Growing Pains

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“	Not wrong! It's that adverse childhood experiences or childhood trauma can have a lasting impact on how your body responds to stress. This can affect your social, emotional, and physical development.	”
—Dr. Priyanka Maheswaran

Growing Pains
Season	Future
Episode	14
Overall	14
Broadcast Information
Airdate	March 13, 2020
Production Code	TBA
Viewers	TBA
Credits
Written and Storyboarded by	Paul Villeco Drew Green
Directed by	Ki-Yong Bae & Park Jinhui (animation) Liz Artinian (art) Kat Morris & Alonso Ramirez Ramos (directors)
Episode Guide
Previous	"Together Forever"
Next	"Mr. Universe"

"Growing Pains" is the 14^th episode of Steven Universe Future and the 14^th episode overall.

Official Synopsis

Steven sees a doctor for the first time.

Plot

The episode begins with Steven, who is eating ice cream, watching a preview of a Dogcopter movie, where he laments how people get married except him and glows pink. He calls the Gems on his phone but cannot reach them due to them doing a field trip for Little Homeworld. He skips calling Connie and calls Greg, who manages to get through the phone to Steven's delight, but is managing Sadie on tour, which is extended and loses the call when they go through a tunnel. While going to the fridge, he sees Connie's glow bracelet and glows pink again while grows. As Connie calls him, Steven at first decides to let her message go to voicemail, but his hand grows that he accidentally accepts her call. On the phone, Connie expresses her worry for him as she sees his face and body begin to grow and swell up, but Steven responds to her concern about it not being a big deal. She suggests he goes to see her mother.

Her mother had a cancellation and sees him to determine what is going on. Connie assures him everything will be alright, and she exits the room while on the phone. She checks his temperature and then his heart beat after he turns pink, getting a sound from his gem. As she takes his blood pressure, his right arm swells and breaks the cuff, concluding his blood pressure is high. After asking about his general practitioner, stating that he never went to the doctor until now, she accidentally provokes him to glow and swell up, but decides to run more tests. After taking an x-ray, she shows Steven the x-rays of the other Gems, revealing only their gem shows up on the scan (except for Amethyst), but since Steven has a human body, his x-ray reveals a human skeleton with his gem and fractures on his bones. Despite "miraculous recoveries", she wonders if he has suffered emotional trauma. Steven recalls past events (such as: favorite ice cream being cancelled, attacked by a corrupted gem, nearly drowning with Connie, nearly turning into a lump of cats, aging quickly, Amethyst's near death and Pearl's first poofing, and being captured as a prisoner; but he considers those as the "early parts"), and it is concluded despite everything he's been through during his childhood, his he is responding to minor threats as major ones, as if his life was in danger. When it comes to the possibility of having a recent experience that didn't go so well for him, as he thinks about his proposal to Connie backfiring, he starts to glow pink again and grow exponentially.

As Connie comes into the room, she witnesses Steven's growing and glowing getting out of control and her mother demands to know what is going on. When Connie realizes that their presence is making Steven's condition worse, Steven continues to grow even more and persuades them to leave when shouting, "I... Can't... BE AROUND YOU RIGHT NOW!" The entire room is full of cracks, and Greg arrives at the last second. He explains Connie called him about his condition, and before she leaves to give Steven the space he needs, he thanks her. Greg apologizes for not knowing what Steven has been through, but he assures that it wasn't his fault. Steven reveals his proposal to Connie to him. He begins weeping as he doesn't know how to deal with all of this stress. Greg is able to calm him down and get him back to normal size. Back at the house, Steven and Greg talk about how making mistakes is okay, and normal to most people,which makes him realize that his future is for him to decide. He suggests he gets some rest and tells him to take care of his problems one at a time, putting Steven at a bit more ease

Features

Characters

• Steven Universe/Pink Steven
• Greg Universe
• Connie Maheswaran
• Dr. Priyanka Maheswaran
• Dogcopter
• Lion (flashback)
• Peridot (flashback)
• Yellow Diamond (flashback)
• Cluster Gems (flashback)
• The Cluster (flashback)
• Blue Diamond (flashback)
• Nephrite (flashback)
• Holo-Pearl (flashback)
• White Diamond (flashback)
• Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond (imagined/flashback)
• Lars Barriga (flashback)
• Stevonnie (flashback)
• Ronaldo Fryman (flashback)
• Lighthouse Gem Monster (flashback)
• Malachite (flashback)
• Jasper (flashback)
• Ocean Jasper (flashback)
• Bismuth (flashback)
• "Eyeball" (flashback)
• Topaz (flashback)
• Obsidian (flashback)
• Buck Dewey (pictured)
• Sadie Miller (mentioned)
• Shep (mentioned)
• Garnet (mentioned; flashback)
• Amethyst (mentioned; flashback)
• Pearl (mentioned; flashback)

Objects

• Steven's Phone
• Connie's Glow Bracelet
• Cookie Cat (mentioned)
• Pearl's Swords (flashback)
• Gem Warship (flashback)
• The Universe Mach 3 (flashback)
• The Lighthouse (flashback)
• Escape Pod (flashback)
• Limb Enhancers (flashback)
• Gem Drill (flashback)
• Roaming Eye (flashback)
• Star Skipper (flashback)
• Diamond Ships (flashback)
• Corrupting Light (flashback)

Locations

• Beach City
  • Crystal Temple
    • Rose's Room (flashback)
    • Beach House
      • Steven's Room
  • It's a Wash (flashback, mentioned)
• Hospital
• Rose's Fountain (flashback)
• Pearl's Arena (flashback)
• Sea Shrine (flashback)
• U-Stor (flashback)
• Ancient Gem Colony Ship (flashback)
• The Great North (flashback)
• Beta Kindergarten (flashback)
• Gem Homeworld (flashback)
  • Unknown Capital City (flashback)
  • Homeworld Kindergarten (flashback)
• Jungle Moon (flashback)
  • Jungle Moon Base (flashback)

Music

Songs

• TBA

Instrumental

• TBA

Trivia

• When Gems are given X-Rays, only their gemstones are seen. This is due to the fact that their bodies are made of light being projected by their gemstone (the only permanently-physical part of their body.)
  • In Amethyst's X-Ray, not only is her gemstone visible, but the contents of her shapeshifted digestive system (including the food and other miscellaneous objects she'd eaten) can also be seen.
• In the Dogcopter 6 trailer, Drew's name might be a nod to Drew Green, who also storyboarded on this episode.
• Steven’s birthday being on August 15th is finally shown in the show on Steven’s hospital chart.
  • This birthday of August 15th, while not mentioned or shown on-screen until this episode, has been mentioned by the Crewniverse before, and Steven shares a birthday with Rebecca Sugar's brother Steven Sugar (the namesake and inspiration for the character).
• This episode reveals the reason for Steven glowing pink and freaking out throughout Future is due to Steven having been through so many life-threatening traumatic situations.
  • According to Priyanka, this has resulted in a major negative impact on Steven's mental health; Steven doesn't know how to react to small amounts of stress, like his friends moving on with their lives.

Cultural References

• Steven referring to his issues as "third-era problems" is a play on the phrase "first-world problems" with "Era 3".

Continuity

• During Steven’s medicinal examination ‘Quartz Cutie-pie DeMayo Diamond’ can be seen under Steven’s middle name on Priyanka’s clipboard. This name was mentioned by Steven in "Together Forever".
• In explaining his mental trauma, Steven recalls the events of numerous past episodes, clips of which appear on-screen.
  • Steven specifically mentions some events, and says that they're "only the early stuff" (referencing the fact that all these traumatic events took place in Season 1 of the series). These events include:
    • Cookie Cat ice cream being cancelled and being attacked by a corrupted Nephrite in "Gem Glow".
    • Getting trapped at the bottom of the ocean with Connie in a bubble in "Bubble Buddies".
    • Turning into a cat monster in "Cat Fingers".
    • Almost dying by rapidly aging in "So Many Birthdays".
    • Amethyst's gem getting cracked in "An Indirect Kiss".
    • Pearl being poofed in "Steven the Sword Fighter".
    • Jasper poofing Garnet in "The Return".
    • Waking up on the Gem Warship in "Jail Break".
  • Other events — not mentioned but still shown on-screen — include:
    • Witnessing the alternate Stevens dying in "Steven and the Stevens".
    • The Universe Mach 3 falling apart in "Space Race".
    • Being kidnapped by Ronaldo in "Keep Beach City Weird".
    • Lars almost being sacrificed in "Horror Club".
    • Amethyst shapeshifting into Rose Quartz in "Maximum Capacity".
    • Lapis Lazuli trapping Jasper under the ocean in "Jail Break".
    • Being attacked by the Crystal Gems while in Peridot's Escape Pod in "Joy Ride".
    • Witnessing the Hand Cluster form in "Keeping It Together".
    • Almost being attacked by Jasper in the mindscape in "Chille Tid".
    • Being attacked by Peridot in "Friend Ship".
    • Being attacked by Cluster Gems in "Nightmare Hospital".
    • Being kidnapped by Peridot in "Catch and Release".
    • Confronting the Cluster in "Gem Drill".
    • Seeing a corrupted Ocean Jasper in "Gem Hunt".
    • Being attacked by Bismuth in "Bismuth".
    • Witnessing Jasper's corrupting in "Earthlings".
    • Being attacked by "Eyeball" in "Bubbled".
    • Stevonnie's panic attack in "Mindful Education".
    • The Roaming Eye going faster than the speed of light in "Adventures in Light Distortion".
    • Confronting the fake Rose that Steven made in "Storm in the Room".
    • Connie being kidnapped by Topaz in "Are You My Dad?"
    • Being interrogated by Blue Diamond in "The Trial".
    • Lars dying in "Off Colors".
    • Stevonnie crashing the Star Skipper in "Lars of the Stars".
    • Stevonnie's dream of Pink Diamond in "Jungle Moon".
    • Trying to get through to Yellow and Blue Diamond in "Reunited".
    • Steven's nightmare in "Together Alone" where he throws up Rose's hair.
    • Being grabbed by Yellow Diamond as Stevonnie in "Together Alone"
    • Blue Diamond using her emotional powers on him in "Change Your Mind".
    • Scaling the Diamond Mech as Obsidian in "Change Your Mind".
    • Steven's nightmare of the Corrupting Light in "Change Your Mind".
    • Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl being controlled by White Diamond in "Change Your Mind".
    • Having his gem pulled out in "Change Your Mind".

Errors

• Despite "Snow Day" taking place during winter (which would imply Steven is now 17 given his birthday is on August 15th), Dr. Maheswaran says that Steven is still 16 years old.
• When Steven is growing to giant proportions in Priyanka's office, Connie's skin is coloured incorrectly, being the same as Steven's.
• When Priyanka was listening to Steven’s heartbeat his gem appeared to have a hexagonal facet instead of its usual Pentagonal facet.

Transcript

View the episode's transcript here.

Gallery

Click to view the gallery for Growing Pains.

Videos

A Very Pink Steven Steven Universe Future Cartoon Network