City of Thieves (episode)

"City of Thieves" is episode number thirteen in season one of Adventure Time.

Synopsis
Finn and Jake, in hopes of helping a little girl 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

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

Trivia

 * On the title card, a tiny Jake appears to the left of Finn.
 * This is the second of two episodes shown in 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.
 * In early artwork for this episode, there appears to be a male Lumpy Slave
 * An edit in a line, Finn was originally going to proclaim he and Jake were virgins, which was edited by network standards to "virgin islands".
 * One of the treasures that the King of Thieves has is a Game Boy.
 * When Finn, Jake, and Penny enter the City of Thieves, a small piece of cheese can be seen about to be eaten by a mouse to the lower left of the screen, only to have it be stolen by an arm that appears from off-screen, signifying how fast things are stolen in the city before they even enter all the way.
 * 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.
 * The is located on the top of a hill that resembles a giant turtle's shell.