There is some confusion as to whether or not these 5 episodes are to wrap up Season 8, or these are part of Season 9, the show's final. When you watch the episodes on the Cartoon Network website, it lists "Orb" as the Season 9 premiere.
However, according to showrunner Adam Muto, these five episodes indeed close out Season 8. It's just that for whatever the reason, the top brass of Cartoon Network decided to change the division and instead places Orb onwards as part of Season 9. We've seen this done before in the case of Steven Universe and Uncle Grandpa. So again, it's all the weird shenanigans Cartoon Network is doing.
Another thing to note is from Jack Perndarvis, who works on the show as writer and storyline artist. He pretty much spelt it out in this tweet from 2016 that Adventure Time got the axe, and this was not mentioned in any of the news articles on the show. However, they are given time to wrap things up, with the final episode scheduled to air in 2018.
The only thing left I have to confirm is the number of episodes left after these 5. From what I am told, there are 18. Again, I cannot confirm if that's the case or there are more. But I will have to assume that 18 is how many episodes are left in the series. And that makes me very sad. But before the sadness takes over, here's my take on the 5 episodes.
"Abstract" is the first of the five and begins shortly after the events of Elements. Jake isn't doing very well adjusting to his life in his Shapeshifter form, so much so that everyone around him, including Finn, gets weirded out by his appearance.
One night, Jake had a series of abstract dreams, as the title of this episode suggests. Jake, being Jake, doesn't get any of it at all, but he does notice two key visuals - the Shapeshifter that birthed him, and Jermaine, who has switched from painting landscapes to doing abstract art.
Seeking answers, Jake journeyed to the wastelands and confronts his brother, suspecting Jermaine is under some mind-control because of the change in his style of painting. Jermaine assures his brother that even though he has indeed changed his style of painting, he is still the same Jermaine as before. As Jake looks over the rest of Jermaine's paintings, he begins to understand himself better, making him revert back to his old self, though he didn't notice this until Finn told him much later.
This episode of Adventure Time is co-storyboarded by Graham Falk, which made me lower my expectations. Ever since Falk did the episode "Sad Face", which is one of my least (if not THE least) likable episode of Adventure Time, I pretty much placed Falk at the bottom tier of storyboarders. Thankfully, this episode isn't as bad as "Sad Face", but it's not something to excite about either.
As the title suggests, Abstract is essential an episode about, well..., 'abstracts' and how Jake and Jermaine perceive it. The viewers are also taken to view the abstracts in the episode and interpret in in their own way. I appreciate the gesture from Falk, but the big letdown is Jake's own arc of his Shapshifter form being resolved in this episode, allowing the rest of the series to go as if nothing happened to him. I was hoping this would go on a few more episodes so we learn more of Jake and the Shapeshifter so Jake's story comes to a proper close. I don't know if there is room for that at this point, given that we are ever closer to the series finale.
"Ketchup" is about Marceline's interaction with BMO throughout this entire episode, which is something I do not recall that was done before, save snippets of scenes of Marceline and BMO together.
It begins with BMO visiting Marceline to help her ridding the vampires from the Stakes mini-series, except BMO completely forgot that happened 6 months ago and Marceline's back to being the only vampire left. She nevertheless needs BMO's help in reading an old USB drive and figuring out its contents. While BMO scans the Flash drive, the two decided to catch up, which is what this episode is about.
First is BMO's point of view on the events of Islands, which, given it's BMO is full of shenanigans that was fun to watch, and is given a special animation sequence for his story. What I didn't expect was JG Quintel, the creator of Regular Show, making a cameo appearance as a wailing Blue Jay, obviously a reference fo Mordecai.
Afterwards it was Marceline's turn, this time doing her own version of the Elements mini-series before she turned into candy. Like BMO, her tale is full of shenanigans that's chock full of great visuals. However, unlike BMO's, Marceline's story ended abruptly, though understandable. She admits she hasn't talked much about herself, which implies she's an introvert who really wants to open up more to others, but is very hesitant in doing so.
When BMO's scanning of the Flash drive was completed, it actually contains old photos of Marceline as a little girl and her mom. When BMO asked who were the two in the picture, Marceline chose not to say and let BMO make up a story of the two instead.
I hate to bring back Bee & Puppycat into this as I'd rather have that show dead and buried for being so awful and not worth the investment. That said, Bee & Puppycat had a similar episode in which it feature a short story done in a completely different style of animation. The difference is that Bee & Puppycat's short story has virtually no relevance whatsoever to the plot in general, while Ketchup does. Not only was Ketchup's sequences a twisted fun recap of Islands and Elements, but it also lets us explore a litlte bit deeper into Marceline's character.
As a vampire, Marceline feels quite lonely for living for centuries while everyone else has a set lifespan. Bubblegum shares the feeling as she is just a sentient piece of candy that's been around for just as long as Marceline. So the two are kindred spirits that eventually became best friends.
As Marceline tells it, her relationship with Bubblegum tends to get quite complicated due mainly to their differencing personalities. It's not hard to see why. A person who does loud music a lot pairing up with a science nerd isn't exactly a good combination. That resulted in the breakdown of their friendship prior to the 1st Season of Adventure Time, but the two have since patched up.
I forgot to mention by the way that the special sequences were animated by none other than Alex and Lindsay Small-Butera, the couple behind the Baman Piderman shorts. I believe they also did one for Clarence, though I do not know exactly which episode.
"Fionna and Cake and Fionna" is the latest of the Fionna and Cake episodes in Adventure Time. This time, the Ice King reads out the latest chapter of his fan fiction series towards an audience in Turtle Princess's library, who are either interested with the story, or are forced to by Ice King. (I say the latter)
Then suddenly, an old woman, claiming herself to be the REAL Fionna, pops up to criticize Ice King's work as being baloney and wants to show everyone what really happened via an old VHS tape. The tape shows Fionna and Cake getting a sarcophagus made out of Emerald. As Fionna and Cake leave their latest loot in their treasure room, a mummy slowly creeps out, but Fionna stops the tape before continuing.
Naturally, I had the same thinking as Finn as having a lot of questions. Does Fionna REALLY exist and not a mere fan fiction made from Ice King's head? Besides that, everyone wants to see the rest of the tape. Fionna refuses at first, but reluctantly decides to play a little more. At this point, I can see that 'Fionna' isn't who she claims to be, but I decided to play along.
Ice King invites Fionna to live at the Ice Kingdom, to which Fionna accepts and shows signs of taking over while poor Simon remains oblivious to what she's doing, still acting like a total fanboy over meeting his character.
As this is going on, we see the rest of the tape. The mummy is apparently none other than the Queen of Ooo wrapped in bandages to scam Fionna and Cake in order to steal their treasure. Ice King realizes the scam and confronts the imposter who confesses she's not the real Fionna, but just an old lady in costume.
In her backstory, the old lady loves tinkering with electronics until one day she got a satellite transmission of a Fionna and Cake episode, which she recorded on tape. She then traveled around Ooo to find more until she learned of Ice King's book reading, believing Simon has other episodes on tape, to which he insists there ain't any. The old lady then leaves the Ice King heartbroken because of her deception, but he quickly recovered in just a few seconds. Later, as Simon sleeps, a beam of red light, showing images of Fionna and Cake, came from the window and zapped into Ice King's forehead.
Now earlier in the episode, when asked about how Ice King was able to come up with these stories, he responded that the stories were beamed to his brain at night. So we know he is very much aware of the red light, which is likely the same transmission the Old Lady received in getting the Fionna and Cake episode.
This episode reveals two things: 1) Ice King is NOT the creator of Fionna and Cake, and 2) it's apparently a television series. So a lot of questions remain. However, I just don't know how will all of these get resolved in the final season. Personally, I think it would've been better if it remains just something out of the Ice King's head and not having to delve too deep and have a plot over it. I do want Fiionna to be actually real and meet Finn, but as the series is reaching its conclusion, I find that to be more of in the way and it's better to not let that idea happen at all.
"Whispers" is the first of a two-parter arc of sorts. Fern, aka Grass Finn, isn't doing so well as he feels that he's a total failure, unable to protect Ooo during the events of Elements, this is despite Finn's encouragement. Sweet Pea appears running and crying and as Finn and Fern try to stop him, they were dragged deep into the forest. After the duo calmed Sweet Pea down, he then tells of how he hears whispers of the Lich. Finn and Fern of course know Sweet Pea IS the Lich transformed into a baby. So the two decide to look after him for the night before returning him to Tree Trunks in the morning.
Turns out the one that's haunting Sweet Pea was the Lich's hand, which Finn cut off during the crossover episode with Farmworld Finn and the Lich's hand spread across the multiverse. The hand is obviously trying to awaken the Lich inside Sweet Pea. Fern is tasked to look after Sweet Pea while Finn hunts down the hand. However, the Lich has communicated with Sweet Pea and is controlling him, though Sweet Pea tries to resist the hand's influence.
Finn and the hand battle it out at the Lich's old lair. But the hand was prepared this time and tricks Finn to nearly falling down the same pit that melted Princess Bubblegum. Sweet Pea comes on time and destroyed the hand, fully rejecting the Lich's control.
With the Lich seemed gone for good, Finn and Fern take Sweet Pea back to his parents. Unfortunately Fern isn't having the same kind of enthusiasm as Finn does, despite having his memories. This is due mainly to his constant failures as hero, and his desire to solve virtually anything through violence. We then see a glimpse of the the creature within the Grass Sword grasping the Finn from the Finn Sword. Fern then decides that in order to be the hero that he wants to be, he needs to take out Finn.
"Three Buckets" continues where Whispers left off, starting with Fern pulling a prank on Jake and BMO by transforming into a total lookalike of Finn. He then invites Finn to explore a dungeon, obviously as part of his plan to get rid of him. As the two travel, he becomes frustrated when he constantly loses to Finn in a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors.
In the secret dungeon, which the outside is surrounded by apparent nuclear bombs that didn't go off, Fern places Finn into a stone prison while the former heads out. As Finn is infuriated over Fern's betrayal, he discovers that his robot arm apparently can transform into a variety of tools he can use, which includes a brief message to him from Princess Bubblegum.
Finn gets out of the dungeon and he and Fern battle it out. Finn tries to reason with Fern, but kills him by accident when his robot arm misheard his command to land a fatal blow. As Finn returns home grieving over killing Fern, the latter's remains were picked up by a mysterious stranger, which ends the episode.
With the Lich now likely gone for good as Sweet Pea rejects him, it seems that Grass Finn and the mysterious stranger will likely be the antagonists of the final season. Some say the stranger is likely Finn's father, Martin Mertens. That's not true. He's apparently Gumbald, Bubblegum's father whom she imprisoned as told by one of the Banana Guards in the episode "The Thin Yellow Line".
Of these five episodes, I would say Ketchup as my most favorite. Besides the great animation by the Buteras, it's also a fun take on the two of the Adventure Time mini-series events, and we see another layer of Marceline's character, which does give a lot of feels. And obviously because I'm not fond of Graham Falk's storyboarding very much, I'm very disappointed with Jake's arc. Therefore, I'm putting Abstract on the bottom list.
With 18 episodes to go (unless someone corrects me on this), I honestly don't know how the show will wrap everything up. There's Fern and Gumbald, who created Fionna and Cake, the Shapeshifter, Betty, etc. I'm also very saddened that yes, Adventure Time is ending, and probably sooner than I thought. Is Cartoon Network going to do another bomb and end it this year, or hold it off for several months and air the final episodes in January, which is also what they did with Regular Show? Personally, I prefer the Regular Show method. Have Adventure Time air the finale in 2018, thus signifying the end of an era of Cartoon Network originals and the start of a new one.
In any case, these 5 episodes are great, save one. And I will patiently wait for the final episodes to come. I don't know how to title this exactly, so on a scale of 1 to 5, I give these 5 episodes of Adventure Time, an average score of 4 out of 5.
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