The Test

"Test me! Test me!"

"The Test" is the 38th episode of the first season of Steven Universe, and the 38th overall.

Synopsis
Steven finds out that his mission to the Lunar Sea Spire was a test and demands a new one.

Plot
One rainy day, Steven and the Crystal Gems sit around playing Citchen Calamity, a comically convoluted board game. After Steven wins, he goes to search for another game to play; however, he stumbles across the Moon Goddess Statue, and is reminded of how he neglected to bring it along on the mission to the Lunar Sea Spire in "Cheeseburger Backpack", which caused said mission to end in failure. The Gems attempt to console Steven, but Pearl accidentally lets slip that the mission was a non-crucial one, and that they used it to stage a test of Steven's developing abilities. Upon learning this information, Steven is annoyed that they were dishonest about the mission's importance, before becoming distraught over the realization that he failed the test; Pearl's tactless admission that the test was meant to be an easy one does not help matters. And so Steven, determined to redeem himself, demands the Gems to give him a harder test to make up for it. The Gems hesitantly oblige.

Steven and the Gems stand before the Temple Gate, where Pearl briefs him on the test. It is a custom-made dungeon consisting of three rooms, each designed by one of the Gems to simulate the challenges of a mission. His goal is to thwart all three rooms and make it to the end. Steven swears not to disappoint them this time. And so the Gems open the gate, revealing a pitch-black passage, and he rushes inside.

First is Amethyst's Chamber. Steven walks along a path suspended over a bottomless pit; the path is actually a comically long tongue extending from the mouth of a large statue in the shape of Amethyst. Suddenly, a boulder emerges from the statue's mouth! Steven runs down the track, but it's all he can do to barely stay ahead of it. At the end of the track is a large gap with a hanging vine resembling Amethyst's whip. Steven leaps, grabs onto the vine, and swings across to the exit of the first chamber. In true video-game fashion, the door explodes into star-shaped balloons and a victory jingle plays.

Next is Pearl's Chamber. The exit to this chamber is set in the opposite wall, high out of reach. As Steven wonders how to get at it, some of the floor tiles flash in a pattern, each playing a distinctive note. He tries the obvious solution, leaping to each tile in the order they light up, and this causes the floor ahead to rise and form a staircase tall enough to reach the exit. Steven confidently strides up the stairs, but is nearly sliced by a swinging axe. In a panic, Steven climbs up to the exit, just barely dodging additional axes. Reaching the exit, the door bursts into balloons and plays the jingle again.

After that, he enters the final challenge, Garnet's Chamber and makes a joke to himself about how Garnet turned up the heat. He jumps over several holes in the floor squirting lava, walking confidently to the door when suddenly a spiked pillar slams down from the roof. He curls up into a ball, scared by the spikes, when it stops just above his head. He's confused and steps back to discover that they work fine when he's not under it, but as soon as a part of him goes under it, it just stops. In shock, he walks back into a lava column and to his surpirse is unharmed. He shouts that it can't be true, and decides to go back and test all of the other rooms after standing in a lava flow. First he stands in the path of one of the axes, while the axe harmlessly swings through him as if it was just a hologram. Then, he tries pushing the tiles on the floor of Pearl's room in a bunch of different patterns, revealing that the stairs would come up no matter what order he hit them in. Finally, he plainly walks across the gap at the end of Amethyst's room, standing still when the boulder comes down on him. He walks all the way through Amethyst's statue's mouth, coming out on top of the three rooms. He walks past the axes and spikes, not believing a thing. He doesn't understand how they could trick him like that. He continues to walk down, overhearing a conversation by the Gems about how it's impossible for him to get hurt and how they think he needs another "win" to believe that he can actually succeed and keep his confidence.

Finally understanding them, Steven walks back to the end without stopping to dodge any of the traps. He walks right through the end door, where lights come on and the Gems are cheering for him. He walks angrily, stopping at the end where he falls on his knees and states that he can't believe they'd do something like that. In order to preserve their happiness and belief in him, he pretends that it was awesome and yells how he wishes they could have seen him. He thanks them, and they all close in for a hug congratulating him. The screen fades black with the usual star iris and popping sound.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Garnet
 * Amethyst
 * Pearl
 * Lion (cameo)
 * Rose Quartz (mentioned)

Objects

 * Moon Goddess Statue
 * Citchen Calamity

Locations

 * Beach City
 * Beach House
 * Crystal Temple (Amethyst's Chamber, Pearl's Chamber and Garnet's Chamber)

Soundtracks

 * Decisive Path

Trivia

 * Each chamber was made by a particular gem. Amethyst made the first one, Pearl the second one, and Garnet's is the last chamber.
 * In the promotional artwork for this episode, you can see Lapis, Rose, Greg, and Peridot in the background having a test.
 * This is similar to the school theme of the promo art of "Political Power", "Maximum Capacity" and "Open Book".
 * It is revealed that the Gems can modify certain aspects of the Temple.
 * It is revealed at the end of the episode by Garnet that Steven is the first of his kind, referring to the fact that Steven is half Gem, half human.
 * Pearl stated that Steven's shield was Rose's, proving that Steven inherited his mother's weapon.
 * It's shown that the Crystal Gems heavily relied on Rose to make important decisions.
 * Pearl and Garnet's tests were almost identical in design to some of the trap rooms in "Serious Steven".

Cultural References

 * When Steven is going through the games he has, he references changed titles of some well known board games.
 * "Not That Sorry", a parody of "Sorry"; "Noninvasive Operation", a parody of "Operation"; "Polypoly", a parody of "Monopoly"; and "Don't Wake Father Figure", a parody of "Don't Wake Daddy".
 * The congratulations scene is a reference to Evangelion's ending scene where in each character clapped and individually said congratulations to main protagonist Shinji Ikari with the opening theme song playing in the background.
 * This episode references Indiana Jones, when Steven was being chased down by a boulder in Amethyst's chamber.
 * Pearl's room was similar to many rhythm based puzzles in video, where in order to advance one has to repeat a sequence.
 * The lava and spike-traps in Garnets room were similar to that of some levels from Super Mario Bros.

Continuity

 * The hole in the ceiling the Flask Robonoids made in "Warp Tour" is patched up and leaking.
 * Steven has still lost his healing spit since "House Guest", as mentioned by Pearl.
 * Several references to "Cheeseburger Backpack" were shown in this episode.
 * The Moon Goddess Statue reappears.
 * The Gems' mission to the Lunar Sea Spire was revealed to be a test for Steven to see how much he could handle a mission.
 * The end of the episode was also mentioned by Pearl.
 * The glowing tiles in Pearl's chamber closely resemble those seen in "Serious Steven".

Errors

 * When Steven was about to pick up the Moon Godess Statue, the back part of his pants were colored the same as his shirt.
 * In one scene, two of Pearl's fingers were colored orange.
 * When the Gems hug Steven at the end of the episode, the colors of the star on Garnet's back are reversed.

Transcript
View the episode's transcript here.

Videos
La Pruebapt-br:O Teste