Secret Team

"Secret Team" is the 29th episode of the first season of Steven Universe, and the 29th overall episode of the series.

Official Synopsis
Steven, Amethyst, and Pearl accidentally pop a bubbled gem and form a secret team to secretly retrieve the missing shards.

Plot
Steven is in Amethyst's room jumping in a puddle when Amethyst tells Steven to "put more ball into your cannon", which confuses Steven, then Amethyst demonstrates by jumping then turning into a ball. Steven and Amethyst crawl out of the puddle to find one for Steven to jump into when he looks into one to find The Burning Room and Garnet bringing back a bubbled gem. Amethyst then pulls Steven back and tells him only Garnet is allowed in there. Amethyst suggests for Steven to climb up a pile of trash and jump into another puddle, which leads him to Pearl's room.

When they get in Pearl's room, they see Pearl with gem shards that Rose Quartz had bubbled, staring at it with contempt. Amethyst realizes that Garnet would be agitated if she finds out what Pearl did, and decides to sneak up on Pearl.

After surprising Pearl, Amethyst threatens to tell on Pearl which results in them arguing. Steven tries to intervene so he grabs the bubble, and Pearl tells Steven to be careful with it. Simultaneously, Pearl and Amethyst push the bubble and pop it. To their horror, the gem fragments escape, turning into hideous arms. Steven wants to tell Garnet what happened but is told not to do so as they would be severely punished if she knew, so they form a secret team to recover the fragments, with Steven giving each of them a V.I.Pizza card to be their 'official membership cards'.

After a series of montages of Steven struggling to take out one fragment and the Gems taking out many with teamwork they finally retrieve all the fragments. Steven bubbles them and while attempting to put them back he sees Garnet in the Burning Room and freaks out so Amethyst and Pearl pull him up to see whats wrong. After telling what happened them they ask if Garnet saw him, which Steven replies with a "no". Pearl and Amethyst then put Steven back in the puddle and he puts the bubble back.

Once this is finished, they return to Pearl's room and Steven asks what's next. Amethyst replies that nothing is next and, much to Steven's dismay, they disband their secret team. Upset, Steven walks to Beach Citywalk Fries to get a bag of bits and sulk about the team. Steven has a brief conversation with Mr. Fryman that gives him an idea to bring the team back together.

Back in Pearl's room, Steven tries to reform the team by telling Amethyst and Pearl that he had left his special hat in the Big Donut, and since it is closed, they should all sneak in and retrieve it. Pearl scolds Steven for thinking that what they did was a fun game, and Amethyst tells Pearl that it was Pearl's fault in the first place. The two begin to argue again and rip their V.I.Pizza cards, symbolizing them 'quitting' the team permanently.

Next, Steven and Garnet are sitting in Fish Stew Pizza. Steven ends up confessing about the popped bubble to Garnet and Garnet asks Steven if he's telling her this because it's the right thing. Steven replies that he's not, and just wants to have Secret Team again. Garnet tells him that they can form a team of their own and calls Kiki over to receive a V.I.Pizza card.

Returning to Pearl's room, Garnet comes in and drops Amethyst and Steven in front of Pearl. Amethyst and Steven ask Garnet what's going on and she tells them that she knows about the gem shards. When neither Amethyst nor Pearl confesses to popping the bubble, Steven comes forward and says that it was all his fault. Pearl says that she can't believe he would do such a thing. Garnet then says if no one else is guilty, then she'll have to punish Steven. Steven cries out in horror at the prospect of punishment and Garnet tells him to come with her.

Suddenly, a black hand shoots out of the water and drags Garnet back under with it. Amethyst and Pearl run over to the hand, which had resurfaced in another puddle, and the hand disappears again. Steven says that they must have missed a shard and the hand reappears and punches Amethyst, separating her from Pearl. They each fight a black hand of their own with Steven looking on and occasionally calling out their names helplessly whenever they get hit.

Eventually, both end up becoming trapped in the hands grasp. Pearl tells Amethyst to shape-shift in order to escape, to which she replies that she can't because she's freaking out. Amethyst then tells Pearl that she should and Pearl responds that she can't concentrate. Fearful, Pearl confesses that she should never of had the bubble in the first place and Amethyst admits that it would have never popped if she hadn't invaded Pearl's personal space. Steven also admits, his admission being that he knew Secret Team was wrong all along but that he had just wanted to see Amethyst and Pearl getting along.

Garnet then emerges from the water and shapeshifts her hands back to normal, revealing that it was her attacking all along. The others are shocked and Garnet angrily states that Pearl and Amethyst can't get along without them thinking she's going to kill them. She then crouches next to Steven and tells him that she understands that he wanted to help and protect Amethyst and Pearl, even from her, and that they made him feel like he needed to take their side. Garnet goes on to say that there are no sides because they're all apart of the same team: the Crystal Gems. Garnet and Steven tear their V.I.Pizza cards and they all drop them in the center of the fountain, ending Secret Team once and for all. The episode ends with Steven remarking that, between the four of them, they could have all gotten a free pizza.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Amethyst
 * Pearl
 * Garnet (antagonist with her arms)
 * Rose Quartz (mentioned)
 * Ronaldo Fryman (cameo)
 * Kiki (cameo)
 * Mr. Fryman

Songs

 * Pearl's Theme
 * The Waterfall (instrumental)
 * Secret Team (song)
 * We Were The Best
 * Steven's Confession

Trivia

 * There are puddles in Amethyst's Room that leads to The Burning Room and Pearl's Room.
 * A waterfall from Pearl's room falls down into Amethyst's room, implying that Pearl's room is above Amethyst's room, but Amethyst has the ability to access Pearl's room via a puddle on the floor.
 * It is revealed that only Garnet is allowed in The Burning Room.
 * Steven's bubbles are the same color as Rose's due to him possessing the same gem his mother had.
 * This is the second episode with animate gem shards, the first being "Frybo".
 * But in "Frybo", the gem shards needed a medium (clothes and costumes) to become animated while in this episode the gem shards directly animated themselves in the form of hands.
 * This is the 3rd episode that mostly took place inside the temple. The first was "Together Breakfast" and the second was "Rose's Room".
 * This marks the second time Garnet is seen shapeshifting.
 * This marks the third time Steven is seen bubbling an item.
 * this is the second time Garnet is the antagonist but in this case with her arms the first episode was Tiger Millionaire (episode)
 * It is revealed that Gems can summon their weapon as many times as they want.
 * Amethyst's whip dropped from her hand while fighting one of The Hands, so she summoned another whip.
 * In "Ocean Gem", Pearl summoned another spear while having one already in order to fight her own water clones.

Cultural References

 * The promotional art for this episode is a reference to "Charlie's Angels," a show which featured 3 women working for a man by the name of Charlie.

Errors

 * When Garnet lets go of Amethyst and Pearl, they fell to the right and left of Steven, but at the 10:46 minute change position.
 * Amethyst and Pearl broke their pizza coupons and threw them in the water Pearl's quarter, but at the end of episode the two still have their coupons.

Transcript
Click here to see the transcript.

Videos
pt-br: