"Cycle of Life" is the 8th episode of Battle for Dream Island. It was released on Sunday, August 1, 2010. This episode had no Cake at Stake, and thus no elimination, being the only one to do so.
Pen goes to the Announcer to tell him that he and his team finally solved the jigsaw puzzle, so his team is free from the room that they were trapped in last episode. Pencil and Match talk about their votes. Pencil says she never got a vote. Leafy, Teardrop, Rocky, and Snowball also have no votes. Match is confused as to why Snowball didn't have any votes. Match then remarks that she got a vote four episodes in a row and no one else had. Bubble wants to say her vote status, but the Announcer lands on her, popping Bubble, and says artofliving123 voted him even though that vote shouldn't be made. Pencil is angry that he killed Bubble.
Picking the participants[]
There is no Cake at Stake, so the scene goes straight to the contest. The contest is a relay race, and Firey steps on Coiny's foot immediately after the contest is announced. Golf Ball is complaining about something unfair, and it just happened to be that the Squashy Grapes had many more members than the Squishy Cherries, so they'll take much longer to run all the way around. So the Announcer decides to make 4 of the members on the Squishy Cherries go twice. However, Bubble disagrees with this as she predicts that her team will be tired by the second round. The Announcer decides to make 4 members on the Squashy Grapes not participate, but Pen disagrees since the other team would be able to choose their best players while they can't. The Announcer asks the Squishy Cherries for a suggestion of the rules. Bubble asks for five contestants from each team to compete, but the Squashy Grapes' runners would be chosen randomly, to which the Announcer decides that it sounds fair.
The Announcer shows a nine-slice wheel, with each contestant on the Squashy Grapes having their slice. The five contestants on the slices that the needle lands on will participate in the race.
After the commercial ends, the wheel lands on Firey, much to Coiny's dismay. Snowball says Firey had to be a fast runner, which he proves. Ice Cube compliments Firey, to which he returns the favor. Coiny insults Firey, and he does the same.
When the contestant wheel is spun again, Rocky barfs on the slice selected. Tennis Ball asks who is on the slice, but Snowball declines on scraping the vomit off. Golf Ball uses process of elimination to figure out that Ice Cube would be the next runner. Snowball complains about Ice Cube being weak and armless before the wheel is spun again.
Firey spins the wheel and the barf lands on Firey, much to the delight of Coiny. Leafy is chosen as the 3rd participant, and Golf Ball the 4th. Announcer reminds them that they have one spot left. Snowball spins the wheel and lands on Rocky, which he responds with "NOOOOOOO!!!!!". Firey is happy that Coiny is not a participant, so Coiny responds with a slap.
Contest[]
Firey, Ice Cube, Leafy, Golf Ball, and Rocky participate for their team. The rest of the Squashy Grapes watch on. The contest comes with a catch: the contestant who is currently running must carry the contestant who runs the race after him/her. The last person in line doesn't carry anyone. The contestants run in the following order:
Squishy Cherries:
Eraser
Pen
Pencil
Match
Bubble
Squashy Grapes:
Firey
Ice Cube
Leafy
Golf Ball
Rocky
When the race begins, Ice Cube melts after Firey got back with her, and Eraser got a good lead for the Cherries. Firey melted Ice Cube, and she was recovered while Pen & Pencil extended the lead. Because Ice Cube had no arms, Leafy had to sit on her, but Leafy flew off when Ice Cube got onto the tree. When Leafy went back on, Match and Pencil went. When it was Leafy's time to run the race, she discovered that Golf Ball is heavy. She walked slowly. Match held onto Bubble so hard, she popped, and the BRC (Bubble Recovery Center) was a few miles away. Bubble made it back and reminded Match not to hold onto her too hard. When Golf Ball carried Rocky, Rocky barfed on Golf Ball's eyes, causing her to run right into the tree, but they made it back anyway, and Rocky didn't run or walk, so Golf Ball kicked him to the tree, and Bubble walked in that path, so she popped. Rocky was moving, but he walked very slowly and GB angrily kicked him to the end. Leafy caught him and celebrated the Grapes' victory with Firey. Snowball and Coiny then expressed their relief for winning. Eraser blamed Bubble for the Cherries losing once again.
The prize the Squashy Grapes got was an eliminated player. Coiny asked if they get to choose which player, but they don't, and the voters do instead by voting.
Stinger[]
The ending section shows the Ice Cube Recovery Center on a tree while Ice Cube is being recreated, thrown off a cliff, and repeatedly killed numerous times because of Blocky's advertisement, while music plays. Effects are added to make it more dramatic.
This is the first time Flower does her "You better vote for me, or I will crush you!" animation.
This is the last episode to use the older arms and legs.
When Pencil says "I was just JK kidding, Match.", it actually means "I was just just kidding kidding, Match."
This episode has the longest stinger in Season 1, with the length of 1 minute and 58 seconds.
The asset of Loser appeared again in this episode.
When annotations were discontinued on YouTube on January 15, 2019, this was the only BFDI episode with annotations left. Most of them are jokes about how voting for this episode has ended.