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Recap / Total Drama: "I See London..."

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With all of Team Victory eliminated, only Team Amazon and Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot remain. The remaining contestants travel to London, where they are tasked with finding clues that will lead to Jack The Ripper (one of the country's notorious serial killers) and capturing him, and a contestant who went AWOL earlier eventually comes back in the competition, and starts his relationship with Gwen.

Tropes:

  • Bag of Kidnapping: The challenge is to bring Chris Jack the Ripper. Each team gets a bag to capture and hold the Ripper in when they find him. Team Amazon loses track of the clues, but they do come across a punk club and find Duncan. Because they don't want to return empty-handed, they abduct him because at least he's a criminal. Meanwhile, Team CIRRRRH does get Jack the Ripper in their bag by following the clues properly and siccing a pack of corgis on him. In the end, Chris finds the fact that Team Amazon brought back Duncan too juicy to penalize and so he declares them the winners.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Heather panics when she thinks Alejandro might be in danger.
  • Big Damn Kiss: Duncan and Gwen share one at the end of this episode, which sets in motion a lot of the rest of this season and All-Stars.
  • Bland-Name Product: Sierra pretends to write "Tweeter" updates. Noah then mocks her saying she should look for a life on "Fredslist" ("Craigslist").
  • Chekhov's Gun: The sausage that Owen mentioned to Noah after they got their clue plays a key role in bringing down Jack the Ripper.
  • Comically Missing the Point: When Owen figures out a clue as fast as Noah, he grins and says Owen's been holding out on him, referring to brainpower. Owen thinks he's talking about the sausages he smuggled off the plane.
  • Complete-the-Quote Title: The title of the episode comes from the children's rhyme "I see London; I see France; I see someone's underpants".
  • Dwindling Party: The contestants gradually get picked off by Ezekiel as Jack the Ripper over the course of the episode. Alejandro, Tyler, Heather, Cody, and Sierra all get captured. Noah is almost abducted, but Owen captures Jack before he can take him away.
  • Embarrassingly Painful Sunburn: Gwen leaves Jamaica with a sunburned left hand. She doesn't know how she got it, but Cody does. While she was sleeping under a parasol, he had a picture of the two of them taken without her consent. As she seemed to be waking up, he made a run for it, knocking the parasol over just so that Gwen's left hand became directly exposed to sunlight for the remainder of her nap. Courtney helps Gwen with her injury by handing her a makeshift salve of green tea and bird guano. It's gross, but it heals.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Heather sends Courtney and Gwen to get the next clue in all of the jewelry without her, in order to show what hard work really is. They end up being safe from Jack the Ripper when he takes Heather instead.
  • Got Volunteered:
    • Happens to both Gwen and Tyler in the musical number during the Guard Stripping challenge.
    • Afterwards, this happens to Heather courtesy of Courtney and Gwen (for the latter, it's mostly to get back at Heather from earlier).
  • Graceful Loser: Noah. His only parting words are for Owen to watch out for Alejandro.
  • Hand Gagging: The Ripper jumps down behind Noah and picks him up, holding a hand over his mouth to prevent him from alerting Owen, who at that time has his back turned towards them. He disappears with his captive before Owen turns around.
  • He's Back!: Duncan is forced back into the competition after Gwen and Courtney find him in a punk music club in Whitechapel.
  • Jerkass: Even though Owen and Noah capture the Ripper, Chris gives the round to Courtney and Gwen for bringing back Duncan. This unfortunately results in Noah being eliminated due to being on to Alejandro.
  • Kidnapped from Behind: Owen and Noah enter a deserted bus in their search for Jack the Ripper. They make the mistake of walking in a line, which gives The Ripper an opening to drop down from the ceiling, grab Noah, and jump back up before Owen looks back to find his partner missing. The Ripper then attacks Owen, which backfires badly. Noah is freed thereafter.
  • Knew It All Along: Noah reveals in this episode that he saw right through Alejandro's A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing façade.
    • He Knows Too Much: Alejandro orchestrates his elimination because of this revelation though.
  • Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone:
    • Sierra tries to enforce this between herself and Cody. She blocks his path to the torture chamber and refuses to move and let them proceed until he kisses her, for the sake of "historical accuracy". Defied though when Cody refuses despite her pleas, and the two of them end up captured by Jack the Ripper with Sierra still demanding a kiss.
    • Subverted. Gwen and Duncan share a kiss and begin to cheat on Courtney in the confessional, and then Tyler breaks in and sees it. Chris later admits he did this on purpose for the sake of drama.
  • Now That's Using Your Teeth!: One part of the search for Jack the Ripper requires the teams to undress a Beefeater to find a clue in his clothes. Team CIRRRRH nominates Tyler for the job, who is under the mistaken impression that he has to undress the Beefeater with his teeth only. Noah lets him stumble a bit before setting him straight.
  • Odd Friendship: Courtney and Gwen officially begin one in this episode, something that both of them lampshade. It won't last long though, and it crashes in the next episode.
  • Oh, Crap!: A few in this episode. Alejandro when he gets caught at the beginning of the episode, Noah when he realizes he and Owen forgot Tyler, Owen and Noah at the end when they realize one of them will be voted off.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: When they need to strip-search a Buckingham Palace guard in the London episode, Gwen gets Sierra to do it by putting a Cody mask on him. What makes it even more egregious is that the real Cody is standing right next to her.
  • Revealing Hug: Following a lengthy rant about his shortcomings, Courtney hugs Duncan tight and admits that she truly missed him ever since he left the show. At that moment, Gwen steps out of the bathroom, out of view of Courtney, but into view of Duncan. Duncan makes eye contact with Gwen and says that every time he ran from the cops, he thought of her, which for the time being he lets Courtney believe is an admission that he also missed her.
  • Rock–Paper–Scissors: One of the challenges is to strip a Beefeater. Obviously, no one wants to do that, so on Team CIRRRRH, Owen and Noah play rock-paper-scissors for it. After landing three ties in the order, rock, scissor, paper, their fourth move is to simultaneously point at Tyler and order him to do the stripping.
  • Running Gag: Owen trying to get Noah to laugh.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Smelly Feet Gag: One of the challenges is to strip a Beefeater. Sierra is tricked into doing it for Team Amazon and the last piece of clothing she takes before finding the clue is the guard's shoe. As it pops off, green vapor rises from the guard's foot, which makes Sierra scream.
  • Something We Forgot: After getting the clue from the rack challenge, Noah and Owen are in such good spirits that they run off and forget that Tyler is still bound on the torture device. They realize their error before leaving the Tower of London, but upon their return the Ripper has already taken Tyler with him.
  • Sympathetic Adulterer: While technically sympathetic cheater, Duncan is Type 1, given that Courtney abuses Duncan and tries to change his personality and appearance forcibly, whereas he has much more in common with Gwen, respecting him and liking him for who he is.
  • Take That!: A skeletal Mary Poppins is visible during the recap.
  • Tranquil Fury: Alejandro at the beginning of the episode, when Owen is launching milk and peppers all over the economy class. This directly leads to his capture by Jack the Ripper.
  • Two-Timing with the Bestie: After Courtney and Gwen start forming a friendship, Courtney's boyfriend Duncan comes back in the game. Later that day, Gwen and Duncan kiss while in the confessional together. Courtney finds out in the next episode and refers to Gwen as a "boyfriend kisser" for the rest of the season.
  • Vertical Kidnapping: The Ripper hides inside a double-decker bus. Owen and Noah enter in search of him, but while Owen has his back turned to Noah, the Ripper jumps down behind Noah and grabs him. Before Owen looks back, the Ripper jumps back up to the ceiling and takes Noah with him.
  • Wham Episode: Gwen and Duncan become an Official Couple, Ezekiel starts going From Nobody to Nightmare, and Noah is voted off.
  • The Worf Effect: Alejandro, the season's Big Bad and one of the most skilled contestants, gets captured at the beginning of the episode before they even get off the plane.

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