History Recap / StevenUniverseS2E11KeepingItTogether

* DoubleMeaningTitle: There's the obvious meaning of the stock expression "keep it together", which is to remain calm, but also Ruby and Sapphire having a fight as Garnet, and almost defusing. In addition, there's the Gem shards that were forcefully stuck together as torture. And the Crystal Gems are separated for most of the episode, with Amethyst and Pearl chasing after Peridot and Garnet and Steven exploring Kindergarten.

* DueToTheDead: Apparently, the Crystal Gems tried to find all the shards of their fallen comrades that they could, and at the end of the episode they poof and bubble all the fusion experiments in the Kindergarten. This is implied to be part of the reason why Garnet's hit so hard by the experiments.

* TalkingToThemself: Ruby and Sapphire talk to each other, after Garnet defeats the large fused Gem, [[VoicesAreMental switching voices]] (or at least speaking styles) and which eye is in view whenever the other speaks. This is notably as the first time Garnet has ever done this, showing just how shaken Ruby and Sapphire are.

Garnet is absolutely horrified to the point of being unable to form sentences as the thing's hands grasp her and blindly grope at her. Steven is confused. Garnet is so freaked out that her fusion begins to come apart, until Steven calls out to her. She pulls herself together -- literally -- and tearfully apologizes to the fusion monster before destroying it. It vanishes in a poof and reveals its gem -- or, rather gems -- as Peridot has taken shards and pieces of shattered gems and force-fused them into shard clusters. Garnet is so disgusted and enraged by the sight and realization that the Homeworld forced gems together without their permission that her Ruby and Sapphire inner selves come to the surface and speak their thoughts alive as she/they realize what happened to their lost friends who fell on the battlefield during the fight for Earth, and who Rose and the Gems could never find.

Get ready: today is officially one of the worst days of Garnet's life.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Considering what fusions are a metaphor for, the subtext behind a forced fusion becomes all the more [[RapeByProxy horrifying]].

* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: A mild case at first. The moment Peridot realizes Steven had found her, she keeps her voice down while asking if the Crystal Gems are with him. After bemoaning the fact that they are in the Kindergarten, she immediately tries to flee. She even shows she'd learned her lesson since last time, having developed a countermeasure to Amethyst's whip.

* AndIMustScream: The fusion experiments come out as assorted limbs fused together, not one of them a head. When a few of them take on human form in silhouette, they appear to be trying to scream. They've been trapped there for at least 6,000 years on top of that.

* MoodWhiplash: At the start of the episode, Garnet has called a meeting about dealing with Peridot, with the camera zoomed in on her face. Then it zooms out to reveal they're all folding Steven's clothes.
** The whole episode is this in spades. We start with folding laundry: Steven has a ton of identical shirts, poking fun at his LimitedWardrobe, and we cut to the chore wheel that {{Adorkable}} Pearl has edited, not to get ''out'' of chores, but to give herself ''all'' the chores because she ''loves'' tidying up so much. Garnet is at her ''most'' lovable as Steven's surrogate mom, and Ruby and Sapphire are mentioned, reminding us that Garnet is a ''living'' CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming, [[IAmSong made of love]] and all that. Then comes the most dark, most horrifying thing ever to happen in the show. The effect is doubled with TheStoic Garnet's reaction to the horrible torture her fallen friends are forced to exist in combined with the perversion of that which she holds so sacred; we've ''never'' seen her this horrified.

* TalkingToThemself: Ruby and Sapphire talk to each other, after Garnet defeats the large fused Gem, [[VoicesAreMental switching voices]] and which eye is in view whenever the other speaks. This is notably as the first time Garnet has ever done this, showing just how shaken Ruby and Sapphire are.

** The fusion experiments are a bunch of limbs unnaturally bonded together. On top of that, the gem shards themselves are fused, resulting in mangled shards stuck together.
** Oh, and they scream. Like ''a lot.''
*** During Garnet's HeroicBSOD, her fusion begins to fail, causing her to split down the middle and creating a giant hole in her torso.

** During Garnet's HeroicBSOD, her fusion begins to fail, causing her to split down the middle and creating a giant hole in her torso.

* ForgotAboutHisPowers: When Peridot takes off relatively slowly using her "Pericopter", Pearl and Amethyst watch her go, even though Amethyst has shown the ability to shapeshift into forms that can fly.
** For that matter, Pearl can shoot [[SwordBeam spear beams]] at very good accuracy.

* GaiasLament: How the Kindergarten works. Those virus looking drills - the Injectors - drill into the Earth, and insert a gem which incubates by sucking the energy out of the Earth.

** For that matter, Pearl can shoot [[SwordBeams spear beams]] at very good accuracy.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: There's the obvious meaning of the stock expression "keep it together", which is to remain calm, but also Ruby and Sapphire having a fight as Garnet, and almost defusing. In addition, there's the Gem shards that were forcefully stuck together as torture. And though likely unintentional, the Crystal Gems are separated for most of the episode, with Amethyst and Pearl chasing after Peridot and Garnet and Steven exploring Kindergarten.

* FreezeFrameBonus:
** When Peridot is making her log entry, her eyes briefly dart over to where Steven is walking towards her, then dart back, only for her to realize that Steven's there a second or two later.
** When Garnet bubbles away the fused Gem shards, it turns into Centipeetle's Gem before disappearing. This may be significant or just an animation error[[labelnote:why?]]It is likely the animator looked at a reference for teleporting bubbled gems, but didn't realize Centipeetle's gem was part of it was that suppose to change depending on what was being teleported.[[/labelnote]].

*** When Peridot is making her log entry, her eyes briefly dart over to where Steven is walking towards her, then dart back, only for her to realize that Steven's there a second or two later.

* FreezeFrameBonus: When Peridot is making her log entry, her eyes briefly dart over to where Steven is walking towards her, then dart back, only for her to realize that Steven's there a second or two later.
** When Garnet bubbles away the fused Gem shards, it turns into Centipeetle's Gem before disappearing.

* GaiasLament: How the Kindergarten works. Those bacteria looking drills - the Injectors drill into the Earth, and insert a gem which incubates by sucking the energy out of the Earth.

* [[ForgotAboutHisPowers Forgot About Her Powers]]: When Peridot takes off relatively slowly using her "Pericopter", Pearl and Amethystwatch her go. But Amethyst can fly, we've seen her shapeshift into dogcopter and an owl; and seen both forms flying.

* SmashToBlack: Used when Garnet chops at one of the fusions.

* [[ForgotAboutHisPowers Forgot About Her Powers]]: When Peridot takes off relatively slowly using her "Pericopter", Pearl and Amethystwatch her go. But Amethystcan fly, we've seen her shapeshift into dogcopter and an owl; and seen both forms flying.