Don't Dig Straight Down

"Don't Dig Straight Down" is the 14th episode of Battle for BFDI, and the 45th episode of the overall series. It was released on August 24-25, 2019,

The episode is a continuation of the original 13th episode of Battle for BFDI, "Return of the Rocket Ship". Because of this, this episode surpasses BFDIA 5 as the longest challenge in the series, as the two episodes that contain this challenge equal a 47 minute runtime, while BFDIA 5's events are 45 minutes in total combined.

Plot
This episode continues off after the events of "Return of the Rocket Ship" when members of Team Ice Cube! discover an unknown location underground. After a bright flash of light, it is revealed that they stumbled upon an Inverted Planet. Donut tells the team that he's heard stories about them, but never knew they lived so close to one. Gelatin and Naily immediately start running around, chasing each other. They jump off of a tree, and Naily impales Barf Bag as she lands, spilling her barf everywhere. Donut begins to worry and tries to patch her up when she starts to feel sick and tells the two of them to stop running around, which Gelatin and Naily ignore. Soon after, the former tells Donut he found something.

Iance is then seen walking through the tunnel they're digging, and Ruby tells Flower she's mad that she killed Bubble. The two squabble before Lightning questions the direction that they're digging in. Ruby agrees and starts to dig at Grassy's co-ordinates with Flower's help. Lightning compliments Flower on knowing the place, and the latter claims that as a plant, her leaves "point to the Sun". Snowball refutes this, as Flower does not have leaves.

Meanwhile, Beep is shown still falling in the pit Rocky created, only for Cloudy to notice that if they hit the acid, they'll disintegrate. Nickel reminds Cloudy of the fact that he can fly and uses this idea to prevent his team from falling any longer.

Foldy asks Yellow Face if he's the advertiser of a massive department store to ask if they sell emeralds. Yellow Face says otherwise, for they have "cheap plastic green toys" in place of the emeralds. Fries is against the idea of turning them in, as he doesn't want Four to be cheated. Marker reminds him of Four's response of Teardrop's drawing over a year ago: "you don't need frills to make a feast for the eyes." Fries is convinced by this and turns the toys in; and as a result, Free Food wins 1st.

As iance keeps digging, Ruby stops in her tracks and receives a strange feeling, identifying that the presence of Golf Ball is nearby. The team digs in a different direction in turn. Fanny declares she hates Golf Ball; Lightning questions why the team hates Golf Ball, and why the team has a lot of nicknames for her, but Snowball says that he shouldn't ask.

As this happens, A Better Name Than That successfully finds an emerald underground. The team wall-jumps up the hole and turns in the emerald to Four, receiving 2nd for this episode. Tennis Ball is satisfied with the task "running smoothly", only to be disturbed by five pairs of arms coming out of Four's mouth. The arms then grab the Better Namers' emerald, much to Basketball's dismay, and Pen thanks the team for "giving" them an emerald. Inside, Four declares Death P.A.C.T. safe, earning them 3rd.

Donut has patched up Barf Bag, and is waiting for a response from her. She has now fallen into unconsciousness. Gelatin has found a hot spring, where the team can both chill out and refill Barf Bag. Bomby, as the strongest object in the team, grabs Barf Bag and dips her in water, waking her up. Seeing this Donut embraces her. Barf Bag, energized by the intake of water, says she feels "great".

Naily, Spongy, and Gelatin amuse themselves in the hot spring, while Barf Bag realizes that she feels great because the water is warm, and notes how it shouldn’t be. Spongy repeatedly cannonballs into the pool, creating cracks in the earth that send magma into the Inverted Planet.

To Barf Bag's surprise, a geyser of lava shoots out of the spring, prompting everyone to evacuate the Inverted Planet. Gelatin and Naily successfully exit, but Bomby cannot due to how steep the exit is. Barf Bag suggests Spongy to serve as a climbing pad, sending everyone else up top. The team attempts to pull Spongy up, but make no progress. Donut then sacrifices himself to get Spongy up, drowning in lava. Gelatin copes his distress of his friend's death by making dark humor, telling Barf Bag to show that this was the case. Bomby then grabs Gelatin and says that "there is no time for this" and the rest of Team Ice Cube! run away from the Inverted Planet.

Barf Bag sees an exit overhead, disappointed that there is no one that can fly. Spongy states otherwise, showing that he has a private jet. The others request to jump in, but Spongy declines as an act of betrayal for not remembering him "last episode." Bomby suggests that he'll sacrifice himself as a way to get his team out of the tunnel system, but Barf Bag doesn't want Bomby to do that. Gelatin, Naily, and Barf Bag get on top of Bomby, but Gelatin pushes off Naily just before Bomby explodes to establish some room for himself. As a result, Barf Bag and Gelatin successfully get out of the tunnel, but Naily is blasted to the side, ending up falling in Beep's pit.

Lava starts to fill up all ways in the tunnel system. Nickel notices this and tells Cloudy to turn around, avoiding the lava. Balloony notices the acid floor and tells Cloudy to turn around. In this process, the team grabs Naily as she falls. Cloudy tells that the only way out is if Rocky can barf more acid. Balloony candidates Nickel to serve as food to generate vomit to create a deeper tunnel. To Beep's and Naily's concern, they hit an unknown wall down below.

Gelatin and Barf Bag exit the hole, celebrating that they escaped from underground. They embrace, and Barf Bag sarcastically thanks Spongy, though the latter says that "there is only one seat." Gelatin finds the Better Namers' emerald near Four, assuming that it has been not retrieved. He turns it in, and Team Ice Cube! earns 4th. Needle witnesses Team Ice Cube! turning in the Better Namers' emerald to Four and she attempts to do the same, which works and makes The Losers! win 5th. leaving Beep, Iance and to find the last two emeralds.

Iance is still digging underground and Lightning wonders why the team decided to pass up on an emerald. Ruby then reassures Lightning that they might find another emerald. To their surprise, they actually end up finding an emerald. Unfortunately, the team notices that the lava is right behind them, so they begin to dig to avoid it. As Iance is digging to find away out, they run into a tunnel that has already been filled with lava. Ruby then tells the team to blow as hard as they can to push away the lava, once they do the begin to dig more. Iance gets close to the surface but then digs the other direction because they sense Golf Ball's presence.

Golf Ball and Tennis Ball are seen sitting together near where Iance is digging. Golf Ball states that the place around her is hotter than average temperature. Tennis Ball tries to talk to Golf Ball about something but Golf Ball interrupts by continuing on about how hot it is and that the grass around her is dying. Blocky assumes that Golf Ball is simply just "stinky" and the grass around her can't stand it.

Golf Ball comes to the conclusion that a team underground has ran into lava that tries to escape but they risk saving their lives because of her, which turns out to be true but Robot Flower believes that it's highly unlikely. Golf Ball wants the underground team to stay underneath the ground so they can be put up for elimination. So she steps on every patch of grass that's dying for fun, which Tennis Ball and Basketball don't seem to be amusing.

Naily believes that the unknown floor they're standing on is the bottom of the earth. Balloony hopes not and tries to dig the unknown floor but no progress is made. Balloony then asks Rocky to help, which he doesn't. Balloony then asks Woody to help dig but he can't.

Golf Ball is still seen stepping on the dying grass that then form a message made by Iance to stop doing it. Blocky tells her that it's telling her to stop. Golf Ball thinks it's a fair argument but continues anyway, which makes both Robot Flower and Blocky annoyed.

Balloony is still trying to dig, but Naily believes it's a lost cause. Balloony continues to use Naily to dig the ground. That works, but then causes sirens to wail. It is then revealed that the wall is the roof of an underground factory, and that sirens are blaring; an intruder alert system has been tripped. Golf Ball hears the alert and goes to her underground factory to investigate. Iance finally gets out of the ground and most of the team passes out because of exhaustion. Flower says that Four deserves the emerald and gives it to him. Four tells Flower that her team was slow, but are safe nonetheless. Iance, though late, finishes 6th, and now and Beep are left.

Book is then seen about to talk to Taco, but Book bumps into Pin. Book condescendingly asks Pin what she wants, which makes Pin decide not to talk to Book, because she believes that Book will push her away like last time as they were attending Match's party. Book then says that it's different now, and does not want to associate with FreeSmart. Book explains: she doesn't want herself and Ice Cube to be affected with the kind of behavior that FreeSmart had. Pin asks how Book's plan was going, but quickly changes the subject by asking about what was her problem with Taco and tells Book that how they was doing in "What Do You Think of Roleplay?" was not how a functional team acts. Book explains that she believed Taco was abandoning the team but she was wrong and she said she was going to try to make things right. Pin gives Book advice by telling her to give the team what they want and not what she wants. Book doubts if her team wanted freedom.

Barf Bag alerts everyone that the lava is coming out of the holes and attempts to wake Iance up, but then realizes that lava is coming out the hole that Iance has dug. The lava bursts out of the hole then lands on the ground, killing both Barf Bag and all of Iance. Book sees Ice Cube and Taco about to get killed by lava, and has a change of heart towards Taco: Book sacrifices herself to save both of them, who land onto the restroom roof. Book subsequently dies in lava. Lollipop then protects with her Fork Repellent, which somehow creates a protective bubble around the team. She then states that the repellent is "multi-purpose".

Cake and Coiny decide to go into Golf Ball's Underground Factory, so Coiny decides to tell rest of The Losers to follow him. However, they do not come. Coiny realizes that there is lava everywhere, and Cake tells Coiny that everyone is probably dead. A bunch of recommended characters are shown being killed by the lava, and Coiny tells Cake to rush into the factory. Spongy is seen in space with his private jet, saying that not everyone is dead.

Beep is still seen trying to break the floor with Naily, ignoring the sirens. The lava then kills Balloony, which makes Cloudy glad that he's short, to which Rocky agrees. However, Cloudy is now worried about Woody because he is medium height, but Woody falls on his back so he's shorter. Naily tells the others to stop comparing heights and tells them to start breaking the floor with her. Beep continues to break the floor.

Golf Ball looks at the roof of her underground factory which is about to be broken. She wants to figure out who the intruders are so she looks closely at the almost broken roof. The roof breaks, which makes lava, Naily and Woody burst out the hole that was just made. The lava then kills Golf Ball, Cloudy and Rocky.

Naily and Woody then rush to the stairs, where Naily apologizes to Woody about stabbing him 7 years ago. Woody forgives her and the two run into Coiny and Cake. All of them are relieved that they are all alive, but Naily asks why Coiny is running down the stairs. Coiny replies that there's lava coming from above, then asks why Naily and Woody are running up the stairs. Naily replies that there's lava coming from below, too.

Woody spots a deprecated trash chute, and points it out to the others. Naily states that they could try, but the trash chute is all boarded up. Coiny says that it's no big deal, as he could break it, so Woody, Naily and Cake throw him over. Coiny manages to open the trash chute, but ends up falling into the lava and dying, holding the chute. With Coiny gone, Woody, Naily and Cake are now left.

Naily and Cake say that the hole is too narrow for them, but point out that Woody can pass through the chute if he enters sideways. Woody feels nervous and sad that he has to leave the two, but they tell him that he should just go and to remember the two. They then throw Woody into the trash chute, and burn up.

Woody falls into the trash chute and ends up falling through the Waterfall, and a BFDI APPISIOTE 225555555!!!!!-esque location. He lands onto a black circle which ends up having an emerald beneath it. Woody grabs it, which makes Beep safe. It turns out that this location is Four's eyeball. Four, on Spongy's plane, announces that is now UFE. Spongy tells Four to get off his plane, but Four vehemently declines. Meanwhile, Lollipop's Fork Repellent has now run out, and the lava ends up falling on, killing them.

At the end of the episode, it shows 's actual voting boxes.

Stinger
Puffball asks Four that if all the emeralds were underground or in Four's eyeball, why would X still hurtle to the Earth's center? Four, however, tells her that her question is "silly". It then cuts to X, who is still hurtling to the center of the earth, X then asks himself "Why am I doing this?". He then continues to hurtle towards the center of the Earth.

Votes
The previous episode was a non-elimination episode, so the viewers voted for their favorite characters. The results have yet to come out.

Continuity references

 * Gelatin after sitting on top of Bomby with Barf Bag and Naily, he said "there isn't enough room up here" and pushing Naily after exploding, which is a reference to BFDIA. Gelatin would say this catchphrase on top of Puffball before he pushed his teammates.
 * Golf Ball's Underground Factory has the BFDIA grass around its entrance.
 * It most likely got moved between the events of Zeeky Boogy Doog and this episode.
 * Nickel gets eaten, just like in Zeeky Boogy Doog.
 * When Book dies, the screaming sound from "Zeeky Boogy Doog" is reused, more specifically when she is flung off the Eiffel Tower.
 * The Dream Sauce and the Oven-O-Tron 2000 is also another reference to "Zeeky Boogy Doog".
 * Book talks to Pin again. The latter also brings up Match's dance party, and "It's best to think about what they want, instead of what Book wants", advice she has given in "Get in the Van".
 * Naily saying she's sorry for stabbing Woody 7 years ago is a reference to Naily's audition to debut in "The Reveal".
 * During the scene where Woody falls from the garbage chute and into Four’s eye, there is a reference to BFDI APPISIOTE 225555555!!!!!.
 * Spongy flew away in one of the Spaceships from "Gardening Hero". The spaceship have been redesigned from their previous appearance.
 * He calls them "private jets".
 * When ’s voting screen is shown, it starts with the design used from "Get to the Top in 500 Steps" onward, but becomes static and reverts back to the original design, presumably to show ’s voting icons.
 * Flower saying "Four deserves this treasure." is a reference to "Getting Teardrop to Talk".
 * The respective audio cue is also played.
 * Eraser smiling with three sets of teeth after Free Food wins may be a reference to Paper Towel.
 * Robot Flower says "That's highly unlikely", which is a reference to "Four Goes Too Far", when she says the exact same line.
 * Golf Ball's depiction of the team trying to avoid her consisted of everyone who switched from Team No-Name during the course of BFDIA, with FreeSmart burning in the lava.
 * After Spongy cannonballs into the water, his laugh is reused from "Get in the Van".
 * VR Headset is shown as one of the recommended characters but he was also the host for idfb.

Cultural references

 * The title of the episode is a reference to Minecraft, where many players warn others to not dig straight down due to lava potentially being underground.
 * Lightning calling flower “Flowey” may be a reference to Undertale. This may also be a call-back to BFB 13 this Thursday, which was a Megalovania remix.

Trivia

 * This is the first episode where Cary animates.
 * The episode continues from where the previous episode, "Return of the Rocket Ship", left off.
 * This is the reason why this episode did not have a Cake at Stake.
 * Two new animators join the show: Joseph Pak and Allen Lee.
 * A short preview was shown during the 2019 Crossover Meetup. It was a scene of Golf Ball and Tennis Ball talking about how warm it is, and was a 10-second loop.
 * The episode was initially set to release on August 7th, 2019, but was pushed back a week due to Satomi flying to New York and some paperwork issues.
 * The episode was moved to release on August 14th, 2019, but has been pushed to August 24th, 2019 due to Michael's apartment being fumigated for a cockroach infestation.
 * Barf Bag starts the intro of this episode.
 * As of this episode, she is the first BFB contestant to start the intro more than once.
 * Characters that have no speaking cues are Gaty, Teardrop, Saw, Dora, Ice Cube, Leafy, Eggy, Bell, Eraser and Rocky.
 * In addition to that, Firey, Clock, Bubble, Pillow, Pie, Bottle, Black Hole, Remote and Tree didn't appear. However, the contestants on Death P.A.C.T., except Black Hole, were shown to grab the emerald.
 * Pen was the only Death P.A.C.T. member to appear physically, as the other had their arms shown.
 * Even though he didn't appear, it's possible that Firey survived the lava, since he's immune to any heat source.
 * This episode marks the first time that is up for elimination.
 * This is the first BFB episode in which X does not make an appearance in the main plot, although he did appear in the stinger of the episode.
 * Out of all the Battle for BFDI episodes, this episode has the most deaths, with 120 (including the recommended characters and if Saw and Dora didn't die; they were both shown to survive lava in "Getting Teardrop to Talk").
 * Spongy is responsible for a majority of the deaths in the episode due to his weight releasing the lava from the Inverted Planet's lake.
 * The majority of the objects that didn't take shelter, such as Barf Bag, all of iance and the recommended characters, or sacrificed themselves, such as Bomby, Book, Cake, Donut and Naily, died in the first lava geyser or eventually died later due to exposure to lava.
 * The number of contestants that died in this episode has a total of 36 - a rate of 1.5 contestant deaths per minute.
 * Spongy, Puffball, Woody, Taco, every member of Death P.A.C.T., and presumably Firey and Ice Cube, were the only contestants to survive the events of this episode.
 * Bell's status is debatable, as she is attached to a string from above. Dora and Saw may have also survived the lava, as Saw's melting point is higher than lava (proven by surviving the oven in BFB 1) and Dora seemed completely unaffected by the lava.
 * Bomby and Nickel are the only characters whose deaths weren’t caused by exposure to lava.
 * There is a recommended character in the episode by the name of "Paper", and resembles that of Paper from Inanimate Insanity 's early debut pose.
 * When Barf Bag died from the lava, she should have exploded as water boils to steam rapidly as it interacts with lava. The same should have happened for every other contestant made of water that got burned.
 * Dora's hair has been changed for the intro.
 * Taking the first letters off of "Buried Forest, Deciduously Insulated" spells out "BFDI".
 * The text spelled out by iance with the dead patches of grass is "HELLO DEAR GOLF BALL, IT IS iance. WE WOULD LIKE TO EMERGE TO THE SURFACE, BUT YOUR PRESENCE IS PREVENTING US FROM DOING SO. WE BELIEVE YOU ARE ACTIVELY TRYING TO POSITION YOURSELF IN THE".
 * We don't know what the full version of it is, but it most likely says something along the lines of "HELLO DEAR GOLF BALL, IT IS iance. WE WOULD LIKE TO EMERGE TO THE SURFACE, BUT YOUR PRESENCE IS PREVENTING US FROM DOING SO. WE BELIEVE YOU ARE ACTIVELY TRYING TO POSITION YOURSELF IN THE DEAD PATCHES OF GRASS FORCING US TO TURN AROUND AND TRY AGAIN AT ANOTHER LOCATION".
 * It could be that this is all that was written and it did cut off at "THE".
 * Robot Flower said that there were 2,763 dead patches of grass, but if you count the ones on screen it amounts to approximately 1415 (just over half of 2,763); further proof towards the text being longer.
 * If 2763 dead patches of grass were there, there would be gaps of only 800 µs between patches.

Credits

 * Created by:
 * Michael Huang
 * Cary Huang
 * Satomi Hinatsu
 * Written by:
 * Cary Huang
 * Satomi Hinatsu
 * Kenzie Bryant
 * Directed and Produced by:
 * Michael Huang
 * Cary Huang
 * Storyboard, Character Design, Visual Development, Layout, and Background:
 * Michael Huang
 * Cary Huang
 * Satomi Hinatsu
 * Kenzie Bryant
 * Animators:
 * Satomi Hinatsu
 * Kenzie Bryant
 * Maroue Reus
 * Michael Huang
 * Niall Burns
 * TopHatTheHat
 * Joseph Pak
 * Allen Lee
 * Cary Huang
 * Visual Effects and Compositing:
 * Maroue Reus
 * Michael Huang
 * Cary Huang
 * CGI Animator: Maroue Reus
 * Video Editing: Satomi Hinatsu
 * Sound Design and Editing:
 * Amor Boretto
 * Maroue Reus
 * Satomi Hinatsu
 * Michael Huang
 * Music by: Michael Huang

Voice acting
''Characters who did not have any lines were not included. For a full list of voices, see Credits.''
 * Cary Huang as X, Tennis Ball, Grassy, Ruby, Pin, Marker and Spongy
 * Michael Huang as Four, Robot Flower, Woody, Snowball, Donut, Yellow Face, Coiny, Cloudy, Blocky, Book, Flower, Pen, Fries, Golf Ball and Puffball
 * Satomi Hinatsu as Basketball, Fanny, Bomby, and Balloony
 * Kenzie Bryant as Taco, Barf Bag, Cake, Needle, and TV
 * Sam Lee as Lollipop
 * Cindy Jiang as Foldy
 * Sabrina Barba as Lightning
 * Katherine Sun as Naily
 * Graham Taylor as Gelatin
 * Adam Katz as Nickel

Goofs

 * Fries has all six of his fries back despite Lollipop eating one in "Return of the Rocket Ship".
 * Barf Bag’s patch disappears after Bomby fills her up.
 * At 9:06 the lava is entering the tunnel, but in the next shot we see it the level is significantly below it. It enters the tunnel a second time when Barf Bag says "The lava just went through this tunnel".
 * When Barf Bag says "The lava just went through this tunnel", she and Bomby look towards the right even though the lava is on the left.
 * This might be just a camera mispositioning.
 * Spongy refuses to let his teammates in his jet for not remembering him last episode, which would be BFB 13, despite how it was actually BFB 12.
 * The same mistake is made later by Pin when she says "What I saw last episode was not how a functional team acts", referring to when she was disguised as Taco in BFB 12.
 * This is most likely because these lines were recorded before BFB 13 was split into 2 parts.
 * However, if you assume the previous episode and this episode to be one whole episode, this is not actually an error.
 * Ice Cube didn't come out the hole when iance escaped from the lava.
 * At exactly 18:49, the bubbles from the lava get misplaced for several frames. This is most likely a masking error.
 * At 20:03, there's no lava shown above when there should be. This is most likely a camera mispositioning error.
 * At 20:16, Naily and Woody are touching the lava for a few frames, but manage to escape it anyway.
 * When Four says "Nice emeralds, I love a team that commits forgery!", He is lagging.
 * When going into Golf Ball's secret lair, Coiny says that everyone on his team (except for cake) is dead, even though Firey can't die from lava.