“The Jiggler” Review

Original Airdate: April 19, 2010

Written & Storyboarded by: Luther McLaurin & Armen Mirzaian

I mentioned in my last review that I thought “The Enchiridion” would’ve been more suited as the series premiere, and being paired with “The Jiggler” only solidifies this belief. “The Jiggler”, in many respects, highlights the fun and charm of the series that “The Enchiridion” displayed, but this episode also has the distinction of showcasing the more emotional side of the series.

The episode starts off with Finn singing his “Baby” song in his auto-tuned voice, as he and Jake rescue Stanley the watermelon from a morbidly burning village. Hey, the first AT song to ever be sung! I love how absurdly this episode starts out by the way; a town is on fire, Finn rescues a seemingly lifeless watermelon named Stanley and his family, including a sausage link, a pineapple, banana and marshmallows. What the fuck is this watermelon’s story? As they set down Stanley and his family, a little baby creature follows the duo and whistles along to Finn’s song. Finn and Jake take a liking to the little “Jiggler” and bring him back to the Treehouse. Hey, this is also the first time we see the Treehouse! F&J decide to welcome the baby Jiggler by, of course, having a dance party. After partying all day long (and destroying some of their belongings for the fun of it) Jake passes out, and Finn takes the Jiggler to bed. It’s a nice quiet moment after a very energetic few minutes, and it’s certainly welcomed.

(Had to include this screenshot just because of how friggin’ insane it is. Leg crotch!)

The next morning, Finn and Jake are ready to party once again, but the Jiggler seems a bit sickly. F&J try to find some food for him to eat, including purple whatevers, but come to the conclusion that the Jiggler likes to eat drawings. Finn then draws a picture of Jake, wanting the Jiggler to eat the drawing. Not cool, Finn. You don’t have a Jiggler eat your best friend. Things go really awry when the Jiggler starts spewing juices out of its holes (sounded a lot less dirty before I started proofreading), and F&J desperately try to plug them up using Finn’s glass eye collection and Jake’s eyepatch collection. This only very briefly works, and the Jiggler explodes its juice everywhere (again, a lot less dirty before proofreading), and its body parts and limbs start flying around the room. F&J try to put him back together, to no avail. Finn concludes that they shouldn’t have taken the baby, and tries to revive him using kisses. This scene’s pretty hard to watch, man. It certainly doesn’t rank anywhere near the show’s most devastating moments, but watching a young boy in desperation trying to revive this poor baby creature is really sad, honestly. Finn clearly blames himself for the Jiggler’s state, and wants to do anything he can to help it.

Using its own kisses, the Jiggler makes a picture of his mother, and the boys conclude that his mother must live near Stanley’s house. The boys find the mother, but the Jiggler’s mom rejects her baby. Finn angrily shouts at the Jiggler mommy, and tells her she’s supposed to love her baby. I thought this scene was especially interesting, given Finn’s future relationship with his father. Obviously it was unintentional, but Finn’s psychological belief that parents should love their children no matter what is only more heartbreaking when his father doesn’t seem to care from him at all. You could also argue that Finn’s relationship with Margaret has led him to believe this too, which is generally the most heartwarming approach toward it. Jake realizes that the baby needs it’s mother’s scent for it to be recognized, so Finn tosses the baby in its mother’s juice. The mother and baby reunite and Finn and Jake leave the baby behind.

As I mentioned, this episode has a pretty decent emotional core. F&J’s investment in the Jiggler is particularly strong, and even though they’re only together for a short amount of time, you can tell that the two boys deeply care for this creature. Besides tugging at the heartstrings, this episode’s wildly silly as well. I really love Finn’s “Baby” song, and it’s fun to see that his auto-tuned voice later carries over to future episodes. In addition, this is one of the first laugh out loud episodes of the series. There’s a lot of really absurd and off-the-wall humor in this episode (“He’s all over the place, even in the floorboards!” “And the cupboards!” “And the galloshes!”) that AT is really known best for. Personally a very memorable episode from the first season for me.