REVIEW: Total Drama All-Stars, Episode 2

Hiya folks! How goes it today? I know a lot of you have been eager to see this review regarding the latest episode of Total Drama All-Stars, so I'll cut straight to the chase and get the ball rolling.  

First off, I want to thank my friends and watchers for keeping me filled in on how the episodes have been doing in the times I've not been able to catch them first. Lack of extended cable sucks harder than Jo's cutthroat attitude. I also appreciate you guys being slow on the spoilers and keeping me posted on whether I'd like the episodes or hate them first; I'm fortunate to have a circle of friends that have come to understand my fanbase opinions so perfectly. It's that kind of communication that gets me through this hit-or-miss series.

Anyhoo, I'm still treading the season cautiously and am still skeptical of what it's got planned, bigtime.

But at least for this week, you can count on a positive review for this past week's episode, "Evil Dread". :woot:

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Okay, so we return to Camp Wawanakwa where we join the Heroic Hamsters, holed up in their shoddy little shack after losing the spa hotel to the Vultures and Lindsay to the world's largest septic tank. The guys are all sleeping in one side of the cabin, and the girls on the other. (They were physically separated by gender in that cabin the whole time? How did I miss that? ) Anyway, so we see Mike's multiple personas talking amongst themselves just before he wakes up. Seems Mike's gang really has taken on whole other lives of their own now. Meanwhile, Sam and Cameron are still snoozing and Sam gets half his blood supply sucked out by an especially bloodthirsty mosquito.

Take note of that, it WILL be a plot point later!

So then we cut to the girls and we see Zoey and Courtney are sharing a bunk together. (Now isn't that just sweet. ) We also get to see Zoey in her nightwear for the first time; knew you were always well-dressed for the night, Zoey.

But their peace is sadly interrupted by Sierra, still very much removed from reality and still flashing her camera where she should not be. I hear ya Courtney, I would not want to be sharing a cabin with this psycho stalker, suddenly a million bucks looks a lot less appealing when you realize that she's gonna continue her usual schtick obsessing over a naked picture of Cody on her smartphone. CAN WE JUST FLUSH HER OUT ALREADY?????

So after that rude awakening they get another for their troubles, courtesy of room service as served by Chef, who ends up carpeting the room with slop that apparently is supposed to be breakfast. Gee Chef, why not just force them to eat straight from a trough? They all agree that it's the spa hotel or bust, and resolve to win even as Sierra literally eats like a pig.

Meanwhile, at the spa hotel we FINALLY get a good look at its facilities that were sadly trashed last season, and we find out that it has everything fit for royalty! Butlers, masseuses, pancake breakfasts, fancy furniture, red velvet carpeting, Rembrandt wherever Chris' portraits aren't, and pillows that do not bite. (Well, knowing what kind of critters and beasts Scott's probably hanging with on the average day, I'd be pretty ecstatic about that too) Not to mention all the steak and sausage you can eat........Yup, it seems like the Vultures really got it made.

Well, that is everybody except Gwen, once more rightfully upset about her new villain status. Suddenly those pancakes seem less savory then they already would be, especially if Duncan's still breathing in your general direction.

Same goes for Lightning, who instead of enjoying all the extras that comes with the spa hotel has blown it all for a night on Boney Island looking for the immunity idol that he's never going to find. Sucks to be as dumb as you Lightning, doesn't? Good luck forcing down that raw fish.

Meawhile, old Aleheather tensions flare up as Alejandro hogs the masseuse, all while nursing his legs back to health and waxing his eyebrows. Yes, really! Heather immediately accuses him of playing up the leg card to gain sympathy...............And I don't think I'm giving a damn away when I say yes, yes he is. So unpredictable, and yet so painfully predictable, Fresh. As if subtlety was a core concept of his series.

That being said, it's finally challenge time as the Vultures and the Hamsters gather at the beach. And we see Gwen isn't giving much love and attention to either her team or her asshole boyfriend.

Celebrity couples. No, it is never a good idea. Seriously, how many couples from The Bachelor/The Bachelorette or in Hollywood's own universe do you know who are still going at it?

Oh yeah, not that anybody cares but Lightning finally hitches a ride back from Boney Island. "SHA-YEAH!"

Ha ha ha ha, Sha-NO.

Anyhoo, while Lightning indulges in an all-out session of bicep kissing, we get the full scoop on today's challenge. The challenge is for both teams to dig up the seven or so pieces of a statue molded in the form of a landmark from one of the many cities visited during the course of Total Drama World Tour. (REALLY? We have to acknowledge the season that nearly killed this show? ) The goal will be for one team to have fully and correctly assembled their entire monument before the other team does first, all while dodging a beach laden with booby traps and maneuvering over a ditch infested with crabs guarding their platforms. A pretty creative setup, actually.

The only twist is that because the Vultures won the first challenge, they get to dig with shovels instead of their hands. THANK YOU for not trying to sneak a Golden Shovel over to Gwen this time around, folks! The last time one of those turned up, things didn't end so well for her, and her downward spiral began to commence.

Oh and the other twist is Sam now has about as much energy as a Snorlax due to all the blood sapped out of him earlier that morning. TOLD YA it would be a plot point; what was that thing, a vampire mosquito? Is he hypoglycemic?

Oh well, poor sap. Anyway, the challenge commences and the Hamsters get their game faces on. Zoey suggests they divide their areas into sections and each person gets a section; Courtney thinks they should divide it into quadrants and each pick a quadrant...............Wait, that's the same plan! Heh, I guess great minds DO think alike. So after a surprisingly quick debate, Courtney agrees to the plan that "both" of them came up with, and then it's GO TEAM, GO! :woot:

Some might interpret this scene as Courtney trying to take the credit for Zoey's idea, and to an extent it is.....But mind you that she did still credit Zoey with the idea even as she agreed to it. Nice to see some female "bonding", so to speak. (Yes, I'm majorly a fan for the idea of these two being friends, thank you for promoting it, buddy! )

On the other hand........

"What's with the lovin'? Hello! It's called Total Drama, not Total Friendship!"

Well, I can see her saying this 1) Because she's as usual focused on trying to win the competition as is her nature, and 2) She is not used to this "sappy" bonding atmosphere, so to speak, which may also be partly contributed to the pain she still feels from Gwen's actions against her in TDWT, and that she may not be so keen on the idea of making friends after having endured the brunt of that incident. A perfectly understandable sentiment for the most part, though I hope she will warm up to her team and I STILL hope she finds the courage and willpower to eventually make up with Gwen. Courtney doesn't think she needs friends now, but I think she needs some friends more than ever before. And I really hope for the best for her before this is all over.

Anyway, while the Hamsters have managed to work out their gameplan and are already well into digging thanks to their teamwork, the Vultures are predictably still figuring out what exactly is meant by "teamwork", with Jo and Heather both arguing over what's the best way to dig up their half of the beach while Lightning goes solo as he proceeds to dig up the WATER as opposed to the beach. WHY IS THIS CHARACTER STILL HERE?

Gwen: "I can't believe Lightning made it to last season's finale! Does he EVER sha-shut up?!"




THANK YOU, GWEN, for saying that! About time someone called him out for his purely dumb luck, at least the season's self-aware.

Anyway, so as both teams keep dodging the booby traps and Chef's dirty laundry as they go along, Cameron calls Manitoba Smith back into action as he finds the first piece, giving his team a needed boost. Indeed, Zoey is the real treasure to be had, mate.

Meanwhile Jo and Heather are STILL at each other's throats, neither of them moving anywhere faster than the dead, headless horse they keep beating.

Gwen: "Some team....."

THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN, GWEN! Nice to know this season has up until now has been able to make fun of itself.

But then we have a bit of mood whiplash when Alejandro starts sweet-talking Gwen, a move she insists she can see through but still can't help but compliment the gaze in his eyes. Well, let's pray nothing comes of that! He may be good-looking Gwen, but he's no Antonio Banderas.

Meanwhile, those two hound dogs FINALLY find a piece of their monument. (Wait, NO! ) But the two are still at it and if a million dollars were not at stake, they'd probably have killed each other by now. Ah, CATFIGHT!

An hour into the game and Chris is already throwing one of his hissy fits as neither side can find their remaining pieces. But eventually it picks up and soon everybody's digging up the goods.

Meanwhile, we see Gwen sneaking in a chuckle at Duncan's misfortune as he gets caked in sand by one of Chris' traps (Ha ha ha ha, watching things blow up in Duncan's face is funny ), and Lightning's still on his ego trip stealing pieces others found before he did. The MVP, he most certainly is NOT. Keep kissing those biceps man, soon you'll be kissing everyone's ass if you don't get a hold of yourself.

Then we cut back to Scott, this time actually trying to cheat logically rather than place himself or fancy living on the chopping block! Manitoba catches him in the act just as he attempts to bury one of the Hamsters' pieces on his side of the beach, and then through a series of unfortunate events gets knocked out cold by Scott, accidentally believe it or not, and then..........

"The Malevolent One! He's coming!"

Nope, it's not Vito, everybody, it's................

MAD MIKEY!!!

WHAT A TWIST!

And don't be fooled by him regaining consciousness, folks. Manitoba's been sent back to the Outback and Mad Mikey's in the house! Watch yourself Mike, there's apparently more to you than already meets the eye!

Oh and what of Sierra? Oh well it turns out she ended up digging herself practically to the center of the earth. Gee, I wonder what got her so motivated this time........"I imagined I was digging for Cody!" SHUT HER UP!

Meanwhile, Sam gets hit by yet another booby trap and is sent flying into the path of a passing speedboat into the jellyfish-infested lake..............What, Zombie Zeke was not driving that boat? Oh good, dodged a bullet there..........but not the speedboat

So while Sam tries to get back in the game and Mike acts a slight out of character for reasons well known, the two teams are closing in on each other and finally determine what they're building. For the Hamsters, it's the Statue of Liberty, an obvious reference to "Broadway, Baby!" which honestly was one of the better episodes of TDWT......Not to mention I recall Courtney being the most excited to sing in the city. And for the Vultures, they get London's Big Ben, an obvious references to a certain infamous episode where TDWT officially self-destructed with the culmination of a certain love affair between two certain Vultures..........

A certain infamous episode that must NOT be named again.

But I digress. The two teams manage to assemble their monuments but both are short one piece. Lightning counted seven, but apparently the numbskull can't count past six or recollect that every clock tower has a clock face, and in trying to compensate for his F- in Math he improvises, only to bring the entire tower crashing down.

Meanwhile, the Hamsters still have a standing statue and Sam just happens to be lying upon where Lady Liberty's torch is buried, and with high-precision aim Zoey managed to hurl the torch into place upon Lady Liberty, winning the challenge AND access to the spa hotel! :woot:

And with that, Sam volunteers to spend the night on Boney Island to make up for his performance in the game, and the Vultures are left to deal with whatever vermin they find bunking with them in the cabin tonight, NO THANKS TO LIGHTNING. SHA-YEAH 

At this point, Gwen tries to be friendly with Courtney once again and congratulates her for winning the challenge. But before she can finish, she accidentally sets off a booby trapped garbage bag which she instinctively deflects........AT COURTNEY.

Understandably furious but surprisingly enough still refraining from physical or verbal violence, Courtney storms off to take a badly-needed shower as Gwen tries hard to apologize for her mistake. And then Chris butts in as per his nature and commends Gwen on her "evil", saying that she is definitely on the 'right team'............Okay, folks. Dust off my AK-47, I'm going hunting tonight.

So yeah, Gwen struck out again and Chris was of absolutely no help in the matter. But on the upside, she's still not happy about the villain title and Courtney's still not being violent with her, so that's looking at the positives, right?

And now the moment I'm sure we've all been waiting for: The elimination ceremony! And tonight's is sure to be good.

"ONE BY ONE, THEY WILL ALL FALL................."

YIKES! You're not yourself at all tonight, are you Mike? Keep an eye on him Zoey, I have a feeling before this is over Mike's gonna be needing a loving hand to pull him out of the fire once again..........And out of the clutches of MAD MIKEY.

Anyway, so it comes down to the Vultures and ultimately it's Jo and Lightning who are on the chopping block; Jo for being her pushy cutthroat self as usual, and Lightning for having an IQ lower than what William Stern thought humanly possible.........Not to mention an ego bigger than that of Charlie Sheen's.

And so the votes are tallied and the marshmallows are roasting. And the next contestant to ride the Porcelain Express is..............

LIGHTNING!!!!

OMG, IT'S FINALLY HAPPENED! ALRIGHT, SHA-WOW!!!

Yes, Lightning's finally been eliminated! After seeing this waste of character make it all the way to TDROTI's finale and and a spot in TDAS, he's finally going home! I've been waiting for this moment for a long time, Lightning, and now that the thunder's been taken out of you, I get the chance to see you flushed all the way down the shameful pit you crawled out from!

And with that, we get the satisfaction of the Vultures first loss of the season and the episode ends.

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Phew! Well, that was Evil Dread, and while I won't dare let myself get cocky about this season........I do have to say overall this one was pretty good.

On a whole, the challenge here was pretty creative and as much as I hate TDWT it was a clever use of references to past challenges and seasons here, which is probably gonna be the recurring theme throughout this season by the looks of things. So the challenges definitely have held up since the fourth season's conclusion.

Then we got the Chris McLean Spa Hotel which we finally got to see in full for the first time. And I gotta say, it's pretty snazzy. I'm glad the season recycled this idea which pretty much got the brushoff for the sake of a joke last season, and it is a clever idea to have the winners of any one challenge stay there and the losers in the usual cabins, that I'll admit is clever.

And then we got the campers themselves in this episode. I for one enjoyed Courtney once again in this episode, even though she was more prominently featured in the first half of the episode than the second half. I know right now she's not interested in friendship, but I still hope eventually she'll open up to the Hamsters, whom she got along civilly with despite her usual demeanor. And again, I give her major credit for not lashing out violently at Gwen even after being accidentally hit with garbage at the end. I hope this is meant to imply that she is maturing enough to know how to keep her past temper in check, I think it's really important that she grows past her previous turmoils and learns to calm down and I hope they keep that up. They'd better. I'd really like to see her bond with a few people soon, so that maybe the idea of "Total Friendship" won't seem so silly to her after all. She just needs to find the strength and courage to give it a try again, and perhaps this time the outcome might be better.

I personally am glad she got in some interactions with Zoey, especially. Let's hope more comes of this because Zoey could be a good friend to Courtney if she lets herself open up.

Everybody on the Hamsters' team is still fun, I am quite intrigued by how strong Zoey has remained since the events of TDROTI and even more so by Mike's multiple personas. They do seem to have taken on a life of their own and acknowledge Mike as the real self, who at least Manitoba seems to have come to respect. Manitoba's still got his mad skills.

And of course, I'm interested to see where they take this new, if not unexpected twist with The Malevolent One, aka Mad Mikey. I do get the sense he might cement himself as the central villain this time around, what with all the Vultures (Minus Gwen) having been full-blown villains at least once before. I don't know what this new side of Mike will do, but at the very least, I have to admit I'm curious. But I have faith that Zoke will remain strong by the end.

Special thanks to for his brilliant fanfiction "Mad Mikey", hence the unofficial name of Mike's new persona. If you haven't read his fanfiction yet, I strongly recommend it. It's dark and it's tense, and it really dives into Mike's psyche, it's really heavy stuff. True, it's probably darker than what the season might pull off, but hey if you want a solid TDROTI fanfiction with some dark and deeply psychological themes, with all the thrills that come with them, then this fanfiction's for you.

LINK: www.fanfiction.net/s/8173720/1…

Seeing Heather and Jo fight with each other is amusing. Naturally nobody ever gets off to a good start with the likes of Heather. And as much as I don't care for Jo, at least somebody has the guts to give Heather the headache she deserves. There should totally be a catfight between these two, like the good old days of LeShawna vs. Heather.

Then we have the scene that has already divided and frustrated many, and I can understand why. Gwen did indeed try to apologize to Courtney once again, and just when it seemed it was gonna be civil it backfired horribly, and was further antagonized by Chris' usual douchebaggery. Yes, like most of you here I absolutely hate seeing Gwen get mocked or made to look bad, and I know she's trying to prove she's still that lovable goth gal from TDI who most of us grew to love so fast. And I like the fact that she's still trying to prove herself to be a good person, and that she wants to still make amends with Courtney despite lingering hard feelings, but luck just hasn't played in her favor so far. On the upside though, she still hates her villain title and the fact that she's still trying is encouraging. Hopefully that shame will motivate her to break it off with Duncan eventually and just focus on getting her friends back. And as much as I want to see Gwuncan die this season, which has a roughly 50/50 chance of happening as far as we can figure, more than anything I just want Gwen to be redeemed at long last and to make peace with Courtney before this is all over. I think it's really important that this happens above all else. And again, Courtney refrained from reacting violently despite being caked with garbage, and while she was angry still it was a much more controlled reaction than she's been known for in the past. So yeah, this scene is hard to watch if you're a Gwen fan and/or a Courtney fan, but I'm not giving up just yet.

And then of course, you have the golden moment that really delivers in this episode, and that is the long-awaited elimination of Lightning. :woot: :woot: I have never liked this character, I thought him making it to the finals of TDROTI was a bad call, and I think he's more obnoxious than he is at all interesting to watch. And his inflated ego leaves A LOT to be desired, far too much than can be properly filled in this season. So all I can say is I'm glad Lightning's been struck down. Special thanks to everyone who filled me in on the good news!

Yeah, so overall I did enjoy this episode. I have to agree with the majority of folks here that it was even better than the first episode, with some decent thrills and some juicy scenes I was strongly anticipating in the week leading up to it.

However, this does not mean I'm letting my guard down. I am very anxious about the next few episodes and against I must reiterate that while Fresh tends to be predictable, it is also unpredictable. It's very hard to tell what direction all of this will take, but I really hope that whatever happens Gwen and Courtney's redemption arcs find fulfillment. This is what I am tuning in to see and I pray that the bits we've seen between those two amounts to something good in the end. We've had enough bullshit drama for a while, it's time the characters got some overdue development that they've been starving for since TDWT. I hope it happens. It had better.

Special mention goes to for getting me a bit more excited for the next episode with his review. However again I must emphasize that nobody get their hopes up too high. I know I won't be.

That all being said, I found this a pretty satisfying episode overall in and of itself and I'm giving "Evil Dread" a 9 out of 10.


And that's all there is to it, SHA-BYE BYE, LIGHTNING!


You know, I'm not going to miss him.