Team Victory: Sadie, Ezekiel, Sky
Team Power: Noah, Izzy, Eva
Team Blizzard: Topher, Ella, Mike, Cody, Heather
Episode 12: Aftermath: Revenge of the Telethon
A riff from an electric guitar opened the episode, the scene fading into a close-up of a spinning blue globe. As the camera moved up across Africa and Europe, the words 'TOTAL' and 'DRAMA' appeared in white block letters with a flash, moving up at an angle to make room for 'WORLD TOUR' in two additional rows of larger letters. One final word, 'AFTERMATH', appeared below it in a shower of stars, and as the theme music reached a tentative low the gleam from the words took over the whole screen.
XXX
Chris inserted himself next to Jo. "I said it's a half-hour show!" The host shoved her out into the open air, and her shouts were heard by all in the elimination chamber.
XXX
The new Aftermath logo appeared again, its gleam taking over the screen again to transition to the next clip.
XXX
Sky and Duncan passed through the first tunnel and they were feeling confident, until they saw the wooden ramp in their path. The two members of Team Victory screamed as they rode through the ramp and soared through the sun.
XXX
The new Aftermath logo appeared again, its gleam taking over the screen again to transition to the next clip.
XXX
Rodney heard that and got worried. "I'm sorry, ma'am! I didn't mean to-" he ran over to where Sadie was, but slipped on the sausage, and while the sausage flew off into another direction, Rodney flew off of the mat and landed in the snow.
XXXXX
The Aftermath's short introductory animation repeated itself once again, this time eliciting a roar of applause from the in-house audience as the scene cut to the studio. Several changes had been made to the stage since it was last seen, the least of which was the removal of the second guest couch. The central big screen TV displayed the show's title, and was now joined stage left by another hanging monitor displaying a few dollar signs against a reddish starburst design on a pale pink background. At the bottom of the second display was a row of empty boxes, seven of them the same size with two smaller ones raised up at the right end.
Below the second display was the Peanut Gallery, who now sat at two raised tables. Courtney, Brick, Beth, and Lightning were in the top row; Lindsay, Amy, and Shawn in the bottom. There appeared to be an old rotary telephone sitting in front of each former contestant.
Standing at center stage were Dawn and Harold, and they were dressed much more formally than usual; the dweeb was in a dark blue tuxedo, while the moonchild was wearing a lavender colored dress.
"Good evening!" Dawn greeted with a happy smile. "I'm Dawn, and this is my amazing co-host, Harold!"
"And we're coming to you live," Harold said, "because we need your help to raise money for a worthy cause."
"You're probably wondering what we're raising money for," Dawn continued. "Think back to the last episode when the Total Drama plane crash landed in Jamaica." She shook her head. "What a tragedy."
"A tragedy that could've been avoided if they just had more gas!" Harold told the audience. "But since Chris is so full of himself, he blew all the money on his personal needs and wants. Idiot!"
"A gold-lined hot tub is not worth having your plane crash land," Dawn added. "Unless we raise money for fuel, our friends could be stuck in Jamaica forever!" The camera zoomed in on her dramatically as the audience gasped.
"This show could be canceled," Harold added with a concerned look. "So can us! Which is why tonight, we're bringing you..."
"Total Drama the Telethon!" Dawn finished as the screen cut to a logo reading "TDWT TELETHON" in two lines of big block letters, the top green and bottom white. It was set against a pink-and-purple flowery background adorned with stars and music notes, and the screen quickly star-wiped back to the studio as the crowd applauded.
"The phone lines are open," Dawn said. She was on the central couch and the telephone number '1-800-555-5555' displayed on the bottom of the screen, Harold was nowhere to be found. "So please," the aura whisper pleaded, "for the love of the show, call now and donate." Another round of applause went up, and the female host stood up.
"Please welcome our first special guests," Dawn said with a gesture to stage right. "The Drama Brothers!" she announced the band as the shot cut to the three boys and sasquatch. Shawn was on the left holding a keytar, Lightning had a tambourine, Harold was center-right with his guitar, and Sasquatchanakwa was furthest right with a keyboard. The four smiled and waved at the camera and audience, who cheered them on.
The shot cut to the Peanut Gallery; Beth and Lindsay cheered and squealed in excitement while Amy, Brick, and Courtney smiled for the upcoming song.
/\/\/\
[The song opened with a close-up of the keytar as Shawn began to play, his bandmates joining in with claps punctuating the beats. The camera quickly pulled back as Dawn walked by in front of the band and began to sing.]
"This show, you need to save! This show, you gotta tell! This show, that you caa~aare!'
[The moonchild sang in a low and mournful voice; as she repeated 'this show' a second time she motioned to the big screen as, one by one, portraits of the remaining contestants appeared over the Telethon logo – Izzy, Eva, Noah, Ezekiel, Sadie, and Sky in the top row; Heather, Mike, Ella, Topher, and Cody in the bottom.]
"They're trapped in Jamaica! They have no way to leave Jamaica! It can't be fair!"
[Dawn continued, the image of the cast fading into a map of the island they were on. On the second 'Jamaica' it cut to the well-dressed moonchild standing in front of a green screen playing a montage of clips from the season: the turbulence in both classes that had preceded the plane crash; Ella, Jo, Sadie, and Shawn running through the pyramid; the cast falling into New York harbor; Team Power screaming around their goat as scarab beetles swarmed around them; Owen jumping on the sled while on an ice bridge Team Power was standing on, causing it to crumble beneath them.]
"You have to help now, we're on the brink!"
[Dawn added as the montage continued: the bear brandishing its chainsaw in the Louvre; the giant sewer alligator coughing up Team Blizzard's boat.]
"The crew gets fired, if this ship sinks!"
[Dawn's line was accompanied by clips of Ella getting electrocuted by eels; then the jumbo jet getting sabotaged by Izzy.]
"So make a difference, in their lives!"
[As Dawn sang, Owen was shown falling to the unnamed beach; Amy was shown falling after singing her line; Jo was shown evading the animals while trying to drive her golf cart through the Louvre; and Eva was shown pulling Izzy away from the grinder.]
"Give us cash or this show dies!"
[Dawn sang the line as she and the montage were temporarily replaced by an angled shot of a wheeled filing cabinet overflowing with cash.]
"Saaaave this show, TD!"
[Dawn sang, the montage resuming but the telethon number replacing the hosts on-screen. Ezekiel was shown translating the Newfoundland language; Team Victory was shown getting their boat chopped by a crocodile; then Team Blizzard were tumbling forward end-over-end in their ride down the Alps. Dawn appeared on-screen towards the end of her line.]
"Saaaave this show, we have our fee!"
[Dawn said and the montage continued: Rodney slapping Cody during the slap dance challenge; Team Blizzard looking at their props for the commercial..]
"Save the show that you loo~oove~!"
[Dawn sung higher as behind her, the plane landed in the Amazon; then Owen got attacked by piranhas after dropping off the zipline into the Amazon River.]
"Saaaave this show, TD!"
[Dawn repeated after she faded away, the montage showing the cast fleeing for their lives as Machu Picchu crumbled around them; the slap-dancers getting shocked all at once as their practice ended; Team Blizzard getting cornered by the fake Zing-Zings; and the crashed plane on the Jamaican beach at sunset.]
"Saaaave this show, in one, two, three!"
[Dawn continued as the next few clips were shown: Rodney complaining about the state of the plane seconds before the cast was unceremoniously dropped out of the cargo bay door they'd gathered on; Chris's fishing boat approaching the cast treading water in the North Atlantic; and the final jazz hand-filled shot from the very first musical number of the season.]
"Save the show with loo~oove, and five hundred thousand dollars!"
[Dawn sang as she faded back on-screen; the montage ended with a rising shot of the plane used in the first musical number before it faded into a beating red heart set against orange, yellow, and green rays. The heart faded away as well, getting replaced by a dollar sign that the host motioned to.]
"Save the show, please. Just give us money. Give us love and money."
[Dawn finished as her sorrowful head took the place of the dollar sign, her body fading away again. The scene star-wiped to the TDWT Telethon logo and telephone number as the music wrapped up and the crowd went wild.]
\/\/\/
The scene cut to the Peanut Gallery as Blaineley walked onto stage. "That's right," she told the camera. "You need to give us five-hundred-thousand dollars in the next half-hour." The shot moved in for a close-up, then she smiled. "Hi, I'm Blaineley Stacey Andrews O'Halloran," she introduced herself. "And I'm your co-host!"
"I thought you were the roving reporter," Harold said, earning a gasp from the audience as Blaineley scowled.
She quickly resumed smiling, however. "I'm thrilled to be here tonight, co-hosting with Dawn and Harold," she told the camera.
"I thought she was going back to Celebrity Manhunt," Harold whispered to his former girlfriend.
"She tried," Dawn whispered back. "They said no because they were busy with a show."
The camera cut back to Blaineley. "I'll keep you posted on the total as your calls and your cash," she winked and the telephone number appeared again, "pour in. This is the number," she looked down at the on-screen text. "Call now, we have gifts!"
"For a donation of just twenty-five dollars," Dawn said as the screen was taken over by a rotating reddish-orange sunburst pattern as a certain packet of disgusting snack foods spun into view, "you'll get a commemorative box of delicious and nutritious Yummy Happy Go-Time Fish Tails!" The crowd applauded, and the aura whisperer quickly and quietly added "Strictly decorative, do not eat, may not be legal in all provinces, keep out of reach of children."
"And for fifty dollars," Harold added as the screen flipped around to a close-up of a scrawny white person wearing a dull blue t-shirt emblazoned with Chris's face, "you'll get a special commemorative Total Drama T-shirt! Sure, it looks like a plain tee," he added as the audience cheered, "but when you get it wet," he paused to chuckle as the shirt was splashed with water, causing it to shrink and the Chris head's colors to run, "it becomes a wet tee."
"If you get a busy signal," Blaineley said as the scene cut back to her, "keep trying! You'll get through eventually!"
The shot cut to the fully-stocked Peanut Gallery where not a single telephone was ringing. The seven teens manning them looked around with a mixture of boredom.
"If viewers like you don't start donating," Harold told the camera, "pronto, everyone here will get fired! And for the contestants in Jamaica, the nightmare will truly begin."
"Our goal tonight is five-hundred-thousand dollars," Blaineley repeated, now holding a clipboard. "And thanks to your donations, so far we've raised a grand total of..." The shot cut to the donation counter hanging above the Peanut Gallery; its numbers started rolling up, and stopped with a ding on...0s across the board.
"Nothing?!" Blaineley announced in shock, the audience gasping in shock as well.
"Gosh!" Harold exclaimed in shock and annoyance of his own.
The camera panned slightly to focus on Dawn. "Let's welcome our first guest," she told her former boyfriend, "and encourage his fans to call in!"
"Good idea!" Harold said. "He lost a dance contest because of a sausage," he told the camera as it focused on him, "and fell down a couple of stairs in Egypt, it's Rodney!"
Both hosts stood up and clapped along with the audience as the country boy walked out on stage with a smile.
"Greetings, Rodney!" Dawn waved to Rodney after he walked over between the hosts. "Tell us about the gifts you have brought for those who donate in your name!"
"Gifts? Of course," Rodney said. "I can give out poi and copies of my own clothes!"
"That's right. For a donation of one hundred dollars, you'll receive three packages of Rodney's very own poi. Supplies are vaguely limited, so call now." Harold said to the camera.
The shot cut to the Peanut Gallery where all seven telephones were now ringing and being answered. "By the look of things, Rodney has a lot of fans," Dawn said.
"Yeah," Blaineley corrected, "Brick and Courtney are arranging a date, and Lindsay's calling a friend from home."
"You can send me the lemon and cherry lip gloss," Lindsay called her friend.
"Which means our new fundraising total is," Blaineley said in annoyance with a motion towards the donation tracker. It rolled up again, and stopped with a ding on 203 dollars exactly. "Two-hundred and three dollars!" Blaineley announced. "And two-hundred of that came from Lindsay's mom in exchange for the two of them going bird-watching together," she added with a roll of her eyes.
"It's worth it to keep the show alive," Lindsay said to the camera.
"Thanks for the help," Harold said to her, "but we've got a long way to go," he turned and told the camera. "I need the fame or I'm simply just a red-haired dweeb that gets picked on on a daily basis!"
"Lindsay might have the right idea," Dawn said with a thoughtful smile. "How would you like to get more information about Mal?" she asked the audience. She looked up at the big screen, which now displayed a poster of Mal. "If you're interested, then call in! We won't show any more until we hit ten thousand dollars!"
The phones were shown ringing again, and the hosts grinned. "Good job!" Harold said to the audience. "Keep calling in!"
"I can let everyone know how to defeat Mal," Dawn said dramatically.
The sound of the donation tracker rolling up moved the camera's attention to Blaineley. "Ten thousand! Look, we just hit ten thousand!" she exclaimed as the audience cheered, and the shot changed to the tracker to show it reading 10,000.00 exactly.
"First, his backstory," Dawn said. "Given what I heard from Mike's foster parents, Mal wasn't always the sociopath we know today. He was actually the prosecutor alter, Mike's protector if you will, but something inside Mal darkened apparently and he grew to love causing chaos wherever he went."
"Did they tell you what made him crazy?" Harold wondered.
"The closest thing that I got from them was that he felt overshadowed and overwhelmed protecting Mike," Dawn replied. "They have a right to keep his personal thoughts a secret from me."
"Everyone needs their privacy, I guess," Harold thought it over. "Mal's super scary and even willing to let people get injured just to satisfy himself."
"He doesn't frighten me," Dawn bravely claimed. "Deep down, he likes to have control over us and if we show anything other than fear, he'll be weakened."
"There's a lot of problems with that. Who isn't going to fear this guy. He had the guts to injure Owen!" Rodney said incredulously.
"Eva, Izzy, and Noah are still in the game," Harold said. "Given the way they act, they cannot be scared of Mal."
"Major emphasizes on 'cannot'," Lindsay reacted to the sentence. "What about the others?"
"They'll just have to either hide or unite together to stop Mal," Dawn answered and looked at Blaineley. "What do the viewers think?"
"We've gotten hundreds of calls during the fugitive segments," Blaineley said as the camera moved to her. "And their donations have added a whopping..." The donation tracker was shown rolling up again, and stopped at a less-than-dramatic 10,100.00 "Hundred bucks to our grand total," Blaineley said in a disappointed tone.
"Our next guest," Dawn said as the camera cut back to her, "is Total Drama's most tomboyish player, first season villain, and likes to avoid mummified animals. It's Jo!"
The take-no-prisoners machine walked on stage to the sounds of the cheering audience and took a seat on the guest spot.
"Jo's here to auction off a special prize," Harold claimed. "Every donation tonight earns you a raffle ticket toward…"
"Free classes with me about how to get in shape and feel like a winner," Jo proudly said. The phones from the Peanut Gallery rang, but only Amy and Shawn picked up their phones while the rest looked bored.
"Maybe we should spice up the deal," Harold told his partner.
"I have an addition," Dawn perked up. "Jo can give those who attend the class free cookies and milk for after they finish." Like before, only Shawn and Amy were interested. "I get why no one would be interested. Jo isn't the most likable person here."
"I'm sorry for getting you hurt by those piranhas, Firefly," Jo roughly apologized to Dawn. "My plan to stop you from winning backfired, and I have nobody around here to blame but myself."
"I've already gotten over that, but I do appreciate your remorse," Dawn nodded to her.
"There is something people like about Jo," Harold said to the viewers. "Her relationship tips and advice."
"Wait, what?" Jo stopped the dweeb.
"We've got clips of you talking to Sadie and Ezekiel, and we have to show them just to save the show," Harold explained.
"Play them already," Jo said. "Everyone here already watched the episodes anyways." The camera zoomed in on the static TV screen.
XXX
The first clip had Jo and Sadie together in first class. "If you want to let a man know you love them, you just have to play it cool and give them compliments every once in a while," Jo advised Sadie. "Do the opposite, and you look like a stalker."
The second clip was Jo and Ezekiel carrying their pieces in the museum. "You acting like yourself instead of being something you're not is a start," Jo said. "To tell you the truth, that rapper persona is not hip and it makes you look more like a dork than you already are."
XXX
The scene returned to Harold. "I never knew you were into romance to the point of caring for other people's love lives rather than messing with them," he said.
"I wouldn't gain anything ruining crushes," Jo argued. "Ezekiel and Sadie were a bit of a mess, so steering them in the right direction was the best way to help them."
"Normally, I'd expect you to take advantage of them, but you didn't," Dawn smiled. "Your aura has been getting less dark lately."
"Some people here are rubbing off on me, and I'm not afraid to admit that," Jo said before facing the camera. "If you join my exercise class, I'll be giving out bikes from the motocross challenge two seasons ago! How about that?"
The seven former contestants grabbed their phones to call, and the donation tracker was raised to 50,000.00 "We're up to fifty-thousand. It's not a hundred-thousand, but we're getting to our goal!" Blaineley announced while the audience cheered.
"Dynamite Dude, would it be okay if I use the bike you built for that challenge?" Jo whispered to Harold. "I can build my own bikes, but yours can be used as an example."
"I got a new bike, so you can use that one," Harold agreed. "You will have to consider that one a hand-me-down from me to you."
"Let's just call it me borrowing from you. Hand-me-down make us sound like we're related," Jo said, causing the audience to laugh.
"Keep on sending us your donations," Dawn told the camera. "We will see you after the break."
\
(Commercial Break)
\
TSWT 12 (pt 2)
The episode resumed on the Aftermath's title screen, its theme playing as the words gleamed and the feed cut to the studio. The Peanut Gallery were busy answering calls, the phone number was on the screen, and the hosts were in the middle of a conversation as the camera panned to them.
"Trust me when I say what's going to happen later will earn us the money," Harold told Dawn.
"You've never lied to me, relationship or not, so I'll believe you," Dawn said back.
Harold looked at someone off-screen. "We're on?!" The eyes of the two hosts went wide as they quickly turned their full attention to the cameras. "And we're back, live!" Harold said.
"Welcome back to the most anticipated telethon!" Dawn greeted. "Let's check in with Blaineley for the new total."
The shot cut to Blaineley. "You bet, Dawn. Drumroll please!" She looked up at the donation tracker, which rolled up to 200,298.00.
"This is great," Dawn cheerfully beamed as the audience began to cheer. "We've reached two hundred thousand!"
"Yeah," Blaineley said bluntly, "but we haven't even reached the halfway mark yet."
"So we have to raise three hundred dollars?" Dawn asked incredulously. "In ten minutes?!"
"I'm pretty sure our next guest will be bound to get the viewers ready to call in," Harold said confidently. "He is a well-known friend of ours. Please welcome the king of the delinquents, Duncan!"
"What's up to all my peeps in a jail cell!" Duncan greeted with a rock and roll hand gesture as he walked out on-stage to the roar of the audience.
"Let's see Duncan's best moments from this season," Harold said, looking up to the big screen.
XXX
The screen cut to a montage of some of Duncan's moments, beginning with Duncan holding Ezekiel's bling in the confessional, him kissing a cod just to show his superiority, and him singing the final verse of 'Come Fly With Us'.
XXX
The scene cut back to the studio as the audience applauded. "You rank lower this season, but I can tell you made your time worth it," Dawn said.
"Much appreciated," Duncan responded.
"How did your elimination feel?" Harold wondered.
"It felt meh. I was bound to be going home once Jo got Ella, but I just wish that I managed to not just convince Sky about Mal being back," Duncan admitted.
"Tell me about it," Harold muttered. "Everybody knows that Mike is too nice to be a supervillain, and even if I tried to tell them, they wouldn't believe a smart guy like me."
"At the very least, Sky took the time to listen to Duncan," Dawn said.
"Moving on," Harold said. "Gifts and bribery are obviously not working, and this season's Total Drama is a musical."
"So if you want to hear Duncan sing, call now," Dawn told the viewers.
"I sang enough on the show," Duncan whined. "Can't I just burn a car on fire so the viewers can be impressed?"
"NO!" the three hosts replied suddenly.
"I'll sing a song, but you have to let me do the type of genre I want to sing instead of what you and the show want," Duncan gave in.
"Sure thing," Harold agreed.
"It's more preferable to burning objects," Dawn said.
"I know the fans are gonna be impressed by this," Blaineley smirked.
"Then it's time for some rock and roll!" Duncan grinned and took out a green and black colored electric guitar from behind him, surprising the hosts.
/\/\/\
[The song opened up to a deep melodic rock tune, and Duncan walked over to the same part of the stage where Shawn sang his song at the last aftermath. The delinquent was using his black amp to strum the notes on his guitar.]
"So it seems he has come back, with the same kind of attack."
[He sang next to a picture of a smiling Mike.]
"You all think he's still your pal, but in reality, he's Mal."
[He ripped the picture off to reveal Mal behind the first one.]
"In juvie, Mal roams around free. Guards and inmates know when to flee."
[Duncan ripped the picture to one of the aforementioned inmates and guards hiding from a giant Mal.]
"Mike knows he is in trouble, when the malevolent one takes control."
[The next picture showed Mike behind a wicked Mal.]
"And I want to tell you one last thing…"
[As Duncan took a break from singing, the aftermath hosts and Peanut Gallery were listening to the song with seriousness. After the silence, Duncan got back to playing on his guitar, but with a heavier tune than before.]
"Mal…is…the son of the devil! Take…us frrrooom evil! Mal…is…the son of the devil! Take…us frrrooom evil!"
[Duncan sang his final verse with an edge in his voice and a more serious and moody expression than ever.]
\/\/\/
While Duncan was playing an instrumental version of his song, the camera cut back to the Peanut Gallery, where they answered the phones fast; then it cut to the spinning total board reaching to around 300,000.00.
"Three hundred thousand dollars! We did it!" Blaineley said to everyone.
Hearing those words, Duncan let out one last guitar riff, leapt into the air, and smashed his guitar into two on the ground; the viewers applauded and cheered for the boy's performance.
"Now that's how you raise money!" Duncan boasted in accomplishment. "Rock and roll rules!"
"What's the official tally update, Blaineley?" Dawn asked.
The shot cut over to the donation tracker, which rolled up to 335,000.00 total. "We're up to three hundred and thirty-five thousand big ones!" Blaineley said, "which is nearly close to our goal."
"Awesome!" Harold smiled.
"Not yet. I have an idea," Blaineley said, "but you're not going to fully agree with me."
"If it will raise money, I'm fine with it," Harold promised.
"Okay. This guy has become popular with the female demographic ever since he joined the show… Topher!" Blaineley smiled, motioning up at the big screen as Topher was shown flexing his muscles with his eyes closed and his shirt removed. A distinctly feminine chorus was heard from the crowd.
"Wait a minute," Harold said to the screen. "Topher's popular with the ladies?"
"Uh huh," Blaineley replied. "Audience research tells us that people loved seeing Topher stir up drama and look pretty doing it."
"That is true, but his soul is extremely flawed," Dawn firmly turned away from the screen and closed her eyes. "Not going to look."
"Keep those donations coming, and I'll keep the entertainment coming," Blaineley promised. "Dawn, you have got to see this."
The footage was shown again, showing Topher surfing on the beach waters and giving the camera a charming smile that made the women in the audience go wild.
"Not paying attention," Dawn denied the request, but turned her head around. "Is the water," her left eye opened, "making his body," her right eye opened, "glow brightly?" She couldn't hide her emotions anymore and she sighed lovingly at Topher.
The phones rang, and the seven Peanut Gallery teens answered; the current total stopped at 400,000.00.
"We're up to four hundred thousand dollars already! I hope you ladies enjoyed the fan service," Blaineley winked to the girls in the audience.
Harold smirked playfully at Dawn. "Who knew you of all people could drool over hot guys like Topher?"
Dawn smiled back. "I have no romantic interest in him, but even I can't resist some things in my life."
"For example, Topher's glowing body," Harold said.
"Don't blame me for what I can and can't like," Dawn teasingly said.
"Personal opinion, Dawn and Topher won't work out," Blaineley whispered to the camera.
"There's something I have to do," Harold informed the aura whisperer. "Introduce our last guest, and I'll be right back!"
Dawn watched the dweeb run off. "Our final guest is the only competitor in the history of Total Drama to get sidelined by injury."
The TV showed Owen's many injuries; him getting hit by a cart courtesy of Eva, him being attacked by piranhas, and him getting crushed by the jet. Regardless, the audience members laughed in amusement.
"Fresh from intensive care, please welcome everybody's favorite goofball, Owen!" Dawn introduced.
The funniest guy around walked out on the stage as the audience cheered. He was now wearing glasses and he had his hair combed straight.
"Greetings, carbon-based life form commonly referred to as "Dawn"," Owen greeted Dawn in his new advanced vocabulary before sitting down.
"How are you?" Dawn checked up.
"My health falls in acceptable parameters, thank you," Owen said. "I am making satisfactory progress on my new time machine."
"Well, that's great?" Dawn supported the boy.
"I am also close to developing a doughnut maker that will fit into our pockets," Owen added.
"Harold, are you done?" Dawn called out.
"Everything's good to go," Harold told the moonchild before seeing Owen. "Hey Owen. Sorry about that plane crash."
"Greetings, carbon-based life form commonly referred to as "Harold"," Owen greeted back. "Your concern for well-being is not deplorable."
"I don't understand most of what you said, but I'll take that as a compliment," Harold smiled.
"Harold, where did the peanut gallery go?" Dawn asked when she saw no sight of them and Blaineley was sitting on the top half of the seats shrugging.
"You'll soon find out," Harold assured her. "But first, it's time for a brand new Aftermath segment, Brain Blast!"
The scene transitioned to a spinning wheel; Eight slots were presented with yellow question marks, a big brain was in the center while six sticks of dynamite had its fuse go off. Eventually, the dynamite exploded and moved to the next scene of Harold locking Owen's arms and legs to the wheel with orange cuffs.
"Here's how Brain Blast works," Harold said before the camera zoomed out to show him, Dawn, and Owen on top of a wooden ledge that was above the studio. "You call in with donations, and we test Owen with skill-testing questions. The bigger the donation, the harder the questions. And just a heads-up, you're gonna want these questions to be extremely hard!"
The shot panned down to a tank filled with sewage water. "I accept the skill testing challenge," Owen gave in. "There's no question I haven't miscalculated or failed with."
"As long as Owen or us aren't being threatened with sharks, I'll allow what's about to happen," Dawn said.
"A fan from New York donated this disgusting liquid to us," Harold continued. "One wrong answer from Owen, and his straps will unlock, dunking him in sewage water."
"This may seem a trivial waste of my very own mind, but I believe in challenging my enormous gray cells," Owen sniffed snootily.
"If you're a fan of water or skill-testing questions, you're a fan of mine. So call now!" Harold announced while the phone number appeared again on screen, making Blaineley have to answer all of the ringing phones.
"Cool. Give him a spin, Dawn!" Harold told Dawn.
Dawn spun the wheel, making Owen spin around as well. "Seventy-eight rotations per minute is marvelous!" Owen commented.
"First question, geography," Dawn read out when the wheel landed on a globe. "Level of difficulty?"
"Major!" Blaineley said. She was answering two phones and two other ones were wrapped over her arms.
"What's the capital of Uzbekistan?" Harold asked the first question after pulling out a card and reading from it.
"Tashkent," Owen answered.
"Correct!" Dawn spun the wheel. "Next question!" The wheel stopped on currency symbols. "Currency exchange. Difficulty?"
"Brutal!" Blaineley said while answering the phones.
Harold took out another car. "What's the equivalent of 2,789 in yen?"
"21,981,55.82," Owen correctly calculated.
"You're right," Dawn complimented before spinning the wheel again. "Next!" It stopped on some complex equations. "Math. Difficulty?"
"Impossible!" Blaineley yelled as she held on all the phones.
"What's the square root of sixty-seven?" Harold read.
"That would be 8.18535277187245," Owen quickly said the numbers.
"Correct," Dawn clapped. "Let's go to the next round."
She spun the wheel again, but she may have done it with too much force, because the wheel and Owen rolled off the ledge and Harold and Dawn gasped as Owen and the wheel crashed off-screen. Fortunately, Owen came out okay, but his glasses were gone and his hair was back to his normal state.
Dawn and Harold raced over to Owen. "Are you okay, Owen?" Harold wondered in concern.
"I could really use some graham crackers, chocolate syrup, and marshmallow sauce right now," Owen mumbled.
"It seems like Owen has reverted back to his original personality from that crash," Dawn noted.
"That's going to be a problem for the Peanut Gallery!" Harold pointed to the seven members tied above the sewage water in a tank.
Owen was soon presented with a bomb shaped like an airplane. "Is that a bomb?" Owen questioned before an intern put a blindfold over his eyes. "Hey, who blindfolded me?"
"The rules are simple. Owen has to defuse the bomb blindfolded as the Peanut Gallery are slowly lowered into the water," Harold stated.
"Owen, you have to defuse the bomb now!" Dawn begged desperately.
Owen knelt down and felt the bomb. "I don't know how to defuse a bomb. Do I use a hammer or a screwdriver?"
Harold and Dawn, seeing that time was running out, ran away to take cover. When the time hit, the bomb exploded and unleashed a gray cloud that covered the screen. When the cloud dispersed, it unraveled the destruction around the studio. The TV was destroyed and had an Owen-shaped hole in the front, the seats were torn apart, the spotlight hangers were scattered, and sewage water was everywhere.
As for the people, they weren't looking good. Courtney was lying on the floor, Lindsay and Lightning were on the ledge, Beth, Shawn, Harold, and Dawn were scattered on the spotlight hangers, Brick was slumped over the TV, and Amy hung on to the donation tracker.
"I have to say…that was awesome!" Harold cheered as the camera focused on him and Dawn.
"For the show, yes. But for us, no," Dawn said.
"Did we reach our goal, Blaineley?" Harold asked the older female.
The camera cut to Blaineley standing up from her seat. Her eyes were spinning and she was feeling delicious. "Gimme... gimme the drum roll, ple-" She didn't finish before slamming her head down.
A dramatic tune played as the tracker rolled up. With a musical flourish, it stopped at 500,000.01.
"Five hundred thousand dollars and one cent!" Harold celebrated. "We reached our goal, and it's all thanks to me knowing what the fans want!"
"I congratulate you on your ideas," Dawn said to her friend.
"Thanks to your support," Harold said, "we all still have jobs, even Blaineley!"
"The show will go on!" Dawn told the camera. "So be sure to tune in next time for the continuation of the world's greatest reality competition ever. Total! Drama! Woooorrrrlllddd~ Tooouuurrrr~!" The usual blaring tune played as the camera zoomed out to show the entire stage again. The audience cheered wildly.
(Roll the credits)
\
(Bonus Clip)
The clip opened up to Blaineley still in the destroyed studio. "So as it turns out, the studio got wrecked by the explosion," Blaineley talked to someone on her phone. "I would've let the interns clean the mess up, but most of what had happened was because of our ideas."
"We can give our interns a day off," she continued. "Me and the contestants here will do the cleanup, but let me remind you that we'd like to be compensated." Blaineley ended the call and put her phone away. "On second hand, I'd call a cleanup crew to do the job for us."
Author's Note: So today we learned more about Mal from Duncan and we also got some closure between Jo and Dawn about the bike challenge. I say this was a good chapter. We're beginning the second half of the season next chapter, things will become juicy.
18th: Shawn
17th: Amy
16th: Lindsay
15th: Rodney
14th: Jo
13th: Owen
12th: Duncan