The two teams have a rare moment of bonding, sharing their worst fears... which Chris naturally uses to put each camper face to face with their worst fear.
Tropes:
- Absurd Phobia: Several throughout the episode.
- Courtney is afraid of green jelly.
- Duncan is afraid of Céline Dion music store standees (which are cardboard).
- Lindsay and Sadie's is bad haircuts.
- Tyler's afraid of chickens.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- It's unknown exactly what Chris meant by saying said he'd give the Bass triple points if Courtney completed her challenge. Unless he meant he'd triple their current score from three to nine, if he meant giving them three extra points, the Bass still would've lost 6 to 7 even if Courtney faced her fear.
- Whether Tyler having to eat a live chicken at the main lodge was just an instance of Chris messing with him, or he had to compete twice to make up for the Killer Bass' number disadvantage is also unclear.
- Beth and Harold seemingly have no problems in facing their fears. Either they were just that brave, or they figured out that sharing your worst phobia on a reality show is a bad idea as the producers may use it against you and had therefore decided to lie about their fears, predicting a challenge like this could happen in the future.
- Artistic License – Biology: DJ has to pick up a snake as part of his challenge, which blinks at him. Snakes don’t have eyelids.
- Big "NO!": Courtney gives a quick but loud and defensive "No" when Beth offers her green jelly.Courtney: (as Beth offers her green jelly) NO! I mean, no thanks. I'm good.
Duncan: What? Are you on a diet or something?
Courtney: No! I just don't like green jelly, okay? - Big Word Shout: DJ shouts "Snake!" when Beth offers him the green jelly Courtney rejected, only for Cody to tell him it was just a gummy worm.
- Blatant Lies: Courtney claims to be afraid of nothing, despite her freakout after seeing the green jelly. Duncan knows that this is baloney.
- Bowdlerise: In the original version, Trent yells, "Oh, crap!" when he realizes he forgot about Gwen and she's still buried alive. In the American version, it's replaced with "Oh, no!"
- Buried Alive: Gwen's worst fear; she's buried in a glass coffin for five minutes. Trent sits next to her with a walkie-talkie to make it easier for her, but he ends up screaming and running away when a mime starts chasing him.
- Campfire Character Exploration: The remaining contestants bond over sharing their worst phobias by the campfire at the start of the episode.
- The Can Kicked Him: Non-lethal example, but when Harold is confronted by a trio of ninjas in the bathroom, he loses the challenge when he tries to intimidate them with spinning nunchucks, knocks himself out and lands head-first in the toilet.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Lindsay finds the hail cloud chasing after Geoff adorable and wants one of her own.Lindsay: Look, that cloud is following him. Awww, it's like his own baby cloud! I want one, too! Here, cloudy-cloud!
- Cute, but Cacophonic: The episode begins with Sadie wailing loudly at the Dock of Shame over her best friend Katie having been eliminated in the previous episode.
- Downer Beginning: For the Killer Bass, who are sitting miserably around the campfire after having lost last week's challenge.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When Gwen tries to make Courtney chicken out of conquering her fear, Heather of all people gasps in shock.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite having yelled at Tyler earlier for not facing his fear of chickens, Courtney doesn't join her teammates in mocking him as he takes the walk of shame and even snapped at them to stop.
- Everyone Hates Mimes: Trent's fear involves mimes due to an incident at a circus when he was a child. After Trent defeats his fear, Chris is seen wincing as the mime walks away.
- Facepalm: Heather puts her hand to her face when Leshawna, who is arachnophobic, goes running and screaming even when the spider she has to deal with is blatantly Chef in a pink spider costume.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Due to having a disadvantage in numbers (8 to 9), the Killer Bass likely would've still lost even if they had all completed their challenges. After Cody points out that the Gophers are winning 7 to 3, Chris offers Courtney an automatic win for the Bass by tripling their score if she completes her challenge. She ends up failing anyway.
- Foreshadowing: Sadie and Lindsay admitting that a bad hair day is their worst fear (over losing your best friend and walking on mines on high heels respectively, although Sadie already faced that in the last episode), which conclude on the penultimate episode, how the Big Bad was eliminated.
- Gasshole: When the Gophers offer the Bass their leftovers from their tuck shop party, Courtney believes that it's to rub salt in their wounds, but Gwen explains that Owen stank up their cabin, and the Gophers needed time to let it air out. Right after she says this, Owen farts again, much to Trent's disgust.
- Green Is Gross: Courtney compares green jelly to "sugary, jiggly snot", which is why she hates it.
- Heroic BSoD: Courtney breaks down in the confessional when she fails to face her fear.
- Hurricane of Puns: Chris and some of the campers do this as Tyler takes his walk to the Dock of Shame.Chris: Looks like a new pecking order has been established here.
Duncan: It's not like he can cry fowl!
Geoff: It's time for Tyler to fly the coup!
Bridgette: He won't be flying high tonight. - Hypocrite: Courtney repeatedly gives her teammates a hard time when they have trouble facing their fears, but when the time comes for her to face hers, she can't even go through with it. Tyler couldn't get over his fear, but he at least tried to, since that he actually got into the pen with the chickens.
- Immediate Sequel: Begins right where the last episode left off.
- Inelegant Blubbering:
- Sadie still isn't over Katie getting voted off in the previous episode. Bridgette has to pry Sadie away from the Dock of Shame to get her to rejoin her teammates at the campfire pit.
- Towards the end, Courtney is doing this when she thinks she's going to get eliminated for failing to complete her challenge.
- Informed Flaw:
- Beth apparently went on and on about her mortal fear of being covered in bugs, but she doesn't seem too fussed about having to jump into a kiddie pool full of worms.
- Despite claiming to be afraid of ninjas, Harold has no issue facing a couple of them, even doing some fancy moves with nunchucks until he knocks himself out.
- Jerkass Ball:
- Bridgette, normally one of the nicest characters in the series, joins Chris, Geoff, and Duncan in insulting Tyler as he takes the Walk of Shame.
- Trent, while watching a screaming Geoff get chased around by a remote-controlled hail cloud, asks Chris if he can make the cloud go lower and pelt him harder.Chris: You are one sick dude! But yeah. (immediately does so)
- Gwen, who is never mean to anyone aside from Heather, and prefers to only be sarcastic, openly tries to exacerbate Courtney's unease when she does her challenge.Gwen: Oh, that is just cruel! It’s probably warm by now. Warm green jelly...sugary, snotty, bouncy...ugh!!
- Kick the Dog:
- Trent asking Chris to pelt Geoff with more hail.
- Also, Chris and the rest of the Killer Bass (except Courtney) taunting Tyler with chicken and bird puns until he cried. And upon getting in the Boat of Losers, Tyler sees that he is surrounded by chickens. And then Lindsay calls him Taylor. Poor, poor Tyler.
- Lonely Piano Piece: Sad piano music can be heard at the beginning of the episode while Sadie is crying over losing Katie.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: The people who complete their challenges are implied to have gotten over their fears. The following seasons later play this straight, or make it clear that while they successfully faced them, they did not overcome them.
- Not So Above It All: Owen seems to quite like the wigs that Lindsay and Sadie are forced to wear for their challenge.
- Oh, Crap!: Trent exclaims this when realizes that he forgot about Gwen being buried.
- Pet the Dog: Courtney tells everyone to stop with the chicken puns after Tyler (in tears) is sent to the dock of shame.
- Plot Hole: The episode seemed to be rather inconsistent regarding points awarded for completing (or not completing) challenges.
- Trent and Heather technically avoided their respective fears, yet still scored points. The most egregious example was Chris even saying Heather stepped up to the plate against the sumo wrestler despite clearly being shown shaking and cowering in fear.
- Cody conquers his fear, as he stays by the bomb even when it explodes, but it's not counted just because he failed the task of defusing the bomb by the time limit.
- Harold conquers his fear of ninjas, but his efforts weren't counted due to knocking himself out.
- Though Tyler didn't overcome his fear, he technically DID complete his challenge by getting into the chicken pen.
- It was never shown if Geoff overcame his fear of hail or not.
- Beth had no issue swimming in a pool of worms, despite explicitly that stating her fear was being covered by bugs.
- Bridgette technically did conquer her fear (as stated by her confessional), but it was wasn't counted due to her being scared away the garbage-covered Cody.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is a play on the Reality Show Fear Factor.
- Security Cling: After Katie's departure, Sadie clings to the edge of the Dock of Shame and has to be pulled away from it by Bridgette, tearing away a piece of wood in the process. She's still clutching it as the despondent Killer Bass members are sitting around the campfire.
- Ship Tease: Courtney helps Duncan confront his fear of Celine Dion music store standees, and Trent helps Gwen with her fear of being buried alive in a glass coffin by sitting next to her with a walkie-talkie.
- Shout-Out: Duncan's fear is cardboard standees of Céline Dion.
- Slap Yourself Awake: In the confessional, Courtney berates herself for not being able to overcome her fear of green jelly. She breaks down in tears over her ordeal and the possibility she'll be voted off tonight. Not one to take mercy on anyone, Courtney slaps herself out of it.
- Snakes Are Sinister: DJ's afraid of snakes. However, the one that is used in the challenge is small and harmless, subverting the trope.
- Something We Forgot: In what could've been a Deadly Prank, Gwen is challenged with being buried alive for five minutes. There is enough air for an hour and Trent appoints himself as her watcher. Knowing full well that Trent is the only one keeping an eye on Gwen, Chris unleashes Trent's biggest fear on him. Then Chris himself forgets, leaving Trent with a sense of unease until he recalls Gwen's predicament well after the five minutes.
- Spit Take: Heather spits a long stream of orange juice into Trent's face when Chris informs her that she has to battle a sumo wrestler.
- Tempting Fate: Trent says to Gwen, before she's buried, that she has nothing to be afraid of, not too long after, he leaves her alone due to being chased by his fear (a mime).
- Throw the Dog a Bone: The Gophers offer some green jelly to the Bass after their defeat that night. However, Gwen admits that the gesture was mostly to let their cabin air out after Owen stank it up.
- Troubled Fetal Position: Tyler has to stay inside a pen for three minutes with three chickens. Chickens are his worst fear and while he gets inside the pen, he immediately curls up and softly rocks himself to get through the stress.
- Time Bomb: Cody's fear is having to defuse a time bomb under pressure. He's given a bomb rigged to some garbage cans and a long, complex set of instructions to defuse it. It explodes, covering him in garbage and making him look like a zombie.
- "What Do They Fear?" Episode: The campers make the horrible mistake of bonding over sharing their worst fears. It all gets caught on tape and inspires Chris to set up tailor-made challenges for each contestant according to their fears. Gwen has to accept being buried alive, Trent has to face a mime, Cody has to defuse a bomb, Lindsay and Katie have to suffer awful wigs, Owen and Izzy have to take a trip on a faulty plane, Tyler has to confront chickens, DJ has to confront a snake, Leshawna has to confront Chef dressed as a huge spider, Heather has to fight a sumo wrestler, Harold has to fight ninjas, Beth has to accept a bug bath, Duncan has to hug a cardboard Celine Dion standee, Bridgette has to spend time alone in the woods, Courtney has to accept a green jelly bath, and Geoff has to deal with hail.
- Voice for the Voiceless: Beth, Harold, and Heather all don't have lines in this episode. Because of this, during the scene in which the two teams reveal their fears, Gwen reveals the fears of the aforementioned three contestants in their stead in the confessional.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Harold is missing from the entire elimination ceremony.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Well, maybe not just snakes, but Celine Dion music store standees, chickens, and mimes, and those are just a few of the fears the campers are forced to face.
- Beth: Getting covered in bugs. She gets a point by jumping into a pool full of worms.
- Cody: Having to defuse a time bomb under pressure. He can't do it and it explodes, covering him in garbage and making him look like a zombie.
- Gwen: Getting buried alive. She succeeds, but she gets angry at Trent for forgetting to dig her out (because he saw a mime and ran away).
- Izzy and Owen: Flying. To make things worse, the plane they have to fly in is falling apart and piloted by Chef. In a flight attendant's outfit and curly blonde wig.
- Heather: Sumo wrestlers. She "wins" when the sumo wrestler she's supposed to face trips over her and bounces off into the distance.
- Leshawna: Spiders. She gets scared away by Chef in a giant purple spider outfit.
- Lindsay and Sadie: Bad haircuts (Lindsay's was initially walking through a minefield in heels). They bond over having to wear ugly wigs for the whole day. Sadie probably would have said "being separated from Katie" if it hadn't already happened in the last episode.
- Trent: Mimes. He gets the mime to stop chasing him by jumping into the lake and pointing out that the mime's makeup will run if he follows him.
- Bridgette: Being left alone in the woods. She fails, due to a garbage-covered Cody causing her to scream and run in terror.
- Courtney: Green jelly. She has to jump into a green jelly-filled pool from the top of a diving board, which she fails, costing her team the challenge.
- DJ: Snakes. Despite being terrified, he successfully picks up a tiny snake with his bare hands.
- Duncan: Celine Dion music store standees. He has to hug one, which he's able to do after some encouragement from Courtney.
- Geoff: Hail. He gets chased around by a floating, remote-controlled cloud spewing hail.
- Harold: Ninjas. He's ambushed by three of them in the bathroom, and manages to scare them by spinning his nunchucks, but knocks himself out with them and lands headfirst in the toilet.
- Tyler: Chickens. When forced into an enclosure with a mother hen and her chicks, he ends up rocking back and forth in the Troubled Fetal Position.
