Up a Tree

Synopsis
Finn goes on a bizarre adventure up a giant tree to retrieve a throwing disk he and Jake were playing with.

Plot
The episode starts off with Lady Rainicorn walking in the grasslands towards Finn and Jake. As they are walking, Lady Rainicorn comments that the wind and weather are perfect, taking the beautiful day in. After a few paces, Jake sets down a picnic blanket, where Lady Rainicorn rests on. It is noticed that she has a 'baby bump', where she is pregnant with Jake's puppies. Finn then digs through the picnic basket, bringing out food as both Finn and Jake echange 'oohs' and 'aahs. As they start to take things out of the basket, Finn finds a Frisbee and calls it a "throwing catching disc." He and Jake interact as if he was a regular boy with his regular dog. When Finn does his perfect throw, the wind carries it to the top of a tall tree. Jake offers to grab the disc for Finn, but he refuses and tries to get it himself.

Finn tries to climb up the tree with his bare hands but fails and meets a porcupine. It offers for Finn to sit on him, telling him the shock would jump him up to the top. Finn refuses and the porcupine does it by force. Although the porcupine's plan failed, Finn takes the needles stuck to him and uses them to climb up the tree. He gets tired and rests on a branch. A squirrel then offers him an apple to energize Finn. Finn refuses, but the squirrel stuffs in the apple by force. The apple was apparently cursed and shrinks Finn.

Finn continues to climb up the tree with the porcupine needles, but eventually break, so he takes another break. Jake meets him at the break point and notices that Finn has shrunk. He tells him that he's going to walk Lady Rainicorn home. After Jake leaves, Finn encounters the squirrel again and follows him into the tree after being ignored. He then hears the whispers of the animals. He sneaks in to see the animals discussing on getting rid of him, also seeing a large pile of objects with his Frisbee on top. In shock, Finn shouts and exposes himself and is then taken to a jail cell in the tree.

Finn wakes up in the cell with the squirrel guarding the cage. The squirrel talks about the good and bad of living in the tree and living with the rules. He then says that he wishes to fly away but the other animals say he is not a flying squirrel, and that he would run away but he has no one to run away with. Finn easily escapes through the cell bars and teams up with the squirrel to escape. The squirrel lowers Finn to his Frisbee as the animals chase them out. Finn throws the disc planning to ride on it, but it flies upward again. As the animals catch up he pushes the squirrel down the tree and jumps on his back. As they are falling it is revealed that he is a regular squirrel and cannot fly. Just before they reach the ground, the Frisbee flies underneath them, catching them. On the disc, they ride across the Grasslands, by Lady's house, and into the sunset.

Major characters

 * Finn
 * Squirrel

Minor characters

 * Jake
 * Lady Rainicorn
 * The Porcupine
 * Lenny the Beaver
 * The Owl
 * Snail

Cultural references

 * When the animals chant "In the tree, part of the tree." is a possible reference to the Pirates of the Caribbean series where the Flying Dutchman crew chant "Part of the crew, part of the ship."
 * When Finn eats a cursed apple to shrink him, it is a close reference to Alice in Wonderland's 'Drink Me' Potion.
 * Near the end of the episode, Jake is seen stirring a bowl of pickles and ice cream at Lady's house. This is likely a reference to the old saying that pregnant women crave strange foods, such as pickles and ice cream.
 * Finn and Jake throwing a disk to each other is a reference to how modern dogs and their masters play with each other.

Episode connections

 * Lady Rainicorn's baby bump can be seen, just as it was in "Five More Short Graybles." Her pregnancy was first revealed in "Lady & Peebles."
 * The way Finn screams when the porcupine jumps on him is the same way he screams in the episode "Burning Low."
 * Finn was interacting with Snail, as seen when he waved back as he flew through the air. Finn had previously interacted with the snail in "The Lich."
 * At the same time, it is confirmed that Snail is no longer possessed by the Lich, as shown in "The Lich".

Errors

 * When Jake and Lady Rainicorn leave the area where they were picnicing on, they left the basket. However, in the next shot, when Finn is climbing the tree, it disappears.
 * The size of the porcupine needles changed when Finn shrunk.
 * When the animals start chanting, the porcupine and a squirrel change places.
 * When Finn and the Squirrel jumped onto the disc, they did not spin with it, which could indicate the disc was not spinning. This is physically impossible for a throwing disc to fly without spinning.
 * Finn's hat appears to be bigger in some scenes.

Production notes

 * The title card was made by Michelle Xin, Martin Ansolabehere, and Nick Jennings.
 * This is another episode that has been leaked before its intended airdate.
 * In the long preview for this episode, the opening segment of the song "Invincible," created by the music production company, Two Steps From Hell, was used in the first 13 seconds of the preview. The introduction of such a piece marks a break in the background song style used for almost all of the past episode previews.