Yes, I’m actually doing this. Or, try to do this since it is the end of the year. But here we are. The end of the year. And with it, the yearly year-end countdown where I rank the episodes from the shows I watched from the bottom at number 12 to the top at number 1 on the list to close out the year. This was supposed to happen last year, but the executives at FOX decided to be freaking assholes in having not one, but two episodes in back-to-back weeks at the end of last year on the final weekend of December instead of having it on the first weekend of January. Right before the freaking playoffs! So uh... here’s the list of what would’ve been for 2024.
Take it or leave it, you know I’m right. But that is now considered the past, and now, we talk about the present that will soon become the past. And 2025… what the fuck?! I mean, no funny business or anything. What the fuck is this year?! Because 2025, if we have to be realistic, is getting up there with 2020 on who wants to be the worst year of the decade. Just the decade. Overall? Well, that’s your opinion on what you viewed this year. From the fires that engulfed Los Angeles to ongoing ICE raids across the country that sooner or later might be grounds for a possible g*nocide against the immigrant community, I know that sounds like a stretch, but tell that to Germany in the 1930s. Threats of a world war, the economy going down the shitter, people dying from left to right, with the most recent being the death of one of Hollywood’s greatest directors. Yeah, 2025 might be getting up there on being one of the worst years in our lifetime. Though nowhere near 2020, but between now and January 1, oh boy. Buckle up.
But aside from the bad, there are some good things about this year. Bob’s Burgers had its milestone earlier this year, which will be covered later in the countdown. The recent elections have shown signs that everyone is starting to wake up to the bullshit they have to deal with, and hopefully that sticks going into the midterms next year. And apparently, I’m not dead. So, that’s something. I mean, we are one step closer to death, so who’s to judge? But other than that, welcome to the Top 12 Countdown of 2025, and hopefully, we can get through the whole thing for once when we get to ring in the new year. And starting off the countdown is number 12, and I had to play catch-up to at least have it on the list in the recent episode of Fionna and Cake in “The Worm and His Orchard.” Spoilers, be warned for anyone who hasn't watched it yet.
Maybe it should’ve been a good idea to have done this in January instead of doing this now. Mostly to give the season time to wrap up. Because, good God, I have never seen the fandom, or at least a portion of it, being divided over this season. Especially when it comes to how Fionna was treated and the issues she had to deal with. She reached her lowest point in her life following things being out of her control when trying to save the spot. But things really got out of hand and again, out of her control. And the previous episode shows it after making kissy face with Felix, aka DJ Flame, along with everything else. But is it really a character assassination, as some people would claim, when it comes to Fionna’s character this season? You don’t see people attacking certain characters who were in Fionna’s place when it comes to reaching their lowest point after having to deal with things that were out of their control.
So, of course, Fionna would have to be dragged into joining Huntress Wizard, or rather, Fionna dragging herself when having to tag along to another realm with the clock already ticking for Finn because he is getting worse by the second throughout the season since getting that serious injury on his back that has little to no cure except for a special amount of magic to do the trick. And could be moments away from being GGs. And, of course, mishaps happen once Fionna gets separated from Huntress Wizard and also Cake when going into the new world in search of a cure.
Though it is nice to see Fern again since the end of the original series. Alive and well, it seems, after what we thought they died at the end of “Come Along With Me”. But yeah, good to know that they are alive and well after all this time. Especially once they saved Fionna from being dissolved by the fly trap’s mouth, which would be a shitty way out after all the shit that she went through. And having to be the voice of reason when having to help Fionna lift her spirits. Or, at least, try to make her feel better ahead of its season finale on Christmas Day.
And she looks through the orbs, seeing the memories of Gary, Marshall, Hunter, and the others, including her past, with her being surrounded by cats when she was a kid, while you have two adults, guessing that is her parents or some random adults, so, already making herself look bad for the stuff she caused and not being able to understand where her friends are coming from with their problems, especially with Hunter over Fionna ditching the meeting not too long ago. Already adding more salt to the wound, and again, things spiral out of her control as she was trying to do was to be helpful. She was trying her best to save the hangout spot from Queenie to turn it into a parking lot. And mind you, that was after having to save her dimension from Scarab at the end of last season. So, hopefully, that gets resolved by the end of the season in the next episode. Especially after getting some help to minorly lift her spirits as she prepares to head home at the end of the episode.
However, we get to a bit of an interesting part when it comes to the orbs, when looking through the past is Finn’s. We already got our callback to the moment in “Escape from the Citadel” with him getting his arm ripped out while trying to prevent his biological deadbeat dad, Martin, from leaving. Resulting in that stump with a leaf attached, which would eventually result in Fern. We also have some moments that were shown in Finn’s life, mainly the one orb with him and Huntress Wizard playing video games, with Huntress Wizard beating Finn in a round before popping the question to go live with him... before she moves her head away from Finn. Pretty much a rejection because it would paint it as... well, a married couple.
But the one orb that got the attention is the one where we have Finn’s reaction to Jake. Referring to the moment Jake died. We saw the reaction, and oh boy, it did hurt Finn seeing his adoptive brother having to go out in front of him. Mainly from old age, as confirmed in “Together Again”, but the death did hurt Finn a lot. That is his brother, despite being two different species, and yeah, it stings for the guy. You can totally see that in “The New Frontier” when Jake told Finn about this croak dream and how he wants to go out by having to die in Space. Let’s hope that is not coming back in full circle in how Jake went out. Though, if it is not by old age, as we originally thought... then, oh boy. That’s a game-changer if it turns out he was murdered or had to sacrifice himself.
And while the focus was on Fionna with her struggles following the mishap she had throughout the season leading up to her actions catching up to her in the previous episode, you can’t forget the notion that Finn doesn’t have that much time left with the finale drawing closer. So, it’s pretty much a race against the clock for Huntress Wizard to get the cure for him following the incident after saving Simon at the start of the Fionna and Cake series. Having to go toe-to-toe against Witch Wizard over the cure to save Finn. Huntress, of course, wants it because she came so far to find the Heart of the Forest, because, again, Finn doesn’t have that much time left on this planet. But Witch Wizard, of course, decided to be petty and said to her, “Well, sucks to be you. Dumbass had it coming.” Pissing Huntress Wizard off and getting into a scuffle.
It wasn’t even close despite a few problems for Huntress Wizard, but she ended up winning and holding Witch Wizard as her hostage until the cure is found. But, she got what she wanted and is about to get her hands on the cure to help Finn with his life-threatening injury, and thought she would call it a day and about to send Fionna home, and yes, I said Fionna. Didn’t bring up Cake as she plans on staying behind, and we’ll get to her in a bit. But it looks like Huntress might be getting things in her way to grab the cure to heal Finn… but then, the universe decided to be a massive asshole and loses it right as the episode ends. Yeah, it might be GGs for Finn if Huntress were to be unable to find the cure by the end of the season. Oh, and we’ll get to the end of the episode in a bit of what Bubblegum is suggesting as a last-ditch effort to save Finn from dying.
We have Cake’s side of the episode with her and the worm after being separated from Fionna and Huntress. Getting friendly with each other after the worm caught Cake from falling. Quickly getting chummy with each other during the ride. Too chummy to be exact, to the point where you can see some signs of blushing on their faces. So, we can now presume that what happened between Cake and M-Crom didn’t work out because you can’t have Cake having a moment with the worm without telling us that the whole thing with M-Crom didn’t work out when it comes to the relationship. But yeah, things are really clicking between those two, leading up to Cake meeting up with Fionna by the end of the episode. And you can already tell that Rebecca Sugar was one of the writers for this episode, if we’re going to have a musical number about who you are. And I say that because if you remember earlier in the season, Cake had a job offer to be an extra on the show Cheers, so she could help out in making some money to save the location, but people only care about her stretching and shapeshifting abilities. Resulting in her having to stand up for herself, but as a result, she got let go for going off-script and going off on everyone.
But in this world, especially with the worm, it does feel like she feels accepted for who she is. Bonding with someone who accepts her for who she is. And, again, getting too chummy with each other to the point where they show signs of blushing as if you can see a connection with each other. Even helped the worm get through the idea of loss after finding out that he had a brother who... what a shocker, turned out to be the Cosmic Owl, who earlier in the season, Huntress had to go and murk when responding to Finn having a croak dream. But it is an interesting little sideplot with Cake, who plans on sticking around to see where this goes. Will likely be back for the finale, but for now, she wants to see where this goes in a place where she feels like she can be accepted and the person who accepts her is who she is.
Oh yeah, the Cosmic Owl is back. He’s not dead, it seems, after what we thought he was killed off by Huntress Wizard a few episodes ago. Spoiler alert, he’s back. And plans on quitting his duties altogether the moment he is reunited with his brother after coming out of his orb, and make a resurgence at court. A court that has Finn’s soon-to-be corpse on display, on what to do with the guy. But it was for the best for the guy. He went through enough and plans on spending his early retirement doing some relaxing. Mainly sharing a room with Prismo and Scarab. It stuns everyone, but again, it was for the best to let the guy relax after being murked by Huntress over sheer panic regarding Finn.
But, oh boy, the final scene of the episode. Oh boy. The clock is pretty much ticking for Finn since it looks like he is about to go out at any moment. And with no cure, no trick, no nothing to get Finn to stay alive while playing the waiting game for Huntress Wizard to return with the cure, they are running out of options. Sure, there’s the option to turn Finn into a vampire, but that got shot down because what good would that do? Oh, wait, that happened, and no luck saving Finn. So, drastic measures would have to be taken as what would be their last shot at saving him from death. And, of course, all fingers point towards Finn’s mother, Minerva... yeah, his ass is going to be stored in a cloud. There’s no other option, and when you hear and see that Bubblegum plans on calling up his mom to the rescue, with Finn just moments away from death, unless Huntress Wizard comes back with the cure at the buzzer beater, his consciousness is likely going to be stored in a cloud like his mom did when we first met her. Let’s see where this goes come the finale on Christmas Day. I would say that Finn will survive at the end of the season, but stranger things can happen, either good or bad. It’s all one big waiting game to see how this plays out.
This wasn’t an easy pick on how to start the countdown. Then again, take a look at how the 2023 countdown started at this particular spot. Especially when having to play catch-up. Besides, the only other options were the episode where Fionna and Huntress entered Finn’s mind and the episode where Fionna and Fennel got high while looking for Felix. But it is a good episode nonetheless. After going through the season that pretty much divided the fandom.
It was interesting to see Fern returning after what we thought they died at the end of the original series, but surprise, JK, not dead lol. So, that was something I didn’t expect, but to see where they had been and what they were doing since the end of the original series. The orb scenes were something with Fionna looking at each of her friends’ pasts and their struggles, along with her own past. But Finn’s orbs were something. Seeing a callback to the moment Finn lost his arm the first time back at the Citadel. But also, the moments in his adult life. Especially the brief scene of Finn seeing Jake’s death firsthand. Oh yeah, forgot to mention a young Huntress being stuck in a house fire, parents being engulfed, and come Fionna to step in despite being in a messed up state she is in.
The imagery and art style of the Underwelm were, of course, nice. The Cake sideplot was interesting when seeing the place and the worm she came across and befriended, accepting her for who she is, which led to her planning to stay behind, leaving Fionna alone to head back home to confront everything. Even if she is likely to come back in the next episode for the season finale. The idea of calling up Minerva as the last possible option with the clock running out for Finn, is going to be interesting. A race against the clock for the finale of whether Finn is good to go with Huntress returning with the cure, or Finn’s consciousness getting stored in the cloud, which would result in him becoming an AI. As if the AI situation isn’t bad enough. But let’s see where the finale goes on Christmas Day, on how things will play out.
Day 1 of the Top 12 Countdown of the year 2025 is in the books. What do you think about this episode? Should it be higher, lower, or stay put on your list? Put it in the comments below as we prepare to go into the Number 11 spot of the Top 12 Countdown. Hopefully, I can get through the whole thing for once. Which episode and series will be taking the eleventh spot? Find and see sometime tomorrow. Follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, and BlueSky for updates and behind-the-scenes stuff. And y’all should know the drill by now...
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