City of Thieves (episode)

Synopsis
Finn and Jake, in hopes of helping a little girl, named Penny, get back her stolen basket, enter into a city where everyone is a thief, but are slowly corrupted by their surroundings.

Plot
Finn is trying to walk on four legs like Jake when they come across a city covered by a dome of cracked desert ground. A Hag appears and tells them that this is the City of Thieves, a place that turns anyone who goes there into a thief. Finn and Jake hear the cries of a young girl named Penny outside the city. She tells Finn that thieves have stolen her flower basket, but he is unable to get the basket back because the thieves in the city are endlessly stealing and re-stealing it from each other.

Penny then tells Finn and Jake about a king thief who steals from little girls and takes their belongings to his tower, which is protected by a magical barrier to keep other thieves out. Finn volunteers to enter the tower and get the king's treasure chest, which Penny says might contain her basket. Meanwhile, Jake can't cross the barrier because he couldn't resist stealing a pair of shiny red boots. Finn enters the tower and takes the chest, which he finds in the chest of the king thief's skeleton. When he emerges, Penny grabs the chest, revealing that she has tricked Finn into stealing the treasure for her. The Hag reappears to gloat about Finn now also becoming a thief. Traumatized over becoming impure, Finn decides to embrace his dark side and get revenge on Penny for stealing his purity. Finn and Jake become avengers and run around the city stealing things, including a crossbow, a pair of swords, and bar of soap from a bathing horse. They confront Penny in her tent and wash off the dirt that marks her as a thief, becoming clean in the process as well. Thinking they have become pure again, Finn and Jake celebrate with Penny, who claims to have reformed -- then immediately strips him of his clothes down to his briefs. Finn screams out "Penny!", concluding the episode.

Major characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * Penny

Minor characters

 * Baskets & Boots Owner
 * Big Guy
 * Cherubs
 * Crossbow Guy
 * Cyclops
 * Giant turtle
 * Hag
 * King of Thieves
 * Mr. Turtle
 * Phil (Pajama Ninja)
 * Rock Wall Thief
 * Short Goblin
 * Shower Horse
 * Skeleton Baby
 * Skeleton Mom
 * Snail (cameo)
 * Two-Headed Thief
 * Wizard Thief

Trivia

 * This is one of two episodes shown during Cartoon Network commercial breaks with abridged versions, and goes on until Finn cries, "How are we going to find the basket if it keeps getting stolen?" The other episode shown in breaks is "The Eyes."
 * At some point, Penny's basket is stolen by a wizard. As a cyclops is about to steal the basket from the wizard, the wizard chants "Pancake" until he turns into a cat and escapes. This may be a reference to Natasha Allegri's cat, Pancake.
 * In one corner of the inside of the tent, one can see both a shotgun and a sub-machine gun.

Episode connections

 * The Hag is also a Tree Witch like the one in "To Cut a Woman's Hair."

Errors

 * In one scene just before Finn is about to clean Penny with soap, Jake appears to be "pure."
 * Immediately after Finn and Jake clean Penny, Finn's new weapons disappear from his waist. They return in the next shot.

Cultural references

 * One of the treasures that the King of Thieves has is a portable video game player, which looks similar to a Game Boy.

Videos
"City of Thieves" Animatic