Hey, welcome back! Penultimate episode's all finished and partway through making changes to the finale too so the story should wrap up by next Monday like I had planned.
There's not much to say really. Challenge wise I thought this was just okay. It is definitely difficult to figure out how to go out with a bang challenge wise so the final two or three challenges don't hit as much for me as much as matching the stakes of who makes it all the way. Apart from Triple Dog Dare, that one's a classic.
WheelKirby: It would definitely be interesting but I just feel like it'd be a bit too samey. I did enjoy how it was handled in Season 2 however with the raptor giving her a mullet. That was funny.
Colin Miller: Yeah, Zee definitely had a good run here. Kinda funny that so far him and MK are the only ones who's placements actually improved in the larger cast. There are a lot of potential ideas for Season 2 and it just sucks that I can't use all of them. I am keeping in mind the highlights of this season and hoping to maybe expand on them further. Hope you enjoy these last couple episodes!
Fireball88: There's not much we really learn from Julia's home life which makes sense because she doesn't exactly have any close friends or family. The only thing we find out is her parents forcing her in to working at their bake shop and it being implied that she sued them for child labor and has since cut ties with the mention of lawyers and also her experience with contracts. My personal takeaway is she wants to be successful on her own merit and not have to rely on anyone else like her parents did with her. Which is ironic in the sense that her career is pretty much based on being popular and what other people think of her. I like it when Villains are able to use their own personal experiences when it comes to general manipulation and moves.
CodeTransformers: Yeah, I get what you're saying. My main worry for these last couple chapters and even with the last one is that I don't want to essentially make Harvey, Millie 2.0. Millie definitely got carried by Priya and game wise it's a solid strategy to have and it's definitely something that the show is self aware about. I just prefer to have a finale where everyone's competitive and the million comes in to play as a motive at somepoint in their journey and we never really saw that with Millie unfortunately who's just Priya and notebook focused who plays the 'under the radar, not a threat in challenges' card to get by.
And now it's time to find out who will be our final 3. Happy reading!
REMAINING PLAYERS.
Bowie
Harvey
Julia
Priya
EPISODE 15: CAVED IN
"Last time on Total Drama Island! Priya and Harvey bonded over losing all their friends and decided to form a pact of their own. Our final 5 got to learn more about local wildlife! Priya and Julia clashed, Bowie and Harvey clashed while Zee clashed with his ex bird-friend. Oh wait, they made up? Boring! In our special animal selfie challenge, it was Harvey and Julia left standing and I had never seen two people fight so much over a turtle before. Hilarious! In the end, Julia won her second immunity, saving her butt for another day. At the elimination, Bowie thought his goose was cooked, but Julia took advantage of Priya's need for drama dollars and bribed her in to voting out her friend Zee. And after a surprising deep run, the soda drinker was finally canned. But he didn't leave without quite the heartwarming goodbye selfie! Wanna find out who got rabies? Let's do it! Right here, right now on Total Drama Island!"
MESS HALL: DAY #29.
The sun wasn't even all the way up and already one of the campers was awake and active. Priya knew that the others would want to get more shuteye in before they face their penultimate challenge and she wanted these next few moments to be private.
She counted up her drama dollars, with all 50 being present as she faced the vending machine, deposited them all in and got a cellphone in return with just enough memory for one phone call.
It was a tense few seconds as she slowly dialed in her home number, her anxiety through the roof. She took a seat at the furthest table from the entrance as suggested by her general instincts.
"Alright, here goes." Priya says to herself as she presses the button to ring, nervously bouncing her leg up and down waiting for her parents to pick up. She was silent for a couple moments, unsure how to begin.
"Priya? Is that you?" A strong Male voice rung from the other end as her father signaled for his wife to come join. The caller ID must have been Total Drama related.
"Hi Mom! Hi Dad! I'm still in the competition!" Priya greeted rather excitedly. "There are only four of us left and the finale is tomorrow!"
"Priya! You're doing amazing, sweetie!" Her Mother informed her after sitting down with Priya's father to discuss her progress.
"It's been a tough season, a lotta ups and downs but it feels like I have a shot of actually winning this thing!" Priya continued, hoping to build off her parents evident hype for her so she can bring up why she actually called.
"You've got this in the bag. That million dollars will go a long way for us!" Priya's dad took over the conversation again, hoping to get Priya focused on the main goal at hand.
"Has much been going on at home? How is everyone?" Priya asked, knowing she only had a few more minutes to try and get everything off her chest.
"Well I can tell you one thing, something came in the mail and someone's got a bright future ahead of them!" Her Dad said as he held the envelope in his hand with a smile.
"Is it med school? Did they finally write back?" Priya gasped, having a bit more confidence that this conversation was going the way she had hoped for until her Dad spoke again with a laugh.
"Med school? No! Your next reality tv program when you get home!" Priya's father reopened the letter of acceptance to Scare Tractor as they were now holding interviews in a few days. "This will be perfect practice!"
Priya's face fell at this, not knowing until now that they were already so deep in talks of booking other reality shows for her.
"B-but what about if I win? I thought I was gonna be allowed to go to med school." Priya stuttered nervously, words falling out faster than she could control them. "I worked so hard, did everything you told me to, I thought I'd at least have that to look forward to..."
"Since when did we say that? These shows start filming in weeks! Now that you're on Total Drama, everyone will want you to compete on their shows! It's a win-win!" Her Mother revealed as Priya felt as though she just got hit by a bus. Her mind instantly went to the friends she made and how she'd have virtually no time for them if she was constantly busy.
"W-wait... so that's what this has been all about? What about my future? My friends? I don't want to leave all of that behind." Priya attempted to object but was clearly on the losing side, her voice growing weaker the further the phone call went.
"Priya, don't you get it? Your future starts here! This is what you've been working towards for years! And this is the real world! A chance for you to make something of yourself! Why would you throw all of that away for something that won't pay off?" As Priya continued listening to their words, the pit in her stomach grew, a new feeling hid her body, a feeling she never had until now.
The Mess Hall grew silent. No one else apart from the camera crew were around, yet Priya didn't even acknowledge them. She had spent the last few weeks with false hope, that maybe, just maybe, she could have her own path forward. Her grip around the phone tightened as something inside her snapped, her feeling growing wth adrenaline.
"Now, interviews start in a few days so you will need to..." Her father began to instruct her before she cut him off hear instantly.
"I'm not doing it." She stated, near emotionless. The four words she never thought she'd find herself saying to her own family.
"What do you mean you're not doing it?" Her father raised his eyebrows at her sudden defiance, confused and caught off guard with her sudden comment.
"Priya, honey, do not act this way. You have trained your whole life for this!" Priya's mother held a stern voice with her like she had done in the past.
"Exactly! And that's the problem! It's never been about what I want! It's always been about you!" Priya started raising her voice, her frustration growing by the second. At this point she didn't care about who was listening. She had been holding this in way longer than she had realised.
"Don't you dare take that tone with me, you will be going on this show. It will be for your own good. Think long and hard about what you're saying, this could all be airing!" Priya's father warned her, well aware that cameras were being filmed almost always 24 hours a day.
"I have! And I've had enough! Find someone else to launch watermelons at, to send to catapult camp, to blow off what used to be my friends! I never asked for any of this!" Priya started listing off all of the things the two of them have put her through.
"Keep acting this way and you will have no home to come back to." Her father warned her as Priya took a deep breath, knowing that there would be no coming back from this.
"Goodbye Dad, have a nice life." And with that, she ended the call and threw the phone on to the floor, shattering it in to bits before storming out of the Mess Hall, desperate for some fresh air.
CONFESSIONAL: PRIYA
"I can't believe it took one stupid phone call for me to get things off my chest. Had I been honest sooner, I coulda kept Zee around. He deserves to still be here." Priya folded her arms and looked down, feeling like she doesn't even know who she is anymore, like an idiot for going so long without seeing it. "For the first time... I don't feel like training today."
CONFESSIONAL: JULIA
"Yesterday, I managed to convince Priya and Harvey to turn on Zee and vote him out. In exchange, I gave Priya my drama dollars to call her uber obsessive parents." Julia rolled her eyes that Priya actually agreed to the deal. "Now that my biggest competition is gone, my odds at winning this next challenge and making it to the finale has never looked better."
CONFESSIONAL: HARVEY
"Making it to the final 4 is awesome! Doesn't mean I was able to sleep well last night. I almost got torn to shreds by both a bear and a crocodile!" Harvey listed off, getting shivers just thinking about it. "But still, it could be worse. Now that Priya and I are the last alliance left on the Island, Bowie and Julia are probably gonna try and convince us to vote the other one off. Gotta say! It feels good to have this much power!"
CONFESSIONAL: BOWIE
"Harvey and Priya probably think they have the power. Harvey's gonna be so caught up with Emma that he won't be a problem. Priya though? She could literally give me a run for my money. I wonder if she'd be as confident if Millie's notebook got thrown in to the mix. There are a lot of emotional hand grenades in here!" Bowie held up the notebook he managed to find last night after the elimination. "Priya would be devastated! So devastated that she won't be able to give it her all in the last challenge."
Harvey was busy finishing off brushing his teeth in the washrooms as he saw Julia from the mirror who noticed what he had on his wrist.
"Why are you still wearing that crummy bracelet?" She asked as she stepped in to the washrooms, getting ready to do her daily morning makeup routine.
"It's not crummy. It's actually really well made. And I'm wearing it because I feel bad about booting Zee." Harvey turned around and pointed out to her, annoyed that his arms were tied here as he'd much rather have gotten Bowie out instead.
"Yeah, yeah, thoughts and prayers." Julia brushed off with a hidden smile to her. "Anyway, how about you, me and Priya all agree to vote Bowie off? Shouldn't be a problem. After all, his challenge record is worse than yours."
"Why would I do that? You said you'd vote him off last time and still kept him around." Harvey immediately defied her, not trusting a single word she says.
"Uh hello? You would be the last guy standing? And anyway, you should be thanking me, I just helped increase your odds at winning now that Zee's no longer here." Julia explained to him, acting like she was doing all of this for his benefit. "Think of the social media reach I could help you out with. And I'm pretty sure Emma would be upset at you if she came back at the finale and found out you never respected her wishes in wanting Bowie out."
"Hm... I'll let you know." Harvey thought out loud, brushing his hair and wrapping his bandana around his head, finishing his business for the morning.
"Listen, we could..." Julia tried suggesting to improve her case but was cut off.
"I'll let you know!" Harvey repeated as he walked out of the washrooms, not in the mood to think about how Emma might feel right now.
"Yeah... there's no way him and Emma end up together." Julia told herself as she walked in front of the mirror to begin her routine.
MESS HALL: DAY #29.
Priya was loading up on breakfast, gathering as much energy as she could, still furious after what happened over that phone call. Meanwhile Bowie was watching from a distance.
CONFESSIONAL: BOWIE
"If I go and drop Millie's book on Priya now, then that increases my odds but it also increases Julia's odds." Bowie tried figuring out how to best time this. "But if she's so set in winning this challenge, that means Julia has no immunity, I can join her and Harvey's alliance to eliminate Julia, then drop Millie's book on Priya? I'll have no competition going in to the finale. I can stroll right up to that million dollars and say 'Hi, I'm Bowie. And I'm here to take you home."
"Hey Priya, you seem extra pumped today. Want me to help you out with training?" Bowie asked as he sat down with her, hoping to appeal to her daily routine.
"Forget training! Training can go jump out of an airplane without a parachute!" Priya grumbled in response as she clenched her spoon in anger.
"Right... anyway, I was thinking..." Bowie began to lay out his case to get Julia out.
"I know, I know, you want to join our alliance to eliminate Julia." Priya cut him off, wanting to get this over with so she can focus on obliterating the challenge. "Harvey's made it very clear, he doesn't want to work with you."
"I can sum it up in four words. I. am. not. Julia." Bowie held up an extra finger with each word, knowing that Priya herself has never had a problem with Bowie. "I even voted to save you and vote Emma off, and that put me in a whole new pool of worms."
"Huh, those are actually good points..." Priya figured, though still not entirely convinced, trying to avoid the idea of anyone influencing her. "But you know if Julia wins this next challenge, you have no way out."
"I know." Bowie nodded with a sigh, figuring his odds were pretty bleak. "That's why I want to stay close and partner with her during the next challenge and throw it so she doesn't win. If we lose, one of you or Harvey is guaranteed to win immunity."
"And in return for that, we agree to vote off Julia and not you?" Priya assumes from his wording.
"Isn't that what you want? She's already won 2 immunities and had a statue. Harvey and I haven't won squat. You'd crush both of us in the end." Bowie reasoned with a laugh, remembering Priya at least won the Cassowary challenge with MK.
"Okay, I can shake to that." Priya confirmed as her and Bowie shook hands. "But I won't hold anything back during that last challenge."
CONFESSIONAL: BOWIE
"Oh we'll see about that." Bowie chuckled, confident that his plans have all been set in to motion. "Now all I need to do is play nice with Julia so I can guarentee that no one votes for me at the elimination."
THE INFIRMARY: DAY #29.
For the most part it was a quiet day inside the Infirmary, the intern occupying the bed had started to feel better. That geyser had really packed a punch. Thankfully no bones were broken, her body was just beat up enough that she had to remain on bedrest for a few days.
"Oh hey, you're awake." A voice rang from the entrance. Instead of her usual training after breakfast, Priya had decided to check on Hannah's condition. All the 17 year old could do was muffle out her words through the bandages. Priya quickly noticed her issue. "Hang on, I'll get those off for you."
Priya approached the bed, scanning the area for a pair of scissors. She spotted some on the desk, picked them up and cut part of the bandage wrapped around Hannah's head in two so she'd be able to unwrap from both ends. It took a while before she managed to free Hannah's head completely who let out a couple held up coughs. "*Cough* *Cough* Uh... thanks..."
"No problem. So... Hannah, right?" Priya stood there awkwardly, feeling awkward talking to someone not in the competition or one of the hosts, even after her phone call.
"Yeah, nice to meet you again." Hannah responded, doing her best not to speak much but having a lot she wanted to get off her chest.
"Think I at least owed it to Zee to check in." Priya folded her arms, unsure how Hannah feels about her brother being out of the game.
"I'm just surprised it didn't happen sooner." Hannah admitted. She was more sad only because she wasn't there to see him off. She then glanced at the plushie on her right. "Looks like he was busy."
Priya nodded. She could see a few faint resemblences between the two siblings, even if they weren't obvious at first. "Listen, I don't wanna beat around the bush. I'm sorry I voted him out, I thought that phone call would be able to change things but..."
"Please, just don't. I get it." Hannah took a deep breath. A couple of the other interns had given her updates on what she had missed out on as they were passing by. Any excuse they could get from putting off on setting up challenges. "Honestly, I'm kinda relieved. I didn't wanna have to rely on my brother's money anyway. I mean why else would I have taken this job?"
What followed were a few moments of silence. Priya had an idea to get the rest of Hannah's body free so she could at least see what parts of her needed taking care of.
"Just hold still, okay?" Hannah followed the simple instruction, impressed that Priya had a good amount of medical knowledge about her. Starting with her arms and then moving on to her legs. Her body was still aching slightly but that likely came from being imobile for a few days and feeling weird for her to move around again.
It took Priya a while, getting her out of those bandages, checking for any lingering cuts or infections, measuring Hannah's breathing. She didn't even know the Infirmary that well but knew they had to have all the essentials to stay out of any lawsuits. She saw past seasons be able to take care of their campers with varying degrees of success so that had left her with a bit of comfort.
"Okay, that should cover a few bruises." Priya applied the last of the plasters on to Hannah's right arm.
"Thanks. Hopefully I can make up time. Chris doesn't pay us for sick days." Hannah attempted to stand up. It felt disorienting at first but eventually got the hang of it.
Priya watched on as Hannah slowly but surely made her way out of the tent. Truthfully she probably could've been let go earlier but Chris likely forgot about her. Typical. As she left the tent a few moments afterwards, she came face to face with likely the last person she wanted to see today.
"Wow, you were that butthurt that Zee went home that you had to find one of the interns to play with instead?" Julia looked at her with a mix of confusion and amusement.
"You know what, Julia? I actually have to thank you." Priya admitted, catching Julia off guard initially.
"Thank me?" She let out a bit of a crooked smile as Priya stepped closer to her.
"You were right, I needed to put my parents in their place. Something I should've done a lot sooner." Priya explained, Julia starting to get uneasy with how close she was getting and started stepping back in response. "But now that I have, I am going to tear you to pieces in today's challenge. I won't rest until YOU! ARE! GONE!"
"Okay! Okay! Message sent and received!" Julia held up her hands with a light laugh as she left the scene, allowing Priya to think whatever she wanted to.
After breakfast, Bowie headed to the washrooms and was surprised to see Julia outside there of all places with her phone.
"Wow, were you waiting for me?" Bowie laughed as Julia looked up from her phone with an unamused glare to her.
"Pfft, you wish. This is the only place with half decent signal." Julia explained to him as she showed her phone having 2 bars on it. "So is it gonna be me against the three of you butt knuckles?"
"No, ugh. Harvey won't even talk to me and Priya seems more interested in that giant breakfast of hers." Bowie pretended to sigh, hoping to rely on Julia thinking he's in debt to her. "You know, I wouldn't still be here if it wasn't for that handy work you did with Priya. So maybe we should consider..."
Bowie fell silent as Julia just burst out laughing at what he could be implying. "Wait, wait, now you're gonna beg me to team up with you? Why would I?"
"Because those two are an actual alliance now, they make up half the votes. That's dangerous!" Bowie attempted to get through to her.
"Pfft, I think I'll take my chances. Dunno if you've noticed but I've been on a bit of a hot streak with having immunity." Julia bragged at being safe for 3 out of the last 4 eliminations which Bowie, given his terrible challenge record, is doing his best to forget.
"You're right, they definitely see you as the bigger threat." Bowie let her know as she was about to leave which made her freeze in place with him turning his attention to the washrooms. "Good luck in the vote."
"Wait!" Julia stopped him before he could go inside the building and get ready. "Maybe your idea isn't completely idiotic. I mean, we have a better shot in the challenge if we work together. Those two are probably doing the same thing."
"I agree." Bowie nodded, happy he was able to change her mind as they both shook hands in agreement.
"Come in campers! It's time for your next challenge. Meet me at the bottom of the mountain! Over!" Chris called out from his megaphone.
THE CAVE: DAY #29.
The final 4 all met up with Chris and Chef outside the cave which was the same one the raptor was staying in during the last challenge, giving Julia some unwelcome flashbacks. They were all wearing empty backpacks as well as a digital watch on their wrists with Julia and Priya having their hair tied in buns for this.
"Okay campers, to earn your spot in the finale, all you have to do is survive... THE CAVE OF HORRORS!" Chris yelled, trying to strike fear in to the group who were used to this by now.
"Campers must navigate the maze of tunnels snaking through Total Drama mountain and collect TDI tokens in the backpacks we provided you." Chef began explaining the rules as Chris held up one of the tokens which was a gold coin with his face on it.
"These little babies will be hidden everywhere inside the mountain. The camper who makes it out with the most tokens after 1 hour, wins immunity and makes it to the final 3! And if you can't make it out the cave in time, well, your loss. You'll each have a watch that tells you how much time you have left." Chris summarized. "Side note, you do not want to stay in one place very long in there. As Chef seems to be under the impression that there's some sorta giant monster running around."
"It was real! And big! And it was eating tokens faster than I can hide them!" Chef emphasized, seeming genuinely freaked out which caught the campers off guard slightly.
"It's not that raptor, is it?" Julia asked, cautiously, knowing this was the same cave that the raptor hid out in during yesterday's challenge.
"Or a Cassowary?" Harvey added with a gulp, his fond memory included the challenge at the start of the merge and that one bird who was about to attack Zee before Cassie saved him.
"Think bigger!" Chef yelled, his voice even more panicked, trying to warn everyone to be on the lookout for them.
"But more importantly... it's challenge time!" Chris let out the airhorn to signal the start of the hour. "Head on in!"
"Hm... what if we all refuse to do this challenge?" Harvey raised his hand, realising they could have done this with almost every other challenge.
"Yeah, I really don't wanna get eaten and die in this outfit." Julia said, not liking the idea of being in a big, dark cave.
"Well you'd still have to go all the way through the caves to reach the other exit because this one is closed!" Chris hit a button that blew up the top of the cave as everyone had no choice but to dive in to avoid the incoming avalanche, with Chef standing there speechless. "And, go!"
REMAINING TIME: 60 MINUTES
Bowie and Julia were coughing up the dust from those rocks as they looked around, eyes adjusting to the sudden darkness of the caves.
"Wait, where are Priya and the other one?" Julia's face then suddenly lit up. "Did they get buried? Yes! That means I'm in the finals! Woohoo!"
Julia's little victory dance was cut short when Harvey cleared his throat as him and Priya were already ahead in the cave, shooting her unamused looks from a distance.
"Were you seriously celebrating us getting crushed?" Harvey folded his arms and glared at her, his heart still racing from that sudden avalanche.
"What? Uh, no!" Julia quickly denied, knowing there was little to no point in lying at this stage but enjoyed it nevertheless.
"C'mon, let's get ourselves some tokens!" Priya grabbed Harvey's arm and dragged him deeper in to the branching caves, leaving the other two alone.
"I was." Julia whispered to Bowie.
"You totally were." Bowie laughed and nodded as he got up.
"But you were thinking it too." Julia told him.
"Maybe a little." Bowie tried playing off.
Julia then noticed how far the other two were making it and turned to Bowie. "Ugh! Come on! Let's go already!"
"Wait... I inhaled too much *cough* rubble dust. Maybe you could *cough* rub my back?" Bowie suggested as he turned around but was met with punches from Julia to his back.
"Come on! Come on! COME ON!" Julia shouted with each punch, getting impatient as she knew the clock was already ticking.
CONFESSIONAL: BOWIE
"Operation slow Julia down, is on!" Bowie said, hoping to waste enough of the hour so that Harvey and Priya could get further ahead.
REMAINING TIME: 55 MINUTES
"Julia's gonna be tough to beat." Harvey observed, knowing how fierce she's been in challenges so far. "If I had to guess, she's probably found about 13 shortcuts that we probably missed."
"Oh I wouldn't worry about that." Priya giggled, remembering that Harvey didn't know about her deal. "Before the challenge, I cut a deal with Bowie that he'd throw the challenge with Julia so one of us would win."
"Woah, you really are crafty when you wanna be." Harvey laughed before realising that they could only eliminate one of them before the finale. "But wait, why not get Bowie out?"
"It's as you said, Julia is fierce enough to kick both our butts in the finale!" Priya explained the rationale, feeling like Bowie and Julia's threat levels were like night and day.
"Fair point." Harvey sighed, hoping Emma won't be too mad at him when she likely comes back to the Island.
Harvey and Priya kept their pace until they stopped in front of a minecart with tracks leading downhill.
"What is a minecart doing down here?" Harvey wondered as he checked the condition of it which was dodgy to say the least. "I guess we are in a cave. Whatever, let's get out of here."
"We can't pass up on that many tokens! Look!" Priya pointed to where there were tokens attached to cables that were hanging just above the tracks. "If we both ride the minecart, we can get more of them!"
"Can't we just walk on the tracks instead?" Harvey grumbled as he got in behind Priya as the four wheeled cart started moving. "At least this'll be one of the cooler ways to die."
They both paused and let out screams as the cart quickly dipped and picked up speed before Priya started catching tokens to throw to Harvey. "Here, catch!"
"Wait, OOF! I- OW! Can't- OUCH- catch!" Harvey muffled out as tokens bounced off him and in to the abyss below until he managed to catch the last one. "Oh cool! I caught one!"
"You caught one?" Priya turned to him flabbergasted, her eyes taken off the tracks and not noticing their rapidly approaching danger.
"Oh crud! Cliff!" Harvey pointed out as they ran out of track and went flying with their cart.
CONFESSIONAL: PRIYA
"I guess that log ride with Zee during our hike did pay off after all!" Priya found out, glad to have found some experience from someone other than her parents.
REMAINING TIME: 45 MINUTES
Julia and Bowie ran past the minecart tracks and in to the main area as Bowie stopped to check his shoes which were caked in dirt.
"Ugh, I am 100% asking for production to reimburse me for these shoes." He ranted, trying to dust them off, stopping in his tracks purposefully to check them out.
"What's with all the bones?" Julia pointed out as there were more bones sticking out from the dirt the further they had made it in to the cave
"BONES?" Bowie gasped before Julia covered his mouth, looking around frantically to spot anything.
"Shhh! If there are this many bones, something must have *gasp*" Julia looked up and saw a group of bats sleeping on the ceiling with plenty of tokens attached to more cables among them. Bowie kept flailing his arms frantically while Julia kept his mouth covered.
A tv then lowered from the ceiling, playing a recording from the host. "Hey, welcome to the bat cave. I'd stay quiet." He whispered. "The bones are for decoration. The bats though? Very real. You wouldn't want to... WAKE THEM UP!"
As he said the last part with a megaphone, the bats all woke up and flew down to chase Bowie off as he ran away screaming.
"Keep distracting the bats, I'll get the tokens." Julia picked up the stray bones and after gagging, she flung them at the tokens, managing to knock them from their cables and bag them. "I've already got them! Let's go!"
As Julia ran, Bowie kept up his vocal chord training as the bats dragged him the other direction.
CONFESSIONAL: BOWIE
"Yeesh, Julia didn't even break a sweat. Throwing this challenge is gonna be harder than I thought." Bowie sighed, realising that he was just used as bat bait to make the challenge easier for her.
REMAINING TIME: 40 MINUTES
After the minecarts, Harvey and Priya found themselves at the top of a waterslide going downwards with more tokens to follow. Harvey sighed, not wanting to put up with more heights.
"Awesome, it's a waterslide and a bunch more tokens! This'll be fun!" Priya rubbed her hands together in preparation. "I've always wanted to waterslide!"
"Remember the last time we went down a waterslide? Not what I would call fun! We don't even have helmets!" Harvey reminded her, touching the top of his head. "Besides, we don't even know where it ends! It's all dark down there!"
"It ends with us getting all these tokens and winning the challenge, right?" Priya turned to him, not wanting him to chicken out when this challenge had everything on the line.
Harvey took a deep breath, not wanting another fear to get to him. "Right! Let's do this!"
The two dived in and let the waterslide take them. Priya kept herself above the water as she collected token after token to pass to Harvey who was spinning and drowning, not able to catch any of them.
"Did you catch any of- woah!" Priya called out as the slide was starting to come to an end.
"Not again!" Harvey yelled as Priya spotted the last token and leapt forward to catch it and fall with Harvey to the sea below. The two managed to find shore and watched all the tokens drop in to the water. Priya did a quick head count of the tokens that fell minus the one she caught at the end.
"Seriously? You didn't get any of them?" Priya groaned, slapping her forehead in frustration.
"I was too busy drowning." Harvey explained, appearing annoyed at Priya's expectations of him.
"It's fine, we can still make this work. We can head back in and get all the tokens underwater." Priya set out her new plan only for Harvey to notice something behind her.
"Is something moving in there?" He pointed his hand at some creature's tail that raised and submerged again from the water.
"Okay... maybe scratch that? It's probably already eaten the tokens." Priya shrugged as the two kept moving onwards.
CONFESSIONAL: HARVEY
"I can't help it if the challenges so far have just so happened to be everything I suck at." Harvey tried justifying, feeling terrible that he was holding Priya back. "Maybe if it was something like 'who could stay awake the longest?' or 'who can spend the most time brick laying or getting yelled at by their boss' then I'd top the podium every time!"
REMAINING TIME: 30 MINUTES
"Those bats better be the monster that Chef was talking about." Bowie said as him and Julia continued running through the cave, him brushing off anything bat related.
They continued until Bowie ran through cobwebs that covered him head to toe as his screaming from earlier returned. "Gah! Get it off!"
"Woah! Look at that!" Julia ignored Bowie's cries for help and redirected his attention at the giant cobweb with tons of tokens attached.
"Uh, no thank you! I can't even with this! Let's keep moving!" Bowie kept up the act, trying to lead Julia somewhere else until she stopped him in his tracks.
"I am not leaving these tokens for Harvey and Priya to find." Julia headed towards them as Bowie's nerves returned for many different reasons.
CONFESSIONAL: BOWIE
"One time, I saw a spider in the basement of our house. I ran upstairs screaming and haven't been back down there in 4 years." Bowie was physically shaking at the memory. "And that's where my bedroom used to be! Ugh! But I have to slow Julia down or this plan falls apart and my goose really will be cooked."
Julia neared the web and reached out for a token until Bowie pulled her back. "Wait! Don't you know anything about spiders? You move a strand of this web and it'll alert the obviously huge beast that made it!"
"So? What do you suggest?" Julia asked, growing impatient at Bowie's overthinkiing of this.
"We need to move very, very slowly." Bowie whispered to her. "Like those hot cat burglars who do yoga poses to avoid laser grids in the movies! Plus it'll give me a chance to show off how hot I look in these pants!"
"Aw, I love those movies." Julia slipped out before shaking her head. "Uh, anyway, I have a better idea!"
Julia lifted Bowie as he was posing and flung him towards the web, sticking him to it and sending all the tokens flying to her direction.
"Wow, what do you know? Those yoga poses are really paying off!" She laughs as she started collecting them which along with the ones from the bat cave, were giving her a fairly decent collection.
"Oh come on!" Bowie struggled, trying to get free as he hung upside down from them, starting to feel light headed.
"Bowie! Stop struggling! Remember, any movement can alert the-" Julia started before something caught her eye above her. "Oh, heh heh, there she is!"
The comically large spider lowered to meet Bowie's gaze as he continued to struggle and scream with Julia finishing up her token collecting.
"Aw, I think she likes you!" She watches in amusement as he gets wrapped up in layers of web.
CONFESSIONAL: JULIA
"Plot twist, I don't really care if Bowie gets eaten, as long as I beat the nerds, I'll be safe." Julia revealed, knowing that immunity should be her priority and not wanting anything else to slow her down.
"Now that was teamwork!" Julia walked up to Bowie who was covered shoulder to toe in a web cocoon. "I never woulda gotten these tokens without your help. But I think I'll go it alone from here."
"Wait! My vote! If those two beat you, you still need my vote!" Bowie reminded her before she could walk off, wanting to slow her down but also so he doesn't have to add more spider trauma to his collection.
"Ugh!" Julia groaned as she tore open the cocoon with her nails, dropping Bowie to the ground. "Slow me down again, and I'll leave you behind for good."
Bowie couldn't help but let out a cunning smile as Julia ran off with him following behind, glad he was able to convince her last minute.
CONFESSIONAL: JULIA
"I am unbeatable. The money is already mine so all day I've been saying my three favorite words. Add. To. Cart." Julia explained as she was on her phone adding stuff to her virtual checkout. "When I win, it'll be all mansions, servants, expensive clothes and makeup."
REMAINING TIME: 25 MINUTES
"Okay, next time we find a room full of tokens, I'll be the one doing the collecting." Priya told Harvey as the latter still wasn't in the best of moods today.
"I mean I'm not exactly sure what you were expecting. Haven't you seen me in action the last 14 challenges?" Harvey did his best to remind her to ease up a bit.
"I thought your catching would be at least half decent!" Priya assumed, starting to feel stressed out about their odds. "Seemed like you knew what you were doing during the selfie challenge!"
"It's called being lucky! Which is kinda the reason I'm still here." Harvey reasoned, wanting to forget about the last few challenges.
"Oh no! You do not make it this far on Total Drama Island by 'being lucky'. You make it this far by being good at challenges and not having people hate your guts." Priya did her best to explain, her stress starting to build higher.
"Pfft, right. Because I've done so well at both of those things." Harvey rolled his eyes, thinking that was such a baseline criteria.
"Maybe if you weren't so down on yourself all the time, you could actually get somewhere!" Priya stormed forward and kicked part of the cave structure surprisingly hard, causing the area around them to rumble. "Oh boy..."
"Watch out!" Harvey tackled her from a pile of rocks piling up, blocking off the area which they came from as another pile of rocks came in to block their way forward, meaning they were trapped. "No! No! We're stuck!"
"Huh, was not expecting that to happen." Chris watched from the monitors along with a couple of the interns. "Oh well, guess it can't be helped."
Hannah then thought to herself before sneaking out, heading to the boathouse for a couple of things.
CONFESSIONAL: HARVEY
"Okay, so maybe I messed up... again. And I probably let Julia walk her way to immunity... again." Harvey let out a deep sigh of disappointment as he hung his head down. "Maybe I should talk Bowie and Julia in to voting me off instead. Priya's got a way better shot at beating Julia in the finale and I do not want to give her that satisfaction. And... I won't have to suffer through whatever torture chamber Chris has for the last challenge."
REMAINING TIME: 20 MINUTES
Priya had spent the last couple of minutes trying to push against the pile of rocks trapping their way forward but nothing was budging. "Ugh! It's no use! We're stuck!"
"And less than 20 minutes to go. Ugh, I really messed things up." Harvey was sitting across the other side of the cave, his chin resting on his held up knees.
"No, it's... it's my fault." Priya confessed, sitting down herself, taking a deep breath. "I just hate it when other people don't feel good about themselves. My parents competitive spirit kinda comes out."
"I get that." Harvey let out a light hearted laugh. "You know? It's funny, after everything, it feels like this game is one of the only things I'm actually good at. Maybe I have a future in trashy reality tv after all."
"That's what my parents wanted me to do." Priya grimmaced at the thought. "I thought they were looking out for me, but I guess it wasn't all that was cracked up to be."
"Phone call went that badly, huh?" Harvey figured out. Priya's lack of eye contact told him all he needed to know. "You don't have to talk about it, really."
"I just... I wish Zee was still here. He deserves the money more than I do. He needs it more." Priya told him which got him to look up at her initially. "I just wanted to do something for myself."
"I guess we're both sorta in that boat. I mean I hated thinking for myself. It was just easier for me to go along with what other people wanted. I guess the same thing happened in this game." Harvey looked back down, thinking about how many decisions he was apart of that were never really his, with Bowie, MK, even Emma wanted him to get revenge on her behalf.
"Maybe it's a good thing that there's only one winner, because no matter what, you do it by yourself." Priya shrugged, not even entirely sure what she was saying anymore as she checked her watch. "15 minutes. I guess Julia has us beat again."
Harvey felt slightly better about Priya's initial statement. "I guess a tiebreaker would be a cool way to go out."
The two looked over at each other, glad that they weren't alone in this. They had initially decided to just wait out the time until Priya heard a piercing sound making its way through the rocks behind her.
"Are you two done trauma bonding yet? Help me push!" A voice rang out from the other end of the pile of rocks which Priya recognised.
"Hannah!" Priya scrambled on her feet and started to push with Harvey running over.
"Hannah?" Harvey asked in shock. Figuring he doesn't have the time to question, he ran over to help push, the pile slowly moving as they noticed the sound of a pick axe chipping away at the rocks.
With one last push from the duo, the pile gave way, with them both climbing over the remains and spotted Hannah on the other side, holding a pick axe in exhaustion.
"Thank you so much!" Priya put her hand on Hannah's shoulder, initially worried about her since she had just gotten out of the Infirmary not too long ago.
"No time! You're still on the clock!" Hannah pointed out to them as they were closing in on only 10 minutes remaining, appearing happy to repay the favor to Priya.
"Let's go!" Priya ran ahead with Harvey waving goodbye at Hannah, thankful she saved their butts from being trapped.
REMAINING TIME: 10 MINTUES
"Thanks again for saving me back there." Bowie caught up with Julia as they continued their cave jog, their time spent trying to figure out the maze as they hit a bunch of dead ends.
"It wasn't personal. I needed your vote." Julia stated openly, more confident on her chances of winning today but a back up plan couldn't hurt her either.
"At least let me carry your bag of tokens as a thank you?" Bowie proposed, hoping to 'accidentally' drop them off somewhere so that it would give Priya and Harvey an opening.
"It's cool. I got them." Julia declined, wanting to keep the bag as close as she can, focusing on making it out before the last 10 minutes were up.
"So... you really would've let that spider eat me?" Bowie changed the subject, curious as to Julia's true motives.
"Ugh, I don't know, probably? We're the villains after all. We were created by nature, for balance." Julia explained her reasoning. "You really think I made it this far in life by looking out for others?"
Before Bowie could respond with something snarky, the duo ended up colliding with Harvey and Priya who were running the opposite way, fresh from getting freed from the cave in.
"Ugh, way to get in my way!" Julia rubbed her head as she glanced at Harvey's bag on the floor and shook it around. "Wow, this feels light! Ha! Did you two forget that the challenge is to take the tokens? Haha! Oh I have so got this!"
After her taunting, she dropped Harvey's bag and ran off, not wanting to waste anymore time on those two, leaving Bowie fuming with this info.
"Light? Seriously? I almost got eaten by a spider and this is all you've got?" Bowie complained with raised arms. "Julia's winning so far!"
"Hey! This isn't just on us! We almost got trapped in a cave back there! Why aren't you making sure you and Julia lose?" Priya shot back, reminding him of their deal.
"I've been trying! She's gone full crypt reader in here! Just hurry up and find more tokens! We're running out of time here!" Bowie told them as he ran after Julia. "Julia! Wait up!"
"Ugh! This is just looking worse and worse!" Priya groaned as she remained sitting on the floor.
"Sorry, I really shouldn't have stressed you out earlier." Harvey apologised, awkwardly rubbing his arm.
"It's okay! It's not over until it's over!" Priya reassured him and helped him up.
"I'll let you get the rest of the tokens. If you win this, I'll take my chances with Julia at a tiebreaker. It's the least I can do." Harvey suggested, reaching in his bag and handing her the couple tokens he managed to get.
"That's not gonna happen!" Priya told him, while also accepting his tokens since it was a good strategy to share. "Bowie wants Julia out as much as we do!"
"If you're sure. I'd just hate to go home the same way Emma did." Harvey admitted as he and Priya continued their walk through the dark cave. "I'm not about to go back to working my way out of bills back home."
"So... does much happen back at your place?" Priya brought up the topic as naturally as she could have. "You have people over at all?"
"Not really. I've kinda had to balance a few jobs to help my parents out so I'm not home that much." Harvey tried explaining. "A roommate would be awesome though. It's my number one dream when I move out."
"That's so funny, I was thinking about moving out too. Just to get away from everything." Priya nodded in agreement, worried that her parents were serious earlier about not having a place to come back to. "A million dollars would sure come in handy for that. Hey, maybe sometime we could be-"
"Look! A bridge!" Harvey noticed as he ran ahead with Priya now trying to keep up, hoping this meant more tokens were waiting for them.
REMAINING TIME: 7 MINUTES
Julia was the first to reach said bridge and looked towards the other side. "Look! The exit! We made it! And with plenty of time!"
"Ugh, yes! Let me out of this nightmare factory!" Bowie ran ahead towards the opening, not sparing a second to look around the area.
"Wait!" Julia looked down below the bridge and saw plenty of tokens just laying on rocks sticking out from the water. "Hey! There's tokens down there!"
"I'll be outside!" Bowie called out, not wanting to be another distraction for whatever creature lays in wait down there.
Julia was thinking about heading down to further extend her leadbut noticed the back half of a large sea creature swimming around. "Woah, Chef's monster is for reals? Uh, yeah. I think I have enough tokens..."
"Oh no! We're at the exit already?" Julia smiled and turned towards Priya's voice as her and Harvey arrived at the bridge.
"Yup, and it looks like one of you is going home." Julia gloated at them. "But in the spirit of giving you nerds a fair shot. There's some tokens in this pond. Not enough to win but enough to lose a little less embarrassingly."
"Why aren't you going after them?" Priya asked, already suspicious as Julia seemed completely fine in leaving her and Harvey alone.
"And get my hair wet right before my victory selfie?" Julia patted her bun, making sure there was not a strand of hair loose. "Not a chance. See you at the elimination ceremony!"
As Julia ran towards the exit, the other two quickly checked their watches and found out that they only had 5 minutes left.
"Okay, you wait here, I'll get the tokens from down there." Priya told Harvey as she began getting through the rope to get herself on the outside of the bridge, taking a deep breath to prepare herself. "Who knows? Maybe there's more than we think down there."
"Wait! This looks dangerous!" Harvey attempted to stop her, not liking how suspiciously quiet it was down there. "I've been the one holding you back, I should go."
"We've only got a few minutes left! I can take care of myself and get all of them easy! It's our only shot at winning this and beating Julia." Priya told him, taking a deep breath as she dove from the bridge, in to the water, making her way to her first pile. "Woah, there's actually a lot down here."
Harvey smiled as he watched her in action, remaining impressed with her skills and figuring they had enough time to make it out but then noticed something else swimming down there and the panic immediately returned. "Woah! Priya! Get out of there!"
Priya turned around, hearing the water make some funny noises before ending up looking in to the eye of a giant fish. "Yikes!"
But before she could react, the fish leapt up and ate her whole as she continued screaming from within the monster's mouth, not wanting to get digested.
"Uh oh... I can't do this... ugh! No! I have to..." Harvey stuttered as he glanced at the monster, still working on swallowing Priya whole. He slapped himself in frustration as he took the bag off, ready to do something he'll probably forget. "I'm coming to save you, Priya!"
"35... 36... 37 tokens!" Chef declared as he finished counting up the tokens Julia collected from both the bat cave and spider room.
"Wow! That's quite a haul!" Chris commended as he caught Bowie's bag and looked inside. "And once again 0 for Bowie. You must be very good at being animal bait."
"Hush! This season's winner is shopping." Julia spoke as she continued on her phone adding things.
"You know you haven't won the million yet, right?" Chris reminded her as there was still another vote and challenge to go, not to mention Harvey and Priya were still in the cave with a shot at immunity.
"Bowie and I are voting off Priya tonight. Harvey will crumble like he always does in the finale and I've already beaten Bowie more times than I can count." Julia explained how she thinks the rest of the season will go as she saw a notification pop up on her phone. "*Gasp* White kitten hill boots? Don't mind if I do."
"Well with only 3 minutes to go and still no sign of Harvey or Priya, I'd say this challenge is..." Chris started before hearing screams come from the cave. He then groaned and pulled out a 5 dollar bill to hand to Chef. "Well I guess the monster did eat some of the contestants."
"Spit her out!" Harvey yelled as he was now riding the fish like a bull, holding on for his life and his nerves, trying to get it to release Priya as it was doing its best to shake him off completely. It scrambled up and down and dropped him against the wall next to the exit before leaping back down in to the pond.
"AHHH!" Harvey yelled as it then leapt back up again, preparing for its second course. Harvey screamed again and dodged out of the way, causing the fish to crash in to the wall, making the cave shake and dropping a rock from the ceiling to knock the fish out cold.
"Hm... time to get to work!" Harvey thought up of a quick plan as he spotted and collected the loose ropes from the bridge and used it to tie around the fish, multiple layers all at once like his necklace, causing it to flop around with him pushing and kicking it until it was forced through the exit, drawing the attention.
"GAH! It's the monster!" Chef yelled as he went in to hiding as Julia and Bowie watched in shock at how huge the monster was and how Harvey had managed to make it out alive.
"And Harvey!" Chris saw as he was pretty much strangling the fish. He gripped the ropes and pulled upwards as the fish not only coughed out Priya but also a couple tokens. "Wow. Is that it?"
"Ugh, what are you nerds doing?" Julia re-emerged from the bushes as her and Bowie checked their surroundings. Priya meanwhile looked at the tokens from the fish and caught an idea. "It's already checkmate."
"Nope! Just check!" Priya scrambled to get up and saw the couple tokens the fish spat out. "Harvey! Keep going!"
Harvey caught on to Priya's idea as he continued to choke the fish with the ropes, causing it to spit out more and more tokens with Chris eyeing his watch, counting down to the last few seconds.
"10... 9... 8..." Chris counted down.
"16... 17... 18..." Priya quickly tallied the tokens as Harvey continued his hold, blasting out a second pile from the fish.
"5... 4... 3..."
"32... 33... 34..."
And with one last stranglehold, the fish ended up belching out an insane number of tokens, blasting everywhere, including a couple knocking Bowie and Julia off their feet and to the floor.
"Harvey wins immunity!" Chris announced, amazed at how close that came, not wanting to even bother counting up how many tokens that giant fish had ended up swallowing.
"Yes! Woohoo!" Harvey leapt up and cheered as him and Priya were jumping up and down on the mountain of tokens with Julia just sitting on the ground, completely speechless.
"NOOOOO!" She yelled as she fell completely to her knees and screamed enough to cover the entire Island.
CONFESSIONAL: HARVEY
"Yes! Yes! Yes! I finally did it! My first ever immunity win!" Harvey celebrated within the confessional, amazed with himself as he pumped both fists in the air. "Cassidy, Emma, Zee, this vote's for you guys."
CONFESSIONAL: PRIYA
"I've never seen someone wrangle up a fish without having to go to bull wrangling camp!" Priya laughed, surprised that Harvey managed to pull that off. "Now we just have to hope Bowie stays true to his word, otherwise I could be in real trouble... again."
CAMPFIRE CEREMONY 15: NIGHT #29.
Everyone proceeded towards the ceremony, knowing that this vote was the most important of the season so far. One by one, they all took their seats and glanced up at Chris who surprisingly didn't have any marshmallows waiting for them.
"Welcome everyone to the last elimination ceremony of the season. Only 3 of you can move on to our final challenge. While one of you will probably spend the next few hours throwing a temper tantrum. Can't wait to find out who!" Chris spoke up with glee, feeding off the nerves and uneasyness of the remaining players. "Now, tonight will be a little different. Because someone left the bag of marshmallows in the sun and they melted in to one big clump."
"I made a mistake." Chef shrugged, holding up the giant clump of marshmallows and took a bite out of it, enjoying the taste. "A delicious mistake..."
"So we'll go ahead and read the votes. Harvey has immunity and I have the ballots right here. Let's begin." Chris displayed the four ballots as he started reading through them one by one.
"Julia."
"Julia."
Julia's glare sharpened at Harvey and Priya who only smiled and nodded, their eyes looking for a reaction out of Bowie but was unable to find one.
"Next vote. Priya the nerd. Nice touch!" Chris showed the ballot which had it all in caps.
"Thank you!" Julia stood up, took a bow before sitting back down.
"That's 2 votes for Julia and 1 vote for Priya." Chris updated the group. "Now, in the event of a tie, our budget ran too tight for a special tiebreaker challenge and we already used the giant tapeworm. So the camper who makes it to the finale and plays in our million dollar challenge will be... the camper with the most previous immunity wins!"
"WHAT?" Priya and Harvey cried out, shocked that this is what they were going with instead of another painful challenge.
"Yes!" Julia turned to them both and laughed, enjoying their devestated faces.
CONFESSIONAL: JULIA
"I was hoping for a fight to the death, but this works too." Julia stated confidently as her two challenge wins outweigh Priya's 1 and all she needed was Bowie's vote to finish the job.
CONFESSIONAL: PRIYA
"I'm dead meat..." Was all Priya could say.
"And without further ado, the final vote and person going home tonight is..."
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Julia!" Chris announced, seeming a bit surprised at this outcome. Even Chef raised his eyebrow at this result. Julia's grin fell off her face as she shot the hosts a confused look.
"What? No! You read it wrong! It's a tie! Bowie and I agreed to vote for *Gasp*" Julia gasped loudly and turned to the culprit in question who had the biggest smile on his face. "YOU!"
CONFESSIONAL: BOWIE
"MEEEEE!" Bowie clapped happily like this was one of the best moments of his life.
"Like you said, we're the villains." Bowie gloated as he crossed his arms, his grin remaining on his face which only triggered Julia more.
"Now that's checkmate!" Harvey boasted with him and Priya sharing one more high five.
"I swear, I'm going to find you and I'm going to..." Julia threatened before getting cut off for the last time by Chris.
"Julia! Dock of shame! Let's go!" Chris walked past the two of them as Julia stormed past the remaining three, not sparing any of them a second glance.
"*Sigh* That'll get your blood going." Harvey laughed nervously, still not being able to shake the nerves from the cave.
"No kidding." Priya agreed, speechless after surviving the bottom two for a 5th time.
CONFESSIONAL: JULIA
"If a double crosser can't trust a double crosser, who can they trust, huh? The answer is no one and clearly I forgot that!" Julia freaked out as she held up her phone in defeat. "Now... if you'll excuse me, I have some... orders to cancel."
Julia was on the verge of tears looking at her phone in defeat as the drone grabbed it, causing her to hang on as it flew her off. "Wha- hey! No! This is my last phone! I hate you Chris!"
"*Sigh* I'm gonna miss her." Chris lied through his teeth. "But don't you miss the big finale. Who will end up winning it all? Find out next time, on our season finale of Total! Drama! Island!"
"Woohoo! Finale time!" Priya raised her hands as she entered the cabin all alone as the last female standing. She had nothing more on her mind other than getting an early night's sleep. She walked to her bed as she spotted a notebook laying against her pillow with a sticky note attached to the front. "Aw, this must be a reward for making it this far!"
She then picked up the note at the front which read 'Thought you might wanna see what Millie really thinks of you'.
Her eyebrows raised as she figured out that this must be the notebook Millie was talking about during her last day here. Feeling skeptical, Priya opened the front and saw that there were sections about everyone. Some longer than others. The longer ones including Ripper and Chase. However the longest one was the last one at the back, that belonging to Priya.
When I first met Priya, it felt nice at first knowing that I wasn't the only normal girl on my team, what with Axel's zombie paranoia, Cassie's music addiction and Lauren's thirst for violence. I even felt bad for her after that first day when she got trapped in that mattress. I even had a lot of respect for her when she told me about her dreams going to med school. I can't lie and say she doesn't deserve the million more than everyone else here. But it really doesn't take a genius to figure out that she has issues. Issues that she doesn't do anything about. Her parents have got to be some of the most psychotic people I've heard about in my entire life, yet she plays it off like it's normal for every child to grow up like that. I never had friends growing up, and I thought for a while that Priya would be my first. But how can I appreciate someone who can't even stand up for what's right?
And what's worse is that she's definitely inherited some of her parents qualities. She spent all morning pelting me with apples, bench pressing tables and has just been bossy through out the challenges. Is this seriously the only way she knows how to make friends? Because that's really sad. Her parents have trained her to the ground, used her for their own personal gain, brought out some of her worst qualities and in general have caused damage to her which I don't think can be healed. And this frustrates me because she just lets it all happen. She says she wants to win because maybe she'll be able to convince them to send her to med school but that's never going to happen in a million years. They seem dead set on this future they have planned for her.
And even if she does win the million, I struggle to see how it changes her life. Her parents will probably convince her to put it away until she's 40 or something and then what? She won't have time for anything that she seems to actually enjoy and will just end up living a life that's not really hers. I just pity her more than anything and in summary, that's why I think this generation is destined to fail at life. They're overconfident, narcissistic, fame hungry, spineless, unmotivated, foolish teens and the cast of Total Drama Island 2023 is no different. Whether it's bullying people for their own insecurities, getting back with your ex over and over again or letting your parents dictate every aspect of your life, you will fail, and you'll be alone.
As Priya kept reading, her hands clenched as her rage bubbled. She dropped the notebook to the floor and felt like tearing the whole room up then and there. But instead she just... sat there, taking it all in. Tears welled up in her eyes as she just sat on her bed, crying to herself.
CONFESSIONAL: BOWIE
"See you at the finale." Bowie laughed, feeling like he had this whole game in the bag at this point.
VOTES.
Bowie - Julia
Harvey - Julia
Priya - Julia
Julia - Harvey
18TH - CALEB
17TH - AXEL
16TH - NICHELLE
15TH - LAUREN
14TH - MILLIE
13TH - DAMIEN
12TH - WAYNE
11TH - RIPPER
10TH - CASSIDY
9TH - RAJ
8TH - CHASE
7TH - MK
6TH - EMMA
5TH - ZEE
4TH - JULIA
So... back to the same results. I really wanted there to be an actual tiebreaker challenge between Julia and Harvey (With Priya winning immunity here again) where Harvey pulls through against all odds but I just couldn't justify Bowie not wanting Julia gone and going against two weaker campers in the final challenge and it just making sense in general for his strategy. So Julia's out. Outside of the same elimination result, there were quite a few changes to the episode as a whole, mainly with Priya having probably the worst day of her life. And Harvey finally wins his first challenge! Good for him. Might've given it away during last episode's blab but I wanted him to get to win at least one challenge before the finale.
Another little gripe I had with one of the challenges was there not being a time limit where I feel like there really should have been, as the optimal strategy could have just been to stay in the caves for as long as possible and hog up as many tokens as you can. Also I'm sorry but there is no way that Julia got 286 tokens from just those two rooms and maybe a couple others along the way.
This chapter/episode in general was just okay to me. I definitely could have improved on a couple scenes, like Priya's phonecall at the start but honestly I think I executed everything the best way I knew how.
Well, just one episode to go now and this story will be capped off after working on it for a year and a half. Hope you guys have enjoyed the re-write and now I just have to hope the last episode ends it on a high.
Until next time, see you whenever!