Original airdate: October 16th, 2014
Production code: 1026-030
Steven is in Amethyst's room jumping in a puddle when Amethyst tells Steven "put more ball into your cannon", which scares Steven until Amethyst demonstrates by jumping then turning into a ball. Steven and Amethyst climb out of the puddle to find another one for Steven to jump into when he looks into one to find The Burning Room and Garnet bringing back a bubbled gem. Amethyst then pulls Steven back and tells him only Garnet is allowed in there. Amethyst suggests for Steven to climb up a pile of trash and jump into another puddle which leads him to Pearl's room.
When they get in Pearl's room they see her with a gem that Rose Quartz had bubbled, staring at it intently. Amethyst realizes that Garnet would be agitated if she found out what Pearl did, and decides sneak up on her. After surprising her, Amethyst threatens to tell on Pearl which results in them arguing. Steven tries to intervene so he grabs the bubble, and Pearl tells Steven to be careful with it. Simultaneously, Pearl and Amethyst push the bubble and pop it. To their horror, the gem fragments escape, turning into hideous disembodied arms. Steven wants to tell Garnet what happened but is told not to do so as they would be severely punished if she knew, so they form a secret team to recover the fragments.
After a series of montages of Steven struggling to take out one fragment and the Gems taking out many with teamwork they finally retrieve all the fragments. Steven bubbles them, but while attempting to put them back he sees Garnet in the Burning Room and freaks out. Amethyst and Pearl pull him up to see whats wrong. After telling them what happened them they ask if Garnet saw him, which Steven replies with a "no". Pearl and Amethyst then put Steven back in the puddle and he puts the bubble back. Much to Steven's dismay, they disband their secret team.
Steven later tries to get the team reformed by telling them he left his hat in town and they need to go retrieve it. Both Pearl and Amethyst deny that Secret Team ever existed. They start blaming each other for popping the bubble in the first place, then storm off in opposite directions. Steven decides to tell Garnet what happened after setting up a meeting with her at Fish Stew Pizza. Garnet tells Steven that they need to form their own secret team to fix this.
Back at the temple, Garnet, with Steven in tow, confronts Pearl and Amethyst about the popped bubble. The two older Gems are content to let Steven take the blame for it. Suddenly, Garnet is dragged underwater by giant hands — apparently they missed a shard. Pearl and Amethyst try to fight off the hands, but they both get captured and fearfully apologize to each other. Garnet then reemerges from the water, revealing that the hands are actually hers. She chastises the two Gems for keeping secrets, reminding them that they're all already on a team together—the Crystal Gems!
And we Iris Out over one of the ripped up coupons.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Parody: Of The Caper genre and several tropes that go with it. While Pearl and Amethyst’s main objective is not to get caught, Steven goes along with the mission because he loves the thrill of secrecy (hence the name “Secret Team” he gives to the group) and because he likes seeing Pearl and Amethyst get along for a change. But once the job is over, Pearl and Amethyst immediately break up Secret Team and attempt to invoke Let Us Never Speak of This Again. Heartbroken, Steven attempts to invoke One Last Job… by deliberately leaving his hat at a restaurant and planning an elaborate heist to steal it back after-hours.
- Angels Pose: The promotional art takes on this pose.
- Bad "Bad Acting": While confronting Pearl and Amethyst, Garnet just sounds slightly bombastic, but Steven is chewing so much scenery it's a wonder there's any left.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: At the end after Garnet reminds them they're all on the same team, and everyone tears up their pizza cards.Steven: You know what? Between the four of us... (looks down at the torn up cards at their feet) we could have had a free pizza.
- Batman Gambit: Garnet fakes a Gem Shard attack and gets Pearl and Amethyst to think they're going to die in order to get them to confess their role in accidentally popping the bubble.
- Broken Treasure: Steven, Amethyst and Pearl pop a bubbled gem accidentally and try to fix their mistake without Garnet finding out.
- Cannot Keep a Secret: The idea of doing things secretly is so interesting to Steven, he can't move past that and keep quiet about it.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Steven, Amethyst and Pearl successfully fix their mistake, but Garnet still punishes them for going behind her back.
- Fedora of Asskicking: Steven wears a fedora on his trip to Fryman's, which Ronaldo, who's also wearing a fedora, compliments him on.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: The gem shards sprout into a bunch of arms which then have to be tracked down before Garnet finds out.
- Portal Pool: The pools in the temple lead to different areas, including one that's on the ceiling in the bubble chamber.
- Shout-Out: The promo art is an obvious reference to Charlie's Angels.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: Steven uses Pizza Coupons as Cards for the Secret Team. However once the mission is over, Pearl and Amethyst angrily tear up their cards obliviously in front of a shocked Steven. When Steven informs Garnet and Garnet teaches them (and Steven) their lesson, she and Steven tear up their cards as well. Steven then retorts:Steven: You know what? Between the four of us... we could've had a free Pizza...
- The Unreveal: It's never is explained why Pearl was sneaking around with a Rose Quartz bubble or why she was curious about the shards' reaction to Rose's particular bubble.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Garnet scolds Amethyst and Pearl for going behind her back and the fact that they can only get along when they think their lives are in danger.Garnet: So, you two can't get along unless you think I'm going to kill you.
