Watermelon Steven

"How did you get such handsome watermelons?"

"Watermelon Steven" is the 34th episode of the first season of Steven Universe, and the 34th episode overall.

Official Synopsis
Steven discovers a new power when he grows a patch of Steven-shaped watermelons!

Plot
Steven and his dad are eating watermelons near Greg's car wash in the afternoon. They then have a competition to see who spits out the seeds in the 'coolest' manner, ending in Steven winning with his "Hurricane Spin Spit". This ultimate move results in Steven being awarded the crown becoming "Watermelogisty". When Steven wakes up the next day, still outside the car wash, he sees that he is surrounded by watermelons. Shocked to see the watermelons are shaped like him, he immediately calls the Crystal Gems, to which Pearl explains that Steven's Mother had the ability to grow sentient plant life that protected her, and that he may have inherited this. Amethyst then states that Rose's plants could move and defend Rose herself, while his plants appear to be completely unmoving. Greg then asks what to do with the watermelons after stepping on one. This gives Steven the idea of starting a business off of them.

As Steven is setting up for his business at the entrance of Funland, Mr. Smiley comes over to Steven asking for proper permits for his business stand. Steven tries to bribe Mr. Smiley with a watermelon, which Mr. Smiley accepts and walks away, leaving Steven alone. Sadie then comes over wanting to buy a watermelon after being amused by Steven's salesmanship. Steven explains to Sadie that he doesn't want money and was initially going to give the watermelons for free. Ronaldo then comes over, taking pictures with his phone of the "weird watermelons" and blogging about it. Whilst Ronaldo is still writing his blog, Sadie becomes bored, giving Steven some money and taking a watermelon before walking away. Surprised at the low price, Ronaldo causes an uproar saying Steven is practically giving away his watermelons, which gathers a crowd of people around Steven and his stand. When they are all sold out, Onion crawls from under the table asking for Baby Melon, but Steven explains how he is not for sale. While Steven is distracted with his own explanation, Onion then steals Baby Melon and begins to run.

Steven chases Onion in pursuit of Baby Melon, who springs to life and jumps out of Onion's arms to hug Steven. Steven is then shortly surprised, then after he exclaims that he really shouldn't be surprised about it, he realizes that all the Watermelon Stevens are alive and goes through town reclaiming the ones he sold. When Steven goes to get the last one from Ronaldo, who is about to upload and perform a live "autopsy" on one of the watermelons to a video website. Steven then interjects, asking for him to stop and saying that the watermelon is alive, to which Ronaldo replies with "not for long". As Steven tries to stop Ronaldo, he gets his hand slapped by a spatula. The Watermelon Stevens become upset and begin attacking Ronaldo, due to him being seen as a threat to Steven. Ronaldo, whilst being attacked by the Watermelon Stevens, asks Steven if the camera is still capturing the event, to which Steven pans the camera towards Ronaldo. Steven then alerts the Crystal Gems that the Watermelon Stevens came to life and are attacking people.

Surprised, the Gems go outside, only to be immediately greeted with a small army of Watermelon Stevens. Garnet then explains that Rose's plants lived to fight. Though initially peaceful, they become slightly aggressive when Pearl abruptly puts both of her hands on Steven's shoulder, as they see Pearl's actions as a threat towards Steven. After seeing the signs of their aggression, Pearl then shoves Steven inside the house, causing the Watermelon Stevens to go on the offensive.

An all-out battle then begins with Garnet at the lead, who is followed by Amethyst and Pearl. The Gems start out strong, fighting off the sentient watermelons, only to be easily overpowered by their numbers. Steven then shows up, explaining to the Watermelon Army that he is okay and there is no need to fight, only to be ignored. Steven then turns to Baby Melon asking him what to do to stop the fighting, in which Baby Melon replies by punching Steven in the stomach, sending him flying back. The Watermelon Stevens then stop their fight with the Crystal Gems and begin to attack Baby Melon, who has accepted his fate, closing his eyes and appearing to embrace the oncoming attack.

After the attack, Steven sees that Baby Melon has been reduced to a pile of watermelon pieces. Upset, Steven tells the Watermelon Stevens to look at what Baby Melon did to stop the fight, and to think about what they did and tells them to go and not return until they understand what true loyalty is. The Watermelon Stevens begin to leave, all of them walking towards the ocean and one being carried away by a seagull. Garnet then compliments Steven and his actions, which he humbly dismisses with Pearl and Amethyst putting one of their hands on each of Steven's shoulders and Garnet behind Steven. The episode ends with Steven taking a bite of the Baby Melon slices, to which the Gems show slight disgust and confusion as the iris closes in on him.

Characters

 * Steven Universe
 * Mr. Smiley
 * Garnet
 * Amethyst
 * Pearl
 * Rose Quartz (mentioned)
 * Greg Universe
 * Ronaldo Fryman
 * Sadie
 * Onion
 * Lars (non-speaking cameo)
 * Watermelon Stevens (debut)


 * Baby Melon (debut)


 * Seagulls (cameo)

Locations

 * Beach City
 * Beach House
 * Big Donut
 * Funland Arcade

Objects

 * Dollar Bill
 * Ronaldo's Phone

Music

 * "Watermelon Steven"
 * "Watermelon Battle"

Trivia

 * It is revealed that both Garnet and Pearl's weapons harbor ranged capabilities (Garnet's gauntlets were able to be fired from her fists, while Pearl had an energy blast from her spear).
 * It is revealed in the episode that Rose Quartz had the ability to make mobile sentient plant life as her defenders (phytokinesis).
 * Steven is revealed to now share the same ability in the episode.
 * However, this ability has been hinted at in several episodes.
 * A different ending song is played at the end of this episode that mainly utilizes percussion instruments.

Cultural References

 * Greg's statement about the seeds after Steven's Hurricane Spin Spit is a direct reference to a similar quote in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
 * Ronaldo is using a streaming website called Weirdstar. This may be a reference to Worldstarhiphop, a site infamous for violent fight videos.
 * Amethyst's attack on the Watermelon Stevens highly resembles the Spin Dash from Sonic The Hedgehog.Tumblr nfdkqkSJ8r1tk8ivso1 1280.png
 * One of the poses Garnet does while fighting the Watermelon Stevens resembles the Frogner Park Baby fighter statue in Oslo, Norway.
 * Pearl makes a reference to Fairly Odd Parents when she called the melons "twerps" and then said that she would destroy them, just like Vicky to Timmy.

Continuity

 * Sadie is shown to have a scar on her cheek from the events of the episode "Island Adventure".
 * The Magic Moss ("Lars and The Cool Kids") and the bramble guarding the spring ("An Indirect Kiss") could have been sentient plants that were made by Rose Quartz.
 * A billboard for Dogcopter 3 appears (the movie Connie and Steven go to see in "Lion 2: The Movie") was seen when Steven is running around collecting the Watermelon Stevens.
 * The synopsis of an unaired episode, Super Watermelon Island, states that Steven finds out what happened to all the sentient watermelons he created.

Errors

 * The signboard advertising the free Watermelon Stevens isn't attached to anything, but the signboard still hangs off the table.
 * When Onion signals his want for a Watermelon Steven, part of the table is not colored.
 * At 7:36, Baby Melon disappears from Steven's front pocket.
 * After Garnet states that the watermelons Steven made were impressive, the color of the star on her back is black instead of its usual color pink.
 * In the beginning when Steven blew a seed off his face, it was on the ground, then in the next scene it disappeared.
 * When Greg spits watermelon seeds, he inclines, and spits. In one scene, there were four seeds in his hand. When he drops them, there are three, and in the next, they disappear.
 * When Ronaldo was editing his blog on his phone about the Watermelon Stevens, his phone isn't even turned on, yet he is typing on it.

Videos
Las Sandías Stevenpt-br:Watermelon StevenArbuzowy Steven Watermelon Steven