Jermaine (episode)

Synopsis
After a chilling dream encounter, Finn & Jake are determined to reconnect with their reclusive brother.

Plot
Jake is in a dream, when he gets sky-boxed and meets his brother. Jake realizes that they must be dreaming at the same time, in similarity to the earlier episode "Crystals Have Power." Jake suggests that they should meet up in the "awake world". Jermaine reluctantly agrees and casts a hole dropping Jake through the box, promptly ending his dream.

Jake wakes up and finds Finn working in the kitchen on a strange harpoon machine. After the machine malfunctions, ejecting the harpoon. They then agree to go and visit Jermaine. As they leave the treehouse, a scan of the landscape reveals a slug pinned down by the metal harpoon.

The two make it to Jermaine's house after being chased by demons, where Jermaine has built a salt barrier that stops the demons from trespassing. Upon arrival, Finn and Jake cause general chaos, much to Jermaine's dismay, and tells them that he has a responsibility to protect all of their parents strange and valuable loot that he collected, or stole, over the years. Jermaine suddenly looks at his watch and runs away into the hallway.

Jermaine heads down a trapdoor, where imprisoned behind a strange blue forcefield is a large blue blob-like monster named Bryce. Jermaine flips a cassette tape in a bear, Booboo Sousa, hooked up to wires in the wall that seems to project the forcefield, and from the conversation it is implied that the ongoing song is what keeps Bryce imprisoned. Bryce threatens to eat Jermaine "from the bottom up", and it is revealed that Bryce is being held prisioner after trying to steal back his poster that Joshua originally stole from Bryce many years ago. Jermaine remarks that he would have let Bryce go with his poster years ago had it not been for all of the psycotic things Bryce says. Bryce threatens Jermaine again, and the brothers go upstairs and make fried rice.

While eating the rice, Jermaine asks Jake what he put in the fried rice. Jake reveals he used sesame oil and salt that he got from the salt barrier. This leads to one of the demons crossing the barrier, and the three quickly make plans to destroy it. However their plans go awry, and Jermaine ends up having to suck the demon up with a vacuum. After sucking the demon up the vacuum, Jermaine runs outside where he chucks the vacuum in one of the other demon's face and fixes the salt barrier.

After the fight, Jermaine begins to get angry and reveals his jealous toward Finn and Jake's do-whatever lifestyle and how he has to stay behind and watch his dad's old treasures. Jermaine then proceeds to assault Jake. As Jermaine tosses random objects at Jake, one combusts and sets the house on fire. Jermaine continues to punch Jake, who lets out a fart which causes Jermaine to laugh and see that "he's built his own cage." Finn tries to get the three of them to work together to put the fire out, but Jermaine, who's come to terms with his life, decides it is okay to let the house burn down.

Once the house burns, the scene changes to daytime and the demons are gone. Jake suggests they are probably gone because their stuff was burned in the fire, giving them no reason to stay to get it back. Jermaine's watch alarm goes off, and he runs over to the trapdoor to find Bryce crawling out clutching his poster. Jermaine and Bryce seem to be completely normal, and walk off together into the woods, with Jermaine nagging at Bryce for being cynical and pessimistic about life. Finn and Jake stare at them from the house ruins as the episode ends.

Major Characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * Jermaine
 * Demons


 * Bryce

Minor Characters

 * Lady Rainicorn (dream)
 * BMO
 * Snail

Pictured

 * Jake Jr.
 * T.V.
 * Viola
 * Kim Kil Whan
 * Charlie
 * Joshua
 * Margaret
 * Martin

Trivia

 * This is the first episode to feature Jermaine outside of holograms, flashbacks, or memories.
 * Jermaine gets a slight redesign in this episode. He has no lips and his teeth are perfectly aligned.
 * This is the first time Jake is seen with normal eyeballs (within the dreamworld).
 * After Finn's machine exploded, the harpoon attached to it had flown off and crashed through the roof. We later see Finn and Jake travel to Jermaine's house and a giant slug having the giant harpoon impaled in its back.
 * This episode reveals that Jermaine stills lives in his parents' house even after their death.
 * It also revealed that the house from "Joshua and Margaret Investigations" is not the one seen in "Memory of a Memory" and "The Pit." They most likely moved into a bigger house because their children were born.
 * A box labeled "T.V." can be seen on the shelf of magical items Jermaine throws at Jake.
 * The Booboo Sousa song plays in the end credits.

Cultural references

 * One of the demons that tried to attack Finn and Jake opened his mouth, revealing a second mouth inside. This is similar to the Xenomorph from the Alien series.
 * The giant sword that Jake is seen carrying, and then smashing a table with, is a reference to Cloud Strife's Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII.
 * When Jermaine tells Finn and Jake to leave the house, he refers to Groucho Marx, the well-known 20th century American vaudevillian.
 * Jermaine takes what looks like a vacuum to suck up the demons, which is an allusion to the Ghostbusters franchise.
 * This may also be an allusion to the video game Luigi's Mansion.
 * Jermaine used Booboo Sousa to keep Bryce at bay, which is a homage to Teddy Ruxpin.
 * Using salt to repel spirits and demons is most likely an allusion to the Supernatural series.
 * Comedy duo Scharpling & Wurster appear together as the voices of Jermaine and Bryce respectively. Tom Scharpling, the voice of Jermaine, is more well known as the voice of Greg Universe on Steven Universe.
 * The rug on the floor of the living room has an image of the Tree of Life from the Kabbalah.
 * The rose under a glass covering that can be seen as Jermaine goes to flip the cassette looks like the enchanted rose from "Beauty and the Beast".

Episode Connections

 * The hallway seen in Finn's memory from "Memory of a Memory" is shown and the kitchen where the Demon Blood Sword was created from "The Pit" is shown.
 * When meeting Jermaine in his dream, Jake refers to the time they communicated by "dreaming at the same time" in "Crystals Have Power."
 * Scores from "Breezy," "Death in Bloom" and "The Visitor" can be heard in this episode.

Production notes

 * This episode aired on Cartoon Network Australia at about 4:00 on March 16, 2015 and also on Cartoon Network Latin America at about 7:00 on April 13, 2015.