Review: Adventure Time Season 8 Episode 3 “Wheels”

Jake’s family is still not picture-perfect.

Spoilers Below

Kim Kil Whan is throwing a business party for the forest creatures, and invites his father, Jake, to attend as well. He confides in Jake that he has a problem: his daughter, Bronwyn, has been drawing “unusual graphics,” and has become “unengaged” enough that her school grades are suffering. Kim Kil Whan wants his daughter to succeed him in running the family business, but he is unsure how to approach her about getting back on track. He suggests that maybe Jake has a better chance at communicating with her. 

Bronwyn, in full skateboard gear, slips out of her house at night to meet up with her friends at the skate park. When Jake tails her, and sees how much fun she is having, he tries to connect with her through skating skateboarding. As soon as he tells her that her father has sent him, Bronwyn becomes upset and declares that Jake is not cool at all. Jake takes offense,and makes it his goal to show off how cool he is.

As Jake spends more time around the skate park, Bronwyn’s friends start to see that Jake is a lot of fun and end up neglecting Bronwyn in the process. All of her attempts to show off and impress her friends fall flat when Jake continues to one-up her. Finally, it becomes too much for Bronwyn, and she challenges Jake to a thrash-off.

The competition takes place at an abandoned theme park, where Jake and Bronwyn skate the its entire length. The winner is to be declared “undeniably cool” and the loser will be “banned from the skate park forever”. Jake, so enticed at the idea of being declared cool, eagerly accepts his granddaughter’s challenge. 

Jake starts out strong, but Bronwyn ends up pulling ahead. She does a trick on a railing that Jake tries to replicate, but he ends up falling from his skateboard and hitting his head. Bronwyn rushes to his side, worried for her grandfather, and in order to wake him up, declares that he is cool. The tactic works and Jake quickly recovers.

Kim Kil Whan reveals that he had witnessed the whole thing, and admits to Bronwyn that he was not sure how to approach her. He sees that skating is important to her, but he is still concerned about her performance in school. He also admits that he was afraid to talk to her face to face since he did not think she would have listened to him. Bronwyn reveals that she does not have a high opinion of her father, but she does not dislike him, and the two reconcile. 

Overview:

It has been established that Jake has children, but now we see that Jake has a granddaughter as well. Bronwyn is Kim Kil Whan’s only daughter, and it has been mentioned by the Adventure Time team before that her parents have mostly kept her away from Jake due to his immaturity. That sort of behavior is made very clear in this episode. 

Jake’s relationship with his children has always been rocky. Even though he is a good companion to Finn, his antics are not as well received by his family, especially Kim Kil Whan. While Jake and his son have reached a mutual understanding in ‘Ocarina’, enough for Kim Kil Whan to ask Jake for help, it is clear that he still has doubts. 

Once Jake discovers Bronwyn’s hobby, he becomes less interested in finding out about her as a person and more interested in looking cool to her friends. In doing so, he ends up humiliating and potentially isolating her– it does not cross his mind even once that he may end up hurting his granddaughter. Up to the end of the episode, he never really focuses on her but remains obsessed with his image. The concerns that Kim Kil Whan had about Jake’s behavior end up being totally justified. 

On the other hand, Kim Kil Whan is still a strict and rule-abiding person. He is a businessman first and foremost, and still wants his daughter to follow in his footsteps, but he expresses concern about his daughter’s wellbeing. He notes exposes his fear of what she may think of him when he says, “I should have come to you myself, but I thought you wouldn’t want to listen to a square.” Unlike Jake, he is aware of how people perceive his behavior, and even if he does not change, he attempts to reach out to the people he cares about. Even if he does not like that Bronwyn is skating and drawing decals instead of studying finance, he still recognizes their importance to her. In the end, Bronwyn recognizes that her father is trying, and is concerned for her wellbeing, and declares that he is “not cool, but not uncool”. 

It is interesting to see more of Jake’s family, and the different dynamics throughout the generations. While Jake has, in some regards, failed as a father figure, at least Kim Kil Whan is trying and manages to succeed.