Mystery Train

"Mystery Train" is the nineteenth episode of season two of Adventure Time.

Synopsis
On a train ride to Finn's present on his birthday, he and Jake get caught in a high-speed who-dun-it where suspects are being murdered one by one.

Plot
While Finn is sleeping, Jake blindfolds Finn with an orange blindfold. When he wakes up, Finn cries out that he is blind. Jake informs him that he is just blindfolded and leads Finn to the birthday surprise that Jake has been planning. Finn and Jake go to the Cotton Candy Forest, where Jake takes off Finn's blindfold and tells Finn that a train is needed to get to the surprise. While Jake goes to get the tickets to the train, Finn meets the Conductor (i.e, a pink skinned person wearing a blue suit). Finn gets creeped out by the Conductor because of the Conductor's strange voice, but he and Jake go on the train. On the way to the surprise, Candy Cane Guy stumbles and hits Colonel Candy Corn.

The Colonel gets a little mad, but Candy Cane Guy says sorry and Candy Corn asks for it not to happen again. After this, Jake goes up to get a train schedule. As he leaves, the Conductor lets them know the train ride was going to get bumpy. When they hit the bumpy track, Colonel Candy Corn gets hit multiple times by Candy Cane Guy. Finally, when they hit the straight track, Colonel Candy Corn shouts at Candy Cane Guy that he will kill Candy Cane Guy. The train enters a tunnel, putting them in complete darkness. When they exit, they see the skeleton of Candy Cane Guy. Finn then declares that he will solve the murder mystery and calls up Donut Doctor to look at Candy Cane Guy's remains. Finn asks Doctor Donut if he found who did the crime, and the Doctor says he believe that it was the Colonel. Finn says the murderer is never the first person suspected, so he asks Colonel Candy Corn if he had any foes that would frame him.

The Colonel says he has one on the train, but before he could reveal who it was, the lights go out and Colonel Candycorn is found dead as well. When a Gumdrop says the murderer could be anyone, even Finn, Finn thinks the Gumdrop is saying that so no one would think it was him. Before Finn could get more details out of the Gumdrop, the lights turn off again and the gumdrop was found dead as well. Again, Finn picks a Candy Person who believes Donut Doctor killed everyone, and also killed the Conductor to protect his alibi. This is proven wrong yet again when the lights go off and Donut Doctor's skeleton falls to the ground. Finn then hunts for clues, gathers the remaining train passengers to the back, and tells them that all of them have a reason for murder. Before Finn can tell who it was, the lights turn off and when they come back on all the Candy People fall to the floor dead.

Because of this, Finn proclaims it must be the creepy Conductor (which who had rode on a skateboard and claimed that he was awesome and cool) and hugs Jake. However, the lights go out a final time and Finn ends up hugging Jake's skeleton. Suddenly the Conductor appears and comes at Finn with a sword, but Finn grabs another sword that had been lying on the floor. The two battle until they reach the front of the train and Finn swings his sword at the Conductor, mistakenly hitting the control panels. Finn shouts, "My birthday wish is vengeance!" Finn draws up his sword."Happy birthday to me!" The Conductor says wait, then falls to the floor and changes into Jake, with pink and blue paint smeared on him! Jake then tells Finn that the murders were fake and the mystery was Finn's surprise.

When Finn asks if anyone was really murdered, Jake says nobody was. With the panel broken, the train begins heading for a cliff where the tracks had been torn off. They fall off the cliff, landing in a giant mound of gelatin, where Finn and Jake join the rest of the Candy People for Finn's birthday party. While eating cake, Jake asks Finn what he likes most and Finn tells him it was the train falling into the gelatin. Jake then informs Finn that the gelatin was unplanned, and that if it hadn't been there, they would have died. Finn then looks at the sabotaged tracks while strange, mysterious music plays and the camera closes in on the torn train tracks leaving Finn in wonder.

Characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * Conductor
 * Candy People
 * Mr. Cupcake
 * Gumdrop Lasses
 * Doctor Donut
 * Colonel Candy Corn
 * Pineapple guy
 * Lollipop girl
 * Ice cream guy
 * Chocolate bar guy
 * Dr. Ice Cream
 * Mr. Candy Cane

Trivia

 * This episode was previously titled "Murder Train".
 * Jake eats chocolate cake even though in Slumber Party Panic he says he'll die from chocolate.
 * Jake appears to be disconnected from the conductor throughout most of the show, probably so the viewer doesn't suspect anything.
 * When a skeleton, Pineapple guy still has the leaves on his head.
 * This episode is similar to several mystery stories, particularly Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.
 * When Finn said "Son of a-" the train honked right away, hinting that Finn may have swore when the train honked. Though swearing is referenced in many cartoons and is usually covered up by a background sound.
 * The episode originally aired on Pi Day (3/14), giving Finn a very mathematical birthdate.

Clues

 * The Conductor came to the car told Finn happy birthday, but the Conductor had never heard Finn's name. That is a major hint that Jake was the killer.
 * When the Conductor skates away after creepily wishing Finn a happy birthday, on the place where is hand was there is a pink smudge on the wall, evidence of the paint used to disguise Jake.
 * In Jake's plan flashback, there was an obvious streak from Jake controlling the Conductor, but it is not seen in the original scene.
 * There are numerous instances where the Conductor's winking eye is shown in the shape of Jake's tail, yet another hint that Jake was the Conductor.
 * When ever someone is murdered, the candy people do not explode out of fear, hinting that they knew about the prank.
 * When the Conductor says it will be a bumpy ride, he first uses a voice much more similar to Jake's deep voice that he has used in past episodes.
 * Jake is only in the same room as the Conductor once: when Jake's face is hidden behind the schedule.
 * The Conductor says thet he heard someone say he was creppy, but Finn only told Jake, and that was in his normal, not very loud voice.
 * The Conductor's shoes are actually Jake's eyes.
 * The biggest hint that Jake was the killer was that when the conductor came out on the skateboard saying "I'm cool and awesome" and left,Finn disagreed and Jake's reaction was "No way man!The conductor is cool and awesome." which Jake has self-quoted himself throughout the series.
 * The conductor acts laid back just like Jake would.