"Branchception" is the second segment of the 2nd episode of the fourth season of Trolls: The Beat Goes On!, and the 41st overall episode in the series. It premiered on November 2, 2018.
Synopsis[]
Branch gets trapped in a dream in which everyone worships him.
Plot[]
Branch is tracking a mysterious critter that has entered the area of Troll Village. He hears one of his traps go off and goes to see what it caught. It turns out to be the rest of the Snack Pack and all of them are annoyed with him for setting up traps in the "don't put your traps here zone". Poppy states they talked with Branch about his traps problem and had an intervention about it. During the meeting, Branch had also caught everyone in his traps.
Branch tells Poppy that there is a new critter in the village, to which Poppy says that he is always finding more reasons to add village defenses. As the two talk, Poppy states friends are supposed to tell they are friends when their acting crazy and as Branch talks, the group tells him to get them down.
Branch goes around and gets rid of the traps, annoyed he has to. As he disarms the traps, the critter he has been tracking launches itself at him and he blacks out.
He wakes up at his bunker and thinks the day had been a crazy dream. As he goes to check his book of strange creatures, a banging on his bunker door attracts his attention. He opens the bunker hatch to find the Trolls celebrating him, which confuses him. Poppy shows him that one of his traps caught a Growl Beast, placing Branch in further doubt as he disarmed them all. As they talk, another predator is caught, followed by a third.
Later that day, Branch's traps have caught 157 and counting predators, and the entire village is adoring him. As he eats up the attention he turns to Gary, who begins to talk. Inanimate objects don't talk, and Branch realizes something strange is going on. He exits to his bunker and reads his book. It turns out that he was attacked by a Dream Sucker, and is caught inside a dream that he cannot wake from, unless he shocks himself awake or else he might get trapped in the dream permanently.
Poppy appears and calls him smart for figuring out what's going on, while Branch is left wondering how The Snack Pack got into his bunker. They begin to sing again and praise him, but this time Branch isn't having any of it. He demands them to let him out of the dream. Poppy asks him why he would want to leave, as life can be anything he wants it to be here. The Trolls can even see through Creek's manipulation. Cooper also shows that reality can be manipulated to how he wants it to be.
Branch still resists because these are not his real friends. The dream Snack Pack attempts to trap Branch in a never ending hug, but he realizes he can just fly away and thus does. In order to shock himself awake, he must do something dramatic; he drops Gary, despite Gary pleading with him.
Branch wakes up and finds the Dream Sucker hiding in his hair, But It escapes and Poppy shows up to apologize, as though she doesn't always agree with him she values him. Branch asks her if she would eat a drum for him and she asks him if he's crazy, thus proving it is not a dream. Branch gives her a hug and states that for real there is a Dream Sucker on the loose.
The episode ends with the reveal of the Dream Sucker's next victim, Biggie, who is trapped in a world of Mr. Dinkles'.
Cast[]
- Skylar Astin as Branch
- Amanda Leighton as Queen Poppy
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Smidge and Toby Poppits
- Ron Funches as Cooper
- Fryda Wolff as Satin & Chenille
- Sean T. Krishnan as Guy Diamond
- Matt Lowe as Creek
- David Fynn as Biggie
- DJ Suki (non-speaking)
- Fuzzbert (non-speaking)
- Other
Songs[]
Physical distribution[]
This episode is available on the "Trolls: The Beat Goes On! - Complete Seasons 1-4" DVD.
Trivia[]
- The title is a reference to the movie Inception.
- This is the second episode to have Branch's name in the title, the first being "Fun Branch".
- A "sucker" describes a gullible person, referring to how it uses dreams to trick someone and trap them in a constant dream.
- All members of The Snack Pack appear in this episode, which rarely happens in episodes of Trolls: The Beat Goes On!. Most episodes in the series feature members of the group, but leave some of them out.
- A storyboard for the dream sequence was put online. Originally, Fluffleberry was going to be mentioned again in this episode. It was last seen in "Fluffleberry Quest", wherein The Snack Pack went to great lengths to recover the lost Fuffleberry cake recipe; in this episode's sequence, they tempt Branch to stay with giant cakes. When they chase him, they didn't have drums; they were simply chasing him to hug him. Branch also attempted to wake himself up with cold water.[1]
- One of the activities Gary lists he and Branch can do is catch. In a callback to this, the Trolls: TrollsTopia episode "It's Dad-urday" has Branch seen playing catch with Gary. To Branch's confusion, Gary throws the ball back at him.
- When Branch yells out “GAAAAARYYYY!!!!”, he yells it in the same style as the titular character from the trailer of the Nickelodeon movie “The Spongebob Movie: Sponge On The Run”, Which wasn’t supposed to be released until somewhere in 2021, so this might as well just be a coincidence.
Videos[]
