Original airdate: December 29th, 2017
Production code: 1053-140
Kevin is throwing a party, and Steven is invited.
Tropes:
- 555: Steven's phone number begins with "301-555".
- The Bus Came Back:
- After being absent for five episodes since her and Steven's fallout in "Dewey Wins", Connie returns in this episode with a new, shorter hairstyle.
- Lion also returns after spending the last few weeks with Connie.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Connie admits she doesn't know what to say to Steven, besides her conflicted feelings of still being mad at him and still missing him.
- Continuity Nod:
- Connie mentions she went to Steven's house to try and work things out with him, but noticed a sign saying he was on vacation.
- Connie mentions she got to Steven's house via Lion; this, along with his appearance alongside her confirms that he'd been staying with her after taking her home a few weeks prior.
- Steven is wearing the pink shirt Connie gave him for his birthday.
- Kevin talks about how Stevonnie is a good dancer and driver.
- Steven and Connie call themselves Jam Buds after they reconcile.
- Steven being Older Than He Looks is referenced again when Kevin thinks he's seven years old, when he's really twice that age.
- As Steven's first attempt to talk to Connie fails, he lets out a panicked "Chowzers!" while running off, which is something Kevin mockingly said to Stevonnie in "Beach City Drift".
- Cope by Pretending:
- Connie, even after she and Steven notice each other, continues to happily socialize with the other party guests (at least at first). While somewhat subverted as she seemed to be genuinely having a good time in spite of her personal troubles, the fact that she continues to happily socialize instead of going straight over to Steven to talk (which was the whole reason she even showed up at the party at all), combined with her new look, having Lion at her side, and her leaving Steven completely in the dark during the last few weeks, leave him feeling that she (and possibly Lion as well) has moved on from him and no longer wants anything to do with him, which consequently leaves him desperate enough to listen to Kevin's advice.
- Kevin, having mistaken Connie to be Steven's ex-girlfriend, advises Steven to act as if he'd never seen her at all and make his life look as if it's going great without her, regardless of his actual feelings, so she'll want to come back and be jealous enough to make the first move in reconciling. Steven ends up looking so happy and ignoring Connie so much (almost completely even), she starts to feel that, after being completely (and unintentionally) shut out by her for the last few weeks, he is now indifferent towards or possibly even glad over her departure from his life, and has since moved on from her (and possibly Lion too) with a new group of friends, Kevin included.
- Steven admits that his blasé attitude after getting back to Earth from Homeworld in "Dewey Wins" was just his way of trying to cope with everything that happened (at least, for the time being) by acting like it was no big deal... only, it was a big deal and realizes that it didn't help Connie get over what happened at all.
- Creator Cameo: Two of the people sitting together at Kevin's party look like head writers Matt Burnett and Ben Levin, and storyboarders Danny Cragg and Lamar Abrams can be seen standing around (the former takes a selfie with Lion).
- The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Steven slightly invokes this trope when he, out of desperation, takes Kevin's advice to deliberately give Connie the cold shoulder and make it look like that his life is going great without her in order to bait her into making the first move in them reconciling. Predictably, this ends up having the opposite effect on the situation, until Steven returns to his senses.
- Emotional Regression: For most of the party, Connie shows just how much she has grown from her shy, loner type personality by happily talking, laughing, and socializing with the other guests. However, after witnessing Steven deliberately ignore and shun all of her attempts to get his attention and continue to hang out with Kevin and his inner circle (on the latter's advice in order to force her to make the first move in them reconciling), she assumes that, after having been (unintentionally) shut out and completely left in the dark by her for the last few weeks since their fallout in "Dewey Wins", he has given up on trying to fix things with her at this point, and has moved on with Kevin as his new best friend. The belief of the possibility that she has permanently lost Steven as her best friend devastates Connie so much, it causes her to regress back into her anxious, loner persona, to point where she ends up isolating herself in a corner of the party in her grief.
- Entertainingly Wrong: After weeks of no communication with Connie, and then seeing her with a new look and Lion by her side, and seemingly happily socializing with the other party guests without him, Steven erroneously jumps to the possible conclusion that she has ultimately decided to cut him out of her life for good for hurting her back in "Dewey Wins", which almost causes him to decide to leave the party without talking to her. Later, after Steven accepts Kevin's advice to manipulate Connie into coming back to him by making his life look great without her in it, the tables are turned: this time, with Connie erroneously concluding that Steven, after being (unintentionally) left completely in the dark by her for the last few weeks, has finally given up on trying to reconcile with her at this point (possibly due to the above reasons), and has ultimately decided not only to cut her out of his life in return, but also to replace her with Kevin, their mutual nemesis, as his new best friend, which nearly drives her to leave instead after angrily confronting him over it. In the end, they finally and honestly admit their feelings over Steven's surrender and that that they missed each other, clear up the misunderstanding, and reconcile.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When Kevin realizes that Steven and Connie had an argument, he tries to figure out how people treat their friends... and draws a complete blank.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: From this episode onwards, Connie is seen with shorter hair, starting at about chin-length.
- Face on a Milk Carton: Steven puts up a "missing" poster for Lion.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: Kevin dramatically drives away while telling Steven that his invitation is for Stevonnie... then has to pull back to give Steven the address.
- Fantastically Indifferent: Kevin knows that Stevonnie is somehow related to Connie and Steven being in close proximity. That this in itself is strange or that Stevonnie is a human-alien hybrid fusion of the two children seems to entirely escape him.
- Friendless Background: Kevin has no idea how to help friends patch things up, the implication being that he's had few if any real friends.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Kevin's status as this bites him in the butt since he has no idea how to help Steven and Connie patch things up.Kevin: Think, Kevin. How do people treat their friends?
- Gone Horribly Right: Kevin's method of getting Connie to talk to Steven is actually fairly effective, as it provokes Connie into finally communicating with him. However, the inherent manipulativeness of the tactic causes it to backfire: Connie angrily confronts Steven, briefly making the situation worse.
- Half-Baked Niceness: Steven's attempt at an opening line with Connie is a strangely structured compliment, which goes "Nice weather you're wearing". Connie, of course, gets confused by this and simply responds that she got his texts.
- Hidden Depths: Kevin got burned by a bad breakup a while back, and he's almost sincere about helping Steven deal with what he thinks is his.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Connie planned to send Steven the message "I can't talk to you right now.", but decided against sending it because that would be talking to him, and eventually changed her plan to meeting him in person.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Snot runs out of Steven's nose as he tears up thinking about how he needs to apologize to Connie.Kevin: You can't just dump your emotional honesty face all over her. You're gonna freak her out.
- I Resemble That Remark!: After seeing Steven hanging out with Kevin for the whole party, Connie angrily insinuates that Steven has written her off and replaced her with Kevin as his best friend. Steven vigorously objects, as does Kevin—simultaneously with, and using the same words and hand gesture as, Steven.
- Iris Out: Over Kevin's frustrated face after he fell into the pool and Steven, Connie, and Lion's leave.
- Irony: Kevin is furious that Steven and Connie don't Fuse into Stevonnie, because he thinks instead of bringing someone cool he just ruined the party by letting in some kids. Even without becoming Stevonnie, their presence actually does seem to liven the party up.
- It's All About Me: The only reason Kevin invited Steven and Connie to the party (and tried so hard to get them to reconcile) was so they could form Stevonnie and make his party something that his guests would remember for the rest of their lives.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Although Kevin's general advice is dishonest, he is right that Inelegant Blubbering is a poor way to greet someone, even if Connie specifically wouldn't have minded.
- Just Ignore It: Learning from previous experience, Steven does his best to ignore Kevin until he finds out Connie is going to his party.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Kevin puts a lot of effort into helping Steven and Connie so he can get Stevonnie to show up and make him look cool by association. The two leave together without Fusing and he ends up falling into the pool when he tries to chase after Lion, not paying attention to his surroundings and unaware of Lion's ability to Walk on Water. The two sincerely thank him for the (attempts at) help and the party, which of course just makes Kevin even angrier. The two leave, and Derrick laughs off screen.
- The Matchmaker: Kevin reluctantly plays matchmaker for Steven and Connie because he wants Stevonnie to show up at his party and needs them together to make that happen. However, he assumes they were dating and broke up; when he finds out they're only friends (ostensibly), Kevin has far fewer ideas.
- Mic Drop: When Kevin sees Connie and Steven are together again, he uses a microphone to announce Stevonnie's coming. When the two of them decide it's time to leave without fusing, Kevin drops the mic by accident.
- Mistaken Age: Kevin assumes Steven and Connie are both around seven, but they're actually fourteen and twelve to thirteen years old, respectively. With Steven, this is because he's Older Than They Look, though even Connie is bizarrely short for a preteen.
- Mistaken for Dog: Kevin thinks Lion is a dog.
- Mixed Metaphor:Steven: Nice weather you're wearing.
Connie: Uh... I got your texts. - Motivational Lie: Steven had no interest in coming to Kevin's party until he said Connie was going to be there. As Kevin is leaving, Steven realizes he probably got Connie to come by telling her that Steven was already going to be there, which she confirms later in the episode.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Kevin describes throwing a good party as a quest for ultimate glory.Everyone's gonna be talking about this night until they're old grandparents, and their last words to their grandchildren will be "Kevin throws the best parties." I wouldn't normally do this because you're a pitiful kid with snot coming out of your nose, but I need those old people to whisper my name when they die.
- Noodle Incident: Kevin hints that he had a bad breakup with a girl named Sabina.
- Not So Similar: Kevin tells Steven about how he broke up with a girl named Sabina, and tries to give advice based on his experience. It doesn't work; while Connie and Steven are close, they aren't a couple, and Kevin's advice doesn't help.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Connie and Steven both realize they're really desperate to see each other if they're willing to come to Kevin's party to do so.
- Perspective Reversal: After Steven sees Connie sporting a new look and Lion at her side and socializing happily with the other party guests without him, he assumes that, given her seemingly ignoring all of his attempts to make amends and continuing to remain silent after he stopped trying to reach out, she was so angry at him for hurting her with his surrender in "I Am My Mom" and ignoring her feelings about it in "Dewey Wins" that she has decided to cut him out of her life and move on from him; Steven becomes so overwhelmed with confusion and fear over this assumption that he almost decides to leave the party without speaking to her at all before Kevin stops him. Later on, when Steven accepts Kevin's advice to bait Connie into making the first move in them making up by giving her the cold shoulder treatment and making it seem that his life is going great without her, which results in Steven deliberately ignoring all of her attempts to catch his attention and continuing to hang out with Kevin and his inner circle, she assumes that, after being (unintentionally) ignored and completely left in the dark by her for so long, he has given up on reconciling with her and has seemingly become so resentful of her for her abandonment of him that he has decided to cut her out of his life, and move on from her with Kevin as her replacement as his best friend; this assumption shakes Connie's newfound confidence to the point where she distraughtly isolates herself in a corner of the party for a while, and then almost gives up on Steven and leaves following an awkward exchange and angry confrontation with him, before Steven returns to his senses and stops her.
- Pet the Dog: Surprisingly, despite Kevin's plan being motivated by his narcissism, he shows something resembling kindness when encouraging Steven to talk to Connie. Also, despite previously calling Stevonnie "girl", he uses more gender-neutral terms this time around ("they", "someone", etc.). Although it wasn't his intention, Steven and Connie thank him for his help.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- It turns out that Connie wasn't ignoring Steven (at least, not intentionally), she was just having trouble articulating over the phone that she wanted space, and eventually decided that it was best to discuss their problem in person, but Steven had left on vacation by the time she tried.
- It's even more unclear and is never elaborated on why she never even tried to visit Steven again after that failed attempt or leave some sort of sign to let him know that she was ready to talk, or at least that she still cared about him; for the former, it's speculated that she always intended to try and visit again, but other matters such as school and family issues, as well as her own personal reservations on how Steven would react to seeing her after being unintentionally shut out by her for so long (especially after her Expository Hairstyle Change) kept interfering, and for the latter, she may have simply overlooked that option in trying to figure everything out.
- For most of the party, Steven and Connie, due to awkwardness and uncertainty of where they stood with each other (due to Steven believing that Connie's new look combined with her total lack of response to his previous attempts to reach out and make amends were signs that she had decided to move on from him, and Connie presumably being uncertain of what Steven's feelings towards her are after unintentionally leaving him completely in the dark for the last few weeks), fail to communicate: Steven by following Kevin's manipulative advice to make Connie jealous, and Connie by not simply walking over and speaking to Steven right from the start.
- It turns out that Connie wasn't ignoring Steven (at least, not intentionally), she was just having trouble articulating over the phone that she wanted space, and eventually decided that it was best to discuss their problem in person, but Steven had left on vacation by the time she tried.
- Rule of Pool: There's a swimming pool in the middle of the party that Kevin falls into when he walks after Lion walking on water.
- Saying Too Much: As Kevin urges Steven not to go back to Connie while crying uncontrollably with a running nose, he accidentally implies he's been in a similar state.Kevin: If you don't pull it together, you're gonna regret it. And it'll be Sabina all over again!
Steven: Wh—Who's... Who's Sabina?
(Kevin pauses before his face turns red and he tries to compose himself) - Shout-Out: Kevin remarks that he thought Steven's name was "Clarence" for some reason.
- Status Cellphone: Bizarrely inverted; Kevin is rich but his cellphone (which has a trackball, keypad, and ~2" screen) seems like it's over a decade old. Steven, who has a modern smart phone, gets confused when told to put his number in.Steven: Okay, uh, how do I...?
Kevin: You roll the little ball to navigate.
Steven: The screen is so tiny. Here. - Stunned Silence:
- The moment when Steven and Connie notice each other for the first time since their fight weeks prior in "Dewey Wins", both glance at each other with stunned and shocked expressions, before Steven hides behind Kevin out of shock and fear, and Connie returns to socializing with the other guests.
- Kevin asks Steven if he's messaged Connie. Steven answers "several dozen times", and Kevin pauses for multiple seconds with a shocked face.
- Sympathy for the Hero: Despite his selfish reasons, Kevin does feel sympathy for Steven and his troubles with Connie.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: A bag of snacks Steven brought to the party get thrown over a fence by Kevin.
- Title Drop:"No one turns down an invitation to a Kevin party."
- The Voice: Several jokes involve a guy named Derrick, who's heard but always offscreen, even when Kevin steals his jacket to give to Steven.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: None of the partygoers pay much attention to a pink lion standing in the middle of the pool. They're much more interested in Kevin falling into the pool because he didn't notice either.
- Worthy Opponent: Kevin seems to have acknowledged Stevonnie as this; he admits that Stevonnie is cooler than him, and that having them at his party would elevate his status.
- Wrong Assumption: Steven and Connie both make this about each other during the party. Steven, upon seeing Connie with a new look and having such a good time with Lion and the other party guests without him, assumes that, given her complete silence towards him over the last few weeks since their fight, she was so angry at him over his surrender to Homeworld and ignoring her feelings following his return, that she decided to cut him out of her life permanently and move on. Later on, Connie, upon witnessing Steven's deliberate refusal to acknowledge her presence or even look at her in spite of her attempts to catch his attention and continued happy socialization with Kevin and his inner circle and without her, assumes that, after having been completely (and unintentionally) abandoned in the dark by her for so long, he has become so disillusioned with reconciling with her that he has given up on her entirely at this point, and has decided to cut her out of his life permanently and move on with Kevin as her replacement as his best friend. Each of their wrong assumptions almost result in them leaving without reconciling at all until they are finally able to acknowledge their mistakes towards each other.
