Cat Fingers

"Cat Fingers" is the sixth episode of season 1 of Steven Universe. It premiered alongside a re-run of "Laser Light Cannon" on November 25th, 2013.

Synopsis
Steven tries to master his shapeshifiting abilities, but turns his fingers into cats, making it harder to do things.

Plot
The episode starts out showing Steven and his dad, Greg, cleaning the Mayor's car and start hose fighting. Then after they are done cleaning, a cat holding the new hose comes along and starts spraying Steven and his Dad. She then reveals herself to be Amethyst. Steven asks if he could shape shift as they walk to the Crystal Temple. When they get there, Amethyst is showing off with her shape shifting powers, as Pearl tells Amethyst that just because she can shape shift doesn't mean she should. Steven asks Pearl if she could shape shift, to which she answers that all gems can, but not before Amethyst interupts, shape shifted into Pearl and mocking her. Pearl leaves and then Steven asks Amethyst how to shape shift. After learning how to, he attempts to turn into a cat but instead turns his finger into a cat. Amethyst says he almost got it, and Steven goes around showing off his cat finger. When Steven goes to his dad's car wash and shows him that he shape shifted his finger into a cat, he sprays the cat with a hose. When he goes to Big Donut, Steven makes more of his fingers become cats to give his other finger a friend, after Lars says that the finger is just like Steven because it doesn't have friends. Steven then tries to pick up a donut, the cats don't react very well. At the fry shop, Steven wants Peedee to give him some fry bits, and Peedee's older brother Ronaldo takes a picture of the cats for his blog "Keep Beach City Weird." In the process, Steven turns the fingers on his other hand into cats. He then picks up the phone to look at the picture, but the cat fingers get angry over it.

When Steven gets to the Crystal Temple, he asks Amethyst to help him turn his cats back to normal after failing to pick up a sandwich, to which Amethyst replies she can't because they need to go fight a living island. Steven asks if he could come, which he can't. Pearl insists that they stay to help Steven, but Garnet says they can't because the mission is urgent. Pearl blames Amethyst for this, which Amethyst calls "fair." Pearl tells Steven to stay calm before they leave.

Back at the Temple, Steven tries to turn his cat fingers into his regular fingers. All of a sudden Steven has cats appearing all over his body, unable to control them all. Steven asks for help from all of the gems, but realizes that the only person that can help is his dad.

Cats have almost taken over his body by the time he gets to his dad. He thinks that he won't survive for another day, but he doesn't give up. He finally realizes the only thing that can stop the cats is water (As they hate water). His dad's hose isn't enough to stop the cats, so Steven begs him to use the car wash. Steven's dad complains that it's too dangerous, but after a while he is finally convinced. Steven jumps into the Car wash.

After coming out of the car wash, Steven is fully cleansed of cats. Except for one more finger cat, which Steven's dad washes immediately. The Crystal Gems return the next day and Pearl asks if Steven is okay, to which Steven says he is. Pearl says Steven should listen to Pearl and not Amethyst, which Amethyst says "is fair". Steven then starts telling the Gems really bad and cheesy cat puns, before the iris closes in on him.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Mayor Bill Dewey
 * Garnet
 * Amethyst
 * Pearl
 * Greg
 * Fryman
 * Peedee
 * Ronaldo
 * Lars
 * Sadie

Cultural references

 * The poster to Cat Fingers is an homage to the book series, Animorphs.
 * Steven's transformation is similar to that of Tetsuo from the movie, Akira
 * The way Steven came up with cheesy cat puns at the end of the episode is similar to the Annoying Orange,which is a famous web series & show in Cartoon Network.
 * When Amethyst said "Chill it dude" after she turned into a blue jay, it might be a reference to Mordecai from Regular Show.
 * When the other Gems are leaving on the Gem Sloop, they say they are going to fight a living island. This may be a reference to Adventure Time, specifically the episode "The Party's Over, Isla de Señorita."

Episode continuity

 * Amethyst ate the same brand of chips Steven ate in the Pilot.
 * Pearl shows her ability to project holographic images from her gem, just like she did in Cheeseburger Backpack.
 * Amethyst shows her ability to shapeshift just like she did in Together Breakfast.

Errors

 * When Amethyst turned back into her human form after turning into a cat and squirting Greg and Steven, she put the hose down next to her, but then when the screen showed back to that same frame again, the hose was gone.
 * In the beginning of a scene, Amethyst shape shifted into a seal and showed Pearl, but if you look very closely, just before she shape shifts into a seal, she was already in the form of a seal.

Trivia

 * It is revealed in this episode that all of The Crystal Gems have shape shifting powers.
 * Amethyst is the only one so far to be seen shape shifting successfully.