15 Best Adventure Time Episodes, Ranked

Fifteen years after it first premiered on Cartoon Network, "Adventure Time" is still one of the channel's greatest triumphs. For ten seasons, it followed the ridiculous, whimsical, and surprisingly emotional adventures of Jake the Dog (John DiMaggio) and Finn the Human (Jeremy Shada) as they traveled throughout the distant lands of Ooo.

The series holds true to what made the Cartoon Network shows that came before so great, while also pushing the boundaries of storytelling in ways that inspired the likes of "Atlanta" creator Donald Glover. We took a stroll down memory lane through all 280+ episodes to remember our favorites, so come along with us as we rank the 15 best episodes of "Adventure Time."

"I rode the 'knuckle-train?!' But I'm in my element!"

We'll start our own "adventure" through the series with a classic episode from the first season of "Adventure Time." Airing all the way back in July of 2010, "Dungeon" makes a little bit of conflict go a long way by separating our two main characters almost immediately — just to show how much they needed each other all along.

When Jake tantalizes Finn with a legend about a so-called "Crystal Eye" hidden in the dangerous dungeons hidden within a mountain Princess Bubblegum had instructed them to survey for her, Finn can't help but rush in head first without his best pal. Though he's initially confident that he can conquer the gauntlet of wonderfully weird enemies he meets along the way (including the Bucket Knight, Guardian Angel, and Clancy Brown's Demon Cat, who hilariously possesses only "approximate" omniscience), these trials show him what Jake brings to their adventures. It's a perfect example of the early episodes' charm, with relentless imagination filling every frame as the story breezes by at a cozy clip.

"I gotta say, this whole thing seems rickety as yoga balls."

When we think about our favorite episodes of "Adventure Time," we always dream of Prismo the Wishmaster. The literal genie of your dreams (formerly voiced by Kumail Nanjiani, before he unwittingly left the franchise for the lamest reason possible), Prismo plays a central role in several episodes that made the cut for this list.

The first of them that we'll mention here is "Is That You?", the surprisingly mournful and contemplative — but no less zany — episode that deals with the aftermath of Prismo's death at the hands of the Lich (Ron Pearlman) in the season premiere. In order to preserve and honor Prismo's memory, Finn and Jake perform a dream ritual with the final, perfectly brined pickle Prismo left behind.

This surprisingly traps Jake in an alternate dream dimension where a preserved version of Prismo's consciousness is acting out a bizarre post-mortem protocol. Given that Prismo doesn't play into any more episodes beyond this point, "Is That You?" is a bittersweet and fittingly strange send-off for the character that packs in a few last surprises from one of the series' most imaginative beings.

"You stay away from my woman — my sandwich!"

With some cartoons that achieve all-ages mass popularity, especially those that run past three or four seasons, the episodes tend to get too involved with their own lore and/or overarching storylines, forgetting the episodic appeal of their earliest efforts. For the most part, "Adventure Time" avoided this trap by continuing to make weird, self-contained episodes even in their later seasons. That's perfectly exemplified by season 5's "Time Sandwich."

The premise is as simple as any classic "Adventure Time" story. After Jake makes what he believes is the most perfect sandwich he's ever made, the mischievous Magic Man ("SpongeBob SquarePants" himself, Tom Kenny) cruelly steals it away. He then traps himself in an impenetrable molasses bubble and forces Jake to solve his lazily constructed impromptu "riddle" (read: wordplay) to get his sandwich back. Even aside from the titular tantalizing treat (a cartoon image so mouth-watering that any YouTube chef worth their salted tears has tried to recreate it), "Time Sandwich" keeps viewers on their toes by crafting such a memorable episode from such a simple but effective recipe.

"This is it — the ultimate power against evil: L... L... Liking someone a lot."

The first half of the epic two-part finale of season 2 (yes, technically "Heat Signature" aired later, but that doesn't actually count), "Mortal Folly" brings back the Lich for a deadly showdown between the powerful sorcerer and Finn the Human. Finn needs more than the help of his friend Jake to go up against this ultimate foe, and fortunately, Princess Bubblegum offers him an ancient relic that might just even the odds (the laser-shooting Gauntlet of the Hero Billy, a character voiced by Lou Ferrigno in season 1).

Like most "Adventure Time" episodes, "Mortal Folly" gets its kicks by pulling the rug out from under the audience as many times as possible while still delivering the fantasy action they expected when they first tuned in. While this episode does bring Finn and the Lich back together for a (seemingly) conclusive grudge match, it takes the viewers to a surprising climax and cliffhanger that made for one of the series' most memorable season finales.

"You talk like justice, Billy, but you can't kick a plane!"

As surprising and unpredictable as "Mortal Folly" is, it's handily outdone by the distant follow-up episode "The Lich." Over a season after he was relegated to snail form by Finn, Jake, Princess Bubblegum, and, unexpectedly, the Ice King (also voiced by Tom Kenny), Finn has a surreal dream about the hero Billy being ambushed by the Lich in his hidden form.

Finn — recognizing this dream as a potential vision of the future — goes to Billy with what he saw, compelling Billy to invite him on an adventure that takes them across the Land of Ooo in order to assemble all the magical jewels belonging to the realm's royalty. This is all a set-up for a disorienting but well-earned twist that propels this relatively unassuming season finale into a story with more danger and suspense than a single episode could handle. Suffice it to say, "The Lich" keeps you on the edge of your seat until its final moments and then some, and will have new fans eager to get to the next episode as soon as possible.

"Hey, Jake, you see that? Monkey's paw."

In the aftermath of the conclusion of "The Lich" at the end of season 4, both Finn and Jake are thrown into (small spoiler alert) the "Adventure Time" multiverse — which, having been created in 2012 (a full decade before this trope would begin wearing out its welcome in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness"), supports a premise that is nowhere near as exhausting as it would sound now.

The preceding episode "Finn the Human" is also excellent, and would itself be worthy of an inclusion on this list for many of our readers. For our part, we feel that "Jake the Dog" — as a finale to this duology/trilogy — is more exciting, satisfying, and inventive in its storytelling. It also has a heaping helping of Prismo, who watches over Jake after the Lich wishes that he and Finn had never existed. He's arguably the episode's best character, introducing a distinct riff on genie mythology that feels perfectly in line with the laid-back fantasy vibes of "Adventure Time."

"These guys are the pits. Like, the arm-pits."

A full season after Prismo and Jake parted ways with a pickle jar, the Dog finds a reason to visit the old wishmaster again when Finn learns that his estranged human father is currently at a supermax cosmic prison called the Citadel. Initially, they hope that they can use their friend's wish (Shelby, who fails to pull through under pressure) to send them on their way with ease — only for them to find out through Prismo that they must commit a "cosmic crime" to be sent to the Citadel.

Fortunately, Prismo tells them all they would have to do is find a certain "old man" and awaken him from his slumber. Fans of "Adventure Time" surely remember what tragic fate lies beyond this act, as well as how it briefly (but thrillingly) revives one of the series' overarching storylines to a fatal end. We'll hold off talking about the sequel episode ... for now. As for "Wake Up," it's a deceptively moving start to the sixth season that sticks in the brain to this day.

"What? Space birth..."

"Adventure Time" can be decidedly silly and self-indulgent in one episode, devoted to an overarching narrative in the next, and delve into a deeply relatable topic in the one after that. But what truly sets it apart from other animated series that strive to be as free-flowing and versatile are the rare moments when the show chooses to be openly and almost aimlessly philosophical.

"Astral Plane" is one of these magic episodes, where all of Ooo seems to take a breath to allow Finn to float around and just think about life n' stuff. When a comet flies over his camping getaway with Jake, Finn gains the temporary ability to astral project and thus spends the majority of the episode thereafter drifting through the private lives of his closest friends and bitterest enemies.

There are somewhat expected moments of sudden empathy, as well as instances of danger that Finn is helpless to stop. But what carries him through each experience (aside from the wind, of course) is a somber reflection on life, growing up, and having faith in something bigger than yourself. Watching it back in 2015, you had the feeling "Adventure Time" was stretching itself toward something intangible yet important. Revisiting this episode now, it's hard not to feel the compulsory pangs of nostalgia exacerbated by an episode that's as timeless as it is introspective.

"You're getting all hung up on imaginary problems! Stay with your new wife!"

The capacity "Adventure Time" had to be as existentially curious as it was is both inspiring and a little discomforting. Sometimes you go into a children's TV show expecting to remember some old jokes you laughed at when you were a kid — then, that show inexplicably hits you in the gut with a trippy story about love, existence, anxiety, and just shutting up and enjoying what you have while you have it.

In "Puhoy," Finn is stressing the heck out over a joke that he told his current girlfriend, Flame Princess (Jessica Diccico). She did not laugh. Wanting to crawl into a shame hole within a pillow fort he made with Jake to wallow in anxious regret, he accidentally transports himself to an inescapable pillow world inhabited by kind people. There, Finn ages (and is voiced by Jonathan Frakes) as he builds a new life away from Ooo. After all, who wouldn't want to run away, never to be seen again, so that you can completely reinvent yourself after your joke bombed?

"'Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name...'"

While we appreciate that "Adventure Time" continued to tell self-contained stories about new and totally unexpected characters in Ooo, when the series chose to delve into its own lore, it always did so with a striking amount of depth. In "Simon and Marcy" (the last episode from future "Steven Universe" creator Rebecca Sugar), Finn and Jake finally learn the origin of two of the show's biggest supporting characters: Their friend, Marceline the Vampire Queen (Olivia Olson), and their most annoying enemy, the Ice King.

As it turns out, Ice King wasn't always so bad — in fact, he was once a kind, sane man named Simon who took in a young Marceline after the "Mushroom War." Viewers get to see how both of these characters developed such frosty attitudes toward others through a story that manages to push the boundaries of the tone of "Adventure Time" without feeling like it belongs to another show entirely.

"It'll be okay, dude."

Following "Wake Up," "Escape from the Citadel" is a rare "part" episode that isn't only better than its other half, but an exceptional standalone episode in its own right. Minor spoilers for this episode lie below.

Having followed Prismo's guidance regarding the "old man" (reaching a conclusion nobody could have predicted), Finn and Jake are finally able to venture to the Citadel prison. They immediately get a sense of exactly what kind of bad guy winds up in a place like this when they are greeted by a newly imprisoned Lich. As Finn gloats over the state of his adversary, he's shocked to learn that his estranged father Martin (Stephen Root) is in a crystal cell just a few yards away.

"Escape from the Citadel" is beautifully sad. Finn's attempt to reconnect with his dad goes wrong in every way one might expect and a few others they might not — especially given that the series has the courage to ask how such a reunion might go, realistically, given that Finn's father has been out of his life for so long.

"I guess I gotta see this one through on my own."

"Adventure Time" got a little unwieldy as it aged. Not bad, necessarily, just less engrossing. Maybe the show got old. Maybe we did. But "The Hall of Egress," which aired in 2016 as part of the seventh season, recaptures the sense of unpredictability and imagination of the earlier episodes.

When it begins, Finn has found himself trapped in a magic dungeon, blocked by a door that he's only able to pass through and escape by closing his eyes. As he soon learns once he's back out in Ooo, he will be transported back through space and time to the moment he first got trapped in the dungeon whenever he opens his eyes. Again, it's a simple but effective premise that is taken to the whimsical extremes only an "Adventure Time" episode can take you.

"Music is powerful, man. It speaks to a primal pit in our brains."

Around the lead up to the fourth season back in 2012, "Adventure Time" began using its end credits song — Ashley Eriksson's "Island Song" or "Come Along with Me" — in promos for the then-new run of episodes that would debut in the spring and continue to run right through the summer up to the weeks before Halloween. For the kids that grew up with "Adventure Time" and that era of Cartoon Network, the song became something of an anthem for the coming of summer. Ten years later, there's something transportive about hearing that song again, listening to it tell your brain — against all logic — that a bright, simple summer is on its way.

This is all to say that it's extremely appropriate for "Adventure Time" to, in part, write the finale around this song. Titled "Come Along with Me," it tells the story many series finales tell — one of goodbyes and new beginnings, of mourning the adventures you didn't get to have while having gratitude for all the ones you did. In case you haven't seen it yet, we don't want to spoil the episode's unique framing device, or the precise prism through which we're given the chance to wave goodbye to Finn and Jake. Suffice it to say, it's easily the best of the series' later episodes, and deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest animated series finales of all time.

"I thought you were nuts, but you're really, really, really nuts."

Speaking of moving tunes, Marceline's music was always one of the most peculiar, striking aspects of "Adventure Time." The lyrics rarely rhymed, the rhythms were usually awkward, and yet that somehow made her songs all the more human.

"I Remember You" is basically a musical episode, in which the Ice King ambushes Marceline at her home and demands attention, as he has often done before. Over the course of the episode, as he tries to force her to create music with him, "Adventure Time" lays the first seeds of its exploration into their history before the Mushroom War.

Within this episode specifically, the discovery and performance of an apologetic ballad written by Simon before he went fully overboard is perfectly heartbreaking. And the episode's final flashback, though initially jarring, is ambitious enough to deserve respect.

"Well, I know what's missing: Talent!"

If it isn't obvious already, the music of "Adventure Time" has a special place in our hearts, even all these years later. As such, it feels pretty fitting that our top choice for this list happens to also include the series' best original song.

The episode features a classic "Adventure Time" set up, with a bizarre "Door Lord" appearing out of nowhere, taking several items of great importance to Finn, Jake, Marceline, and Princess Bubblegum, and refusing to open unless they can sing a song it likes. But as Finn tries to rally the crew together as a band, this mission becomes a vessel for him to express that the people around him mean more to him than they realize. In 10-ish minutes, the episode goes from zany premise to subversive execution to, ultimately, a cathartic and unexpectedly relatable resolution. It's total encapsulation of the journeys — or adventures — that made "Adventure Time" so special.