“Ricardio the Heart Guy” Review

Original Airdate: April 26, 2010

Written & Storyboarded by: Bert Youn & Sean Jimenez

The episode jumps right into the action, as Ice King has captured Princess Bubblegum. It’s interesting to think that this is only one of two times that Ice King has kidnapped PB. Even Wildberry Princess has been captured a whopping four times!! Finn and Jake come to the rescue and throw snowballs at the IK. While he’s distracted, Jake substitutes PB with his butt and tricks the Ice King into kissing it. Would’ve killed for John DiMaggio to have said “kiss my shiny metal ass.”

PB decides to throw a party to honor F&J, to which Finn makes a paper bird for her, because he has the hots for her. He denies his feelings to Jake, and as they arrive at the party, they find a small grotesque heart man giving LSP a massage. Bubblegum enters the room and the heart man is instantly all hot and bothered by her. He introduces himself as Ricardio and they walk off to talk about science and zanoits and all that fun stuff.

Finn begins to get jealous of Ricardio as his 12-year-old boy hormones kick in, and he attempts to impress PB with his science dance. Naturally, it just freaks her and Ricardio out, and PB decides that Finn is totally jealous of Ricardio. Instead, Finn claims that he’s just “WEIRD” and makes the party hella awkward. Finn decides that Ricardio must be a villain, because when you’re 12 and someone has the chance to steal your crush away from you, they automatically become pure evil. F&J decide to spy on him, and catch him taking a rope and a bottle from a dumpster, followed by him kicking Ice King’s ass. Finn concludes that Ricardio is a supervillain, but Jake thinks he’s a hero, so they decide to investigate further. Finn interrogates Ricardio and then punches him in his smug mug. Of course, PB shows up right at that point and scolds Finn for punching Ricardio and then walks off with the little guy. Finn feels all sad because the girl of his dream now hates him, but Ice King crawls out and helplessly explains that Ricardio is evil. Apparently IK wanted to create a serum that would make PB fall in love with him, but it just ended up with him losing control of his own heart, thus creating Ricardio.

F&J then rush over to the castle, and find PB tied up and Ricardio holding her hostage. Ricardio claims he’s going to cut out PB’s heart and “makeout with it,” followed by a really creepy close-up of Ricardio’s face.

Finn and Jake manage to beat Ricardio up, then Ice King crawls in and regains his heart. He attempts to kidnap Bubs once again, but Finn kicks him square in the face, as he flies off. While the three have a nice spaghetti dinner, Finn denies that he was ever jealous of Ricardio, and PB tries to trick him into kissing her butt. Give it 3 years and I feel like Finn totally would’ve done it.

This episode suffers a bit from being predictable, something AT usually excels at never being. From the title card alone, you know that Ricardio is clearly going to be a villain, so it seems a lot of time is wasted for an obvious plot twist. However, the episode still is a pretty good time. George Takei does a great job at Ricardio, of course, and the design of Ricardio in general is worth a good chuckle. Ice King’s return in this episode is surely rewarding, and I like how, in his own Ice King-y way, he sorta helps save the day. Even though he was the one who almost doomed PB to begin with. Also, this is the first episode dealing with Finn’s affection for PB! I like how this is really the first instance of Finn growing up, and dealing with his growing feelings of jealousy and infatuation. It’s always fun to see that little guy growing, and considering this is only the first season, his love life would only become more and more complicated as time went on.