Original Airdate: October 11, 2010

Written & Storyboarded by: Adam Muto & Rebecca Sugar

Marceline is one of the most mysterious, yet developed characters in the entire series. Many elements of her past are vague; how she came into this world, the timeline between her entrance into vampirism to the time she met Finn and Jake, her past relationship with Bubblegum, etc. In her two spotlight episodes during season one, the only thing we could gather about Marceline is that she’s lived way beyond a handful of the main and secondary characters, and that she’s lost a chunk of her moral ethics along the way. It wasn’t until this episode that the more hidden layers of her character begun to unravel, in what is most likely the second season’s strongest effort.

This is the first episode to welcome Rebecca Sugar to writing team, and I’m sure I don’t even have to explain to any of you who she is. I have somewhat controversial opinions about some of the episodes she has worked on, but overall believe that she’s one of the strongest writers on AT. The staff has said time and time again that Marceline is one of the hardest characters to empathize with, but I think it’s safe to say that Sugar knows Marcy better than anyone. She really made the character her own during her time on the show, and helped this episode to go above and beyond to showcase her more sympathetic side, along with the help of Adam Muto.

While I’m certainly not one of those people who believes that the series instantly began to rot once Sugar left during season five, the music of the show sadly did undergo decline. The reason I mention this is because “Fry Song” is the first song that was written by Sugar, and it really sky rockets above anything we’ve heard thus far in the series, and one that isn’t really comparable to anything we hear in later seasons. The raw emotion, the soothing strums, coupled with Olivia Olsen’s beautiful voice are really what make it one the show’s most famous symphonies.

Hunson Abadeer, who is simply referred to as “Marceline’s Dad” or “Daddy” in this episode, as well as being voiced by Olivia Olsen’s father Martin, is the first real threat to the series. Thus far, we’ve had Ice King, Magic Man, Ricardio, among others, but none have felt as threatening as Abadeer. What makes him most effective as a villain is his connection to Marceline; we’re not really supposed to like this guy, but at the same time, we feel the strong emotions of our main heroine (in this case, Marceline) and want the two of them to be able to be able to reunite as family once again. It’s an impressive feat of conflicting emotions, and helps us both empathize with Marcy, as well as wanting Abadeer to be defeated.

Finn is written terrifically in this episode. While we’re able to put ourselves in Marceline’s shoes, Finn never lets his emotions get the best of him. What he wants is what’s best for Ooo, but also for Marceline. While a 12-year-old can’t possibly understand what Marceline’s going through, Finn knows to allow what’s pure and righteous to save the day, and not to let his own feelings control the outcome.

This is also a great episode to showcase some of Ooo’s wonderful side residents. Among some of those residents are the Marauders and the Fuzzy Friends, who, to this date, have not appeared since this episode. Maybe they never got their souls back? Keeping in the tradition of building story arcs off of non-sequiturs, Abadeer deems Gunther as the most “evil thing I’ve encountered,” and we learn later on that Gunther is actually the powerful space deity Orgarlorg. I doubt this was planned from the beginning, but it’s a lot of fun to go back and watch this episode to see that the concept of Orgalorg didn’t arise from nothing.

There are some really beautiful nighttime landscapes in this episode. Ooo feels extremely expansive, as we explore Marceline’s House, the Grasslands, Red Rock Pass and the Ice Kingdom. The colors are especially vibrant, and really make the entire experience illuminating. As I’ve said, it’s just really nice to see Finn and Marcy hanging out as well. I just genuinely enjoy the way these two characters work off of each other, and this is one of their cutest interactions thus far. Also, if you were wondering where Jake was in this episode, he was in Finn’s pocket the whole time!

Favorite line: “No one flicks me in the butt without my consent!“