King Worm (episode)

"King Worm" is the eighteenth episode in the fourth season of Adventure Time.

Synopsis
Finn has a vivid dream that may be more than it seems.

Plot
The episode starts with Finn waking up to Princess Bubblegum calling him her king. He then realizes he is in a Candy Throne, and see's he has a crown and is being watched by an upside-down group of banana guards. He then notices the Worm King on Princess Bubblegum's shoulder, and it jumps out of the window. Finn is then sitting with Flame Princess, who calls him honey and tells him to eat his soup. He doesn't respond quickly, and Flame Princess angrily yells for him to eat it. He eats some of it and closes his eyes, and the room morphs to a room like one in the Tree Fort. Flame Princess soon becomes Peppermint Butler, holding the worm that Finn saw earlier. Peppermint Butler explains that Finn needs to break the worm, and Finn responds that Peppermint Butler is holding it. Peppermint Butler throws a spoon at Finn, and he then notices Jake in a room through a window. Jake is wrapping a gift with Lady Rainicorn speaking in a very deep voice in English. Jake grabs pieces of tape from Lady Rainicorn's second mouth at the front of her face (similar to her design in the pilot). Finn then sees King Worm escaping through a small hole in the wall. Finn jumps in the room after the worm and starts talking to Jake. Finn inspects Lady Rainicorn's mouth and Jake and he talk about how they are in a linked dream with one another. Jake states that he doesn't think Lady Rainicorn is real and they decide to follow the worm through the hole, which is a problem because the hole is too small.

Jake explains that because it is a dream, Finn can do whatever he wants. He then imagines a sword capable of blasting a hole in the wall and is happy with himself for not dreaming up weird stuff. The sword then turns into a shark and Jake tells him that he needs to be careful, because if he fills the world with his subconscious fears it will fall apart. Jake tells him to just shrink down, and the two of them go through the worms hole. They wind up in a field with Ice King running towards them. Ice King calls them Fionna and Cake and tells them that he's really made a mistake. Finn and Jake are confused until two monsters made up of a bunch of penguins show up and start chasing him. Finn and Jake run away until they find their dad, Joshua, who isn't responding to anything they say. Joshua starts knitting, and eventually his knitting turns into King Worm. King Worm then bolts to a nearby mountain, prompting Finn and Jake to follow. As they reach the top, they find a frozen King Worm. They grab a nearby rock that manifests from nowhere to break the worm, and the dream fades away.

Finn and Jake wake up in their room and start asking one another if they're okay, and celebrate that they did it. Finn then notices a mirror wavering in the background, and upon closer inspection realizes his reflection isn't normal. Jake then tells him that it's fine, and Finn points at a cup of coffee falling to the floor and breaking and then returning to its normal non broken floating state. Finn then realizes that when Jake pinched him earlier, he never pinched Jake back. He starts trying to pinch him, and Jake backs away telling him that everything is fine. When Finn finally catches Jake, his skin melts away and Finn realizes for sure that he's still dreaming. King Worm then crawls into the room, and tells Finn that he can't defeat him. Finn starts to try to attack the worm, but realizes something is missing and gets depressed. A chunk of the ceiling falls on King Worm's head, and he tells Finn to "knock it off." Finn then remembers what Jake said about fears breaking down dreamscapes, and starts to imagine his fears.

He spawns saltwater from his stomach and begins to freak out. The clearly deteriorating worm tells him to calm down, to which he replies never. The Lich then crawls out of his stomach and Finn continues to freak out, followed by Princess Bubblegum. Finn starts to feel relieved until Princess Bubblegum tells him to quiet down because she's having coffee with The Lich and he wouldn't understand because he's "Too young." This freaks him out even more, and causes more damage to the worm. He then remembers Ghost Lady and continues to be horrified as the worm deteriorates to near nothing. He asks King Worm to stop one final time, and the Worm confidently responds though clearly very weak. Finally, a clown pops out of Finn's stomach and he jumps in fright. The dream then breaks, and Finn is with Jake in his living room with King Worm similar to the ending of "Evicted!." Finn then orders the King Worm to get out of his house, and the worm weakly complies. Finn then pinches Jake to be sure he's awake, and the episode ends.

Major characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * King Worm

Dream characters

 * Princess Bubblegum
 * Ice King
 * Penguin creatures
 * Snail
 * Joshua
 * Flame Princess
 * Peppermint Butler
 * Ghost Lady
 * Lady Rainicorn
 * Phil
 * The Lich
 * Banana Guards
 * Lumpy Space Princess
 * BMO
 * Fear Feaster
 * Baby Finn

Mentioned

 * Fionna
 * Cake

Trivia

 * In the scene where Finn and Jake climbed a mountain, the raindrops and snowflakes were little Lumpy Space Princesses.
 * The sword that Finn conjures in his dream has the same appearance as the sword from the Adventure Time logo, except with minor color differences.
 * The music in the long preview was used in the "Burning Low" trailer.
 * This is the first episode Flame Princess is in that does not have a fire related title.
 * Symbols used below the promo art are examples of optical illusions.
 * This is the first episode where Finn calls Peppermint Butler by Pep But.
 * The nubs on Finn's hat are longer than usual during the dream, but return to normal length at the end.

Cultural References

 * Some of the scenes were inspired by Youtube Poops.

Episode connections

 * Finn's fears are all things that have been mentioned in past episodes:
 * Fear Feaster and the Ocean from "Ocean of Fear."
 * The Lich from "Mortal Recoil."
 * Princess Bubblegum saying that Finn is too young from the song My Best Friends in the World in "What Was Missing." And Jake telling Finn that he is Too Young for Princess Bubblegum multiple times in the series.
 * The Ghost Lady from "The Creeps."
 * The high chair rising could be an extension of the "too young " fear or possibly represent the elevator dream Finn mentioned in "The Creeps".
 * A clown from "Another Way."
 * The shape of Lady Rainicorn's second mouth is very similar to the design from the Animated Short.
 * Ice King refers to Finn and Jake as Fionna and Cake, without knowing the difference.
 * When Finn sees himself in the mirror, his face resembles the face of Earl of Lemongrab and his arm is mechanical as seen previously in Finn's meditation vision of himself in "Mortal Folly."
 * When the dream is broken, the background and character positions are similar to the scene at the end of "Evicted!", which led to fans becoming scared that the events of the episodes between then and this episode never occurred. However, it has been stated by the creators that there is no hidden meaning behind this.

Production notes

 * The episode was originally titled "Worm King."

Videos
Adventure Time - King Worm (short preview)|Short Preview Adventure Time - King Worm (long preview)|Long Preview "Worm King" Animatic|An animatic.