After a chilling dream encounter, Finn & Jake are determined to reconnect with their reclusive brother.
Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Jake's fart joke manages to make Jermaine chuckle.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "Staves, medallions, cups, goblets, dormant djinn, grimoires, hard-drives..."
- BFS: Jake finds the Buster Sword, but it's too heavy for him to wield it properly.
- Bland-Name Product: Boo-Boo Sousa, a talking teddy bear with a build-in tape deck that sings and tells stories, is clearly a lawyer-friendly version of Teddy Ruxpin.
- Brick Joke: Finn is working on a machine when he triggers a harpoon that flies up in the air. A few scenes later, when they go to Jermaine's house, they pass a slug with its tail pinned by the harpoon.
- Casting Gag: This entire episode may well be a tribute to the radio-show-cum-podcast The Best Show which stars Tom Scharpling (who voices Jermaine) and Jon Wurster (who voices Bryce). Many of Jon's characters on the podcast have a very Frenemy-esque dynamic with Tom, similar to Jermaine and Bryce's. Bryce is also the name of a regularly appearing character on The Best Show. Storyboarder Jesse Moynihan confirmed on his blog
that the reference was intentional. - Continuity Nod: Like in "Crystals Have Power", Jake and Jermaine meet up in a mutual dream.
- Cross-Popping Veins: Jermaine gets these at one point while in the middle of a brawl with Jake.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling:
- Jake goes on adventures, but Jermaine is tasked with guarding his father stuff. Because of this, Jermaine is jealous of Jake's freedom.
- Deconstructed since Jermaine stayed when he could have left at any time, even commenting that he "built his own cage." Jake was able to leave behind and move forward while Jermaine's bitterness made him stay behind even after their parents died and he had no obligation to look after their father's stuff.
- Force-Field Door: Bryce is kept imprisoned by a barrier operated with a Captain Ersatz of Teddy Ruxpin. Jermaine has to turn over the tape every so often or Bryce will escape.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Once Jake serves the fried rice, Jermaine notices an odd noise. Not too soon after, it's revealed that Jake used the salt that kept the demons out of the house in the rice.
- Furry Reminder: Jermaine gets so angry, he starts barking.
- Humble Goal: The demons want their possessions back, but while some of them are weapons and magical articles, others seem to be simple items like cups and posters.
- Ineffectual Death Threats: Bryce constantly threatens that he'll eat Jermaine if he ever escapes from behind the Force-Field Door that keeps him trapped, but Jermaine finds those threats more annoying than anything. Once Bryce is finally free at the end of the episode, he doesn't follow through with his threats at all.
- Let the Past Burn: Jermaine still lives at his, Finn and Jake's childhood home, where he protects all of their father Joshua's belongings (most of which he stole from various demons). After a fight between Jake and Jermaine accidentally sets the house on fire, Jermaine decides to let it burn down since protecting their father's home for so long has prevented him from living his own life.
- Oh, Crap!: Jermaine's reaction when he finds out Jake took some salt from the protection circle keeping the demons at bay.
- Our Demons Are Different:
- Jermaine's house is surrounded by shadowy demons wanting to get the belongings that Joshua took from them. One of them threatens to "skull cup" Finn.
- A demon named Bryce is trapped in the basement longing for his poster. He threatens to eat Jermaine, but never follows through. In fact, they become pals after he finally gets his poster.
- Race Against the Clock: Jermaine sets an alarm that warns him to turn over the tape on the toy bear that keeps Bryce trapped. At the end he misses it and Bryce escapes, although he doesn't do much once he does.
- Rage Breaking Point: Jermaine has a lot of pent up anger at Jake. When Jake's carelessness lets a demon into the house, Jermaine loses it and takes it out on Jake. He calms down after Jake makes a fart joke.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Jermaine unleashes some on Jake in his rage. It doesn't hurt Jake that much, though.
- The Resenter: Jermaine is jealous that Jake gets to on adventures while he must guard their dad's stuff from demons. Ironically, there is little reason in the resenting since Jermaine could have left at any time and his responsibility ended up being self-imposed (he even Lampshades it by mentioning he built his own cage.)
- Salt Solution: Jermaine uses a circle of special blessed salt around his home to keep away the demons. When Jake takes some of the salt as an ingredient to make fried rice, one of the demons is able to slip through a small space in the circle.
- Shout-Out:
- Jake finds the Buster Sword from Final Fantasy VII in his house. But not only that, during the scene where he and Finn are at the door waiting for the demon to come in, the rug in front of the door depicts a Sephirot, from which Sephiroth derives his name.
- The Ark of the Covenant is in Jermaine's kitchen.
- The demon Bryce is locked behind a force field projected by... a talking teddy bear powered by a cassette tape, that looks and sounds very similar to a Teddy Ruxpin doll.
- Toilet Humor: Jake calms Jermaine down from his rage by intentionally passing gas.
