At The Turning Point

"Well now, team pressure is no more. We can now play free without the need for sorrow. We have this break for a reason."

- Spaghetti

## About

At The Turning Point is the eleventh episode of the first season of Objects At Gaming. It was released on June 26th, 2023.

## Story

Sombrero expresses great confidence in the game to Orangey with how far they have come. However, it's a different story with Team Birthday Party. At elimination, Illuminati won the prize AND got eliminated. He explains how his excitement got the best of him during the last challenge and he lost his focus, and that he felt he let Pinata down. For similar reasons, Shelfy decides to leave the game as well. Red finds out about the struggles and has Pinata do a therapy session with him.

During therapy, Pinata tearfully opens up to Red about her struggles as a team leader. She mentions Wrenchy having caused the team to lose their overall spirit and cooperation, especially during the last challenge and everything that went wrong for her. Because of her struggles, Red decides to have the merge begin early to ease her concerns, as well as have another short break go on for her to relax and recover internally.

As Red announces the merge to everyone, Mustache gets great worry about the possibility of running into Pinata again after she shouted at her last challenge and called his team "heathens". Spaghetti helps the two make amends and befriend one another, calming Pinata down a little and to make up for the scare, she makes a silly face at the two after having learned from Cookie.

At the CCC, Broccoli is about to take Watery to teach him self defense, but has to abide by Power Outlet's guidelines. Blender still demands Wire to get him fruit punch, and though Wire feels like he wants to put his foot down at his demands, he doesn't mind making drinks for him. Later on, Shelfy and Illuminati reunite the original ODDyssey with Cactus and Pink Sunglasses. Sharpie Pen shows them the new ODDyssey Clubhouse for them to meet and tell stories. Watery expresses interest to himself about wanting to join in.

The contestants start to interact and bond as the merge begins. Snowflake, now solo from the ODDyssey, starts the Winter ODDyssey with Socky and Orangey as she gets to know them better. Cookie and Football have a moment where they talk about the break and Pinata taking a glue bath to feel better. Football's a bit speechless of the idea but not uncomfortable however. Cookie then makes him laugh with a funny face and hugs him, and even kisses him, to the absolute delight of Toilet Paper. Lampy, Cardy, and Sombrero discuss their plans for the merge, who to avoid, and how to win. Medaly interferes on their conversation for a bit. Mustache and Spaghetti then decide to meet Plant, whose leaf did not grow at all. Lastly, Pinata runs into a somberly singing Blueprint, and they discuss how Pinata had fought through so much as team leader. Their bond starts growing even more after a hug, and to Toilet Paper's second great delight, Pinata kisses Blueprint on the cheek as they continue to hug.

## Votes

The elimination votes were not announced, but Illuminati had the most.

## References

### Continuity

#### Inconceivable Flags And Fantasy

* Much of the sorrow and events from the challenge carried onto this episode, especially for Pinata and Shelfy
	+ Pinata opening up in the therapy scene traces back numerous events in this episode's challenge
* Mustache brings up Pinata calling the team "heathen juvenile delinquent test tube baby children"
* Shelfy's upsetness from being called the V word and no one helping him are reasons he decided to eliminate himself
* Mustache's uncertainty with Pinata follows into this episode
* Pinata makes up for the scare with a silly face that she learned in this episode
* Lampy's reaction to seeing the funny face is mentioned
* Plant's leaf is again seen, despite having not grown

#### A Fresh New And Looney Legacy

* Plant's bickering was mentioned by Pinata during therapy
* The team swap and Spaghetti switching was also mentioned, as well as Shelfy's discussion with the ODDyssey
* DUH! returns for the first time since this episode
* Medaly continues to torture Lampy with his water and Watery hatred

#### Bittersweet Tragedy

* Shelfy mentioned Spaghetti's attempt to give advice to Pinata at the start of this episode
* Wrenchy's elimination and overall impact was brought up by Red during therapy

#### Rubik's Algorithm Antics

* Wrenchy tampering with Team Birthday Party and Football was mentioned by Pinata during therapy
* Watery's elimination was mentioned by Socky, as well as Lampy's hatred being mentioned by Orangey
* Cookie makes Football in particular laugh for the first time since this episode
* Toilet Paper looked at Football trying to reach for Cookie's hand, hinting his feelings. This is confirmed as he happily celebrates that he knew it all along
* The original lineup of the ODDyssey formed in this episode reunited as they have all been eliminated now

#### Depths Of The Diamond

* Spaghetti has now been made laugh by TWO girls as he falls and happily says "you too?!"
* Toilet Paper's "pogchamp" expression returns

### Cultural

* The usage of "¡Al rescate!" for Sombrero's monologue may be linked to Go, Diego, Go!, a favorite of TCOOS' childhood
* "I won, but at what cost?" is a meme
* This is the second time "Waldwick" of Waldwick Elimination is mentioned by name
* "Don't stop, don't give up" is an iconic song from Yo Gabba Gabba, TCOOS' all time favorite childhood show
* On Red's desk, a mug that says "World's Best Host" is seen, which is very similar to the "World's Best Boss" mug on Michael Scott's desk in the American version of The Office
* Also on Red's desk is Luxo Jr., the lamp iconic to Pixar's logo
* The therapy scene as a whole was inspired by the movie Good Will Hunting, a movie TCOOS and his dad both really love
	+ The emotion from the movie is similar to how Rebecca played Pinata in this scene, because due to what her actress even went through during recording and during the episode's production, her emotions were indeed...real
* H2-PO is a reference to Po's name in Kung Fu Panda, though it was pronounced as if it were a chemical formula and it sounds a bit like C3-PO
* Shelfy saying "what is up my seahorses" is a reference to Frame in the object show BORIS created by Boristorian
* Blueprint sings "I Miss You" by the punk rock band Blink-182

## Trivia

* This is the second episode to release in 2023 and the second episode to release in the June month.
* This episode had a long production, especially with the voice acting phase. It was the third longest wait time to date.