The Mountain

Synopsis
Earl of Lemongrab and Finn go on an expedition through the Mountain of Matthew.

Plot
The episode opens up spanning across the Castle Lemongrab. It's lemon citizens are doing meticulous work, harvesting and collecting lemon seeds. After the Earl of Lemongrab announces, the lemon citizens stop what they're doing and fall to sleep. The scene moves to the Earl's bedroom as he jumps into his bed, and a lemon citizen comes in and places a bag of lemon seeds on a nightstand beside it. The Earl begins to sleep, then seconds later, hears a scratching noise on the ceiling. Upon inspection, a crack is made by a lemon centipede that crawls out of it. On the ceiling we see what looks like Egyptian styled writing depicting something. We then begin to hear something and the Earl jumps out of his bed grabbing the bag of lemon seeds. He gets his lemon camel and leaves the Castle Lemongrab.

In the caves below the mountain the Earl goes on an introspective journey, seeing his greatest desire (to be accepted by his "mother" Bubblegum), his worst fear (Lemonhope taking over his kingdom and solving the ills that he, Lemongrab, once wrought), and his bitterest memory (the day he and his brother quarreled and Lemongrab attacked Lemongrab 2).

Major characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * Earl of Lemongrab
 * Matthew

Minor characters

 * Lemon People
 * Flame Princess
 * Cinnamon Bun
 * Princess Bubblegum (mirror)
 * Lemonhope (mirror)
 * Lemongrab 2 (mirror flashback)
 * BMO (mirror)
 * Snail

Mentioned

 * Lemonjon

Trivia

 * Castle Lemongrab seems to have a major new look with trees and a lemon grinding factory running inside.

Cultural references

 * Finn and Lemongrab's journey through The Mountain of Matthew bares some similarities to Thelemic Mysticism. While the similarities are there, they are far from striking. However, Adventure Time has made reference to Thelema and Hermeticism before and so this comparison could be meaningful.
 * Initially, an adept is led to the abyss by their guardian angel (a butterfly for Finn, Lemon-Sweets for Lemongrab).
 * Next, the adept experiences ego-death in order to cross the abyss (both Finn and Lemongrab come to terms with a fact about their body, though Finn seems to have already made peace with missing his right arm. They then abandon themselves and venture into the blackness, likely signifying ego-death).
 * Finally, the adept arrives purified in The City of the Pyramids where Crowley describes the enlightened there appear as dust or rocks (similar to Matthew being an amalgamation of small white rocks).

Episode connections

 * Finn Cakes from the episode "In Your Footsteps" are baked again in this episode by Jake.
 * Finn is bothered by seeing Flame Princess and Cinnamon Bun together (apparently still believing they're dating), a problem not seen since "The Red Throne."
 * Jake's mug from "Puhoy" can be seen again while he was camping with Finn.
 * Finn goes through the mirror with a butterfly that resembles a past life of his revealed in "The Vault." Butterflies were also the astral beast Finn summoned in "Still."
 * When running in the mirror, Finn was missing his right arm. Multiple of Finn's alternate selves have been shown to be missing a right arm, and Finn himself even lost his in "Escape from the Citadel."
 * The Lemon-Sweets scene from "Another Five More Short Graybles" is seen again in this episode.
 * Lemongrab is using the lemon candy that came after Lemonjon exploded in "All Your Fault."
 * Lemongrab must come to terms with being considered grease, which the Pup Gang called him in "You Made Me."
 * The title card's background music is the same as it was in the episode "Lemonhope Part 1."

Storyline analysis

 * It seems that the new Earl of Lemongrab treats his royal servants better and everything runs much more efficiently in his renovated kingdom compared to his earlier episodes.