So...well, here's Geoff to tell you what's going to happen. Thanks for reviewing, AnimeGamerGirl23, SuperKitty4789 and GIANTPANDAMAN.
The last episode was recorded there and then, but since Chris was apparently already on his way out of the country, Geoff was given cue cards to do the opening. "Me? I'm supposed to read that? Okay..." he said, but then began. "Last time, on Total Drama Action..." He recounted everything that had happened, up to me losing. He was watching the footage as he spoke. "Dudes, looks like that was a blast!"
Finally, Geoff wound up. "One tie. Two competitors. Who's gonna win it? Find out right here, right now, on Total! Drama! Action!"
"And cue the opening sequence." I muttered, sort of wishing we got to see it. When I watched the TDI footage, each episode had also come with a working opening sequence, showing footage of everyone doing their own thing. After they found a piece they thought was good, that clip stayed, and that clip was the one that aired. The clip of me started from Episode 5, and it had me lying on the dock, reading, in between Justin preening in two mirrors and Beth twirling fire batons (and I later found out that the opening for TDA had me and Courtney exchanging a sly thumbs up after she and Duncan kissed passionately, and before a clip of Beth – that footage came from just after Episode 19, so I'm not sure what they had before that).
"Can somebody please tell me there's a plan here?" Duncan spoke up.
"Nope!" Geoff said brightly. "But since we're all here one last time...let's PARTY!"
Bridgette smiled. "Geoff and I cut together some sweet footage of everyone from the whole season."
It was a pretty cute sequence, true. Beth and Lindsay jumping up and down, Harold and Heather slap-fighting, A shark giving Justin CPR...there was even a clip of me peeking through the boys' trailer window that night Courtney gave Duncan all those rules.
Beth and Duncan got to sit together in the place for the winner, while Bridgette and Geoff showed a preview of some never-before seen clips of Chris. While the cameras were off us, they explained "The show's playing at the airport where Chris is starting his vacation. When he sees it, he'll freak and insist on picking a winner if we haven't done it."
We all got a bit emotional, actually, when Geoff pointed out this was the last time we'd all be together.
"We've all had an awesome time together," Bridgette added, "And we'll miss you guys."
"Aw, we'll miss you too, girl." Leshawna said. Then she frowned. "Now pick a winner so we can all go home!"
But it was time for a segment Geoff called 'That's Gonna Leave A Mark' – basically clips of everyone getting hurt. Yes, Courtney battling me during the fairytale movie challenge was up there with Izzy being paintballed and Owen's busted jaw.
Finally, Duncan groaned. "Just end this! Just give one of us the colossal stack of cash!"
"Just give all the money to me." Beth piped up.
"Uh, no."
"It was worth a try!"
Courtney suggested a way to find a winner, suggesting an "unbiased" (accompanied with a wink) quiz show, but we all agreed that was lame. Even Harold's idea of making each competitor contort themselves to fit through differently shaped holes was better, so we gave that a try.
Beth and Duncan did surprisingly well at most of them, actually. They survived for some time. In fact, it took such a long time that Geoff and Bridgette passed some of the time making out. But then Beth lost out when it got to a cross, and her ponytail sent the wall crashing down on her. It resulted in a tie when Duncan couldn't get through a sillhouette of Harold's face.
"Make a decision!" Eva yelled out. "I'm bored! And you know what happens when I'm bored?"
I turned around and whispered "I'm bored, too. One of us should come up with a better idea of determining a winner!"
So Geoff and Bridgette started showing more clips of Chris.
"What exactly is going on here?" It looked like the whole sneak peek had worked. Chris and Chef had arrived, and Chris looked pretty pissed off. "Did the network listen when I told them that putting a couple amateurs in charge would be televised poison? No. Why would they? But now that I'm in charge, the real show can begin!"
Okay, to be fair, Chris' method of picking a winner was low-key, but not lame. Each contestant would get to ask Beth and Duncan one question, and then we'd vote on the winner, just like Survivor.
"But first, let's watch each of them at their very worst." Chris grinned. "Beth, I've gotta say you weren't the most athletic team member on Total Drama Action. Okay, you were a total klutz!"
To be fair, that was true.
"So I never got an A in Gym! At least I tried hard!" Beth defended herself.
Chris ignored her. "And Duncan! Let's take a look at some heartwarming footage of Mr Nice Guy!"
Like dunking Harold, pushing Justin, smashing a guitar.
"We don't need to ask a question." Owen spoke up. "We know these guys!"
Talk about heartwarming footage. Chris then showed us footage of the contestants doing something unconventional, for them at least. In Duncan's clip, he was awake in the boys' trailer at night. Everyone else was asleep, and Duncan then proceeded to basically tuck everyone in. He put DJ's teddy in his arms, put the covers back over Harold, pulled Justin's sleep mask down... We all "awwed" at that display.
While Duncan's clip showed him being soft, Beth's one showed her at her meanest. In the clip, Chef gave her a basket of cookie bread for her and the rest of us girls sent by a fan club. Beth ate the lot. "It's really hard work being nice." she said to the camera. "I deserve these more than anybody!"
Yes, we'd have to ask the questions. Geoff and Bridgette were busy making out, so Chris moved on to Trent.
"As part of Total Drama Action's movie theme, I want to know about your character." the musician said. "Like, let's say your boyfriend was being super nice to you and nothing more. And you for some reason found that weird, and talked to his teammates about voting him out, and then they did that, and..." Poor Gwen! Okay, no, they were not back together.
"Awkward." DJ said. Okay, he just stole my line.
"I just don't think I'd date anyone in the competition." Beth answered. "My mom always says that you don't wash your vegetables in toilet water...unless they're really really hot vegetables."
As for Duncan's reply? "All I know is that you'd never catch me doing what some chick told me to in the first place." We all burst out laughing, except for him and Courtney.
Izzy's turn. She went off on a tangent, but basically she wanted a dance-off. "Hit it, DJ!"
"What 'it' am I hitting?" DJ looked blank.
"Not you!" Izzy exclaimed. "DJ Jazzy Chef!" Yes, Chef.
Beth was awkward at first, but the minute she started to get into it, Duncan broke in and began break-dancing.
"Wild style!" cried Izzy. "Go Duncan, go Duncan..."
Gwen was next. "I want to know how each of you will use your money to save the environment, when you're not busy thinking of yourselves."
Beth said her boyfriend was involved in some planting trees thing, and she'd donate her money to market it to others and get more volunteers. Duncan said he thought Greenpeace's borderline terrorism was cool and wanted to donate some money to them.
DJ had some hypothetical thing. Basically, the person is on a bicycle, and there's a fork in the road, with daisies on one side and dandelions on the other. They'd have to roll over one of them to get to their destination.
Duncan said he'd go over the dandelions, but Beth gave the answer DJ wanted. "I'd throw myself from the bike and save both the daisies and the dandelions!"
Owen suggested a healthy eating contest. He'd started eating healthy himself.
"Finally, a decent idea!" Chris exclaimed. "Torturous, disgusting..."
That was the most boring part of the whole tiebreaker. Then it was Heather's turn.
"I already know which of you I'm voting for." she said. "Needless to say, I should be sitting in that chair."
"There's really not a lot of room left..." Beth mumbled.
"I meant instead of you, idiot!" Heather snapped. "I was the one with all the strategic smarts, the will to win, the brains and the courage! If it wasn't for a lot of bad luck and totally incompetent team members..." She seemed to go into her own world as she ranted "Why am I not the winner? What kind of crappy show is this? I better not run into either of you in the real world!"
"Chris, can I slap her?" I asked.
This seemed to remind Heather that she was on TV and everyone was watching her mini-tantrum. She glared at me and sat down, and Leshawna took her turn. Her question was very simple – how would they spend the money?
Beth listed a few things, like a really nice dinner with her boyfriend, a fuschia baton, and hair bobbles. "Then I'd go on a tropical cruise in France with my mom and Lindsay! And then, I'd buy a schoolhouse for underpriviledged children."
Duncan just said he'd buy two schoolhouses, and then added that he wasn't bound by that.
Justin asked if his 'injuries' (even though he still looked breathtaking) would keep him from playing a leading man, or would he only be able to play character roles as villains and nutty people.
I saw Duncan whisper something to Beth, who replied to the question dreamily "I could totally see you kissing girls on the big screen. You've still got it, Justin."
"Yeah." Duncan agreed. "You're still like a gorgeous, movie star type guy."
Lindsay's turn. "I'm choosing Beth, because I like her, and tropical cruises are nice too. Thank you."
"Lindsay, it has to be a question!" Chris groaned.
The blonde frowned. "Um...do I like Beth...and do I think cruises are nice?"
"Yes." chorused the finalists.
"Oh my gosh, you both know me so well! How am I gonna decide?"
Harold made them both draw imaginary animals. Yeah, that was weird. He looked at each of them. "A heracorn with wings. Very good, Beth." Duncan's one wasn't an animal, but Harold appreciated it.
"Okay, moving on..." Chris said..."Stephanie."
I knew Courtney was about to protest with Chris going to me instead of her, since she was kicked off before me, but I jumped in before she could say a word. "Since most of the good questions about normal stuff have been used up and I decided my vote due to my experience with you guys on the show – and trust me, it wasn't easy – I'm going to use my question to ask something random. In your two seasons on the show, you guys have done a lot. If you could have picked one thing you could've gone back and done differently what would it be? Just so you don't feel alone, I would've never bothered making an alliance with Courtney and asked Beth and Lindsay to ally with me from the start. And while I'm aware that Heather did that too...well, Beth, you know my alliances work differently. So...?"
Beth looked thoughtful for a moment, then said "Speaking of the alliance with Heather, I wouldn't have made it. And I wouldn't have taken that tiki doll last season. Oh, and I wouldn't have been so tough on Gwen over the Trent thing."
Duncan's turn. "I only have one regret. Back in that thing where we had to find our way back to camp, there's no way I would've let the chicks snag our stuff."
I caught the smirks on Heather and Gwen's faces, although they didn't see it on each other. They had worked together pretty well, considering how much they hated each other.
"And finally, mercifully..." Chris said. "The end."
Courtney opened her mouth, but the music began. Courtney didn't get her chance. Each of us went to vote.
When I took my turn, I scribbled my choice down, and then grinned at the camera. "If I can't win it, I've gotta choose the person who I like most. And much as I like Beth, I've been close with Duncan from the first few challenges."
And wouldn't you know it, Duncan won. But a certain gold-digger just had to interrupt again. "We're rich!"
Duncan held Courtney at arm's length, "Whoa, sister. Who said I would share anything with you?"
Courtney kissed him passionately. "Every king needs a queen!"
"King, huh?" Duncan grinned. "That doesn't sound so terrible."
As for Beth...well, an unfamiliar guy peeked out from backstage.
"Brady!" exclaimed Beth, and ran to him. They hugged.
Yes, Beth's boyfriend had been real all along! And he really was handsome. Duncan was happy with the money, and as Beth proclaimed while holding Brady, "I've got all the prize I need."
That was it. The show was over. I could finally go home.
Personally, I would've voted for Beth. But Stephanie, as I said, has always had a pretty good friendship with Duncan, so she had to pick him. And yes, Total Drama Action may be over, but Stephanie's story isn't. She won't be there for the special this time, but there's one more season she can go on. (I'd put her on Ridonculous Race with one of her family members, but there's already a Stephanie on there, so...)
