Fortunate Ben

"Fortunate Ben" is the fifth episode of Battle for BFDI and the 36th episode overall of the Battle for Dream Island series. It was released on January 12, 2018.

It was most likely going to be released on January 5, 2018, but since the script took two weeks to write, Thomas Chick announced on HTwins Central that he had just gotten the script on it's supposed to release date, meaning the episode was delayed.

Team Beep lost again.

Liy is eliminated with 7553 votes and Pie is runner up with 3995 votes.

Before the intro
Match and Ruby are seen playing Spongy Cake. Flower then asks Ruby to do her a favor as she pulls her out of the game. Ruby says that the favor should be important and complains that she was in the middle of her favorite game. Flower supposes that game was Flower Power, but Ruby says she hates that game because she always wins. Flower points out that her opponents in her game don't grow enough petals to win. Flower then cuts to the favor in which Ruby needs to convince her friends that she's pretty. Ruby says something is a bit off even though that she recognized her beauty two months ago. Flower questions that Ruby says she's not pretty and threatens Ruby to crush her. Ruby finds out Flower's more pretty when she curls up her left arm, and she experiments with many factors, such as leg placement, pose, pedal placement, and eye stretch.

Ruby then asks Match if they can play Spongy-Cake again, but Match plays the game with Spongy and refers the game as "name-calling, Spongy-bashing, verbal-bullying." Sponge raises his leg in a similar fashion to Four's intro pose, which, just like in the last episode, consequently makes the intro play.

Cake at Stake
At Cake at Stake, Four said that Pen's drawing led them to their elimination, Pen gets mad at Four for saying that his drawing was bad, after that, Four screeched Pen. Later then, X said that Death P.A.C.T.'s drawing was a disgrace to the art community and asked to never touch a piece of paper ever again. Pen says he'd rather get screeched at, so Four screeched at him again, causing Pen to fall in a daze.

Later on, Pillow asked how many votes they got, Four later responded that they got 20,389 votes, then Four says the 7 safe contestants will each get a fortune cookie while the most voted contestant will be eliminated. Bottle says that they hope they don't get killed, then, later on, Bubble got popped by someone. Bottle then says that Bubble is dead.

Later, Four said Pen got the least votes (1093 votes), then X says that Pen was the first fewest voted character that doesn't start with a B. Then, Pen says his legal name is "🅱️en". Pie was talking to Pen about what his fortune cookie says, he opens it and it says that one should always hope that life will be full of happiness.. brought by...Ice Cube? Then, Pie says that that is a weird fortune. Later on, Four says that Pillow can sleep easily tonight. Pillow grabs the fortune cookie, and reads the fortune cookie then she says that it is odd and then Four later says that she is odd. Four says Tree and Remote are safe. They both read their fortune cookies and Tree says where Four got these fortune cookies from. Four said they got them from the dumpster.

Later on, the next scene shows Gelatin and Team Ice Cube! proudly patting Gelatin on the top of his head. Then the next scene shows Liy, Pie, Black Hole and Bottle who were not safe yet. Then Four says the remaining contestants with holes are safe. Then Bottle said she was ticklish because of the fortune cookie. Later on, Liy and Pie remain, Liy said they were the bottom 2, and stated that she said a pun at Getting Teardrop to Talk and says that the viewers would understand Liy as a positive light, then Pie says that it was fine.

Then later, Four shows the votes then X later interrupted Four that Pie stays and Liy goes home. Then Four said that he wanted to say that and then X said that Four can just screech him but then Four later says that he will do something way worse than screeching at X. Then Four gives a fortune cookie to Pie, saying that they needed to listen to Liy.

Liy then says that she heard the message and that the viewers and contestants didn't need Liy. Then it shows a scene of Liy with Pie & Black Hole, Liy all alone, Liy rescuing Blocky, then Fanny and then Firey Jr. Then Liy comes down to the ground and says that they thought they would support her but then Tree says to not feel sad/mad for herself. Then Liy switches their light then she switches to the light from BFDI APPISIOTE 225555555!!!!!. Tree is horrified and begs Four to suck her up. Four then agrees with Tree and sucks Liy up.

After Cake at Stake
After Cake at Stake, Foldy is about to smile, but Stapy and Foldy decide to do a big smile instead. Later on, Pie questions what Liy was a switch form then Black Hole responds that he thought she was a light switch, then Pillow says that she does more than that, and after that, Pie said "Whatever.".

After that, Flower and Gaty were seen as Flower went insane due to following Ruby's fashion tips, then Gaty says what Flower was doing was idiotic. Lollipop agrees with Gaty's statement and tells Four to screech Flower to get her to stop, but Four screeched Lollipop instead of Flower. After that, Book was questioning Four where X was. Four said that X was in the 'limb reattachment center'.

Contest
Four revealed that the contest was to fly in a paper airplane and not touch the ground. Stapy figures out that the planes are made of paper, and is worried since paper can't support his weight.

Then, the contestants get on their paper planes, then Ice Cube comes down on her plane. Later on, contestants fly their paper airplane with no steering in it. Lightning attempts to fly his team's plane up, which leads to four obliterating him and Black Hole, due to flying not being allowed in the challenge. Fries requests that Puffball is disabled instead of killed, and Four obliges, also disabling Cloudy instead of killing him. David pilots Beep's airplane with his outline, but the ride is bumpy and Cloudy is injured. Balloony gets mad that no one feels bad for Cloudy, which Nickel mistakes as a normal quote despite being sarcasm.

David then gets sleepy and supposedly does fall asleep, which seems to have caused Beep's plane to fall. Free Food's team falls because of their poor weight distribution throughout the plane, and when the plane starts flipping rapidly, Stapy accidentally stapled the team's plane together, later apologizing and saying that his stapler instincts got a hold of him. As Free Food and Beep fall rapidly towards the ground, Four comments that it looks like the two teams misunderstood the challenge and believe that it is a race to reach the bottom, rather than staying in the air.

Marker suggests that his team's plane should slow down, which makes Stapy spit staples out of him in an effort to slow the descent. The ground breaks apart slightly when a line of staples hit, as Free Food continues falling. Meanwhile, Beep is trying to steer away from the cliff, and they desperately try to steer from the cliff by dabbing, which seems to somewhat work and slows their fall due to the increased air resistance. Rocky vomits on David, causing him to wake up and start steering again.

Unfortunately, The staples split the ground in two, causing Free Food to fall between the parts and not hit the ground as quick. Even though the team was going to make it past the cliff, the cliff somehow lurched forward and caught Beep before they passed, so Beep hits the ground first, putting them up for elimination. X then tells the rest of the teams in the air to do whatever they want since he doesn't know what to do with them, which results in a positive reaction from the teams still in the air.

Stinger
X is lying in a field waving his arms about while a song plays, sung by a distorted voice. The lyrics of the song are:

Glad to have 2 legs again!

Glad to be an X again!

The song is followed by an applause.

Trivia

 * This is the first BFB episode to air in the month of January.
 * Pie has the second-highest number of votes. This is possibly due to her lack of appearances and contributions in the past few episodes. The majority voted Pie because she didn't show up in Today's Very Special Episode, but showed up only in the intro.
 * This is the second BFB episode to have a team up for elimination twice. (Beep lost at episodes 2 and 5.)
 * This is the first BFB episode to be made by the newest animator, Caedmon Johnson.
 * SuperScratchkat is his Youtube channel, as the animation in BFB 5 and the channel's BFB fan animation have the same art form.
 * This is the first time in BFB that a contestant whose name doesn't start with "B" gets the least votes (Bubble, Balloony, Bomby).
 * This was pointed out in the episode, although Pen had an excuse that this fact was incorrect.
 * Pen revealed that his legal name was "🅱️en."
 * This is most likely why the episode was named Fortunate Ben, as Pen was the first to get a fortune cookie.
 * This is the fourth time in a row that the record of votes has increased and the votes entirely of the episode.
 * This is the first time somebody that is not a team captain is eliminated, stopping the streak/row.
 * This is the second episode that featured no recommended characters.
 * If Why Would You Do This on a Swingset wasn't delayed, then the episode would've been released on December 29th, 2017.
 * In Cary's reaction to Today's Very Special Episode, he said that this episode and future episodes of BFB would have more locations.
 * That was indeed the case, for the challenge's setting took place in an area with a cliff and multiple plants around.
 * This is the first episode where all contestants up for elimination have received at least 1000 votes each.
 * The vote count is 134 more votes than in Today's Very Special Episode.
 * Despite the episode being a week late, the voting period still ends in 48 hours.
 * Cake was promised to have more spotlight, but this was not the case in the official episode for unknown reasons. In fact, Cake didn't even have any lines.
 * In addition, nobody from The Losers! had any lines. On the other hand, everyone from Death P.A.C.T. had lines.
 * Beep is the first team to be up for elimination twice in BFB, having previously lost in Lick Your Way to Freedom.
 * This may be so another female doesn't get out.
 * This is the second time a BFB episode came out without a thumbnail.
 * Flower is seen to be on the unofficial first thumbnail.
 * This is the second BFB episode to not have a description. (though this episode will most likely come out with one, since this same situation happened with BFB 4, and the description was later written).
 * Pin and Blocky were seen for a split second during the elimination (When Pillow received her fortune cookie).
 * Just after Pillow opened the cookie, Blocky is seen fallen over.
 * Ruby has developed and has mixed feelings on Flower's beauty. In her view, it depends on the position.
 * Liy's previous design (how she looked like in real life (from BFDI APPISIOTE 225555555!!!!!) was shown to be inside Liy.
 * Liy has shown that she has the ability to switch between levers.
 * David has shown that he has the ability to manipulate his unconnected outline on his head.
 * David uses the advantage to steer his team to victory, although failing due to Free Food's unintentional sabotage.
 * This is the third episode named after a contestant.
 * It is also the third time that the intro plays without Four raising his hand.
 * Again, a contestant substitutes for Four, being Spongy.
 * This is the first time an armless contestant triggers the intro.
 * Liy is responsible for most preventions of deaths on her team (2,753).
 * The rest of her team has provided 10 preventions of deaths altogether.
 * It is the second time Lightning doesn't ask "So, to clarify..." when the challenge starts, the first time being in Today's Very Special Episode.
 * It's the first time A Better Name Than That didn't place 6th, because all teams won, except Beep.
 * However, Free Food might be 7th, as they are shown falling with Beep, in danger of suffering elimination.
 * The sarcasm scene is a reference to Inanimate Insanity, where Nickel is known for his sarcasm.
 * Ironically, Nickel stated that he forgets that it is sarcasm.
 * No characters outside of Death P.A.C.T. have a visible walk animation.
 * Near the end of the intro, Pencil's face is upside-down.
 * This episode reveals that Match and Spongy might be friends now.
 * This episode shows the word "appalling" for the first time.
 * Beep may have lost again only so that another girl isn't eliminated.
 * The Losers! was the only team that didn't speak in this episode.

Goofs

 * The voting screen lists the end of voting as "Jan 14, 2017", despite the episode being released in 2018. This is corrected in the video description.
 * The Cake at Stake Intro stayed black for almost the whole time.
 * This may or may not be intentional, for that we are not sure.
 * X is limbless.
 * The contestants on their paper planes are missing.
 * When Flower turns her petals, her head isn't attached to her body.

Continuity references

 * Spongy Cake is played just like BFDIA 5d and BFDI 3
 * Foldy was about to twitch her mouth like Ice Cube and Firey in the previous episodes, but instead, Foldy and Stapy changed their mind and decided to show off huge smiles instead.
 * Stapy's agreement to Foldy saying "Yeah!" is the same one used in Getting Teardrop to Talk when Marker asks him to play Toss The Dirt.
 * Woody dabs, which is a reference to Lick Your Way to Freedom, where Woody also dabs.
 * When Four said X was in the "Limb Reattachment center", it was a reference to when he said X was in "burn center" in Why Would You Do This on a Swingset.
 * It may also be a reference to Pin losing her limbs in Get in the Van.
 * The Emergency Button from Rescission may have been used to obliterate Lightning and Black Hole.
 * Gelatin wanting to use Bomby for the challenge is a reference to Getting Teardrop to Talk.
 * Bubble died after Bottle said "preventing death", which is another reference to Why Would You Do This on a Swingset.
 * At Cake at Stake, Pin can be seen angry at Blocky. A little bit later, Blocky is seen knocked over. This is most likely a reference to Take the Plunge: Part 1, where Pin knocks Blocky over when he was grabbing her.
 * Remote saying that Death P.A.C.T. has prevented 2763 deaths is a reference to the number of miles from Yoyleland.
 * Just before Stapy staples his team's plane closed, all Free Food members except Stapy were in the same poses they are in the intro.

Controversy
After the release of the new episode, some fans were confused or upset about the episode's "changed artstyle" from the new animator Caedmon Johnson, with most of the attention being drawn to Four and X. Some had stated it was terrible, while others defended it and said it was more expressive.

Fans have been complaining about Beep being up for elimination again, and saying that Cake was going to have more of a role, but he did not.

There was also criticism about the "short" challenge, although this issue more likely comes from the pacing of the episode.

Jacknjellify wants to "spark worldwide discussion of the aerodynamics of dabbing" in his tweet.

Some people also started the voting of Woody because of the fact that he started the dabbing solution. It is currently unknown if he will be safe in BFB 6.

Deaths

 * Total: 4
 * Bubble pops off-screen.
 * Lightning and Black Hole are obliterated by Four.
 * Liy was sucked into Four. (debatable)