Review: Adventure Time “Jake the Starchild”

Your real father.

Overview:

The Shape-shifter takes Jake back to his home world, where Jake is prophesized to fight a great monster.

Our Take:

This episode continues where ‘The First Investigation’ left off, with the Shapeshifter appearing to take Jake someplace. That place is the home planet of the shapeshifters, where Jake is prophesized to defeat an ultimate evil. He does this by contorting himself to fit into the slots of a deadly weapon, which wards off the evil, in exchange for Jake’s stretchiness.

It turns out that the Shapeshifter is a purely malevolent entity, wanting to exchange Jake’s stretchiness for his own life force. By being goaded into heroic acts, Jake is slowly withering away, something the Shapeshifter says he’s done time and time again. He propagates and then seeks out his sons to absorb their life. He has no issue in doing this over and over again and only thinks to stop this time around because Jake is ‘cooler’ than the other children. Not much of a parental figure. The entire reveal of the Shapeshifter’s homeworld is revealed to be a ruse as well, leaving only a desolate planet after the Shapeshifter abandons it.

Another issue the story brings up is parental affection. The Shapeshifter attempts to curry favor with Jake by referencing his parentage, but Jake is adamant about where he came from. His father isn’t the Shapeshifter, but Joshua, who raised him. Biology means little if there isn’t any sort of affection or parental responsibility involved. What ends up saving Jake from the Shapeshifter is a combination of two things: the tricks he learned from Joshua, and his responsibility to protect his children. Joshua’s trick turns the tables on the Shapeshifter and allows Jake to regain himself. As soon as he finds out that the Shapeshifter is going after his children, Jake takes action. He flings the Shapeshifter into a wormhole, allowing it to dissipate for good, rendering it unable to harm his family. While Jake references that he hasn’t been a very good father, he does take steps to keep his family from harm. Getting there, Jake.