An Indirect Kiss

"Why, do you care about me or something?"

"An Indirect Kiss" is the 24th episode of the first season of Steven Universe, and the 24th episode overall.

Synopsis
When Amethyst cracks her gemstone, Steven and the Crystal Gems go on a mission to heal her.

Plot
Steven is being carried by Lion to go to the top of the temple to meet Connie Maheswaran for a picnic. Steven is depressed and since Connie wants to know why, Steven tells a story. Amethyst was goofing around the cliff and Steven kept telling Amethyst not to fall off. She kept messing with Steven, who kept getting worried for her safety every time she did that. She fell off and landed on a rock. Steven ran down the cliff as fast as he could, and Amethyst showed him her eye, hidden behind her bangs, that has become big and googly. Garnet and Pearl ran to them and tried to get Amethyst to show her gem. Garnet revealed Amethyst's gem to has been cracked, which results in a fence being built around the cliff.

Steven ends the story but Connie wants to know what happened to Amethyst. Steven doesn't want to tell her, but agrees to continue on the condition that she let him try on her glasses. Connie agrees, but only with the further condition that Steven gives her his juice. Steven then continues the story. It cuts back to the Gems talking about Amethyst.

As they spoke, Pearl and Garnet revealed that Rose Quartz had healing tears. Steven tried to heal Amethyst's gem with tears, but failed. Garnet insisted that they go to Rose Quartz's healing spring to heal Amethyst. Amethyst made a weird shriveled face and began talking backwards.

They went to the Fountain, but almost everything was covered with brambles of thorns and spikes. Steven tried again, but it still wouldn't work. Amethyst attempted to communicate with Steven through pantamime as her speech became unintelligible.

After having realized that Amethyst was suggesting pain to cause tears, Steven attempted to poke himself on nearby thorns. However, the thorns came to life and tried to attack him. Amethyst tackled him out of the way, but this further cracked her gem, which caused her head to be swapped with her right foot. Garnet and Pearl, oblivious to the plant's sentience, proceeded to make a path through the wall of thorns. Once through to the spring, they saw that it too had become overgrown, and was no longer flowing healing water. Garnet and Pearl left to find out what stopped the spring, as Amethyst's condition worsened (all her limbs had grown long and thin). He and Amethyst are once again attacked by the thorns, so Steven dragged Amethyst into the dry spring.

After, Steven was sad that he couldn't save Amethyst and started to cry. A tear hit the broken gem; however, nothing happened. Steven grew extremely upset.

Then, the spring (which is a statue of Rose Quartz) began to work, which caused a massive overflow of healing water and caused the thorns to bloom into roses as Amethyst returned to normal. Steven exclaimed to Pearl how his tears caused the spring to be fixed. Pearl responded that she and Garnet were the real reason behind the renewed spring, that he would never have any real magic powers, and that they no longer wanted anything to do with him.

Cutting back to present day, Connie is shocked. Steven admits that this was not said but it is how he feels. Connie tells him that he can always come to her, magic or not, and leans in for a kiss only to stop short and exclaim that she has a headache. After taking her glasses off, she realizes she can see without them. Both are shocked and they realize Steven's juice (which he foreshadows by stating that the juice box trade was mostly his spit) healed her. The episode ends with Steven rushing off to the gems to tell them about his new healing saliva ability, while Connie pops the lenses out of her glasses.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Amethyst (flashback)
 * Pearl (flashback)
 * Garnet (flashback)
 * Lion
 * Connie Maheswaran
 * Rose Quartz (Pictured, mentioned)

Objects

 * Durian Juice
 * Warp Pad (flashback)

Locations

 * Beach City
 * Rose's Fountain (first appearance, flashback)

Music

 * Overgrown Brambles
 * Rose's Fountain
 * Connie

Trivia

 * The title refers to the indirect kiss Steven gives to Connie by sharing his durian juice box with her that had his backwash.
 * It is shown that a Gem's gemstone can become cracked if their gem receives too much damage.
 * If the gem is cracked for too long, the Gem starts to "glitch".
 * This is the first episode in which none of the Gems besides Steven physically appear, rather, they are merely part of Steven's flashback sequence and seen through Steven's perspective.
 * It is revealed that Rose Quartz has a fountain that can repair damaged gems due to it flowing with her tears.
 * Steven is revealed to have troubled feelings for his mother due to the fact that the other Gems know about her and he doesn't.
 * Steven is shown to have healing powers contained in his saliva, unlike his mother, Rose Quartz, who had healing tears.
 * Although it looks less hygienic, healing spit is more useful than healing tears because it is more readily available.
 * Connie appears more affectionate towards Steven than in previous episodes.
 * It is revealed that Connie has a romantic interest on Steven, as she attempted to kiss him.
 * In many other language versions, Amethyst's backward speeches were normal.
 * The story was told from Steven's perspective so most of what happened could be how he saw it, such as Pearl being very clingy to Garnet could have been far-fetched.
 * While submerged in water of the fountain, it appeared to Steven that his mother's statue was reaching toward him trying to bring him to the surface. It is possible that this symbolized a feeling of closeness to his mother that he did not feel beforehand until the fountain seemed to respond to his emotional distress.
 * This is sixth episode not to end with a single star-shaped iris and, instead, there is a cut to the credits. The last episode without the usual ending was "Monster Buddies".

Amethyst's Backwards Messages Decoded

 * "Hey guys, what are you doing on the beach?"
 * "Ugh, I'm going home."
 * "Hey, if your body can't cry on its own, you gotta make it cry."
 * "Hey, the vines are coming to life and are gonna kill Steven just so you know."
 * "Don't worry or anything, I'm good."
 * "Uh, a little help?"
 * "Cheer up, will ya?"

Cultural References

 * Amethyst's googly eye is a possible reference to Wilt from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and his googly eye in the special "Good Wilt Hunting".
 * The facial expressions Amethyst pulls appear to be a reference to internet memes of similar strained expressions used as reactions to certain situations.
 * When Amethyst loses the shape of her body, it may be a reference to Jiggler, a character in "The Jiggler" from Adventure Time.
 * Steven saying "I'm really feeling it!" at Rose's Fountain may be a reference to Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles, as he said the same phrase in his reveal trailer for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U, which coincidentally was first shown only 20 days before the airing of this episode.
 * In some ancient Hebrew traditions, saliva was said to have healing properties.

Continuity

 * When Connie was about to kiss Steven, there was a little piece of "Connie (piano demo)" played in background.

Errors

 * In some scenes, Rose's statue has longer arms than in previous scenes.
 * When Amethyst loses control of her body when her gem becomes more broken, her head is replaced by her left foot. However, in a following scene, the head is now on the right instead.
 * When the statue starts flowing once more, you can see the star in Garnet's uniform is pale red, when it's supposed to be dark pink.
 * Near the end of the episode, Lion disappears in some scenes.
 * When Steven tells Amethyst to show her gem to him, Amethyst's star shaped cut outs on her tights are missing.