Oh, and immediately after Steven throws that party to try to convince his bigoted relative to change their ways comes the episode where someone tries to rip the gem out of his body.

Notable here is the time skip. All of seasons two and three take place over, like, a few weeks. Steven’s Birthday is August 15th. The leaves start to change at the start of season three. Connie returns to school at the start of season four. “Gem Harvest” is basically Thanksgiving

At that point I guess the show starts to try to make up for lost time? “Three Gems and a Baby” is already the dead of Winter; the constant in-your-nose religious context suggests it’s a Christmas episode. Which also serves as foreshadowing, if the Diamonds are effectively gods.

Honestly this is one of my favorite running gags.

I feel like it comes up more often than it probably does.

Never noticed this look at adolescent Sour Cream. I clocked the family picture, sure, but it went by so quickly I never quite saw the details.

And. Yeah, everyone has pointed this out by now, but. That’s a diamond, there.

And there are the three unwise Gems, bearing gifts. Worth noting that they’ve all regenerated since we last saw them in flashback… 

Including Pearl, who was in another form not long before Steven’s birth.

And who, I guess, won’t regenerate again for another twelve years or so.

One wonders the method they have for continuity on this show. Or if it’s all just in their heads. “Oh, he’ll need it… in the future.” Amethyst is weirdly off-model all episode. More so than usual.

The tagline…

The return of ca-ra-bi-NUH.

I always wonder if this is a reference to something.

Honestly though, he nose what’s up.

From the publisher of How to Talk to People, presumably.

So who does Greg try (and fail) to mug, Marty McFly style, to try to catch up with the Gems and his van? Squint and age up about twelve years.

“Wow! You guys were wrong about everything.” In which Steven sums up the whole goddamned show.

Seriously, even when an episode ends on a joke, that ending theme comes crashing in, and deflates the whole thing, reminds you that something is very much not right here.