It’s time to visit our ol’ pal Cuber again in his weird future spaceship! And this time we get a little glimpse of his interests outside of Graybles, taking care of exotic birds in the ship’s arboretum. Our in-universe stand-in, played by MST3k’s legendary Cambot, is more interested in learning how to make a birdhouse than consult the wisdom of olden times, but Cuber, a Graybleman by trade manages to sneak a Grayble lesson in by conveniently forgetting his where-the-door-hole-goes and turning to the pyramid-viewer for answers.

This time in the Land of Ooo, we’re set up with a surprising structure, as this time the Graybles abandon both their initial relatively-discrete structure (in favor of intercutting heavily) and, in a sudden twist, the perspective of the main characters. What appears to be a segment about Finn and Jake entertaining Jake Jr. turns into a study of the little butt-face herself, now a fully-grown woman and more interested in swilling a wine glass full of strawberry juice and existentially contemplating her worries about the future than in games of make-believe (including a star turn from Finn as a housewife accepting a delivery of parts from Jake as both the front stoop and a helpful delivery driver) but willing to indulge her dad and Best Unkle.

Likewise what seems like it should be a segment about Princess Bubblegum quickly reveals itself to actually be about Cinnamon Bun, who tears off on a rampage after PB confiscates his nightlight. In trying to achieve the perfect bedtime illumination, the Candy Kingdom’s most chaotic subject inadvertently starts a fire that consumes first his bedroom and then large swathes of the Kingdom, but he’s too singularly devoted to his goal to care and lumbers in and out of the remaining segments in search of a nightlight. I’m with him on this one honestly, I’ve always liked to have a little illumination when I fall asleep– not being able to see stresses me out.

The Ice King stridently ignores the inferno outside to start Movie Night for the next stars of the show, Gunter, Gunther, Gunder, and the rest. Simon offers a selection of weird crap for babies or a binge watch of some weird crap for dads. Democracy simply doesn’t work, however, and he’s forced to make a bargain, pirouetting in a diaper and baby bonnet as both he and the penguins bounce right off “Basic Mortality: Season 1”.

Cinnamon Bun’s path of destruction next takes him to the home of the two Earls of Lemongrab, who continue to disturbingly blur the line between brothers and husbands as they take care of “their son”, a smarmy-faced porcelain doll named Lemonsweets. A disagreement about whether to put him to bed or have a dance party turns angry, and soon violent, ending with Lemonsweet shattered into a hundred pieces and Lemongrab 2 devoured alive, as he shrieks out his last. Too dark, indeed, Cinnamon Bun.

The next piece of the puzzle comes at the humble hovel of Mr. Fox, in what is probably his single largest bit of characterization to date. He has just returned from visiting his ambitious city cousin, and while he feigns contentment with his crappy furniture and ugly bugs, it soon becomes clear that he’s in a depressive slump, until his subconscious arises to offer to take him to buried treasure. Unfortunately the arrival and departure of Cinnamon Bun breaks his concentration, and the map-making figment disappears in a puff of logic, shades of Samuel Taylor Coleridge when writing his famous “Kubla Khan.” His is only to soldier on, though his subconscious returns to insult the Porlock-ing pastry from afar as he departs.

Back at the treehouse our boys have finally finished their Time Machine, and are just about to activate it when Cuber mashes pause, pointing out the correctly-constructed birdhouse he was looking for. But Cambot has become engrossed in the Graybles, and so Cuber agrees to let them play out. What looked like the time machine activating is in fact BMO’s burglar alarm function, triggered by who else but Cinnamon Bun. Jake Jr. calms the two panic-stricken simple minds and gives them a solution they can accept, first by keying “It’s ok” into BMO’s system, and then by allowing Cinnamon Bun to abscond with Jake’s admittedly cool nightlight, while Finn and Jake “return” from their time adventure with “tomorrow’s newspaper”, crudely handwritten on old-school printer paper.

As you’ve probably guessed if you read this recap carefully, the theme, though unspoken by Cuber, is the classical Five Stages of grief.

Stray Thoughts:

• A bird steals Cuber’s cube!
• Lot of really peculiar dialogue in this one, the rhythm of which I’ve attempted to capture in parts of this recap.
• In addition to the obvious theme, there’s also a recurring theme of parenting, and specifically of children outgrowing or failing to outgrow some aspect of their development on the parent-figure’s timetable.
  “Mom has some weird taste in men…”
• Among Cinnamon Bun’s possessions in his room: a motorcycle shaped lamp, a unicycle trophy, a unicycle, a skateboard, a “no parents allowed” poster on the door, a poster with an 18th-century-looking guy that says “History” on it, a poster of a waterfall, an orange bowl with a plastic spoon, a gold ring, a toy airplane and several couds hung from the fan, several books, a moccasin, a spilled cup, a beanbag chair.
• Ice King has a Sega Genesis
• The blurbs on “Airplanes Taking Off”
  • “Gripping… Sensual” — .C. Tinker
  • five stars from Cineyou
• Lemonsweets’s bonnet collection includes a miniature Finn hat!

• Each segment match cuts the final line from the previous one, as follows:
  • Jake Jr./Princess Bubblegum “Not a little kid anymore!”
  • Cinnamon Bun/Ice King “YEEEEARGH!”
  • Ice King/Cinnamon Bun “Too dark!”
  • Lemongrab 2/Mr. Fox “My end!”
  • Mr. Fox’s subconscious/Finn: “What. A Jerk?”
    Tomorrow’s Newspaper reads:
    TOMORROW’S
    NEWSPAPER
    JAKE JR.
    REAL COOL
    KID!
    Daddy’s Angel, Witnesses Report
    By Jake “The Dad” The Dog
    Authorities are still searching for the cause of a 3-alarm fire in
    Today, In

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What do we know about Jake the Dog? Well he’s a dog who lives in a treehouse with his best friend/brother/human and the two of them like to go on adventures. These boys are generally considered as heroes in the Land of Ooo and Jake wouldn’t do something so heinous as sell stolen bikes… steal fashionable red boots… or snatch purses from old ladies… right?

Yeah he did all that. In the show’s run so far there have been a few references to Jake having a criminal past. Jake making a reference to his thieving days is usually just treated as a Finn reaction gag. The closest it has come to an episode plot was way back in season one’s City of Thieves when Jake claimed he was “corrupted” by the city itself into stealing some red boots. Jake’s thieving past then has never actually informed much of his character, especially since we are told Jake didn’t know it was wrong at the time. It’s like when Principal Seymour Skinner’s past was revealed, it ultimately doesn’t matter because it was never a big part of his character (and so they never speak of it again “under penalty of torture”).

Thieving is a part of Jake’s past that’s long forgotten, and it might’ve stayed that way if Jake the Dog never became Jake the Dad.

In case y’all forgot, Jake and Lady Rainicorn became parents just earlier this season and this episodes marks the first major appearance from one of the pups (tho they are now all full-blown adults). It was obviously a very big moment for Jake that was hilariously wrapped up by the end of the episode. I remember being pretty excited on the return of Jake Jr. as I honestly wasn’t sure if the pups were going to make more appearances at all. Jake Jr. becomes the driving factor for Jake Sr. this episode but sadly she doesn’t get too much to say or do. The episode instead leans on some heist tropes and introduces the audience to Jake’s old crew. I could see another episode where Jake and Jake Jr. go on a fun father-daughter combo heist but what we get instead are four characters that were involved with Jake’s past.

~BMO BREAK!~

First we get Gareth aka “The Lady Master” who can use his face to put people under his spell. Its a creepy power that doesn’t actually get used in the heist (he dresses up and throws banana-milk instead). Also of note (well for me) was the line where he said “I don’t wanna do poetry– I mean, pottery”– which I only point out because I don’t get the joke. He even shifts his eyes while saying it, is there an inside joke with the voice actor I don’t know about? Or was it really just a joke that he slipped up and is ashamed of his love for poetry or something?

Next up are the Flying Lettuce Brothers. The name might be a reference to Flying Lotus, who produced a really cool song for a previous episode. The brothers have some Mr. Ripley type ability where they can perfectly mimic someone’s voice. This skill actually does get used in the heist but also at the local Squeez-E-Mart shortly after this exchange between Tonya and her boss:

Lastly is a flopping fish in a tree, Tiffany! Tiffany’s last appearance was in episode 9 which was a very long time ago. In fact it was so long they had to get a different small child to voice him. Tiffany knows the layout of the place they’re breaking into so that’s what he offers to the crew. He also has an obsession with Jake and their time together stealing stuff.

The heist goes underway and the crew manages to confuse and/or provide milk to the guards. Captain Banana Guard (voiced by Tom Kenny) request for milk is so hilarious for how serious he sounds. Gareth throws milk at the captain, FlyLet Bros impersonates the captain’s voice to force the guards to practice their battle ki-ahs, while Tiffany and Jake make their way to the Corridor of A Thousand Deaths.

From here the episode gives Jakes some really memorable animations. Jake becomes a ceiling, traverses through a corridor Famicom/NES era Mario Bros. style, impossibly phases through a metal gate, and he gets real scary and big!

Jake manages to catch up to his double-crossing crew but its revealed that the mastermind is none other than Jake Jr. The father and daughter have a little heart-to-heart and the episode concludes with them making their walk home. The episode’s message ends up being about Jake’s past having an effect on his daughter whether he’s aware of it or not. Cedric wrote in his review for Little Dude that a strong theme in this season is parenting and it can certainly be seen here.

I’m not a parent myself, but I understand there’s the fear of having your kids make the same mistakes you made in your life. Jake’s past life as a thief seems to be forgotten by him and everyone else in Ooo but it still finds its way to Jake Jr. and she concocted a plan to make him proud. Jake gives the requisite talk to her but relents and admits he’s proud of what Jake Jr. has accomplished. Now I don’t have kids but I imagine it’s like in basketball when a coach scolds someone (let’s say Giannis Adetokunbo) for shooting a three-pointer they have no business taking because they suck at it– but miraculously the ball goes in. You’re kinda mad at them but you also forgive them since it went in. Maybe that’s the position Jake is in for witnessing such a great double-cross.

For Jake… maybe the real heist were the kids he made along the way?

FINN THE HUMAN ALERT