Henchman

"Henchman" is the twenty-second episode in season one of Adventure Time.

Synopsis
Finn takes the place of Marceline's henchman, and he finds out how hard it is to obey her evil ways.

Plot
Finn and Jake are playing on a monster's skeleton when Marceline appears behind some nearby bushes, spying on them. Finn hears someone crying in the distance and goes to investigate, discovering Marceline and the Old Man Henchman. Marceline is arguing with the Old Man Henchman, who wants to be released from his servitude because he is old and feeble (although given his nimbleness as he flees, but this was all just a trap for noble Finn). When Finn and Jake rush to his aid, she begins ordering the Old Man Henchman to do unusual tasks for her to torment them. Finn pities the Old Man Henchman so he offers to take his place as Marceline's henchman. Jake tries to talk Finn out of it, but Marceline scares Jake and flies off with Finn.

They land at a nearby house, and Marceline orders Finn to open the door. Finn refuses to do so, stating that he wouldn't if innocent people would be hurt. Marceline reminds him that he is her henchman and has no choice in the matter, and so he opens the door for her. Marceline tells Finn to hold down the victim, Eberhardt, and Finn says that he was sorry before doing as he was ordered. Finn thinks Marceline is going to suck Eberhardt's blood and attempts to stop her, but Marceline disables Finn's arms temporarily. Finn is horrified when Marceline sinks her teeth into Eberhardt, but she was actually sucking the red out of his bowtie. Eberhardt is incredibly happy with his new white bowtie and Marceline reminds Finn that she eats the color red, not just blood.

The two leave Eberhardt's house and Marceline asks Finn if he was thinking about Eberhardt's bowite looking similar to a bra. they then stop by a graveyard. Marceline revives all the skeletons to form an army. Marceline exclaims, "Are you ready to lead an evil army of the undead?!" Finn shouts, "Never!" but the skeletons frighten him into doing it. While they march toward The Duke and Duchess of Nuts's castle, Finn runs ahead and tries to warn them, but when Marceline finally arrives it turns out that she was performing for them because it's the Duke of Nuts' second son's first birthday. Finn begins to notice the pattern in Marceline's orders and thinks a little about the situation before being interrupted by Lisby the Cashew Butler. He convinces him to stop thinking and just party. Marceline then presents Finn with a cute dimple plant and offers him some of the fruit before ordering him to slay it with her ax-bass. Finn attempts to work out the trick to his latest order, unsure as to why she would ask him to kill something so cute. Finn hesitates and the plant grows huge and malicious. He tries to slay the plant but ends up being swallowed by it. Marceline kills the plant and Finn cuts his way out of its stomach. Finn then realizes that all her "evil" commands are really tricks that just seem evil and are only to mess with his head.

The next day, the two go out for a walk in strawberry fields out in the sun. Marceline brings along an umbrella and Finn asks if the sun can destroy her she answers ":yeah but she likes it because it reminds her of skinning her knees as a kid and her mom patching her up afterwards". Marceline then asks Finn if he wants to go strangle some pixies with her and Finn agrees. She is surprised by his casual attitude about it, saying pixie strangling is "hard core evil" and Finn tells her he knew that her evil deeds weren't so evil after all. Marceline jokingly berates him for taking so long to work out that she wasn't so bad. Suddenly Jake(cleverly disguised as a giant strawberry) leaps at Marceline and throws garlic at her, causing her to drop her umbrella and become exposed to the sun. Marceline falls to the ground, weakened and blistered. Finn tells Jake that Marceline isn't as evil as she seems, but Jake believes he is under a vampire spell of some sort. Marceline hides herself under her umbrella and Finn rushes over to it, lifting up one side telling her a plan he just thought of. Jake leaps forwards and puts a stake through it, lifting up the umbrella to reveal a cloud of smoke. Finn tells Jake he faced his vampire fear and saved him. Jake leaves, happy to have saved his friend. Finn remains for a moment, picking up the umbrella. Marceline emerges from Finn's backpack in her small bat form (This was a part of Finn's plan; he told her this quickly when he lifted up the side of her umbrella) and tells Finn he was fired as her henchman because it wouldn't be fun if she couldn't trick him. They still promise to go pixie strangling the next day. Marceline then picks up her umbrella and flies away.

Characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * Marceline
 * Old Man Henchman
 * Eberhardt
 * Duke of Nuts
 * Duchess of Nuts
 * Second Nut Son
 * Lisby the Cashew Butler
 * Peanut People
 * Dimple Plant Monster
 * Skeleton Army

Music

 * Fisherman Song

Trivia

 * This episode was originally titled "Marceline's Slave Story", then "Marceline's Henchman".
 * Cartoon Network skipped a week before airing this episode.
 * This is the second major appearance of Marceline.
 * At the end she talks about her mother, providing more evidence that she was probably a human before she was a vampire.
 * Marceline calls Finn a Castle Crasher during the party at the Duke of Nuts' castle, which is a possible reference to the video game of the same name.
 * In this episode, Jake finally conquers his fear of vampires.
 * The title card (unlike other episodes) doesn't seem to be torn.
 * In the beginning, Jake states that Marceline "scares the filling out of my donut." Metaphorically, Jake also refers to his butt as a "powdered donut", meaning that Marceline scares the crap out of him. On the other hand, this statement could be literal, because during their first encounter with Marceline in "Evicted!", she actually did suck the filling out of a jelly donut when kicking Finn and Jake out of their house.