"All of you are guests on my show, and you will play my game as long as I want you to. Understand?"
— Bob
The team somehow finds themselves playing on a game show called "Garfle Warfle Snick!", where the host, Bob, demands that they rack up enough points to win their freedom. When they are unable to guess one of the answers on the first round (which is Pictionary-esque, with Keith as the artist), they are pitted against an opposing team consisting of Zarkon, Haggar, Lotor, and Morvok. The Galra team steals their answer and Zarkon has Lance play the next couple of rounds by himself. When Lance winds up trapped in liquid that will slowly cook him to death, Pidge is chosen to play the next round to save him — except she attacks Bob instead and demands that the team is let go.
Bob has them play one last round — each paladin chooses one teammate to walk free; everyone else is trapped forever. When everyone on the team gets one vote without anybody voting for themselvesnote , Bob declares that they win.
The paladins awaken in their respective lions, each thinking that the game show was a dream. Coran explains that Bob is an all-powerful, all-knowing being, and those that meet him and live are destined for greatness.
Tropes:
- Aerith and Bob: The host of the show is named Bob, when other aliens on the show have weirder alien names. Apparently it's a very unusual name outside of Earth as Coran immediately knows Bob's true nature after hearing his name.
- Breather Episode: Described as such by the show's own creators. The episode itself is completely detached from the main plot.
- The Bus Came Back: Played with in Morvok's case, as it's a fake version of him.
- Call-Back: The Snick was apparently the name of the creature that tried to eat Kuron in "The Journey".
- Confetti Drop: When Bob announces their victory, confetti drops in from somewhere. Fitting for a game show parody episode.
- Continuity Cavalcade: Several minor characters from previous seasons are mentioned.
- Cutting the Knot: When Pidge is told to play a game of mini-golf to advance the game, she uses the opportunity to attack Bob and demand he let them out. While she does surprise him, it ultimately fails to work.
- Emo Teen: Lotor acts a lot like this — an angsty teenager at odds with his parents, who allegedly never appreciated his talents. Played for Laughs.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Bob warns Lance that if he fails the last name from his past he'll be fed to the Snick, and shows a video feed of it. Lance yells that no one said anything about the Snick, to which Bob replies that it was in the title of the show, "Garfle Warfle Snick".
- Game Show Appearance: The entirety of this episode is this.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: The heroes versus the villains at a game show.
- Hand Signals: The group spells out Rolo's name with their arms, but when Lance doesn't get the hint, they then spell out "KILL".
- Immoral Reality Show: "Garfle Warfle Snick!", where contestants can get fed to a monstrous Snick or be cooked alive while the audience cheers.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Bob spends most of his time on screen acting like a smug asshole to the Paladins while also threatening them with imprisonment. At the end, however, when he gives the heroes a chance to grant freedom to one of their teammates, he immediately lets them all go when not a single paladin selfishly votes for themselves. Then there's the reveal that he's an interdimensional being who is known for testing heroes, and those who he judges worthy are destined for greatness. This trope is lampshaded at the end of the episode.
- Kitschy Local Commercial: Three of them, also doubling as Continuity Nods, the first two go all the way back to "Space Mall"; the first ad is for the guy who was selling Earth items (positioned as an Insane Proprietor), while the second for the restaurant Hunk worked at (promoting the recipes he invented). The third, meanwhile, calls back to "The Depths", with the planet in that episode now being a tourist spot.
- Large-Ham Announcer: As provided by Jeff Bennett.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Pidge using the mini golf to ricochet the ball around the studio until it hit Bob and she used the opportunity to tackle him to the floor.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: The opposing team consists of the Galra royal family...and Morvok, one of Zarkon's worthless underlings.
- Nepotism: According to Bob, Norlox is the announcer because his uncle owns the studio.
- Oh, Crap!: The paladins expressions when the host reveals that the opposing team was Zarkon, Haggar, and Lotor.
- Real After All: After everyone wakes up they all assumed it was All a Dream until they realised they shared the dream and when Coran hears Bob's name, he tells them Bob's true identity as an interdimensional lifeform who judges heroes.
- Running Gag: During the game where Lance has to identify the people from their journey just by their face, the image usually stops for a moment on someone Lance recognizes only to quickly switch to a person he doesn't.
- Shout-Out: To Game Shows from The '70s. The host is named after, and sounds like, Bob Eubanks (host of The Newlywed Game and Card Sharks, among others), and his VA John Henson (no relation to Jim Henson's son John) hosted the game show Wipeout (2008) for several years. The set in particular is modeled after that era's editions of The Price Is Right and Family Feud, while the logo is reminiscent of The Dating Game's. The format, meanwhile, also recalls Feud, as well as Win, Lose or Draw and Password.
- Voice of the Legion: Bob's voice when the paladins try to refuse to play his game.
- Wait, What?: When Keith claims that the reason he chose Lance was because he didn't want to be stuck in the show forever with him, Lance is at first happy before being appalled by the answer when its full meaning kicks in.
