Game Crazy

**"Game Crazy"** is the forty-second episode of the first season of *Sammy & Co*. It premiered on February 29, 2016, on Netflix.

## Synopsis

The friends create a new game of skill that causes a sensation in the reef, but when Big Boss takes it over and opens a gaming room, all bets are off!

## Plot

The episode opens at the playground where Ricky, Ella, Pipo, and Annabel are all playing a game. Pipo throws a pearl, but he's unable to score a point for not hitting the big pebble with it. This makes him accuses his friends of "cheating" since he can't throw the pearl very far with his tiny little fish fins. Annabel wonders out loud why Pipo is all upset about it since it's just a game. She picks up a pearl and tosses it aside, but the pearl is tossed to a nearby plank with a hole and it falls right into it. Ricky becomes impressed by Annabel's aim that he gives himself a try and manages to get another pearl falls right into the hole. The kids find it to be an intriguing concept that they have invented a new game for all of them to enjoy and they start playing it together. But not long after that, words have spread around the reef about the kids' new game that most of the villagers all waiting in line to play it out of curiosity. The Rockfish all arrive at the playground and Glitz asks the kids what's going on. Ella tells them that Annabel invented a new game that becomes a widespread phenomenon in the village that everyone wants to try it out. But because of it, Ricky and his friends are forced to stand in line to wait for their turn. Annabel assures her friends that they "could go play something else" while they wait, but she has inadvertently given the Rockfish an idea for Big Boss.

The Rockfish all head to Big Boss's shipwreck and tell him about the game Annabel invented that took the village by storm. Big Boss, who's in a middle of a bubble bath, finds the information to be so intriguing that he decides to take advantage of the game and "improve" it as part of his brand new elaborate scheme to conquer the reef.

Back at the reef, the Rockfish all return and announce to everyone that they have also played the game "on a different board", which perks everyone’s curiosity. Glitz claims that "there are other boards" for the game that are "way better" than the one they have at the playground. She also said that if they're interested, they can come with the Rockfish to where the "other boards" are. The villagers, who are now addicted to the game, all follow the Rockfish to Big Boss's shipwreck.

The villagers all arrive at Big Boss's shipwreck, which is now turn into a game room. Big Boss welcomes everyone into his home and he shows them the boards "with more holes and top competition-quality marbles that slide perfectly". He tells the villagers the rules of his version of the game since "the house is offering each player ten pearls to get started with". The players can throw one or several pearls at a time and if they have to get at least one pearl into any of the holes, they would win and play it again. Big Boss even tells them at his place, "there are no losers" and they "can play as long as [they] like". Since the villagers are all addicted to the game, they all enter the shipwreck without anyone questioning or turning back and start playing it. Annabel, however, stays out of the shipwreck and watches everyone playing the game. She then swims away to get back to the reef, feeling sad at how seriously competitive everyone is instead of understanding the true purpose of a game is to have fun. But what she and the rest of the villagers didn't know is that Big Boss and his henchmen all secretly and cleverly rigged the game. When a player pushes the pearls in front of them down to the board and they all fall in the holes, the pearls would all roll onto a pipe and land in a tray, which Marco and Philippe would pick it up and dumps the pearls in the buckets behind the players, thus repeating the cycle. And since everyone has their eyes on their board, they're too distracted to notice and realize that the game is rigged that they all addictively play the game non-stop, which Big Boss takes huge advantage of it.

Because of the strong addition, the villagers all wake up very early at dawn in the next morning to head back to the shipwreck to continue their game. So when the day becomes mid-morning, Sammy quickly takes notices that the reef is becoming a ghost town after seeing there isn't everyone around. But while investigating the strange absence and asking anyone who's still around, everyone Sammy asked would excuse themselves and leave without answering his question in a suspicious manner. It isn't until Sammy encounters Annabel, who is depressingly swimming alone after her friends all ignored her because they're on their way back to the shipwreck, and asks her what's going on around the reef. Annabel guilty tells Sammy, Shelly, and Rita that she believes it's all her fault. She confesses that she accidentally invented a very addictive game that becomes a craze to the village in which Big Boss takes advantage of it and made an improvement, but before Sammy could let her finish, he immediately gets upset upon hearing Big Boss's name during Annabel's explanation.

Later. Annabel, Sammy, Shelly, and Rita are all swimming to the shipwreck to give Big Boss a piece of their mind, though it's mainly because Sammy is upset over the fact that the rest of the villagers chose to "waste so much time on such silliness" there. Annabel and the turtles all look inside to see the villagers are all still addicted to the game that Big Boss has turned his shipwreck into a party. Sammy shouts at everyone stop what they're doing and demands them to go back to the reef right away. However, he didn't expect his own wife Shelly to become curious about the game everyone is playing that she wants to try it out too to see if it does look fun. Sammy was repulsed at the reason behind the empty village is for a simple game, but when Big Boss tells him to give it a try, he finds himself playing it and enjoying it too, much to Annabel's horror since she's now the only one in the village who doesn't fall for the addiction. With everyone too distracted with the game, Big Boss tells his moray eels that it's time to move on to phase two of their plan and the three all swim out of the shipwreck. No one notices them leaving, except Annabel so she curiously follows them to figure out what they're all up to.

At the empty reef village. Annabel hides behind a sea anemone and watches Big Boss and his henchmen imitate their next move. While the Rockfish all left to hide all the food to create a ration, Marco and Philippe both head back to the entrance of the reef to set up a tollbooth, much to Annabel's horror. Annabel returns back to the shipwreck to try to warn everyone about Big Boss snd his henchmen have successfully taken over the village and they have to be kicked out immediately, but she is horrified to see that things are definitely getting worse when everyone is too obsessed with winning the game that neither of them shows any sign of concern nor care about their own village being conquered, especially Sammy. Annabel panicky shouts to herself about how "the whole world's gone backward [since] Big Boss is on [their] turf, and [they're] on his". However, her outburst gives her an idea of how to get rid of Big Boss and his henchmen.

Annabel swims back to the reef where Big Boss is still waiting for the villagers to show up after waiting for too long. Marco and Philippe both arrive from their post and tell that since they're bored of waiting, they thought the three of them could play a little game, which ironically is the same game the villagers are currently playing at Big Boss's turf. Big Boss assures them that the villagers will come back, but Annabel arrives and tells him they won't. She says that while the reef village belongs to him now, it's inhabitants are too busy having fun at his place to even care about coming back, which means Big Boss doesn't have anyone to boss around anymore. This makes Big Boss realizes that Annabel is right. Even though he won, the result of his scheme is nothing but a pyrrhic victory since he didn't think about it all the way through. He successfully made every reef inhabitant distracted by his improved game at his place but since he's the one who rigged the game to keep them from leaving, he unintentionally made everyone becoming very obsessive on winning it that they refuse to come back home because of how distracted they are, so Big Boss basically foiled his own scheme.

Big Boss, now forced to cooperate with Annabel, head back to the shipwreck with her, Marco, and Philippe to kick everybody out. He announces to everyone that since they're in his house, he's closing down the game room for good. But after he orders Marco and Philippe to gather up all the pearls, the villagers all get upset that an angry mob is formed and demand them to leave them alone so they can continue their game. While they're distracted, Annabel rounds up all the pearls and throw them down to the bottomless rift. But when the villagers all notice there's only one pearl, everyone all starts fighting over it. But after Big Boss catches the last pearl, he tries to manipulate the villagers into obeying his orders if they don't want the last pearl to be thrown into the great abyss. Annabel, knowing that she can't let Big Boss wins, asks out loud to everyone why they're so upset when it's just a game. This, in turn, snaps everyone out of their obsession and find out how silly they are over a simple game. The villagers all swim away to the reef village while Big Boss pleads to everyone to come back since he has the last pearl for the game, only for Annabel to knock it out of his fin and drops it into the bottomless rift.

Once everyone is back at the village, they all start playing one new game which is to clean up the messy reef that was abandoned after they left earlier.

## Characters

### Major characters

* Annabel
* Big Boss (antagonist)
* Marco (antagonist)
* Philippe (antagonist)

### Minor characters

* Ricky
* Ella
* Pipo
* Lulu
* Jimbo
* Glitz
* Crudd
* Babbles
* Arthur
* Alpha
* Albert
* Jax
* Ray
* Sammy
* Shelly
* Rita (background)
* Billy (background)
* Aroun (background)
* Mika (background)
* Crabs
* Reef inhabitants

## Trivia

* In the French version, the episode is called "L'enfer du jeu", meaning "The hell of the game".
* Despite this episode is the forty-second to aired on TiJi like its US airing order, it's the forty-ninth episode to aired in France on M6.
* The game Annabel accidentally invented as well as the entire episode's conflict can be interpreted as a reference to a famous mobile game *Flappy Bird*. Both were very simple games that became a fad to many people that they really like to play it despite its difficulty. Big Boss and his henchmen creating an extensive copy of the game is a parallel to how many programmers created dozens of clones of the original *Flappy Bird* because of its popularity. In the end, Big Boss closing the gaming room because of the game being very addictive to the villagers which lead to dissatisfaction to the community is also parallel to how *Flappy Bird* was removed from all platforms because its popularity going way out of hand as well as the unexpected earnings of the developer from advertising.
* A school of black-and-white fish tourists from "The Tourists" can be seen playing the game in this episode.
* The shell Big Boss used to take a bubble bath is the same shell Lulu showed to his student in "The Lucky Charm". It also has the same design as the nautilus's shell who appeared in "A Perfect Ocean".
* This episode reveals Big Boss owned a collection of pearls, which is something that was first hinted in "The Braggarts". However, Annabel gets rid of his collection by dumping all the pearls to the bottomless rift at the end of the episode to prevent the villagers from continue playing the game.
* This is the fifth episode in which Big Boss managed to temporarily take over the reef village after "The Abominable Seamonster", "Ricky's Betrayal", "Fortune and Fib Telling", and "Big Mama". However, unlike the previous episodes, Big Boss didn't manage to celebrate his victory since none of the inhabitants show up to the reef during his conquest because of their obsession with Big Boss's improved game at his place.
* After Big Boss and his henchmen took over the reef village, he sets up a tollbooth at the entrance so that any reef inhabitants who want to enter the reef must pay the toll. Just like in "The Tourists", it's unknown what kind of currency the inhabitants use.

## References

1. ↑ https://instantwatcher.com/title/80042306
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/m6/05-02-2015/
3. ↑ https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/tiji/29-03-2015/
4. ↑ https://www.netflix.com/title/80042177