Susan Strong (episode)

"Susan Strong" is the eighteenth episode of season two of Adventure Time.

Synopsis
Finn is excited to discover a tribe of "humans" living underground, but gets more than he expected when he tries to teach one of them about the surface world.

Summary
Finn and Jake are doing a favor for Princess Bubblegum when they find a strange little hatch among old tree stumps. They hop down to find an underground cave full of garbage. Hidden in this garbage are a tribe of "Hyoomens" who wear animal skins on their heads and are scared of their own shadows. Finn corners an unusually strong girl with a cat hat. He attempts to encourage her to come to the surface and see the sun. When asked her name, she says "su-sun" which Finn misinterprets as Susan. He brings her to the surface world to teach her about its wonders. This is tough at first, as Susan is afraid of everything she encounters. After several occasions of Susan freaking out about harmless things such as rocks and bugs, Finn and Jake roast marshmallows with her. Seeing that Susan really likes candy, they take her to the Candy Kingdom. There she talks to Princess Bubblegum and has apparently learned basic English. Overwhelmed by the abundance of sweet, delicious candy, she attempts to eat Peppermint Butler. After Finn scolds her about trying to eat the Candy People, she realizes that Peppermint Butler is a friend and believes that everything, besides Peppermint Butler, is edible. She runs to inform the rest of the Hyoomens to eat the entire Candy Kingdom except for Peppermint Butler. Finn hurriedly warns the Princess about Susan and the others. She tries to make the candy people scary but there is no masking their cuteness. Remembering that shadows look scary to the Hyoomens, Finn and Jake show them the spooky shadows of the Candy People. This works at first, but Susan, who knows better, explains to them that its perfectly safe and they continue the attack. However, the young Marshmallow Kids, who feel like they can take on the hyoomens, are accidentally set on fire and run after the Hyoomens, setting them on fire in the process. They throw off their burning hats to reveal that they are actually mutated humans with gills and fins. Finn in a state of shock realizes that they are not humans. Finn asks Susan, who was smart enough to avoid the fire, if she is really a human. Instead of answering she runs away looking confused and scared. Finn wonders if she was a human or a wild animal, and Jake tells him "That we're all wild animals, brother." Finn then eats some of the burned marshmallow skin and stares into the sunrise and replies, "Yeah... I guess we are, brother."

Characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * Susan Strong
 * Hyoomen tribe
 * Princess Bubblegum
 * Candy People
 * Peppermint Butler
 * Starchy
 * Gumdrop Lasses
 * Marshmallow Kids
 * Beaver
 * Dancing Bug

Trivia

 * This episode was previously titled "Peace on Earth", a reference to an old MGM animated short about animals rebuilding society after humanity dies in war.
 * This is the first episode of season 2 to have its storyboard uploaded as a scribd document, and the only one to have its storyboard released before the episode aired.
 * The concept of bizarre "mutated" humans living beneath ground appears to be in reference to Beneath the Planet of the Apes, where mutant humans live underneath a world now dominated by beings not their own.
 * This episode contains subject matter that is a possible analogy to Plato's "Allegory of the Cave ."