Lion 2: The Movie

"Overhead...DEATH STRIKE!"

"Lion 2: The Movie" is the 17th episode of the first season of Steven Universe and the 17th overall episode of the series.

Synopsis
Steven and Connie try to ride Lion to the movie theater, but Lion has other ideas.

Plot
The episode begins with Connie showing Steven the trailer for a new movie called Dogcopter 3 starring a dog-cop robot that saves a city by shooting missiles from its butt. Connie tells Steven why it is her favorite film franchise, and she hopes it stays loyal to the book. The Gems warp into the house, Pearl with her new outfit, and Steven asks Connie to show them the trailer. Amethyst sees dogcopter and transforms into it, astounding Connie. Steven assures that the movie will be more impressive than any magic. Connie asks how they will get to the movie, as the theater is far away.

Outside the house Steven introduces Connie to their mode of transportation, Lion; Connie is shocked. She expresses disappointment with her life compared to Steven's fantastic gem adventures, and says the most exciting thing in her life are her tennis lessons. She jokingly demonstrates three tennis shots, including "Overhead Death-Strike" which she admits is a made-up move (Steven is impressed anyway.) They then jump onto Lion's back to go to the theater, but Lion refuses to move for a few moments.

Suddenly Lion begins running towards the beach. He leaps above the ocean, terrifying Connie and Steven. Fortunately he lands on the water gracefully. and they discover that Lion can walk on water. Lion runs across the ocean, taking Steven and Connie enjoy the magical ride. Lion creates a portal and runs through it, and the three arrive inside an empty training temple.

They walk onto a section of the floor, and it starts to glow. A podium emerges from the floor.Steven places his hand on it and gets stuck. Connie says that they will have to chop his hand off, Steven screams, and a collection of swords comes out of the ground. Connie finds out that poking, tickling, and squeezing parts of Steven's body reveals additional varieties of weapons and armor, Laser Light Cannons, spiky chain-balls, and a giant penny. Steven then unwittingly activates a floating robot that shoots various projectiles at Steven, Connie and Lion. Lion helps them escape the temple and takes them to the Beach City theater, but the robot follows them through the portal.

After being slightly burned by the robot, Steven offers Connie a can of soda to ease her pain. Connie says to just forget about the movie, as Steven probably has more important things to do than watch a movie. Steven says that Dogcopter 3 is very important to him, and asks why Connie would hang out with him because he messes everything up. Connie asks why he would ever hang out with her, because she is so less interesting.

Suddenly, the robot comes back, even more aggressive than last time. Lion sprouts a sword from his head to help them defend against the robot, and Connie helps Steven to destroy the robot by using her tennis serves to reflect its shots. The robot gets destroyed.

After dealing with the largely unfazed ticket clerk, they finally get to see Dogcopter 3. Connie is fine with the creative liberties the movie takes from the book. The episode ends in a parody of the lion from M.G.M. films (Metro Goldwyn Mayer), with Lion in a star.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Connie
 * Lion
 * Pearl
 * Garnet
 * Amethyst
 * Temple Robot
 * Dogcopter

Songs

 * Lion's Ocean
 * The Cave

Trivia

 * The title "Lion 2: The Movie" is a play on the phrase "Lion, to the movie". Which is also Steven's primary goal in the episode.
 * This is the second episode not to end with a star-shaped iris as the non-original MGM star iris ends on Lion and it fades away instead of shrinking it completely. The first one is "Giant Woman".
 * This is the third episode where Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl have minor appearances. The second was "Lars and the Cool Kids" and the first was "Bubble Buddies".
 * Lion has many new abilities, such as walking on water, summoning a sword from his forehead, and creating portals to teleport to places.
 * It is revealed that Steven is ticklish.
 * It could be implied that Lion took Steven to the cave because Steven said he lacked training, as the look on Lion's face changed, and the moment he said that is when he took off.
 * Lion is somehow related to Rose, as he was a conduit on which Rose's Sword was pulled from his head by Steven.

Cultural References

 * Amethyst as Dogcopter vaguely resembles Cleo from Clifford the Big Red Dog.
 * Lion has the ability to walk on water the way Jesus did in the Biblical story of Matthew.
 * Dogcopter 3 is a fusion of the fake TV show from the film Bolt and The War of the Worlds.
 * The "Giant Penny" Steven and Connie discover in the cave is similar to one typically seen in Batman's Batcave.
 * The iris-out with Lion is a direct reference to the logo for film studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which began all its movies with a roaring lion.
 * The green screen at the start of the episode is shown in the beginning of most trailers, although often with variations depending on the movie or feature.
 * The soda that Connie and Steven drink towards the end of the episode looks exactly like Apple Sidra, which is a Taiwanese apple soda beverage.
 * The robot in this episode shoots out blasts of fire, ice, and lightning. These three elements are commonly associated together in the Pokémon Franchise. He also holds many similarities to the main boss of the "Tower of the Gods" in The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, named Gohdan.
 * When Steven drew the sword from lion's head, it was another reference to revolutionary girl Utena.

Continuity

 * It is revealed that Rose's light cannon possibly came from the cave Lion took them to, as three identical cannons are shown in the cave. The cave can be related to Rose because of the cannons with resemble the light cannon.
 * The poses the Gems do when appearing on the portal resemble the ones they did in the pilot.
 * Pearl is still wearing her post-regeneration outfit from the previous episode, suggesting it will be permanent.
 * Lion shows his abilities to open portals to another place. This probably explains how he got to Steven's house in "Steven's Lion" when he was left back at the Desert.

Transcript
Click here to see transcript.