The Life Aquatic With Chris Maclean: Episodes 16-19
Episode 16
Things are going pretty normally for the contestants back on the boat, who are unaware of the halfway challenge. After a season of growing closer and closer as friends, Nathaniel and Dawn are now very tight and essentially a couple in all ways but officially.
However, things take a sharp left early when Chris announces that the halfway challenge has occurred and that the winner was Eva, who climbs aboard the ship. Not too many people are happy to she that she has won, and even more so when Eva starts behaving in her usual agressive ways: after going so long without having a shot at the contest, she's more agro than normal and begins picking on every one she can, including Bridgette the "back-stabbing Killer Bass." (In the confession cam, Bridgette remarks in exasperation, "She still remembers that?!… That was years ago!")
As Chris is announcing Eva, however, even he is surprised when Blaineley climbs onto the ship. Blaineley reveals to him that the producers liked her hosting the halfway challenge so much that they asked her to come on the main show to co-host with him. Chris is mortified, and spends the episode awkwardly trying to split hosting duties with Blaineley. Geoff and Bridgette are unhappy about seeing Blaineley as well, though the hostess tries hard to suck up and be nice to them and all the other contestants, creating a stark contrast to Chris' mean-spirited behavior.
Following Eva's arrival, Chris says that as a reward for her getting on, she gets to choose who gets booted off next. Eva wickedly smirks at and intimidates Zoey, saying she wants it to be the traitorous, back-stabbing player who kept her from getting her rightful spot on the show in the first place (Zoey literally nabbed the final clam at the reunion out of Eva's hands). Zoey tries to downplay this - saying that by doing so, she essentially gave Eva a shortcut to the halfway point - but Eva doesn't buy it and chooses her to be voted off. Zoey is shoved in an inner tube and tossed off the boat with virtually no closure before the challenge has even started, angering her friends and devastating Mike, who didn't get so much as a chance to say good-bye. Eva is given Zoey's spot on the Raging Starfish, and is immediately disliked among her teammates. Chris then details the challenge, which is likely a sand castle building contest, and the teams are whisked off to a beach to see who can build the most impressive castle.
In addition to being immediately unpopular for kicking off a well-liked player, Eva makes herself even less-liked by being an aggressive jerk to everyone around her and seemingly looking for people to pick on. She especially likes to harass Bridgette, for that old and extremely petty Killer Bass grudge, and takes a special liking to bullying Tyler, who she sees as a rival thanks to him labeling himself as an "athlete" and relentlessly mocks him for his awful atheletic abilities. Tyler has been coming to grips with the idea that he might actually be a terrible athlete all season, and Eva's bullying only makes this worse. Before the challenge is over, many of her team members are already talking about voting her off immediately.
With his girlfriend getting booted off unfairly and abruptly and being unable to have even a good-bye or any form of closure with her, Mike is having a very hard time coping this episode (this is the first time he's been without Zoey on Total Drama and it's giving him anxiety, especially since he feels she caused him to lose his MPD). He even goes into a few rages across the episode, and the other players try to comfort and calm him down.
In the end, even though B uses his genius to create AMAZING SAND ARCHITECTURE, the BSAs lose the challenge (the Starfish are actually a little bit salty about this, as many of them were looking forward to getting rid of Eva). After having to vote out Alejandro, Scott has been in the market for another second-in-command, and sees an opportunity with girl. Like Alejandro, she has a massive strength that would be useful for him (Al was revered/feared as one of the greatest players in the game, and Eva has immense physical strength that makes her invaluable in challenges), but also a weakness that he could take advantage of (Alejandro had been sullen and downcast and could easily be manipulated, where Eva's aggression has made her extremely unpopular and she's gonna be voted out quick unless something changes). Scott appears to her and gives her the usual schtick for his alliance. However, Eva has been watching the show from the resort the whole time and knows Scott's true colors, and threatens to expose him to the others, just for giggles. Now desperate, Scott reveals how her behavior has made her extremely unpopular and that the others are planning to vote her out the first chance they get, and that she needs his protection and alliance to stay in the game - while the others may not like her, they do trust Scott and will begrudgingly keep if he suggests that they do it. He says she needs to learn to use strategy, and not just depend on physical intimidation. So the two make an alliance out of neccesity, with Scott keeping Eva in the game in exchange for her not exposing his true intentions.
The BSAs have to vote someone out, and hopefully try to convince Chris that they don't need an elimination, as Zoey already got booted this episode. Chris happily informs them that Zoey's elimination was actually from last episode, but she just wasn't around to actually be eliminated. Sadly, Brick ends up getting the boot. After having his girlfriend booted abruptly and unfairly, and then having his best friend and source of comfort on the show get eliminated the same episode, Mike is even more distraught. He has a rage-filled rant on the confession cam, which is interrupted when he has a deep gasp, his hair flips over his eye MAL-STYLE, and he lets out a long, wicked laugh, before he gasps and returns to normal, confused about what just happened.
DUN DUN DUN….
Reason for voting off Zoey and Brick: The last several episodes leading up to the halfway mark were kind of light and fun, without any major conflict happening across them. I kind of thought of this as the calm before the storm: after the halfway mark, I wanted the overall story to pick up and things to get a little crazier and chaotic - I guess you could say "darker," but this is also still a goofy comedy story based on a cartoon. Maybe "more serious," I don't know, but you get the drift. Part of this would come from Eva and Blaineley arriving and messing with the character dynamics, but also, as you could probably get from the hint, a subplot regarding Mike's MPD. In order to get this to happen, I needed to have him go through something somewhat mentally distressing - which is why his two closest friends on the show had to be eliminated in the same episode, and Zoey's had to be quick, abrupt, and unfair, without any real closure, to enrage him. This would hopefully upset and anger him enough for him to drop his guard, with Brick being the icing on the cake, which would allow his condition to put a foot in the door.
With Eva and Blaineley now being on the show, I've gotta note a few general things that they'll do across the remainder of the story:
Unlike Chris, Blaineley tries to be friendly and sucks up to the contestants to make them happy - constantly dropping hints like "Aren't I just the greatest host?" and "Aren't I a way better host than Chris?" In acting like this, she gradually gains much more popularity than Chris as far as the contestants are concerned, and continues to make him look bad.
Eva, on the other hand, will try to bully pretty much anyone she can, but two relationships that really stick out over the course of the season are Bridgette and Tyler. To show off her pettiness, Eva still forces a rivalry with Bridgette that she gained from TDI, and takes special sadistic pleasure in mocking Tyler for being awful at sports, in the face of Tyler trying his hardest in every athletic situation. These two rivalries are a constant source of conflict from here on out.
Raging Starfish:
Eva
Geoff
Katie
Mike
Noah
Scott
Trent
Bloodthirsty Sea Anemones:
B
Bridgette
Dakota
Dawn
Lindsay
Nathaniel
Tyler
Episode 17:
For the next several episodes, the standard intro/recap at the beginning will have little gimmicks with Chris and Blaineley trying to share hosting duties. For this episode, Chris presents almost the entire thing, but when he says the last sentence, "Total… Drama…" Blaineley pops up in front of him and steals "Ocean!"
This is a slightly special episode. Chris is contacted by the authorities to be informed that an oil spill has occurred nearby. It's revealed that the show's producers actually struck a deal to get Chris out of jail early so that he could host the show, but only under the condition that Chris helps clean up an environmental disaster should one arise (in return for him causing one on Wawanakwa). Forced to either help with the spill or face jail, Chris has the great idea of having the kids clean it up instead for the challenge!
Besides that, lots of drama and character moments occur this episode. Dawn and Nathaniel were nearly a couple last episode, but Dawn has noticed that Nathaniel is becoming increasingly mean-spirited and is almost acting like a bully at times. She fears that him attempting to constantly oppose Chris and act aggressive towards the host is leading to the usual nice-guy becoming meaner and more aggressive in general, and tells him not to "let Chris' evil seep into you!" Nathaniel blows this off, but she rejects his advances, forcing him to think over his actions.
Furthermore, Blaineley continues to treat the contestants much better than Chris, but some aren't buying it. Newbie Nathaniel asks why Geoff and Bridgette are so wary of the hostess, to which Bridgette deadpans "She knocked me unconscious and shipped me to Siberia."
Blaineley ends up confessing her true motives in the confession cam: she just wants revenge on Chris after all that he put her through, and the more she plays it cool and gains popularity, the worse he looks by comparison, especially as his temper rises as he does not like sharing the spotlight. Her endgame is to eventually steal Chris' job, which is his everything.
Remember back in Episode 5 that Chris mentioned having a reward challenge at the halfway mark for those who made it that far? (Probably not, but trust me, it's there!) Well now we've passed that mark, and so Chris announces that this is a reward challenge. And, with all the people like Eva and Blaineley returning to the game, it's the perfect time for this particular reward. He challenges the players to use their "tiny little brains" and think back to the reunion challenge at the begininning of the season, in which he said one of the clams was a "grand clam" that would allow a player to return after being eliminated. He announces that that player has been voted off, and will be a reward for the team that wins today's challenge to give them a numbers advantage.
When announcing who the returnee is, he begins dropping hints that it's Zoey, greatly exciting Mike. "Our contestant is a female…" ("Yeah?" says Mike) "Who has just recently been voted off…" ("Yeah?") "She's a redhead…" ("Yeah?") "Who's easy to get along with, but can have a wild streak if you push her too far…" ("That's her! That's Zoey!") "Please welcome… Izzy!"
Trent is happy to see her, but Mike is devastated. A few other characters are also not too pleased that psycho hose-beast is the prize, with some even jokingly wondering if it's even worth trying to win the challenge if she's the reward. Still, the two teams compete to best clean up the oil spill, while Izzy gets to sit and make commentary on the side with Chris and Blaineley.
A couple other meaningful character interactions also happen this episode. After Geoff has been treating the cynic like his best friend all season, Noah finally snaps, revealing that he thought Geoff had been faking this entire time and was trying to be inclusive of Noah just because Geoff is a good guy who doesn't want anyone to be left out - Noah truthfully, somewhat unconciously, thinks he is unworthy of friends (due to his general unpopularity, in the show and his home life) and was unable to grasp that someone like Geoff might actually sincerely like him. He appreciates that Geoff is trying to make him feel wanted, but can't take someone pretending to be his friend when it's not true. A startled Geoff manages to convince Noah that he actually does like him and does see him as a friend and wasn't faking any of it. This boggles Noah's mind and causes him to become more open to the idea that he might be actually worthy of having friends. Geoff also helps talk him through a couple of other insecurities he has, such as having never made it through an elimination ceremony until this season (check it - it's actually true!) and being legitimately shocked when he wasn't the first voted off on his team this time. This all ends with Noah feeling confused but also feeling better and a little more confident about his overall situation, and starting to see Geoff as an actual friend, too.
After spending several episodes being picked on and mocked by Eva as not being a true athlete, Tyler is beginning to seriously doubt himself and his identity for the first time, and when he mentions his worries to Lindsay, they have a touching moment together where the blonde tries to support him, comparing peoples' whispers of him being poor at sports to the whispers she hears of her not being very intelligent. ("I know it may be surprising, but some people don't actually think I'm very smart." Shocked Tyler: "No!") Lindsay might not be the brightest bulb or even not the best girlfriend (due to constantly forgetting who she's with) but she does have nothing but good intentions, and she genuinely to support and help Tyler. This interaction perks Tyler up greatly, even in the face of Eva's bullying.
At one point, Nathaniel and Mike are alone in a dark, cluttered area, probably grabbing more supplies for the ongoing oil cleanup. When Mike is in a corner, Nathaniel hears him whispering and seemingly having conversations with himself, including dropping names like "Svetlana" and "Vito." Unsure, Nathaniel asks Mike if he's okay. Mike silences, freezes, and stands up to face Nathaniel with a wicked grin. Nathaniel backs away, saying, "you're kind of freaking me out, dude," as Mike advances, with his hair laying over his eye in Mal's style. Mike swings a large plank of wood and knocks Nathaniel out.
Nathaniel is found unconscious, and Mike can't remember what happened. The others are anxious, but Chris doesn't seem too worried, stating "It's just Nathaniel!" Dawn is upset since their conversation ended on a bad note. Nathaniel is placed on a bed in the ship's first aid room and remains knocked out at the end of the episode. Mike can't remember what happened, but Chris refuses to look over the footage to tell the other players, because he's Chris.
In the end, the Starfish win the reward challenge and get Izzy on their team, but after this Chris immediately announces that "Trent - you're out!" In response to everyone's confusion, Chris explains that Trent was initially supposed to be voted off back in a double elimination in episode 11, but thanks to Izzy's sacrifice, got to stay on a little longer. However, now that Izzy's back, there's no one to fill that hole, and so he's got to go. Izzy is upset because she was looking forward to spending time with Trent, but becomes extra cheesed when she realizes that Chris knew she had won the "grand clam" and would be returning from the start - meaning that he knew Trent would be eliminated no matter what and had no chance of winning, but kept him on the show just to torture him longer. Izzy is heartbroken and infuriated and expresses this by beating the stuffing out of Chris. Trent manages to calm and comfort her, telling her that he'll be okay and to win the game for him. She's heartbroken at not being able to spend more time with him, but manages to calm down, and everyone gives Trent a bittersweet good-bye as he leaves.
Reason for voting off Trent: Actually pretty similar to the reason in-universe. I originally planned to have Trent voted off with Izzy in a double elimination back in Episode 11. However, he was popular among many readers, and I felt a little guilty (especially since one of my most loyal readers at the time was having all of her favorite characters voted out early, and her fave was Trent). Trent's one of my favorites and he's also sorely underused, so I thought I could extend his stay for those that liked him by booting him at the reward episode I had planned. Since Izzy was returning, it felt like the perfect spot. She initially left the show to save him, so on her return it only made since that they would trade places.
Raging Starfish:
Eva
Geoff
Izzy
Katie
Mike
Noah
Scott
Bloodthirsty Sea Anemones:
B
Bridgette
Dakota
Dawn
Lindsay
Nathaniel
Tyler
Episode 18:
Chris begins the recap, but Blaineley interrupts and reminds him that they are now supposed to split the hosting duties evenly. They have a very awkward intro, splitting the lines more or less evenly, and trying to nab lines from the other.
Finally, they announce the typical "Total… Drama… Ocean," but before they can cut to the theme song, an older guy in a rowboat comes up to the ship. As he climbs aboard, he says he's Mike's therapist and has come to take him off the show, as he's facing severe problems with his dissociative identity disorder and the situation could get dangerous. Chris responds by shoving the man off the ship, where he is viciously attacked by a pack of sea otters. Chris then finishes the intro and the theme song plays.
As a quick note, Nathaniel is still unconscious from last episode. The episode starts with that seagull with a six-pack soda wrapper around its neck, as it lands on the ship near Dawn, who removes the wrapper. The seagull does a couple happy loopty-loops in the air, before landing on the deck where a couple more six-packs are sitting, sticks its head in one, and gets stuck again.
The wrappers are from Eva, who is drinking soda while lounging in a pool chair. Dawn politely asks her to not litter, as well as to cut the wrappers up so that sea life doesn't get stuck in them. Eva decides instead to antagonize her and says that when she wins the five million dollars, she's going to use it to buy nothing but a bunch of soda and throw all the wrappers in the ocean. Dawn is horrified and this cements their rivalry for the rest of the season. Eva continues rivalries with the Tyler/Dawn/Bridgette trifecta for as long as they're on the show.
The challenge this time is a pirate ship battle. Both teams gets a miniature pirate ship, loaded with non-lethal cannons that can help tear the rival ship apart but won't kill anyone (though they still hurt). Duncan, cameo-ing, messes with these cannons and accidentally blows off his mohawk, causing him to run off in shame. As either a reward for winning the last episode or a "part 1" challenge here, the Starfish are given an "uber cannon," a enormous cannon that could probably down their entire enemy's ship. The catch is that it has the power to seriously murder somebody, and so Chris says that they can only use it to hit parts of the ship that no one is currently in. If they end up killing anyone, Total Drama will be flooded with lawsuits and so Chris threatens that their team will be disqualified and lose the challenge if they do so (not exactly comforting, but better than nothing!)
Sometime in the episode, Noah accidentally walks into Izzy looking sad and crying a little, which is very strange for her. She hasn't noticed him, and due to Geoff rubbing off on him, Noah feels sympathy and reluctantly goes to ask her what's wrong (before this, he has a funny mental self-battle behind Izzy's back, trying to fight between helping her out or ignoring it and leaving. Sympathy finally wins). Izzy feels that no one on the show likes or cares about her, quoting the people yesterday jokingly questioning if she's even worth winning for the prize, as well as Mike's greatly unhappy response to seeing her. (No one knew she would actually take offense or care about these things.) Trent was the only one who was happy to see her, and he's gone now. Awkward and uncomfortable for every moment of it, Noah tries to be friendly and lift her up, explaining that they weren't serious and no one actually hates her. And while Izzy's happy afterwards, this is also a big moment for Noah trying to be friendlier. Izzy and Dakota also start to bond, as Izzy thinks giant radioactive monsters are awesome.
The main star here, though, is Mike. About halfway through the episode, his MPD begins acting up, as a new malevolent persona named Mal reveals himself to Mike, with the goal of taking control. While Mike is shocked that his MPD is still around, Mal reveals that they were never actually defeated, and just waited in his mind biding time until they got a chance to strike. When Mike dropped his guard to become angry and mentally distraught, basically accessing his "dark side" after Zoey's elimination, this allowed Mal and the disease as a whole to gain a foothold again.
Mike spends much of the second half of the episode battling Mal and his MPD. At first, he thinks that simply happy and confident thoughts about Zoey can defeat it, but is surprised when this has less and less effect, and he quickly finds himself more helpless. Mal mocks the idea that puppy love could cure him, and states that "We're a mental disease," telling Mike that they're with him wherever he goes, that he can never escape them, and just generally spending the episode pulling the poor guy down. He also mocks the idea of a reset button thanks to Mike thinking he could cure his MPD so easily, because man, I did not like All-Stars.
Mal spends the episode beating Mike down, and has his own musical solo shared with the other personalities (the other contestants watching him are utterly perplexed to what he's doing). This concludes with Mal tossing Mike in a mental "prison," taking over full control of his body, and deciding to start his new life by shooting the uber cannon at the Anemone's ship.
The Anemone's ship is already pretty ragged from the battle, and is starting to crumble. Inside, Tyler spots Lindsay near a heavy, crumpling beam, and warns her not to get close to it because she could get seriously injured if it collapsed on her. Lindsay happily heeds his word. However, to Tyler's shock, Dawn runs in and shoves Lindsay into the weakening spot, which collapses on the bombshell. Tyler tries to face Dawn to see what the heck that was about, but is interrupted when the entire room explodes from Mal's uber cannon, which blows all of them aside and causes the BSA's ship to sink.
Lindsay ends up in the medical room with a full-body cast from her injuries (though she's still cheerful as ever!), and Dawn is knocked out from the cannon blast. Even though Mal used the uber cannon in an area where people were, Chris still proclaims the as Starfish the winners, because it didn't cause any deaths, only seriously heinous injuries, which are OK in Chris' book. Tyler is upset because even though Lindsay will recover, injured people always get voted out and he's worried that she'll eliminated.
In the medical room, Dawn and Nathaniel wake up in beds next to each other. Nathaniel apologizes for the way he acted and says he will try to do better, while Dawn forgives him and is just glad he's okay. The two lean in to kiss, when Tyler bursts into the room, claiming that Dawn shoved Lindsay into the collapsing portion of the ship with apparently malicious intent. Everyone is confused about this, especially since Dawn can't remember it due to a concussion, and most of their teammates think Tyler is crazy and are angry at him for picking on someone as sweet and innocent as the aura reader ("This is Dawn you're talking about!" Nathaniel admonishes). Of course, this makes Tyler even more frustrated, as no one will take him seriously even though he's convinced of what he saw.
Just as Tyler feared, Lindsay is voted out due to her injuries (though she's peppy through all of it). The episode ends with Tyler feeling accusatory of Dawn despite everyone claiming he's crazy, and Mal now inhabiting Mike's body without anyone knowing any better.
Reason for voting off Lindsay: Well to fuel this new Tyler/Dawn storyline, of course! Tyler's kind of had a hard season, spending the first half slowly realizing he might actually suck at sports, and that has now gotten much worse with Eva constantly bullying him about it. Especially after Eva started messing with him, Lindsay became Tyler's major rock and support, such as when she cheered him up last episode. Now that she's gone, Tyler has to face this alone, as well as being convinced he's the only one who knows that Dawn is up to something, regardless of what the others think of him.
Raging Starfish:
Eva
Geoff
Izzy
Katie
Mike
Noah
Scott
Bloodthirsty Sea Anemones:
B
Bridgette
Dakota
Dawn
Nathaniel
Tyler
Episode 19:
Blaineley opens and gives the entire intro for the episode. At the end, Chris walks on camera, dressed in a bathrobe and holding a cup of coffee. He is mortified that Blaineley would do the entire intro without him.
The challenge this week is to break into a grocery store and free their lobsters, Mission-Impossible style. Sam and Anne Maria both cameo, having some role in the challenge (such as hint givers or possibly getaway drivers), with one helping each team.
Tyler continues his Dawn rivalry, being suspicious, angry, and distrustful of her. Dawn doesn't know why and is also distressed by his hostile attitude. Tyler is further frustrated by the fact that everyone views Dawn as some sweet angelic person, and therefore no one takes him seriously, and he's being viewed as antagonistic. Between this, Eva's bullying, and becoming more and more aware of the fact that he sucks at sports, this second half of the season is rough for Tyler. Nathaniel, who is good friends with both Tyler and Dawn, tries desperately to keep the peace.
Mal continues to have control of Mike's body, deciding that winning the game and making five mil would be a sweet way to start off his new life - no matter the cost. Being a total psychopath, Mal doesn't care if he hurts anyone in his way, and in fact takes a certain glee at the thought. Dawn finds herself in trouble when she reads Mike's aura and sees the truth about Mal, and Mal targets her all episode so that she doesn't get the word out, putting the fragile aura reader in serious trouble.
However, after getting utterly beaten down last episode, Mike takes a stand against Mal and the other personalities, fighting for control of his body. This eventually culminates in an epic battle of Mike vs. Mal completely within his mind, which looks a lot less impressive to the confused contestants watching from the outside wondering why he's stumbling around slapping himself. (Somewhere in here is the obligatory joke about the reality TV show somehow catching footage inside Mike's head).
Mike gains the strength to fight by recognizing and accepting that he may never be able to rid himself of his mental condition, but choosing to resist and seek treatment in any way he can instead of sinking into despair and self-pity over it. With the added strength and realization from this, Mike gains control of his mind, rendering Mal powerless within the mental landscape. In Mike's head, Mal has fallen into a mental "pit" and Mike is preparing to finish him off, when Mal angrily remarks that his efforts are pointless: he reminds Mike that they are stuck with him forever, and he can never destroy or get rid of them. Mike recognizes this, and says that while that may be true, with professional help, and the love and support of friends and family, he can "bury" Mal and his condition. And if he keeps on fighting and getting the love and help he needs, he can keep on burying them again and again, to the point where Mal can never affect or have any control over his life again. He finishes this speech by summoning a mental rockslide to "bury" Mal within the pit. (Get it? Eh? Symbolism? Yeah!)
Mike is back in control, and when his team loses, he maturely asks his teammates to vote him off, recognizing that he needs professional help. They do so, but after voting, Chris announces that it's a double elimination night, and one more person will be voted off. This turns out to be Noah, who had a single vote against him (Scott was the only one who didn't vote for Mike because secretly he was unhappy about losing an alliance member). Noah and Mike head out together, and Taco the mermaid makes her first appearance she was eliminated to be there for her "boyfriend," and helps push them to shore, possibly where Zoey and Mike's therapist (beaten up but having survived his otter attack) are waiting.
Reason for voting off Mike and Noah: For Mike's personal big finale before he left the show, I knew I wanted him to have to face his MPD again. I planned from the start to have him face off against an evil persona, and when All-Stars went the same route, I thought it would be a nice reference to star Mal. Like many, I found the representation of mental illness in All-Stars insulting, and so tried to make this a little parable about mental disease: where Mike has to face that the puppy love with Zoey that he thought cured his illness was false and that he's stuck with it, but instead of becoming depressed and retreating into perpetual self-pity, he becomes empowered upon realizing that he can fight the disease and be seen as victorious even if he can never fully get rid of it. For anyone reading, I also didn't want to paint a false fantasy where anyone can get rid of a mental illness just by wishing hard enough, but to show that it is manageable and one can be victorious with professional help and that of friends and family. Wanting Mike to take the final mature step by voting himself out, I knew he would be gone shortly after this arc, and the timing of this was based on Eva's return: I thought her booting Zoey would be useful in jumpstarting the MPD arc, so his arc and elimination occurred in the episodes following the halfway point. (Mike also was a main character of Revenge, so I didn't want to have him get much farther than this anyway.)
When I was planning when the handful of double eliminations in the season would occur, I thought this episode would also be a good choice, because it raises the tensions since by the end everyone knew that Mike was going to be voted out anyway (and having a second elimination because of that is totally something Chris would do). So, I had Noah be voted out here also. This was largely because I had run through most of Noah's arc: he had to face his fear, he was unwillingly taken under Geoff's wing, he finally had his large character moment where he realized he was worthy of friendship and that Geoff actually liked him, he repaid this and showed that he had changed by helping out Izzy, and I got him a stupid mermaid girlfriend (all the other eligible bachelorettes didn't fit well with the story so I just gave up and paired him with that). So, it just seemed the right time to let him go.
Raging Starfish:
Eva
Geoff
Izzy
Katie
Scott
Bloodthirsty Sea Anemones:
B
Bridgette
Dakota
Dawn
Nathaniel
Tyler
Voted off: Owen, Heather, Sierra/Cody, Gwen, Staci, Cameron, Harold, Izzy, Leshawna, Alejandro, Zoey, Brick, Trent, Lindsay, Mike/Noah