Holly Jolly Secrets Part I | Aired: December 5, 2011 | Reviewed by CedricTheOwl

And so we reach the end of Adventure Time’s first foray into seasonal episodes.  “The Creeps” and “From Bad to Worse” were explicitly created as Halloween episodes, both serving as callbacks to the series’ past, going all the way back to the first episode.  “Thank You” was a stylistic experiment in the guise of Thanksgiving episode that expanded the show’s scope from beyond just Finn and Jake, demonstrating that the world of Ooo had far more stories to tell than just those about two wacky adventuring bros.  “Holly Jolly Secrets” gives away that this is a Christmas episode, but how will Adventure Time tackle it?  As always with Adventure Time, the answer isn’t quite what you would expect.

There’s no real beating around the bush on this one:  taken on its own, this episode is pretty thin.  Finn and Jake find a briefcase hidden by the Ice King, which contains a set of VHS tapes.  Deducing that they contain IK’s evilest secrets, the boys enlist BMO’s help in playing the tapes to uncover his latest dastardly plan.  What do they discover?

Ice King gives the people what they want

Yes, the tapes contain little else but the Ice King’s aimless ramblings, home videos of his own creation, and video diary entries of nominal interest.  Convinced the videos must be hiding some kind of secret, the boys commit to watching all of them, only to find each subsequent video more confusing and off-putting than the last.  They briefly try to enlist Princess Bubblegum’s help in deciphering what they assume is the encoded message in the videos, which leads to a cliffhanger of the Ice King attacking the treehouse as Jake screams in terror.

The episode is a deliberate exercise in cringe humor, designed to make the Ice King look as off-putting and pitiful as possible.  It’s certainly effective at making the poor guy seem like a lonely weirdo, but it’s debatable how interesting all this is on its own.  But it’s not on its own; it’s pointless to consider this episode apart from what immediately follows it.  This entire episode is just setup for the sudden turn into dire existential horror late in the second part, and in that respect I think this episode succeeds wildly in its aims.  I remember not really understanding exactly what they were going for in this first episode, which left me completely unguarded against the episode’s true message.  But that’s a subject for later.

This episode isn’t a complete throwaway though.  It’s interesting to consider this episode as an encapsulation of Finn and Jake’s evolving relationship with the Ice King, just before it undergoes an immense and irreversible shift.  It is indeed a bit odd that Finn and Jake immediately assume the Ice King’s secrets are evil.  By this point in their adventures, they’ve seen the Ice King’s more reasonable side and even teamed up with him on occasion; he’s more of an occasional nuisance than their arch-enemy.  The assumption that the Ice King is committing some evil deed mirrors how the boys saw him in season 1.  As they watch more of the videos, they vacillate between being amused at his antics and put off by his weirdness.  They know something is wrong with him, and while they’ve gradually come to recognize that beating him up isn’t always the solution, they’re unsure of how to help him.  The true nature of the Ice King’s malady is closer at hand than Finn and Jake realize, but what to do about it will become even harder to grasp.

Notable Quotes –

• “Yes Finn.  It goes in my butt.”
• “My alarm says it’s time for Finn’s bath.  Finn, get naked.”  Niki Yang as BMO is on fire this episode

Dispatches from the Commentary –

• This episode was originally conceived as just Finn and Jake riffing on a collection of public domain Christmas episodes Pat McHale found.  The team made it all the way to the boarding process before Pen Ward panicked and bailed on the idea.
• The rush to complete the episode was exacerbated by the fast-forwarding gimmick, which required the boarders to create three times the number of content for them.
• The boarders also confirm that Ooo does not experience seasons, and that the climate only varies based on the kingdom they’re in.  Really fits in with the video game aesthetic the series has.

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Holly Jolly Secrets Part II | Aired: December 5, 2011 | Reviewed by Grumproro

AAAAAAAAAAAAAlouette, gentille alouette
Alouette, je te plumerai.
Je te plumerai la tête!
Je te plumerai la tête!
Alouette, je te plumerai!

Welcome back to Part II of the Adventure Time Christmas Special! Grab your favorite warm drink, put on a comfy sweater, and get ready for some cozy and cheerful vibes. 

Or…get ready for endless sobbing? What kind of Christmas episode is this exactly? I don’t know what I expected the first time I saw this episode,1For the record, it was not Christmas when I watched it. I can’t remember exactly when it was, but it was most likely October. but it wasn’t this. Actually, I kind of do know what I expected: warm drinks, comfy sweaters, snow, gifts, colorful lights, music, maybe a little romance, probably some display of compassion, and possibly a little bit of sadness in there somewhere.2Like the “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” kind of sadness. Sung by Judy Garland in Meet Me In St. Louis. Or, for a different but similar but different kind of sadness, sung by Judy Garland in the Judy Garland Christmas Show. You know? The kind of thing you can re-watch every year, maybe with some friends and family. I’m big on re-watching my favorite holiday specials every year. I think I drove my mom a little crazy watching the same Rankin/Bass movies every year (and yes, I still watch them today).3Because I know you want to know, my favorite is Jack Frost. Although I sometimes watch that on Groundhog Day instead. It works for both! It feels like a ceremony of sorts. It’s fun and gets me in the “holiday spirit”. But that’s not what this Christmas special feels like. Not exactly. I have only watched it around Christmas once that I can recall, so it’s not a part of my regular rotation. But it is one of my favorite episodes of the series.

Of course, in many ways, this does deliver on the usual Christmas special. They’re obviously aware of the beats they’re supposed to hit; they even have a special appearance from “Santa”! Kind of. But I think it feels different to me for one really big reason: Simon Petrikov. 

Because of that, I really can’t imagine putting this episode on for Christmas at my mom’s house (for example). This is also why I love it. I honestly think it’s pretty incredible (and a little hilarious) to use a two-part Christmas special to reveal a massive twist about one of the show’s main characters. I still remember how I felt when this episode ended. I was so confused! I looked over to Ralph to see if he had any thoughts, but he had fallen asleep. I can remember later trying to explain to him what happened, but I felt like I didn’t even know. I just knew it made me feel like something really cool had been carefully revealed, just a little, just enough. And in just the right way.

It’s just so much! And I couldn’t help but look at the Ice King in a completely different way from that point forward. 

Yeah, like that! That’s exactly how I started looking at him! And I love Finn so, so much for that expression. That expression, and the minute that follows it (because it sometimes only takes a minute for Adventure Time to do something beautiful) is really what keeps me coming back to this episode and why I consider it a favorite. Watching Finn trying to process what he’s learned, comparing it to the person he knows, and the things this person has done, and choosing to give his secrets back to him, no questions asked. And it makes me wonder, if you’re Finn, what are you supposed to do? You could focus more on the present person in front of you, not an unreasonable choice really. You can’t stop being Finn the Human, hero of Ooo, protector of princesses, whose nemesis is the Ice King. Right? 

But, what if this changes something? Should it change something? Now that you’re looking at this person in this way? How do you go back? This is just me, but I feel like this quite literally changes the world! And, in this moment, when he can, Finn moves with compassion. And, as his understanding of the world and the people in it expands once again, Finn grows up just a little more. Ah, there it is! Our warm, cozy holiday ending, tinged with just a little bit of sadness too.4Now’s the time to play “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. And even if this isn’t a part of a holiday tradition for me, it’s a new holiday tradition for Ooo (and maybe for you!). Which is pretty delightful.