Mortal Recoil

"Mortal Recoil" is the twenty-fifth episode in season two of Adventure Time. This is half of the two-part season finale along with "Mortal Folly".

Synopsis
Though the Lich appears stopped, an accident by the Ice King has lead to Princess Bubblegum becoming slightly altered, leading to an unlikely final showdown with one of the greatest evils to save all life in Ooo.

Plot
In the previous episode, Princess Bubblegum was dropped in a toxic pool that served as a source for the Lich's powers. The episode opens with Ice Cream Doctor and several other candy hospital staff trying to save princess bubblegum from her affliction which is diagnosed as being "ugly on 90% of her body and the other 10% is completely nasty." The doctors try to stabilize her condition and are eventually succesfull after a brief flatline. The Ice King is present and expresses concern about her being ugly for "their marriage" before Finn and Jake drive him away. She tells them all she needs is some rest. Finn and Jake attend the princess in her bed chamber as she rests. Princess bubblegum has a sickly green-grey tone to her skin as she rests. She exhibits strange behavior while she rests including cringing and shaking and crawling across the floor to break things in the room. Jake exits and Princess Bubblegum asks Finn to bring her several things, left unknown to the audience. Jake returns and decides to play music for the princess who places her hand inside her room's flower decorations, killing and withering all of them. Jake plays a different song and the Princess summons magical fire into the room and scares Jake who runs out of the room as Finn returns to the Hall outside of her room. Finn has an assortment of items which he reveals are things like gasoline, turpentine and other hazardous chemicals. Jake tells Finn about the fire and urges Finn to not bring the chemicals to Princess Bubblegum but she opens the door and takes them from Finn and returns to her room. Jake and Finn then enter the room where Finn believes PB is just cleaning herself up in the bathroom. Jake looks through the keyhole and sees Princess Bubblegum, now with demonic arms and legs, pouring the chemicals into her bathtub, forming a pool like the one the Lich used for his power. She starts drinking the liquid but before Finn and Jake can stop her she rips the bathtub from the floor and pours it all into her mouth. The boys realize she is being affected by the Lich still. The PB monster then grows to immense size and begins attacking the Candy Kingdom. The Ice King appears and offers to help the duo in the fight but Jake denies him, still blaming the Ice King for PB's condition. Jake tells Finn they could use his Ice Powers and freeze the monster but they proceed without him anyway. Finn readies the sweater the Princess gave him and Jake launches him at the monster but his attempt fails when it simply punches him out of the air and back into the castle and through a wall. As Jake grapples with the monster, the Ice King tells Finn that when they pulled Princess Bubblegum from the toxic pool in the Lich's lair, his magic eyes (which let him see a lot of crazy, in-your-face things) let him see the spirit of the Lich move from his remains and possess the Princess. Finn swallows his pride and prejudice and asks the Ice King to help in the fight. Finn distracts the monster while the Ice King freezes it from the feet up. The monster is stopped and everyone rejoices, but shortly after, it tips over and breaks apart on the ground having had unstable footing when it was frozen. In an effort to save Princess Bubblegum again, the doctors rush her to the hospital and try and put her back together from the remains of the monster. The heroes and candy people wait outside the operating room before a nurse comes out and says that she is fine, but there were complications. She confides that there wasn't enough bubblegum to put the Princess back together, making her smaller and thusly become thirteen-years-old. The new princess enters, looking younger and shorter and Finn remarks that he is thirteen as well. The princess approaches him and they share a loving embrace. The episode ends with the scene panning out to the window, where the Lich-posessed snail is waving meanicingly.

Characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * Princess Bubblegum
 * The Lich
 * Ice King

Minor Characters

 * Peppermint Butler
 * Raggedy Princess
 * Dr. Ice Cream
 * Nurse Poundcake
 * Doctor Princess
 * Candy People
 * Cinnamon Bun
 * Emerald Princess
 * Wildberry Princess
 * Lumpy Space Princess
 * Snail

Trivia

 * A special trailer of part two aired on April 26,2011.
 * This is the only episode where the snail has done anything that influnces the plot of the episode.
 * This would have been the final episode of the season prior to the rescheduling of "Heat Signature".
 * Princess Bubblegum turned 13 years old in this episode
 * At the end of the episode the snail is still possesed by the Lich