After nearly dying in the desert, Lemonhope is rescued by monster hunter Phlannel Boxingday, who offers to take him under his wing and give him the life of freedom he always wanted. But has Lemonhope truly left the people of Castle Lemongrab behind?
Tropes
- 0% Approval Rating: The other surviving Lemon Children rebel against Lemongrab the first chance they get, pinning his arms to keep him from plugging his ears and helping Lemonhope defeat him once and for all.
- Bittersweet Ending: While the citizens of the Earldom are now free, Lemonhope has left them again. He wanders Ooo for the next thousand years, by which point the Ice Kingdom is completely gone and the Candy Kingdom has been long abandoned. Lemonhope returns to the empty Castle Lemongrab, as promised, and lies down in his old room, smiling and closing his eyes as the episode ends.
- Brown Note: In-Universe - Lemonhope's harp-playing is still this for Lemongrab. Turns out he had one entirely understandable reason for locking Lemonhope away.
- Conscience Makes You Go Back: Lemonhope goes back to Castle Lemongrab to overthrow the Earl and free his siblings, but once he considers the debt repaid he moves on because he still wants to be free and see the world.
- Distant Finale: In the final scene, a thousand-year-old Lemonhope returns to the area where he grew up. The Tree Fort has grown to the point that it pierces the clouds, the Candy Kingdom has become a ruined and deserted high-tech city, and Castle Lemongrab is in a better state but also utterly deserted.
- I Gave My Word: Lemonhope does indeed live up to his promise to return in a thousand years.
- Gratuitous German: Slipping into this is one of the many hints that Phlannel is actually Princess Bubblegum.
- Money Spider: Greed Lards are monsters that feed on coins and jewels; Phlannel apparently makes his living hunting monsters who "eat dosh".
- Raise Him Right This Time: The remains of the two Lemongrabs are being combined into a single Earl at the end, who PB suggests will be more stable than the original.
- Shout-Out: The tower that Lemonhope climbs in his final, happy, dream, is based on the art of M.C. Escher.
- Trickster Mentor: Several broad hints are dropped that the hunter who takes Lemonhope in, Phlannel Boxingday is actually Princess Bubblegum, in disguise and with a voice changer, trying a more subtle means of influencing him, but this is never confirmed.
