Escape from the Citadel

"Escape From the Citadel" is the second episode in the sixth season of Adventure Time. It is the one hundred and fifty-eighth episode overall.

Synopsis
Finn and Jake follow the Lich to the Citadel, where Finn meets his long lost dad. But just how far does the apple fall from the tree?

Plot
Finn and Jake hitch a ride on a Citadel Guardian after he imprisons and transports The Lich to the Citadel. Upon arrival, the Guardian attaches The Lich's crystal prison onto a much larger crystal "cell block." Finn and Jake then embark on a search of the prison for Finn's long-lost father, whom Finn initially believes to be the Guardian. Jake points out a strange looking "old kid" who resembles Finn, it turns out to be Finn's father incarcerated inside a crystal jail cell. They then notice that the Lich's cell is excreting a grey slime that is beginning to infect the other prisoners and Guardians. They then notice that grey fire is forming on Finn's father's cell, Finn uses Jake as a mace and frees his father, who introduces himself as Martin. Martin is reluctant to answer either Finn nor Jake's questions about his motives for abandoning Finn. Jake begins to encourage Finn to leave his father behind, calling him a loser. Martin notes that the fighting will cease once the last Guardian dies, he then points out that the last Guardian is currently sinking into a grey swamp. The Guardian shoots a beam that hits Martin in the lower right shin. Martin tells Finn that the blood of a Guardian contains healing properties. Finn and Jake retrieve some blood and heal Martin. The Lich then sends Finn into a hypnotic state. The Lich tells Finn that only death will be imminent for all life, and that Finn is all alone in the world now. Jake then appears unconscious next to Finn. Finn wakes up and calls for Martin, who had fled with the other prisoners, abandoning Finn once again. The Lich reaches for Finn but begins screaming and growing flesh around his hand after touching the Guardian blood that was still on Finn. Finn then throws more blood onto The Lich, making him grow more flesh around his chest. Finn then tells Jake to finish him off while he stops his father from escaping. Martin and the other prisoners begin to fly towards a portal, but Finn grabbed two parts of a portal, preventing his father from leaving, the portal stretches him and begins to pull, Jake tells Finn to let it go, but Finn refuses and the Grass Sword takes over Finn's right arm, allowing him one last pull of the portal, but Finn's arm gives out and is severed. Finn falls into the water below where a small piece of Guardian blood touches his arm, making the stump of an arm sprout a flower. Jake pulls Finn to shore where Shelby is revealed to have been hiding out the entire time. Starchie then comes through another portal driving a train and announces that the next stop was The Candy Kingdom. Finn is reminded of the Lich and asks Jake if he had finished him off, Jake says there's no need, as the Guardian blood transformed The Lich into a baby-like creature, rendering completely harmless. Later, Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig are sitting in her house when outside Finn and Jake's chatter can be heard, the doorbell rings, interrupting Tree Trunks about to say: "I think we should get a divorce." The couple sees outside their door an infant Lich, and Tree Trunks changes her mind.

Main characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * The Lich
 * Martin
 * Citadel Guardian

Minor characters

 * Snail
 * Starchie
 * Shelby
 * Tree Trunks
 * Mr. Pig
 * Void caster

Trivia

 * Starchie is in the title card riding a form of a 4-2-0 steam locomotive.
 * Tree Trunks wanted to divorce Mr. Pig until they got their baby "delivered."

Cultural references

 * The transformation and mutation of the Grass Sword as it consumes Finn's arm is similar to the awakening power of Tetsuo from the 1988 Japanese animated film .
 * Finn's slow-motion fall to the liquid is similar to 's fall in the movie .
 * The portal Starchie came through is strikingly similar to the portals in the videogame [].

Episode connections

 * Finn losing his right arm to the Grass Sword fulfills Finn's destiny to lose his arm, as multiple alternate versions of Finn have been seen with an artificial arm:
 * On the future Crystal in the Dungeon Train
 * His vision of himself in Mortal Folly
 * His "mirror reflection" in King Worm
 * His Farmworld counterpart in Finn the Human and Jake the Dog
 * A robotic pillow arm in Puhoy
 * One of his previous lives, Shoko, as revealed in The Vault
 * There is a reference to the episode Apple Wedding, where Tree Trunks is revealed to have many ex husbands, when Tree Trunks is about to divorce Mr. Pig.
 * Finn didn't grow back his arm when the stump was exposed to the guardian's blood because unlike Martin and The Lich, not even the bones remained.
 * The reason Finn grew a flower, instead of his arm, is because the grass sword had taken over his arm.

Errors

 * After the scene when Martin gets his leg zapped, Finn is seen without his grass sword in one scene where he repeats "uh-oh."
 * When the Lich breaks free from the crystal, he appears to have all traces of Billy's skin removed. But in the next scene, he has some of Billy's face still attached to him before it slides off.
 * In the scene where Finn is climbing after Martin on the floating rock, his grass sword is also missing in the shot before the creature cuts the cord Finn is climbing.
 * While Martin is climbing, his boot that was struck and ripped is fixed.

Storyline analysis
In the scene where the Lich was standing in front of a semi-conscious Finn that had fallen to a lump of Guardian's blood trying to fight back the Lich's mind control ability, the Lich stated that he is the end and he has come for Finn, who surprisingly managed to use all of his strength to shove the Lich's hand with his that has been covered with the Guardian's blood covering the Lich's skeleton with muscles and skin, turning him to a newly born baby at the end. The Lich's physical appearance of a skeleton and the statement that he is the "end" (death and destruction) and the Lich's appearance after being in contact with the Guardian's blood, of a new born baby that has only "begun" his life is synonymous to the phrase "life and death" and that the Lich was not only end/death itself but has transformed to something that was given new life. The same could also be said for the Lich being the Alpha and the Omega.