The Game Has Changed

"Reaching the final seven means a new stage in the battle: you're merging!"

- X

"The Game Has Changed" is the 24th episode of Battle for BFB, and the 55th episode of the overall series. It was released on Friday, September 18, 2020.

Cold open
The episode starts with Blocky doing a podcast, or as he calls it, blockcast, with Flower. Flower comments on how bad the name is, making Blocky demand that she get out. Blocky then summons Gelatin, who questions his desperate attempts to air another show. Blocky responds that Blocky's Funny Doings International is on hiatus due to all the perjury stuff, so he's trying to get a new show greenlit. Gelatin comments on how a podcast sounds lame, so Blocky tells him to leave and calls Flower back. Blocky asks Flower how she is, and she expresses her concerns about the voting and how she's stressed out about it but trails off as she realizes Blocky hadn't been listening. Blocky tells her that she had been pranked and that it was a pranking podcast. Flower is unamused by this. Walking over to Woody, Blocky tells him that Flower was right and that his idea sucked. Then, from behind a bush, Purple Face calls the Have Nots for Cake at Stake.

Cake at Stake
As the Have Nots arrive beneath the bush, Purple Face welcomes them. Blocky speaks up, asking if Purple Face had permission to host the Cake at Stake, to which the latter reluctantly responds that he did. Blocky doesn't buy it and leaves. He's then replaced by a stick.

To set the mood, Purple Face sings his own Cake at Stake theme, only to be interrupted by Flower and Firey, angering him. Controlling his rage, he starts his song over again but is interrupted yet again by none other than Four, prompting him to get on with the votes.

He deems Firey safe with 17,899 votes. Firey complains about how they haven't been getting any cakes lately, and Purple Face begrudgingly comes up with a prize on the spot, a member of the Have Cots each. Firey gets Teardrop, who scuttles off without acknowledging him.

Woody is also deemed safe with 17,054 votes. He gets Lollipop, who confusedly asks where they are.

Out of the final two, Flower and stick (Blocky), Purple Face mistakenly says that Flower is eliminated. She gives a melodramatic speech about her aspiration to redeem herself, and how she still came up short. Realizing his mistake, Purple Face corrects himself and tells Flower that she's safe with 11,547 votes, and stick is eliminated. She dances in celebration, only to stop as Purple Face gives her Leafy as a prize, grumbling about how he had ruined her moment. Blocky returns surprised that the others were still in the bush. Flower informs him that he's been eliminated, much to his dismay. Woody runs over to Blocky and picks him up, upset at his friend's elimination. Blocky reassures him that things would be alright, telling him to pull some pranks while he was gone. Blocky then interrupts himself, recalling the times Woody had pulled pranks in episodes prior. This allows Blocky to realize that if anyone was worthy enough to be the star of his show, it was Woody.

Before the challenge
Cut to Blocky as he and Woody take part in a prank, Blocky narrating while Woody does the prank itself. Flower excitedly greets Woody as he approaches, asking if he planned on getting anything. Woody agrees, saying he'd take all of them, overjoying her. He then proceeds to push the rack of sweaters off a cliff, walking away and leaving a bemused Flower behind. Blocky laughs and pulls Woody over, saying it was "pretty funny".

Four goes over to Gelatin, demanding to know where everyone had gone. Gelatin uncertainly responds, saying he doesn't know. Teardrop then darts over, grabbing Gelatin, causing him to panic and question what she was doing. She hurls him into a bush, revealing the location of the Have Nots. Blocky notifies Four that Purple Face did the Cake at Stake, and he had been eliminated, the first part enraging Four. He then begrudgingly agrees to beam Blocky up, sending him to the BRB. Blocky tells Woody to make him proud as his final words. As that's done with, Four slides offscreen and "despawns" Purple Face for doing the Cake at Stake. He comes back and revives Purple Face.

Angered by having the Cake at Stake stolen by him, he addresses the final 7 to announce the merge, only to be promptly cut off by X, telling them that they were merging. Four sarcastically thanks him for taking his other big piece of news, which Purple Face taunts him for. Four drags Purple Face away and despawns him again, only to revive him a moment after.

The challenge
Four rants about how he had both his big moments taken away from him, so he makes the challenge to cheer him up with a party in the span of an hour. He also informs them that there would be a twist, to which Purple Face butts in, saying that there'd be a second twist; Him judging. Four disaffirms this. He then finishes his statement, saying the twist would be for the winning contestant to choose another contestant for immunity. Cut to the intro.

Gelatin approaches Lollipop and Firey, asking if they knew where Teardrop had gone, expressing his concerns on how violent she's been as of late. Lollipop says she hasn't, though agrees to inform Gelatin if she does. Firey tries to make small talk with Lollipop, asking about her plans for the challenge. Lollipop dismisses the challenge as no more than a disingenuous, forced celebration, and how she plans on making an awful party on purpose, she then asks Firey about his plans. He unsurely responds, saying he'd just make something with a lot of numbers everywhere. Gelatin tells Lollipop he's unsure of what to do as a party, stating that if he were to have a party thrown for him, he'd love cheesecake, musical chairs, and forks galore. Lollipop interjects, inquiring if Four would like any of that. Gelatin agrees, and decides to make a party for X instead. Gelatin tells Teardrop about her violent behaviour, and tells her that he felt uncomfortable. He asks Teardrop to leave her alone for a bit, and she complies, sulking off. Lollipop sympathizes with Teardrop.

Leafy greets Firey, only for Lollipop to wave her off. Flower tells Leafy that she's headed to her  'Oh, For Petal's Sake' shop to grab supplies, asking if she'd like to tag along. Leafy agrees happily. Firey asks where the two of them were off to, and Leafy demands to know why he hadn't defended her back in BFB 22, saying that while she had apologized, he never had despite ignoring her for years. Firey says he hadn't even thought about that, leading Leafy to walk away, saying she'd talk to him later.

Lollipop approaches Woody for ideas to make the worst party music, to which the latter presents Purple Face to her. Purple Face agrees to help Lollipop out. Cut to Leafy and Flower on their way to her store. They reach a pit of quick sand, confusing Leafy. Flower then grabs her, tossing her into the pit. Leafy cries for help as the two sink into the quick sand. Gelatin asks X about what he likes, and X responds with baskets. Gelatin attempts to get more information from him, to no avail. Leafy and Flower reach the bottom of the quick sand, falling down the 1,000 foot drop immediately after. Lollipop shows a banner to Woody, reading 'Happy Halloween'. She asks Woody about his plans. He responds by pointing to Purple Face and incoherently babbling.

Leafy and Flower reach the bottom of the cliff, though to get to Flower's store they'd still have to cross a 50-mile tightrope. Leafy's upset by this. Gelatin tells Firey that he had completed his party, and asks Firey how his was coming along. Firey tells him that he planned on making a gift for Leafy, and Gelatin offers to help with a test run. Leafy and Flower finally arrive. Leafy is unimpressed by the size of the store, but Flower tells her that she's proud of it nonetheless. Rusty Coin, a recommended character, pops up from behind the stand, asking Flower (Referring to her as 'boss') if she needed anything. As Flower responds, saying she needs party supplies, Rusty Coin offers the duo an excessive amount of boxes, continuing even when they expressed discomfort. Flower soon tells Leafy to run, and the two flee from Rusty Coin. He chases after them, begging to be taken with. Lollipop calls Purple Face perfect as he rudely calls her annoying.

Four then tells Woody to present his party. Four then translates Woody’s words, and Woody presents his party, which was themed on Purple Face’s instead. It was revealed to be a prank by Woody, who wanted to make Blocky proud. Four gave Purple Face's party which Woody because he found Purple Face funny, a 1/10 score. Flower, after being told by Four to show her party, shows the decorations on the wall, which were made by throwing the party supplies into the wall. Four asks how does Flower's merchandise repel vomit, and gives her party a 5/10. Four decides to go to Teardrop's party, only to find out that it was not meant for him, instead of being an "I'm Sorry Gelatin" party with musical chairs, cheesecake, and forks, the same party which was thought by Gelatin himself. Teardrop decides to present Gelatin a comic book, entitled "Gelatin's Space Walk". Gelatin praises Teardrop for apologizing to him, but Four tells them to make a party based on him instead of using them to fix their personal conflict, giving them a 1/10 rating for Teardrop. Lollipop then presents her party to Four, which was a terribly-made Halloween-themed party (which is the wrong time of the year to celebrate it), which was also made with spoons, of which she showed disgust towards earlier. It also has Purple Face sing terribly. Four said that Lollipop was the worse performer, only to say it that ironically, Lollipop's terribly-made party was the best at 10/10 since he loved Halloween and he liked the song. The immunities were given to Lollipop and Flower, with the former having the option to give immunity to one more person, of which she chose Gelatin. Which brings Firey, Woody, Leafy, and Teardrop up for elimination.

Stinger
While spun at the Big Rotating Building, Blocky receives a notification regarding a new video Woody published. Blocky announces to everyone at the BRB that a new video of Woody's Funny Doings International came out. In the video, Woody represents a prank: detaching the Ferris wheel Firey and Leafy were riding. Blocky praised the video, calling it "pretty legit".

Votes
57,729 votes were cast.

Deaths

 * Purple Face was despawned by Four twice in the episode.

Trivia

 * This episode was Ian Woodside's voice acting debut on the show, taking the role of Gelatin after Graham Taylor left the show.
 * This episode was the third episode that had a "4" in it that also had a challenge for Four's benefit, the first being "Today's Very Special Episode" when the challenge was to makeover Four, and the second being "Don't Dig Straight Down" where the challenge was to find X's treasures, as Four wanted to be his only treasure.
 * Since Firey had the most votes, he now has the second most saved votes in BFB, with first being Leafy with 28,401 votes.
 * This was the second time every contestant received at least 10,000 votes, the first time being "Who Stole Donut's Diary?".
 * This was also the first time that every contestant has received at least 11,000 votes.
 * Since Blocky was eliminated, there are no more former members of A Better Name Than That left in BFB, making it the third team to lose all of their members.
 * That also means that there aren't any red contestants left in BFB.
 * That also means that Blocky is the second cuboid contestant to be eliminated from the show, the first being Loser, who was eliminated again in "Let's Raid The Warehouse", after rejoining in "The Escape from Four".
 * This is the first BFB episode to be released during a premiere.
 * This is the second season to reach the merge phase, with the first being the BFDI episode "A Leg Up in the Race".
 * This is the first post-split BFB episode to show the stinger without BRB contestants screaming.
 * It is revealed Four’s favorite holiday is Halloween.
 * This episode reveals that Four can levitate contestants by snapping his fingers.
 * This also marks the first time where X doesn't snap the eliminated contestant to the BRB.
 * Woody and Teardrop are the only original contestants who reach the merge without also doing so in BFDI.

Cultural refrences
Rusty Coin says "Hey boss" which may be a reference to Joji Miller's character Pink Guy, who has spoken the phrase "ey b0ss".

Continuity references

 * Firey's Ferris Wheel returns in this episode with a new attachment.
 * Four adds suspense to the immunity again, just like in "Let's Raid The Warehouse".
 * Upon hearing he's eliminated, Blocky says "But I'm like the star of the show!", which is the same thing he said when he was eliminated in "The Reveal".
 * The Laser Powered Teleportation Device sound and visual effects was used when Blocky reminisces Woody's prank.
 * Blocky compliments Woody's latest prank video and says "pretty legit", the same line he used in the previous episode.
 * Leafy calls Four "Your Fournor", just as she did in BFB 22.
 * Four again translates Woody's language, which he did previously in "Who Stole Donut's Diary?".
 * Flower said the phrase "Round 24 again", referring to the episode she was eliminated in; "Insectophobe's Nightmare 2", and in this episode, which has the same episode number, she also thought she was eliminated.
 * Flower once again does her dance from "Who Stole Donut's Diary?".
 * An extended version of her dance theme also plays from the same episode.
 * The scene where Lollipop wins the challenge is a reference to how Gelatin freed Four in BFB 23. After Four thanks Lollipop, he flies away, with Lollipop saying, "What?". Similarly, Four thanks Gelatin for freeing him from his cage and flying away as Gelatin said, "What?".

Goofs

 * At the stinger, whilst Firey and Leafy were talking at the Ferris wheel, their mouths don't move.
 * When Gelatin was called by Lollipop for immunity, Gelatin calls her Lollipuff.