I’ve always had conflicting feelings about this one. Jermaine finally introduces Finn & Jake’s brother, mentioned in passing several times but never actually properly featured as a character. And unlike our heroes, Jermaine isn’t a free-spirited adventurer. He’s more buttoned down, more responsible, and thus the one who gets stuck managing Joshua and Margaret’s lingering business after their deaths. And, naturally, he kinda resents that! He’s doing everything “right” and his reward is that his life sucks so bad he doesn’t even get salt. Food doesn’t taste like anything without salt.

And Finn and Jake are in prime form here as far as uselessness goes. Finn is damn near 16 here1Probably, idk if we get any clear age from him from him dating Flame Princess at 14 to his 17th birthday in a few seasons and he’s bouncing around and breaking shit like a sugar-crazed 8-year-old. Jake’s often stupid but like, bro you know the salt outside is for keeping demons out, you were chased by them coming up here! They’re practically flaunting their carefree irresponsibility just to taunt Jermaine. They don’t have to sacrifice, they don’t need to keep demons at bay, they get to live in a treehouse decorated with nudie posters! I’m always 1,000% on Jermaine’s side when he crashes out and starts wailing on Jake. Frankly I always hope he switches to Finn, like Jake’s squishy he can take it, Finn is rigid you hit him it’ll actually hurt.

But, while I’m on Jermaine’s side, the episode isn’t. The episode’s position, pretty clearly stated, is that Jermaine’s responsibility is simply self-martyring. He doesn’t have to stay behind to maintain mom and dad’s stuff, no one does. That’s something he imposed on himself, because he’s still seeking approval from a dead dog, because he never got over not being Joshua’s favorite. When he finally unclenches, lets the house burn down, lets the demons in, lets Bryce escape, nothing bad happens. The demons just wanted their stuff. Bryce’s edgelord threats were empty, and in fact he seems to be friends with Jermaine, or at least something close to it.

In many ways this episode is something of an inverse to “Ocarina” earlier in the season. In that one, Jake’s immaturity is challenged by his son, Kim Kil Whan, and the episode seemed to think Kim was on to something, that Jake was flakey, that Kim had real reason for hurt. When I covered that episode I largely disagreed. I felt Kim’s conflict was manufactured, and his methods were evil. Here the positions are inverted, with the episode in Jake’s corner and me praying for his downfall. I think it comes down to, we don’t know things are gonna be fine without Jermaine’s obsessive management until the boys force the issue, the house burns down, and then it turns out to have been fine all along. On a pure literal level that doesn’t work because demons from Joshua’s past have been a huge problem before, Jake got trapped in an alternate dimension sans blood just last season thanks to one. And on an emotional one, yeah Jake it’s easy for you to say that Jermaine should just let go. You did that years ago! You left home knowing that Jermaine was staying behind and taking care of the boring shit your burnt out pea brain couldn’t focus on if your life depended on it.

*sigh* I dunno. I’ll always be coming at this episode from the wrong perspective for the simple fact that I’m an only child. These sorts of questions of adult sibling roles, of who manages mom and dad’s shit and who strikes out on their own, away from family baggage and legacy and trauma, they aren’t direct for me. And obviously in those scenarios you probably aren’t bound to your parents unfinished business by fear of a demon’s curse. You probably can just leave behind what no longer serves you, even if it goes against how you were conditioned growing up. It’s just. I guess it’s that if there were some actually important, boring responsibility that someone needed doing, flighty manchild Jake and hyperactive literal child Finn could never be relied upon to do it. Either a Jermaine takes it upon themselves or it doesn’t get done. It’s not an attitude I got behind in Ocarina, couched as it was in the oppressive structure of capitalism, but like, responsibility isn’t a capitalist ploy, y’know? Even in the post-scarcity communist utopia there will be boring but necessary work. And there will be people who get trapped in a self-identity as the type of person who does that, who steps up, who takes on every burden and abnegates themselves in the process. And it’s good for those people to be allowed to let go, to step back and reassess if they actually need to be making the sacrifices they are or if they just think they do.

But like, even then I would never want to hear that from Jake the Dog. Like what would he even know about it, every responsibility looks unnecessary to him. And so it’s kind of a sticking point, for me. Honestly, the deeper into the show we get, and the more emotionally grounded stories get, the more Jake as a character becomes complicated. He’s a chill dude who’s always down for whatever, that’s fun when you’re 12! He fits the world of season 1 perfectly. But in season 6 and beyond, the world isn’t purpose built for sugar-rushes anymore. And Jake’s flaws become more pronounced, more relatable, and yes more resentable. Someone (can’t remember who) mentioned the other day that Jake is maybe the least hated character in the series, a guy that everyone watching can enjoy well enough. I think in episodes like Jermaine, we see the case against Jake. And I’m glad for it, honestly, even if the show is kinder to him here than I feel like being.

Stray Observations

• Tom Scharpling voicing Jermaine is especially interesting in light of the “free spirit vs bound by family obligation” family conflict. I know him better as the voice of Greg Universe, the spirit so free he changed his family name entirely and effectively broke off contact (much to the annoyance of cousin Andy, burned up by resentment as the entire family slowly moved on, piece by piece, while he remained committed to what once was). That‘s a conflict where I’m much more on the side of the irresponsible flighty one.
• I do like how Bryce and Jermaine immediately fell into being friends, don’t get me wrong. Great little Adventure Time beat

---

It’s hard letting go. Even of a relationship you felt like you wanted out of.

Someone makes you crazy. A horrible maladaptive relationship that you have no idea how to get out of. And then suddenly you see it, a way out. And you seize it.

And you’re free.

At first it’s incredible. Freedom. Not having to feel tied to someone. Not feeling trapped anymore.

Then things start to remind you of the good parts. You remember what being lonely felt like. If you’d been with them for a long time, you’ll have lots of memories with them. Before you know it, you start seeing reminders of those memories everywhere.

You start feeling scared, you start feeling like you made a horrible mistake. You start reaching for a crutch. Maybe you find ways of trying to get involved in their lives again. Maybe you find someone who reminds you of them, and try to recreate what you had.

But it’s never the same. Soon you’re chasing a ghost of a relationship, a half formed memory. Maybe you struggle to remember exactly what was good about it in the first place. Maybe you end up recreating the bad parts more than the good.

Before you know it, you’re wallowing in a tub of ice cream and Doritos, mired in the past, unable to move forward but unable to get back to where you desperately wish you could be. You seethe at yourself, unable to recognize your own image in the mirror.

Meanwhile, them? The one who you thought had trapped you? They’ve realized they were trapped too. But instead of turning inward, they’ve realized that they needed this as well. They move on with their lives, free, and kiss a bird under the moonlight.

When I picked this episode, I thought i was going to write something about how people interact with art. I thought Chips and Ice Cream represented the show, that Morty Rodgers was Penn Ward, and that this was about him learning to let go and allow his characters go live free without him.

But I think this is about relationships.

Notice the title card. If you look close, you can see that Morty Rodgers is crying, looking at a picture of himself with what appears to be a lady bunny. A bunny whose ears look a lot like his do when he’s possessed by Chips and Ice Cream. There’s more pictures of her in his little wagon home.

Are Chips and Ice Cream his way of recreating what he had with a bunny girl? Are they him aping the shape of his relationship but failing to recreate the content? … Maybe?

I think Chips and Ice Cream represent a maladaptive response to losing someone, to getting stuck in a pattern as we try and recreate the past over and over. We start thinking we’re trapped, and the reality is we could just be free any time we want. We wallow in our misery instead of embracing it and moving forward. Clinging tight to our memories of them until they drag us down, but if we could just let go of the pain, those memories could be a blessing instead, looking back on the path of our lives with clear eyes and a clear heart.

Until we can do that, even the happy memories sting, because there’s no such thing as purely happy memories.

STRAY THOUGHTS:

• Jake’s nonchalance is hilarious.
• So is his impression of BMO in the beginning.
• Watching Morty Rodgers’ slow burn collapse is really fucking harrowing.
• His name being “Morty Rodgers” is amazing, though.
• The storyboard translates almost all of Chips and Ice Cream’s dialogue. Like, seriously, almost all of it is real dialogue. It’s really impressive. The end of their “puppet show” is them saying, “Do you think we’ll ever get to see a real bird?” “I don’t know. Maybe some day.”