"Switcher-Ruby" is the first segment of the 7th and final episode of the eighth season of Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, and the 102nd overall episode in the series. It premiered on November 22, 2019.
Synopsis[]
A ruby switches Poppy's and Branch's minds into each other's body. They struggle to carry out each other's respective duties as they wait for the ruby to recharge.
Plot[]
The new Troll Village water slide is being declared open by Queen Poppy. When she pulls the certain, she is greeted by a wooden cutout sign of Branch. Branch has taken it upon himself to close the slide to make repairs because a gem has grown against one of the supports, claiming that it threatens to off-set the entire structure. Poppy isn't impressed, hoping that it is a serious situation and not him obsessively worrying over insignificant flaws. Poppy postpones the opening for "reasons of Branch".
As the crowd dispenses, Poppy decides that it is time to give Branch a piece of her mind, as this is disruptive to her busy schedule. The two get into a row over how they couldn't walk a day in each other's hair. As they argue, Poppy grabs hold of the gem he is holding and it glows. They are sent flying away from each other and get up to realize they look like each other but have kept their voices. Branch is stuck inside Poppy's body and freaks out while Poppy criticizes Branch's "weird" body.
They go to the Troll Village library and look up the gem. It turns out to be a rare "switcher-ruby" that has the ability to switch two Trolls with each other's bodies. Fortunately, after just one day, the gem resets and they can switch back. Branch wants to go back and finish fixing the water slide, but Poppy stops him, stating that the issue is that if the village senses anything wrong with her, they are prone to freaking out. She flashbacks to a time she sneezed and the village put her on bed rest for a week.
Outside, Poppy states the entire village shut down and Branch has to pretend to be her. Smidge approaches with a problem and the two have to invent a reason they sound off quickly and Smidge buys it. Branch has to make a speech with Poppy helping him get by.
After the speech, Biggie approaches, wanting share photos of Mr. Dinkles. Although Poppy loves looking at them, she is stuck in Branch's body, so Branch has to go look at them instead, but Poppy realizes that Branch gets left out of things because he has no interest in them and no one expects him to. He loses his patience with Biggie, as he is just showing him identical pictures of Mr. Dinkles. Poppy tells him to go back and continue to look at the photos or the village will figure out something is wrong.
At that moment, DJ Suki approaches as she needs Branch's help with her pod's plumping. Since Poppy is stuck in Branch's body she has to go do it, and Branch lets DJ pull Poppy away. At the pod, Poppy looks at the leak, but doesn't have any tools. DJ points out that Branch carries his tools in his hair, and after pulling several items out, including a morning star, finds what she is after. However, she has no idea about what she's doing, and while trying to fix the leak causes not only DJ's pod to flood, but other pods too.
Branch is strolling through the village, believing that Poppy makes his life way harder than it looks. At that moment, the switcher-ruby glows and Branch knows all he has to do now is find Poppy and switch back. However, he's stopped in his tracks by other Trolls, who are concerned about how "Poppy" reacted to Biggie earlier. They do a "In-Hair-Vention". where they use their hair to enclose Branch in a tight space to talk to "Poppy" about her behavior. Branch starts to talk, but he makes things only worst and then forgets the name of one of the Trolls who's present, despite [Poppy] being at her birthday party yesterday. Looking for an explanation to "Poppy"'s weird behavior, Branch accidentally says he is not feeling well today.
Branch is soon being chased through the village by Trolls with hot soup, as he flees to avoid being caught. As he runs, he is pulled into a bush by Poppy. They apologize for criticizing each other, and now realize they don't have life as easy as the other thinks they do. They switch back using the ruby.
Now back in her body, Poppy has to fix a few mistakes Branch made. She stops the crowd and says to redo the Mr. Dinkles' photos. She also calls Violet by her name, asking her if she wants a dance party at her pod. As Poppy walks away, she tells Branch that he also has to fix a few things; several pipes burst out of the ground around him.
Cast[]
- Amanda Leighton as Queen Poppy
- Skylar Astin as Branch
- David Fynn as Biggie
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Smidge, Rufus and Klaus Von Frousting
- Fryda Wolff as Dr. Moonbloom, DJ Suki and Violet
- Other
Physical distribution[]
This episode is available on the "Trolls: The Beat Goes On! - Complete Seasons 5-8" DVD.
Trivia[]
- The episode's title is a pun on "Switcheroo" and "Ruby".
- This isn't the first example of Branch being left out of events. In "Fun Branch", Branch was left out of The Snack Pack's fun, mostly because Branch prefers to be on his own, and even when joining in with what's going on in the village; such as in "Two's A Cloud", where he quickly escapes from the other Trolls to be by himself because of a 10-day group hug, as they start a game of hide and seek due to him needing some time to himself after the hug. So Biggie presumed "Branch" in this episode wouldn't be interested in Mr. Dinkles' photos for a reason.
- The episode imploys the trope "switching minds also switches voices", this is something that if a mind-switching event was to occur would not be possible. The physical differences between each individual results in the voice being unable to change with the mind. The reason voices are switched in mind-switching episodes is simply that its difficult for the viewer to follow "who switched with who", or to save voice actors trying to mimic each other's voices and their character's speech style.
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