Goliad (episode)

"Goliad" is the tenth episode in season four of Adventure Time.

Synopsis
Princess Bubblegum is concerned over her mortality and reveals her designated successor to Finn and Jake. However, things start go out of control when the heir turns against Princess Bubblegum.

Plot
While Finn and Jake are doing activities near the Candy Kingdom, Peppermint Butler informs them that Princess Bubblegum wants to see them. The princess explains that after her brush with death at the hands of the Lich, she realized she can't live forever, so she used science and some of her DNA to create a heir that could live forever. The heir is Goliad, a pink Sphinx with a welt on her forehead and the voice of a young child. Finn and Jake introduce themselves to Goliad, who takes a liking to them. After Princess Bubblegum plucks one of Finn's hairs, he notices that she's extremely exhausted. She explains that she's been awake for 83 hours straight, teaching Goliad about how to be a ruler. Finn and Jake volunteer to look after Goliad while the princess rests, and she agrees.

The two friends take Goliad to a preschool, where Finn builds an obstacle course. Jake introduces Goliad to the other children, but is dismayed to find that they are extremely unruly and poorly behaved. Jake is forced to yell at the children to make them stop assaulting him. Goliad imitates Jakes harsh discipline, yelling at the children in an attempt at being a leader. Finn rebukes Goliad, and suggests that she use her brain to lead instead of force. Goliad reveals her long, third eye and psychically controls Finn and the obstacles in the course for a perfect completion. She explains that with her in control, everything would be perfect. Worried about Goliad's behavior, Finn and Jake take her to the princess for help.

Princess Bubblegum tries to teach Goliad that compromise is the best way to rule, citing how a bee and a flower help each other. Goliad counters by explaining that the bee doesn't care if it hurts or kills the flower because the flower is weaker. Goliad states that she is the strongest so she is in control. Princess Bubblegum thinks to herself that Goliad has been corrupted and would need to be disassembled and started from scratch, but Goliad reveals she can read minds and begins to destroy the castle. Princess Bubblegum tells Finn and Jake that Goliad is too powerful to be defeated by them. She instructs them to distract Goliad long enough to create another Candy Sphinx to fight back, and that they need to not think about the plan or Goliad will find out.

Finn and Jake confront Goliad but are beaten by her psychic powers. Goliad tries to read Finn's mind, and Finn narrowly avoids revealing the plan by interrupting his memories with nonsense. The new creature; another sphinx with an eagle's head, white feathers, and golden hair; rescues Finn and battles Goliad. Goliad tries to convince her brother, named Stormo, that they should work together, but Stormo refuses by screeching. They engage in a psychic showdown, but with their powers matched the two creatures are eternally locked in a mental stalemate. Princess Bubblegum tells Finn that Stormo was created using DNA from the hair she took earlier, and thus inherited Finn's heroic qualities. That was why he saved Finn instead of controlling them, and why he sacrificed himself to keep Goliad in check for all eternity. Finn realizes that Stormo is like a son to him, and wishes him a Happy Birthday.

Characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * Goliad
 * Candy People
 * Candy Nanny
 * Candy Children
 * Princess Bubblegum
 * Peppermint Butler
 * Cinnamon Buns
 * Chet
 * Marshmallow Kids
 * Mr. Cupcake
 * Sugar Cube
 * Pineapple Guy
 * Chocoberry
 * Donut Guy
 * All Castle Staff
 * Candy Heart
 * Jam Jam
 * Ice Cream Lady
 * Candy Man
 * Ice Cream Guy
 * Grumdrop Lass
 * Grumdrop Lass 1
 * Gumdrop Lass 2
 * Chocolate bar guy
 * Lollipop Girl
 * Grape Popsicle Guy
 * Mr. Candy Cane
 * Stormo
 * Butterfly
 * The Lich (mentioned)
 * Snail
 * Baby Finn

Trivia

 * BGP worries about her own mortality after the brush with the Lich King.
 * The ingredients to create Goliad included PBG's baby tooth, "algebra", and several colorful chemicals mixed into a vat for 83 hours. Cinnamon Bun also fell into the vat but left before he could be disolved into it. It is not clear whether falling in or leaving was an accident or an important part of the formula or whether it corrupted Goliad's personality.
 * It is not certain what Stormo was made from other than Finn's strand of hair.
 * The algebra BGP uses to create Goliad is "A+B=C". When its added to the vat it becomes simple chalk dust.
 * Goliad and Stormo have a third psychic eye which must be visible to use their psychic powers. These include reading people's thoughts, controlling them, telekinesis, and some sort of psychic battle abilities.
 * Goliad and Stormo can (supposedly) live for all eternity.
 * Goliad has BGP's DNA while Stormo has Finn's "hero DNA". Because of this, Finn refers to Stormo as "like a son".
 * Goliad and Stormo are (supposedly) locked in an eternal Psychic battle and do not move in the physical world.
 * Peppermint Butler traveling underground is similar to the way Bugs Bunny travels underground.
 * PB has a scientific parasite in her coat pocket.
 * When Princess Bubblegum, Finn, and Jake are walking to the underground lab, skeletons of strange animals can be seen trying to eat other animal skeletons.
 * On Princess Bubblegum's chalkboard, she has drawn something similar to a Carbon trioxide.
 * When Goliad says "Hi Finn" she sounds similar to Princess Bubblegum when she was 13 years old.
 * "Goliad" is the name of a town in Texas where the second battle of the Texas Revolution took place. It can also be vaguely translated from Latin to mean "Meet Goliath."
 * Goliad is also the name of the giant that was killed by David according to the Christian Bible.
 * Princess Bubblegum states that she had not slept for 83 hours, which is equivalent to about 3 days and 11 hours.
 * Princess Bubblegum did not wear her royal crown for the entire episode. However, it was seen on PB in Finn's mind when Goliad was trying to read Finn's mind.


 * Goliad attempted to establish a totalitarian/dictatorship over the Candy Kingdom.
 * Both Goliad and Stormo are sphinxes, creatures that in legend possess attributes of three creatures: the human, the lion and a large bird. However both appear to possess attributes different from typical sphinxes: Goliad possesses no bird attributes except the feathers around her neck, and has a head similar to a human child; while Stormo has the head of a bird, even though it was created from the DNA of a human. (Finn)
 * PB's baby tooth is shown in Goliad's appearance, while Finn's hair is shown in Stormo's appearance.
 * Another creation related to Finn is Neptr the robot, who's creation was not genetically based.
 * So far, this is the only episode to have a song that was previously played in a different episode by the same character.
 * The title card looks like when Goliad was being made.
 * A dolphin made its third appearance in the series and the dolphin head made its second appearance.
 * When Finn and Jake enter the preschool, one of the Candy Children climbed through a window up into the roof.
 * Since Stormo is good because of Finn's DNA. That would mean that PB has a darkside if Goliad turned out to be really evil. It has been shown in many episodes such as " The Duke " . Or could even be a leftover of The Lich possession.
 * Goliad can speak but Stormo can not or chooses not to.
 * Goliad took 83 hours to develop, while Stormo took less than a day (less than 12 minutes real time). This may be the a reason can not that Stormo can not speak, or it could be a continuity error.

Episode connections

 * Princess Bubblegum refers to the events of "Mortal Folly" and "Mortal Recoil" in this episode.
 * When Finn tries to block Goliad out of reading his mind, he distracts himself by remembering Baby Finn singing the Baby Finn Song from "Memory of a Memory"

Errors

 * When PB was recalling the event of taking Finn's strand of hair, she was dressed in her night gown instead of lab coat.
 * PB's hair tie changes colors from blue to pink.
 * There was no mound on Stormo's head but when the psychic battle started the mound appeared.
 * When Goliad was mind controlling several candy persons, some of them appeared repeatedly or the body had changed in some way.

Videos
Adventure Time - Goliad (short preview)|The short preview. Adventure Time - Goliad (long preview)|The long preview.