Elemental

Production code:

1034-242

Airdate:

May 19, 2016 ^[1]

Credits

Episodes
Previous "Normal Man"	Next "Five Short Tables"

"Elemental" is the thirty-fourth episode in the seventh season of Adventure Time. It's the two hundred thirty third episode overall.^[2]

Synopsis

Ice King digs up an item buried underneath the Ice Kingdom.^[3]

Plot

The episode begins as Starchy is walking into his house with the "Golden Shovel Award for Gravediggers" where he places on his table. He then goes to hang up his tuxedo to discover his clothes hangers are missing. The scene cuts to the Banana Guard security room, where they are answering complaints also about more missing hangers, then Princess Bubblegum pauses a video clip of the Banana Guards and requests Finn and Jake to find the missing hangers.

The scene cuts to outside a Dry Cleaners business where Jake is morphed like a garbage bin and Finn is hiding inside him, waiting for someone who might attempt to steal hangers. Then, they hear footsteps and Ice King appears, using a key card to try and attempt to break into the building's door. Finn and Jake catches Ice King and asks why is he stealing hangers, Ice King explains that he is using it for something much more important and he takes them back to his castle.

In the next scene, Finn, Jake and Ice King are gathered near a deep narrow crack inside the Ice Castle. Ice King explains that he dropped his keys down the deep crack and he used all the stolen hangers and turned it into a long hook to snag his keys down the hole and claims he will give the stolen hangers back once he retrieves his keys - calling it an ice promise, then he adds in his hook inside the crack. Finn and Jake asks how long has the crack been here and according to Ice King it has been there for a very long time, then suddenly the hook is pulled down by an unknown force, and all the hangers are sucked into the ground. Jake calls an investigation and ice king creates some sawblades, so they start to dig.

After a long time digging they come across a chamber with a massive sphere of ice in it, and on top of the sphere is the bent hangers. Finn notices that there is something inside the sphere and Ice King tries to cut it open then it suddenly bursts open. It is revealed that inside it is a boat and a lady making models out of the hangers, the lady notices that the sphere is cracked open and asks questions. She then introduces herself as Patience St. Pim, the Ice Elemental and shows off her ice powers, Finn, Jake and Ice King also introduces themselves.

She asks Ice King for the whereabouts of the Fire, Candy and Slime elementals, Finn and Jake are gets worried and decides not to tell her but Ice King immediately tells her. Ice King reveals to her that she might be talking about Slime Princess, Princess Bubblegum and Flame Princess. Hearing this, Patience is astonished that they are now princesses, and then requests Ice King to capture the princesses and the Ice King accepts but Finn and Jake disagrees to her plans. Finn and Jake prepares to fight but gets frozen immediately.

Ice King systematically capturing the princesses Patience requested. Upon arrival to the Ice Kingdom, Ice King proceeds to break them out, after failing to do so Patience thaws their upper body portion. The princesses are confused about the situation, and Patience explains her intentions. Patience creates an ice chair and asks them if it was cool, and they pretended to be amazed, then Patience reveals to them that they have that kind of power as well, and they were surprised. She then tells them the basic history of elementals.

She explains that there had always been embodyments of the four elements, fire, ice, candy and slime for eons and millenia since life began on the planet. She tells them that she was an old elemental and together with the past elementals, they saw visions of a oncoming catastrophic event that they might not survive but she had an idea of freezing themselves in order to survive the transition, but the other elementals didn't agree because even if they die, the elementals would live on after the event, so she went and froze herself alone.

She then goes on to show the Princesses their powers, which Bonnibel attempts to use against her. Even though she failed, subsequently after Patience slips on a jelly bean, wrecks her boat and ultimately freeing the princesses. In anger, Patience charges towards them, only to be incapacitated by Slime Princess's slime. The episode ends with Ice King assisting Patience get free while she reveals her plans. Ice King then discovers his keys lodged down his throat.

Characters

Major Characters

Minor Characters

Banana Guards
Starchy
Death (pictured)
Urgence Evergreen (flashback)
Cinnamon Bun
The Lich (flashback)
Gunter
Snail

Trivia

When Patience St. Pim asks what year it is after being released in Ooo, Finn states that time isn't tracked by counting years anymore.
Finn refers to himself as,"Finn the Human," rather than Finn Mertens like he did in "The Hall of Egress."
It can be assumed that the Lich has someone or something to destroy the elementals' reincarnations, as they are the representations of the fundamental lifeforms.
Finn says the Ice King is semi-reformed, which is shown to be true, because Ice King hasn't attempted to kidnap princesses since "The Party's Over, Isla de Señorita."
According to Patience St. Pim in the old days, before the Mushroom war, the powers of the elements were limited, but going back to the period in episode "Evergreen" all of them have great powers. This is because it was a "non-magic" during St. Pims time as opposed to the current era where magic is more common.

Cultural References

The Fire Elemental's first descendant's beard is similar to Uncle Iroh's from Avatar: The Last Airbender or Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop. Also like Iroh, he drinks tea and heats it with his fire powers.
The second Slime Elemental's clothes resembles Ash Ketchum from the Pokémon anime series.
Ice King says "No rest for the sexy," just as he is about to drill into the ice sphere. Jake responds by noting that the saying does not go like that. This is a reference to the phrase "No rest for the wicked." A biblical verse that has since been included in numerous songs.

Episode Connections

The concept of the "four elements" was first introduced in "Evergreen."
Princess Bubblegum wears the same outfit she wore in "Video Makers" once again.
This is the first time Ice King has interacted with Flame Princess since "Frost & Fire."
Ice King uses the string of hangars in the miniseries, "Elements" where he refers to them as sky hooks.

Production Notes

Storyline Analysis

This episode marks the first time Ice King has kidnapped Flame Princess.
This episode also marks the beginning of a new story arc involving Patience St. Pim.
This episode revealed that non-human humanoids and small amounts of magic did exist in between the Cretaceous period (via "Evergreen") and the Mushroom War .
- However Patience and the other elementals of her time seen to have been human in origin before being "awakened" as elementals.