In the episode, Lumpy Space Princess falls in love with a former mate (Mark Proksch) from secondary school.

When she suspects she has lost her date to Princess Bubblegum, she attempts to wield time travel to win back his affections.

The New Yorker critic Emily Nussbaum, in particular, saw it as establishing Lumpy Space Princess's intricacy as a character, and Eric Kohn in IndieWire called the episode the pièce de résistance of the show.

[2]: 106  Meanwhile, Lumpy Space Princess (Pendleton Ward), portrayed as a valley girl, is the source of drama due to her arrogant personality and shallow relationships with others.

Delivering a monologue on the passion necessary for love, Lumpy Space Princess hurls a Molotov cocktail and hot-wiring a gas truck into the castle.

Johnnie disappears; when Bubblegum figures out what has happened, she informs Lumpy Space Princess that by failing to log his molecules, he no longer exists as part of their universe.

[7] Alluding to the episode, for Hulu, Muto and Osborne summarized it as Lumpy Space Princess confounding the concept of time travel.

[c][9] Television critic Emily Nussbaum gave this episode praise in The New Yorker, comparing it to a fairy tale characterized by laughter and sorrow.

[5] Kohn praised the episode for supplying Lumpy Space Princess, a usually arrogant character, with a tragic circumstance.

[5] Nussbaum, who considered the episode proof of her intricacy as a character, wrote that Lumpy Space Princess appropriately shows pathos.

[2]: 107 Sava specifically lauded the monologue delivered by Lumpy Space Princess for showing her consistent strength that makes her so admirable.

[5] Nussbaum described the creatures appearing in the outer frame as annotative and a mute chorus, suggesting they live in a parallel universe of both connection and isolation.

[11] Home video critic Justin Remer called "Bad Timing" "surprisingly devastating" in DVD Talk.