Ah, another chapter, another show. Let's see what happens!
Courtney won her case against the show and was allowed to go to the movie lot and compete again – and her lawyers got her advantages, too. I was glad to be rid of her for the moment, but at the same time, I hoped with all my heart that she wouldn't win.
Justin's manipulative side was failing badly. At the start of the show, Lindsay and Beth had been willing to do anything to please him, but now, they basically ignored him. The guy couldn't understand it.
Owen came to the studio after Courtney came back, voted off for viewing everyone as food. He was followed by Heather, and then Leshawna. Heather had actually been a lot better this season. Thing was, earlier on in the season, Leshawna had gotten a reward for winning the hospital movie challenge and she'd been able to hang out with her favourite cousin. Courtney had recorded all this stuff she'd said on her PDA about everyone. She'd been trash talking – yeah, the girl I considered one of my best friends had talked trash about everyone on the show. Yes, even me – something about me being nice mostly, but when I wasn't nice, worse than Heather. She even said stuff about Harold! But Heather had been the one to stand up for her and say that all she did was talk straight. "I do it all the time."
And despite everything Leshawna had said, she performed an awesome cheer to make it up to the people still in the game. At Heather's elimination, Leshawna said Heather could count her as a friend, even. Heather didn't seem to mind being left out of the game, this time at least. I still avoided her at the studio, but that was okay. She didn't have any interest in talking to me, anyway.
As for Leshawna, I did confront her about what she'd said about me, but she wholeheartedly apologized, and I admitted that maybe she was right.
I kind of enjoyed the next Aftermath show. Not at the beginning. Bridgette thought she had managed to get through to Geoff, and halfway through the intro, he whispered to her "So far, so good?"
"So far." she whispered back.
"Bridgette thinks we need to bring more insanity to the show." Geoff told the audience. Bridgette glared at him. "I mean profanity." This time, she punched him in the arm. "Okay, okay, more humanity. She thinks I've gone way too over the top. But then, so have our ratings!"
Bridgette pointed out that everyone on TDA were people too, had already gone through torture from Chris and lost out on the million. "They should be able to come here and feel safe to speak their minds."
"No one goes on a reality show to feel safe, Bridge!" Geoff protested. "This isn't some cushy talk show!"
It got worse. Bridgette was telling Geoff off about insensitivity, and he answered "Hey, I'm just doing what the producers tell me. Can I help it if I take my job seriously? Maybe you should try."
We all gasped at that. Bridgette took it seriously – she just still had feelings. Geoff actually enjoyed the slapstick.
"You've turned into a bully, you know that?" Bridgette snapped. "A total Chris clone."
Apparently, that meant to Geoff that the show was really awesome.
Owen was the first guest introduced, his arms full of food. "Hi, everyone!"
Izzy laughed and jumped forward, landing perfectly on Owen's shoulders (did I mention they'd kind of become a couple? Owen had had a crush on her since TDI). "Hi, Izzy." he greeted her. "Hi, Bridgette. Hi, Geoff."
But this time, instead of Truth or Hammer, or even Truth or Anvil, it was Truth or Electrocution.
No, seriously. The guests had to sit in a chair with a skullcap and get electrocuted if they lied.
"You have got to be kidding!" cried Bridgette. Geoff just insisted that it was low voltage.
"Just tell the truth and you'll be okay!" Trent called from the peanut gallery.
Owen insisted that he was cool with it, even when Bridgette told him that he didn't have to do it. Except that he freaked out and started confessing to everything bad he'd ever done when he was a kid.
Geoff burst out laughing. "I was going to ask questions about the show, but that was awesome!"
To be honest, that was awesome. I didn't fault anyone for enjoying that one.
But on the other hand, Geoff's questions didn't make for good truth. Owen wasn't mad at anyone for anything that had happened on the show, even when Chris kicked him off only because no one was supposed to vote for Courtney and everyone except Courtney herself did it anyway.
Bridgette glared at Geoff. "We talked about this. You said you were going to change, Captain Hollywood! The only thing that you changed today was your outfit, three times!"
"Just one more, Bridge." Geoff said. "One more question, and I'm done, I swear!"
But this question was awful. Through it, Owen discovered that because of the money he'd won in the first season, his mom had blown all this money. But Owen had, of course, given up the money for a chance at more money. Which none of us got.
But minutes later, that was when Bridgette had had enough. "Ugh, I don't even know who you are any more!" she said.
"I'm the hottest dude you've ever been with!" Geoff answered.
"Not any more. It's over." Yes, she's actually dumped him. On air. While there was an extra long segment of That's Gonna Leave A Mark, I mouthed at Bridgette "Can we ask the producers if I can co-host with you instead?" She'd actually nodded, but I knew she was still trying to comprehend what she'd just done, and wasn't really paying so much attention to me.
"Bridge, come on." Geoff tried to coax.
"Owen, would you please tell Geoff to stop talking to me?" Bridgette said.
"Geoff, Bridgette would like you to stop talking to her."
"I can hear her!" Geoff told him. "Bridge, let's talk about this."
But it was time to bring in the next guests – Leshawna and Heather. Heather had an afro wig.
"Great to see you, Leshawna." Bridgette smiled, greeting the other guest only with a curt "Heather. Nice wig."
It was Heather's turn to be electrocuted if she lied. "They can shock me all they want." she said coolly. "My parents tried electroshock therapy on me as a kid to try to make me a nicer person. Worked like a charm!"
I couldn't help giggling. "Glad I didn't meet her half a lifetime ago." I whispered to Ezekiel, who I was sitting next to. It was weird, the friendship I'd started to form with the homeschooled kid. I usually would've sat with DJ on the show, but I felt sorry for Zeke, so I'd sat next to him for this show.
Heather got shocked every time she spoke. Apparently, she did think Courtney was a worthy competitor, that she didn't believe Lindsay was as dumb as she looked, and that she did think Beth was a threat.
Leshawna took her turn, but she promised not to lie. She still believed that when Heather stood up for her on the show, she meant it all. She didn't blame anyone for being mad at her for all the trash-talking she did. And the last question was about Harold. "Harold and I are just friends." she told the webcam asker. "And that's all we'll ever be."
But there was some footage that we hadn't seen. We'd seen Harold doing yo-yo tricks already, and Heather trying to copy him and failing. Finally, we saw Leshawna watching Harold.
"I've seen that look before." Geoff told her. "It's the way Bridgette used to look at me." Bridgette punched him in the arm again, and I couldn't keep my mouth shut.
"Not the best analogy, idiot!" I yelled out. "If you keep this up, I'm disowning you."
Leshawna had to tell the truth. "All right, all right! Truth is I like Harold! A lot. Sure, there's a part of me that can't resist those little man biceps of his. Who could? But we're friends. Which is how we're gonna keep it."
Finally, Leshawna was free, and she asked what was Geoff's problem. We all agreed, he'd become mean. Heather even said she was proud of him for it.
"I'm just having some fun." he protested. That's when I got my idea. I looked at Bridgette, and then motioned to the skullcap and to Geoff. She nodded.
"You know what I think would be fun?" she said with a smirk. She whispered my idea to Heather and Leshawna.
"Since you're such a huge fan of Truth or Electrocution, we think you should take a turn!" Leshawna said.
"And it was my idea!" I called out.
They threw him into the chair and Bridgette was ready to ask the first question. "Geoff, is this really the new you? The manager, the bullying? Or is this just what you think people want from you?"
Geoff tried not to answer, but Bridgette insisted. Finally he said "This is all me, all the way." He got shocked.
Finally, Owen asked a great question. "How do you really feel about Bridgette?"
"Whatever." Geoff shrugged. "It's not like I need her." He got another shock, and that's when it happened. "Okay! I'm crazy about her. I'm crazy about you, Bridge. I'm sorry for the way I acted."
And it looked like there was some more hope left for us yet. Geoff and Bridgette even finished the show making out.
Geoff finally talked to me afterwards. "I was serious when I said I was going to disown you." I told him. "You're going to go back to being who you were before this show, right?"
Geoff smiled at me. "When I apologized on the show, I was completely honest, Elle. I didn't hate who I was then, but when I look back...everyone was right. It hit home when even Heather thought I was just as bad as her."
"So will you stop being bullying Captain Hollywood and be my brother again? Because I missed him."
"You got it, sis."
And it was true. For the rest of the show, Geoff was his old self again – the nice guy, the chillaxer. It also meant that he and Bridgette did a lot more making out, but that was a small price to pay.
I don't really want to go through everything that happened after the last Aftermath. Owen went back on the show for a while, but he was really only there to sabotage everyone else. Justin arrived in a body cast after Courtney pushed him off a building. Lindsay was surprisingly competent in the show, but accidentally got herself voted off. Harold arrived after that, followed by Courtney (the contestants were finally kicking her off for how awful she was becoming – much worse than last season, I mean, even Duncan voted her off after she gave him a 32-page contract of everything he had to change if they were going to be in a relationship), and Owen, who was fired from his job. He felt horrible doing it, anyway.
The only thing of worth was when Courtney had to sing a song about her "prince" during the fairytale movie challenge, and Harold bought a CD of it, saying "I'm gonna listen to this beautiful love song and think of Leshawna."
"No way is he thinking of me while listening to that!" Leshawna muttered.
We got to see Harold receiving her message in the confessional. He was singing the wrong words to the song "My prince will buy me lots of hot dogs...my prince will love ponies too..." Then he read out Leshawna's message. "Yo Harold, if you play that skinny rich girl's song and think about me, I'll have to kill you."
I giggled. "Well, that was straightforward." I grinned at my friend. "Sure you won't ask him out? I think he deserves a chance."
Leshawna frowned. "I know. Don't get me wrong, I like him a lot, but look at me. Look at him. Can you really see us being more than friends?"
She had a point, but I still felt sorry for Harold. It was nice that he'd accepted her friendship and nothing more, but continued to admire and worship her.
Then it got to the finale – Beth vs Duncan. Each of us ex-contestants got to ask them one question to decide who we wanted to win. I'd already decided, so I just asked them what their favourite challenge was and why. I don't even remember the answer. I think Duncan said something about not liking any of the challenges, and Beth said something about bonding with a raccoon in one episode and liking that they managed to become friends. That cemented who I was rooting for.
There was almost an equal amount of votes for both (and one for Izzy's imaginary friend Explosivo). There was just one vote to tie it up, and the winner was...
"Beth!"
I started cheering loudly, jumping up and down. Yep, I'd voted for Beth. She was a total sweetheart – who wouldn't vote for her? I never liked Duncan that much. Besides, he'd spent the whole season torturing Harold for rigging the votes last season to kick off Courtney. Dude paid the price in those pranks the others kept playing on him beforehand.
After that, Beth's (presumed mythical) boyfriend Brady made an appearance. She'd talked about him all season, but no one had believed her.
"Not only is he real, he's really handsome!" hissed Heather.
Meanwhile, Duncan and Courtney walked off together. Courtney had said they were over when he voted her off, but it looked like they'd be back together within a few hours.
Farewell, Total Drama Action.
The special next! Is anyone else hyped?
