Mazed and Confused

"The path you take is the choice you make, but how do you know which path is fake?"

"Mazed and Confused" is the 10th episode of Inanimate Insanity II and the 28th episode overall. It was released on June 17, 2016. The title is a pun on Dazed and Confused.

Synopsis
The path you take is the choice you make when you enter THE MAZE. Twists and turns await our contestants this time around as they break off and maneuver through a dense labyrinth. Here, they are forced to deal with one another within closed walls, on a seemingly never-ending path. Some take their turns alone, while others test their odds alongside those they have come to call teammates. Will our competitors find an escape with ease to avoid elimination, or will these bonds prove to be hollow? There is only one way to find out. Enter: the maze!

Plot
Back to where the last episode left us, MePhone4, Toilet and MePad is staring at the Challenge Ideas board, trying to think of a low-key challenge. MePhone4 comments that deciding on an idea is really tough. Toilet interrupted, saying that you'd think that coming up with an easy challenge would be easy, but no. MePhone4 said that he wanted an idea that is simple but could go in any direction. Toilet cheered him up by telling MePhone4 to look at all the ideas so far, and that "maybe the idea's right in front of you!" MePhone4 thinks for a bit, then intentionally denied it, but after taking a closer look at the board, specifically the first letter of the four challenges in blue marker, he realized that is spelled out "MAZE", which is also the perfect idea for his desire of the contest. MePhone4 happily walks up to his two assistants, saying the same thing Toilet did a few seconds ago, "maybe the idea's right in front of me!" leaving Toilet stuttering that he just said that. MePhone4 "activates" a Maze Generation app of some sort, which slowly changes his screen' color to green. After the transformation is finished, a giant hedge maze magically appears out of nowhere, leaving the three stand in surprise. After MePhone's screen changed back to its original color, MePhone4 proudly comments, "Huh, what do you know?" The intro plays after.

MePad gathers the contestants using the "MeTrumpet" app. Lightbulb complimented him, saying that she had no idea that he was such a musician. MePhone4 explains to the contestants that teams must find their way out of the hedge maze. The first team that arrives at the end with all their team members win.

When the challenge starts, both teams decide to split up to cover more ground after a short discussion. For Team Grand Slams, Baseball and Nickel decide to take all right turns and they tell Suitcase to take all left turns. Nickel tells Knife, Balloon, and Microphone that he doesn't care what way they go. For Team Bright Lights, Marshmallow goes with Paintbrush, wanting to talk to them. Lightbulb chooses to go with Fan, calling him Flat Face. Fan entrusts Test Tube with his egg.

As they walk through the maze, some characters develop and relationships grow.

Lightbulb and Fan run through the maze and end up at a dead end. Lightbulb then spins Fan around, giving her a "helicopter blade" and flying over the maze. They land at the finish but then are teleported back to the start with MePhone4 saying through a speaker that it was cheating.

Test Tube is then seen walking with the egg and facing the most trouble the others have, such as flames and ice being shot at her.

Balloon and Suitcase meet up with each other and then found Nickel and Baseball. Nickel invites Suitcase to come with them and Balloon follows, despite Nickel's anger. He takes them down a path and accidentally steps on a button, triggering traps made by MePhone4. Nickel now doesn't trust Balloon and he runs away. Baseball tells Suitcase to go talk to him. After that, Baseball feels bad for letting things like this happen.

Marshmallow and Paintbrush talk but are interrupted by a noise that Paintbrush goes to check out. It turns out that on the other side of the hedge was Fan and Lightbulb with a keyboard and she was playing the same note over and over. Fan explains saying that they just thought this would be a "one-note conversation". Paintbrush goes back to talk to Marshmallow but then gets annoyed again to find Fan spinning a wheel about what Marshmallow would talk about next. This greatly annoys Paintbrush, causing their brush to turn into flames. On the other side, we see Marshmallow and Microphone talking about the drama that was happening with Fan, Lightbulb, and Paintbrush. Paintbrush returns, telling Marshmallow to come with her and Balloon appears a little later. B oth of them complain about how horrible their team and the show is. Then Balloon brings up the topic of Mic's gain, which gives her an idea and she runs off.

Suitcase then finds Balloon and talks to her about the Alliance and together they decide to find the finish of the maze together.

We see Mic again, alone, turning up her gain and calling out for Taco. Taco gives her the directions out of the maze and Mic is first to finish. The next is Baseball and Nickel, Balloon and Suitcase, and Fan and Lightbulb. The contestants at the finish see that Knife and Test Tube are still in the maze. Mic turns her gain up again and hears Knife cutting through the hedges. She then yells that the finish is over here, despite the fact that Baseball tells her not to since Test Tube could probably hear too. It turns out he was right and Knife and Test Tube both get at the finish at the same time, giving a tie.

We see all the non eliminated contestants and some other characters from other object shows sitting on bleachers. Fan is watching the 2016 live concert of A Party, sung by Pineapple. Then the show starts after people realize Starfruit is back and he gives a speech about how he left to find the real talent in him. We see Spoiled Lemon singing A Party and see the contestants such as Suitcase and Balloon, Fan and Testube, Knife, Microphone (and Taco, hiding behind a bush) but most noticeably Marshmallow looking at her drawing of Bow. Then right before the credits show up, we see Spoiled Lemon jump up and sing the chorus. Not only did the band jump up, along with a super hyper Fan.

Bright Lights

 * Lightbulb
 * Test Tube
 * Marshmallow
 * Paintbrush
 * Fan

Grand Slams

 * Microphone
 * Balloon
 * Knife
 * Suitcase
 * Nickel
 * Baseball

Meeple

 * MePhone4
 * MePad

Other

 * Toilet
 * Taco
 * Pizza Cutter (cameo)
 * Magnifying Glass (cameo)
 * Party Hat (cameo)
 * Door (debut, cameo)
 * Pickaxe (debut, cameo)

Spoiled Lemon

 * Starfruit (debut)
 * Pineapple (debut)
 * Lemon (debut)
 * Tomato (debut)
 * Guava (debut)
 * Mangosteen (debut)

Continuity

 * This is the third episode in Inanimate Insanity to have a song, the second was "Keep On Cleaning" in "Everything's A-OJ" and the first was "The Island Of Misfit Objects" in "The Snowdown".
 * This is the second time Box made a cameo in random places despite that he's eliminated.
 * At first, he appeared behind the bushes when Lightbulb asks Fan if he wants to join her.
 * Then he appeared just a bit behind the bleachers before the Spoiled Lemon starts.


 * The stick Test Tube holds when Fan is talking to her is actually the stick used as a prize in "Tri Your Best".
 * This is the second time Paintbrush's bristles appear as flames. The first time was in "Everything's A-OJ."
 * Marshmallow's drawing of Bow and her chair from "A Kick in the Right Direction" reappeared.
 * Amongst the guests at the Spoiled Lemon concert were previous recommended characters Party Hat, last seen in "The Great Escape", Magnifying Glass last seen in "Sugar Rush", as well as Pizza Cutter, last seen in "Everything's A-OJ".
 * This is the second part of the episode. It was previously Rain On Your Charade.

Cultural References

 * When MePad shows the MeTrumpet screen, a sound from Super Mario Bros 3. plays.
 * Several outside guests appear at the Spoiled Lemon concert:
 * Door from The Object Show Movie
 * Pickaxe from Object Madness
 * Drum from Infection
 * Hatty from House of Lifelessness
 * Clapperboard from the YoungArts short

Trivia

 * The episode's challenge was hinted at in one of Taylor's DeviantArt AMAs, in which he states the challenge is on MePhone4's whiteboard.
 * The challenge was later revealed to be a maze, which we can see when taking the first letter of each challenge written in blue on the whiteboard to form the word "MAZE".
 * This episode's title is based on the expression, "dazed and confused".
 * On MePhone4's whiteboard, the challenge idea was written in red (Pie Eating Challenge) is a scrapped challenge stated on TheTGrodz's Inanimate Insanity Secrets.
 * This is the second episode to have an "and" in the middle of its name, the first being "Theft and Battery".
 * One of the members of the Spoiled Lemons band, Pineapple, appeared, as discussed by the crew of Inanimate Insanity in one of AnimationEpic's live streams.
 * This is the first time Lightbulb calls Fan by his actual name.
 * This episode breaks Suitcase's 3-episode streak of being in the thumbnail.
 * MePad only had a single line in this episode since his voice actor could've been mostly inactive at the time.
 * Knife was not penalized for cheating like Lightbulb and Fan were.
 * This could be because MePhone4 was either not at his watch post or on his way down from it, so he probably didn't see Knife cheating.
 * Knife was also blindly cutting through the maze, unable to see the direction he should be going on, unlike Fan and Lightbulb.
 * The episode was highly referenced in Episode 9 of another object show, Object Oppose.

Goofs

 * Before Test Tube is completely burned, her face disappeares even though her liquid still can be seen.
 * When Microphone is looking at Taco during the band, the outline of Taco's head appeared in the background.
 * After spinning fan around, Fan is smaller than Lightbulb when she holds him. When she puts him down, his size is restored.
 * When Test Tube falls to the ground, her liquid does not spill.
 * When the lights are dimmed at the concert and the voice says, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Spoiled Lemon is finally reunited." you can see that Fan doesn't have the hole in him anymore. However, his hole is there again when Lightbulb winks at Starfruit and when he jumps up by the band.
 * When Fan says 'When's the focus gonna be me?', Big L Mouth has a big outline.
 * When Balloon says 'Maybe is because that gain on your back', for a frame his mouth is fully black. However, the same thing happened to Microphone when she says 'I gotta go, Thanks, Balloon!'.
 * At 3:30, some tag mysteriously appeared on the base of the lever reading ‘Pull me. I dare you.’. Although this could be an easter egg.

Deaths

 * Test Tube is burnt to death with the fire thrower.