Adventure Time: Is That You

November 26, 2014 6:12 AM - Season 6, Episode 19

Jake sees an old friend.

AV Club Review

posted by drezdn (25 comments total)

Jesse Moynihan: Tues is an ep I boarded solo. I remember this was the episode that started to break down my mental defenses, which resulted in possibly some of my best writing in the latter half of Season 6. “Best” meaning weirdest.”
posted by 1970s Antihero at 7:16 AM on November 26, 2014 [3 favorites]

This one was really great. The time travel stuff was the most imaginative way of doing a recap I've seen.

Finn sword! Apparently it shows up in a vision in "Breezy" too, but even if it hadn't been foreshadowed, a sword made out of an alternate reality version of yourself has almost gotta be pretty consequential.
posted by Small Dollar at 9:46 AM on November 26, 2014

I wonder if part of the reason Finn "earned" the sword was because he was willing to risk himself in order to save Jake.
posted by drezdn at 11:07 AM on November 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Finn didn't risk himself to save Jake, he risked himself to save Breezy. Who was more of Jake's friend than his. Sometimes you can think someone is totally cool but you never become besties.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 11:25 AM on November 26, 2014

The guy in this episode was Prismo, Breezy is an anthropomorphic female bee.
posted by Small Dollar at 12:14 PM on November 26, 2014

I think this one was scripted by Stephen Moffat.
posted by rikschell at 3:52 AM on November 27, 2014 [2 favorites]

Woah.
posted by signal at 5:08 PM on November 27, 2014

That was some comfy bed.
posted by Catblack at 7:44 PM on November 27, 2014 [1 favorite]

The guy in this episode was Prismo, Breezy is an anthropomorphic female bee.

stepstepstepstepstepstepstepstepstepstepstepstep DID SOMEONE SAY "BEE" oh nevermind

That was a great episode.
posted by JHarris at 10:25 PM on November 27, 2014

Prismo: "That means one of your alternate selves is gonna sleep forever to keep me alive."
Jake: "Whoa, cool!"
posted by JHarris at 10:26 PM on November 27, 2014 [1 favorite]

This was a good episode, but so much has already drained from my head I don't have a lot to add. I found it a bit wild that while Jake Prime was saved the doomed life of sleeping forever, not so much could be said for Jake Beta. Likewise, Prismo is totally cool using an alternative timeline version of Jake to resurrect himself, but to be fair, I could see Jake considering the idea of sleeping forever to bring back Prismo (he did find the bed very comfortable).

So with all that in my head, I also felt bad for Prismo in the first place, as he was one more victim of the Lich and it was neat they found a way to bring him back. Conflicting emotions, man!

The other fact that illusion Jake kept blowing up in front of Finn, that was deeply weird and I loved it and how it was kind of unsettling. This is the Adventure Time I've come to love so much.
posted by Atreides at 9:39 AM on December 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

Likewise, Prismo is totally cool using an alternative timeline version of Jake to resurrect himself

Actually he didn't seem to be. Two or three times he seemed to have regrets about using Jake like this, and it was he who admitted to Jake the fate of his alternate self. Jake was more okay with it than Prismo was.
posted by JHarris at 5:01 PM on December 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

A thought just occurred to me, Prismo had this plan laid out well before his death. Did he know that Finn and Jake would be the cause of that death or did he just plan to use Jake because he knew Jake would probably be okay with it?
posted by Atreides at 6:28 AM on December 9, 2014

In another Adventure Time thread, people are discussing if the long-term plan is to have Jake die at the end. This indicates that, even if the primary Jake does die, there will still be a sleeping Jake out there....
posted by JHarris at 10:27 AM on December 10, 2014

I just watched this for the fourth or fifth time but the first time having watched all the episodes starting from Season 4. This time, I really picked up on how the ritual they did to preserve Prismo in their dreams resulted in Jake being sent to Prismo's Time Room... Complex. I mean, I got it before, but it didn't really click. The moment when Finn goes "Woof, what was that?" was the ritual working. Someone desiring to preserve Prismo in their dreams must be how Prismo gets born; therefore the ritual triggered something that sparked Prismo's past-self recording. After all being preserved in someone's dream is how he lives, so it makes sense that a ritual stating of that desire starts everything off.

What I'm still fuzzy on was why were there versions of Jake re-enacting his memories and continually getting transported to Prismo for Jake to hitch a ride with.
posted by bleep at 10:12 PM on January 1, 2015 [3 favorites]

Or maybe there was only one version of Jake just continually getting interrupted. Why though, I still don't know. I was just now lying in bed at midnight thinking about how Prismo must have set up the trap for his rebirth. But when "the recording of him" saw that it was Jake he went to plan B, not wanting that fate for his friend if he could help it. And as a wish master, why couldn't he make a recording of himself with decision making capability?
posted by bleep at 12:12 AM on January 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yeah, Jake keeps exploding when Finn interrupts him (again, that is still pretty messed up). What if Finn never woke up and actually was disturbing a dream Jake in his own dream? ARGH. I suppose I need to watch this one again and think on these questions.
posted by Atreides at 9:27 AM on January 2, 2015

I mean I understand and buy the mechanics of exploding Jake I just don't understand what the cause and/or purpose of it is overall, how it fits in to the story organically, other than a storytelling device to get Finn to the Time Room and create a duplicate Jake. It's ok if that's all it is but they usually justify their plot points better than that.
posted by bleep at 10:07 AM on January 2, 2015

Also Finn actually states that it's not a dream and slaps himself to prove it. In general I'm ok with believing characters when they say that.
posted by bleep at 10:09 AM on January 2, 2015

That's right, so much for my memory. I think the exploding Jake existed entirely to mess with Finn and the viewer until it dawned on Finn what was going on.
posted by Atreides at 11:08 AM on January 2, 2015

One thing I'm curious about is whether other-Jake turning into the old man was to imply that other-Jake was always the old man.
posted by drezdn at 8:28 AM on January 5, 2015

You're trying to break my brain. Essentially, Prismo was always Jake's dream creation? Hence why the two got along so well and Prismo's readiness to sacrifice himself to help Finn find his father? Though, reading back on that episode, it seems that the Old Man was sleeping in a different location prior to Finn and Jake finding him and taking him to Prismo.
posted by Atreides at 9:43 AM on January 5, 2015 [2 favorites]

I don't think that's what they meant. I think they were trying to succinctly get across the idea that that Jake remained sleeping forever until he turned into the next old man.
posted by bleep at 10:21 AM on January 5, 2015

Someone examined and charted the timelines for this episode.
posted by Pronoiac at 6:43 PM on July 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

Is it just me or does that seem even more confusing than the show.
posted by bleep at 10:28 PM on July 13, 2015 [1 favorite]