Get A Grip

* Sealed
* Unsealed
* Old

**Get A Grip** is the third episode of *Animated Inanimate Battle*.

## Synopsis

After another contestant bites the dust, Oodle decides to indulge the contestants in an arcade classic!

## Plot

### Cold Open

The episode opens to Nabla swimming in the Ocean, frantically swimming over to her chalkboard, found from the previous episode. She grasps onto it and proceeds to move it and herself to dry land, but struggles in the process. Glue swims towards Nabla and offers her help, to which Nabla accepts. The two move the chalkboard to the shoreline and make short conversation whilst cleaning it, particularly about Alef. Nabla laments the fact that Alef has always put her down in her life, and how as long as he has the rest of Team 4 in his grasp, she'll never get a say in anything. Glue gets an epiphany, and asks Nabla for any "juicy blackmail-adjacent details" in regards to Alef. Nabla responds in affirmation, and whispers to her some blackmail...

Meanwhile, at the Mountain, Oodle is shown giving away the rights to the mountain to Team 2 as Can is signing the paperwork. Most of Team 2 is unexcited about this; Hailstone rues the name "Team 2 Mountain," to which Chalk states that he thought she would have been more excited about this. Oodle then pipes in, saying that there is nothing on the mountain except for a lone log cabin, dumbfounding Team 2. They then suddenly clamor towards the cabin. The cabin doors swing open and Team 2 is awestruck at the cabin, as Oodle flies away to manage the elimination. He crash lands near Tivo, who asks if he is okay; in response, Oodle tells Tivo to play the theme tune.

### Elimination Time

Oodle gets up and wipes the dust off his body. He then turns to talk towards Team 1, the losers of last episode's challenge. Oodle declares that they gained 5,124 votes, to which Album questions the validity of the votes. Oodle retorts by stating his trust in the audience, but Chocolate Chip notes that Oodle doesn't look confident in the votes. He passes this off, and states that the prize are a random assortment of balls.

The first character safe is Album, who survives the elimination with 105 votes. She gets thrown a tennis ball, yelping in fear of another scratch. Bacon expresses his disdain, asking why Album was so "lily-livered" at a "pansy throw."

The next safe are Flaggy and Candle, with 115 and 119 votes respectively. Flaggy gets hit with a dodgeball, Candle with a basketball.

Next safe is Pill, with 161 votes. Oodle throws him a soccer ball at comically slow speeds, but Pill, due to his poor vision, is unable to see the ball. The ball suddenly speeds up and hits Pill at full force.

Bacon and Blanket are also safe, again with 279 and 293 votes respectively. Bacon demands Oodle hit him with his best shot, to which Oodle responds by throwing him the entire cage with a baseball in it. Bacon gets hit, and is sent flying, leaving Album in a "now who's laughing" moment. Blanket also gets the same treatment, being sent a bowling ball, and miraculously catches it, leaving streakmarks on her platform. She astounds everyone.

Coconut is safe with 401 votes, and gets thrown Bouncy Ball. He kicks her away. Chocolate Chip is safe with 627 votes as well, and is thrown a football. Chocolate Chip ducks and the ball goes flying at Glove.

The final two are Roe and Glowstick, who Oodle describes as the two people that cost Team 1 the challenge. Oodle tells Tivo to start counting the votes, and the camera switches between him, Roe, and Glowstick frantically. Finally, it is revealed that Roe had 1,429 votes and Glowstick had 1,595 votes. Glowstick becomes the second character eliminated from Animated Inanimate Battle.

Glowstick laments his loss, blaming himself for his own elimination. Oodle goes up to Roe in reporter garb and interviews her about the cutthroat elimination. Roe says nothing. Glowstick then tells Coconut to give Pitchfork a picture frame with him and her in it, to which Coconut reluctantly obliges. Glowstick accepts his fate, and Oodle begins to suck him into the Doodleverse, before screaming out that he could have probably given the frame himself.

Coconut walks with the picture frame and into Pitchfork, who was creeping on the elimination. Coconut then gives her the frame Glowstick gave him, and walks away. Pitchfork looks as the picture, initially with anger and resentment, but she turns pensive, and finally, remorseful.

### Preparations

Oodle recovers Chip Bag and, for some reason, Whoopee Cushion. Chip Bag, upon touching the ground, is immediately grabbed by Domino and Creamy, who staple her shut as a precaution for death.

Ketchup is surprised at Whoopee Cushion's recovery, asking how he died. Whoopee Cushion cracks a joke, stating that Coconut a-salt-ed him. Ketchup doesn't get it. Whoopee Cushion has PTSD flashbacks involving Coconut literally "a-salt-ing" (using salt to kill) him, but quickly passes it off. Frisbee then makes a joke, then proceeds to show off his athletic prowess by performing a handstand, to the applause of Whoopee Cushion and Ketchup. Having limbs is pretty cool, Frisbee declares, and Antimatter agrees. Nine then mocks Antimatter for their lack of limbs, until Antimatter grows their own limbs, much to the disdain of Teabag, Bouncy Ball, and Farty.

Oodle then slides in, asking the contestants if they're ready for the next challenge. Mitten affirms so, but then realizes Team 2 isn't here. Recycling Bin tells everyone they live on the mountain now. Jelly is hearing things and tells the crowd "I heard cattle!", much to the annoyance of Bacon, who tells him to "Get in line!". Oodle then puts on a face mask, and throws a smoke bomb in front of everyone. It starts blowing green smoke, and everyone starts falling like dominoes. At Team 2's cabin, they're enjoying themselves when a smoke bomb is thrown down their chimney. Not even the fleeing Chalk is safe from the vicious grace of the bomb.

A few moments pass until Chalk wakes up and exclaims in fear. Hanger responds, but she too has no idea what's happening; except for the fact that they have no limbs. A paranoid Apricot fears that Oodle is going to harvest the contestants for food, but Pitchfork immediately shoots down the idea. Nine hypothesizes that everything was a dream, but Cork too shoots down that idea when he "gestures" to Oodle, waving. Frisbee, Leek, and Envelope wallow due to their lack of limbs, with Envelope screaming, "WHY HAVE YOU BETRAYED US OODLE?"

### The Next Challenge

Oodle responds by stating that it was all humanitarian; he had safely delimbed the contestants and put their limbs in a “completely sanitary dumpster”. Gold Nugget is disgusted, but quickly desires her limbs back, needing them to "harvest jewels" on her phone.

An instructional video by Tivo appears, with Oodle explaining the challenge. All of a team members except one will be placed inside a claw machine, with no limbs and unable to escape on their own. The lone team member who is not in the claw machine with fully-functioning limbs operates the machine, tasked with removing their teammates from the machine with the control panel and the claw. Oodle emphasizes the fact that only the operator can control the machine. Anybody else who touches it will incur a penalty for their team. He never specifies, though, whether betraying your team is against the rules or not. A team is safe when all their members have been retrieved from the machine; the last team to do so will be up for elimination.

Telescope questions who'll the operators be, and where's Bone in the machine, only realizing the connection shortly afterwards. Oodle then unveils the six operators: Blanket, Jelly, Bone, Whoopee Cushion, Domino, and Nacho, all to varying reactions. Bone particularly pipes up in order to ask Oodle something, but is possessed and says it “slipped his mind”.

Oodle, after unveiling the operators, makes moves to begin the challenge, only to be interrupted by Recycling Bin. She states that Teams 1 and 6 have an advantage, since they have one less player on their teams. Oodle then gives two plushies: one of Raisin and Glowstick to their respective teams. The two teams play with their plushies.

Oodle attempts to kickstart the challenge but is once again interrupted by Popsicle Stick, who performs a kamikaze kill on Jelly. His remains are splattered everywhere, and Team 2 are in shock. Popsicle Stick orders Oodle to quickly revive Jelly before the challenge starts, and he quickly does so. At her request, Oodle quickly puts Popsicle Stick back and cleans up the remains with a snap of his finger.

### Get Your Teammates!

The challenge begins with a rocky start as Blanket slowly and carefully operates her claw and latches onto Album, but losing grip of her and ends up scratching her in the process. Team 2 is having a much more easier experience; Jelly is able to latch onto Hailstone and get her out of the claw machine, prompting Oodle to declare they're off to an early lead.

Bone, meanwhile, is jeered at by his teammates, who decry the unfairness of Oodle assigning Bone to Team 3. He asks for a chance from his teammates, to which Mitten denies the possibility. That is, until, Bone's eyes glow red once more and he begins to rapidly control the crane machine and getting his teammates out.

Nabla, meanwhile, has chalked up a plan for Whoopee Cushion on her chalkboard, while Alef is astonished that she retrieved it so quickly, and asks how, to the response from Glue, “nunya.” Toothpick too is astonished, as Nabla states that she is astute at "sleep-writing." In a flashback, Oodle is shown struggling to get her limbs off as she is sleep writing. However, her plans become null as Whoopee Cushion erases the instructions and draws Nabla in a crude pose. Alef laughs as well, but his laughter is gone as Whoopee Cushion draws Alef in another crude pose. Alef threatens to knock all the air out of Whoopee Cushion, just as he grabs two pieces of chalk and begins scribbling all over the board.

Domino manages to get Team 5's first person out, Pitchfork, who is much enthused to have her limbs back. Pitchfork immediately goes to Domino, and asks for the plan, to which Domino bluntly retorts, "keep doing what [he's] doing." Pitchfork is dismayed, and hopes to change Domino's mind, but he absolutely refuses. While they argue, Antimatter manages to fly out of the machine, which Domino initially calls “getting them out without doing anything” before his and Pitchfork’s confusion, with Antimatter then saying they just flew out, with Domino telling Oodle that it seems like a bit of an oversight. Oodle dons a Bob Ross-like caricature and states that it was just a happy accident. No one believes him. Pitchfork attempts once more to gain control, but Domino catches on and demands her to get in the backseat.

### Accepted At Last

Recycling Bin is the last one to be slotted out of the yellow claw machine. In shock, Cork asks if they were the first one to finish, as Recycling Bin uncertainly affirms so. Bone becomes unpossessed. Oodle is surprised as well, stating that Team 3 has won the challenge in record time, all thanks to Bone. The rest of Team 3 groans, until Telescope pipes up, asking for a prize. Oodle, once again, is unprepared, and goes off to search for a prize. Bone sits idly in a corner as Salami asks the team how to deal with this.

### Fight! Fight! Fight!

Team 6 is shown fighting amongst themselves, telling Nacho to listen to them in order to win the challenge. Nacho refuses to, much to the disdain of Package and Glassy. However, the machine soon starts malfunctioning, and Nacho is unable to control it. The same occurs for Team 2's machine, with both claws in the machines beginning to flail around.

Jelly and Nacho cry out for help, when Oodle, in a mechanic's outfit, appears. He rips open a panel on Team's 2 machine, revealing entangled wires. In the midst of this, the claw in Team 6's machine hits Glassy, smacking her into the glass wall and shattering her. Her pieces fall apart and out of the machine, leaving Nacho with a smile. In Team 2's machine, Chalk is hit with the flailing crane, and lands in a puddle of red goop in the corner of the machine. After the chaos, Oodle manages to fix Team 2's machine, and moves towards Team 6.

Back at Team 5's machine, Domino has gotten Fireball and Pear out, but despite this, Pitchfork is still antsy about taking control. Pitchfork attempts to seize control, but Domino shuts her down once more, stating that he is "practically a pro at this." Chip Bag cheers him on as the claw grasps onto her, but the claw pops her in half, spilling chips out. Pitchfork, seeing a moment to take control, rushes for it, with Domino warning against, in fear of the rules. Pitchfork does not listen; a loud siren goes off, alerting Oodle, who flips over the machine and calls foul play at Team 5. Team 5 receives a penalty in the form of a blindfold, which Oodle gives to Domino, who obliges and puts it on promptly. Fireball is angry at Pitchfork for making their team have a disadvantage, and saying “now Domino will be even worse at this”. Domino is mad at Fireball, and reassures them, picking up Mr. Pickaxe. However, the pickaxe slips and splits Apricot in half, much to Pitchfork's disdain and Fireball's excitement.

Back at the victors, the rest of Team 3 approach Bone, with Salami taking the lead. He states that he wants to congratulate Bone on the behalf of Team 3 for their victory, and begin to cool down on their shared hatred of him. Telescope, despite this, changes the topic away from Bone and towards the prize. Oodle rushes in, holding a pink fox plushie, shocking everyone on Team 3. The pink fox plushie is called Cinnamon Bun, a prize that Oodle won at a fair once and chose to pass her down to Team 3. She is first given to Bone, but he refuses to take her, and soon she is passed down the entirety of Team 3 until it ends up with Mitten, who looks at her with loving eyes, willing to take her in as his own.

As the prize is given out, Blanket gets the last person out of her team. Pill high-fives Blanket, only to accidentally smack her in the face. Candle demands her and Pill talk about some glasses for him. Oodle declares Team 1 to be in second place, followed by Team 6. Nacho is dismayed at her team, stating that they have to sort the whole leadership quarrel out, going for a siesta. Team 4 is safe next, with Whoopee Cushion getting Alef out last. Alef promptly beats up Whoopee Cushion. Glue then calls out to Alef to calm down, calling him Aleph (pronounced ah-lef) in the process. Alef stops in his tracks, like a deer in headlights.

### The Final 2

Team 2 and Team 5 remain the final teams in the challenge. Jelly controls the machine to grasp onto Safe, but quickly finds that the claw cannot encapsulate her. Can calls this an oversight, prompting Oodle to teleport away. Can is annoyed and says that some people can’t handle criticism.

Meanwhile, Team 5 is imploding; Pitchfork is annoyed that Creamy called her pushy, to which Creamy pushes back, stating that Apricot and Chip Bag are dead because of her. Pitchfork deflects, stating that technically, Creamy killed Chip Bag (because of the stapling) and that Fireball's pickaxe killed Apricot. Both accused parties tell Pitchfork "How dare you!" Gold Nugget tells Pitchfork to take responsibility for her actions, only for Pitchfork to fight back and call out Gold Nugget's fixation on her phone. Domino gets Filmy out of the machine, to which he shouts out "FREEDOM!!", which annoys Pitchfork, who tells Filmy to shut up. Filmy assumes she wants to pick a fight, but before it got out of hand, Domino snaps. He begins to lash out at Pitchfork, calling her out of line, saying she thinks that she is “some level above the rest of us” despite having just as many problems as the rest of the team. He alsoboldly tells her she has no say on what they can and cannot do. Pitchfork, in a fit of rage, lashes out, and exclaims that if she wasn't surrounded by so many idiots, it wouldn't be an issue. Team 5 looks at her with shocked and hurt expressions. Pitchfork realizes what she said, but Fireball hurtfully asks if she really thought they were idiots. Pitchfork stands in silence.

Jelly, meanwhile, officially confirms that he cannot get Safe out of the machine. Without a way to get Safe out, the rest of Team 2 hope that Team 5 somehow disqualifies themselves in order for them to be declared safe, with Brain being hopeful saying it might actually happen.

Apricot's pit is the only thing separating Team 5 from victory. Domino is now actively struggling against Pitchfork's attempts to take control, but with them away from the machine, Pear takes a seat with the controls. They stop fighting and see Pear attempt to grasp Apricot's pit, but loses it. They turn their anger towards Pear, but it is too late; Team 5 has their second penalty. In an incandescent fit of rage, Pitchfork explodes. She angrily smashes the machine, and effectively destroys Team 5's chances of winning in one fell swoop. Team 2 is declared safe by default, with Oodle snapping a forlorn Safe out of the machine, who is now self-conscious about her size.

Oodle recovers Chip Bag and Apricot (but not Glassy), and declares Team 5 up for elimination. Antimatter returns from his boring trip to a smoldering wreck of a team, who all give Pitchfork furious looks for he outburst and their loss. Pitchfork is visibly regretful about this and walks away sadly as the team bash her and hope for her elimination. Pear walks up to Chip Bag and talks about how the competition seems to be tearing everyone apart. He confirms his distaste for Oodle, and Chip Bag seems to agree in a way. Creamy then takes Chip Bag away to put her in bubble wrap.

### A Pink Fox Toy

After the challenge, Mitten is found by Cork to be holding onto the pink plush jovially. Cork derides Mitten for holding onto the plush like that, but Mitten snaps back, declaring that he can break any gender norms he wants. Cork doesn't mean it like that; he means that it's a literal, inanimate doll. In that instant, the doll reveals its sentience, with her berating Cork's words, demanding to be called an action figure. Team 3 looks onto Cinnamon in horror, and after a short period of silence, screams.

### The Stinger

Oodle walks up to the limb bin, hearing shuffling. He snatches a string coming out of the pin and pulls it up, to find Teabag, who was rummaging around the bin with Bouncy Ball. Bouncy Ball emerges from the bin with four arms and four legs, declaring herself "Octoball," cartwheeling out of Oodle gasps. Oodle promptly chases after her, urging that she doesn't know where those limbs have been. Oodle then says that it is disgusting. Teabag flees the scene as well.

## Votes

A total of 5,124 votes were casted last episode, an increase by 25.12x (2411%) from last time (+4,920 votes).

## Trivia

* The episode was originally going to be released in September, but Robert Johnston stated had mental health problems during that time in his video "Where Have I Been?!". The episode has since been delayed and declared to be releasing on February 10th, 2021, but was ultimately delayed it for a release between the 15th and 17th.
	+ The crew confirmed the release date to be February 17th on the Animated Inanimate Battle Discord server in several references.
* This is the first AIB episode to be released in 2021.
* The characters dancing in the "Where Have I Been?!" video are the operators for the challenge.
* Glowstick was eliminated this episode. He was the only contestant eliminated who was green and was the second male and first non-food eliminated.
* This was the first episode where someone had more than 1,000 votes.
* Cinnamon Bun was teased in the episode's delay picture, as her tail could be seen next to Tivo and Oodle.
* This is the first episode to have a YouTube premiere.
* This episode has the largest vote increase in *Animated Inanimate Battle*, with a staggering 24 times (2411% increase) the votes as last episode.
* At 12:06, Jelly says a line in Japanese, saying "シナモンロールが美味しいよね! (Shinamonrōru ga oishii yo ne!)," which roughly translates to "Cinnamon rolls are delicious!" This is a reference to Cinnamon Bun's later reveal.
* Glove breaks the fourth wall when Oodle reveals the final two teams and states "Who will drop the ball and get a grip?", to which Glove screams out "He did it! He said the thing!" This means Glove was reading the title card from below the video.
* Oodle most likely knows what GatlingGroink57 does since he knew the episode title.

### Goofs

* When Pitchfork destroys the claw machine, the number that pops out of the socket is "2" instead of "5" for Team 5.
* Oodle doesn't pull the pin on either of the smoke bombs, so they technically shouldn't go off.
	+ However, they made a beeping noise when they went off, so it's possible they're mechanical.
* When the camera shows a top-down view of Pill, Roe's leash is missing.
* As Oodle throws the ball at Chocolate Chip, her mouth turns black.
* The contestants got their limbs back during the challenge, even though Oodle removes them.
* When Salami tries to give C.Bun to Telescope, the bags under his eyes go missing.
* C.Bun's tail goes missing when she is handed to Mitten.
* Pitchfork says that Creamy killed Chip Bag because of the stapling and Fireball's pickaxe that killed Apricot. These are not true, because Domino was the real killer who caused Chip Bag and Apricot's death (by accident).

### Continuity references

* The scene where Glove gets hit by a football is a callback to Smarter & Boulder.
* The exchange between Nine and Antimatter before the challenge begins references their exchange from The Pilot.
* Album gets another scratch. This could be a running gag in which Album keeps getting a scratch every episode (except for episode 1).
* Cork uses the AIB scream in this episode.

### Cultural references

* At 3:24, Oodle says "Go go Oodle rocket boots" which is a reference to Inspector Gadget’s catchphrase.
* At 8:29, a stapler is thrown into Jelly, this is a reference to the stapler in jello prank in The Office.
* At 15:53, when Whoopee Cushion makes fun of Alef, his drawing is a reference to SpongeBob SquarePants.
* Oodle makes a reference to Bob Ross when he responds to the oversight involving Antimatter.
	+ Oodle makes another reference when he teleports away, making the same sound as when a key is brought to a keyhole in Super Mario World.
* 13:32 sees a reference to BFDI in the form of the BFDI scream.
* Jelly says "Bababooey" at 14:28.
* When Bone operates the claw machine, they make sounds from Jackal Queenston's song "Rubber Band".
* A musical number from BFB plays during the smoke bomb segment.
* Pitchfork calling her team idiots and them being shocked may be a reference to Inanimate Insanity’s *Crappy Anniversary*, where Marshmallow says the same thing.
* When the machines start breaking down, Nacho says, "The machine is raging against me, I can't control it". This could be a reference to the band, Rage Against the Machine.

## Deaths

* Whoopee Cushion was "as-*salt*-ed" by Coconut somewhere in between AIB 2 and 3.
* Jelly gets impaled by Popsicle Stick and explodes.
* Glassy is shattered by the malfunctioning claw.
* Chip Bag is squeezed to death.
* Apricot gets sliced in half by Mr. Pickaxe

**List of AIB Episodes**