Rainy Day Daydream

Synopsis
When a knife storm forces Finn and Jake to stay inside, they discover the out-of-control power of Jake's imagination.

Plot
Finn and Jake are heading out of their Tree Fort, getting ready for a day filled with adventure, and Finn is slapping Jake's jowls for fun. Finn had written a whole list of things to do on his arm, but as he reads it off to Jake, it starts to rain knives. Jake runs inside for cover and Finn stares at the storm in awe, saying that he has never seen a knife storm before. Jake yanks him in and they sit on the couch wondering what to do.

BMO appears and offers that they play Conversation Parade, a game he just made. Finn and Jake find the game boring as BMO'S batteries run out of energy, so Jake suggests that they use their imaginations. Finn says that only 'turbo nerds' use their imaginations, but Jake starts imagining stuff anyway. The first thing he imagines is that the floor is covered with lava and he starts yelling and running for safety. Finn is a little annoyed with Jake's persistence and tells Jake to watch as he 'masters reality'. Finn puts his foot on the floor and is shocked when it catches on fire.

Finn comes to the conclusion that everything that Jake imagines becomes real, but is invisible through his eyes. He tells Jake to imagine BMO inventing a better game, but Jake can only manage to think of more lava. Finn becomes frustrated and tells him to imagine turning his imagination off. Jake says that he cannot do that, but he says that he can imagine a switch that can shut down his imagination, and places it in their bedroom. He also imagines a lot of obstacles, like traps, ghosts, monsters, poison fountains, hamsters, and cute girls, which all become real. They go to the weapons room to prepare for their journey. Finn grabs a missile, and Jake suggests a Cosmic Gauntlet as well, but Finn indicates that there is a better one on the other side of the room. Just as they try to grab the other gauntlet, Jake imagines a wall blocking the way, and at Finn's accidental suggestion, also imagines an angry troll, which attacks them, but Finn bests him (and his family), jumps through the window out into the knife storm, and hoists himself and Jake into an attic-style part of the Tree Fort, where Jake finds banana candy and juice.

After imagining a steel umbrella over the bridge to protect them from the knife storm, Finn and Jake eventually come to an imaginary Riddle Master that tries to give them a riddle, but Jake cannot think of one. The riddle master gives them a riddle that makes no sense (what is simple, and yet also a riddle?), and Finn states that that riddle sucks, but that is the wrong answer, and the penalty for answering wrong or not answering is death by snakes. Finn kicks the nuclear missile towards the imaginary riddle master, presumably killing him (as screams of agony are heard), but unintentionally causes the invisible snakes to be blown towards them and start biting them.

They hurry towards the bedroom to turn off the switch before they get killed by imaginary venom, while being accosted by various obstacles imagined by Jake, and then Finn and Jake make it to the imagination off switch. Finn fumbles for a bit looking for it after Jake assures him that nothing will prevent him from getting to the switch, but he imagines an "invisible" monster, meaning that he is invisible even inside Jake's imagination. Jake distracts "Invisibo" while Finn shuts down Jake's imagination with the switch, causing the bite marks and poison to vanish, along with everything else that Jake imagined. However, without his imagination, Jake loses his 'bombastic' personality and starts acting emotionless.

Finn is annoyed because Jake 'sucks' now. Finn tells Jake that he has to bring back the imagination machine, but Jake says that he cannot without his imagination, and that it does not matter because the imagination was pointless. Finn realizes how important imagination is and decides to imagine his own switch so that he can turn Jake's imagination on, but his head is empty. So he starts imagining things, mainly the switch, and then, a lyre player shows up and starts singing about Finn's imagination land.

Angered, Finn imagines a penguin and some spaghetti for the imagination lyre player to trip over and fall into. Then a foppish insect named Bellamy Bug shows up and offers Finn a doily imbued with the tears of his daughter, apparently because her boyfriend broke up with her, and Finn gets mad, having stated previously that if there was anything dainty inside his imagination, he would be mad. Finn asks the bug how he got in his imagination, and the bug replies that he represents Finn's secret desire to be civilized. Finn smacks the bug away and turns its arms into a robot arm and an octopus tentacle and then the arms start to beat up the bug.

Then some penguins come and crowd around the bug, and carry it away. Then Finn runs over to the switch that he made, and flips it. Jake seems to have his imagination back, but then a fairy appears and pushes a hyper drive button with her butt, causing Jake's head to grow immensely and making him unable to control his imagination at all, saying "I can imagine everything!" Finn presses the normal button again, and comes out of his imagination unscathed. Jake tells him in horror that he imagined his mom naked.

Then Jake tests his imagination and finds it under control, and the knife storm stopped, meaning they can finally go on an adventure, but Finn says happily that he has had all the adventure he can handle for one day. Then Finn imagines that the floor is lava, and then Jake pretends to melt in it. He says "just kidding," then Finn laughs, says "good dog," and pets Jake's head.

Major characters

 * Finn
 * Jake

Minor characters

 * BMO
 * Fairy
 * Bellamy Bug
 * Lyre Player
 * Bazooka Goblin
 * Penguins
 * Riddle Master
 * Snail
 * Wildberry Princess (picture)

Mentioned

 * Margaret

Music

 * "Imagination Song"

Trivia

 * There were no knives at all; it was actually raining daggers.
 * This is Pendleton Ward's favorite episode from the first season.
 * After Finn and Jake jump into the bucket and pull themselves up with the rope and pully, there are several hidden details in that room:
 * The initials A.T., surrounded by a heart, are carved into one of the tree's branches. This could stand for "Adventure Time."
 * One of the candies is shaped like a cat's head and has a face.
 * The juice boxes have a picture of Wildberry Princess on them.
 * There is a picture of Lady Rainicorn behind Jake.
 * All three of the beings Finn encounters in his imagination do something with their butts. The lyre player and Bellamy Bug both wiggle their butts at Finn, and the fairy pushes the overdrive button on Jake's Imagination machine with hers.
 * The only legible words on Finn's to-do list are the words "flip" and "goblins."

Cultural references

 * The riddle master saying that the penalty for answering a riddle incorrectly is death is a reference to the Sphinx, a creature that kills anyone who cannot answer its riddles correctly.

Episode connections

 * BMO will say, "Who wants to play video games?" again in "Jake the Dad."
 * One of Finn's Cosmic Gauntlets, is similar to the Gauntlet of the Hero in "Mortal Folly." It has an eye on the back of the hand, a diamond-shaped gem on the arm, and six fingers.
 * The knife storm is similar to the future episode, "Puhoy."

Errors

 * Jake's eyes appear to be opposite (instead of white in the middle, it is black, vice versa for the edges) many times throughout the episode.
 * At the beginning of the episode, Finn has the to-do list written on his arm, but it disappears for the rest of the episode when Finn comments on the knife storm being beautiful.
 * When Finn steps on the floor and sets his foot on fire, BMO is on the table. However, when everything in the living room start to melt, BMO is not seen anywhere on-screen.
 * When the invisible troll took Finn's shoe, it has a shine. but for the rest of the shots, it no longer has the shine.

Production notes

 * The commercial for this episode is the very first live-action commercial for the series.
 * When this episode originally aired, a commercial break was inserted in the middle of it so that there was no commercial break between the end of Adventure Time and the beginning of the premiere episode of Regular Show. Frederator's assumption was that this was done because Cartoon Network was afraid of viewers changing channels in between shows. The insertion of a commercial break continued for the next couple of weeks.
 * This is the first time an episode was storyboarded by only one person.