Return of the Rocket Ship

"Return of the Rocket Ship" is the 13th episode of Battle for BFDI, and the 44th episode of the overall series. It was released on July 11, 2019, which is exactly a year and a day after the pervious episode.

Before Cake at Stake
Barf Bag is seen above Spongy in one of the Paper Planes, sailing them futilely at the Swimming Pool. Barf Bag tries to convince Spongy to call it a day, even though she supports him, because she almost drowned 5 times already, that they are running out of paper airplanes, and they didn't even get Four's permission to use the paper airplanes. However, Spongy declines and says that she doesn't think he can do it, but Barf Bag says otherwise.

They are interrupted by Taco shouting for Barf Bag. Taco asks her to hang out, but she declines, saying that she's busy. Taco pleads with her, saying she's the only person available. Barf Bag declines, saying that Lollipop is one of Taco's friends, but Taco clarifies that she and Lollipop are mutual, and that she is still angry at her team for ignoring her. Barf Bag tries to give advice but is ultimately ignored.

The camera then cuts to Book spying on Taco through a pair of binoculars, bringing along an uninterested Lollipop. The two immediately notice a slurping sound, attributed to Saw, who does Four's intro pose.

Saw is immediately greeted by Lollipop, but is scolded by Book for "leaving behind" last challenge. Saw explains that she was doing "scent cleansing" to remove her of her fumes, and that she told Lollipop and Taco that she was gone. Gaty explains that Taco was "too busy being shunned" and Lollipop likes to know more than everyone else. Saw suddenly goes into a shouting spasm, and Lollipop questions if Saw completely removed the fumes. Saw says yes, but continues to yell. The members of look at her weirdly, and Book denounces Saw for delaying the news of her "abandonment". Saw tries to protest, but Book still believes she "abandoned" them. Gaty and Lollipop side with Saw.

This happens to be Book's breaking point. She grabs Ice Cube and says that they won't stand for this, attributing to the fact has people who have "neglected" and "mocked" the team. Book's speech afterwards pressures Ice Cube into speaking her own mind - Ice Cube doesn't agree with Book, and wants to switch teams, shocking. When Book reminds her she is not in BFDIA anymore, Coiny overhears and has an outburst. When Gaty asks Coiny if he has something on his mind, he says no and zooms away. Book tries to talk to Ice Cube, but Icy goes off in her own direction.

Cake at Stake
Ice Cube walks to Team Ice Cube!'s Cake at Stake, where she is found by Four and Gelatin, who tries to point her back to her team. She promptly inserts herself into the team, and sits on the picnic bench with the rest of Team Ice Cube.

Four says that there's a large crowd watching them, and tells the viewers that they can have their own Recommended Characters appear in the crowd, and that one could join the show. Four pulls out the cake for today, hot soup. Four throws the first spoonful of soup at Barf Bag, but it scalds her.

The next few safe contestants are Spongy and Gelatin, scalding the former, and the latter asking Four to cool down the soup before he throws it. He does so using the nearby Ice Cube, and the now cold soup is thrown at Gelatin. Donut and Bomby are both safe.

It is down to Naily and Firey Jr. The former is the last one safe, evading the soup, and the latter has been eliminated with exactly 10,000 votes, to which Four celebrates. Firey Jr. takes offense to this, seeing it as mockery. Donut declines, but Naily says he deserved it. Barf Bag says that Firey Jr. wasn't that much of an asset, and that getting eliminated was his first small victory. While getting sucked into EXIT, Firey Jr. denounces his team, calling them pieces of garbage. Naily celebrates his elimination, and Donut half-heartedly agrees with her. A small Ice Cube swims out of the soup.

Yellow Face's ad
The scene immediately cuts into a Yellow Face ad advertising the Fork Attractant, until he is interrupted by Fries. The ad brings a mystified Marker, Bell and Lollipop over, who all want to watch it, but Fries interrupts everyone and criticizes Lollipop for wanting to watch the ad when she sells the complete opposite of what Yellow Face is selling. Lollipop says that Fries "doesn't understand market forces," takes a fry and walks away. Bell asks Fries what's going on. Fries responds that Four and X are about to announce the next contest.

Challenge
Four and X are both standing with a blank expression on their faces. Bell doesn't see what's going on, but Eraser comes in and agrees with Fries, stating that if their faces are blank, they are about to announce something. After a few moments of nothing but speculation and superstition from the three Free Fooders, X then starts to float up, but immediately flies to the ground, to the Free Fooders' surprise. Four announces that X is hurdling down towards the Earth's center at 2,763 miles an hour.

Pillow interrupts Four, asuming that the teams will have to rescue X. Four grabs Pillow with his tongue, screeches her, then swallows her, to Tree's dismay. Four explains that Pillow was wrong,and that X is actually looking for his treasure. Four apparently must prevent this, as he must be X's only treasure. If a team finds X's treasure before he does, they are safe.

Cloudy, Tree and Fanny asks Four to recover Balloony, Bottle, and Bubble, respectively. Eggy asks Four to recover "their possibly dead teammate", but Leafy pushes her off before she can remember their name.

Golf Ball shows Tennis Ball her Mutual Mind Reader, which can read others' minds. She tests the MMR on Cloudy, Saw and Bell, then explains a flaw where the subjects can read a thought from the user's mind. After her Tennis Ball uses it and discovers that X's treasures are underground emeralds, some of them at 133, -82, -7.63, but accidentally sends a thought consisting of "X is stupid." TV advises the team to keep this secret, but Grassy yells it out loud to everyone.

Iance starts to dig a large hole, led by Lightning. Team Ice Cube and BEEP see this and follow them down the hole. Cake, from The Losers! is about to do the same, but he and Eggy start arguing about whether to do so, referring to their spiritual connections to Loser. The argument is stopped by Pin and Coiny.

Death P.A.C.T. is heading towards the Evil Canyon, thinking the emeralds are there, but Black Hole stops them. He tells them that this plan contradicts their goal of preventing death, as the Evil Canyon is a deadly place, and that they have forgotten about Pillow. The team flaps their arms in response, showing that they do not care, apalling Black Hole.

Golf Ball orders Robot Flower to get the Rocket Ship. Their team goes in, and Blocky rapidly rotates the satellite to dig into the ground.

As iance is digging, they stop and realize that the Team Ice Cube!rs are about to fall on them. Everyone digs sideways, but Team Ice Cube! still lands on top of Bubble. As she struggles to lift them up, the rest of iance divert the members of BEEP into a pit. They are about to proceed, but Flower accidentally falls on top of Bubble and pops her.

At Death P.A.C.T., Pie suddenly stops waving her arms and realizes that they need to get Pillow back. They ask Four to recover her, but Four tells them that she is not dead. Tree tries getting Four to open his mouth so they can get Pillow, but fails. By Pen saying that 5 is greater than 4, Four screeches, allowing Death P.A.C.T. to enter.

All this time, Bleh teammates have been arguing with each other about how some of their teammates (Taco) have abandoned them. Book and Gaty go behind a bush and argue privately about Book's attitude, about why Book has become irrational and how their team has misunderstood Taco. Gaty tells Book to search the definition of herself, as she is a dictionary, and Book starts to realize her errors.

BEEP uses Rocky's acidic vomit to dissolve the ground below them, allowing them to continue digging.

As the view zooms out to show where every team is, the Losers, Free Food, and Death P.A.C.T. are still on ground level. iance is moving to the right, BEEP is continuing downwards, and A Better Name Than That is going downwards at the right side of the screen. Team Ice Cube! is going left and is heading towards a white sphere of sorts. Team Ice Cube! then reaches a bright and mysterious area. The episode then cuts to a black screen with the words "To be continued in BFB 14".

Stinger
Gelatin yells "Oh my gosh!" covered by a black screen.

Votes
24,187 votes have been cast. (-6498) (-21.18%)

Trivia

 * This is the first episode to be released in 2019.
 * Those who don't have any speaking cues are Foldy, Needle, Rocky, Remote, Teardrop, Firey, Dora, and Bomby.
 * Team Ice Cube is the third team to lose 2 members, the second being iance, and the first being BEEP.
 * Coincidentally, they all placed last in BFB 1, BFB 2, and BFB 3, though not in that order respectively.
 * Bottle was recovered, so she does not have her fortune cookie and Tree anymore, which she had since "Fortunate Ben" and "The Liar Ball You Don't Want", respectively.
 * Pillow is currently in possession of her fortune cookie and Taco broke Tree out while in his mind.
 * According to the description of BFB 13 this Thursday., this episode was to be 21 minutes in length, but the episode was 22 minutes and 56 seconds long, being the 2nd longest episode just behind BFB 1, which is 28 minutes long.
 * Clock is still missing after the events of "Enter the Exit".
 * Satomi confirmed that while she did write a few lines for this episode, she wouldn't consider herself one of its writers. Though she appeared as one of the writers in the credits.
 * No team was up for elimination in this episode due to the fact that it’s a two-parter and continues right along with the next episode.
 * When Four shows how many votes that Firey Jr. has, you can see all the voters' profile pictures that voted for the said character.
 * This is the first episode to be animated by Niall Burns (XanyLeaves).
 * This is the first BFB episode to have more than 1 recommended character scenes.
 * This marks Ice Cube's biggest speaking role in BFB, and her biggest since Take the Plunge/Part 1.
 * Bell says (in her head) her string is attached to something giant.
 * This may be a reference to Jack and the Beanstalk.
 * If you look closely at the scene in the BFB intro where all the characters are shown, you can see Saw has her pink handle, making her have the only permanent change that is shown in the intro.
 * Dora and Saw are the only contestants who don't have their original character designs on the voting screen.
 * Barf Bag and Taco speaking to each other could be a subtle reference to the episode Vomitaco as they both were together in that episode.
 * According to Michael and Cary during their reaction to BFB 13, the scene where Robot Flower launches Fanny was going to be the original thumbnail.
 * Flower makes a reference to the finale of BFDI, when she killed Bubble "permanently".
 * This is the first time that a contestant was eliminated with a vote count equal to a multiple of 100, let alone a power of ten.
 * The other contestants who have received vote counts equal to a multiple of 100 are Pillow, Needle, and Tennis Ball.
 * Near the end of the episode, the walking animation for Spongy was reused.
 * Donut is also the only one who's walking animation is hand drawn.
 * When Four devours Death P.A.C.T., Tree's animation when being screeched in "Getting Teardrop to Talk" is reused.
 * This episode reveals Book's definitions of characters and herself can change over time if she or a character has changed.
 * This episode reveals Book's definitions of characters and herself can change over time if she or a character has changed.

Continuity references

 * Flower reminds her team when she killed Bubble in Return of the Hang Glider.
 * The episode's title is a reference to "Return of the Hang Glider".
 * It's also a reference to the rocket ship A Better Name Than That used in "Four Goes Too Far" and "The Liar Ball You Don't Want", as it is used again in this episode.
 * Barf Bag and Spongy use the paper planes from "Fortunate Ben" in a swimming pool.
 * Spongy's hobbies of sailing airplanes, table tennis, and ping pong from "What Do You Think of Roleplay?" return.
 * Ice Cube tries to switch teams like in BFDIA.
 * Black Hole states that he got Bomby a new banana, which he owed him in "What Do You Think of Roleplay?".
 * Donut says that there’s no one quite like Firey Jr. which is a reference to the many other times he said it, such as his speech in "Why Would You Do This on a Swingset", and again in "What Do You Think of Roleplay?".
 * Fries states that the contest always starts with X floating mysteriously into the air, which is a reference to when he does in "Getting Teardrop to Talk" and "Get to the Top in 500 Steps".
 * Fanny’s line, "Recover Bubble" is the same line she used in "What Do You Think of Roleplay?".
 * Golf Ball thinking about sending people to her incinerator is a reference to "Zeeky Boogy Doog".
 * Bell thinking "I'm glad the top of my string is connected to a giant--" is a reference to "Today's Very Special Episode" when some of the contestants climbed her string to see what it was connected to.
 * Gelatin complains about being soggy just like he did in Zeeky Boogy Doog.
 * Snowball, after celebrating successfully digging to the side, makes his IDFB intro face.
 * Four saying there was a large crowd watching Cake At Stake (the recommended characters) was a reference to BFDI 15 and 16.
 * When Woody smiles near the end of the episode, it references to when Teardrop smiles in "Getting Teardrop to Talk".
 * The coordinates 133, -82, -7.63 are a reference to Hurtful!, when Leafy mentions that you can go 1338 days without eating, and to Yoyleland being 2763 miles away from where BFDI is set.
 * Four saying that X is hurdling towards Earth's center at 2763 miles per hour is also a reference to Yoyleland being 2763 miles away. It's also the number of lives that Death P.A.C.T. saved as said in Fortunate Ben.
 * X's speed is also roughly 0.75 miles per second or 1.3 kilometers per second, which is 1/5 of the first cosmic velocity. It would take him 2 hours, 51 minutes, and 56 seconds to get to the center of the Earth and back.
 * Lollipop's line "Looks like it's time to get this book's cover judged" is a reference to "Yeah, Who? I Wanna Know".
 * Book's first words "I'm a dictionary and you better believe it!" are the same words used in her debuting audition in The Reveal.
 * When Woody "tongues it", it references to when Ice Cube moves her tongue around in "Get Digging".
 * In the same scene, Nickel calls Woody his "boyonocerus", which is what he called him in "Lick Your Way to Freedom".
 * When Ice Cube says that she wants to do what she wants instead of what Book wants it was a reference to "Get in the Van", except it's the other way around in this episode being where Ice Cube doesn't want to do what Book wants.
 * One of Book's definitions is for Bottle. Bottle's definition is: "can shatter.", referencing's Ice Cube's definition in Reveal Novum.
 * Blocky's Funny Doings International is indirectly mentioned in Book's definition for Blocky.
 * Bracelety's definition in Book references her love of games, as shown in Getting Teardrop to Talk.
 * TV lines, "Now we must keep this secret, so we have an advantage over the other teams." and "To be fair, you WERE the impostor who turned out to be Puffball last episode.", it's show a various clips of various Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3 episodes.
 * When Book says "I hate to break it to you, but this isn't BFDIA anymore" after Ice Cube tells Book she wants to switch teams, Coiny says "OH MY GOSH, I KNOW THAT!" which is a nod to when he would force people into joining his team in BFDIA.
 * Saw yelling out "EIGHT!" when a word has "ate" is a result of inhaling 8-Ball's fumes in "Questions Answered" when he was crushed by the moon after being eliminated.

Credits

 * Writing - Cary Huang, Satomi Hinatsu, Kenzie Bryant.
 * Animation - Satomi Hinatsu, Kenzie Bryant, Maroue Reus, Michael Huang, Niall Burns.
 * Audio - Amor Boretto, Maroue Reus, Satomi Hinatsu.
 * Editing - Satomi Hinatsu.
 * Music - Michael Huang.
 * C.G. - Maroue Reus.

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, Eraser, Yellow Face, Coiny, Cloudy, Blocky, Book, Flower, Pen, Bubble, Fries, Golf Ball, Loser, and Leafy
 * Satomi Hinatsu as Black Hole, Basketball, Fanny, Saw, Bottle, Bomby, Balloony, Firey Jr., Gaty, and Ice Cube
 * Kenzie Bryant as Taco, Barf Bag, Bell, Cake, and TV
 * Sam Lee as Pie, and Lollipop
 * Cindy Jiang as Pillow
 * Sabrina Barba as Lightning
 * Katherine Sun as Eggy, and Naily
 * Thomas Chick as Tree
 * Graham Taylor as Gelatin
 * Adam Katz as Nickel

Goofs

 * Rocky is orange again after the events of "What Do You Think of Roleplay?", in which his color was transferred to Basketball, who also is dyed orange.
 * In 12:05 to 12:07, Ruby’s limbs weren’t all colored.
 * At 8:30 and 8:34, for a short frame, four's outline and his other eye match the color of his limbs.
 * On 19:00, Remote is missing an arm. The same can be said for Tree, with also the fact that his legs are detached from his body.
 * In one frame between 18:53 and 18:54, Tree is missing his arms.
 * Between 8:37 and 8:41, when Four opened his mouth, one of his teeth isn’t colored.
 * In 13:53, When Eggy says "we're losers" and her body slightly tilts forward, one of her legs is disconnected from her body.