| This article/section features spoilers. Continue reading at your own risk. |
|---|
All sixteen contestants from last season come back for another chance at the one million dollar prize. Last season's finalists to pick the new teams. A particular couple breaks up between seasons, an alliance is formed between two villains, and last season's first elimination initiates an alliance with the defending champion. The contestants compete in a red light green light-esque challenge where balloons filled with pink paint are thrown at them by the co-host's grandmother. In the end, one contestant's training scores a win for her side, while a "normal" contestant spooks her teammates well enough into sending her home early.
Plot[]
The cast of this season falling from a helicopter.
The episode begins with Chris in the cockpit of a helicopter, announcing that he is returning to the island. He then provides the viewers a recap of what happened last season. He proceeds to the helicopter cabin, where all the contestants from the previous season are seated, after mentioning there is a new $1,000,000 prize up for grabs. After pressing a button, the floor opens, and all of the contestants fall into the lake. Chris announces that this season will be the "battle of the century," with the theme song following.
The contestants emerge from the lake onto the dock, coughing. Chris then asks the campers how they are doing; Millie coughs up a fish and Priya asks if that answers his question. Julia tells Chris he can't just dump them out of a helicopter and calls him a maniac. The players are told by Chris to meet at the bleachers after they get their luggage.
 Priya |
“ | So, why would I come back after I won last season? Well, my dad insisted I put the cash away until I'm 40, so it was either come back here or keep working my new summer job. I'd rather be dropped from a helicopter than work at the Weenie Wagon. | ” |
Chase tries talking to Emma, but she refuses to talk to him. Chase tells Bowie, "Girls, am I right?" but Bowie says he is never right.
 Chase |
“ | Things were great with me and Emma at the end of last season. Then she watched episode 10 and saw I actually bailed on that challenge for pizza, and not love or uh, whatever. I wonder if I should have just told her the truth... Nah! | ” |
Nichelle tries to greet Emma but is ignored.
 Emma |
“ | No point making friends with Nichelle. She’ll probably be the first one voted off. | ” |
Scary Girl walks up to Wayne and Raj and says it was a good thing nobody was eaten by a shark or fell on a rock, as she would not have enjoyed that, but because of her changed appearance, they don't recognize her.
 Scary Girl |
“ | A lot of people say I was eliminated last season for being too scary. My mom, the people on the message boards, the dog next door. So, this season, I’m going to be normal. | ” |
Priya hypes Millie up to make sure she's better prepared.
|
|
When Ripper asks how she has been, she pushes him into a bush.
 Axel |
“ | I’m a work in progress. | ” |
Wayne greets everyone and tells them that it’s him and Raj from last season, as well as Bowie. Bowie took notice of everyone except Wayne and Raj glaring at him. Raj tells him that he knew people would be mad, so Bowie tells everyone else that last season he made some tactical maneuvers using Millie’s notebook that some people may feel were, as some contestants would say, "sneaky," "underhanded," and "evil." However, Bowie said that he taught everyone how to be better players, and Millie wonders if that’s even an apology.
 Bowie |
“ | [Bowie]: (to Raj) You were right, I feel much better! | ” |  Raj |
Chris and Chef welcome the contestants back to the Island. Julia wants to get started and asks what the teams are, but Chris announces that this season, two contestants will pick their own teams.
 Caleb |
“ | Last season, I was the first kicked off, so, this season, it’s extra important that I get in with the good team off the bat. | ” |
Millie tells Chris that studies show that picking teams can create a hierarchy and can cause emotional trauma for kids, but Chris replies that's exactly why he's doing that, to which MK remarks, "Man! I miss this place!" Chris announces that there will be no carryover from last season and that it’s a clean slate.
Priya |
“ | Phew. Being defending champ could’ve put a huge target on my back. But, now, I can keep a low profile. | ” |
Chris announces that Priya will be picking the first team—calling her a "victor, conqueror of losers, and brand-new millionaire" while he chants "champion!"
Priya |
“ | So much for the low profile. | ” |
And Chris announced that Bowie will be picking the other team. The schoolyard pick went as followed:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When Chris asked Priya who to pick she chooses Millie first.
Caleb |
“ | Millie? Millie?! Look at me. | ” |
Chris wouldn't prefer a strong player but he doesn't care then Bowie picks Raj.
Caleb |
“ | Now I’m getting mad! | ” |
This disgusts Chris as the first two picks were sentimental. Assuming that Millie read the guidebook, Priya reminds her about the chapter about alliance building and they pick Emma, with Millie acting as if she read the guidebook. Bowie says that it’s time to get strategic and to weigh every option and find the perfect balance of brains, brawn and cunning and at Raj’s suggestion, he picks Wayne.
 Wayne |
“ | [Wayne]: I was worried there for a sec we were gonna be on different teams. [Raj]: Me too! Wayne and I great together, but, apart? It would be like a bike with only one wheel. [Wayne]: Hahaha! One wheel?! What would you even call that? A One-cycle?! |
” | Raj |
Millie asked which teammate they should pick next, Priya explains that she looked Caleb up online and tells them that he benches 350 pounds, got an early acceptance to MIT and volunteers at a kitten orphanage. Emma agrees, saying that they should pick someone who’s hot, strong and emotionally mature. Just when Chase said that he’s going to be picked, Priya picked Caleb, much to his excitement.
Caleb |
“ | I’m happy I got picked. But, fifth? That’s not good. | ” |
Bowie picks Julia, because he knows that this pick could blow up in his face, but it also might help him win the million dollars.
 Julia |
“ | Gotta give Bowie credit! I’m a smart pick. I mean, sure, I’ll eventually double cross him and make him ugly cry on TV. But, until then, I’ll bring my A-game. | ” |
Priya picks Damien, much to his excitement.
 Ripper |
“ | Okay. Serious question. Am I invisible!? | ” |
Bowie picks Chase, which Ripper calls him, "weak," Priya picks Axel, which Ripper calls her, "worst pick yet" that is until Axel crushes him, Axel apologizes. Bowie picks MK and MK thanks Bowie and compliments Julia’s moves while Julia compliments on her style, and she knows that she’ll come up with a sneaky way to help them out this season, to which MK says that it’s kind of her jam and hopes that she has a plan just in case Bowie picks her, so that he and the Hockey Bros can send her home early, surprising Julia to the point where she said that she haven’t consider that, so the two girls formed an alliance together. Priya chooses Zee next and Zee wonders why.
 Zee |
“ | Want to see something cool? Civil Suit Soda are paying me to be an influencer. It's not a million bucks, but, it's better than a fistful of bananas, which happens to be just one of their delicious flavors. (slurps) Wow, that's gross. I mean, great! | ” |
It all comes down to Scary Girl, Nichelle and Ripper. Bowie picks who he thinks is a new contestant, only to learn from Chris that there are no new contestants and he actually picked Scary Girl. She tells Bowie that he won’t regret picking her, while he whispers that it’s too late. Ripper begs Priya not to make him the last pick, but, Priya, still mad at him for using her as a human shield last season, chooses Nichelle, much to her excitement and Ripper’s chagrin.
 Nichelle |
“ | After I humiliated myself on the obstacle course last season, Hollywood cancelled me! But instead of wallowing, I spent the past few months training with the world's top parkour, kung fu and gymnastics experts. This season, I'm playing lights out! [punches and breaks the camera; ending the confessional] | ” |
With the teammates chosen, the teams are all set. Priya’s team will be known as Team Rat Face, Bowie taunts them, until he finds out that his team will be called Team Skunk Butt, much to his chagrin. Chris tells everyone to drop off their gear before they head to their first challenge of the season.
Caleb |
“ | Last season, I was booted off first. But this time, I’m making an alliance early with the girl who won it all. | ” |
Caleb offers to carry Priya's luggage in order to save her strength for the challenge, Priya was in love, until Millie tosses her suitcase to Caleb and tells Priya that she would like to go over some of her training guide highlights just to refresh her memory, Caleb realized that forming an alliance with Priya might take some work.
The first challenge of the season is Grandma's Footsteps, Chef's grandmother shows up for the challenge and Chef explains to the campers that his grandmother does not like kids walking on her lawn, he tells them that when his grandmother has her back turned, the teams will race to the finish, but, if she turns around and looks, they have to stay still. Damien gets scared and wonders what will happen if they move, Chris tells them that if Chef's grandmother sees them moving, she'll throw paint balloons at them, if anyone gets hit, they’re out of the challenge, the first contestant to cross the finish line wins the challenge for his or her team while the other team votes off one of their own tonight. Julia thinks that there’s no way Chef’s grandmother can throw hard enough to hit them. Ripper, on the other hand, can’t help but notice that there’s something familiar about Chef’s grandmother.
Priya tells her teammates that they can win this challenge with basic TDI strategy and tells them that when Chef’s grandmother is watching, they must stop in a position that they can hold, no balancing on one leg. Priya asked Millie if she’s good and the latter responds to the former, saying that she’s getting psyched up for this challenge. Bowie tells his teammates that it’s strategy time.
 Millie |
“ | Ugh... Why didn't I just train like I said I would? | ” |
The challenge starts and Millie takes off like a shot. But she ends up getting hit when Chef’s grandmother turns around, with Priya getting eliminated afterwards. Chef’s grandmother tells them that they just got axed. Upon hearing what she just said, Ripper recognizes Axe Hatchet, the greatest pitcher in the history of the Women’s Baseball League. Chris realized that he requested the balloons to be filled with red paint and not pink before catching an intern named Sally using said pink paint. Chris fires Sally the intern on the spot and tells her to turn in her uniform at the production trailer. Upon hearing what he just said, MK flashes an evil smile.
 MK |
“ | So there's an extra intern uniform kicking around? Interesting. | ” |
The challenge continues with Zee getting knocked out when Axe Hatchet detects his soda can fizzing.
MK |
“ | Why am I doing all this running when I can hitch a ride all the way to the finish line? | ” |
MK, in an effort to win her way to the end, secretly hitches a ride on Caleb’s back after the next stoppage. Axel tells Ripper that she doesn’t like people following her. But Ripper tells her that they’re running to the same place, so, Axel trips him up, making him the next one eliminated from the challenge. Chase, filled with determination makes a desperate charge, ignoring Bowie’s warning. But, thanks to a tricky curveball from Axe Hatchet, Chase gets eliminated from the challenge. Emma stops short and noticed Damien whimpering and he gets scared when a hornet buzzes near him, which also got him eliminated. Wayne and Raj are filled with determination. But all of a sudden, Axe Hatchet spins, Wayne and Raj, unaware that she can see them, make a desperate sprint with Axel and Scary Girl following suit. But Axe Hatchet hurdles all of them with balloons, knocking them out of the challenge. Scary Girl demands to be hit again and she asked for it. Caleb catches MK piggyback riding him and the two gets the axe. Emma tells Julia that after the next stoppage, she’s going to win this one. Her teammates cheer her on.
Julia |
“ | Bowie only drafted me, because, he has the numbers to send me home early. I need to show my team I’m worth keeping. | ” |
Julia, in an attempt to show her team that she’s useful, lunges at Emma, eliminating both of them from the challenge.
MK |
“ | She’s an animal! | ” |
It all comes down to Bowie and Nichelle. Julia tells Bowie to run. Ripper tells them that they got this in the bag. Just when it seemed that Bowie was about to win, Nichelle makes a huge leap to the finish, winning the challenge for Team Rat Face.
Nichelle |
“ | I think all my training has worked. | ” |
At the elimination ceremony, Chef starts explaining why some members of the Skunk Butts would be at risk of elimination. When Chef calls out Chase, the latter believes that because the former is starting with him, some other members of the team did even worse than he did. Chef tells Chase that he is at risk for being unable to beat Chef’s grandmother’s arm. Chef then tells Bowie, who is already aware, is at risk for the fact that Julia set him up for the win, but he blew it at the last minute. Julia states that she was excellent.
Wayne |
“ | [Wayne]: This elimination is gonna be tricky. [Raj]: Yeah bro, can’t vote for Julia. She totally sacrificed herself to give us a shot at the cup! [Wayne]: Can’t vote Bowie off. [Raj]: And it's not like Chase was bad. [Wayne]: He nearly went end to end! [Raj]: Yup, this is gonna be a hard one. |
” | Raj |
As Chef is about to tell Scary Girl what she’s at risk for, Scary Girl says “No.” and then tells her teammates that last season, they found her a little too scary, but, tells them that she worked so hard to become the normal girl that they see her today and that it hadn’t been easy and tells them that she had to read normal books, watch normal movies and study all of them to see how normal kids act, sometimes through their windows and mostly their closets while they sleep at night and wonders why they would vote her off for that.
Raj |
“ | [Raj]: I think we made a decision. | ” | Wayne |
Julia, MK, Raj, Wayne, Ripper and Chase all received marshmallows, leaving Bowie and Scary Girl at the bottom two. To his relief and Raj’s excitement, Bowie gets the last marshmallow while Scary Girl becomes the first contestant eliminated this season.
 Scary Girl (16th) |
“ | This is what you get while trying to conform with societal norms, carried into the sky by a drone. I didn’t even try to hurt anyone on my team this time! I taught myself how to smile 40% less creepily! Oh. This isn’t the last of Scary Girl. I’m going to make them pay! | ” |
Scary Girl laughs maniacally while The Drone of Despair takes her away. Chris signs off, saying that this is why people must always check their closets before they go to sleep.
Cast[]
| Voice actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Terry McGurrin | Chris |
| Deven Mack | Chef Hatchet |
| Molly Johnson | Axe Hatchet |
| Tamara Almeida | Axel |
| Brandon Michael Arrington | Bowie |
| Kwaku Adu-Poku | Caleb |
| Julius Cho | Chase |
| Daniel Keith Morrison | Damien |
| Melanie Leishman | Emma |
| Julie Sype | Julia |
| Barbara Mamabolo | Millie |
| Kimberly-Ann Truong | MK |
| Tymika Tafari | Nichelle |
| Eman Ayaz | Priya |
| Varun Saranga | Raj |
| Fred Kennedy | Ripper |
| Katie Griffin | Scary Girl |
| Jack Copland | Wayne |
| Gerardo Gismondi | Zee |
- An intern named Sally appears, however, she has no lines.
Elimination Ceremony[]
| Elimination Ceremony 1: Team Skunk Butt 
| |
|---|---|
| Status | Contestant |
| Safe |       Julia, MK, Raj, Wayne, Ripper, Chase |
| Low |  Bowie |
| Out |  Scary Girl |
Still in the Running[]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Trivia[]
General[]
- The episode's two teams and first boot were accidentally revealed months before airing in June 2023 through a leak that happened when Jhonny Torres, the Latin Spanish voice actor of Chris, uploaded an Instagram story that included him recording Chris' voice for the opening of "Taking It to the Rim Reaper", which included the recap of this episode.
- With Caleb using the confessional for the first time in this episode, Staci becomes again the sole contestant in the Total Drama franchise to have never used any type of confessional.
- Damien is the only contestant who didn't use the confessional at any point in this episode.
- This episode has been uploaded to YouTube on CBBC's channel, being used to promote iBBCplayer.
- This technically makes it the only episode of the reboot to be officially available worldwide as of January 17, 2024.
- This is the first episode where someone stops Chef Hatchet from calling them out for something they did wrong at the Campfire Ceremony.
- According to Terry McGurrin, the broadcaster requested for the episode's paint to not be red as it would look like blood, leading them to change it to pink and come up with the idea that Sally mixed the paint.
Continuity[]
- Bowie and Priya getting to choose their teammates is similar to Gwen and Trent getting to do so in Riot on Set.
- Bowie choosing his biggest enemy on his team is similar to Gwen choosing Heather to be on the Screaming Gaffers in order to "keep her enemy close."
- Caleb recalls being voted out first last season.
- Emma broke up with Chase between seasons because she found out the real reason why he threw the challenge after watching The Truth, The Pole Truth and Nothing But the Truth.
- Axel vowing to be nicer only to immediately shove Ripper into a bush is similar to something Josee did after her elimination in A Million Ways to Lose a Million Dollars.
- Nichelle recalls humiliating herself on the obstacle course and states the experience as her reason for training for this season. Emma also mentions her early elimination.
- Priya reminds Ripper of him using her as a human shield as the reason for choosing Nichelle over him as her last teammate.
- Several characters mention Priya winning the previous season.
- Julia promising she's going to make Bowie ugly cry on TV is a nod to Jurassic Fart where he claimed he's an ugly crier.
- The way the paint balloon thrown by Axe Hatchet flies past Chase before turning around and hits him in the back is similar to how Cody threw a dodgeball at DJ the same way in Dodgebrawl.
- MK hitching a ride on Caleb's back is similar to Cameron doing so on Lightning's back in Eat, Puke, and Be Wary.
References[]
- The episode's title is a reference to the 1976 movie The Pink Panther Strikes Again.
- The challenge is a classic game of Red Light, Green Light. Its execution, including a female observer, being shot for moving, and the scenery is a reference to the first game of Squid Game. Furthermore, much like in Squid Game, the first player is eliminated for running recklessly while the second is their friend who checked up on them.
Goofs[]
Bowie's navel drawn incorrectly.
- When they come out of the water, Damien and Julia are standing next to each other, but a little later when the camera pans out to the entire Dock of Shame, Julia is standing between Axel and MK, and Damien is standing between Bowie and Millie.
- When the entire cast stands on the Dock of Shame after emerging from the water, Nichelle is strangely absent.
- When Ripper and Axel reunite for the first time, Ripper is considerably larger than usual.
- As they decide who to choose next for the team, Raj is standing to Bowie's right and Wayne is standing to his left. But in the next scene, when Bowie chooses Julia, Wayne and Raj switch places.
- When Chase makes a desperate attack and ignoring Bowie's warning, Bowie's belly button is drawn at the wrong angle.
- When Scary Girl is giving her speech during the elimination ceremony, Julia is seen sitting in front of Raj, but before and after the speech, she is seen in front of Wayne.
- Throughout the episode, the 3D team logos that appear when a contestant uses the confessional appear to move at a lower framerate than usual.
Gallery[]
See also[]
- "The Pink Painter Strikes Again"
- "Taking It to the Rim Reaper"
- "You Poor Saps"
- "Choosin' for a Bruisin'"
- "Ice to Beat You"
- "Canoe Believe It?"
- "Fun Fight at the O'Cake Corral"
- "Haulin' n' Baulin'"
- "Breaking Up is Hard to Do"
- "Circling the Drain"
- "Working K9 to 5"
- "Off the Hook!"
- "Soar Losers"