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Day in Fandom History: November 7…
Susan Strong requires both Finn and Jake's help when her home, called Beautopia, is being threatened by a creature called the Lub Glubs and fends off against it in hopes of making the place safe again. “Beautopia” premiered on this day, 14 Years Ago.
Best Title Card: Round 1, Match 9
Horse and Ball
Beautopia
Horse and Ball: Lit by soft light, a desk is shown with several pencil sketches of James Baxter the horse riding his beach ball, with pencils on top of the papers. There is a mug of a light brown drink on the left and a sandwich on a plate just behind it. The title takes up most of the right-middle side in pale yellow letters.
Beautopia: A futuristic city is encased in a glass dome on top of water, with several boats sailing toward it. In the center of the city is a tall tower with a glowing light on top of it, radiating yellow rays across the screen. The title is at an angle above the dome and is in very thick 3D letters. Inside each letter is a different picturesque scene, bringing to mind images on postcards.
Beautopia Review
Susan Strong returns, and the show recognizes how significant her reintroduction is to Finn and the audience by staging her appearance at the Treehouse as grand and important. Jake is distrusting of Susan, bringing up the events of her first episode, while Finn still holds on to the hope that Susan is human. Susan herself has developed, now speaking slightly more fluent English. We can already infer that the Hyoomans are mutated descendants of humans who sought shelter during the Mushroom War. We learn in this episode that those humans didn’t just live in a dirty sewer. They built an underground civilization called Beautopia. Beautopia, just like the humans led by Two Bread Tom and Hugo, shows its in humans’ nature to rebuild. Beautopia is even an island civilization of sorts. Unlike the islands and The Drift, Beautopia’s society was abandoned presumably hundreds of years ago. Susan has attempted freeing Beautopia from the Lub Glubs before, but meeting Finn has reignited her hope of restarting the civilization.
Jake’s prejudice towards the Hyoomans is on full display. He scares them with his shapeshifting for his amusement, building on his desire to rule them like “angry gods” in “Susan Strong”. Susan almost drowning Finn works great as a reminder that Finn and Susan are not exactly the same. The episode really plays up the awkwardness between their relationship. Finn and Susan do feel a connection to each other and they want to be in each other's lives, but their lack of understanding of what the other person is keeps getting in the way. This scene and Susan’s surprise of Finn’s lack of gills is a wake up call for Finn at how different they are. Finn must be disappointed and starts to believe that she probably is a fish person. However, he still feels a connection to her. That and his heroic nature makes him determined to still help and trust Susan and defend her from Jake’s insults. In actuality, Susan’s surprise is that he is like her. Finn takes his hat off here and his hair has continued to grow back since “Mortal Folly”.
Finn, Jake, and Susan take a boat to Beautopia, a precursor to the Islands crew (minus BMO). We get a string of great Jake moments including a very catchy sea shanty. Jake’s smug reaction to Susan’s terror over a pool floaty is hilarious, and him struggling to breathe while being used as a paddle is even funnier. Another pool floaty coming out after an ominous buildup with horror movie music is also very funny. The true forms of the Lub Glubs have a very creepy design. The implication that they have existed for hundreds of years leads me to believe they were mutated from nuclear residue, eventually pushing out the humans. One of them chews on a human skull with a bunny hat, leading to many wild fan theories connecting it to Fionna.
Jake and Susan complete their arcs in this episode with Jake finally trusting in Susan and Finn once again inspiring Susan to overcome her fears. Finn tells Susan that humans and hyoomans have to stick together, staying consistent with Finn’s lesson in “Susan Strong” that everyone is the same or “wild animals”. Jake delaying throwing in the lantern is yet another hilarious moment. One of the Lub Glubs reminds Jake of his mother, like how a drawing of one reminded him of his father. Many interpret this as a subconscious memory of Warren Ampersand. It could be, but I don’t think the resemblance is quite strong enough.
The episode ends on a fantastic, quiet moment. Finn and Susan have yet another awkward moment, with Finn refusing to stay. Susan puts Finn’s hand under her hat, resulting in the two finally understanding each other. The episode does not confirm if Finn’s reaction was to him feeling gills or not. However, I think it can only be read as Finn realizing Susan is human, even without the context of later episodes. Susan puts Finn’s hand there as a response to Finn telling her he isn’t like her. Finn’s surprise only works if she is human because Finn was already convinced Susan was a hyooman. I like the reveal being more subtle and the show’s restraint at only giving us a tiny piece of the puzzle.
The dynamic of Finn, Jake, and Susan makes for a great episode with lots of nuanced interaction full of heart, tension, and hilarity. It makes for a worthy followup to one of season two’s best episodes.
Grade: A
beautopia, dir. katharina otto-bernstein (1998)
Yeah, yeah, they’re keeping it “ambiguous” about what Finn actually felt, but look at that face! She’s a human!
