Adventure Time - Season 5 Episode 35 - Recap - Love Games
Adventure Time - Season 5 Episode 35 - Recap - Love Games
Cartoon Network's runaway smash hit Adventure Time is back again with a new episode this week. The all-ages post-apocalyptic fantasy cartoon has us catching up with Finn the Human and his relationship troubles again, this time as he struggles to help a friend in need despite his desire to remain romantically neutral! Read on the find out how to parse that nonsensical sentence!
The episode starts with Finn and Jake doing a mock radio show, an interview with Finn about his decision to stop dating. They're interrupted by Slime Princess, who reveals she needs to be married by the next day, else she lose rule of her kingdom. Ice King (still living with Finn and Jake since his kingdom's destruction) offers but everyone ignores him. Finn is apprehensive, but he agrees once Slime Princess assures him it would be a marriage in name only.
They head off to the Slime Kingdom, where they're challenged by Slime Princess's sister Blargatha and Blargatha's mysterious boyfriend Guillermo. The whole reason SP fears losing her place in the royal succession is that Blargatha and Guillermo are plotting to take over the world with the Slime Kingdom's army! The royal judge Elder Plops (voiced by special guest star John Hodgman) decrees that the two couples must compete in a love contest to determine which is the most in love.
The first contest event is crooning; each man must sing a beautiful love song to his lady. Finn is up first, and sings a sad lament of his recent breakup. Blargatha says Guillermo has a sore throat (he's obviously just not a real dude), so she sings instead and it's horrible. Elder Plops awards Finn and Slime Princess the victory. The next event is spooning. Elder Plops will determine which pair cuddles the best! Finn's intense fear of touching Slime Princess at all loses him this section, and we're on the event three! The final event, the tie-breaker, is smooching! It will happen the next morning. Later, Finn tries to practice smooching with Slime Princess and he can't. He just throws up when he gets near her. Having totally given up on winning the contest, Finn decides to just go beat up Guillermo until they back off.
Slime Princess and Finn head down the Blargatha's room, where she's amassing weapons to use in her war once the contest declares her ruler of Slime Kingdom. Finn finds Guillermo and slaps his face, which turns out to be fake. Guillermo is totally a fake and not real guy. Finn and SP confront Blargatha, who admits it and relinquishes the contest victory, allowing Slime Princess to remain sole ruler of her kingdom... erm, princessdom??
This episode did something nice that was similar to last week's: Rather than advance the ongoing plots, it expanded the show's world. We'd never before seen the Slime Kingdom or any of its citizens besides Slime Princess. I'm hoping all of this expansion and these little plot threads lead to something cool later this season. Rumors of an hour-long special to serve as the fifth season finale persist, but Cartoon Network has yet to make an announcement. Anyway, check back here next week for another recap!