[8.3/10] Holy Guardians of the Galaxy, this was a pretty momentous episode! Adventure Time continues its parade of questionable father figures when Jake meets Walter Ampersand, his “bio dad”, a term which clues the audience in to the idea that this is an episode centered around the thorny space between the people who raised you and the people who contributed to your genetic makeup.
But it’s all in the confines of another cool and zany adventure. Again, the Guardians parallels are eerie, with Jake going to a far off planet that happens to be made entirely of his dad, who’s trying to use him as a battery after burning through any number of other “sons” from seeds he planted throughout the galaxy. Jake is amusing, and the fact that he’s able to use his stretchy powers in interesting ways (while Walter is basically conning him) leads to some neat obstacles.
Where the episode stands out is where it departs from Guardians Vol. 2, with Jake using the grifting skills he learned from Joshua to switch the power-sucking belts on Walter to regenerate himself, showing how Joshua is his real dad, and Jake then allowing himself to be marooned on the planet to stop Walter from trying the same thing out on his children, showing that he learned that type of selflessness from his real dad too. It’s a nice vindication of Jake as a father and a character, while running through a nice adventure in ten minutes, and earning some great laughs too. (“I never even got a pretzel” is an amusingly mundane line to go out on.)
Overall, a nice little myth arc episode that shows Finn’s not alone in having bad bio dad issues.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2018-05-15T02:03:07Z
[8.3/10] Holy Guardians of the Galaxy, this was a pretty momentous episode! Adventure Time continues its parade of questionable father figures when Jake meets Walter Ampersand, his “bio dad”, a term which clues the audience in to the idea that this is an episode centered around the thorny space between the people who raised you and the people who contributed to your genetic makeup.
But it’s all in the confines of another cool and zany adventure. Again, the Guardians parallels are eerie, with Jake going to a far off planet that happens to be made entirely of his dad, who’s trying to use him as a battery after burning through any number of other “sons” from seeds he planted throughout the galaxy. Jake is amusing, and the fact that he’s able to use his stretchy powers in interesting ways (while Walter is basically conning him) leads to some neat obstacles.
Where the episode stands out is where it departs from Guardians Vol. 2, with Jake using the grifting skills he learned from Joshua to switch the power-sucking belts on Walter to regenerate himself, showing how Joshua is his real dad, and Jake then allowing himself to be marooned on the planet to stop Walter from trying the same thing out on his children, showing that he learned that type of selflessness from his real dad too. It’s a nice vindication of Jake as a father and a character, while running through a nice adventure in ten minutes, and earning some great laughs too. (“I never even got a pretzel” is an amusingly mundane line to go out on.)
Overall, a nice little myth arc episode that shows Finn’s not alone in having bad bio dad issues.