The Lich

Lore & Background

In this episode, Finn has an ominous dream about the Lich and sets off with Jake to warn Billy. Billy reveals that they must unite the gems of all the crowns of power, place them in the Enchiridion, and open a portal to the multiverse. However, it is revealed that the Lich is actually disguised as Billy. Finn and Jake then follow him through the multiverse. The episode ends with Finn in a different art style, playing his flute with Jake as a regular, non-talking dog, outside a small house.

In Their Own Story

The air in the chamber tasted of copper and old rain. You could see the Lich before it saw you—or perhaps it had been watching for hours, days, centuries, time a meaning for a thing that no longer breathed. Its skeletal fingers traced the runes carved into the floor, each glyph pulsing a sickly violet. Lesser things shuffled at its feet: hollow-eyed soldiers, their armor fused to what remained of them, marching in slow circles that never resolved.

You raised your weapon. The Lich's jaw unhinged, and the sound that came out was not a roar but a whisper, layered, as if a hundred voices had been speaking the same word for a hundred years. The runes flared. The ground cracked. And the circle of the dead turned, all at once, toward you.

Reader's Guide

The episode was written and storyboarded by Tom Herpich and Skyler Page, from a story by Patrick McHale, Kent Osborne, and Pendleton Ward. It was directed by Larry Leichliter. Guest stars include Lou Ferrigno as Billy and Ron Perlman as the Lich.

Did You Know?

• The episode was watched by 2.589 million viewers.
• In the opening scene, Herpich used unicorn symbolism, most notably the tapestry The Unicorn is in Captivity and No Longer Dead.
• The episode would be the inception of a three-episode arc that would not be concluded until the second episode of the fifth season.
• Oliver Sava of The A.V. Club gave the episode an 'A' and called the ending 'a doozy of a cliffhanger'.