The Penultimate Poll

The Penultimate Poll is the 16th episode of Inanimate Insanity. While someone is forgiven, an elimination threatens to break up an alliance. In the end, one's friend leaves. The challenge causes confusion at first, eliminated contestants return and vote out one, leaving the final two.

Intro
The episode starts with Pickle teaching Taco how to play a ring toss. Pickle misses, but Taco lands one, with Pickle summing it up to "beginner's luck." OJ comes by, but Pickle is still upset that OJ didn't allow Paper to help Taco with her lemon problem. OJ admits that he's sorry for what he did, and Pickle accepts it, also stating how his left eye doesn't hurt anymore. OJ reminds him that he was hit on his right eye. Pickle unceremoniously takes off his eye patch as OJ facepalms.

Elimination Time!
MePhone4 starts the elimination by using Meeple's MePhone to TV software, allowing MePhone to host from the TV screen. Everyone tries to guess what the last prizes are- OJ thinking they'll finally get cookies, Paper wanting kabobs, Taco shouting "SOUR CREAM", and Pickle thinking a new pair of socks. MePhone claims that coincidentally, the prizes are "sour sock cream and cookie kabobs", but without cookies. MePhone starts to explain why, but the 4 contestants finish his sentence for him, very much used to his fat slob habits. MePhone announced that OJ had immunity, so he was safe. Out of the 639 votes, Taco only received 125. MePhone then stated that no matter who was eliminated, an alliance would be broken up. He says the name of the person going home starts with a P, and Paper anxiously asks him to get on with the results. Paper received 184, and Pickle was eliminated with a record of 329 votes. Pickle starts to give some words of encouragement to Taco but is punched away by the Fist Thingy before he can finish.

Eliminated Contestant Elimination Time!
OJ is relieved that Paper is safe, stating he would have felt guilty if he wasn't since Paper gave him immunity last episode. Paper then declares that they now outnumber Taco, and asks MePhone what the next challenge is. MePhone announces that the challenge was not be eliminated, which confuses OJ, who says that's always the challenge. MePhone explains it's as simple as that-  the eliminated contestants would be voting the last person off, leaving only the Final Two. OJ is surprised at how calm they all are but is soon contradicted when Knife threatens to kill MePhone but is held back by Bomb and Lightbulb.

At first, the Voting Box was going to be used, but Baseball was unable to fit in it. MePhone decides to let them vote out in the open. Baseball votes for Paper, believing his evil side was just an impression. Knife votes for Paper for betraying him, but Paper points out that Knife was the one who betrayed him in the first place. Nickel votes for Taco, blaming her for making Lightbulb Team Epic's captain in "The Crappy Cliff". Taco kicks Nickel and Paper tells Taco to stop kicking people.

Balloon votes for Taco, which Pickle yells at him for. Balloon tells Pickle he sucks but ends up getting popped by him with a needle. Pepper doesn't know who to vote for, but Salt tells her not to vote for OJ, since he's her "best friend and maybe even something more than that." Pepper gets mad at Salt, claiming that they were supposed to be BCFFs, and that meant Salt couldn't have any other friends or love interests.

Angrily, Pepper votes for OJ, threatening that she'll spill him if he goes anywhere near Salt, causing her to end their friendship. Lightbulb votes for OJ, since she pities Paper's and Taco's mental problems, offending them. Salt votes for Paper, since she's still in love with OJ and she feels bad for Taco's mental instability. Paintbrush decides to vote for OJ. When OJ asks why, Paintbrush replies that he/she is still upset by the events of "The Snowdown", saying his/her tree was better then OJs. OJ says that was months ago, but Paintbrush replied that it hurt him/her more every day. Bow begins to bang around in her box, trying to get out, but Lightbulb kicks it, stating she didn't permit her to escape.

Bomb votes for OJ, claiming he hasn't caused OJ enough pain yet. Marshmallow votes for Taco as payback for her voting for her in "Inanimate Smackdown". MePhone realizes that there's a gap in the voting, but decides to ignore it, forgetting that Apple is still on Idiotic Island, who suddenly gets a strange desire to find the meaning of the word gap. It's Bow's turn to vote, but being as she's still in the box, Knife feigns her voice and casts her vote for Paper, which Marshmallow sarcastically remarks is legit.

The Final Vote
With all of the votes tied, it's up to Pickle to choose the person leaving the game. Pickle berates OJ for being too competitive and making reckless decisions. He also points out that he complains a lot, despite not winning many challenges. Pickle then tells Paper he was too much of a follower. After a few seconds of thought, Pickle votes for Paper, saying that while OJ was a bit too competitive, he did apologize to him earlier and stayed in the entire game. He says the reason he chose Paper was that Paper had skipped half of the game and he relied on OJ too much. Paper claims that Taco relied too much on Pickle, and it only made her do worse. With the most votes, Paper, along with everyone else, is sent back to Idiotic Island. OJ gets mad at Taco, believing Paper should be in the Finals instead of her, which Taco replies to with a simple "Salmonella." MePhone announces Taco and OJ to be the final 2, and the winner would be chosen in the next episode.

After the credits, Bow manages to punch a hole through her box, showing her hand had become clawed, and lets out a terrifying roar, signifying she may have gone insane, leaving the episode on yet another cliffhanger.

Trivia

 * When the episode was uploaded, it was not watchable outside the United States. This was due to a glitch in uploading, and the problem was later resolved.
 * This is the second time a double elimination has occurred. The first time was in "Aquatic Conflict" (Salt and Paintbrush, respectively)
 * Coincidentally, both contestants' names start with "P".
 * This is the last episode where contestants and the viewers vote.
 * Pickle's left eye is seen for the first time since "Aquatic Conflict".
 * This episode is called The Penultimate Poll because it is the second-to-last episode, and the eliminated contestants got to vote off a contestant.
 * Bow is the only contestant who did not speak or was seen in the entire episode.
 * Though she is heard slightly screaming inside her box, and roaring with her hand out of the box at the end.
 * During Pickle's thoughts on who to vote for, his logic progression is shown through a scene animated with quick drawings of the characters.
 * Salt and Pepper are not voiced by Crasi4tunes in this episode. They are voiced by Adam's sister, who also voiced Taco. It remained Private.
 * Salt had actually prevented herself from staying with OJ by telling Pepper not to vote him off.
 * The mouths were updated and are still used in Season 2.
 * It's unknown if Bow actually voted for Paper, because she was still stuck in her box.

Deaths

 * Balloon is popped by Pickle with a needle.

Goofs

 * As OJ apologizes to Pickle, the clouds in the background do not change in size or location.
 * When MePhone4 first shows the "Sour Sock Cream and Cookie Kabobs", they have cookies within them. However, after announcing that he ate them, the cookies disappear, without MePhone ever shown eating them.
 * When Pickle gets punched by the Fist Thingy, The label "Fist Thingy" isn't seen.
 * When MePhone4 explains that the eliminated contestants will be voting out one of the current players, the eliminated contestant's bodies are in the old style, excluding Apple, Balloon, and Nickel.
 * Bow's character body is also incorrect, as the two triangular sides are incorrectly connected.
 * Salt also has an empty space in her lower body.
 * A YouTube user has said that after totaling all the contestants' votes, this episode had actually received 638 votes, which AnimationEpic has agreed with.
 * Pickle suddenly appeared in the left corner when Balloon voted for Taco.
 * After everyone but Pickle has voted, MePhone4 says that the votes are "all tied up." However, at the time, OJ and Paper had 4 votes each, while Taco only had 3.
 * When MePhone4 says "Decision!" to Pickle and MePhone4 raises his hands, two little-transparent hands are above MePhone4's hands.
 * However, at the same time, MePhone4 wasn't shaking his hands.