Total Drama Review Week 23: Are We There, Yeti?

So Owen’s not perfect huh? That’s always been my favorite thing about this episode; we actually see Owen cost someone the game. Due solely to Owen valuing food over the game, Duncan was eliminated. It helps ground Owen a bit as a character, and make him so flawed like the others. The show did a great job at showing Gwen as flawed, and Heather will never be mistaken for perfect, but Owen didn’t really have a bad thing to his name. This episode was needed for him, but unfortunately it cost us Duncan.

Duncan’s elimination still shocks me to this day; after all, Owen was the one who blew the challenge. A lot of people thought Duncan could win, possibly going to the final two with Gwen. Nowadays it’s hard to think of him beating the other three, but back then it seemed almost certain. Owen was comic relief, Heather was the villain, Gwen was the girl with the most development while Duncan was the guy with the most development. Duncan was one of the few characters to actually grow a bit over the course of the season. He’s still one of the most loved characters of the show, and his performance this season was great.

So how did Chef do as host? Well he was barely present, but the challenge wasn’t bad. It felt weird having it right after the last episode, as both are similar challenges, but overall I liked it. Both teams had things that could be considered important, so they could either work together or sabotage each other to get them. It was set up from the get go to be grueling, and is my favorite of the “trapped in the woods” challenges.

Chef hasn’t had a huge amount of development, and this episode didn’t help, but it was nice seeing him take the lead. This is an idea I wish they had stuck with, maybe let him host once a season. I just think it would have been so much better if we didn’t have three odd episodes in a row. First we had the dock of shame episode, then the weird Castaway homage, and now Chef hosting. This episode just gets forgotten, honestly.

I give this episode a 6.5/10 overall, and on its own it probably would be better. I just can’t separate it from the context of the season. Just two episodes left, and our final three has emerged. Could you imagine if it had actually been Heather, Lindsey, and Beth? Regardless, the next episode is a real doozy. See you all next week for “I Triple Dog Dare You!”

Tags: total drama