Beyond this Earthly Realm

"Beyond this Earthly Realm" is the eleventh episode in the fourth season of Adventure Time.

Synopsis
When Finn finds and touches a porcelain lamb, it transports him into the spirit world, and only the Ice King can help get him out.

Plot
The episode opens with Finn and Jake descending down something like a mineshaft, until Finn finds a small opening. They both walk out into a large chamber, where there is a small staircase leading up to an altar, where Finn finds a porcelain lamb with a red crystal embedded in its forehead. Finn reaches to touch it, but Jake says it might have a sacred significance. Finn ignores him and says he wants it for his "sacred bathroom" and reaches to touch it. Right when he touches the lamb, the screen turns a pink/reddish hue, and then Finn sees all sorts of creatures. Jake, on the other hand, only saw Finn disappear, and the lamb takes on Finn's sleeping face. He wraps the lamb in a blanket so he does not disappear as well, and promises Finn that he'll find a way to set him free. Finn, unseen and unheard, follows Jake home. Eventually, frustrated that there doesn't look like a solution, he sits outside their Tree Fort and tries to think of a way to get out. The Ice King comes flying around trying the catch the "leaf princess," to which Finn says, "that's just a leaf." To Finn's amazement, Ice King responds to Finn. He tells Finn that he is actually in the "Spirit World" and the Ice King can see him because of his Wizard Eyes. The Ice King offers to help Finn, and they go back to his kingdom together. Ice King shows Finn all the weird creatures that go about his home, and when Finn asks where they come from, the Ice King replies "all over the universe."

Later, the Ice King tricks Finn into trapping all the Spirits in the "spirit hole" (which leads to the chamber where Finn found the lamb), so they will stop bugging him. However, Finn overhears the Ice King's plan, and threatens to leave the Ice King and re-open the spirit hole. Ice King promises he'll break the Porcelain Lamb and set Finn free.

Ice King then goes back to the treehouse, but fails to beat Jake in order to break the Lamb, and accidentally touches it, becoming trapped in the Spirit World himself. Freaked out at the fact that the spirits are now touching him, he steals Finn's hat and wears it like a shirt. In his moaning and groaning, Finn notices that the Ice King's movement affected the static on the television, and comes to the conclusion they have a subtle influence on the material plane. Together, they work on moving wind and leaves and other small things around until they are finally able to knock down the Lamb, and the two are sent back to the material plane.

Main characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * Ice King

Minor characters

 * Spirits
 * Head Spirit
 * BMO
 * Snail

Songs

 * Three Baby Spiders
 * Ice King's Song of Joy

Trivia

 * Ice King breaks the fourth wall in this episode when he and Finn are both in the spirit realm by basically stating how the viewer watches the characters' actions through TV. He describes it as a "clever one-way mirror".
 * Finn's hat gets taken off and stays off for the longest period of time in the series so far.
 * There is a Cartoon Network Bumper that has all Cartoon Network characters counting down from ten, then LSP says" drama bomb!" and Jake would blow a raspberry . Before the episode aired, one of these bumpers featured BMO blowing a raspberry, which was part of this episode.
 * Finn's hair has grown down to his shoulders.
 * The Snail in this episode appeared near Jake when Finn said "Jake, you see this crazy-jaz!"
 * This is the second time Ice King wore a type of ice armor. The first time was seen in the episode "Thank You."
 * Finn loves BMO farting.
 * This is the third time Finn's hat gets taken off.

Cultural references

 * At one point Jake and the porcelain lamb are playing a game called "Kompy's Kastle" on BMO. One of the sounds made is Metal Man's Metal Blade from Mega Man 2.
 * Jake's yawn when going down the hole sounds a lot like Chewbacca's infamous roar from the Star Wars trilogy.
 * At least two allusions are made to videogames by Jenova Chen : initially, the Journey 'dragons' seen appearing from the mist in the Ice King's basement, and later the Flower -esque leaf-swirls made by Finn and the Ice King.

Episode connections

 * The bandana that was used in "Princess Monster Wife" appears again, but only on Jake.
 * When Finn is looking for Ice King, he said, "Where'd you go, Simon?" Simon was the Ice King's original name while he was human, before the Mushroom War, which was revealed in "Holly Jolly Secrets Part II."
 * Ice King mentions his wizard eyes for the first time since "Mortal Recoil."
 * Finn's hair has grown past his shoulders, where last time it was only past his chin in "Another Way."

Errors

 * When Ice King says that the heads of the Dead One creep him out despite him being unable to touch them, he flails his hands and knocks the head off. Although this could be interpreted as simply flailing about enough to shake the creature off as it was clinging to his body-in this interpretation he would not have needed to touch the creature.
 * When Finn gets trapped in the lamb, he's seen to be sleeping, however when Jake looks at the lamb and shows Finn's face he appears to be smiling. This happens twice: first when Finn gets trapped, and second when Jake is holding the lamb at the treefort.
 * After Ice King sings his song, his drums said #1 Bass, but in other episodes it said #1 Babe.
 * Before Jake enters the Mystery Cave he is seen to be wearing a blue bandana, but after entering the bandana is gone.
 * When Jake and Finn were playing Kompy's Kastle the two meters were yellow-orange (top) and red-orange (below), but when the screen turned back to the two meters the top one was green-light green.

Production notes

 * On the day the episode premiered, during the long preview, there was a quick cut to the Annoying Orange watching the preview on a television and asking Finn if his hat is a marshmallow hat. This was done to tie in with the Annoying Orange TV Series that officially premiered the same night. Regular Show also experienced the same treatment.

Storyline analysis

 * The "strange creatures" that Ice King sees with his Wizard Eyes are explained in this episode as beings of the Spirit World; this appears to explain his bizarre vision when showing his "typical Wizard Eyes" in Mortal Recoil, but it is unknown at this time.

Videos
Adventure Time - Beyond This Earthly Realm (short preview)|The short preview. Adventure Time - Beyond This Earthly Realm (long preview)|The long preview.