Marceline's Closet

"Marceline's Closet" is the twenty-first episode in season three of Adventure Time.

Synopsis
Finn and Jake play Cloud Hunt in Marceline's House, but they get trapped in her closet after she comes home.

Plot
Finn and Jake head over to Marceline's House to jam with her. Finn intends to play a balloon believing they are the instruments of the future and plays The Extremities Song to prove it. They find a note on Marceline's door saying she went out and that she'll be back and to not go into her house. While They wait, Finn and Jake decide to play Cloud Hunt. As Finn counts, Jake hides in Marceline's House despite being told not to. When Finn looks for Jake, he spots him through the window and tries tell him to get out. But Jake mocks him by copying his movements. Finn even tried going up close to him, but Jake continues copying him.

At this point Marceline comes back and Finn and Jake are forced to retreat into the closet in her room to avoid being seen. Marceline comes upstairs and uses the bathroom (without washing her hands) and smells something. Finn and Jake panic, but Marceline smells her arm pit and decides that the smell was coming from her. Marceline then picks her nose and flicks a booger into the closet.

Finn decides to write a note saying there is an emergency at the Tree Fort so Marceline will leave and they can get away. Finn plans for the note to go down stairs, make and eat eggs, then land on Marceline's front porch. The note does everything Finn plans for it to do except instead of landing on the front porch it returns upstairs and lands in Marceline's trash can. Marceline decides Finn and Jake aren't coming and begins to play her own personal music that no one else should hear (see Journal Song). As she plays, Jake says that what they've done is far too much and then he smashes a small hole through the wall with a spoon, shrinks and tries to escape, but a white spider chases him out of the hole. Finn and Jake panic but are able to quietly push the Spider outside of the closet. The Spider then pushes a lamp off of Marceline's table, shattering it. As Finn and Jake are observing it, Marceline hisses as she draws her attention to the closet. She opens it, only to reveal she is getting a broom and dust pan and Finn and Jake are hiding in an overcoat. As Marceline puts the broom away, dust falls on her and she goes to clean herself up. Jake coaxes Finn to check out the situation. Finn sneaks out only to witness Marceline floating towards the bathroom just as she finishes undressing. Shocked and embarrassed, Finn quietly retreats back into the closet, refusing to go back out. His eyes' pupils were a little dilated.

Marceline then goes to bed and Finn and Jake try to leave by quietly moving toward the exit. On their way out, the Spider falls at Finn's forehead and Finn quickly flicks it onto Jake's shoulder. The spider bites Jake, but Jake does not scream out loud however, he does show that he is in pain. As they reach the exit, the two begin to argue about whether or not Marceline is awake and can hear them. Jake states that they are "quietly screaming" and Marceline reveals she can hear them. Finn and Jake try to hide to no avail. Jake changes shape to look like Finn, and Finn wears a lampshade on his head. Marceline demands an explanation, and Finn and Jake explain what happened and apologize. Marceline accepts their apology and states that she hides at their house all the time. The episode ends at the Tree Fort, with Finn and Jake paranoid that Marceline is there. Just before the credits, it is revealed that Marceline really is at their house messing with them.

Main characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * Marceline

Minor characters

 * Snail
 * Spider

Mentioned

 * BMO
 * Princess Bubblegum

Trivia
I had to run out, but I'll be back in a few minutes. I had to run out to buy some ketchup. Is it possible to be allergic to tomatoes? My sleep patterns are always super weird when I eat tomatoes. Do you ever have those lucid dreams? Anyhow, DON'T GO INTO MY HOUSE."
 * In this episode, Finn sees Marceline naked. When he returned from the bathroom to the closet, his pupils appear a little dilated. This is due to endorphins (a group of neurotransmitters) that are released to the brain by the pituitary gland in times of excitement, and extreme exercise.
 * Marceline's lamp changes from green, to red, and then back to green over the course of the episode.
 * In the title card, Marceline's reflection cannot be seen in the mirror.
 * The note on Marceline's door reads "Hey guys,
 * Marceline's journal has the binding on the right and reads from right to left compared to the Western style of left to right.
 * At the end, when Marceline tells Finn and Jake to explain themselves, Finn says they were playing "Hide and Seek." But at the beginning, they called it Cloud Hunt, this implies that they either use both names for the game or it could be a script error.
 * Finn seems to count incorrectly when counting to 10 in Cloud Hunt. He counted: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4.
 * When Finn sees Jake in the window, the balloon floats away even though it was filled by Finn blowing it up, not with helium.
 * There is a continuity error with regard to Marceline's journal. When Marceline is laying on her back on the bed, there is no journal to the left of the reel-to-reel recorder at all. The journal is still not there when she picks up the axe bass. The journal mysteriously appears when she turns on the tape recorder. When it appears, the journal cover is a deep, red color with decorative edging. The cover shows "Marcie's Journal" in gold, cursive letters. The book clearly is to be read left-to-right. When the scene changes to Finn and Jake (hiding in the closet), it can be seen that the journal has changed in appearance. When the scene changes back to Marceline again, the journal cover is now a bright, red color and shows "MARCELINE'S JOURNAL". The lettering appears to be black, capital letters and double-underscored. Below "MARCELINE'S JOURNAL", the word/name "GUNTER" is also there in yellow, capital letters. There is no decorative edging on this journal. There appears to be doodles, stickers, and stains on the cover of this journal. This book clearly is to be read right-to-left.
 * When Marceline finds Finn and Jake in her house and accepts their apology her bite mark isn't visible.
 * It is possible that Marceline knew that Finn and Jake were in her closet before they revealed themselves. During the phone call to Finn and Jake's house, she looks at the closet suspiciously while they are stiffling their laughter. There was also the buger she flicked in there which could have been intentionally aimed, when she grabbed the broom and shouted "There you are," she could have been messing with them, and the angle she was floating in the bathroom made it possible that she saw Finn then. Also, she stopped snoring before they made any noise.
 * When he is playing Cloud Hunt, Finn shakes his balloon (not intensionally) and it sounds as though water is in it, although it isn't, as he blew it up and couldn't have put water in it.

Episode connections

 * Right before Finn and Jake play Cloud Hunt, Jake was meditating and said he was "eliminating the desire from my heart" in the foreground. This could be a reference to the original Animated Short of Adventure Time.
 * It is shown in this episode and in "Memory of a Memory" that Marceline has a tendency to pick her nose.
 * Marceline reveals that she hides out in Finn and Jake's treehouse all the time, which is proven true, since we've seen her hiding in the treehouse in "Go With Me".
 * At the very beginning, Finn asks Jake if they should be jamming without Princess Bubblegum and BMO, a reference to "What Was Missing".
 * In the episode "Mortal Recoil", Finn said that it was pervy to peek inside Princess Bubblegum's bathroom but in this episode, Finn went inside Marceline's bathroom anyway. But he wasn't paying attention to where he was looking, so it was most likely an accident.

Cultural references

 * On the wall by Marceline's bed is a musical album resembling "Abbey Road" by The Beatles.
 * Marceline has three mounted trophies above her closet door, the center one being a head that greatly resembles the head of the "Pale Man" from Guillermo del Toro's 2006 fantasy film, Pan's Labyrinth. Beside the head is a severed arm with a single eye at the center of the palm, which could also be a reference to the Pale Man.
 * Finn and Jake hiding in a closet to avoid Marceline's detection and becoming unwitting observers to her more private moments bears some resemblance to a scene in David Lynch's 1986 film Blue Velvet in which the protagonist finds himself in a similar situation (including convenient louvered closet doors).

Censorship

 * This episode was censored on Cartoon Network Australia. See Censorship of Adventure Time in Australia for more information.

Songs

 * Extremities Song
 * Cloud Hunt
 * Journal Song

Videos
Video:"Marceline's Closet" Animatic|Animatic