Original airdate: September 15th, 2016
Production code: 1040-111
Steven finds out about Onion's secret friends.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Gender: Soup is never referred to as a boy or a girl, just as Soup.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Among the pictures of people onion and his friends did the trench coat prank on is Sour Cream reading a magazine and looking more annoyed than anything else.
- Bland-Name Product: The Hynes Tomato Ketchup from "Onion Trade" returns.
- A Bloody Mess: Steven mistakes the ketchup Garbanzo smears over his face for blood.
- Breather Episode: A more comedic episode than some of the preceding ones.
- Call-Back: Once again Steven refuses to engage in Onion's ostensible violence towards an innocent creature, and has a more emphatic response to being asked to do so. It seems to be an accumulation from the three times he's had to fight in self-defense, and how Onion's friends treat life and death as a game.
- Character Development: This is the most we've seen Steven and Onion get along after several episodes of Onion seriously disturbing Steven.
- Continuity Nod:
- Steven is shown once again to decline a violent response, even overcoming peer pressure to do so.
- Onion jumps through another screen at Steven's house, this time on the door.
- Creepy Child: Although their games are largely harmless (except to bugs), the kids in Onion's gang are pretty creepy at times: most of them don't talk at all, they play a game that involves one of them pretending to be killed in a car crash, and they race bugs and little critters and smash the winner with a hammer.
- Dies Wide Open: With Garbanzo playing dead, Squash even does the "palm of the hand eye closing" maneuver.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Steven realizes that he, rather than Onion, is the lonely kid with no one his age to play with, and he tells Onion not to pity him because he can do it himself.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The kids in a trench coat revealing themselves and the shocked reactions of the people they do it to is similar to the reaction to a flasher.
- Doom as Test Prize: Onion's friends race various bugs and smash the winner with a hammer.
- Dramatic Irony: Onion has no idea about the trauma Steven has undergone from being forced to use violence against Gems in past episodes, though he senses something is wrong when Steven runs from the gang after being asked to squish the beetle.
- Dude, Not Funny!: In-universe, Steven stops playing with the kids when they want him to squish the beetle that won the race. For Steven, who is a Friend to All Living Things and has undergone several traumatic experiences involving death with the Gems, choosing to kill a creature arbitrarily appears insensitive.
- Edible Theme Naming: All the kids are named after foods. Steven even deduces that the baby's name is Pinto from her elder brother being named Garbanzo. Steven even comments that Onion has a whole pantry of friends.
- Everyone Has Standards: Steven gets upset when Onion's friends want him to crush the beetle that won the race. He's nearly died when at the mercy of other Gems, and it's not a game to him. He walks out on them and decides it's better to be alone than to hang out with kids that don't understand the value of life.
- Family Theme Naming: As Lampshaded by Steven, Garbanzo and Pinto are siblings named after beans.
- Free-Range Children: Onion's friends are a gang of kids that apparently drop by Beach City for the summer, and then wander off to wherever their home is when fall begins. Alternately, their families could be vacationing in Beach City during the summer and take them back home in the fall, but nonetheless, they go wherever they want in Beach City.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Steven's contact lists shows he has three different numbers for Lars.
- Friend to All Living Things: Steven refuses to crush the beetle that won the race.
- Friend to Bugs: Steven admits bugs are creepy, but he refuses to kill one, especially since it won the race.
- Funny Background Event: When Steven and Onion run past Onion's house, Vidalia is in the driveway painting Yellowtail, who is lying down and posing in his underwear.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: Steven reacts like this when the kids open the trench coat, despite having the rest of his clothes still on.
- Healing Hands: Garbanzo pretends that Pinto has these.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Onion comes to Steven's house with a regretful expression after the latter runs from the bug squashing competition. He doesn't know exactly why Steven was upset, but he has an idea given he brings the beetle as an apology.
- Steven has one when he sees that the kids have spared the beetle, and thus aren't as bad as he thought they were. He immediately runs to the woods to find them.
- Narrating the Present: Steven narrates Onion's supposed thoughts throughout the episode.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Onion looks notably sadder when he comes to Steven to silently apologize and show him that the kids spared the beetle. Later on, he cries after his friends leave.
- Pokémon Speak: Garbanzo only says "Garbanzo".
- Running Gag: Onion once again jumps through the screen door.
- Shout-Out: Soup bears resemblance to the protagonist of Undertale, with the same hairstyle, same color shirt (without the stripe), and an ambiguous gender.
- Silent Snarker: Onion with a wink and nudge tries to explain the car crash joke to Steven.
- The Speechless: Soup and Squash don't speak at all.
- Stealth Pun: The kids in the trenchcoat flash people—with a camera.
- Sticky Fingers: One of the kids tries to take Steven's wallet offscreen.
- Stylistic Self-Parody: Steven suggests Onion takes off his shoes before walking into the house, only to say he wouldn't know how to because of his Long Pants.
- Suddenly Voiced: Played with with Onion. We do clearly hear him speak for the first time since "Onion Friend", but it's in the same gibberish language that his father (and occasionally brother) use.
- Super Gullible: Steven's really bad at detecting gags. He even has to ask Onion why he's winking and nudging at him.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: It may be deduced that Garbanzo's baby sibling Pinto is a girl, by the pink bow in her hair.
- There Was a Door: Onion goes through the screen again.
- Totem Pole Trench: The kids and Steven all stack up in a trench coat with Steven as the head. The kids flash Suitcase Sam and take a picture of his reaction, which they apparently do on a regular basis.
- Troll: Onion and his friends really like messing with people.
- Visual Pun: When the gang throws open their trench coat, there's a flash.
- The Voiceless: All of the kids in Onion's gang don't say a word, except Garbanzo.
