Replies, cooked up to imperfection:

lordgemini- Paul really saw Helio as the threat, because he was. He wanted to make sure that Helio didn't win over him, since that would put Paul at risk. I'm glad you think this version is more realistic. I'm inclined to agree that the blind loyalty of before was dumb.

Time for the final eight! How will today go?

Episode 14: Fresh Gourmet Grossness

Chris and Chef were in the control room, while the mysterious figure sat on a bench nearby, their cloak off. It looked a bit upset after being yelled at the night before. Chris stood in front of it as he got ready to start the episode. "Last time, on Total Drama Karon Island, our happy and bouncing teams got sent into the meat grinder and we merged them together, leaving everyone to fend for themselves!" The opening clips were of the final nine reacting to being merged. "We pitted everyone against each other in a battle royale style paintball match, where winning meant immunity." The first clips were of Kayla winning the first round and Paul winning the fourth. "We saw lots of really awesome strategies, and some really sucky ones." Clips played of Luna teleporting randomly around Helio, and Ethan shooting himself multiple times.

"In the end, since everyone else marked him as a huge threat to their game, Helio was ganged up on nearly every round, and took the fall from Norm, and launched into the sky." The next clips were of Norm winning the duel and Helio's elimination. "Finally, Jonathan dropped his blackmail to put Ethan and Norm in a worse spot and himself in a better one. And, they all got one special visit from our little chaos causer, who we found out is overstepping where they shouldn't be." The scene flipped back to the control room, where Chris shot a glare at the figure. The figure let out a grumble as it put a sword in its left leg sheath. "Who will win it today? Who's going to go down after last night's juicy reveal? Find out today on Total! Drama! Karon Island!"

Opening Sequence

[Various cameras and other director equipment come popping out of various points on the island. Firstly, it appears out of a large tree, then out of a hole at the entrance to the mines, and finally, shooting all the way from the top of The Chasm.]

Dear Mom and Dad, I'm doing fine,

[The camera zooms all the way up at the top of Mount Karon. Kara is at the top, observing something as Kayla jumps off of the cliff and starts flying downward, opening up a parachute at the very last second.]

You guys are on my mind,

[The camera moves to the beach, where Gretchen falls off of the rocky cliff and lands face first into the water, still splashing around happily anyway. Nearby, Juan is relaxing in the water as Hannah pops up next to him, evidently annoying him.]

You asked me what I wanted to be, and I think the answer is plain to see,

[Near the beach, the fourth boat is still wrecked and crashed into a rock. Helio lifts the boat out of the water to move it, all while Daniel is still on it, shocked at the boy's strength. Meanwhile, Madison emerges from the boat wreckage as well, and Jonathan offers his hand to help, which she takes begrudgingly.]

I wanna be famous!

[Further into the woods, Paul is narrowly racing against Sarah in a race. The pessimist trips over Sheldon and crashes to the ground, upset over his loss because of it. Flora rushes over to check on the safety of both the boys.]

I wanna live close to the sun,

[At the base of Mount Karon, Randall is decked out in climbing gear, excited to start moving up the mountain. Next to him, Alexa, looks significantly disinterested, sleeping on a log instead of watching.]

Go pack your bags cause I've already won,

[In the forest, Chad is screaming and jumping around to different trees, while Angie stands in the middle of all of it, covering her ears and getting increasingly more agitated.]

Everything to prove, nothing in my way, I'll get there one day,

[As Chad makes more noises, Ethan and Norm watch from a tree in the distance, before both of them exchange an understanding nod. Next to them lies an empty poison bottle.]

Cause I wanna be famous!

[In the dining tent, Chef and Luna are conversing rather calmly, before a strike of lightning crashes down on the tent. Chef runs out, but Luna appears unfazed by it, instead calmly glancing upward.]

Na na, na na na na, na na na na, na na na na na na!

[The camera moves to the dock, where Luna appears out of nowhere, spooking Paul and Kayla. The two glare at her, the former giving up on caring much faster than the latter.]

I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous! I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!

[The camera drops down to the mines, where Kara is lurking, and she presses a button that launches out a ball of fire. The fire reveals some sort of odd structure inside the mine, bursting into a big glow that transitions to the fire.]

I wanna be famous *whistling*

[Everyone is circled up at the fire. In the middle of all of it, Jonathan leans in toward Madison, who jumps backward, accidentally landing in Ethan's lap, where she is even more freaked out. Above them is the sign that reads 'Total Drama Karon Island'.]

Unlike most mornings, the girls' cabin was pretty lively. Angie walked in from outside, looking a bit dirty. It was pretty apparent that she had been out looking for idols. When she made it in, she saw Kayla sitting in the middle of the room with a smug grin. "There she is," the brat said condescendingly. "How's our new Hen friend? And, by association, our new ally?"

Angie brushed off some of the dust that was on her as she came in. Some of it went right into Kayla's face, causing her to cough. "Yeah, you better be ready to tell me why I'm being bombarded like this," the hothead said hastily. "I don't know how the Bunnies worked, but I was in charge back at the Hens, so I won't just team up with you all for no reason."

"It's your call, of course," Kayla told the hothead, her tone not getting any less cynical than before. "All I'm saying is you were on a team with three highly suspect people, or as the rest of the people in this cabin are led to believe, just two." Luna looked particularly conflicted by that. "Or are you still convinced that you can just pretend like none of this is happening?"

Luna let out a loud sigh that got everyone's attention as she teleported from her top bunk down to the middle of the cabin, next to Kayla. "All things considered," the psychic said with sorrow in her voice, "the evidence points in one direction more than the other. I would like to avoid taking out Norm if I can, but I understand if that creates a conflict of interest."

Kara also walked to the middle to stand with Kayla. "I'm just about as disinterested in this as you are, Angie," the curious girl assured her. "I have way more on my mind than some silly alliance that schemes. But, they are still evident threats, and we have the numbers to remove them. At the end of the day, I want the money, and so do you." She held out a hand. "Are you with us?"

Angie stared at the other three girls. "I have no interest in being some sort of girls' club," she stated bluntly. "Plus, at the end of the day, you two will throw me and Luna out first since you don't hate each other, and Luna will go after me since you all were teammates." She shook Kara's hand. "This is strictly temporary," she reminded them. "After we take care of this, I go back to whooping all of you and challenges and taking what is mine."

Kayla: "And just like that, I am safe for some time," she said with a smirk. "Angie's right, I'll throw her out first, but I need those other three gone first. Ethan and Norm because they threw me off a mountain and are running the game, and Jonathan because he's sort of a weirdo, and I don't like him. Then Paul after that since I still hate him..." she laughed. "Maybe Angie will be around longer than I thought."

Angie: "This is so stupid!" she yelled. "I just want to show people how awesome I am at challenges! I did my time as a leader and a peacekeeper on my team, now it's time for me to crush it!"

Out by the beach, Ethan and Norm were sitting in silence for a while. Norm glanced out at the ocean for a second before looking at Ethan. The anti-villain looked completely lost in thought, not thinking about anything at the same time though. Eventually, the antisocial genius got bored. "Look, we need a plan," he told him. "We're backed against the wall here, but we're not dead."

Ethan blinked a few times to put himself back into focus, reminding himself of why he came out here. "Maybe it's for the best," he said to Norm. "I mean, we did do all that stuff. Nearly every elimination has been my fault, and if I refused Jonathan earlier, I could have saved more people from going away unfairly." He sighed. "I wanted to be a hero, and I really was the opposite of that."

"Because you wanted to win," Norm defended. "I don't get how they don't see that. You're not a villain because you're eliminating people on a show. You've done nothing that really caused harm to anyone else. I mean, Kayla's an odd situation, but you have to remember that Jonathan sent you both down. You just stalled her until he let go of the rope."

"I still didn't expect Jonathan to be that prepared and record our conversations," Ethan admitted. "I knew about the camera and the picture that was on it, but he came with evidence that I can't really refuse. The only plan is to just get immunity as long as we can and just hope people forgive us." He sighed. "Until then, I'm not orchestrating any eliminations anymore. Not for myself, at least. I want to help others now."

Just then, they saw someone approaching them. "There you both are," Paul greeted them as he walked over. "You know, it's not like an innocent person to hide all the way out here you know." He noticed the glum look on Ethan's face. "What's up with you? Not fighting back because you don't think you can win, or because you know Jonathan was right?"

Norm turned to Ethan to see how he would react to the pessimist's arrival. Ethan watched Paul carefully, like he was deciding whether or not to engage in conversation. The anti-villain eventually relented. "What do you want?" he asked Paul sternly.

"The truth," Paul offered, surprising both of them. "You gave me information at a time that was crucial to me, and recovered the thing that was stolen from me. I want to hear your side of the story, full honesty." He narrowed his eyes. "Don't hold anything back, I want to know every detail, and I'm the only one who's going to do it like this. The girls are already against you."

Both boys were quiet for a second. Norm was about to say something, but Ethan came in instead. "Fine, here's your honesty," he agreed. "Chad? Yeah, that was me. Daniel? Also me." Paul looked more surprised by that second one. "Hannah was a joint effort between the Hen boys and Angie at Juan's orchestration, not mine, and Norm and Juan turned on Jonathan and myself to eliminate Madison. That's where the blackmail began, and I was forced to do his decisions for every vote after that."

Paul listened very carefully, still trying to process what Ethan had told him. "So, let me ask you something then," the pessimist ordered. "Two days ago, I was about to be voted off before Flora took my place. She's the reason I'm even here asking you this." His face grew a bit angry. "Were you the reason that I was supposed to be eliminated, and by connection, the reason Flora is gone?"

"No," Ethan answered him honestly. "Jonathan wanted me to go for Kara that night for...a reason." He decided to not mention Jonathan's cave demon. "I refused since I had just been forced to throw Kayla down a mountain. Any blame for what happened that night is likely on Kayla, who was the one who set that up. Yesterday I was told if I eliminated Norm, Jonathan would spare me. We saw how that played out."

The pessimist sat in silence for a second. He pulled out his piece of paper with the idol riddles on it. "Sounds to me like none of this is my issue then," he admitted, waving the paper. "But, you still got this back for me for nothing in return. You're obviously a decent person." That statement seemed to cheer Ethan up a bit. "Here's the deal. I won't vote for you, but I'm not helping you either. I want Kayla out of here."

Ethan smiled. "That seems very fair. I don't want to wrap any more people up in this than I have to. Let me know what I can do to help." He glanced at Paul's paper. "By the way, how's the hunt for that second one going? Any luck? I haven't really been looking since I've been...you know, busy."

Paul sighed. "No luck. I'm starting to think more and more each day that this thing's not real at all. I've been checking anything that can be considered 'cold' since the second day! Fridges, caves, mountaintops, nothing. Knowing my luck, this is just something Chris did to stall us for time and it's just going to be a reward for a challenge down the road or something." The air horn rang, getting their attention. "Looks like it's time for your immunity gambit," he said with a laugh.

"Attention, final eight!" Chris announced to everyone. "Hope you had a fun night, I heard there was quite some lively discussions!" He laughed over the speakers to no one's enjoyment. "Anyway, it's time to do our challenge for today! I hope you are all ready, because some of you are going to taste defeat!" He laughed again. "Meet at the dining bunker in ten minutes."

Norm perked up at the last sentence. "Dining bunker? Did we get another upgrade?" He shook his head. "Doesn't matter. I'm not winning immunity today, not if it's an eating challenge like he's suggesting." As he started to walk over, he slipped on a patch of ice. "Agh! What is this doing here, it's literally the middle of the summer!"

The three looked shocked at the ice patch, but they then saw that it was beginning to snow also. "Hey...scratch that," Chris said as his voice came over the speakers again. "Let's make it five minutes." His voice sounded a bit more panicked. "I don't know how, but it's starting to snow, so hopefully this blows over before our challenge is over. Don't ask questions, just go!"

The dining bunker was a strictly metal room with only artificial lighting inside, no windows to be seen at all. The kitchen was in the way back, blocked off by a separate door. The final eight, well, most of it, was gathered inside now, ready for the challenge that was coming. "Welcome, final eight!" Chris said to them, a cheerful tone contrasting the mood of the rest of the room. "Hold on a second..." he started counting slowly in his head at a whisper. "Sorry, looks like we're at seven. Where's Kara?"

Everyone was quiet as they all noticed the curious girl missing. "That's the second time this season," Chris said with a disapproving head shake. "Kara will forfeit immunity today then." He turned to Chef. "Find the girl, and bring her to me. I still want her for as much of this challenge as possible." The host laughed to himself as Chef nodded, exiting the bunker. From what everyone saw in the doorway, the snow was much worse compared to a few minutes ago.

Chris then showed the group eight metal platters sitting on a table. "Chef's been hard at work cooking a meal for you all as a reward for making it this far!" the host said, holding a laugh in even more. "Actually, he's made five. Your challenge today is to be the first person done the most meals. We'll do this in five rounds, and each round gets you a point. If we run into a tie at the end, we'll do a tiebreaker."

Everyone walked slowly and carefully over to the dishes that have not been revealed yet, and everyone sat behind one. "Your first round, is starting up, so everyone pick their favorite platter!" He laughed again. "Just kidding, they're all the same. Alright, you can lift up your first platter and start consuming it in three...two...one...now!" As soon as the challenge had started, people threw off the lids to their platter and revealed the first dish.

Angie tried to stifle a laugh as she looked at her dish. In a glass was some sort of cold brown liquid with a set of cookies. "Is this what I think it is?" the hothead said with a chuckle. "You spent so long building up dangerous food and we got cookies and chocolate milk?" She shook her head. "Cookies feel a little funny but other than that it's fine." Everyone began eating quickly.

Chris sighed in enjoyment. "Well, the cookies are actually hardened mud, not actually and flour or anything in them." Angie almost instantly spit out part of the cookie. Luna and Norm ended up spitting out all of their mud cookie. "Oh, and the milk has been sitting in the heat since the first day here, plus it expired weeks before that. It's only cold because Chef put in the fridge yesterday." He then paused. "Did you say chocolate milk? This is regular milk."

Ethan and Jonathan seemed to be way to into getting a point to really process any of that, but it was evident on their face that they had heard it enough, and were struggling a bit more to get it down. Meanwhile Kayla hesitated at her platter. "Yeah...you know, I think someone else can take the point for this round...I'd rather not get food poisoning."

Paul followed suit, putting his meal down too. Everyone looked way too grossed out to try and eat any of it. But, Jonathan and Ethan were still going to town as the only people still eating. Both of them looked miserable while they ate, but they know that was the only way to immunity. Eventually, one of them managed to put down their glass of expired warm milk first. "Done!" Ethan yelled out, showing that he had finished.

Chris inspected the area as Jonathan kept going just in case. "Yeah, that's a done plate! Ethan wins round one and gets a point!" Ethan gagged a bit as some of the food began to sit for a bit. Jonathan was having an equal reaction, and while they both looked awful, there was still fire in both of their eyes. Things were looking bad for both of them.

Ethan: "One down, and assuming other people start playing today, one more might be enough to claim immunity." He groaned. "No one's immune system is strong enough to win three of these rounds."

Chris handed out the platters for the second round, which some had weight to them. "Your second round is a bit of a gamble," Chris told them all. "We call this dish, 'junkyard surprise'." Everyone looked concerned at the name. "As the name implies, we grabbed the first eight things we found in a junkyard and cooked some of them, because others would explode if we did." He gestured to the platters. "Everyone pick your poison!"

Everyone stared at the platters, until Norm stepped forward first, lifting the lid on one of them. He revealed to himself a couch cushion. "And this looks like the one that wasn't prepared on a stove," he said sarcastically. He spun the cushion around to see some charred black marks on the bottom side. "Oh, my bad, they cooked this one medium-well."

One by one, everyone slowly got ready to take their picks. Kayla pulled out a piece of Styrofoam, promptly gagged, and stomped on it. Paul pulled up his lid to reveal a pile of bones. The pessimist did not even know where to begin with it. Angie pulled out a small propane tank. "Are you serious?" the hothead asked belligerently, "This literally says 'do not consume' on the packaging!"

Ethan lifted his to find a metal pipe. The anti-villain sighed, knowing he'd be unable to finish this round. Luna managed to get some rotted fruit, to which the psychic gagged, but started to eat anyway, and Jonathan lifted his lid to find some candy wrappers. "This...is actually doable," he said with a smile. The second round was on its way, Luna, Jonathan, and surprisingly Norm participating.

Norm managed a few bites of the cushion, but things only were getting worse and worse as he started moving slower on his substantially larger dish. Luna was getting pretty far, but was still eating slowly, thinking that as the only edible food she'd be fine, but she then caught sight of Jonathan trying to eat his wrappers faster than she was eating her meal. "I...can do this..." the brutal lover told himself.

To her surprise, Luna hadn't moved fast enough. The psychic was on her last piece of rotted fruit when she heard Jonathan slam down his platter, signaling that he was done. She gasped as Chris went over to check his plate. "Jonathan did it!" Chris announced. "Jonathan is at a point, putting him and Ethan at one each. It's gonna be tough if anyone else wants immunity!" He grumbled. "Okay, seriously, where did Kara go?"

Jonathan: "And now I am that much closer to a win," he said with a smile. "And, that round didn't nearly hurt as much as the last one. I think I can actually grab this immunity." He chuckled. "That means Ethan leaves today. How sweet is that?"

Down in the mines, something very different was going on. Kara burst into the mine, and the first thing she saw was all the sinkholes that had been left behind from the challenge in there a few days ago. "This could be bad," the curious girl said dismally. "Luna fell all the way down in an instant, I'm really going to have to be careful." She gasped again. "Oh no, what if that...thing is down here?"

Cautiously, Kara kept moving, knowing that this was her goal now. "Kayla and Helio won this challenge for us, so that means that the control room is there...no, she said it wasn't anything, but that messes with the shields...that's not my goal." She avoided the mine's actual entrance and began moving around with stealth on the upper layers, where she tried to find something that would get her inside.

Eventually, the curious girl found a narrow path that she squeezed through, and once she got to the other side of it, she was greeted by a thick metal door. "I knew it!" she said with a grin. "This will show me everything this island's been hiding, and then I can stop it." She quickly tried to find a way to opened the door nearby, but when she got close to it, the door opened itself.

"Huh, I guess they didn't think anyone would get this far," Kara mused as she walked right into the control room without any issue. She found the panel that seemed to be running the blizzard. "Okay..." she said slowly, staring at it for a while. Eventually, she decided she had no clue what she was doing. "Okay, let's just do this." The curious girl went to the side panel and ripped out a set of wires.

A bunch of sparks flew all over the place, causing Kara to jump back in shock, but once things cleared up, she noticed the whole panel was shut down now. She ran out of the control room, and threw the wires down one of the sinkholes near the entrance to the mine section. "Okay, hopefully I'm not too late for the challenge," she said, slightly out of breath from that whole experience.

Kara ran out of the mines as quickly as she could, but when she got there, Chef was already waiting for her at the entrance. Kara tried turning around, but she had her arm grabbed by the cook before she could make a run for it. "Not so fast, girly," Chef said sternly to the girl. "You got an eating challenge to do, and you'll be sitting there and eating all of it until you're done."

Kara: "Totally worth it," she said with huge smile. "I did it! I stopped the Disaster Dome!" She paused. "Now what? I guess I can try and win the game. That could be fun too."

The third set of platters was put out on the table. Kara and Chef had not returned yet. Chris reminded everyone of how things were going. "Just to remember, Ethan and Jonathan each have a point. Two points feels safe and three is guaranteed immunity, eyes up for the rest of you." He gestured to the third dish. "When you are ready, you may lift up the third plate!"

Everyone lifted up the plate and were shocked to see what appeared to be normal. "Is this...just a hot dog?" Kayla asked, poking at it. Once she did, everyone froze in place as something growled out of it. "Chris...what did you put in these things? No animal makes that noise in the form of food!"

Chris laughed. "Oh, I was hoping for a reaction like that!" He pulled out a chart which had many different sections in it. "From goat to squid, this has about every single type of meat we could think of!" He sighed dreamily for effect. "We've taken the liberty of accenting a few flavors, such as the whale and the seal. Hopefully our preparations have added a bit of surf-and-turf to your liking."

Angie slammed her fist down. "Yeah, you didn't explain how we just heard Kayla's meat stick growl!" Almost on cue, ironically, Angie's also did the same thing. That did not seem to stop the people who wanted immunity. Ethan and Jonathan were plowing through their meat dog, while Luna merely shook her head at the atrocity and set it aside. Angie glanced again and took a small bite, puking almost instantly. "That has to be the worst thing I've ever had."

Jonathan was not having a good time. "I do not want to know any other meats in this thing," he said with some deep breaths. "Just chicken, it's just chicken." He started moving a little bit faster, but the meal was larger than he thought. "Why is this thing so big?" He pressed onward, trying to eat as much as he could, but the sounds from other players were getting to him.

Ethan took another bite, just a bit behind the spot Jonathan was at. "I feel like I'm gonna throw up," he said wearily. Then, he noticed how much he had left to eat. "Wait a minute...what if I did?" Just then, his mouth filled up, but instead of letting it out, he threw the rest of the meat in and swallowed it whole. "Done!" he shouted between breaths. "Oh god, that was so gross."

"Gross it was," Chris told him, "But, a win's a win. Ethan wins round three and is now up to two points!" The anti-villain sighed as he collapsed on the floor for a bit. Jonathan looked particularly upset by the result. "Immunity's going away for some of you," Chris said with a sly grin. "But, the game must go on. Everyone, we have word from Chef that he and Kara are on their way back, and that the blizzard stopped just in time for round four!"

Everyone walked outside to see eight logs with holes inside them. "Round four will be an interesting one. Similar to the Junkyard Surprise, this one is random depending on which log you picked. Everyone line up and get ready to choose." Everyone tried to get in a line, where they were scared of whether or not their positioning was actually going to save them.

"Angie, you're up." The hothead, with a defeated sigh, reached into the log all the way to the left. She pulled out a pile of cooked meat, as well as a picture on the front, showing what it was. "Oh, Angie gets the squirrel!" He laughed. "Well, you technically did last round too, but Chef made this one extra tasty. This is one of the better ones!" Angie seemed gracious at her dish, happy it wasn't anything worse.

Norm went next, pulling out a large insect, one that was larger than his hand. "Norm gets the giant cricket. Not to be confused with a regular giant cricket, this one's a giant, giant cricket." He laughed. "Okay, Jonathan, you're up!" The brutal lover stepped forward, pulling out a spider with suspiciously green venom emanating from it. "Jonathan gets a spider we found two days ago. I don't know if that will kill you or not, so be careful."

Jonathan: "Well, I guess I need to win that fifth round, because if someone ate this thing, it would definitely kill them, or at least ruin them..." He gasped. "Oh, I might have just gotten a really good idea..."

Ethan went next, pulling out another giant cricket. "That's fun, you two got the same thing." Ethan rolled his eyes. "Sorry, our giant cricket guy only sells them in sets of two, we had to use both." Next up, Kayla pulled out an apple with lots of things that resembled bruises. "We had a little twin scenario with those types of apples last season, as a word of warning," Chris told Kayla. The brat dropped it instantly, scratching her hand.

Luna went next, and after staring at them for some time, Luna went for the sixth log. "Luna grabs a moldy piece of bread!" Chris said with excitement. "It might be gross, but it's definitely the smallest dish of the round." The psychic looked thankful for what she got. Just as she walked off, two people arrived back at the challenge. "Kara, welcome back, you're going after Paul."

Paul reached in to pull out a cockroach. "Ooh, gross, and hard to chew also." He laughed as Paul stormed off. "Kara, I'll warn you, whatever's in there, you have to eat, and you'll also be eating the past three rounds and the next one without a shot at immunity." Kara sighed, fine with the punishment. She reached into the final log, which was softer than the others, but found nothing. Chris laughed. "Oh, this one. Yeah, your meal is the log." Kara groaned.

Everyone went back inside the dining bunker with their assigned dishes, some looking much happier with their meals than the others. "Ready?" Chris asked with anticipation, and...go!" Some people like Jonathan gave up instantly, while Kara started to take small bites of the log, with her three prior dishes on standby, waiting for her to be done with that one. Norm had seemingly given up as well.

In a very short amount of time, there was a shout. "Done!" Luna called out, shaking off the last few tastes of her moldy bread. Chris went over to check the psychic's platter and whether or not it was done.

"That's a finished plate!" Chris announced. "Round four is over and Luna takes the point. That means Ethan's got two, and Jonathan and Luna each have one!" He snickered. "This one's gonna be fun. Round five is by far the worst thing any of you have seen." He began passing out the platters. "Some of you don't looks so great. Others look like you haven't tried hard enough."

Everyone lifted up the fifth platter, and it seemed like Chris was right. It was a multi-colored pile of goo, where each color was doing something different. The red section was steaming, the orange section was still on fire, and the green section was emanating some sort of odd odor. The host continued to laugh and torment the final eight. "Don't ask questions on this one," he said, "I'm not really sure what it is, but I know you don't want to find out. Go!"

The cast sat in silence for a second, everyone except Ethan and Jonathan, who were well underway in an eating race. Paul poked his with a fork, and the green section poked Paul back with a fork made out of the green slime. "Okay, that's enough for me," he admitted, "it's not like I can win immunity today anyway." Hearing that, Angie and Kayla gave up too. Kara was still stuck on her log.

Norm put his fork down, giving up too. The only three people even attempting were the ones with points. Luna, Ethan and Jonathan were all still racing to try and get another point. Ethan glanced over to see Jonathan ahead of him. Surprisingly, the anti-villain stopped trying, letting Jonathan finish before the other two. "I'm done!" Jonathan cried out, looking in extreme pain from the thing he ate. Luna, who had been eating slower, did not look nearly as bad.

Chris went over to check. "That's a point for Jonathan. Ethan and Jonathan finish with two points each, and Luna tried her best today with one." He turned to the two boys, who looked like they haven't bested each other, but rather the eating challenge had bested the both of them. "You two aren't done yet. We need immunity for one of you, so you two are off to a tiebreaker!"

Jonathan: "I'll finally get rid of him after everything he's done!" he shouted maniacally. He pulled out a cup and smashed the spider, pouring all it's venom into the cup. "Bye-bye!" he added with dark laughter.

The two boys sat opposite to each other at the end of the table, with everyone else watching. "You've all had a rough day of eating, so how about something to wash it down?" Chris asked with a grin. He tossed all of the losers some apple juice. "You're all done suffering, so have that." He then poured a similar liquid into two cups for the two remaining players. "You two get something a little different. Pure spinal fluid. And, you'll find in your contract that you can not ask how we got it."

Jonathan stared at the liquid in the two cups. "This looks expensive," Jonathan muttered. "Chris, do you have any more of this?" The host shook his head, causing Jonathan to smirk. "Perfect." With one swift motion, he managed to get a bunch of the spider venom into Ethan's cup. "And, that's the game. I win immunity." Everyone watched in silence as they watched Jonathan poison Ethan's cup.

"Huh, that's a new scenario," Chris said with nonchalance. "Look, Ethan, before I start this round, you can give up and we can watch Jonathan fumble with his drink. Or, you can try and beat him and be eliminated due to medical evacuation. Or, the secret third option, you can drink that poison and promise not to sue us." He held out a paper. "I'm gonna need it in writing."

Ethan stared at the poisoned cup in front of him, and Jonathan's arrogant smirk. "I promised I'd make you pay for using me," he said. "I still have time to be the hero." He signed Chris's paper, and the tiebreaker was started. The two were drinking as much as they could, but one of them had a bit more control over drinking than the other. Ethan slammed his cup down. "I...I won..." he said wearily, before promptly collapsing onto the ground.

Jonathan let out a yell as he saw he had lost. "Ethan wins not just immunity, but a trip to the infirmary!" Chris called out. Everyone was quiet despite his upbeat announcement. "Seriously, someone help Chef take him over." With a sigh, Norm stepped forward and grabbed the legs and Chef and the antisocial genius carried Ethan to the infirmary.

The brutal lover watched as Ethan was carried away. "Well, it's not a total loss," he told everyone. "We might not be able to eliminate Ethan tonight, but we can for sure weaken him. His main ally, Norm, is still up for grabs. Who's with me?"

Paul stepped forward first. "Hey, you just poisoned someone." He stepped back. "I no longer want part in this. I'm going to vote like Helio was still here, before I learned about any of this." He walked out of the dining bunker, leaving everyone else silent.

Kayla gasped. "He's voting for me!" she said in shock. "Girls, do not let him do that. We're getting rid of Paul." She then had an idea come into her head. "Or, a better solution." She turned to Jonathan. "I need to strike a deal with you. I'll help you get rid of your little threats, and then you'll help me get rid of mine. Norm, then Ethan, then Paul."

Jonathan sighed. He knew that was the best deal he was going to get. "Fine, I'll vote with you once you're done helping me. The brat shook hands with him. "You know, I never realized that you were actually smart too. I sort of thought you were just aggressive, but you're something else." Kayla grinned at the flattery.

Kayla: "All strategic," she said with a smirk. "Knowing how desperate Ethan is, he'll try and get immunity tomorrow, so Paul's gone after today. After that, I'll decide whether or not I want the poisoner or the poison victim."

Down in the infirmary, after a few hours, Ethan was finally waking up. "Ugh..." he muttered to himself. "I still can't move at all..." He looked around at his surroundings, eventually seeing Norm out of the corner of his eye. "Hey...you made it," he said between coughs and breaths. "Did...did I win the challenge?" For a second, his pain was gone and replaced with curiosity.

Norm let out a genuine laugh. "Yes, you won the challenge, you winning-obsessed freak," he joked. "You're safe from the vote, and since you have immunity, Chef ordered you to stay down here for the night. I can vote on your behalf." He stood up. "Actually, I need to get up that mountain to do that soon. I assume you want me to vote for Jonathan?"

"Yeah," Ethan replied slowly, puking into the bucket next to him. "I mean, he did just...actually poison me. Hopefully that convinced enough people that I'm...sort of a good person." He puked again into the bucket. Norm winced at that.

The antisocial genius stood up. "You've always been a good person," he told Ethan. "Don't let this competition get to you. You sounded like you were on a good path to redemption this morning...stay on that." He gave the anti-villain a wave. "Good luck, I'll let you know how tonight goes." With that, Norm exited the tent, a sorrowful look on his face. "Or maybe someone else will."

ELIMINATION XIII, MERGE

Seven of the final eight made it up to the top of Mount Karon, tensions slightly higher than normal at the time. Everyone sat around the fire. The front row had Kayla, Kara, Angie, and Jonathan, while the back row was Norm, Paul, and Luna. Chris approached the group with seven marshmallows. "Odd day," he told them all. "A bunch of you didn't do a thing today, and you're about to be rewarded for it."

"Others," Chris added, staring right at Kara, "did worse than nothing today, and now you can probably still taste all the stuff you had to eat anyway." The curious girl grimaced, thinking about everything she just ate for nothing. "And, some of you did a lot of things today, and that's going to be rough for you, because no one here won immunity." He held up the first marshmallow. "Speaking of immunity, Ethan is safe." Chris chucked the marshmallow off of the top of Mount Karon. "I'm sure he'll find it."

That left only six to go. "Angie, you are safe." The hothead grabbed her marshmallow, excited to be in the game still, but also very unsurprised by her safety. "Paul, you're also safe." The pessimist was also just as unsurprised to be safe as he caught his marshmallow. "Kara, despite your best efforts to not play today, you are still in the game." Kara rolled her eyes at the comment, but was happy to be safe still.

Suddenly, they were down to three. "Luna, you're safe today." The psychic stoically caught her marshmallow, seeming to be tormented by something else at the time, her eyes not even looking up as she grabbed it. "Creepy," Chris added. "Kayla." The brat let out a sigh of relief, while Paul let out a small huff as she took her place in the final seven.

Chris turned to the last two. "Jonathan, you're clearly dangerous, you poisoned someone today, what won't you stop at, or what haven't you stopped at yet?" The brutal lover rolled his eyes. "And, Norm. Flying under the radar for quite some time, but you didn't eat quick enough today to let Ethan take the fall...for you at least." Norm rolled his eyes at Chris. "Tonight's loser is...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...Norm." Jonathan smirked as he caught the final marshmallow. "Sorry, smart guy, but you are out of here." He pointed to the Launch of Shame. "Whenever you're ready to go, you can go."

The antisocial genius stood up. "That's how it is then," he said slowly. "Well, you know these votes are public, so raise your hand if you voted for me. Save us the lies." A bunch of people raised their hands, some like Angie looking remorseful, while others like Jonathan and Kayla not feeling bad at all. His eyes eventually landed on Luna, who had her hand raised. "You?"

The psychic teared up in her seat. "I-I'm sorry. I knew you were working with Ethan, I thought maybe I could free you from-" her desperate plea was cut off by Norm, who put a hand up in the air.

"No worries," he said to her in a monotone voice. "That's your mistake though, because now I'm out of here." He walked over to the Launch of Shame. "I knew something was up with you, but this takes the cake. You and I are done." Luna burst into tears as Norm turned to Chris. "I'm so done here. Hit that button already." Chris complied, launching Norm out of the game. Once he was gone, Luna's tears stopped abruptly.

Luna: "It was never meant to be," she admitted. "But I'll make sure he pays for messing with me like that. He might be out of the game, but nobody toys with my emotions and gets away with it!" Her eyes glowed bright green in rage.

As Jonathan walked back, very content with his results, someone stopped him. "I know you entered a deal with my sister," Kara said to him, "and I voted with you tonight because I was scared what would happen if I didn't. But I decided I'm not letting you get away with poisoning someone." She glared at him. "I'm switching sides on this one...I think..." she shook her head and walked off, unsure of her decision.

Jonathan smirked. "Eh, losing her isn't a big deal. Between Angie, Luna, and Kayla, I still have a winning side." He strutted back to the campsite, where a sword flew past his head and someone zoomed in front of him. "Are you serious?" he asked, almost annoyed to see the mysterious figure. "I've had a pretty good day today, so I'd rather it not be ruined!"

The mysterious figure chuckled. "Am I truly that horrible?" it said with a laugh. "I am only causing chaos. That's my only goal here. Once I've decided there's enough, I leave." The figure drew out their second sword. "I want to fight you. I learned today that you are quite formidable yourself. Hopefully you don't disappoint me like the last person did..."

To the figure's surprise, Jonathan pulled the sword out from the tree and tossed it back to the mysterious figure. "You won't get your fight tonight," he said defiantly. "If you want it that bad, I need something from you first." The figure groaned at the conditions. "First, I pick when, not you." He narrowed his eyes. "Second, I want your name. I saw you near the control room one morning. You're just a dude."

The mysterious figure looked interested at that. "You have?" he responded. "I suppose you are actually a bit more knowledgeable than that obnoxious girl who interrupted my fight with Paul." He sheathed both his swords. "I pick the time, not you. In exchange you may have my name." The mysterious figure pulled back his hood to reveal who Jonathan saw a few days ago. The darkness still covered most of it, but it allowed Jonathan to see his eyes. "You can call me Quaoar."

Chris was in the control room with Chef, watching it all go down. "Looks like he finally did it," Chris mentioned. "Who is Quaoar? How is he that fast? What will Ethan do when he finds out Norm is gone? Can he do anything at all? Find out next time, on Total! Drama! Karon Island!"

Vote Confessionals:

Angie: "Tough calls today, but I'd rather not let the end of the day distract me from my initial plan. I'm voting Norm. Sorry."

Ethan: "On Ethan's behalf, I'm voting Jonathan."

Jonathan: "Bye-bye, Norm. This feels so good."

Kara: "Sorry, Norm. I don't know you that well, but this is how it has to go."

Kayla: "Norm goes, Paul follows...this is so simple."

Luna: "Norm, I'm so sorry..."

Norm: "I'll take this chance with him. I'm voting Jonathan."

Paul: "I'm not letting some weird stuff distract me. Kayla divided our team and now all of us. She needs to go."

Total: Norm (5), Jonathan (2), Kayla (1)

Eliminated: Norm

Remaining Campers:

Merge: Angie, Ethan, Jonathan, Kara, Kayla, Luna, Paul

Eliminated: Gretchen, Chad, Sheldon, Daniel, Hannah, Madison, Alexa, Sarah, Randall, Juan, Flora, Helio, Norm

There goes Norm. Norm, despite how he already was, was someone I buffed this season to make him slightly more his own person, between him figuring out Juan early and plotting some things on his own. Between the others, he was never the minor antagonist of the season, but if there was a role for it, he'd be like the minor...minor antagonist. Alright, let's talk changes:

- Similar to the truth challenge in episode 5, I remove all the original season meta commentary and all that. The Karonverse is meant to exist after those seasons as its own thing, not reliving it. Pahkitew stuff normally stays due to Fiery Passion's cast.

- Paul is truth-seeking this time. I wanted him to have a true character arc, and I think him turning into the island's mediator after Flora left is a great step. The goal for those two was to create a more fluid relationship, and I think letting Flora influence the second half of the season through him does that great.

- This is the first time we learned about Quaoar in the old version too, at least his name. I'll have Quaoar's issues fixed by the final five of the season this time around, and then some things in the future seasons may not make sense. I will create a spoiler guide for the original Karon Island at some point.

- Some things changed here that I do not want to talk about until next episode, but I will bring it up then.

Let me know what you thought of this week in the reviews! I always thought this one wasn't so bad, and it really wasn't. The next two episodes will not reflect that same sentiment though. Anyway, thank you for reading, I will see you next time!