King Worm (episode)

"King Worm" is the eighteenth episode in the fourth season of Adventure Time.

Synopsis
Finn has a vivid dream that may be more than it seems.

Plot
The episode starts with Finn waking up to PB calling him her king. He then realizes he is in a Candy Throne, and see's he has a crown and is being watched by a group of banana guards. He then notices the Worm King on PBs shoulder, and it jumps out of window. He is then sitting with Flame Princess, who calls him honey and tells him to eat his soup. He doesn't respond quickly, and Flame Princess angrily yells for him to eat it. He eats some of it and closes his eyes, and the room morphs to a room like one in the Tree Fort. Flame Princess soon becomes Peppermint Butler, holding the worm that Finn saw earlier. Peppermint Butler explains that Finn needs to break the worm, and Finn responds that Peppermint Butler is holding it. Peppermint Butler throws a spoon at Finn, and he then notices Jake in a room through a window. Jake is wrapping a gift with Lady Rainicorn speaking in a very deep voice in English. Jake grabs pieces of tape from Lady Rainicorn's second mouth at the front of her face (similar to her design in the pilot). Finn then sees King Worm escaping through a small hole in the wall. Finn jumps in the room after the worm and starts talking to Jake. Finn inspects Lady Rainicorn's mouth and Jake and he talk about how they are in a linked dream with one another. Jake states that he doesn't think Lady Rainicorn is real and they decide to follow the worm through the hole, which is a problem because the hole is too small.

Jake explains that because it is a dream, Finn can do whatever he wants. He then imagines a sword capable of blasting a hole in the wall and is happy with himself for not dreaming up weird stuff. The sword then turns into a shark and Jake tells him that he needs to be careful, because if he fills the world with his subconscious fears it will fall apart. Jake tells him to just shrink down, and the two of them go through the worms hole. They wind up in a field with Ice King running towards them. Ice King calls them Fionna and Cake and tells them that he's really made a mistake. Finn and Jake are confused until two monsters made up of a bunch of penguins show up and start chasing him. Finn and Jake run away until they find their dad, Joshua, who isn't responding to anything they say. Joshua starts knitting, and eventually his knitting turns into King Worm. King Worm then bolts to a nearby mountain, prompting Finn and Jake to follow. As they reach the top, they find a frozen King Worm. They grab a nearby rock that manifests from nowhere to break the worm, and the dream fades away.

Finn and Jake wake up in their room and start asking one another if they're okay, and celebrate that they did it. Finn then notices a mirror wavering in the background, and upon closer inspection realizes his reflection isn't normal. Jake then tells him that it's fine, and Finn points at a cup of coffee falling to the floor and breaking and then returning to its normal non broken floating state. Finn then realizes that when Jake pinched him earlier, he never pinched Jake back. He starts trying to pinch him, and Jake backs away telling him that everything is fine. When Finn finally catches Jake, his skin melts away and Finn realizes for sure that he's still dreaming. King Worm then crawls into the room, and tells Finn that he can't defeat him. Finn starts to try to attack the worm, but realizes something is missing and gets depressed. A chunk of the ceiling falls on King Worm's head, and he tells Finn to "knock it off." Finn then remembers what Jake said about fears breaking down dreamscapes, and starts to imagine his fears.

He spawns saltwater from his stomach and begins to freak out. The clearly deteriorating worm tells him to calm down, to which he replies never. The Lich then crawls out of his stomach and Finn continues to freak out, followed by Princess Bubblegum. Finn starts to feel relieved until Princess Bubblegum tells him to quiet down because she's having coffee with The Lich and he wouldn't understand because he's "Too young." This freaks him out even more, and causes more damage to the worm. He then remembers Ghost Lady and continues to be horrified as the worm deteriorates to near nothing. He asks King Worm to stop one final time, and the Worm confidently responds though clearly very weak. Finally, a clown pops out of Finn's stomach and he jumps in fright. The dream then breaks, and Finn is with Jake in his living room with King Worm similar to the ending of "Evicted!." Finn then orders the King Worm to get out of his house, and the worm weakly complies. Finn then pinches Jake to be sure he's awake, and the episode ends.

Major characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * Worm King (character)

Dream characters

 * Princess Bubblegum
 * Ice King
 * Penguin creatures
 * Snail
 * Joshua
 * Flame Princess
 * Peppermint Butler
 * Ghost Lady
 * Lady Rainicorn
 * Phil
 * The Lich
 * Cinnamon Bun (promo art)
 * Banana Guards
 * Fionna (Mentioned)
 * Cake (Mentioned)
 * Gunter
 * Lumpy Space Princess
 * BMO
 * Fear Feaster
 * "Baby Finn"

Trivia

 * In the scene with sword-shark, the hilt of the sword from the Adventure Time logo appears.
 * The music in the long preview was used in the "Burning Low" trailer.
 * This is the first episode Flame Princess is in that does not have a fire related title.
 * In the promo art you can see The Lich hugging Princess Bubblegum in water with fish and crabs, which may symbolize the ocean, this is because the Princess and The Lich are having coffee underwater during the scene where random objects come out of Finn's bellybutton.
 * When Finn sees himself in the mirror, his face resembles the face of Earl of Lemongrab.
 * Symbols used below the promo art are examples of optical illusions.
 * This is the first episode where Finn calls Peppermint Butler by Pep But.
 * Finn's "ears" are longer than usual, this might be because most of the episode, Finn is dreaming. At the end his ears are at normal length again.

Cultural references

 * Some of the scenes were heavily influenced by Youtube Poops.

Episode connections

 * This is the first appearance of Phil in Season 4.
 * Ghost Lady from The Creeps appears in Finn's dream. He mentioned in the aforementioned episode that he had saved the memory of her to "the vault."
 * The shape of Lady Rainicorn's second mouth is very similar to the design from the Animated Short.
 * This is the first appearance of Joshua in Season 4.
 * Ice King refers to Finn and Jake as Fionna and Cake.
 * This is the first appearance of the Lich (not in the snail) since "Mortal Recoil".
 * This episode ends in the same setting as the episode "Evicted!", possibly implying continuity in the two episodes. This connection would imply that all intermediate episodes were part of Finn's dream, though this would also mean Flame Princess doesn't exist.
 * this couldn't be true however, because, in later episodes such as "Ocean of Fear" and "The Creeps" would have caused some rift in the dreamscape much like the shark sword did.
 * Princess Bubblegum says that Finn is "Too Young," the title of a season 3 episode.
 * A clown doll resembling the clowns from "Another Way" returned, representing Finn's fear of clowns.
 * Fear Feaster from "Ocean of Fear" returned.

Production notes

 * The episode was originally named "Worm King."

Videos
Adventure Time - King Worm (short preview)|Short Preview Adventure Time - King Worm (long preview)|Long Preview "Worm King" Animatic|An animatic.