Review: Adventure Time – Fionna and Cake “The Cat Who Tipped the Box”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Simon, Bubblegum, and Marceline go to Prismo for help with Finn, Fionna starts to unravel, and Huntress Wizard pulls herself together.

OUR TAKE

Remember all the worries I had last week about Fionna and Cake getting forgotten in their own show? Well, multiply all that by at least five this week, because those same problems seem to be just growing from there. Though at least Fionna has it better than Cake, who this episode just kinda got…selected for a guest appearance on Cheers, which in this universe is apparently still ongoing and stars tiny people in a box. As for Fionna, a lot of her involvement in this episode is yearning for DJ Flame while neglecting Hunter, who sticks his neck out for her by getting her a meeting with the Park to somehow get her old spot back, but her going after an old flame and having to deal with a now fully formed and naked Huntress Wizard end up only burning that bridge too. I’ll get to Huntress Wizard and how her journey is in a sec, but then there’s Simon, Bubblegum, and Marceline using the Enchiridion to visit Prismo, who apparently can’t use wish magic anymore but is hiding this from Scarab, who is still around and a flat projection too. So sadly, that plan to help Finn is also out, and while Simon goes to find a Demonic Wishing Eye from Ice Thing (formerly the alien that became the penguin known as Gunther), it’s pretty much all on our green girl.

Huntress Wizard gets the cold open flashback this time (I think she also got it in the second episode?), with it being a fairy tale style summary of how she was found in the woods as a child and taken in by a family that couldn’t have their own, Tom Thumb style. Unfortunately, their house is destroyed in a lightning strike and the couple are killed, leaving Huntress on her own until she meets the Green Wizards. And that’s great and all, but unless these are all pieces that will help figure out exactly how she’s going to help save the day, I’m not sure what the purposes of these flashbacks are. At the very least, Huntress Wizard seems to be able to detect a similar Heart of the Forest in Fionna’s world, which may be the key to saving Finn, so we’ll see how that turns out. Still, I must say that I am increasingly worried about how this season is going to handle Fionna and Cake, as we are nearly to the halfway point and things feel rather unfocused and nostalgic.