Beach Party

"The shop is closed today because...it's broken!"

"Beach Party" is the 18th episode of the first season of Steven Universe and the 18th episode overall.

Official Synopsis
After a battle damages Fish Stew Pizza, Steven throws a cookout at the Temple to mend the relationship between the Pizza family and the Crystal Gems.

Plot
The episode begins with the Gems fighting a Giant Pufferfish on the beach. The colossal fish easily deflects their attacks with powerful gusts of air as Pearl's spear is flung back at them. Garnet attempts an aerial assault but the fish quickly flings her far into the air. Frustrated at their inability to do damage, Amethyst rushes the creature, shape-shifts into a giant baseball bat, and knocks it far out to sea. Pearl chastises her for only delaying the inevitable fight, but they leave to find Garnet.

Upon further inspection, they find Garnet planted firmly in Fish Stew Pizza's sign, completely unfazed by the fall. Kofi and Kiki are already outside, examining the damage while Kofi attempts to elicit some response from a stoic and unresponsive Garnet. Garnet completely ignores him and only responds when Steven and the others get there. Amethyst is amused at the destruction and Pearl explains what happened to the Pufferfish. Garnet suggests they "regroup back at the temple" and jump off, despite Kofi still protesting at the destruction of his shop's sign. Kofi gets even more angry and questions why a nice boy like Steven hangs out with the Gems who always mess everything up. The ruckus causes Jenny and Nanefua to appear at the door. Nanefua lightheartedly jokes about the noise with a fish, but stops at the sight of the destruction. Kofi continues to bad mouth the Gems, calling them "animals". To this, Steven comes to their defense but Kofi won't listen. Nanefua, sensing escalation, excuses herself and the girls inside while Kofi carries on, culminating in him banning the Gems from his store forever. Steven protests, but fails as Kofi follows the rest inside and closes the door behind him.

Back at the temple the Gems debate what to do about the pufferfish. Amethyst suggests letting it roam free but Garnet quickly squashes the idea. Steven returns with "bad news" about the banishment which elicits little to no response from the gems. Steven starts to argue why they should care but Pearl continues that taking care of the pufferfish is more important. Steven, however, takes exception to this attitude and maintains that people should know how "funny, smart and mysterious" they are and that they should patch things up with the Pizza's. Garnet's amused at being called mysterious. In order to achieve this, he decides to throw a "small party" in front of the temple.

Later on, Steven sets up the barbecue for the party and exclaims his excitement for it. The Gems appear behind him and he greets them, he hands them a fashion magazine. Steven asks them to change into something more casual for the beach. The whole Pizza family rounds the corner approaching the temple which Jenny claims she's never seen before. Steven goes and greets them and Kofi explains that they're there because their shop is closed "because it's broken", this makes everyone nervous until Nanefua brings up the food which Steven then leads them to. Steven begins to introduce the Gems but Garnet interrupts as they introduce themselves in a flashy manner, stating their names and then transforming into their beach outfits. Kofi exclaims that he believes they're a "circus act". The Gems and Pizzas all sit down to eat, the Gems explain they don't need to eat, and Kofi complains about the decrepit state of the temple. Kofi exclaims they have a lazy attitude towards broken things "just like the sign at [his] shop". Steven nervously intervenes by asking if they'd like to play volleyball.

Steven finishes the court and then picks the teams: Amethyst & Jenny, Pearl & Kiki, Garnet & Kofi and himself & Nanefua. Pearl & Kiki win their point against Amethyst & Jenny after Amethyst attempts to kick the ball (but misses anyways). The second point goes to Amethyst & Jenny when Jenny cheats using the net to block the ball and then Amethyst spikes it by transforming into a Tennis racket. The next match is won by Kofi & Garnet against Amethyst & Jenny when Kofi threatens to ground Jenny if she touches the ball, resulting in her missing the hit. The next point, Amethyst sends it flying into the air but Garnet jumps higher and slams it with such force that the ball craters the ground and forms glass shards out of the ground. Nanefua explains to Steven that sand crystallizes into glass at super heated temperatures. After this, each team is shown using cheap tactics to win points (Pearl using clones, Kofi threatening to take away privileges, etc.) resulting in the teams beginning to argue loudly about how each is "cheating" at the game. Nanefua claims it's "getting out of hand" so Steven decides to go and get the ball.

As Steven runs after the ball, it begins to blow backwards, and the Pufferfish appears around the corner of the temple. Steven runs back to the still arguing group and warns them. The Gems then quickly grab the Pizza family and jump off behind cover. Steven and Nanefua hide behind an embankment, as Garnet takes cover from the Pufferfish's blasts. Steven begins to place guilt on himself about the Pufferfish, but Nanefua claims she's "not afraid of that thing" and jumps out towards the Pufferfish. Steven follows her as they begin to distract the fish by running in circles underneath it. As they do, Steven and Nanefua begin to shout orders at the others for Amethyst to transform into a ball, Jenny to roll her to the net, and Pearl to jump over to them. Nanefua orders Pearl to hit Amethyst (in ball form) into the air "as hard as [she] can", to which she deviously replies "with pleasure". Nanefua orders Kofi and Kiki to position the net while Steven orders Garnet to spike the beach with Amethyst (to which Amethyst asks her to "be gentle") and does so resulting in a massive glass shard formation. Steven and Nanefua lead the Puffer fish towards the net where they command that everyone pull the net towards its face. They manage to push the Pufferfish back until it pushes up against the glass shard, however, they can't place enough pressure to do damage, that is, until Garnet shoots down from up high punching the fish hard into the shard resulting in a massive cloud of sand and dust which presumed the destruction of their foe.

Later on, Kofi thanks the Gems for saving his family and officially un-bans them from his store. Steven says they greatly appreciate it, but Pearl asks what they were banned from to begin with, causing him to laugh nervously as the episode ends.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Kiki
 * Kofi
 * Jenny
 * Nanefua (debut)
 * Garnet
 * Amethyst
 * Pearl
 * Watermelon Tourmaline (debut/antagonist)

Objects

 * Beach Ball
 * Volleyball Net

Locations

 * Beach City
 * Crystal Temple
 * Beach House
 * Fish Stew Pizza

Trivia

 * The episode reveals that the Gems can change their clothing at will using magic.
 * It is revealed that Pearl has the ability to make multiple holographic clones of herself at once.
 * Kofi's personality adheres to the common representation of the West African father.
 * Nanefua is in the opening sequence standing next to Kiki who is holding pizzas above her head. With her, all characters in the opening sequence are now accounted for.
 * This is the first episode in which Garnet failed to destroy a monster in her first attempt.
 * RS's concept poster.jpg's beach outfit resembles the dress from one of her designs from 2012.
 * The green fanny pack on Amethyst's beach outfit is similar to the one she wore in the pilot episode.

Continuity

 * When the Gems are changing their clothes, the poses they performed resemble the ones they did when they were teleporting in the "Pilot" episode.
 * Amethyst's beach outfit includes a small green fanny-pack such as the one she wore in the "Pilot", but with a lighter shade.

Cultural References

 * When the Gems were changing clothing, their transformation sequence is similar to the classic Power Rangers' transformation sequences seen in every Power Rangers show. How Garnet says "Garnet!" and the others also say their names is the same as the Red Ranger saying "Red Ranger!" with his teammates.

Errors

 * When Amethyst says "Whatever", her tank top's strap colors were reversed.
 * When Garnet says "We don't do it for thanks", the middle finger part of her glove isn't colored in.
 * When Garnet is telling the Pizza Family about the Temple, she waves her right hand. However, close-up shows the gem that is on her left hand.
 * After Amethyst takes a bite of her burger, the burger disappears in the next scene.
 * In the episode "Steven's Lion", the door to Fish Stew Pizza is to the right of the windows, however, the door is shown to the far left of the windows in the episode.

Transcript
View the episode's transcript here.

Videos
Beach Party pt-br:Beach Party