When It Rains

"I'm going to say something... Thank you."

"When It Rains" is the 19th episode on season 2, and the 71st episode overall.

Synopsis
Steven helps a friend who is afraid of thunderstorms.

Plot
The episode begins with the Crystal Gems outside of Steven's bathroom demanding that Peridot reveal information on the Cluster, to which she angrily refuses. Pearl attempts to reason with her, offering to negotiate a trade. Peridot sarcastically demands that her equipment to be returned, before facetiously referring to the fact that it had already been destroyed back at the Galaxy Warp. Steven finishes his business and leaves the bathroom.

Pearl, flustered, argues that Peridot will crack eventually, a claim which she aggressivley denies. Garnet, realizing that their questions were in vain, sugguests that they go investigate the Cluster on their own. Steven, excited pleads to accompany the Gems, though Garnet refuses, instead asking him to stay behind and watch over Peridot. Before the Gems depart, Garnet tells Steven that she loves him making Pearl blush.

As Steven is cooking soup on his stove, a rain storm is raging outside. He tells Peridot that the Gems left, and that she is now free to come out of the bathroom. She refuses, claiming that she likes it in there. After hearing a particularly loud bolt of thunder however, Peridot immediately kicks her way out of the bathroom, exclaiming, "It's happening!" Steven questions her as to what's wrong, and she frantically reasons that only the Cluster can make a noise like that. Steven explains to her that it's simply thunder, which happens when it rains. He goes on to use his soup as an anallagy, attempting to summarize the process of the rain cycle using steam to represent clouds, and condensation to represent water.

Ignoring her cry for him to stop, Steven rushes outside and begins to play in the rain, beckoning for her to join him. Slowly, Peridot moves her hand into the rain, feeling it on her for the first time, before reluctantly stepping out of the door and into storm. Back inside, Peridot thanks Steven for explaining rain to her, explaining that he is a much more intelligent being than she had initially thought, and decides that she is ready to reveal information regarding the Cluster. Steven tries to get her to tell the Crystal Gems, though she bitterly refuses. She ominously offers to escort Steven to the Kindergarten, which has backups of her logs relating to the Cluster and to the forced fusion Gem shard experiments. Steven reluctantly agrees to go, on the condition that he Peridot holds his hand for the duration of the mission.

They warp to Kindergarten,falling off the Warp Pad in the process. Steven expresses discomfort at being back, and Peridot remarks at how poorly the Kindergarten has been managed since the rebellion ended. She presumptuously assumes that Steven was made at there, confusing him, and Steven questions her. Peridot explains that since he is a type of quartz, then he must have been there, not knowing that Steven is a human/Gem hybrid. Steven briefly attempts to explain this to her before being dismissed by Peridot who does not care. The pair proceed to slide down the square hole in the ground that had once been used by a Flask Robonoid as an elevator shaft, and arrive at the Prime Kindergarten Control Room of Facet Five. She tells him that after they were defeated at the end of the Rebellion, Homeworld focused their attention to another use for the planet. Steven asks again what the Cluster is, and Peridot informs him that it is a Gem geoweapon. She goes on to tell him that while she was not around for the initial experiments, she did manage to read over a few hundred years of reports. Peridot, weaker than she is used to after the loss of her limb enhancers, fails to pull of it a panel off from an adjacent wall, and gives up, telling Steven that they're not going to get anywhere. Steven, asking if he could try, moves to the wall and pulls out the panel with relative ease, a feat which amazes Peridot. After tinkering with a few circuits, she partially reactivates the control room.

Walking to the nearby control center, Peridot expresses embarrassment at no longer being able to reach it, before Steven slings her over his shoulders. She coldly informs him that she could have handled it herself. Peridot goes on to activate the screen which displays information on hundreds, if not thousands of gem fragments. Steven asks again about the Cluster, and Peridot changes the screen to a revolving model of the earth and she reveals how it fits in to Homeworlds plans; as the host planet for the Cluster, a forced fusion consisting of millions of gem shards. She proceeds to explain that the smaller force fusions that they had already encountered were simply prototypes for it. Currently, the Cluster is incubating in the Earths core. She reveals that they may have a chance at beating it.

On the way back to the warp pad, Peridot explains to Steven that he is all the help that she will need in stopping the Cluster due to his "vast knowledge" on the Earth and its behavior. He attribute's Peridot's misunderstanding to lack of clarity, and explains that the only reason why he knows how rain works is because Greg told him how it works. He used to be afraid of thunderstorms, just like Peridot, and after learning the mechanics of it, he was no longer scared. His offer is that she share the knowledge to the Crystal Gems, who are vastly more capable of stopping the Cluster than Steven alone.

While Peridot and Steven argue, Gem mutants crowd around the Warp Pad, and Steven immediately summons a bubble shield around himself and Peridot. The mutants chase them until they are cornered, at which point the Crystal Gems come to help, bubbling them and saving both Steven, as well as Peridot. After Pearl scolds him for letting Peridot lead him into what could be a trap, he tells Peridot that they need the help of the Gems if they are to have any chance of stopping the Cluster. After leaving the bubble shield, Peridot confronts the Gems, takes the blame off of Steven, and agrees to share their much-needed information.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Peridot
 * Garnet
 * Amethyst
 * Pearl
 * Cluster Gems
 * Rose Quartz (mentioned)
 * Greg (mentioned)
 * The Cluster (mentioned)

Objects

 * Warp Pad
 * Injectors
 * Gem Shards (pictured)
 * Pearl picture

Locations

 * Kindergarten
 * Prime Kindergarten Control Room
 * Beach City
 * Beach House
 * Steven's Bathroom

Instrumental Songs

 * Gem Shards
 * Little Peridot
 * Peridot and Steven
 * Peridot in the Rain

Trivia

 * This is the first time Peridot is seen in a promo. This is also the first time any Homeworld Gem is seen in a promo.
 * Peridot starts cooperating with the gems in this episode, and finally calls them the Crystal Gems instead of clods.
 * Peridot now says Steven's name without thinking of him as a separate species.
 * This is the third time Steven is seen using the stove. The first was in "House Guest", and the second was in "Onion Friend".
 * Peridot admits to having used Steven's toothbrush.
 * Before Steven corrected her, Peridot believed that Steven was "some kind of quartz" formed in Earth's Kindergarten.
 * Technically Peridot is half right because Steven does have the rose quartz gem.
 * Peridot asks Steven if he is from another planet in this episode. This confirms that gems have used other planets for gem cultivation.
 * This episode contains one of Katie Mitroff's favorite scenes she has ever drawn for the show.
 * The Cluster is revealed to actually be at the core of the Earth, although the screen depicted that it was almost directly underneath North America.When_It_Rains00090.jpg
 * The episode ends without an iris close.
 * This could possibly be because the next episode, "Back to the Barn", takes off directly from the end.
 * Peridot's weakness without her Limb Enhancers is further shown as Steven could easily remove a panel she could barely budge.
 * Steven has occasionally displayed great strength he has inherited from his mother; most notably in "Arcade Mania" where he tears an arcade machine in half with his bare hands.
 * This is the fourth time the Kindergarten is seen.
 * The first time was in "On the Run", the second time was in "Marble Madness", and the third time was in "Keeping it Together".
 * This episode aired on Cartoon Networks 23rd anniversary.

Cultural References

 * The title is most likely a reference to the phrase "when it rains, it pours."
 * Garnet forming a heart shape with her hands is a popular social hand gesture of love.
 * Steven's asking Peridot "What's up, Dot?" is a nod to "What's up, Doc?", the catchphrase commonly associated with the Looney Tunes character Bugs Bunny.
 * Steven mentions "The Ballad of Rose and Greg", a probable send-up to the Beatles song "The Ballad of John and Yoko".
 * This is also the first time Steven mentions his parents by their first names.

Continuity

 * Peridot is still living in Steven's bathroom, as of "Catch and Release".
 * Peridot's limb enhancers are still gone.
 * Peridot mentions that all her logs up to date 652, which she made in "Keeping it Together", still exist.
 * Peridot's surprise at Steven being a hybrid reinforces the concept that Steven is the first gem hybrid.
 * This is the second time Garnet tells Steven she loves him. The first was in "Jail Break".
 * However, this time she says "I love you" instead of "we [already] love you".
 * This is the second time Garnet uses electricity in an offensive manner, the first being "Catch and Release".
 * This is the first time she uses her electrokinesis to poof a gem.
 * While Amethyst and Pearl get close to the Cluster Gems while fighting them, Garnet keeps her distance. She might still be scared by the fact that they are forced fusions.

Errors

 * When Steven turns towards Peridot when she kicks the bathroom door open, the star on his shirt goes over the pot lid he's holding.
 * When Peridot pushes Steven aside, he is standing. However in the next scene, he is sitting down, appearing to have been pushed to the ground.
 * When the giant mouth cluster is poofed, its gemstone falls onto the ground. After Steven talks to Peridot, the gemstone is gone.