Adventure Time/Recap/S03/E10 What Was Missing

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Adventure Time/Recap/S03/E10 What Was Missing
A story from Adventure Time
Preceded by: S03/E09 Fionna and Cake
Central Theme:
Synopsis: When a thief has stolen people's beloved possessions, Finn, Jake, BMO, Marceline, and PB must perform a song for the magic door he is hiding behind
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The scene opens to Finn checking to see if no one else is home before pulling the lock of Princess Bubblegum's hair from the episode "To Cut a Woman's Hair" out from under the couch. He sits down and cuddles with it until Jake comes out from behind the couch with BMO. Jake tells a startled Finn that he already knows about his "private time he spends with the wad of Princess Bubblegum's hair." Jake then picks up a floor board and pulls out his baby blanket to show Finn a special object of his own. Then a door appears and out hops a Door Lord. He snatches Finn's wad of Princess Bubblegum's hair, BMO's controller, and Jake's blanket. The three follow the Door Lord through a door that leads to Princess Bubblegum's castle, where she is seen running after him and demanding that he come back, yelling "Get back here you thieving door lord! You butt!" which helps identify the creature to Finn and Jake. The Door Lord then opens another portal, which Finn, Princess Bubblegum, BMO, and Jake follow through into Marceline's house. Marceline is trying to hit the Door Lord with her bass, until he opens up a final door that hurts Marceline with the sunlight through it. The group, now with Marceline, who has put on a pair of gloves and a sun hat which will protect her from the sun, and Princess Bubblegum, go through the final door into "Red Rock Pass," chasing the Door Lord until he escapes into a double door that closes in front of the four. Finn then reads the words that appear on the archway that say: "This door shall yield to no command save for a song from a genuine bande."

The crew then tries making some music to tempt the doors to open using their assorted instruments, but when Marceline begins to sing about wanting to "drink the red from your (Princess Bubblegum's) pretty pink face" Princess Bubblegum comments that her lyrics are "too distasteful." Marceline then replies defensively, "Oh, you don't like that? Or do you just not like me?" Bitterly, Marceline sings "I'm Just Your Problem" to Princess Bubblegum, inducing shocked reactions of silence from the princess, Jake, and Finn. Since the door reacts to the truth (later realized by Finn) and the door reacted to her song, the lyrics to Marceline's rock ballad consisted of her true feelings. At the end of her song she stumbles, stammering something that is not truthful ("to...to bury you in the ground... and drink the blood from your... urgh!") causing the faces on the door to stop responding to the music, and to dim. Marceline then yells "Stop staring at me!"

Jake calls Princess Bubblegum and the others "talentless hacks" and leaves, only to come back again later (this is all part of his act as the band's self-proclaimed jerk). Finn suggests that they have a noodle break, taking a pack of dry, uncooked noodles out of his backpack. Marceline then starts to float off to the open door that the Door Lord left open, and Finn says in a panic: "No! Wait--don't go too!" Thinking that Marcy has decided to leave the band as well, but Marceline just tells him she is getting something to cook the noodles.

Finn continues to eat the noodles raw. Marceline comes back, with a pot and a mobile stove, and tells BMO "come here baby," and hooks BMO up to heat the pot of water, and Finn drops his noodles into the pot. The sun goes down, and Marceline takes off her hat. When Finn suggests a song about noodles, both girls say "No!" In unison, to which they all laugh shortly afterward.

Princess Bubblegum then tries to make a new song, and Jake comes back. Jake says: "Shut yo face, I came back for the music." After Princess Bubblegum's plan fails due to her "miscalculations," Marceline says that Princess Bubblegum was not as perfect as she had thought, and that she could not judge her anymore.

The two have a fight. Marceline then spits on Princess Bubblegum's jacket, and they all begin to leave, except for Finn, who then begins to sing a song of what his best friends think of him. Marceline, Princess Bubblegum, and Jake join in as Finn sings about how they were all "best friends in the world." The door, in response, opens to the Door Lord eating a sandwich in an empty room. The crew listens to his mumbling, and while Finn appears to be perplexed at them, Princess Bubblegum, Marceline, and Jake state that what the Door Lord had hoped for them to learn, that the real treasure was their friendships. The Door Lord smiles with glee at their revelation, but then he is shortly beaten up afterward by the five, presumably in retaliation to his thievery. Jake then passes out their stolen items. Finn receives his wad of Princess Bubblegum's hair, where Princess Bubblegum replies, "Oh, you." and Finn mutters under his breath "Yeesh." Jake gets his baby blanket and BMO gets its controller back. A black T-shirt with what seems to be cinnamon rolls strangling a snake is mistaken to be Marceline's, but is claimed by Princess Bubblegum; claiming she wears it all the time as pajamas. At the end, it is revealed that the Door Lord had not taken anything from Marceline, meaning Marceline only joined them because she wanted to hang out with the group. Marceline angrily tries to deny it and transforms into her full vampire form to chase them out of the door, but they merely laugh as they run away.

Tropes used in What Was Missing include:
  • Aesop Ju Jitsu: Played dead straight. After the group opens the door, the Door Lord refuses to give them back their things. Then they realize that the lesson he wanted them to learn was that friendship is the real treasure, and the Door Lord happily celebrates over their Fridge Brilliance moment. They then proceed to beat the Door Lord to a freakin' pulp and retrieve their stuff anyway.