History Recap / StevenUniverseS4E15TheNewCrystalGems

* PeekABangs: Lapis impersonates Amethyst by pulling her hair down to cover half her face.

* RealityEnsues:
** As Connie lampshades, the car wash is obviously going to be unstaffed with both Universe men in space.
** Connie being miffed at Lapis is understandable given the Gem tried to drown her in the past.
** Connie tries to work with Lapis and Peridot as a team, but it's hard when Lapis doesn't even remember who she is, and the two other Gems still have their respective traumas and flaws to overcome in Steven's absence.
** While Steven has usually dealt with the Gems and their problems with one another, Connie hasn't. So when Lapis and Peridot get into a petty argument, Connie's patience finally runs out.

* LowerDecksEpisode: Focuses on the adventures of the secondary characters while the main characters are away.

* InsultBackfire: When the new Crystal Gems are splitting the roles amongs themselves.
-->'''Peridot:''' I got Garnet! I am obviously best suited to being the boss.
-->'''Lapis:''' You are very bossy.
-->'''Garnet:''' Thank you!
This is an interesting case: although "bossy" is usually used as an insult, Lapis doesn't know that so she says it with a straight face

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/new_crystal_gems.png]]

* AmbiguousGender: In "Gem Harvest", Steven refers to Pumpkin with male pronouns, while Peridot uses female pronouns. Since Pumpkin is a literal pumpkin brought to life by Steven's Gem powers, gender conventions probably apply in a botanical manner rather than the way humans use them.

* ADayInHerApron: A variant; Connie has to fill in for Steven while he's gone off into space with the Gems. She relishes the opportunity and talks about it lightheartedly later.

Word soon spreads and the residents of Beach City all want their cars washed in a new way. Lapis becomes bored of being "Amethyst", and wants to be Garnet for a bit. Connie has to point out that although they're thousands of years old, they're acting like children. This prompts Lapis to compliment her that she makes a pretty good Steven (after having earlier said Connie was nothing of the kind).

The New Crystal Gems attempt to keep washing cars, but it goes wrong, eventually resulting in Peridot throwing Yellowtail's car through Greg's sign. They sheepishly agree to pay for the damages.

** Connie reminds Lapis how she almost drowned her. Lapis then says she almost drowned a lot of people.

* FantasticRacism: Subtle, but when Peridot and Lapis argue over who has what role, they both view being "the Pearl" as an insult.

* WomanChild: Connie eventually gets fed up with Lapis and Peridot's arguing and says she doesn't understand how Steven is able to be the adult for a bunch of superpowered "children". When Lapis retorts that she and Peridot are thousands of years older than her, Connie just tells her to "[[InsultBackfire act like it]]."

* PetTheDog: After Connie's speech, she's given the ''first'' compliment from Lapis, "You make a good Steven!" ...Though [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint it backfires a little bit]] since Connie's whole speech was about how they're ''not'' the Crystal Gems and shouldn't continue pretending to be them.

* BeYourself: Connie tells Peridot and Lapis that they shouldn't be trying to copy the Crystal Gems, and they should just try to help by doing what they themselves would do.

* ShoutOut: When addressed as "Amethyst", Lapis says, "There is no Amethyst. Only Garnet", referencing "There is no Dana. Only Zuul" from ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}''.

Connie helps look after Beach City while Steven's busy.

* AmbiguousGender: In "Gem Harvest", Steven refers to Pumpkin with male pronouns, while Peridot uses female pronouns. Since Pumpkin is a literal pumpkin brought to life by Steven's Gem powers, gender conventions probably don't apply to her.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Invoked; the group decides to deliberately take on the role and appearance of the Crystal Gems, with Connie wearing Steven's shirt and jeans, Lapis mussing up her hair to emulate Amethyst, Peridot wearing CoolShades to mimic Garnet, and Veggie Head getting a party hat on her face to emulate Pearl's pointed nose.

* SuperSentaiStance: Connie, Lapis, and Peridot do one at the end of the episode.

** However, there is also no sign of an airlock on the ship. As the Gems don't require any breathable atmosphere, this normally wouldn't be an issue, but with Greg and Steven on board, well. It'd make stopping to pick the Rubies up a bit tricky without killing the two, or sending them both flying out into space. I doubt Steven wants to repeat his last experience in a space bubble. A case of fridge logic, perhaps?

** Connie being miffed at Lapis is understandable given the Gm=em tried o drown her in the past.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Connie acts polite and patient with Lapis and Peridot despite the two constantly making dismissive and rude comments towards her. She reaches her breaking point when the two get into a petty argument over who should be who, resulting in the below mentioned TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.

* {{Foil}}: In terms of getting the Gems to work together, Connie is more no-nonsense, straightforward, and doesn't coddle them. This contrast with Steven's usual sentimental approach with him occasionally hiding his true feelings and willing to take the "blame" moments.

* LiteralMetaphor: Buck tells Connie, Peridot, and Lapis that some people were messing with his dad's head. It's then shown that he meant the giant head atop the van, which was vandalized.

* TookALevelInBadass: Peridot has apparently been mastering her ferrokinesis quite a lot offscreen. It was incredibly hard for her to move a metal spike out of the Beta Kindergarten's wall, and it took a burst of adrenaline to throw it towards Jasper hard enough to poof her. Now? She's capable of lifting ''entire cars'' high off the ground and can keep them up while not even focusing on them. It doesn't stop there, either, as she and Lapis get into a sort of tug-o-war with a car using their powers, with Lapis using one of her signature water-arms. The same type of water arms Lapis used to drag Malachite into the ocean, casually smack down the Ruby squad's spaceship with enough power to bury it into solid dirt, and punch Jasper so hard that she went flying off into the horizon. Peridot's ferrokinesis is now strong enough to ''rival Lapis's hydrokinesis''.

* WholeEpisodeFlashback: The episode is Connie’s account of how things went while Steven and the Gems were at the Zoo.