Steven Universe Wiki

Spoilers will be present! Please browse at your own risk.

READ MORE

Steven Universe Wiki
Steven Universe Wiki
Advertisement
This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the song or the band.

♫ I learned to stay true to myself by watching myself die. ♫

Steven


"Steven and the Stevens" is the 22nd episode of the first season of Steven Universe and the 22nd episode overall.

Official Synopsis[]

Steven needs a musical partner for an upcoming show, and uses a time travel device to recruit the perfect bandmate: HIMSELF![2]

Plot[]

Steven and the Stevens 011

The episode begins with the Gems in the Sea Shrine, looking for the Hourglass. Steven picks out the smallest hourglass. Pearl tells him that the hourglass would not be "so small and insignificant", it would be "beautiful and grand". Garnet chooses the biggest hourglass in the Sea Shrine. Pearl asks how they will transport it to the warp pad, and Garnet claims she can carry it. Pearl stops her, saying that they need to be careful which one they touch, reminding her what happened "last time". Amethyst then makes the call by grabbing an abstract designed hourglass. After she grabs it, the Sea Shrine's roof breaks, resulting in a huge amount of water pouring into the shrine. The Gems are about to leave, but Steven wants to get the small hourglass that he picked earlier because Amethyst got to keep hers. He runs and gets the hourglass, and as he runs back, a huge wave of water flows towards him. Garnet shapeshifts her hand, making it large enough to pull Steven away from the danger. The Gems then warp out of the sea shrine and back to the Beach House. When the Gems get back to the house, Steven asks if they will return to the Sea Shrine. Pearl then angrily says that they, unfortunately, have to wait another 100 years for the Sea Shrine to reform. Garnet then changes the subject by telling her that there is a lobster on her butt, to Pearl's dismay.

A Cookie Cat-shaped alarm clock starts to ring and Steven is reminded of the upcoming Beach-a-Palooza, which he is to be performing in with his father. He leaves the house, saying goodbye to the Gems and that it was fun on the mission.

Steven and the Stevens 056

Steven goes to It's a Wash to meet his father for their rehearsal, but cannot rehearse with him, as Yellowtail's boat is stuck in the car wash. Steven leaves, disappointed, saying that he wishes that the "stupid" boat was not stuck there in the first place. He suddenly gets teleported back in time, confused at first but soon glad to realize that he can prevent the boat from getting stuck. He runs to his father, calling, "It's fat! It's fat!" Greg stops Yellowtail from reversing it into the car wash. Steven realizes the Hourglass took him back in time with joy.

But while Greg tries to explain to Yellowtail that the boat is "fat", the truck pulling the boat moves backward and hits a pole, which breaks and crashes onto the truck, setting it on fire. The fire quickly spreads to the telephone wire and sets the car wash ablaze. Steven then wishes he could go back in time to stop himself from stopping his father. He goes back and manages to stop himself, both Stevens then deciding to create a band and go back in time to get more Stevens.

Steven and the Stevens 125

The scene cuts to four Stevens singing the song "Steven and the Stevens". After the song, they decide the "original Steven" should be the leader of the band. Steven 1 then labels the other three Stevens 2, 3, and 4. He states that Steven 2 is "the smart one", while 3 is "the funny one" and Steven 4 is "the sensitive one". Steven 1 then brushes his hair up, and labels himself "the handsome one".

Steven 4 then says something funny. Steven 1 tells 4 that Steven 3 is "the funny one", but then Steven 3 says they are all equally prone to being hilarious. Steven 1 then says that is too smart of an observation. 2 then asks who he is again, and 1, getting rather frustrated, tells him he's supposed to be the smart one. Steven 4 then asks if they are all not good looking since 1 is the handsome one. The other two Stevens disagree and suggest they all get jobs as models. Steven 1 then says that none of them is the handsome one, making all the other Stevens feel sad. Steven 1 then decides they take a five-minute break.

Steven and the Stevens 166

Steven goes outside and says he cannot believe that he is so annoying. He considers quitting the music business when suddenly he hears a loud racket. He enters the house to see that all 3 Stevens are playing loud music and asks them to stop. The other three Stevens decide to kick him out of the band, saying his attitude is not working for them. Steven 1 angrily objects about him being kicked out and tells the other Stevens that without him they would be nothing. This suddenly gives 1 the idea to go back in time to stop himself from ever creating the band.

Steven and the Stevens 277

The other three Stevens pursue him to different timelines, going as far back as "Gem Glow". They first travel to "Rose's Room", which creates more Stevens. Then they go to "Ocean Gem" where Steven 1 asks the Hourglass to go back to the beginning. Steven gets teleported to the beginning of the episode and asks the Steven there to give him the Hourglass. Suddenly, all the other clones teleport to exactly the same place. Steven 1 finally gets the Hourglass but stops laughing manically when he sees how scared his past self is. He sees the chaos he had created and shouts to all the other Stevens to stop. They all stop and realize their mistakes, and Steven 1 destroys the Hourglass of time in order to bring things back to where they were. All the copies of the Hourglass get destroyed along with the Stevens, and before all the Stevens disappear, the Steven 1 tells his past self that Greg can't play in the Beach-a-Palooza because of the boat being fat. He kisses Steven and tells him to stay cool before disintegrating, leaving a very confused and shocked Steven.

Steven still participates in the concert, except with the Crystal Gems this time singing "Steven and the Crystal Gems".

Features[]

Characters[]

Locations[]

Objects[]

Music[]

Songs[]

Instrumental Songs[]

Trivia[]

  • As past Steven went back in time for his own selfish reasons, this would be the first time Steven has technically been an antagonist.
  • Greg Universe and Yellowtail were seen together for the first time, both having the same voice actor, Tom Scharpling.
  • Some parts of this episode are based on elements from the Pilot.
    • The Hourglass from the pilot makes an appearance again in this episode, but with a slight appearance change. Because Pearl describes it differently in this episode than in the Pilot, it's questionable if the Hourglass is the same object in both episodes.
  • Greg jokingly states that Beach City's town population "is like 15 people".
    • Only 13 people appeared at Beach-a-Palooza, including Mayor Dewey, who didn't seem to be watching the Crystal Gems' performance.
  • Steven says, in Italian, "Arrivederci" to his past-self, which in English translates to "Goodbye".
    • In the Italian version, he says "Adios, amigo", which in English translates, from Spanish, to "Goodbye, friend".
  • When the original Steven orders the rest of the Stevens to stop fighting, there are 93 Stevens, including the original, in frame.

Cultural References[]

  • The events in the Sea Shrine is a reference to the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, specifically how the main characters have to pick the correct object in a collection of near-identical objects; in the episode, it is the Hourglass and in the film, it is the Holy Grail.
    • The parallels between the Glass of Time and the Holy Grail are also clear. Both were something "small and insignificant": the Holy Grail is a simple wooden cup, and the Glass of Time is the smallest and least complex of the hourglasses.
      • Pearl makes the reference even more obvious when she, much like the villain of the movie, mistakenly expects the Glass of Time to be grandiose and impressive.
  • This episode contains numerous references to the history of music.
    • Steven says that Steven and the Stevens are supposed to be "a lighthearted throwback to early rock & roll". The song Steven and the Stevens resembles the style of early rock songs from the 50s and 60s, and Steven 1's pompadour hairstyle resembles the hairstyles which were popular in the 1950s and early 1960s.
    • The way the Stevens as "the smart one", "the funny one", "the sensitive one" and "the handsome one" resembles the sort of themed stage personas which are common among boy bands.
    • Ste-Ste-Ste Steven and Big Fat Zucchini resemble hard rock, grunge, punk rock, and early metal.
    • The way Steven 1 is kicked out of the band over creative differences resembles the sort of backstage drama which has often affected popular, long-running bands.
  • A possible reference from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is one of the Stevens saying Arrivederci, which relates to the final word of Bruno Bucciarati's stand cry.

Continuity[]

  • Garnet is seen shapeshifting for the first time. She is shown to shapeshift by changing the malleability and size of certain parts of her body, a form of shapeshifting Pearl talked about in the episode "Cat Fingers".
  • This episode has multiple past episode references, the references being "Gem Glow" and "Rose's Room".
Steven visiting a scene from "Ocean Gem".
  • As the Stevens chase each other through time, they fast-forward to "Ocean Gem" when the ocean is missing. Since "Steven and the Stevens" aired before "Ocean Gem", this went unnoticed.
  • At the end of the episode, Garnet plays a keytar. A keytar is a fusion of a guitar and a keyboard, possibly hinting at Garnet's fusion status, which was revealed in "Jail Break".
    • She plays a keytar again in "Story for Steven". While this episode aired out of order, it was originally going to air before "Jail Break".

Errors[]

  • After Steven pulls the plug on the rest of the band while playing a song, the next shot shows the cord is never pulled out of the outlet.
  • When Steven is singing "Steven and the Crystal Gems", the microphone disappears, and reappears, most commonly when it shows all the Gems playing.
  • After Steven gets tackled, his scooter and helmet disappear.
Steven and the Stevens 048

Pearl's fingers error.

  • When Pearl is removing algae, you can see that two of the fingers on her left hand are not colored in.
  • During the song "Steven and the Stevens", a short frame of original Steven singing shows before quickly switching to the Steven playing the guitar.
  • During the song "Ste-Ste-Ste Steven", Steven 2 has a bass and Steven 4 a guitar, but when the original Steven disconnects the instruments, the bass, and guitar change places.
  • During the song Ste-Ste-Ste-Stevens, Amethyst is not behind the drum set but drumming is heard while the Stevens sing the song after the Steven 4 says "Amethyst said she'd do it", Amethyst is seen behind the drums, twirling her drumstick, after that, she keeps appearing and disappearing for a few scenes during the conversation between original Steven and Stevens 2,3, and 4.
  • When the original Steven said: "Without me, you'd all be nothing!", the star on his shirt is missing.
  • When the Stevens went back to the beginning of the episode, all of their numbers disappear.
  • When the Stevens went back to the beginning of the episode, the sanctuary inexplicably took much longer to fully submerge than it did in the original timeline.
  • When Steven exclaims that the hourglass took him back in time, his mouth overlaps his hand for a split second.
  • When the Stevens fight each other the animation of one Steven pounding another Steven's head only plays once also after the animation plays his mouth gets bright.

Transcript

View the episode's transcript here.

Gallery

New Gallery

Click to view the gallery for Steven and the Stevens (episode).

Videos[]

References

ve Episode List
Pilot Pilot
Season 1 A: Gem GlowLaser Light CannonCheeseburger BackpackTogether BreakfastFryboCat FingersBubble BuddiesSerious StevenTiger MillionaireSteven's LionArcade ManiaGiant WomanSo Many BirthdaysLars and the Cool KidsOnion TradeSteven the Sword FighterLion 2: The MovieBeach PartyRose's RoomCoach StevenJoking VictimSteven and the StevensMonster BuddiesAn Indirect KissMirror Gem/Ocean Gem

B: House GuestSpace RaceSecret TeamIsland AdventureKeep Beach City WeirdFusion CuisineGarnet's UniverseWatermelon StevenLion 3: Straight to VideoWarp TourAlone TogetherThe TestFuture VisionOn the RunHorror ClubWinter ForecastMaximum CapacityMarble MadnessRose's ScabbardOpen BookShirt ClubStory for StevenThe MessagePolitical PowerThe Return/Jail Break

Season 2 Full DisclosureJoy RideSay UncleLove LettersReformedSworn to the SwordRising Tides, Crashing SkiesKeeping It TogetherWe Need to TalkChille TidCry for HelpKeystone MotelOnion FriendHistorical FrictionFriend ShipNightmare HospitalSadie's SongCatch and ReleaseWhen It RainsBack to the BarnToo FarThe AnswerSteven's BirthdayIt Could've Been Great/Message ReceivedLog Date 7 15 2
Season 3 Super Watermelon Island/Gem DrillSame Old WorldBarn MatesHit the DiamondSteven FloatsDrop Beat DadMr. GregToo Short to RideThe New LarsBeach City DriftRestaurant WarsKiki's Pizza Delivery ServiceMonster ReunionAlone at SeaGreg the BabysitterGem HuntCrack the WhipSteven vs. AmethystBismuthBetaEarthlingsBack to the MoonBubbled
Season 4 Kindergarten KidKnow Your FusionBuddy's BookMindful EducationFuture Boy ZoltronLast One Out of Beach CityOnion GangGem HarvestThree Gems and a BabySteven's DreamAdventures in Light DistortionGem HeistThe ZooThat Will Be AllThe New Crystal GemsStorm in the RoomRocknaldoTiger PhilanthropistRoom for RubyLion 4: Alternate EndingDoug OutThe Good LarsAre You My Dad?I Am My Mom
Season 5 Stuck TogetherThe TrialOff ColorsLars' HeadDewey WinsGemcationRaising the BarnBack to the KindergartenSadie KillerKevin PartyLars of the StarsJungle MoonYour Mother and MineThe Big ShowPool HoppingLetters to LarsCan't Go BackA Single Pale RoseNow We're Only Falling ApartWhat's Your Problem?The QuestionMade of HonorReunitedLegs From Here to HomeworldFamiliarTogether AloneEscapismChange Your Mind
Film Steven Universe: The Movie
Steven Universe Future Little HomeschoolGuidanceRose BudsVolleyballBluebirdA Very Special EpisodeSnow DayWhy So Blue?Little GraduationPrickly PairIn DreamsBismuth CasualTogether ForeverGrowing PainsMr. UniverseFragmentsHomeworld BoundEverything's FineI Am My MonsterThe Future
Shorts Lion Loves to Fit in a BoxThe Classroom Gems: What Are Gems?We Are the Crystal GemsThe Classroom Gems: How Are Gems Made?UnboxingThe Classroom Gems: FusionCooking with LionGem KaraokeSteven ReactsVideo ChatSteven's Song Time
Advertisement