Mystery Train

Synopsis
On a train ride to Finn's birthday present, he and Jake are thrust into a high-speed who-dun-it where suspects are being murdered one by one.

Plot
While Finn is sleeping, Jake blindfolds Finn with an orange blindfold. When he wakes up, Finn cries out that he is blind. Jake informs him that he is just blindfolded and leads Finn to a surprise to celebrate his 13th birthday. Finn and Jake go to the Cotton Candy Forest, where Jake takes off Finn's blindfold, revealing that they are at a train station, and tells Finn that a train is needed to get to the surprise. While Jake goes to get the tickets to the train, Finn meets the Conductor, a pink-skinned man in a blue suit. Finn gets creeped out by the Conductor because of the Conductor's strange voice, but he and Jake go climb board the train regardless.

On the train, Mr. Candy Cane stumbles and hits Colonel Candy Corn. The Colonel becomes angry, but Mr. Candy Cane apologizes, after which the Colonel requests that it not happen again. At this, Jake goes up to get a train schedule. As he leaves, the Conductor lets them know that train ride is about to get bumpy. When they hit the bumpy track, Colonel Candy Corn gets hit multiple times by Mr. Candy Cane Guy. Finally, when they hit the straight track, Colonel Candy Corn threatens to kill Mr. Candy Cane. The train enters a tunnel, engulfing the train in total darkness. When they exit, only the skeleton of Mr. Candy Cane remains. Finn then declares that he will solve the murder mystery and calls up Dr. Donut to look at Mr. Candy Cane's remains. Finn asks Dr. Donut if he found who did the crime, and the Doctor says he believes that it was the Colonel. Finn haughtily states that the murderer is never the first person suspected, so he asks Colonel Candy Corn if he had any foes that would frame him.

The Colonel says he has one on the train, but before he could reveal who it is, the lights flicker once again, and Colonel Candy Corn is found dead as well. When a Gumdrop says the murderer could be anyone, even Finn, Finn accuses the Gumdrop of saying that to divert suspicion. Before Finn can further interrogate the Gumdrop, the lights flicker, and another skeleton sits in the Gumdrop's place. Finn next accuses a Candy Person who believes Dr. Donut killed everyone as well as the Colonel to protect his alibi. This too is disproved when the lights flicker and Dr. Donut's skeleton falls to the ground. Finn exclaims, "Son of a...," the last part being interrupted by the train whistle as censorship of a cuss word. Finn continues to hunt for clues, gathers the remaining train passengers to the back, and proceeds to iterate each passenger's potential motive. Before Finn is able to reveal the culprit, the lights flicker, and all the remaining Candy People fall to the floor, dead.

Because of this, Finn realizes it must have been the creepy Conductor, who had earlier given his being "awesome and cool" as an alibi. After this epiphany, Finn hugs Jake, the lights go out a final time and return to show Finn hugging Jake's skeleton. Next, the Conductor appears and charges at Finn with a sword, who parries with another sword that had been lying on the floor. The Conductor retreats three times to cars nearer the engine, unlatching the car behind him each time. Finn pursues the Conductor until they reach the engine and swings his sword at the Conductor, who dodges, instead hitting the control panels. Enraged, Finn shouts, "My birthday wish is vengeance! Happy birthday to me!" and prepares a finishing downward slice. The Conductor yells to wait, then falls to the floor, transforming into a pink and blue paint-bedaubed Jake, who confesses that the skeletons (and deaths) were all fake and that the murder mystery was Finn's birthday surprise.

With the control panel broken, the train approaches an area of unfinished track at the edge of a cliff, careens off it, and lands in a giant mound of gelatin, where Finn and Jake join the rest of the Candy People for Finn's 13th birthday party. While eating cake, Jake asks Finn which part he liked most, and Finn tells him that it was the train's falling into the gelatin. He then comments that it must have taken careful planning to execute; Jake responds by saying that the gelatin was actually unplanned and that if it hadn't been there, they would have died horribly. The episode closes with mysterious music while Finn ponders the sabotaged tracks.

Major characters

 * Finn
 * Jake

Minor characters

 * Candy People
 * Dr. Donut
 * Colonel Candy Corn
 * Mr. Candy Cane
 * Mr. Cupcake
 * Banana Guy
 * Gumdrop Lass 1
 * Gumdrop Lass 2
 * Pineapple Guy
 * Lollipop Girl
 * Ice Cream Guy
 * Marshmallow Kid
 * Chocolate Bar Guy
 * Dr. Ice Cream
 * Gelatin Man
 * Green Gumdrop Dude
 * Ice Cream Lady
 * Jam Jam
 * Candy Heart
 * Snail

Trivia

 * In the train car Finn and Jake are sitting in, there is a picture of anthropomorphic bread with the caption "Yum yum" on one end, and on the other end there is a picture of a flying saucer with the text "Watch out for UFOs."
 * There is a hidden pancake somewhere in this episode.
 * When Colonel Candy Corn turns into a skeleton, his badge is still pinned to his rib-cage and his mustache and eyebrows are attached to his skull.
 * When the rest of the passengers die, Lollipop Girl's skeleton has boots on, but no dress.
 * There is a golden sword, with a candle on top of it, stabbed into Finn's cake.
 * The dictionary that Finn flips through contains some Adventure Time references in it:
 * First page:
 * The second definition of the word "Rump" says "2. tookas or patoot. (see Ice King)"
 * There is an entry for "Ristaino, andy" which reads "a particular type of wood elf. a scribe. a scribbler. a holder of paper and pens."
 * At the bottom of the page it says "Rynda (see phil face)"
 * Second page:
 * The fourth definition of the word "pancake" says "4. Natasha's tortoise shell cat."
 * The fifth definition of the word "pancake" says "5. when repeated three times this wizard incantation can change one into a cat."
 * Third page:
 * The first entry is "ice king" and the definition is "a big patoot."
 * The fifth definition of the word "igloo" says "5. Gunter's preferred domicile."
 * There are multiple clues throughout the episode that hint at the truth:
 * The Conductor enters the passenger car to wish Finn "Happy birthday"; however, the Conductor should not have known Finn's name.
 * When the Conductor skates away after giving Finn his birthday regards, there is a pink smudge on wall where the Conductor's hand was, evidence of the paint used to disguise Jake.
 * Each time a passenger is murdered, the Candy People remain uncharacteristically calm, but in "Slumber Party Panic," candy people would explode.
 * When the Conductor says it will be a bumpy ride, he uses a voice very similar to the deep voice Jake has used in previous episodes.
 * Jake is only in the same room as the Conductor once: when Jake's face is hidden behind the schedule.
 * The Conductor says that he heard someone say he was creepy, but Finn only told Jake, and that was in his normal, not very loud voice.
 * When the Conductor enters the passenger car on a skateboard, he states that he's "cool and awesome." Once he leaves, Finn disagrees, but Jake hastily replies "No way, man! The conductor is cool and awesome."
 * When Jake tells Finn that the whole thing was planned, the scene reverts to when the conductor enters the passenger car and Jake's stretched part of his body can be seen at the corner but when that original scene was on, Jake's stretched part of his body couldn't be seen.

Episode connections

 * In this episode, Finn first wields the Root Sword, following the destruction of his Gold Sword in "The Real You."
 * The "Spy" Theme was reused from Spingebob Squarepants, only abridged and high-pitched.

Cultural references

 * This episode is similar to several mystery stories, particularly Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.

Errors

 * When the candy cane is murdered, a pink donut with sprinkles is standing on the left and Mr. Cupcake is sitting on the right, but when they are shown again, the donut is sitting in Mr. Cupcake's seat, and Mr. Cupcake is standing. The next time they are shown, Mr. Cupcake is sitting once again and the donut is completely gone.
 * Ice Cream Lady was sitting next to Jam Jam, Mr. Cupcake and Banana Guy but when Finn was walking past them she was gone.
 * Candy Corn Man is sitting above a bread poster and when Jake comes over it changes to a UFO poster.
 * When Jake walks back to his seat to look at the schedule, the UFO poster is missing its stars.
 * When Jake, as the conductor, is chased by Finn on top of the trains, he skips over two trains and then releases them. But once he does, only one train was shown to be released.

Production notes

 * This episode was previously titled "Murder Train."

Videos
"Mystery Train" Animatic|Animatic