Original airdate: July 26th, 2016
Production code: 1031-092
Steven has ordered pizza for dinner and learns that Kiki is doing deliveries. Her sister Jenny blew out the delivery car's tires with Sour Cream's mixtape and took the car to the repair shop, leaving Kiki to deliver on foot. She leaves to make more deliveries.
Much later, Steven is sleeping and dreams that he's flying around on rocket feet. He sees Kiki below on a giant cheesy pizza lake getting grabbed by a cheese hand and saves her by destroying the hand.
The next day, at Fish Stew Pizza, Steven watches as Jenny (yet again) needs her sister to cover for her at work, to which Kiki says yes. After Jenny drives away, Steven tells Kiki about his dream, and they realize they shared a dream. She is delighted that he interfered and saved her, since being drowned in cheese has been a recurring nightmare for weeks.
Steven agrees to fight for Kiki in her dreams and does so for the next few days, while during the day, Kiki keeps doing favors for Jenny. One day, Steven tells Kiki that they must figure out why she has these nightmares, and the next time Steven enters her dreams will be the last, since he's too exhausted to do this night after night.
In Kiki's dream, the two allow themselves to be buried by cheese, and they traverse a cheese cavern. At the end of the cave, a Jenny made of cheese grabs onto Kiki and asks for favors. At first, Kiki complies, but after Steven points out that she has to say no and her feelings matter, Kiki finally says "no" to cheese Jenny, and Jenny withdraws.
The next morning, Steven looks for Kiki at Fish Stew Pizza and finds Jenny sweeping up. She tells Steven that Kiki had a talk with her about getting some rest, and Jenny happily took over for the day. Steven is delighted to hear that Kiki is on break and falls asleep on the spot.
Iris Out on a sleeping Steven as Jenny looks at him curiously while gently prodding him with the handle of her broom.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: Don't be afraid to tell people, even those really important to you, no. If they really care about you, they will understand.
- Anthropomorphic Food: While traveling through the pizza, Steven and Kiki encounter anchovies as fish and pepperoni as piranhas.
- Anti-Climax: Kiki says "no" to cheese Jenny, and it withdraws immediately.
- Arm Cannon: Steven fires two rockets from his forearms at the cheese hands.
- Blatant Lies: Kiki keeps lying about how she doesn't mind Jenny pushing her duties onto her, the repressed frustration causing her nightmares.
- Bottle Episode: One utilizing only two voice actors (Kiki and Jenny have the same voice actress) and three settings.
- Brown Note: Sour Cream's music is apparently loud enough to blow out the tires of Jenny's car.
- Call-Back: Steven's ability to enter other people's dreams, as seen in "Chille Tid", comes back into play.
- Continuity Nod:
- Dogcopter makes an another appearance, and meows just like in "Chille Tid".
- Steven apologized to Kiki for using the same pun twice, just like how Kiki apologized to Steven for using the same pun twice in "Steven's Lion".
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Played for Laughs. Kiki spends the entire episode stressing that saying no to her sister will somehow ruin their relationship for good. When she finally does, Jenny is, at worst, mildly annoyed.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Kiki, who usually doesn't get as much focus as her sister Jenny.
- Dream Walker: Steven enters Kiki's dream by accident the first time, but continues it later at her request to help her with her nightmare. Steven also has some mild Dream Weaver power, being able to give himself basically any power he can imagine.
- Extreme Doormat: Kiki's responsible nature and her desire to not let her sister down allow Jenny to keep pushing off her responsibilities onto Kiki, causing her stress she represses and leads to the dreams. Steven convinces her to talk to Jenny about it and work things out.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Deconstructed a bit with Kiki and Jenny, as Kiki's sense of responsibility and love for her sister allow Jenny to keep foisting her duties on her.
- Foreshadowing: After Steven saves Kiki in his dream, she refers to him as "Dream Steven", hinting that the two are sharing a dream.
- Gilligan Cut: After setting up his fancy table and having pizza delivered, Steven shouts "Pizza time!" Cut to later that night, where Steven's made a mess of the table and the surrounding floor, his wine glass of orange juice is knocked over and dripping on the floor, and Steven himself is covered in sauce stains with a plate on his chest.
- Innocently Insensitive: Jenny honestly didn't know how Kiki felt. Once they talk it out, everything is fine.
- Martial Arts Headband: Steven wears one and calls himself a Dream Warrior.
- Milholland Relationship Moment: The situation is easily resolved once Kiki talks to Jenny about how she really feels, as Jenny was just as willing to return her sister's favor and cover for her.
- Mundane Utility: Although it's an accident the first time he does it, Steven agrees to using his dream walking abilities to help Kiki with her nightmares.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
- Kiki covering for Jenny leads to her suffering bad nightmares for weeks.
- Steven helping Kiki with her dreams leads to him losing energy in the day time.
- Noodle Incident: Jenny goes to see the band Uber Rage, in what is apparently their first concert in the US since they were banned for unknown reasons.
- Overly Narrow Superlative: Jenny calls Kiki her favorite twin. Kiki points out that she's the only twin.
- Piranha Problem: Piranhas made of pepperoni, or "peppiranhas" as Steven calls them, show up in Kiki's dream.
- Plagued by Nightmares: Kiki's letting Jenny push off her responsibilities onto her give her recurring nightmares about being dragged by cheesy hands down into pizza and drowning.
- Pungeon Master: Steven makes a lot of pizza-related puns in this episode.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Cheese Jenny has these as a result of having pepperonis for eyes.
- Rocket Boots: Or Rocket Sandals; Steven flies around Kiki's dream with them.
- Shout-Out:
- After dealing with Kiki's issues, she and Steven end the dream on a beach like in the ending of End of Evangelion... except with the petrified Mass Production Evas replaced with pizza slices.
- Steven's rocket boots and arm cannon powers in the dream world are very similar to those displayed by Astro Boy.
- The episode's title also plays homage to the famed Miyazaki film Kiki's Delivery Service.
- Steven calls himself a "dream warrior". This, along with giving himself imaginary powers in Kiki's dream, references A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.
- Sleep Deprivation: Using his dream time to help Kiki apparently takes away from the actual rest Steven would otherwise get, so he becomes more and more sleep deprived after helping her nightly. After the issue is resolved, he falls asleep standing up outside of Fish Stew Pizza.
- Stealth Pun: The final nightmare has Steven and Kiki enter a cheesy cave shaped like Kiki's head. It's "head cheese"
. - The Slacker: Jenny keeps asking Kiki to cover for her while she goes to concerts and such, so Kiki keeps getting more and more stressed.
