Critica7: Yeah, her time was up. A very curious prediction.
SideshowJazz1: It was a little bit of both. Cody was being Cody, and it was a take that to the canon's name for them. Oh, is that so? Maybe we should set the up on a date. Yeah, that's a problem with canon. There needs to be balance. They are her nieces, yes. Their mom mentioned her in Sammy's message from home, and I find the idea of them being related less ridiculous than Dave being Noah's cousin or some relationship twist like that.
Acosta perez jose ramiro: Thank you. Yeah, that does seem to be a pattern with poor Sasquatchinakwa, doesn't it?
AnonBrowser: Glad you understand why Sammy left. Good to know your reactions to the fights. As much as I hate to retcon things, if you've got a better excuse for Courtney not returning to compete that doesn't sound like a cop-out, I'd be willing to hear it. You might be right about Amy, but it just always being that way isn't very interesting, and since she's so petty, I figured I would try and give her an equally petty motive.
Phenomenal Ultra Instinct: Thanks for that wonderful summary of last chapter.
That British Guy: Thanks for reviewing!
Nicky Haugh: Thanks as always.
EndeavorT: Hopefully it will.
SilentSinger948: Yeah, Alejandro and Sammy have a similar story, but now wasn't the time to dig further into it. Yeah, it was important that things didn't snap back to the way they were at the beginning of the season with Courtney and Gwen. Thank you for understanding Sammy's elimination, and yes, once again she proves to her sister that she is not a loser.
WeirdAlfan101: Your reaction to that quote from Alejandro had me laughing for two straight minutes when I first read it, thanks for that. Yeah, at least she was able to make that kind of progress in the game.
QueenAzulaThinksYourWorthless: Yeah, I didn't want her to have too much of an extended stay this season, and it's best to eliminate an enemy you might feel sympathy for before it gets harder to eliminate them. Me too about Sierra, and yes, Courtney and Gwen making up is good.
Solarr-Eclipse: Solarr, welcome back! I was wondering where you went. Glad to see you caught up. Yeah, putting the second generation on Pahkitew Island is going to be an interesting experiment when the time comes. Thank you, I really tried to clean up All-Stars and treat it properly.
The Legendary Dragon Reaper: Thanks for the review! For the sake of spoilers, I cannot answer the first two questions, but I can answer the other two. I do despise Sundae Muddy Sundae because it takes everything Gwen and Courtney regained and throws it out the window, making the whole plot pointless. Maybe I would read a Cody/Gwen story, but I'm pretty particular about my ships so that's still a bit iffy.
With reviews answered, it's time to race some boats. And as a reminder, Cast Swap has a TVTropes page that is always looking to be improved, so if you have some things you want to add on that, feel free to do so. Now, let's race!
Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a DVD of season one and some shirts.
Episode 8- You Regatta Be Kidding Me
Instead of a shot of the island, the episode opened up with footage of the Wheel of Misfortune spinning.
"Last time on Total Drama," Chris began to narrate over the footage. "a brutal teens versus mutant fisticuffs free-for-all proved beyond doubt that these guys will do anything for a million bucks." Sierra was shown fighting Blog and Post's mother, followed by Shawn hesitating to fight the bear, and then Cody struggling with Fang. "Alejandro and Sammy stomped their siblings, and Gwen managed to make up with Courtney after a long two-minute match." The former two were shown defeating their brother and sister, respectively, succeeded by Gwen and Courtney sharing a hug while fallen onto their knees.
"The villains ruled victorious," Chris informed as a clip of the Vultures cheering was shown. The celebration was quickly transitioned to the surprise twist the host introduced during the ceremony. "But, in a last minute twist, the villains got to send a loser hero home, and the heroes got to send a winner villain to exile." The Vultures were shown discussing their decision, and followed up by the Hamsters selecting Alejandro for Boney Island. "So, it was 'see you tomorrow, Alejandro' and 'see you never, Sammy'." Sammy was seen disappearing down the Flush of Shame.
The replayed clips finally ended, and Chris was shown in present time. "Only eight players remain, and none of them are ready for how everything's about to change. Right here on Total Drama All-Stars!" When the camera pulled back from Chris, he was shown standing on top of the giant toilet.
(cue intro)
Blissfully, Gwen awoke in her bed at the spa hotel with ease, dressed in her nightgown.
"That was the best sleep I've had in a while. Maybe it's because I fixed all my problems." The loner observed, curling her legs up against her chest.
"That's all you're happy about?" Sugar came over, dressed in bed shorts and an oversized shirt. "We've won the last two challenges in a row. We're on a winning streak."
Gwen held up a finger. "Which could be ending soon. We're down to eight people, and unless Chris is waiting until we're down to six, the merge has to be coming up fast. Pretty soon, it'll be just one of us winning, and everyone else losing."
The pageant queen snorted, giving a dismissive wave of her hand. "Big whoop. I'm tired of playing with a team." She pointed at herself with her thumb. "The moment I get to do my own thing, I'm taking this game by storm."
(Confessional- Sugar)
"That'll be easier than taking candy from my little brother, especially since I got that invincibility thingy," she told the audience.
Topher knelt next to the wall of the boys' room, a cup pressed against his ear as he tried to listen into the next room over.
"Uh, what're you doing?" He heard Shawn ask behind him. The camera zoomed out to show Shawn standing nearby with a raised eyebrow. "Looks like something I'd be doing."
Topher shooed at him. "Would you shut up? I'm trying to see if I can hear Sugar."
"Why?"
"Because she has the invincibility statue, and if I can find out what she's doing with it, then I can find a way to make her use it," Topher reasoned.
Shawn's skepticism rose. "Sugar has it? How do you know?"
"I saw her find it when we were in the Fun Zone. Those goat eggs she brought back, the statue was in the same nest those came from."
"If that was the case, wouldn't Chris have made an announcement like he did last time?"
Topher rolled his eyes, taking the glass away from the wall as he stood up. "Maybe not. This is an all-star season we're on. He probably didn't tell us to let us get caught off-guard." Handing the glass over to his teammate, he began to exit the room. "Take this down to the kitchen, would you?"
Shawn frowned at the cup, and then at his leaving roommate.
(Confessional- Shawn)
The conspiracy nut held up both hands, lifting one up higher. "On the one hand, the chances of Sugar being the one to find the statue are slim." Switching the other, he continued to say, "On the other, as much reason I have to not trust a thing Topher says, there's a chance he could be right."
(Confessional- Sierra)
"I feel so, so, so empty," the blogger said, holding empty hands. "I don't have my phone, and I lost my little rat babies. Without either of those things, I don't know what to do."
Sierra sat on the porch of the loser cabin, pouting until a hand held her poorly-fixed phone.
"Here. It's not my greatest workmanship, but it should work until you can replace it," Cody said.
"My phone," Sierra gasped, taking it from her geeky friend. "You fixed it!"
Sheepishly, Cody rubbed the back of his head. "It's nothing. The speaker doesn't work, so you can't make calls, but you should be able to text and post to your blog."
"Cody. You're a lifesaver!" She kissed him on the cheek unexpectedly, and dashed into the girls' room of the cabin. "I gotta backup my stuff before I lose it all for good."
Cody touched a surprised hand to the cheek Sierra had kissed.
"That was a nice thing you did for your friend," Jasmine was heard commenting. Cody looked over, and saw Jasmine walking over from the woods.
"She's one of my best friends, and her phone is important to her. Sort of like how my games are for me," Cody replied.
Jasmine sighed. "Or like how my friendship with Shawn is important to Sammy." She sat down on the porch Sierra had just left. "I don't know how I'm going to make up with Shawn. I want him to cut down on the zombie nonsense, but he wants me to treat it like a real concern."
Cody shrugged, not sure how to help. "I'm sure you two will find a way to work things out."
"Attention campers," Chris announced over the loudspeakers, getting the two heroes' attention. Sierra even poked her head out the girls' room. "Meet out in front of the spa hotel. It's time for a challenge!"
As the remaining contestants started to gather, Topher noticed that Alejandro was already back from exile.
"Hey, Al, how was Boney Island?" The wannabe host inquired, walking over to him.
Alejandro suppressed a shudder. "Please do not call me that name, and for your information, it was a simple matter. All it took was a little bit of persuasion."
The show rippled into a flashback of Alejandro's night. In the woods, a bear roared.
"My, your breath is powerful," Alejandro complimented, making the bear stop to listen. "It is almost as compelling as your eyes." The bear got down on all fours, and the charmer held its head in his hand, giving it an affectionate stare that it returned. "The only eyes more beautiful than yours are those of that gopher." He gestured to a gopher nearby that had popped out of the ground. The gopher posed adorably for Alejandro, which upset the bear and made the latter chase the gopher away. No longer at risk, Alejandro gave himself a confident smile and continued his walk.
As the flashback ended and rippled back into the current show, Alejandro concluded, "Survival was easy. Also, I have a special way with animals."
Chris's arm grabbed Topher and pulled him out of the frame so the host himself could take his spot, holding his favored megaphone up to Alejandro's face. "Enough with the self-promotion, Al!" Lowering his megaphone, he continued to say, "I have a big announcement- Today, the teams are being merged."
All eight campers gasped as one. Shawn stood on Chris's right with Jasmine, Cody, and Sierra while Sugar, Topher, Alejandro, and Gwen stood on Chris's left.
"That's right," Chris confirmed in a jolly tone, "from now on, challenges are for individual winners only, and everyone is at risk of the not-so-royal flush!"
Sugar was the only one that was wearing a wicked grin.
At that moment, Chris's phone rang, and the host pulled it out of his pocket. Frowning, he told the campers, "I have to take this." Answering it, he walked away for some privacy. "Yeah, why does my credit card have major charges for pizza and movies?"
"So, together to the end like last time?" Cody offered to Sierra.
Sierra clapped her hands. "Oh, Cody… totally! We were so close too! This time, we'll win for sure."
Gwen walked over to the pair. "Mind if I join in? With the teams over, I'm done being a villain."
The geek immediately beamed at her. "Sure. Of course, I never considered you a villain in the first place."
(Confessional- Cody)
"Finally, I get a chance to work with Gwen," he told the camera, pumping his fist. "Make no mistake, I'm not into Gwen anymore, but I do want to be her friend. Speaking of which, I still need to return that bra she gave me a few years ago," he said thoughtfully. "It was a cool thing to have when I was sixteen, but now that I'm nineteen, it's kinda creepy."
Shaking his head, he returned to his original thought. "Anyway, Gwen should've been on my team from day one. But because Chris decided to make her look like a bad guy for 'stealing' Courtney's boyfriend when he was the one that started the whole mess, that didn't happen. Now's the chance to make up for lost time, and between me, her, and Sierra, we have a good chance of making it to the final three."
(Confessional- Gwen)
The goth girl sighed contently. "I'm so glad to be finished with the team phase. Between managing to break up with Duncan, getting my diary back, making up with Courtney, and now this, I feel like things are finally looking up for me." Growing excited, she said, "Cody and Sierra aren't the first people I'd form an alliance with, but considering who's left, they're my best bet at getting to the end. And with a weird alliance with Shawn, and whatever I am with Sugar, I'm in a good position."
(Confessional- Sierra)
"Am I upset that Cody wants to work with Gwen?" The blogger asked rhetorically, knowing what the audience was probably thinking. "The fangirl me probably would have been, but the friend me is okay with it. Being part of the Total Drama family for almost two years has really changed how I see the others and their relationships." Taking out her phone, she began to type on it. "Now I need to come up with a name for my alliance. How does Coderrwen sound? Or maybe Gwesiody?" Frowning, she jabbed the keys of her phone. "Nah, those sound too much like ship names."
Shawn was shown standing next to Jasmine, and the awkwardness between them was so thick that the camera could pick up on it.
"So…" Shawn attempted small talk.
"Yeah, the merge…" Jasmine replied back.
(Confessional- Shawn)
"How am I supposed to make up with Jasmine like Sammy wants," Shawn wondered out loud. "She totally dismissed my entire life philosophy and beliefs."
(Confessional- Jasmine)
Jasmine looked off to the side, still feeling awkward. "Yeah," she drawled out, "reconciling with Shawn is not going to be a picnic in the outback."
Topher jabbed his thumb at himself, speaking to Alejandro in hushed tones. "I say we tell everyone. That way they'll know she has it, and follow our plan to flush it out without realizing it."
"And what if Sugar already has allies?" Alejandro argued back. "They could use us trying to expose her as ammunition to vote us off, and save her from using it until later on when they have the majority over her."
"So what? You just want us to sit back and let her hold onto it until it expires?"
(Confessional- Topher)
Topher shrugged. "Does that statue even have a usability clause?" He put a finger to his chin thoughtfully. "I can't remember Chris saying that it had to be used by the final four or something." He smirked. "Good thing I already put my plan into action before Alejandro got back. Shawn will blab to Gwen, and whoever else he calls a friend, and Sugar will be forced to get rid of it to save herself."
(Confessional- Alejandro)
"Topher has a viable idea of letting everyone know and let them vote her off while we protect ourselves by voting off another target," he admitted, "but Sugar, as dumb as she may seem, might have a trick hidden somewhere in that absurd bun she has of her hair. She's definitely not as foolish as she appears if she's managed to get this far."
Sugar stood alone, observing everyone split off to converse. Standing alone, she took it all in with a wicked grin.
(Confessional- Sugar)
"Dummies," she laughed, "by going to talk with each other right after Chris announces the merge, you're pretty much spelling out your alliances. That makes you a target, and that's why I work all on my lonesome." She rubbed her hands together. "Now that I don't have to worry about some crummy team, I can really do some damage to this here pageant."
Shawn, Jasmine, Sierra, and Cody all watched as Chris returned, still on his phone and a boat captain's hat on his head. "Mmhmm, yeah. Whatever, just cancel it and send me another one." Flipping his phone shut, he muttered under his breath, "He is so getting it next time I see him…" He inhaled and exhaled a deep breath out of frame, calming himself. "Anywho…"
The camera cut from the contestants to Chris, who was now standing in front of the monitor, which displayed an overview image of Camp Wawanakwa. "This week's challenge is a regatta around the island."
"A re-what-a?" Jasmine inquired, raising a confused eyebrow.
"A regatta," Chris repeated, "it's a boat race."
"Then why not just say that instead?" Jasmine pointed out.
"Because I'm classy, hello," Chris retorted. He stepped out of the monitor's way, explaining, "In a throwback to season four's bell-ringing boat race, the first person to successfully circumnavigate the entire island wins immunity." Blue circles stamped with the final eight's faces followed a red line circling the island, starting from the Dock of Shame, going past the Thousand-Foot-High Cliff, around the island's back side, and returning to the dock. "And, a night in the spa hotel. Don't worry, Chef will keep things interesting by providing some 'obstacles' for you." Chris chuckled, making air quotes around obstacles. The contestants all grimaced at the idea of what Chef could potentially add to make the challenge tougher.
"Some of the boats are seaworthy," Chris went on, the monitor now showing seven different forms of water transportation. Among the transportation was the Boat of Losers, the powerboat and the inflatable raft from the bell-ringing race, the wooden raft from the eighth episode of the previous season, two more luxurious speedboats, and a fishing boat from World Tour's Newfoundland episode. "And some are sink-erriffic." To emphasize his point, the inflatable raft and one of the luxury speedboats sunk into the water on the screen. "And, they're all first come first serve, starting now!" He punctuated the last sentence by shouting through his megaphone.
The contestants took off running with shouts of cheering.
"Come on, Cody, let's go!" Sierra started jogging toward the dock.
"Right behind you," Cody agreed, hot on her heels.
Topher ran up beside the pair. "Hey there, fellow mergers, got a second?"
"Sorry, but we're not looking for an alliance at the moment," Cody immediately rejected.
"That's not what I want to talk about," corrected Topher. "Look, I saw Sugar find the invincibility statue. Since you guys are supposed to be heroes, I need you to spread the word so we can make Sugar play it."
Sierra asked, "Why should we listen to you?"
"You're a Total Drama superfan, aren't you? Wouldn't it be great to experience exposing the statue live, instead of watching it happen after all is said and done?"
Sierra began to grin. "Ooh, he's got a good point."
(Confessional- Sierra)
"The addition of the invincibility statue to the game was a major twist to the game in its original debut," Sierra told the audience. "I've studied the ratings of each Total Drama episode, and the ratings spiked big time on the episode it was used last season. Having firsthand knowledge about that thing would be incredible for my blog on the series as a whole."
"And Alejandro takes the lead, leaving his friend behind. That's cold, brah." Alejandro was the first to reach the Dock of Shame, hopping into the speedboat with the red bottom. He started it up, cruising away to start the race.
Jasmine and Shawn were next to claim a boat, both of them getting into the speedboat with the purple bottom.
"It looks like Jasmine and Shawn are teaming up, despite trouble in their friendship paradise. Interesting," Chris noted, flying above the action with his jetpack.
Somehow, Sugar was the next to arrive at the boats. She gleefully punched the dashboard of the remaining powerboat, making it spark ominously, then moved onto the fishing boat. Reaching down in the boat, she pulled up an anchor and dropped it roughly, making a hole in the boat itself. After that, she deflated the inflatable raft by popping open the air valve. Finally, she entered the cab of the Boat of Losers, starting it up and driving it away.
"No fair," Sierra pouted when she, Cody, Gwen, and Topher arrived on the dock. "We were going to use that one."
"And Al left me behind, just great," Topher complained, folding his arms over his chest.
Gwen pointed with her thumb over her shoulder. "Looks like we'll have to use the powerboat." The loner jumped into the boat's driver seat to try and start it up, only for it to sink when she did so.
Cody sighed. "I guess that leaves us with the raft."
All four of them stepped onto the wooden raft, and Cody and Sierra were quick to pick up the paddles. Their raft also had a coil of rope.
"Here's the deal, we work together through the race, and if none of us win immunity, we promise not to vote each other off. Agreed?" Gwen proposed.
"Yeah, sure. At least until I catch up to Al," Topher urged, getting on his knees to paddle with his hand. Cody and Sierra started paddling with the oars while Gwen joined in paddling the same way as the wannabe host.
"And the riff-raff ride the rickety raft," Chris alliterated, watching the odd group of four start their journey around the island. He chuckled to himself, "I'm hilarious."
Ahead of the pack, Alejandro leisurely enjoyed his lead until he heard his boat sputter.
"Ay, no!" The charmer cried when his boat stalled to a halt. "Come now, beautiful engine… start for Alejandro."
While he struggled to make his boat turn on again, Sugar passed him with the Boat of Losers.
"And Sugar takes the lead," Chris updated as he flew over Alejandro's head, "but will she keep it all the way through Coconut Alley?"
The pageant queen poked her head out of the cab. "The heck is Coconut Alley?" A coconut soon bopped her on her head. "Ow, what the hay?" Rubbing her head, she glared up above.
Chef was flying in a hot air balloon, tossing down baskets full of coconuts.
Wisely, Sugar ducked back into the cab as coconuts rained down on her deck. Once the wave had passed, she stuck her head out once more. "Hah! You missed, sucker!" Another coconut bonked her in the head for her troubles, making her drop to the floor in stunned pain.
"If you had a more open mind, you'd listen to what I have to say," Shawn argued, sitting in the passenger seat.
Jasmine, the driver, retorted, "And if you weren't so obsessive…"
"Jasmine and Shawn reach Coconut Alley," announced Chris.
Chuckling, Chef dumped a basket of coconuts down their way.
As the pair drove along, they heard a whistling noise, causing them to look up. "What's that noise?" Shawn wondered.
Several coconuts hit the boat, including the riders.
Recoiling from the pain, Shawn grit his teeth, prepared to throw a fist at Chef in protest. Next to him, Jasmine was dazed, rocking back and forth from the impact. "Hey! That was totally uncalled for- Jasmine!"
The outback explorer nearly fell out of the boat completely, but Shawn caught her by her foot in the nick of time. Unfortunately, not all of her was saved because her hat was swept off her head by the wind. With all his strength, Shawn pulled her back into their ride.
Jasmine sat back in her seat, staring at the conspiracy nut with stunned admiration. "You… saved me."
Sheepishly, Shawn rubbed the back of his neck, averting his gaze. "Well, you'd do the same for me. At least, I think you would."
She smiled at him warmly. "I definitely would." She frowned, looking down at her feet for a moment before reaffirming her gaze. "Look, I'm sorry that I dismissed your zombie thing. It's just, you keep bringing them up even in the middle of a challenge where they don't apply, and I doubt that we're ever going to deal with one out here."
"And I'm sorry that I yelled at you," Shawn apologized as the camera zoomed in on the pair. "Zombies are the only thing I really know a lot about, and it didn't get me a whole lot of friends before the show. If I talk about them less and you be more open to my ideas about stuff, can we be friends again?"
"Sure." The two survivalists hugged as a tender melody played.
Chris watched the reconciliation from the sky, and was less than impressed. "Boring! Better up the ante, Chef!"
In response, Chef held up a lit stick of dynamite. "It's times like these where I really love this job," the cook commented, dropping the explosive without ceremony.
The dynamite landed on top of the survivalists' motor, and exploded upon contact, evoking yelps of surprise from them.
"Oh great!" Shawn griped upon seeing the wrecked motor.
Back at the beginning of Coconut Alley, Alejandro managed to get his working again with a puff of smoke.
"Thanks for leaving me behind," Topher sarcastically greeted him as the group on the wooden raft caught up to him. The group paddled the raft close enough to Alejandro's boat that the wannabe host dove in. "Great way to start the merge, man."
"Just get onboard and hang onto something, we're about to go muy rapido!" Alejandro shot back, starting the boat again as he briefly lapsed into Spanish. The pair sped off, splashing the trio remaining on the raft with a wave in their wake. Gwen, Cody, and Sierra all groaned as they got soaked.
"If only we had some kind of motor," Gwen mused.
"Um duh," Sierra spoke up, "but the only kind we'd able to get is- a live one! Look!" The blogger pointed behind their raft, directing her alliance's attention to a dorsal fin sticking out of the water. "It's Fang!"
"Okay," Cody said slowly, not understanding where she was going with this idea. "How does he help us?"
Sierra lifted a confident finger. "Just watch. Hey, fish face!" Gripping her oar, she leaped off the raft.
"Sierra!" Gwen and Cody shouted in unison.
Up in the sky, Chris held himself steady. "So far, everyone's still alive, but how likely is that to continue? Find out when we return with more Total Drama All-Stars!" The show faded to black for commercial.
When the show faded back in, Fang was shown swimming along until he heard Sierra's roar. He peered out of the water only to get a purple-haired blogger wielding an oar to his face. She tackled him down underwater, leaving a trail of bubbles on the surface.
After a few moments, they breached with Sierra clinging to a bruised Fang's back. "Listen here, you Cody hurter. You hate Sugar, right? She's in the lead, and you owe us one for hurting Cody the other day. Help us stop Sugar, and I'll get the butler at the spa hotel to reward you with a giant plate of bacon, got it?"
Fang thought for a moment, and then scowled at her.
"I'm taking that as a yes," she said. "Cody, Gwen, make a harness!"
"I'm on it!" Cody grabbed the rope that was on their raft, and began fashioning a loop of it.
Fang swam past the raft, and Cody threw the completed harness around the mutated shark's neck while Sierra got back on the raft.
"Hurry, everybody else is far ahead of us by now," Gwen pointed out.
The shark began to pull them across the water at a much faster speed than they were original going.
(Confessional- Gwen)
"It's been so long since I've been on a team with Sierra that I've forgotten as crazy as Sierra's plans are, they usually end up working out," Gwen said, a small smile on her lips as the challenge seemed to be looking up for her alliance.
As Jasmine tried to start up the boat again, Shawn inspected their motor after the explosion.
"I hate to say it, but this thing is totally busted," Shawn stated with a disappointed frown.
"This just in," the pair looked up to see Alejandro and Topher drive by with the latter narrating, "Alejandro and Topher are rising up the ranks."
Soon after, Fang pulled the raft riders past as well. Cody could be heard chanting, "Go, Fang, go!"
The survivalists groaned that two boats full of people had passed them. In the background, Chris flew by with an update. "This just in," he said, not realizing Topher had used those words moments prior, "Sugar still has the lead, and thanks to the riff-rafters' new engine, guess who's last."
Jasmine looked back at Shawn. "Last place? That's an angry koala to the face!"
"Blame Chef," Shawn retorted, inspecting the engine again. "If it weren't for him, we'd still be moving."
Annoyed, Jasmine dug at the bottom of the boat, and then ran up to the boat's nose with an oar in hand, starting to paddle the boat herself to make it move.
At the front of the race, Sugar chugged onward in the Boat of Losers, but it appeared that Alejandro and Topher were gaining on her.
"Left!" Topher called out, and Alejandro made the boat swerve left of a dynamite stick that Chef dropped. "Right!" A second stick fell past them, exploding when it hit the water and sending water flying everywhere. "More right!"
Alejandro chuckled when they dodged their third explosive. "Excelente, we're catching up to that estupida vaca."
"And unless we can pass her, it won't be enough," said Topher. A second passed, and both of his eyebrows shot up as he pointed a finger at something offscreen. "Whoa, isn't that the Playa des Losers?"
The camera cut to a brief shot of a familiar beige mansion on a cliff by the beach. It had a staircase descending down the cliff, and deck chairs sat on the beach while a pair of sailboats were tethered to the dock that was much neater than the Dock of Shame.
"It appears to be so," Alejandro replied conversationally as he drove. "It's a marvel to see it still in good condition considering how close it is to camp. With all the mutation infesting the camp last year, I would've expected this place to be overrun as well."
Chris flew alongside their boat with his jetpack. "Not if I have anything to say about it. Sure, I'd let the cabins and the mess hall get trashed, but not this place."
The charmer rolled his eyes at Chris's remark. "Whatever, we can take a closer look at it later. Right now, we need to stop Sugar from winning this race."
"Couldn't agree more. Pedal to the meddle, Al!" Topher agreed, pumping a fist.
"Call me 'Al' one more time, and I will shove you out of this boat, Topher!"
"Okay, okay, geez. Touchy…" The wannabe host grumbled as the pair continued on their way.
After they left the area, the raft riders soon arrived.
Sierra clapped her hands giddily. "Yay! We're not in last place anymore."
"Yeah, but we're not that close to first either," Gwen pointed out as she held Fang's tether.
Cody eagerly tapped Gwen's shoulder. "Gwen, look! It's the Playa!"
The loner looked in the direction the geek pointed out, and smiled. "Oh yeah. I remember that. I was wondering what happened to that place. We didn't use it after the first season."
"That's because it was only a one-season deal," Chris told them, flying over to them. "We couldn't find a place to keep you kids that first season, so my summer cottage became your loser resort until we locked in your new place during the second season. You're welcome."
"Wait," Cody lifted a hand in protest. "You call the Playa a cottage?"
"Yeah, what else would it be?"
"I don't know, a mansion maybe," Gwen quipped.
The host frowned at them. "No, it's a cottage."
"Mansion," Gwen countered.
"Cot-tage," Chris emphasized in annoyance. "Look, I gotta check on the leaders. This convo is over, capiche?" His final word on the subject said, he flew away.
Gwen muttered to Cody, "It's totally a mansion."
"Oh yeah," Cody confirmed with a nod of his head.
Sierra had been quiet since they saw the place, and she silently stared at the former loser residence until she blurted out, "I gotta blog about this!"
Cody and Gwen turned to her, startled. "Sierra," Cody began to say, only to be cut off by a splash.
The two original players watched in shock as Sierra abandoned the raft, swimming toward the Playa with one hand holding her phone above her head.
"Keep going! I'll catch up," Sierra shouted without looking back.
(Confessional- Cody)
He shrugged casually to start his confession. "To be honest, I pretty much saw that coming." Then, he began to tap his chin thoughtfully. "I wonder if Chris has the place locked up enough to keep her out."
Sugar had been driving along when she saw the tiny fish with big teeth jumping out of the water and snapping their jaws.
"Ooh, piranhas!" The pageant queen left the wheel, and went out to the deck, picking up a bucket and holding it out over the water. A few of the jumping fish landed in her bucket, making the girl lick her lips. "I've never eaten piranha before. I bet they taste real good."
A brief zoom-in showed a boat nose ramming into the back of the Boat of Losers.
"Whoa," Sugar yelped, almost losing her balance but regaining it before she could fall over.
A zoom-out revealed Alejandro and Topher had caught up to her like they intended.
"I hope you enjoy those, because they're the only meal you'll get after we beat you in this race," Alejandro taunted.
Topher laughed in the passenger seat. "You tell her!"
Sugar scowled fiercely, dropping her bucket of fish to the deck. "You two? Can't you dog someone else? I keep telling people I ain't interested in no alliance."
"As if we'd align with the likes of you," Alejandro spat.
Finding nothing to retort, Sugar eyed the reel hitched to the back of the boat.
The two boys in the speedboat simultaneously widened their eyes and ducked quick enough to dodge the reel that flew over their heads.
"Dang it, I missed!" Sugar snapped her fingers in aggravation, the splintered post where the reel was beside her.
After he and Topher raised their heads again, Alejandro glared. "So, we've escalated to that, have we? Topher, take the controls." Stepping on the controls, the charmer started climbing over the windshield.
"Wha-what're you doing?" Topher stammered, grabbing the controls quickly after Alejandro released them.
"Making sure she doesn't win," he said with conviction. Alejandro ran up the nose of the boat, and jumped onto Sugar's vehicle. Almost immediately, he was hit in the head by a bucket full of piranhas. "Agh!"
Sugar smirked boastfully. "Now that's more delicious than actually eating the darn things."
(Confessional- Alejandro)
"Sugar certainly has a lot of fighting spirit from those pageants she does," the charmer admitted. "But, it's not the first time I've witnessed such spirit. My cousin Malia has exemplified more energy than that in Lady South America pageants."
In last place, Jasmine and Shawn were still moving slowly. On the boat's nose, Jasmine sat, trying to paddle to the finish line while Shawn was at the back by the motor, fiddling with its inner workings.
"It's going to take us until nightfall to reach the finish line at this rate," Jasmine complained, raising her oar out of the water in frustration.
"Not necessarily," said Shawn as he adjusted the remaining parts of the engine. "If I can just connect this little thing here… there we go!" Quickly, he pulled his hands away as the engine sputtered to life and the boat began to move faster than it had been when Jasmine was rowing.
Jasmine beamed at him. "You fixed it! It might be a long shot, but we may still have a chance."
Shawn got into the driver's seat and sped them up. "Next stop, checkered flag!"
A flash cut to Chris and Chef standing on the Dock of Shame, the buoy bearing the checkered flag that Shawn had just mentioned in the water before them.
"All the boats are in the final stretch," Chris announced. "Who's going to win tonight's immunity?"
Topher continued to drive his and Alejandro's speedboat behind the Boat of Losers. A thought occurred to him, and with a determined frown, he pulled back on a throttle, making the speedboat slow down and create a gap of water between itself and the Boat of Losers. After a quick turn of the controls, he sped the boat up again, and cruised past Sugar's ride.
On the Boat of Losers' deck, Alejandro kept ducking out of arms' reach, frustrating Sugar.
"Stay still so I can throw you overboard!" Sugar demanded.
"I'd rather not, since it's in my best interest to make sure you go overboard tonight!" Alejandro shot back. He managed to slip past Sugar, and enter the cabin. Reaching the controls, he pulled back on a throttle similar to the one Topher had grabbed, and spun the wheel.
"Hey, you can't do that! This is my ride!" Sugar fumed, entering the cab and immediately slamming into the wall due to Alejandro's sharp turning.
"Consider this a mutiny," retorted Alejandro. After she regained her balance, Sugar tried to rush at him, but he raised an arm back and held her back with his hand to her face. While most people would strain to try and reach the other's face, Sugar chose to grab the arm restraining her and bend it in a painful manner. "Ay!"
Gwen and Cody blinked as the Boat of Losers drove past them going back the way they had come.
"Uh, wasn't that Sugar's boat?" Cody asked his fellow raft rider.
Gwen shrugged the best she could while helping Cody keep Fang's harness under control. "She's strange like that. You get used to it."
Topher's boat began to sputter, and the wannabe host suddenly found his ride slowing down. "No, not now!"
"Oh, Topher's chances of winning have stalled, just like his motor," Chris zinged when Topher's boat stopped right before the finish line.
Topher threw his fists to the sky. "So not fair! I'm so close!"
Back on the Boat of Losers, Alejandro yelped as his arm was bent further.
"Say uncle, say it!" Sugar growled.
"Fine, tio! Tio!" Alejandro pleaded.
"That's not uncle!"
"It is in Spanish. Believe me."
Rolling her eyes, Sugar replied, "If you say so." She yanked him away from the wheel, and took over control.
Alejandro hit the wall next to the door frame, rubbing his sore head with one hand.
"There's the finish line," Gwen pointed out. "It looks like Topher's stuck."
"And Sugar is behind us. We might actually make it," Cody remarked, looking back. "Huh? Who's tha-?"
"Scuse us, coming through," Jasmine greeted as she and Shawn zipped past the shark-powered raft, stunning Fang that he had been overtaken.
"See you guys at the bonfire," Shawn said in passing.
(Confessional- Shawn)
"I really thought we were going to end this race in last," the conspiracy nut stated before smirking. "Goes to show how the many areas of apocalypse preparation can help in a different setting. Like, hotwiring a boat to win a race after the motor partially explodes."
"Start, man, start," Topher muttered under his breath as he repeatedly tried to start his speedboat again. His frustration with his seaworthy vehicle grew due to the host and his co-host laughing on the dock nearby at his constant failures.
Jasmine, who was standing in her and Shawn's speedboat while the latter drove, looked over their shattered windshield. "Hey, what's Topher up to?"
"Looks like he has the same problems that we had a few miles back," Shawn mused. "Tough luck for him."
Honk! Honk!
The survivalist pair looked behind them, and their eyes widened.
"We're about to have tough luck ourselves," commented Jasmine as Sugar's boat came up beside theirs.
Close behind them, Fang was giving everything he had to keep up with the motorized transports.
"Keep going, Fang, just a little more," Gwen encouraged.
"And we'll upgrade your bacon to a whole meat buffet," Cody offered, and Fang apparently agreed as he tried to go a bit faster.
Topher tried to start his boat for the umpteenth time, barring his teeth as he did so.
Jasmine and Shawn gave a cheer as they pulled ahead of Sugar.
"Work, dang it!" Topher shouted, turning the key over again.
As Jasmine and Shawn approached, Topher tried a desperate tactic, and jumped over the windshield as Alejandro had done before. He ran up the boat's nose, and dove off of it, his head passing the finish line right as the nose of Jasmine and Shawn's boat did.
"Ooh, Topher wins by a nose!" Chris declared. "And Jasmine and Shawn take second place. Not that it matters, Sugar and Alejandro take third." As Sugar's boat passed the buoy, the pageant queen was seen scowling through the window while Alejandro stood on the back deck with his arms crossed.
"And, Gwen and Cody came in last. You guys seriously thought that a shark could beat a boat motor?"
Gwen smirked. "You may be laughing now, but it's your production crew that has to pay up a whole cabin's worth of meat for Fang. He deserves it after all the effort he put into this." She gave the shark an affectionate pat on the head as Cody released Fang from his harness.
Playfully, Cody snickered, "Leave it to you to be friendly with a shark."
(Confessional- Gwen)
"My interests have never been that mainstream. When I was little, I had a doll that I always took to daycare with the head popped off. I thought it was cool, but the other kids were so scared of me because of that." Gwen chuckled at the memory. "Good times."
The seven contestants gathered on the dock, and Chris immediately realized something was off.
"Wait a minute, where's Sierra?" The host asked.
Cody and Gwen shared a glance.
A flash cut showed a far shot of the former Playa des Losers, and the camera zoomed in on it while Sierra's trademark giggle could be heard.
"The pool bar where Noah liked to read!" The blogger exclaimed when she appeared on-screen, taking a picture of the juice bar in the pool where several contestants from the first season were known to hang out. "The hot tub where Bridgette and Geoff made out!" She snapped a picture of a raised hot tub.
She let out a sharp gasp when she was shown inside the former resort. "Chris's kitchen!" The camera pulled back to show the purple-haired girl standing in a sleek-looking kitchen with a silver color. Letting out another round of giggles, she ran through a hallway, passing a painted portrait of the host. She doubled back, and stared at it. "Wow, Chris really likes art of himself," she said, turning to face the camera and pointing to the artwork with her thumb. Sierra then got a curious look on her face. "Ooh, I wonder what Chris's bedroom looks like." With that question in mind, she sprinted off down the hall, laughing all the while.
"She couldn't really have any privacy on the raft, so she ditched to take a whiz," Gwen lied with Cody nodding in support.
Chris shrugged. "Whatever. Her loss is her loss. As winner of today's challenge, Topher gets immunity and a night at the spa hotel, and he can bring someone along with him."
Topher was so proud of his victory that he was almost taken aback when the others crowded him in an effort to get him to pick a plus-one.
"Well," he said after a moment to collect his thoughts, "if it weren't for them, I wouldn't have been able to catch up with Alejandro, so I'll pick Cody. Sorry Gwen, I could only pick one of you."
"That's fine," Gwen agreed, nudging Cody in the shoulder. "Just make sure Fang gets his meat. I don't want him coming after me because we broke a promise."
"Sure thing," Cody said.
"Alright, as for the rest of you, hit the voting booth," Chris directed, and the contestants dispersed to prepare for the evening.
Before Alejandro could leave, Sugar jabbed her finger on his chest. "You sabotaged my chance to win today. I'm warning you, prepare to be sabotaged like never before. You mess with a queen like me, and I'll make sure you never have little princes and princesses the rest of your life." Without waiting for a response, she stomped away.
(Confessional- Sugar)
"I'm going to win next time, and when I do, that boy's going down that drain one way or another," Sugar vowed.
Night hung over the island, and the eight campers, Sierra having returned from her side trip, sat on the stump seats. While the peanut gallery was still there, it would go unused for the remainder of the season due to everyone but the challenge winner being on the chopping block.
"Good news. As a reward for making it to the merge, there will be no Boney Island for any of you tonight," Chris declared, his tone clearly angry. The campers cheered at the thought of no exile.
"What's the matter, Chris? Is the hosting job getting to be too much and making you cranky," Topher teased.
"Shut up, Topher," Chris snapped, putting his hands on his hips. "I can easily revoke your immunity and send you off this island tonight. I'm mad because a certain punk I'm not naming apparently stole my wallet before he left and has been using my credit cards. Thanks to him, I have to get new ones. And you!" He pointed at Sierra, who blinked in confusion at him. "Sneaking into my cottage and taking pictures! I should've confiscated your phone on day one, but figured you'd go insane without it!"
Sierra held up her hands in defense. "I just wanted to get exclusive pictures of Playa des Losers for my blogs."
"And that cottage you're talking about is totally a mansion," Shawn remarked, raising a finger to interject.
"It's a cottage, and that's the final word about it," Chris stated sternly. Taking a deep breath, he put on a smile. "Okay, time to read the votes you cast earlier this evening," the host said.
(Confessional- Alejandro)
"She'll be safe this round, but next one, she had better watch her disastrous hair, or she may just be the next one flushed," warned the charmer.
(Confessional- Sugar)
"That boy's got some nerve to do what he did today, but he's just lucky that I got something else to take care of tonight."
"Interesting," Chris murmured as he tallied the votes then picked up the plate of marshmallows. "The following players are safe… Topher, obviously!"
Topher smugly accepted his marshmallow, tossing it in his mouth.
"Shawn!"
The conspiracy nut caught his marshmallow, and cast a look at Jasmine.
"Jasmine!"
The explorer received her marshmallow, and shared a happy look with Shawn, both assured that they would remain in the game.
"Alejandro!"
Alejandro took the marshmallow with a frown. It was apparent he wouldn't celebrate until his goal was accomplished.
"Cody!"
The geek pumped a fist discreetly before catching his treat.
"Gwen, Sierra, Sugar, all of you have received votes," Chris said, making Gwen and Sierra's eyes widen with shock while Sugar scowled at everyone. "Tied at one vote each… Gwen, Sierra, you both are safe. Which means Sugar is taking the trip to Flushville!" He made to throw the final two marshmallows at their intended recipients, but before he could, Sugar stood up.
"No, I ain't! Cause I got that statue thingy," Sugar announced, digging into the pocket of her jeans and pulling out the carving.
All but Alejandro and Topher gasped.
For a moment, Chris blinked with stunned surprise, and then a wide smile formed on his face. "Sweet! I was hoping that would come up soon. I guess that means one of these marshmallows is yours." Taking one of the white treats off the plate, he tossed it to her. "And that leaves two."
"So, what happens now since you said we tied votes?" Sierra asked.
"If it's another tiebreaker challenge involving something I'm allergic to, I might just ask for Courtney's help to sue you," Gwen spoke up, folding her arms over her chest.
"If we hadn't experienced a situation like this last season, I might've had you guys do a revote, but since we did, I made sure to plan for a case like this." Turning his head to the side, Chris called out, "Chef, bring it in!"
The cook brought over a kiddie pool filled with water along with a small bag.
"In a nod to our challenge today, Gwen and Sierra have to get their toy boats to the other side of this little pool," Chris explained, taking the bag while Chef set down the pool. The host opened the bag and pulled out a little toy boat with a sail that was yellow and another toy boat that was red. In addition, he also removed two toy fans. "Using these little fans. The first person to get their boat to the other side stays while other one takes the flush. Ready?"
Gwen and Sierra glanced at each other.
(Confessional- Gwen)
"I just made an alliance with Sierra today, and now I have to do another freaking tiebreaker?" The loner girl griped, putting her face in her hands. "I swear my life sucks sometimes."
(Confessional- Sierra)
"Before, I would've gladly taken Gwen on in a tiebreaker so I could get more time with Cody, but now, Gwen is one of the last people that I want to face in one of these."
Gwen and Sierra stood next to the pool, their boats in one end and a small checkered banner hanging over the other end.
"On you marks, get set, go!" Chris exclaimed, waving one arm down.
The two girls turned on their small fans and started blowing wind into the sails.
"Go, Gwen!" "You can do it, Sierra!" "Hurry!"
The little boats floated across the little pool, one inching further ahead than the other.
Gwen was shown moving her fan with a wide-eyed expression on her face before the camera panned over to Sierra biting her lip as she made similar motions.
"Who's going to win the Kiddie Pool Regatta? Who's going to sink like their ship?" Chris commented as he and Chef watched with keen interest.
The other contestants watched with varying looks of amusement or anxiousness.
The boat in second place almost caught up with the one in first as they neared the checkered area.
"It's…" Chris watched closer, and several contestants were shown rising to their feet in anticipation.
Both boats crossed the finish line, but the first one to do it was…
…
…
…
…The red one.
"Gwen wins! She stays another day while Sierra is taking the Flush of Shame!" Chris announced.
Gwen sighed with relief as Sierra dropped to her knees, despairingly crying, "No!"
"Sierra, time to go."
Cody went over to Sierra, who was still on her knees with tears streaming down her cheeks. "Sierra?"
The blogger hiccupped slightly. "I don't want to go…"
He rested a hand on her shoulder. "This is how the game works. Don't worry, we'll see each other again at the finale."
"But, I can't leave yet," Sierra cried, looking at everyone. "I love this place so much. I thought if I would have to get eliminated, it wouldn't be for a while longer. This place has meant so much to me ever since the show started three years ago, and even though I wasn't actually here, I still felt like I belonged." She sniffled, wiping her nose with her arm. "Sure the cabins are cruddy, the food is disgusting, and the animals are all kinds of vicious, but watching you guys have fun and make memories made camp feel like home away from home. To leave it all just like that, it's really hard."
Cody helped her up to her feet, looking at her even though he was a full head shorter than her. "And we get that, but you know what? It's not the place that makes it special, it's the people. Aside from the big cash prize, the only reason we all put up with the place was the friends we made."
Gwen walked over, smiling. "The squirt has a point. If I hadn't met the few sane people I did, I wouldn't have stuck around."
The geek sent a grateful look to Gwen before returning his attention to Sierra. "You can do it. Go home, and support us just like you always have been. We'll see you at the end, okay?"
Sierra gave him a small smile in understanding. "Okay."
At that point, Chef grabbed her by the arm and started hauling her down to the dock, the farewell having gone on long enough. Gwen, Jasmine, Shawn, and Cody followed, leaving the former original Vultures still on the stumps. Alejandro and Topher stared in stunned bafflement while Sugar played with one of her toes.
(Confessional- Topher)
"Dang it! Sierra wasn't supposed to be the fall guy. If she's really that willing to abandon a challenge like she did, she would've made someone easy to win against," Topher said. "But, if she was tied with Gwen, then who voted for Sierra?"
(Confessional- Sugar)
"Gwen, that purple-haired chick, and that short guy were the biggest alliance I saw when the merge started," Sugar explained. "I could easily take the small fry in a fight, and Gwen has a reason to trust me, so that left Purple Phone Freak." She frowned. "Now I don't have that statue protecting me anymore. I really got to do some work to keep myself safe until the end."
Sierra was in the giant toilet with Chris standing by, ready to send her away. Those who came down to see her off stood back, trying to avoid the splash zone.
"Take care, alright?" Cody said.
"And please take down that Gwuncan blog of yours when you get home?" Gwen pleaded.
Chris pressed the button on his remote, and Sierra was sent spinning down the drain with a scream.
(Confessional- Cody)
"The last time Sierra was eliminated, she didn't leave since we were in the middle of nowhere. She stayed by my side, but this time she actually left." Cody frowned, looking down at his hands clasped in his lap. "It's strange, but I'm not going to let that hold me back. I made it to the final three once, and I can do it again and take it a step forward, just like Heather."
Instead of doing his outro on the Dock of Shame, Chris elected to do it outside the confessional Cody was currently using. "Eight players down, seven to go. Who's next to take a paddle in the big porcelain pond?" Lowering his voice to a whisper, he jabbed a thumb at the confessional. "My money's on Cody."
Cody poked his head out of the outhouse, yelling, "Hey, I heard that!" He then retreated back inside without waiting for any sort of response.
"Find out for sure," Chris continued, "when we return with another all new episode of Total Drama All-Stars!"
(cue end credits)
(Bonus Clip)
Sierra was spat out of a pipe with a splash of water drenching her in the process. She landed in a dark, stone room with what looked like a wall of hieroglyphs behind her.
"Owie," Sierra yelped upon impact. Looking around, she let out a curious coo. "Am I back in Egypt? I gotta get a picture of this." She pulled out her phone, only to find it was sufficiently drenched and therefore unusable. "Oh no, not again!"
"I think I heard her over there!" A female voice called out, making Sierra look up from her device.
"Ooh, yeah! I see her! Hi, Sierra!" A second feminine voice greeted.
Sierra gasped with glee. "Katie, Sadie, you're here too?"
The camera zoomed out to show the identically dressed best friends entering the scene.
"Yeah, we're here to pick you up," Sadie explained.
"You and the others were, like, so lucky to travel all over the world on season three. This was our first time flying out of Canada since Hawaii, and it rocked," Katie added. "Especially the plane snacks, I don't know why people keep saying they're horrible."
"Me neither. And the best part is, we get to have those same snacks on the flight back. I love love love traveling. Hey, do you think the show will do another traveling season that we could be in?" Sadie rambled.
"I hope it does," Katie replied. "Ooh, or maybe we could try out for one of those other traveling shows."
Sadie gasped. "Good idea."
"Um, guys," Sierra interrupted, getting the two girls to look at her. "You're supposed to get me home."
"Oh right," the thinner BFFFL remembered, "come on. Let's get out of here. It's like so dusty in here it's not even funny. This way."
Katie began to lead the trio out of the room.
"Just be careful where you step," Sierra advised as they started moving. "These pyramids have traps built in."
Unbeknownst to her, Sadie unwittingly stepped on a tile that sunk in and made a rumbling noise.
"Sadie!" Katie cried out.
"It's not my fault! Sierra didn't, like, warn me fast enough," Sadie snapped back.
Sierra shushed them. "Wait, what's that noise?"
The noise that followed sounded like a bunch of chirping crickets, but little black bugs began to crawl out of little hidey-holes.
"Scarabs! Run!" Sierra screeched.
All three girls ran off screaming in hopes of not becoming scarab food. Once they were out of frame, scarabs crawled over the camera, covering the lens in darkness.
Sierra- 8th
Sammy- 9th
Duncan- 10th
Heather- 11th
Beardo- 12th
Scarlett- 13th
Owen- 14th
With a heavy heart, we send Sierra off to Loser City. Sierra is a character near and dear to my heart, at least the World Tour version is. She's a fan who got to live the ultimate dream and become a player in her favorite show's story. Going into All-Stars, I knew I wanted to give her a better experience than canon did. She actually was supposed to last a little longer, but immediately after wrapping up Suckers Punched, I had an epiphany that changed my plans last-minute. I realized that aside from winning the season, Sierra did everything she set out to do while on the island, with the exception of winning since the odds of that happening were slim. She got to interview the newer contestants, visited Boney Island, met a mutant, won a challenge, lost a challenge, participated in a tiebreaker challenge, and even visited season one's famous Playa des Losers. Once she got her phone repaired and returned, I figured that her plot was nearly finished. There are other reasons why she was eliminated now, but those will be revealed at a later date.
Sugar was forced to play the statue, and while Topher managed to accomplish his goal, Alejandro is not going to be happy when he finds out that his alliance partner went behind his back to do this. Had Topher told him before the vote, Sierra would probably still be in the game. After taking a break last episode, Sugar started up her sabotage again by breaking most of the boats, which like everything else Mal did, I could see her doing. Also, Jasmine and Shawn have finally reconciled, which I'm sure people are happy about. The Playa is also still standing, and will remain standing to the end of the season.
Even before Sierra's elimination was finalized, I intended for the flushed contestant to be sent to Egypt because that location featured a race. With Sierra being eliminated there, it has become more symbolic. Egypt was the first location that Sierra participated in a challenge, starting her Total Drama journey as a contestant, and her being flushed there brings her journey to a full circle in some way. Katie and Sadie were chosen to pick her up because in their time on the sidelines, they took a fan-ish kind of role, supporting Justin, Trent, and Alejandro, even if it was for mostly superficial reasons and not who they are as people. Them talking about going on a show that travels around the world is a jab at the missed opportunity to have them compete on Ridonculous Race.
I would have finished the episode sooner, but my mind has been buzzing lately with new story ideas, including a concept of the Dramarama toddlers, plus the rest of the kiddified cast, meeting their adult counterparts in the works. So, that's where my mind has been the last few weeks.
Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome!