Power Animal

Synopsis
Jake has to overcome his super-short attention span and partying attitude to save Finn from the Grandmaster of the Gnomes, after Finn is kidnapped by his evil gnome henchmen.

Plot
The episode begins with Finn and Jake climbing a ladder to the top of their house for a roof party. When Finn arrives, he does a flip and slams the chips on the table, to everyone's delight. Cinnamon Bun compliments Finn on his energy and focus, and implores Finn to do another flip. When Finn claims that he never slows down, a rather hefty gnome gets interested, and asks Finn if his energy might be enough to power a huge machine. Finn says it probably could. Then the gnome starts to laugh and back away from him, and Finn tells Jake that his friend is "super weird," but Jake replies that he thought the gnome was Finn's friend. Their minds are taken off the subject when Princess Bubblegum announces that the Celestial Alignments (auroras) are starting in the sky.

Later that night, while Finn is sleeping, the gnome that was their roof party kidnaps him. In the morning, Jake gets punched by his own stomach, and wakes to see Finn is not in bed. When he starts wondering where Finn might be, he and BMO start singing a song called Where Is Finn? (song) and start dancing. The scene then cuts to Finn in a dark room, his foot is chained to the ground and his hands are tied behind his back, with a sack on his head. When the sack is removed, the Gnome Spy reveals himself to be the Grandmaster of the Gnomes and ruler of the "Beneathaverse." Finn questions him, and the Grandmaster says he has been looking for the ultimate power source, which he thinks is Finn, because Finn's immense energy is perfect to power the "Upturnoverdrive," which is a machine that will flip over the entire world, so that the gnomes will be on top. The gnomes then remove Finn from the chain and throw him into a giant hamster wheel. Finn rebels by saying "You may have captured me, (while forcing his tied hands in front of him) but you can't make me run!" Unfortunately this was counteracted, and he is prodded twice with a giant taser. Finn then threatens the gnomes by saying, "Jake is on his way to mess you guys (up)."

The story then shows Jake sitting outside eating a sandwich with BMO, and periodically taking bites and calling for Finn. Then he says he's getting worried about him, and gets up to go find him, when his attention is grabbed by a dancing bug, who, Jake says, is "shaking it" all wrong, and shows him how it's done by dancing to the Dancing Bug Song. When Finn fully powers up part of the machine, he is needed elsewhere to power the plasma ball, with "sexy fun dancing." The gnomes throw Finn into a glass containment unit with a pole inside. Finn manages to break free of the rope that was tied around his wrists, and bangs on the glass wanting to get out. Music begins to play and the floor begins to produce electrical shock; which electrocutes Finn, and he has no choice but to dance (trying to avoid electric shock by moving himself around the provided pole.) Again, it cuts back to Jake, who is chugging a "grass shake" with a group of ladybugs. When Jake asks Simon, a ladybug, if there are any left, he says there aren't. This makes Jake say "Finished...finished...fin...finn.....FIINN!!" which makes him remember that Finn has gone missing.

Jake is determined to use his five senses to track Finn, when he sees a trail of footprints too small to be Finn's. He deduces they must be gnome prints carrying something like Finn. He continues to follow the prints until he is distracted by two Nymphs in a pool of water, who are telling jokes. When one tells a joke, and messes up the punch line, she says it's still funny. To which Jake says, ..".Y'all are horrible at telling jokes," and commences to teach them how to do it right, telling a different joke. When we see Finn again, he is waking cuffed to a chair, which indicates the electric shocks knocked him out eventually. The Grand Master of the Gnomes reveals he is now at the brain machine. This machine will suck the energy from Finn's thoughts. Finn is now very upset and realizes that he can't let the gnomes treat him this way and win, so he breaks out of the chair. He throws the brain draining helmet at the gnomes and rips his shirt off, revealing a very muscular form. Then Jake busts in the wall, and the two rejoice and embrace. But, sadly, this is all in Finn's imagination, and these thoughts power the machine even more.

The scene again cuts back to Jake, who is the Cloud Kingdom, dancing with the Nymphs, Ladybugs, and all the Cloud People. Jake is having such a good time when he remembers that he doesn't even remember how he got there, and the Nymphs inform him that he blacked out laughing so hard at his own joke. So, they brought him to the Cloud Kingdom to party with the Party God, who is a floating wolf's head that wears his hat to the side. Because Jake pleases him so much, the Party God will grant Jake one wish. That's when Jake remembered he still hasn't found Finn. Jake then wishes that he could focus on finding his friend, but he interrupts the Party God as he starts to grant his wish, asking if there is a catch. There indeed is a catch, which is that the Party God would have to fill Jake's body with the energy of one-thousand partying demons. This will make him "so overloaded with party energy, that (he) will demolish everything in (his) path!" The Party God then fires a yellow stream of light from his mouth, engulfing Jake, and then Jake flies off the clouds screaming that he must party forever.

Back in the Beneathaverse, the machine is finally starting to work when Jake flies down a well and belly slams all of the gnomes. He starts to dance and inadvertently destroys the gnome's lair. The Grandmaster gnome attempts to blast Jake with a laser, but Jake punches it and he falls to the ground defeated. Jake's commotion and damage knocks over the chair Finn was restrained in, setting him free. Finn is ecstatic to see Jake, and Jake is excited to see Finn back. Jake asks Finn if he's okay, and Finn replies "Yeah, man, I'm fine." He hops on Jake's back, and Jake suggests they go eat cinnamon buns.

Music

 * "Where Is Finn?"
 * "Chip Dip Triple Flips Are Hip" (instrumental track)
 * "You got curves, she got curves" (instrumental track)

Major characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * Gnome Ruler
 * Gnome Minion

Minor characters

 * Cloud People
 * Simon
 * BMO
 * Marceline
 * Lady Rainicorn
 * Hot Dog Princess
 * Lumpy Space Princess
 * Candy People
 * Cinnamon Bun
 * Gumdrop Lass 1
 * Gumdrop Lass 2
 * Lollipop Girl
 * Peppermint Butler
 * Sugar Cube
 * Princess Bubblegum
 * Nymphs
 * Dancing Beetle
 * Party God
 * Snail

Trivia

 * There appears to be a little red animal inside the cooler that Jake spills.
 * This is the first episode that has Princess Bubblegum and Marceline together, although they never actually interacted with each other.
 * When Jake is chugging a grass shake, his cup has a pi symbol.
 * The title of this episode is a play on the term "Party Animal." A power animal is also a shamanic term for a spirit guide which takes the form of an animal.
 * Finn's dancing in the plasma ball resembles pole dancing.
 * The celestial alignment is visually similar to an aurora.
 * The Gnome Ruler is voiced by Paul Reubens, known for his role as Pee-Wee Herman.
 * When Jake crashes into the Beneathaverse, it is shown that Beneathaverse is under a well that is next to the Tree Fort.
 * The idea of an underground society beneath Finn and Jake's tree fort was adopted from an unproduced episode "Brothers in Insomnia."
 * The potato on the sack used to cover Finn's head has five mouths.

Cultural references

 * The potato sack over Finn's head says "U-say Potatoes"; this is a reference to the song Let's Call the Whole Thing Off by George Gerswhin.
 * The Brain Machine sequence is an homage to the climax of the 1985 Terry Gilliam film Brazil.