Review: Adventure Time “Abstract”

Look inside yourself.

Spoilers Below:

Jake is stuck still looking like a Shapeshifter, which doesn’t bother Finn but is freaking BMO out. He keeps developing new powers and transforming without prompting too.

He goes to a bar to ask his friends if he’s any different, and they don’t even recognize him. He resists Lady’s attempts to change him back to yellow but insists that he’s still the same.

In a dream, he dreams that a shapeshifter is chasing him. He ends up in a mountain, where he sees Jermaine painting abstract art. When he wakes up, he knows something is off, because Jermaine paints landscapes and dislikes the abstract. He spots the mountain from his dream in a brochure and sets off.

On his way to the mountain, he encounters James, and in his house, Jake spots the same painting from his dream. James says Jermaine gave it to him, and his studio is just beyond the waterfall.

Jake visits his brother and discovers that he’s taken up abstract painting. Jake gets confused, wondering why Jermaine is liking abstract works all of a sudden. He asks if is still the same person if he doesn’t paint landscapes anymore. Jermaine replies that he got tired of painting the same old things, and his art transitioned into the abstract. It doesn’t negate his previous work, he’s just changed. After studying his brother’s paintings, Jake says he understands and reverts back to his normal form.

Overview:

A good episode about change. The miniseries left off with Jake stuck in shape-shifter form, and he isn’t dealing with it very well. He starts out insisting that he’s the same, and denying that anything is different about him. However, the shape-shifter change is part of him now, and by denying that, he denies a potential part of himself. By realizing that he has changed— Jake accepts his growth, and can also accept himself.