"Marcy & Hunson" is the seventh episode of the tenth season of the American animated television series Adventure Time. The episode was written and storyboarded by Graham Falk and series showrunner Adam Muto, from an outline by Muto, Jack Pendarvis, head writer Kent Osborne, and Julia Pott. The episode, which debuted on December 17, 2017 on Cartoon Network, guest stars Martin Olson as Hunson Abadeer.
The series follows the adventures of Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio), a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. In this episode, Peppermint Butler gives Finn a new sword, the Night Blade. However, he also summons Hunson Abadeer. When Finn and Jake let slip that his daughter Marceline (voiced by Olivia Olson) is performing a solo concert for ghosts, Hunson forces his way in.
Supervising direction for "Marcy & Hunson" was handled by Cole Sanchez, whereas art direction was handled by Sandra Lee. Guest music writer Babeo Baggins contributed the song "Slow Dance with You", which has been heavily discussed and analyzed by both critics and fans for its implications. The episode was viewed by 0.76 million viewers upon its debut, and has received mostly positive reviews, with the aforementioned "Slow Dance with You" being praised by a number of media outlets.
Plot
Finn is in need of a new sword, so he enlists the help of Peppermint Butler, who forges a weapon, the Night Blade, and then summons Hunson Abadeer (voiced by Martin Olson) to infuse it with "Nightosphere magic". Released unto Ooo, Abadeer initially tries to harvest souls, but Peppermint Butler binds him with a spell, rendering him powerless. Abadeer then decides to accompany Finn and Jake to the house of his daughter, Marceline the Vampire Queen (voiced by Olivia Olson).
Marceline is getting ready to perform at a concert for a group of ghosts at the Hamburger Hills Cemetery, and is frustrated when her father randomly turns up at her doorstep. Although she tries to avoid mentioning the concert so that her father will not attend, the news is inevitably revealed and Abadeer forces his way into her concert. During a performance of Marceline's song "Slow Dance", Abadeer accidentally gets into a brawl with several ghosts. Because Abadeer is still bound by Peppermint Butler's magic, he is unable to defend himself. Finn manages to fight off the ghosts with his new sword, and then Marceline transforms into a bat, grabs her entourage, and flies away.
At the end of the episode, Marceline, Finn, Jake, and Hunson Abadeer meet up with Princess Bubblegum in a restaurant; Marceline thanks her dad for trying to support her, even if he caused a scene.
Throughout the episode, Princess Bubblegum's conniving Cousin Chicle (allied with Uncle Gumbald) disguises himself as a ghost and spies on Marceline to learn her weakness, as Gumbald has identified Marceline as one of Bubblegum's more powerful allies.
Production
"Marcy & Hunson" was storyboarded by Graham Falk and series showrunner Adam Muto, from a story by Muto, Jack Pendarvis, leader writer Kent Osborne, and Julia Pott. Supervising direction for the episode was carried out by Cole Sanchez, whereas Sandra Lee handled the episode's art direction. As its title suggests, "Marcy & Hunson" features the return of Marceline's father, Hunson Abadeer. Martin Olson (the actual father of Olivia Olson, who voices Marceline) provides the voice for Abadeer. He had previously appeared in the second season episode "It Came from the Nightosphere", the third season episode "Memory of a Memory", and the fourth-season two-part episode "Return to the Nightosphere"/"Daddy's Little Monster".
Series character and prop supervisor Benjamin Anders designed Marceline's look and outfit for this episode. On his personal Tumblr, he wrote, "[Adam Muto] asked me if I wanted to design a couple looks for Marceline for the episode and ended up going with a Yolandi Visser/Lady Gaga look." While the show is animated in South Korea, storyboard supervisor Erik Fountain provided reference animation for the dance that Peppermint Butler does while watching Marceline perform.
The song that Marceline sings in the episode, "Slow Dance with You", was written by the Washington D.C.-based musician Babeo Baggins. According to Pride.com, the song is about "the longing to get close with an unnamed love interest", with many fans online speculating that the unnamed individual is Princess Bubblegum. Via Twitter, Baggins confirmed that they wrote the song about a female love-interest "who didn’t like [the singer] cause she had a boyfriend". On Tumblr, Baggins elaborated: