The episode begins with Finn and Jake running to Marceline’s house with an armless wizard who told them Marceline is in danger. Apparently, she has accidentally cast a sleep curse on herself, and the wizard can’t do anything to help her without arms. He tells Finn and Jake that they need to get into Marceline’s head, go to her Memory Core, and find a certain memory to bring back to the wizard. The wizard touches Finn’s forehead with his foot and says that Finn’s forehead will start to glow as they near the memory. Then, after showing them how to get into Marceline’s head and warning them of the consequences of their failure (Marceline will stay asleep forever), it’s into Marceline’s head we go.
We see a few of Marceline’s memories, one from when she was a little girl playing with her very beat-up teddy bear, one where we see her father eating her fries (ha! I love that show us that), one where she moves into the Tree Fort with her boyfriend Ash, and one where Ash turns out to be a terrible boyfriend who sells Marceline’s favorite teddy bear (she breaks up with him for this). Eventually Finn and Jake find the Memory Core, take the memory that the wizard wanted, and get out of Marceline’s head. When they give the memory to the wizard, he reveals himself to be Ash, who tricked Finn and Jake into taking Marceline’s memory of their breakup. He awakens Marceline, who greets her “boyfriend” happily, not being able to remember breaking up with him. Ash then takes Marceline’s back to his house, and it’s up to Finn and Jake to remind Marceline of what an abusive shitbag her boyfriend is.
While Jake provides a distraction, Finn sneaks into Ash’s house to speak to Marceline. Marceline tells him he should go because Ash doesn’t like her hanging out with mortals, but Finn brings Marceline into his memories and hows her the memory of her memory that he has. After seeing it, Marceline and Finn exit his memories. Ash shows up and spouts the oldest sexist cliche in the book, demanding that Marceline get back in the kitchen and make him a sandwich, and Marceline kicks him in the crotch. Repeatedly. I definitely approve of Marceline’s method.
This episode has a really interesting concept, going into Marceline’s memories. Sort of like the Pensieve from Harry Potter except you can actually interact with people in the memories. Which makes me wonder if Marceline’s memories were affected by this and if Finn and Jake are now part of them. Anyway, it’s a cool idea, but I wish they had shown us a bit more.
The bits and pieces of her memories that we do get are interesting, though. I found the one of her as a little girl repairing her teddy bear particularly disturbing. When she says to the bear that she she hurts it because she loves it, it sounds like something that may have been said to her by her parents. Most likely from her father. Plus, the fact that she’s all alone in a dark, post-apocalyptic wasteland (it looks like this memory takes place soon after the Mushroom War) with a teddy bear that look like it’s been through hell raises some questions too. Why is she alone in a place that looks so dangerous? Did she try to run away, or are her parents just neglectful? Actually, where is her mom? We already know that her father is the worst father who ever fathered, but have we ever heard anything about her mother?
The conflict with Ash was interesting too, because it’s not often you see a portrayal of an abusive relationship in a children’s show, but again I think more could have been done with it. That probably sounds weird, like I want to see Marceline being abused, but that’s not what I mean. I just mean that if you’re going to make an episode about this, it’s not something you can leave as a side note. Compare this episode to Mad Love, that episode of Batman: The Animated Series, which was about the abusive relationship between the Joker and Harley Quinn. It’s disturbing to watch, but in the right way, because its point was to show the psychology of an abuse victim and how awful the whole thing is, it’s supposed to disturb you and it was done well.
I guess I shouldn’t expect this episode to delve into the topic as much as Mad Love did, but the fact that it’s little more than a side note doesn’t feel right.
Or maybe it was going into the memories that was the side note.
Actually both of these plots feel like side notes and I’m not sure what the episode is really supposed to be about. So it’s kind of a wasted opportunity for both.
But still, this episode has some interesting, if underdeveloped, parts. I really liked the scene where Finn and Jake reach the Memory Core and it’s designed like a white silhouette. That was a cool visual.
Oh yeah, and I can’t not mention this:
Baby Finn is too adorable.
Rating: 7.5/10
Ice King is a really weird villain, and his relationship with Finn and Jake is even weirder.
Apparently, Finn and Jake can ground Ice King. Even though Ice King is older than them. He’s like this bratty child that Finn and Jake can’t take their eyes off of for more than minute because if they do he’ll run off and capture a princess. That’s what bratty children do, right? Anyway, after being grounded for four whole weeks, Ice King paces his Ice Castle, wishing he could hit Finn and Jake and lamenting that he can’t while he’s grounded. So he hires a hitman named Scorcher, a strange being who somewhat resembles a mummy and can turn into smoke and throw fireballs. Ice King tells Scorcher to hit Finn and Jake and signs a contract to make it official. Here’s the thing, though: HE THINKS SCORCHER IS LITERALLY JUST GOING TO HIT FINN AND JAKE, AS IN SLAP THEM OR PUNCH THEM. HE DOESN’T KNOW THAT SCORCHER’S JOB IS TO KILL PEOPLE. ICE KING IS THE MOST INNOCENT VILLAIN EVER.
Scorcher sets fire to Finn and Jake’s Tree Fort, forcing Ice King to save them. Ice King then explains to Scorcher that he only wants Scorcher to hit Finn and Jake, not kill them. When Scorcher realizes that Ice King put out the fire, he returns to Finn and Jake’s room while they’re sleeping and fills the room with smoke to suffocate them, but again Ice King saves them. After this, Ice King attempts to bribe Scorcher to get him to stop going after Finn and Jake, and even tries to switch Scorcher’s target to his least favorite princesses, Lumpy Space Princes (how dare you, Ice King) and Ghost Princess, but Scorcher refuses to leave his mission incomplete. Ice King even tries to hire a hitman-hitman, but apparently Scorcher is such a bad ass that even hitmen who specifically kill other hitmen can’t beat him. Ice King is left with no other choice but to freeze Scorcher (which won’t last long) and warn Finn and Jake of the danger they’re in.
After Ice King tells Finn and Jake what he has done, Scorcher comes to finish them off. The three of them are forced to flee, but there’s no way to escape Scorcher. Ice King comes up with a plan to lower Finn and Jake’s body temperature enough to convince Scorcher that they’re dead. Finn and Jake are against this plan because they don’t trust Ice King, but Ice King goes ahead and does it anyway. The plan works. Scorcher, thinking his job is done, leaves Ice King with a note that reads “Echos of past events nudge the tiller on my present course, I await it’s [WRONG IT’S/ITS SLAKDJSAL] reflection in the future”. This sounds like it might have significance later but maybe not.
You know what I don’t get about this episode? Why does Ice King care so much about Finn and Jake being killed? Wouldn’t he want them gone? Then he’d be free to do whatever he wanted without anyone butting in (I mean I’m sure someone besides Finn and Jake could stop Ice King too but you know). And he’s apparently okay with Lumpy Space Princess and Ghost Princess being killed even though they can be easily avoided by just not kidnapping them, a thought that I don’t think has ever crossed Ice King’s mind. Not kidnapping anyone with “princess” in their name? IMPOSSIBLE. Seriously though, it’s okay to kill princesses that he doesn’t like, but it’s not okay to kill Finn and Jake?
I guess it’s because of the weird relationship Ice King has with with Finn and Jake. They annoy him, but he also has a strange respect for them, which he has certainly never shown for any of the princesses. Think back to Mortal Folly, when he asked for their blessing when he wanted to marry Bubblegum without even bothering to see if Bubblegum actually wanted to marry him (which she clearly didn’t), because their blessing holds more weight to him than Bubblegum saying yes. Which is really horrible and fucked up. And there’s also the fact that at times, Ice King seems to think of Finn and Jake as his friends, even though they show nothing but contempt for him.
But even then, Finn and Jake’s feelings for Ice King baffle me too. Like in that episode I can’t remember the name of, where Bubblegum has them kidnap Ice King but they let him go when they realize he hasn’t done anything wrong recently. Because even if he’s done tons of awful things in the past and there’s no reason to think he won’t do more awful things in the future, the fact that he hasn’t done anything wrong recently means it’s okay to let him go. They’ll just go beat him up when he has done something wrong. Does anyone else think this is really weird? Imagine if at the end of The Avengers everyone was just like, “Okay, Loki, we stopped your weird alien army. Just don’t do anything like this again, all right?” instead of locking Loki up some place where they won’t need to worry about him until Thor 2. Or imagine if in the X-Men movies… um, okay never mind that because the way the X-Men handle Magneto isn’t much better.
Basically that. But you get my point.
Okay, enough about Ice King and his weird relationships. Let’s talk about Scorcher. I really love Scorcher. I love his dedication to completing the job he’s given even after it turns out it’s not what Ice King wanted. The fact that he’s so relentless makes him more intimidating. The design is pretty cool too, and the fact that he never speaks. His scenes with Ice King were hilarious. Interesting that a character who never speaks can be so funny. I’m guessing Scorcher won’t be a character we see again, but I loved him here.
Overall, this episode is pretty good. It’s jokes are funny and the concept itself is funny, but I don’t think I’ll ever understand Ice King’s relationship with Finn and Jake.
Rating: 7.5/10
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