“Memories of Boom Boom Mountain” Review

Original Airdate: May 3, 2010

Written & Storyboarded by: Bert Youn & Sean Jimenez

The episode begins in Marauder village, where a group of Marauders rough house with each other. One of the most noteworthy features of these Marauders is that most of them have robotic body parts and head implants, which become somewhat of a major player in the story later on. Probably not intentional, but something that’s still very interesting to take a second look at. It really adds to the lore and backstory of AT’s world. After participating in a fight with the head Marauder, Finn hears someone crying in the distance, and wants to tend to their distress. The head Marauder calls him a chicken, so Finn gets all deep and exposition-y and tells a tale of a time he shit in a leaf as a baby and then fell in it, but no one came to help him, so he swore to help anyone in need from that day on. Sad stuff, man.

Finn and Jake take off to find the person in distress, but it turns out that it’s a giant mountain who cries boulders that needs assistance. The mountain hates that he has to watch the fighting Marauders all day long because he hates violence, but Jake’s not buyin’ it. Finn relives some traumatic boom-boom memories and decides to help the mountain out. Finn attempts to ask the Marauders to stop their rough-housing, but the head Marauder angrily declines. So Finn decides to tie animals to the Marauders fists, much like that one Giant had animals tied to his limbs (miss you, Enchiridion Giant) to soften the blow. This proves to succeed, but the Mountain is still displeased because now the Marauders are abusing animals. I dunno, the animals look pretty happy to be abused from my perspective. This Mountain’s really pushin’ it.

So, Finn tries to get the Marauders to stop, but they tell him to get lost because they’re having a good ass time. Finn pats one of the Marauders and then that Marauder likes it so he starts patting another Marauder who then pats another Marauder and they all start… patting each other. Well, alright. The Mountain’s really pleased with the patting, but it goes awry when the Marauders begin to get a skin rash. So, they decide the most logical decision is to turn the Mountain around, but they can’t turn the Mountain around because there’s a female Mountain behind him that likes staring at his “gorgeous back” and so if they turned him around, she couldn’t anymore. Well, alright. Finn really doesn’t know what to do at this point, and then a bunch of different characters ask him for different favors, and everything begins to go completely batshit crazy.

Finn begins to feel distraught because he is overwhelmed with favors, but Jake then questions Finn on what he wants. We flashback once again to Finn’s poopy memory, where Joshua and Margaret, Finn and Jake’s parents, find Finn in the woods. I remember being really confused when I first saw this scene, and I feel like there could’ve been a little more context behind who Joshua and Margaret are. I didn’t know who the hell these Jake look-a-likes were! Finn informs Jake that all he wants to do is help people, so they work together to make sure everyone is helped out. They come up with a solution to all the problems these characters were faced with, which honestly seem more like short-term solutions than long-term solutions, but whatever. Jake mentions that he has a problem, which is that a dolphin fell in love with him, but Finn tells his buddy that it’s the opposite of a problem. The end.

Honestly, this episode was all over the place. Most of the episode is spent with the Mountain and the Marauders, and so once we jump into the problems with other characters, the episode just seems completely rushed. I’m cool with the Marauders, but honestly, the Mountain wasn’t really a likable character at all, and so spending most of the episode with him isn’t really that pleasurable of an experience. In addition, the moral of the episode seems confused. Season one is a really good platform at teaching Finn actually pretty well thought out lessons not only from a heroic standpoint, but from a human standpoint. Aka, fears are normal and necessary, some people are just jerks for no reason, etc. I feel like this episode could’ve had a solid “it’s impossible to make everyone happy all the time,” but it sorta missed that opportunity. In addition, I’m usually down with AT’s absurd and random humor, but most of it in this episode just seemed weird for weird’s sake. The Marauders patting each other was just kind of an awkward and nonsensical solution, and the idea that the lady Mountain wanted to stare at the male Mountain’s back made little to no sense. There’s like, 12 mountains in sight! Pick another back to stare at!

If there’s one thing I like about this episode, it’s the brief bit of lore regarding Finn’s past. Again, I would’ve like if the episode was a bit less subtle about who Joshua and Margaret are, but it’s a nice little flashback that helps us connect with Finn a bit more. And also, Finn and Jake are officially brothers! It’s nice to know their definitive relationship. But yeah, this episode is somewhat scattershot and a bit too arbitrary for my liking. It’s weird to find myself complaining that AT’s humor is too random, as 9 out of 10 times I’m completely fine with absurd humor, but when it affects the strength of the plot, it can really hurt the episode.