Episode 9: Up The Creek

Reviews:

dm4487: I agree with your assessment of Anne Maria.

insertnamehere21: I doubt I could have done anything with Anne Maria beyond a few jokes here or there. And while Anne Maria might not be completely dead weight, she was the obvious LVP on her team, both here and in canon.

TheChrisanthemum: Thanks for giving it a shot.

DSX62415: Yes, she did.

Gucci Mane LaFlare: Thanks.

TDRoramie: It's cool. And yeah, Anne Maria is pretty expendable here. She did make a good comedic foil to Jo in canon, but not good enough for me to justify keeping her around, especially as Zoke is a no-go and she's not even on the same team as Mike anyway.

Phenomenal Ultra Instinct: I never liked Courtney in canon, partially because for all her posturing, she let her teammates down more than she actually helped them. Having her complete her challenge was from my perspective more for the purpose of making her more likeable, though it's entirely possible Scott had something to do with it in-universe. Anne Maria was a visible weak link, so she got cut. As for Cody being in the bottom two, Eva and Leshawna are too useful to vote out at this point, and even Aiden's own team barely remembers that he exists half the time, so Cody was the logical choice for...probably just Anne to vote for.

AndrewNotCarranza: Dawn, Sammy, and Sierra's fears were from Total Shuffled Island. Alejandro and Sky's fears from Random Drama Island. Ezekiel's fear of snow is a reference to Total Drama Comeback. Scarlett's plan to avoid the challenge, which backfired, came from Total Drama Redemption, where Noah tried the same thing. Ella's came from Total RNG Island, like you said. I wasn't really trying to reference anything with Mike's fear. I chose to have him pretend to be afraid of something normal, because his actual greatest fear is Mal, and he's not going to tell anyone about that. Still, it's entirely possible I saw it somewhere else, forgot about that story, and referenced it without realizing. Glad you liked the challenge. And I guess it wouldn't be impossible to do something with Anne Maria, but she was the most expendable member of her team, both game-wise and story-wise.

Knight: That's not an unreasonable guess, but no.

2Lazy2SignUp: I always saw Ella as an expy of Disney princesses in general, rather than any princess in particular. Besides, it was a referential fear anyway.

QueenAzulaThinksYourWorthless: Yeah, I didn't really think it was worth keeping Anne around any longer. I'm glad you liked both of those things. Thanks!


Teams:

Gophers: B, Beardo, Beth, Brick, Dawn, Duncan, Ella, Heather, Jasmine, Max, Sammy

Bass: Courtney, DJ, Ezekiel, Lindsay, Mike, Rodney, Sam, Scarlett, Scott, Topher, Tyler

Moose: Aiden, Cameron, Cody, Eva, Harold, Izzy, Jo, Leshawna, Lightning, Noah, Owen, Shawn

Badgers: Alejandro, Bridgette, Geoff, Gwen, Justin, Katie, Sadie, Sierra, Sky, Trent, Zoey


The episode opened on the campers playing games and talking. Max, Ella, Cody, Sam, and Harold were playing cards.

"With this hand, I shall crush you all! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!" Max said, showing his cards, which were a pair of nines, a three, a queen, and a seven.

"Try that again, but with just two 'ha's this time," suggested Harold.

Max did so: "Mwa-ha-ha!" Once he had done his evil laugh, lightning struck in the background. Max was pleased by this. "Hey, I perfected my evil laugh!"

Ella, happy for her friend, said, "Oh, that's wonderful!"

Harold then said, "Congratulations on perfecting your evil laugh, but you did not crush me with that hand!" He then laid down his cards, revealing a pair of jacks, a pair of fives, and a two. Cody, Ella, and Sam threw their cards down in defeat.

Over the speaker, Chris announced, "All campers report to the Dock of Shame!"

"Yes sir!" Max said, as the campers all did so.


Once all of the campers were at the Dock of Shame, Chris began explaining the challenge. "Today's challenge is a canoe trip...to Boney Island!" Beardo made a scare chord noise at this.

"Sounds exciting!" Sierra said.

"I'm sure it'll make for great TV!" Topher added.

"For the first part of the challenge, you'll have to canoe to the island. Then, you portage your canoes across the island." Upon receiving blank looks from the campers, he explained, "Walk with your canoes."

"Then, you'll have to build a signal fire, which will be judged by moi. After that, it's a race back to camp!"

"Oh, and one more thing. If you take anything from Boney Island, you'll be cursed! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

"You have to laugh a certain way if you want the lightning to appear!" Max added helpfully. Chris frowned at him.


Confessional: Shawn

"A cursed island? I had better be on my guard against zombies. If there are any, though, there is at least a bit of good news. Magically generated zombies can't turn people into zombies just by biting them, so we've got an advantage!"

Confessional: Aiden

"A cursed island that curses anyone who takes anything away from it? This could be the perfect opportunity to get rid of Multiple Mike!"

End confessional


"Because the Badgers won the last challenge, they get a ten-minute head start. Now partner up!" Chris started a timer.

"Hey, can I partner up with..." Geoff began, approaching Bridgette, but was cut off.

"Hew, wanna be partners?" Bridgette asked Gwen.

"Sure," Gwen agreed.

"Here, I'll partner up with you," Trent offered.

"Thanks, man," Geoff got in a canoe with Trent.

Katie, Sadie, and Sierra partnered up, while Justin and Alejandro took another canoe, leaving Zoey with Sky. The other three teams watched them depart.

"Man, I thought me and Bridge were tight, but it's feeling kinda weird between us lately, like I did something wrong," Geoff said to Trent as they paddled.

"I know the feeling," Trent said in response. "You think everything is just fine, then she starts acting awkward around you, and before you know it, she says you're too 'clingy,' and that the relationship isn't working, and the next day, she's making out with some guy that isn't you."

"Oh, did that happen to you?" Geoff asked.

"Yes," Trent answered honestly.

"Well, maybe you can explain what I did wrong, if you're okay with listening to me talk about everything I did," Geoff offered.

"Sure, man. I got nothing better to do. Did you do anything before she started acting awkward?"

"Well, I did give her an awesome gift this morning," the surfer dude began.

The scene shifted to Gwen and Bridgette. "Oh my gosh, Gwen, it was so bad!" Bridgette said as a flashback began. "I had just come back from brushing my teeth, and there it was," she said as the camera showed her looking at a heart-shaped container, decorated with macaroni and two different pictures, one of Geoff and one of Bridgette, put together and cut into a heart shape.

"That does sound bad," Gwen agreed.

"I know, right? And it gets worse!" Bridgette exclaimed. "There was an inscription etched into the back."

"It said, 'I hope you think of me whenever you drop loose change into this,'" Geoff stated proudly as the camera went back to the boys. "I made it in arts and crafts." Trent groaned.

"Geoff, you're not supposed to do handmade gifts at this point, unless it's, like, her birthday or something. Handmade gifts are for later, when you're both comfortably in your relationship. At this point, it just makes you look desperate. Trust me, I know from experience," the musician said.

"I messed up, didn't I?" Geoff asked. Trent nodded.

Suddenly, Sierra pointed out something. "Look! That must be Boney Island!"

The island looked like it would be spooky if the sky was filled with clouds, but the sky was clear.

"Hmm. Doesn't look that scary," Gwen commented. However, as they got closer, dark clouds appeared in the sky, and the island grew much spookier.

"You jinxed it," Katie accused.

"Yeah, you shouldn't have said anything," Sadie agreed. Gwen sighed.


Back at Wawanakwa, the other three teams were getting into their canoes. DJ nervously asked, "Do canoes flip over often?"

Scarlett answered, "No, why?"

DJ sighed in relief. "I'm scared of water, ever since the wedgie flop." He put on a life jacket.


Confessional: DJ

"My brothers dared me to jump off the high dive when I was eight. I was scared, but I jumped. I landed on my butt, which doesn't sound too bad, but my trunks went so far up there I had to go to the hospital to get 'em removed."

End confessional


Scarlett, Lindsay, and Tyler had all gotten into the same canoe.

Scarlett said to the two, "I think the two of you might be at risk of elimination should we lose. But I might be able to help you."


Confessional: Scarlett

"Who would my ideal final three be? Me and two people with low intelligence and zero athletic ability. And Lindsay and Tyler fit perfectly. The hard part will be keeping the two in the game during the voting phase, but with my superior intellect, I can do it."

End confessional


Lindsay looked at Scarlett. "Why would you say that? People like us."

Scarlett answered, "Be that as it may, you aren't considered especially useful. Without my help, you might escape elimination once or twice, but the chances of one or both of you making the merge are slight."

Tyler asked, "What? Why? I'm useful! I'm a great athlete!"

Scarlett answered, "Your teammates would disagree. They all think you are clumsy and useless."

Tyler scowled. "They really said that?" Scarlett nodded. Tyler said, "I'm in."

Lindsay frowned, but said, "I'm in too."

Scarlett said, "Good. Oh, and, don't tell anyone about this deal."


Confessional: Tyler

"I can't believe them! I thought my teammates were cool! They really want to get rid of me?"

End confessional


Rodney had chosen Topher as his paddle partner, and chose to ask a question. "Topher, you've broken up with a girl before. How do I break up with a girl?

"You need to break up with a girl? Who?" Topher asked.

"Scarlett," Rodney answered. "I was involved with her, but I need to break up with her now, so I can date Bridgette."

"You want my advice? Dump her as quickly as possible," Topher told him. "If you drag it out for too long, you will not only end up hurting her even more than if you break it off quickly, but your breakup will also be hard for the audience to watch."


Confessional: Topher

"I really need the ratings for this show to be good. If I'm going to be a reality show host, my television debut needs to be popular."

End confessional


Izzy was loudly telling outlandish stories. "Okay, so last summer I was training with the Reserves, and I got in trouble when I blew up a building, haha. That's why the RCMP is still all over my butt. I'm so totally AWOL!"

Aiden, who was in the canoe with her, looked at her, clearly exhausted.


Confessional: Aiden

"Okay, as soon as Multi-freak is gone, she's next."

End confessional


The Moose team approached Boney Island, slightly ahead of the two other teams. "Where's King Kong?" Noah asked sarcastically.

"King Kong? Ain't that the ruler of North Korea?" Lightning asked. Noah facepalmed.

Shawn said, "Remember, everyone, don't take anything. And watch for zombies."

Jo replied, "I'd make fun of you, but if there ever is a zombie apocalypse, it will probably start here."

The Gophers were the next to make landfall. B quickly lifted his canoe onto his shoulder. Ominous music played in the background, until the camera showed that Beardo was the source of said ominous music.

Max said gleefully, "This island would be the perfect place for an evil lair!"

Duncan replied, "Chris will probably try turning it into his personal resort."


Confessional: Chris

"Tried it already. The workers disappeared."

End confessional


Brick insisted on carrying the canoe himself. "Let me do it."

Sammy responded, "I should help. I rode in the canoe too."

Brick shook his head. "It's my responsibility. Just let me do it myself." He took the canoe, and ran ahead on his own. Sammy sighed.

The Bass arrived last. Topher commented, "Now this what I call atmosphere! Perfect location for a haunted island, as expected from the man himself."

Mike said, "I wish I had a fedora, or some similar hat. I have an adventurer personality that would probably thrive here."

"How many personalities do you have?" Rodney asked.

Mike hesitated. "Just five. Chester, Svetlana, Vito, Manitoba, and me."

"Fascinating," Scarlett said. "I shall work on acquiring a fedora after the challenge. For now, we should concentrate on crossing the island."

Mike nodded, then the Bass started pursuing the other teams.


The scene cut to the Badgers rushing through the forest, passing an eerie number of human skeletons. "This challenge seems kinda...dangerous," Sky remarked.

"I know, isn't it great?" Sierra replied.

"Not really," Sky replied.

They then reached a fork in the path. "Great, which way?" That was Gwen.

"The right path is slightly wider," Alejandro pointed out. "We could move faster that way."

The Moose caught up to them in time to see that the badgers were going right. Shawn said, "They're going right, so we should go left."

Jo asked, "Why? If it's the wrong path, we'll be the only ones to drop behind."

Shawn replied, "That's a risk we will have to take. If it's the right path, we'll be in first."


As the Badger team was going forwards, Trent, who was in the lead, began sinking into the ground. "Uhh, guys? I think there's quicksand here."


Confessional: Chris

Chris was laughing uncontrollably. "Did you see that? I set that up, but I didn't think anyone would actually fall into it!"

End confessional


Katie rushed forwards to help him. Geoff shouted, "Wait!" But Katie got stuck in the quicksand as well. "Wow, I totally did not see that coming," she remarked, without a hint of sarcasm. Gwen facepalmed.

"Geoff! Catch!" Bridgette threw the two of them a vine and pulled them out of the quicksand.

Just then, the Gophers arrived. "Stop! There is quicksand here," Alejandro warned.

"Great. How do we get across?" Heather wondered.

B stared at the quicksand for a moment, then looked at the canoe he was carrying on his shoulder. He set it down in the quicksand, and used it as a bridge to cross the quicksand.

"B, you're a genius!" Dawn exclaimed, and she crossed the canoe after him.

The other Gophers and the Badgers repeated the tactic with the other canoes, and the teams continued running, until they came up on monster beavers with large tusks. The beavers growled at them.


Confessional: Chris

"The woolly beaver is a remnant of the Pleistocene era, only found on Boney Island. Oh, and they're meat eaters."

End confessional


"On second thought, perhaps this would not be the ideal location for my evil lair," Max commented.

"You think?" Gwen asked sarcastically.

B looked scared, but then his eyes lit up, and he turned to Beardo. He mimed a creature roaring, and Beardo realized what he wanted. "You want me to roar at them?" B nodded. Beardo obliged, letting out an earth-shattering roar. The beavers turned and ran.


Confessional: Geoff

"Man, I wish we had the big guy on our team. We'd never lose!"

Confessional: Alejandro

"It seems B will be a very dangerous foe. Once the merge hits, he will have to be the first to be sent home."

End confessional


Brick was obviously struggling with carrying the canoe by himself. Eventually, he fell over, and the canoe landed on top of him.

"He won't admit that he needs help," Dawn told Sammy. "Brick has a need to place as much responsibility as possible on himself."

Sammy sighed, and lifted one end of the canoe. Brick said, "Wait! I can do it!"

Sammy shook her head. "You don't have to do this by yourself. And I want to help. Please, just let me help you."

As she watched Sammy help Brick, Dawn smiled.


The Moose and the Bass weren't faring as well. The two teams had managed to get cornered by a group of velociraptors.

"So that answers the question of where Chris found velociraptors," Scarlett commented.

"Oh, no, I am NOT getting eaten by dinosaurs!" Shawn shouted. "Think zombies, think zombies..." he repeated to himself. "Zombies!" He charged the raptors, and attacked them. He beat the velociraptors, punching and kicking them, shouting, "Headshot! Headshot! Headshot!"


Confessional: Shawn

"Fear isn't just a good motivator, it's the best motivator!"

End confessional


The two teams followed Shawn's example and fought the rap as well as they could, using their paddles as weapons. Upon seeing Eva take out several raptors with her paddle one-handed, Cody exclaimed meaningfully, "Wow, you're so strong!"

Eva caught Cody's meaning. "Sorry, you're not my type." Cody's shoulders sagged.

Suddenly, the raptors started running away. The campers cheered, but then they saw the pterodactyls coming towards them and started running. "Now we're gonna be eaten by flying dinosaurs!" Owen cried.

"Actually—" both Harold and Scarlett began, but were cut off by Lindsay: "Ptero-somethings are pterosaurs, not dinosaurs."

Upon the surprised silence of the group, she said, "What? It's in the name. Ptero-bird things are pterosaurs. I know stuff too."


The four teams reached the opposite beach, all in a hurry. Each of them quickly set up a stack of firewood to set alight. However, the first to actually set it alight was the Gophers. When the other teams looked at the Gopher team, Duncan held up a lighter.

"No rule against carrying lighters," Chris said from the helicopter. "Gophers, go!"

The Gophers immediately set off from the island, rowing as fast as they could. Ella sang as they rowed,

"We're safe from the island, we're fleeing the curse,

We're rowing away before it gets worse."

Scott shouted, "Stupid local Duncan, got to bring a lighter. Stupid airline!" He then started vigorously trying to start the fire.

Aiden looked at the Bass team, and steeped away. He then looked in a bush, and saw a tiki doll. "What have we here?"

Izzy ran out of the forest, holding an orange blob. Shawn had already started a sizeable flame, but Izzy said, "It's a fire-starter. I made it from tree sap and sand. Watch," and she threw the orb into the fire, and it made a huge explosion.


Confessional: Shawn

"Wow, I have got to learn how to make one of those!"

Confessional: Izzy

"One of the voices, I call him Explosivo, teaches me how to make bombs out of almost anything." She hesitated. "Do you think Explosivo might be crazy?"

End confessional


"Whoa. Okay, the Moose can go now!" Chris announced, and the Moose began racing to catch up with the Gophers.

Aiden was one of the last to push off, and he was clutching his hand in pain.


Confessional: Aiden

"I slipped that idol into Mike's pocket when everyone was looking at the explosion. Then I snuck a hot coal into one of their boats. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have used my bare hand, but I had to think quickly."

End confessional


The Badgers and the Bass rapidly raced to make fire, until Scott finally got it and the Bass's fire began to blaze. Chris okayed the Bass to go, and they began rowing as quickly as possible to catch up. The Badgers got fire several seconds later, and followed suit.

The Moose rapidly began to catch up with the Gophers. As they all approached the finish line, the Moose increasingly closed the gap until the two teams were neck-and-neck.

The Bass were staying ahead of the Badgers, until Sam noticed something wrong. "Uhh, the boat is sinking." DJ, his rowing partner, looked and saw the hole the coal had left in the boat, and began to panic. The Bass rushed to try to find room for the two. Eventually, they managed to move Scarlett and Lindsay into two other boats, and DJ and Sam into the boat with Tyler. However, it ultimately took too long. By the time they had sorted out the issue, the Badgers had gotten far ahead.

"And the Moose win! Second place goes to the Gophers!" the campers heard. Soon after, they heard, "Third place goes to the Badgers! Bass, I will see you at elimination!"


Confessional: Aiden

"That went perfectly! Now, they will vote out Mike for cursing their team! Or if they haven't found out yet, the curse might even take them all out!" He applied ointment to his burned hand, and rubbed his hands together vigorously.

End confessional


At the elimination ceremony, Chris held a plate of marshmallows. "Wow, today was not a good day for you, was it? Marshmallows go to Scott, Scarlett, DJ, Topher, Courtney, Mike, Lindsay, Rodney, and Ezekiel. Sam, Tyler, neither of you really messed up today, but you both seem more or less expendable. The final marshmallow goes to..."

"IZZY! WE KNOW YOU ARE DOWN THERE! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!"

From the distance, Izzy could be heard shouting, "You'll never take me alive!" as an RCMP helicopter flew towards the cabins.

"Well, I guess that answers that question," Chris said, and popped the marshmallow in his own mouth.


Confessional: Scarlett

"I know my team was sabotaged. I contacted the RCMP to keep us from having to follow through on the elimination. And after this challenge, whoever sabotaged us shall pay."

End confessional


"Hey, Gwen, do you have any glue?" Bridgette asked, holding broken ceramic pieces.

"No," Gwen answered, "But why are you trying to fix it? I thought you didn't like it."

"Maybe I do," Bridgette answered thoughtfully.

Reasons for elimination: Izzy is a very hard character for me to write. Also, I thought it would make more sense for Scarlett to exploit some alternative way to get an enemy out when her team lost, providing someone she wanted to eliminate wasn't on the chopping block.

Speaking of which, this is the first villain-based elimination of the story, isn't it? I'm not counting Sugar because Aiden didn't really do much. I've mostly been getting rid of the cannon fodder up to this point, but now the antagonists are going to start taking a more active role. Feel free to start guessing who will be targeted, and by whom.

Thoughts on Izzy? Complicated. Izzy is funny, but she's a lousy game-player. She was one of the few highlights of Total Drama Action along with Lindsay and Harold, that I can say for certain. And if you think this is the last we shall see of Izzy...it's Izzy. This is not the last we'll see of her.

DJ overcoming his fear of water didn't happen in this episode, so that will have to be addressed later.

Elimination order:

52: Dave, the Germaphobe

51: Staci, the Compulsive Liar

50: Dakota, the Fame-Monger

49: Sugar, the Pageant Queen

48: Amy, the Evil Twin

47: Leonard, the LARPer

46: Anne Maria, the Jersey Shore Reject

45: Izzy, the Psycho Hose Beast (Still out there?)