Wake Up and Escape from the Citadel

"Wake Up" Jake is partying with Prismo (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani). At the party, Peppermint Butler (voiced by Steve Little) and Death (voiced by Miguel Ferrer) note the Lich (voiced by Ron Perlman) is sitting ominously in the corner. Prismo explains that, after the events of an earlier episode, the Lich, an entity driven by the pursuit of causing mass death, is now harmless, functioning like a machine without a purpose. Later, Finn confronts Jake about the revelation that his father is still alive. Jake convinces him to ask Prismo to send them to the Citadel. Prismo explains that the Citadel is a prison, and the only way to gain access to the Citadel is to commit a cosmic crime; he instructs Finn and Jake to find and wake a certain old man who is asleep in the debris surrounding his Time Room. It is revealed that this man is the actual, corporeal Prismo, and the version Finn and Jake are familiar with is merely a dream. Prismo explains that killing a wishmaster—as in, waking up the man—is a cosmic crime, but that he will return when his corporeal body falls back asleep. At that instant, the Lich springs into action, physically waking and destroying Prismo, killing him. Suddenly, an interdimensional being arrives and begins taking the Lich to the Citadel, to which Finn and Jake give chase. "Escape from the Citadel" Finn and Jake grab hold of the captured Lich as he is transported to the Citadel. Once there, they discover a human figure encased in a crystal-like substance, who they conclude must be Finn's father. Meanwhile, the Lich uses his malevolent magic to begin melting the Citadel and turning its prisoners to his will. Finn's father, Martin (voiced by Stephen Root), is eventually freed by the Lich's actions, and as the Citadel guardians battle the escaping prisoners he, Finn, and Jake try to escape. One of the Citadel guardians, however, uses its laser and melts away part of Martin's flesh on his leg. Finn retrieves some guardian blood, which repairs and heals Martin. However, Finn starts to realize that his father is not the hero that he thought he would be. Soon thereafter, Martin leaves Finn and Jake to save himself and the Lich appears, ordering Finn to fall. He delivers a monologue, explaining his desire to extinguish all life in the universe. Finn, overcome by the Lich's power, feebly tries to fight back and ends up throwing some of the guardian blood on the Lich, which causes him to grotesquely begin growing flesh. With the Lich disposed of, Finn pursues his father, who is hitching a ride with escaping criminals on a loose piece of the Citadel, still held on by a vein. One of the criminals cuts the vein, but Finn holds on, causing his grass sword to envelop his arm and eventually rip away, severing it. After Martin escapes, Jake eventually reveals to Finn that the Lich has now been turned into a large humanoid baby; the two leave him on the doorstep of Tree Trunks (voiced by Polly Lou Livingston) and Mr. Pig's house. ==Production==

"Wake Up" was written and storyboarded by Andy Ristaino and Cole Sanchez, whereas "Escape from the Citadel" was storyboarded by Tom Herpich and Steve Wolfhard; both episodes' stories were developed by Kent Osborne, Pendleton Ward, Jack Pendarvis, and Adam Muto. Art direction was handled by Nick Jennings, whereas supervising direction was handled by Elizabeth Ito (for "Wake Up") and Muto (for "Escape from the Citadel"). The design for the Citadel, which is featured in both episodes, was crafted by Herpich, who used Google SketchUp to design a 3-D model of the structure. "Escape from the Citadel" featured the introduction of Finn's father, Martin. Because previous episodes illustrated that Finn had had good and loving adoptive parents in Joshua and Margaret, the writers for the series wanted to craft Martin so that he would not be a "carbon copy" of his son. Wolfhard pushed for the idea that Martin would be "as roguish and dishonorable as Finn is heroic". "Wake Up" featured the return of Kumail Nanjiani as Prismo, M. Emmet Walsh as the Cosmic Owl, and Miguel Ferrer as Death and one of the heads of Grob Gob Glob Grod. Ethan Maher voiced the baby version of the Lich. Herpich himself played the part of the Void Caster. ==Cultural references==

When the Lich is addressing Finn, he refers to the escaped criminals as "Ancients", a reference to one of the many name for deities in H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. ==Reception==

"Wake Up" and "Escape from the Citadel", first aired on Cartoon Network on April 21, 2014. The episodes were viewed by 3.321 million viewers and scored a 0.7 Nielsen rating in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic. Nielsen ratings are audience measurement systems that determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States, which means that the episodes were seen by 0.7 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds who were watching television at the time of the episodes' airing. Furthermore, the episode was the 23rd most-watched cable program on the night it aired. These episodes were the last to have been watched by over 3 million viewers. Both episodes received largely positive reviews from television critics. Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times, wrote that "Wake Up" and "Escape from the Citadel" form a "beautiful, strange and exciting" two-part special episode of the series. Eric Kohn of IndieWire awarded both this episode and "Escape from the Citadel" an "A−", writing that while the episode featured extremely dark material, it was never presented in a way so as to drive viewers away. In regards to "Escape from the Citadel", he also noted that "the fate of the Lich takes an amusing new turn," and that the storyline concerning "Finn's cursed sword arm—an ingredient that has festered in the sidelines for weeks—reaches a beguiling new state." ==Explanatory notes==