Line #63 Recap/StevenUniverseS1E22StevenAndTheStevens


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/steven_and_the_stevens_3859.jpg]]
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3	'''Original airdate:''' September 4th, 2014
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5	'''Production code:''' 1020-021
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7	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.
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9	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.
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11	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.
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13	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.
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15	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".
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17	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.
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19	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.
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21	The other three Stevens pursue him to different timelines, as far as back to "Gem Glow", and to "Rose's Room" which created 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 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 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 disappears, the last Steven tells the Steven of the beginning 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, leaving a very confused and shocked Steven.
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23	Steven still participates in the concert, except with the Crystal Gems this time singing "Steven and the Crystal Gems".
24	----
25	!!Tropes:
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27	* AdultsAreUseless: The other Gems just stand there dumbfounded as dozens of Steven's {{Alternate Sel\|f}}ves have a massive melee and paradox themselves out of existence. The Stevens are in obvious distress, but the Gems make no attempt to stop the fight. In fairness, their HeroicBSOD is rather understandable.
28	* AllThatGlitters: Steven's suggestion that the small hourglass in a sphere might be what they are looking for is scoffed by Pearl, who insists it has to be the largest and most ornate hour glass in the area.
29	* AwfulTruth: Extended interaction with his time clones makes Steven come to a harsh realization:
30	-->'''Steven:''' I can't believe it... I'm so... ''[[OtherMeAnnoysMe annoying]]!''
31	* BandEpisode: Steven uses a time travel device to form a band with three duplicates of himself from the past to perform at the annual talent show (it makes sense in context). The original Steven proves to be so much of a control freak, leading to the other three Steven’s kicking him out of the band and replacing him with Amethyst. This leads to an all out brawl, involving more time travel and even more Steven duplicates, until the original decides to prevent himself from finding the time travel device in the first place. When he realizes how much chaos he caused, he has a HeelRealization and destroys the device, destroying all the duplicate Stevens ''and himself''. The surviving Steven (the one from just before all of this happens) goes on to perform at the talent show with the Crystal Gems instead, singing a song warning of the perils of time travel.
32	* TheBandMinusTheFace: Steven uses TimeTravel to collect [[MesACrowd four of himself]], then starts a band called [[PlanetOfSteves Steven and the Stevens]]. However, eventually, Steven-1 becomes such a tyrant that the others kick him out, resulting in Steven and the Stevens...without Steven?
33	* BehindTheBlack: When Steven asks who's playing the drums, he could have just... looked up to see Amethyst sitting there. But seemingly he didn't see her because she hadn't been on camera yet.
34	* BreadEggsMilkSquick: The version of Steven's song he plays at the end readily switches between a happy self-description of the band that fits the tune and [[LyricalDissonance detailing how the alternate universe Stevens met their end]].
35	* BrickJoke: Greg says early on that there will only be fifteen people at the Beach-a-Palooza. It sounds like hyperbole, but at the end there's exactly ''fourteen'', and that's counting the ticket-holder.
36	* BuffySpeak: Steven (and the Stevens) refer to the time hourglass as a "time thing".
37	* ClingyAquaticLife: Teleporting out of the flooding Sea Shrine leaves a fish in Amethyst's mouth, an octopus in Garnet's hair, and a lobster hanging off Pearl's behind.
38	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Steven 1 designates Steven 2 as "the smart one", Steven 3 as "the funny one" and Steven 4 as "the sensitive one", then gets annoyed when they act out of character. Steven 3 points out that since they are the same person, no one can be more or less funny than the other -- to which Steven 1 replies "That's too smart an observation for you! You're supposed to be funny one!"
39	* ContinuityCavalcade: During the time chase, the Stevens interrupt the ending of [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E1GemGlow "Gem Glow"]], briefly show up in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E19RosesRoom "Rose's Room"]], and even appear in an area during the future events of [[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E26OceanGem "Ocean Gem"]].
40	* DelinquentHair: Future Steven grows a pompadour as he begins to let his fame get to his head.
41	* DecoyProtagonist: Steven 1 turns out not to be the main Steven.
42	* DifferentlyDressedDuplicates: To distinguish each other, the first Steven puts his hair up in a pompadour and writes the numbers 2 through 4 [[FaceDoodling on the faces]] of the others. When they all go back to the Sea Shrine, the furthest-back Steven is differentiated by wearing a jacket (which he doesn't seem to have any particular reason to wear in-universe).
43	* DisasterDominoes: Steven tries to stop Yellowtail's boat from getting stuck in his dad's carwash using the magic hourglass. Instead, Yellowtail's truck crashes into a utility pole, which falls onto the car wash and starts a huge fire. This immediately puts Steven off of using the hourglass to change the past.
44	* DownerEnding: It's mostly played for BlackComedy, but dozens of Steven's {{Alternate Sel\|f}}ves die in front of him and the Crystal Gems — each of which may have taken an ''[[ExpendableAlternateUniverse entire timeline]]'' with him.
45	* DrowningPit: The temple for the time hourglass is designed so that grabbing the wrong one causes the windows to vanish, flooding it. It drains 100 years later.
46	* TheEnd: Instead of an IrisOut, the episode ends with a "The End" card instead.
47	* EurekaMoment: In an argument with the Stevens, Steven 1 declares they'd be nothing without him. Then what he's said sinks in, as he realises he can use the Time Thing to get rid of them.
48	* ExtendableArms: Garnet shapeshifts to extend her arm to grab Steven and save him from the flooding temple.
49	* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: The alternate Stevens dissolve into sand as they're erased from history.
50	* FantasticAesop: Steven's final version of the eponymous song [[SpoofAesop comically summarizes]] the episode's lesson as "By the way, don't go back in time / Or you'll destroy yourself!"
51	* FightingAcrossTimeAndSpace: Steven and [[MesACrowd his various past selves]] become so fed up with each other that they try to erase each other from the timeline, which quickly escalates into them fighting each other while time hopping through the events of previous episodes and even [[{{Foreshadowing}} the events of a future one]].
52	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
53	** Steven can be heard humming the melody of "Steven and the Stevens" on his way to his dad's carwash.
54	** During the Stevens' fight while jumping through time, they land in a desert with a boat visible in the sand in the background. A few episodes later, the context of said location is revealed.
55	* FutureMeScaresMe: Both versions of Steven 1 that show up scare Steven. The second one realizes this, leading to his HeelRealization.
56	* GratuitousItalian: Says the first time-traveling Steven to the one who never time traveled: "Arrivederci!"
57	* HeelRealization: Steven 1 regrets his actions when he sees how frightened his past self is of him and how all-out war's broken out between the Stevens.
58	* TheHeroDies: The Steven that we follow for most of the episode ends up being erased from history. The one remaining after the episode ends thus [[TheStoryThatNeverWas has no memory of any of the events that occurred]] except for all of the other ones attacking each other before disappearing.
59	* HeroicSacrifice: Steven 1 destroys the hourglass, destroying all the alternate Stevens (including himself).
60	* KillingYourAlternateSelf: Steven 1 destroys the hourglass before the Steven furthest in the past can get it, destroying all the Stevens from farther along the timeline, ''[[MurderSuicide himself included]]''.
61	* LastRequest: Future Steven returns to the sea shrine. He takes the hourglass from the version of Steven who hadn't used it yet (Past Steven) and smashes it, thus causing the later versions of the hourglass and the other Stevens to never have existed in a massive RetGone. Future Steven then tells Past Steven to find another way to create a band besides Greg before disappearing. Then:
62	-->'''Future Steven:''' Stay cool forever, Steven. Arrivederci.
63	* LaughingMad: Steven 1, after aforementioned realization that he can erase the other time duplicates, starts guffawing evilly. It's actually pretty sinister, coming from (a) Steven.
64	* LeeroyJenkins: The Gems have to choose the right hourglass, or the Sea Shrine will flood, and remain flooded for a hundred years. Amethyst, true to form, just grabs one that she likes the look of, causing the place to flood.
65	* LowCountGag:
66	-->'''Greg:''' Sorry buddy, I don't think I can play in the concert tonight. I gotta deal with this.\
67	'''Steven:''' You're bailing on Beach-a-Palooza? But the whole town's gonna be there!\
68	'''Greg:''' Steven, that's like 15 people.
69	* LyricalDissonance: The end features Steven and the Crystal Gems singing a cheerful '60s-esque pop song about Steven watching multiple copies of himself die as the timeline repairs itself.
70	* MesACrowd: There ends up being a roomful of fighting Stevens via time cloning.
71	* MirthlessLaughter: Pearl nervously laughs as a rushing wall of water threatens to crush Steven.
72	* MoodWhiplash: Dozens of Stevens are being paradoxed out of existence. They are in obvious distress. The ''original Steven'' knows he is going to die, and bids farewell to his younger self just before vanishing away. Younger Steven watches in shock. Cut to the only surviving Steven (and the Gems) singing a cute and upbeat WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussycats-style song about accidentally creating alternate timelines and watching yourself die. The song itself is the DarkReprise of a song originally composed and performed by the (now dead) Stevens, keeping the original upbeat tune for extra LyricalDissonance. Funny how "we're goin' to make you smile" scans with "by watching myself die".
73	* MundaneUtility: Steven gets a time-travel device. He uses it to make a band composed entirely of himself.
74	* MyFutureSelfAndMe: When Steven runs into himself for the first time, they decide not to change the past, but to play together in a band (and recruit two more of themselves to do so).
75	* MythologyGag: The episode was intended to be a re-work of the pilot and thus contains elements from it.
76	** The small hourglass returns and is still a time-traveling device, and Steven uses it to go back in time multiple times (though going back in time creates time clones unlike the pilot, which was MentalTimeTravel).
77	** The device itself is repeatedly referred to as a "time thing", and the pilot's [[TitlePlease unshown title]] was "The Time Thing".
78	** Just like in the pilot, Steven smashes it by the end of the episode.
79	* OhNoNotAgain: Pearl implies the Crystal Gems came to the Sea Shrine a century ago, but Amethyst caused it to flood then as well.
80	* OtherMeAnnoysMe: Steven (One) finds that the past versions of himself to be quite annoying.
81	* PlotHole: The Gems besides Steven don't have to breathe (and Garnet can swim in ''lava''). There's no reason the Sea Shrine flooding should have kept them from searching it for the time hourglass (either this time or last century).
82	* ReactionShot: In the final scene, Pearl momentarily glances askance at Steven when he mentions what he did with the time hourglass.
83	* RippleEffectIndicator: The Stevens and hourglasses erased from the timeline turn into sand right before the youngest Steven's eyes.
84	* RunningGag: Yellowtail's boat being too big to fit in the carwash is repeatedly described as "the boat's fat", usually completely out of context.
85	* SpoofAesop: Steven claims in the ending song that he "learned to [[BeYourself stay true to myself]] by watching myself die", a bizarre non-sequitur as it relates to his brief and confusing experience ([[TheStoryThatNeverWas from his limited temporal perspective]]).
86	* TheStoryThatNeverWas: Steven's attempts at TimeTravel eventually cause a huge number of Stevens fighting each across time. The original Steven decides to stop it all by destroying the time travel device before Steven first used it, which destroys the Stevens from all other timelines (including the one who broke the orb). As a result, all events in the episode but the first and last scene, and anyone who could remember them happening, are erased.
87	* SuddenAnatomy: Steven 1 has visible canines for a few of his more conniving expressions.
88	* TeleportSpam: Steven and the rest of the Stevens bounce all throughout their timeline in an attempt to outmaneuver each other, ending with dozens of Stevens landing at the moment Steven first found the time hourglass.
89	* TemporalParadox: Steven paradoxes his other selves out of existence by destroying the time hourglass, leaving only the original Steven from before he used it.
90	* ThatCameOutWrong:
91	-->'''Steven:''' Dad, dad, fat, it's fat! Fat, fat fat!\
92	'''Greg:''' ''[[[YouAreFat look at his own stomach]]]'' Rude.\
93	'''Steven:''' Not you! The boat! The boat!
94	* TimeAndRelativeDimensionsInSpace: The time hourglass can send the user to the time ''and'' place that they described (possibly even if they don't know how long ago something happened).
95	* TitleDrop: [[MyFutureSelfAndMe Steven, Steven, Steven, and Steven]] form the band "Steven and the Stevens" and work their name into the chorus of their first song. That's TWO title drops in one.
96	* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Pearl is understandably a little concerned when Steven starts incorporating the events of the alternative timeline debacle into the song.
97	* UnevilLaugh: Steven 1's wild laughter after taking the furthest-back Steven's hourglass is unhinged, but isn't exactly intimidating. Also, the goofy expression doesn't help either.
98	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Amethyst doesn't seem to notice anything weird about playing drums for a band with three Stevens in it.
99	-->''I'm down for whatever.''
100	* WasntThatFun: Steven's reaction to the Crystal Gems' narrow escape from the flooding Sea Shrine is "Hot potato! We're doing that again, right?"
101	* WimpFight: Among the scenes of the multiple Steven clones fighting there's one instance of one of them holding his arm while crying as the other two look in horror.
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Context Recap / StevenUniverseS1E22StevenAndTheStevens