song, only to be interupted as he's attacked by a swarm of butterflies once again attracted to the strawberry jam coating his body.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Garnet
 * Pearl
 * Amethyst

Minor Character

 * Rose Quartz (Cameo)
 * Mr. Smiley

Songs

 * Serious Song
 * Strawberry Battlefield/The Sleeping Pyramid
 * Heart of the Pyramid

Cultural References

 * The layout and the music of the temple seemed to have been heavily influenced by the Legend of Zelda series.
 * Some examples include the music at the beginning of the temple, the moment when Garnet had blocked the falling spiked ceiling (which is similar to the use of the "stone umbrella" in the shadow temple in The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time), and even the way the doors seal upon entering a room  and unlock when the puzzle is solved. The murals are like the ones from the opening of Wind Waker. The main room had a symbol on the floor similar to the Tri-Force.
 * The Strawberry Field may have been a reference to Strawberry Fields Forever, a song by the Beatles.

Trivia

 * Inside the strange maze, (before Steven caused it to flip over), there are murals of some of the Crystal Gems' journeys can be seen, as well as a picture of Rose Quartz, Steven's mother.
 * The murals possibly referenced the origins of the battleground.
 * It is revealed that all Gems can summon glowing bubbles. Garnet summons the bubbles most often, Steven and Pearl summoned one once, and Amethyst hasn't been seen summoning one yet.
 * The rumbling noise and the shaking that caused Steven to fall on a non-glowing tile was from the rooms turning.
 * In this episode, it's revealed Steven was banned from all the rides at Funland forever.

Transcript
Click here to see transcript.

Steven se pone Seriopt-br: