Beautopia (episode)

Production code:

1008-065

Airdate:

November 7, 2011

Credits

Director:

Larry Leichliter

Story:

Mark Banker
Patrick McHale
Kent Osborne
Pendleton Ward

Written & storyboarded by:

Adam Muto

Rebecca Sugar^[1]

Episodes
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"Beautopia" is the fourteenth episode in season three of Adventure Time

Synopsis

Susan Strong returns and asks Finn and Jake to help fight off the Lub Glubs and regain her people's home in Beautopia.

Plot

Finn and Jake are inside one night, discussing things about coffee, when they hear banging. All of the sudden, Susan Strong bursts through the wall from the outside. She says that she needs Finn's help because of his "Hero Heart." She also adds that she needs Finn's magic, the "Red Flower," or Fire.

Jake tries to convince Finn that Susan's completely crazy, Despite this, Finn still wants to help and tells Jake that he will whether he is coming with him or not. Jake remarks that he's only coming to be "disruptive and obnoxious."

The duo are taken to the underground cave in which the Hyoomen Tribe lives. Susan thinks they should swim, and dips Finn's head in the water. Jake stops Susan shortly, saving Finn from drowning. Finn takes off his hat while catching his breath, Susan sees that Finn has no gills. She then decides they take a boat ride down the river and Jake sings "I'm On a Boat." A pool toy passes them, and Susan panics, telling both Finn and Jake to keep quiet, because it was a Lub Glub. They attempt to cross the Clashing Gates and pass, but the boat is broken. Eventually, they reach the city and several Lub Glubs come out. Jake is convinced that they are just normal pool toys and hits one with his Pick-Axe Hand. The Lub Glubs all turn into their true form and attack the group, to Susan's terror. Susan helps Finn fight and Jake goes to put the fire in the City Heart. When he does, all of the Lub Glubs die, and all that's left is their pool toy shells.

It cuts to all of the Hyoomens moving back to the city. Susan tells Finn he should stay, but Finn claims he's not like her. Susan takes his hand and puts it under her hat onto her neck. Finn is surprised by what he felt and says "Susan...." but is interrupted by Jake, who bought a bunch of soft pretzels. As they leave, Finn waves goodbye to Susan.

Songs

I'm On A Boat

Characters

Major characters

Finn
Jake
Susan Strong
Lub Glubs

Minor characters

Hyoomen Tribe
- Celina (cameo)
Peppermint Butler (mentioned)
Snail(cameo)
Joshua (mentioned)
Margaret (mentioned)

Trivia

The title of this episode is a portmanteau of the words "beautiful" and "utopia". "Beau" is French and the latter is defined as a perfect world.
Susan refers to fire as "Red Flower." In Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, fire is also called "Red Flower."
In this episode Susan uses near proper vocabulary when talking, indicating that her speech has improved since being taught the basics of it by Finn.
The Lub Glubs may be a continuation of the reference to the television series Lost which began in the episode the Hyoomens were introduced. (See "Susan Strong" for information about references in that episode.) In this episode, the "Lub Glubs" that attack the Hyoomens are revealed to be nightmarish creatures made out of a black, fog-like substance -- possibly a visual cue from the "Smoke Monster" on Lost.
Susan simply says that the Hyoomen Tribe was driven from Beautopia by the Lub Glubs "long ago", in such a way that its not clear if this even happened within her lifetime or generations ago.
The title card of this episode seems to be a commercial poster of Beautopia, probably before the Mushroom War. In the letters is possible to see many of its attractions, including: (B) boat trip; (E) swimming pool; (A) volleyball court; (U) towers of flames;(T) tube-like elevators; (O) the apartment buildings; (P) a park; and (A) the main flame tower; the letter (I) isn't an attraction but show a woman using an animal hat, similar to Finn's hat or Fionna's hat.
- By the letter (I) of the title card, is possible to conclude that the Hyoomen Tribe's hats came from Beautopia.
- It is possible that "Beautopia" was part of some sort of underground fallout shelter built by humans trying to survive the impending Great Mushroom War. From the title card, it seems that Beautopia was supposed to be part of some kind of a domed, self-contained community.
- The story element of a self-contained generational community of humans in a bunker, meant to survive in isolation for hundreds of years after a nuclear war devastates the surface world, is a central plot point in the Fallout series of RPG video games in which the survivors are in vaults and the book "The City of Ember".
Jake's clam-shaped head with a woman inside refers to the famous painting The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli.
Finn's hair seems to dry within seconds of his hat coming off after Susan almost drowned him.
The clashing gates are carved to look like two hands fist bumping.
Susan's comments during their journey hints that Susan has tried at least once before to return to Beautopia (i.e. "Never made it this far before..." and "Getting close to the Lub Glub's mash-em-ups.")
When confronted with the 'mash-em-ups' Finn exclaims "Balzacs!" This is likely a double entendre based on the name of the French novelist Honoré de Balzac.
When the Lub Glubs are first introduced, one can be seen chewing on a skull wearing a hat that resembles Fionna's bunny hat.
Susan doesn't seem to mind when Jake is calling her crazy, even when he says it loud enough for her to hear him.
This is Susan's second appearance in Adventure Time.