Recap / Total Drama: "Total Drama, Drama, Drama, Drama Island"

The campers are having a wrap party at Playas De Losers, when Chris issues a challenge: if Owen/Gwen forgoes his/her prize, he can enter a race for a case containing one million dollars.

Tropes

• Aborted Arc:
  • Courtney finding out the island was next to civilization the whole time never goes anywhere in any of the following seasons, particularly the two taking place on the island again.
  • Harold's friendship with, and possible crush on Heather is mentioned in a few episodes next season and then never again.
• And This Is for...: Leshawna steals the ATV and drives it to the camp grounds. Once there, she spots Heather, with whom she has a score to settle. Leshawna shouts at her target that this is for calling her a "big-butted, loudmouthed, mall-shopping homegirl" and hits the gas. Heather saves herself from getting run over by jumping off the dock into the lake.
• Animals Hate Her: After Heather steals Harold's makeshift hang glider, it falls apart, and she crashes into a beaver dam. A beaver is on top of Heather and repeatedly slaps her butt with its tail. One of the beavers in the dam sucker punches Heather's head.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Escaping from her humiliating and karmic predicament after falling into the beaver dam, a beaten-up Heather is encountered by Harold, who's still determined to help her. After blaming him for her day's misfortunes, Harold calls her out for being an Alpha Bitch, stating that she would have friends if she learned to be nicer to everyone. When she vainly tries to defend herself by saying that she's liked because she's popular, Harold's question is enough to leave her emotionally vulnerable for a heart-to-heart conversation.
  Heather: People like me! I'm popular!
  Harold: Then how come no one wanted you on their team?
  (Heather is immediately at a loss for words)
• Bait-and-Switch Compassion: Heather ends up crashing into a beaver dam, unable to free herself and getting repeatedly attacked. Gwen, Leshawna, and Trent eventually happen upon her. Trent asks if they should help, but after a beat, all three start laughing uproariously.
• Batman Gambit: One by Chris to get the Campers to come back for another season, most likely.
• Big Eater: Izzy manages to out eat Eva on marshmallows, 95 to 37 respectively.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Izzy mentions that she enjoys sneaking up on people and startling them and that she is so good at it that she once caused her grandfather to pee himself.
• Can-Crushing Cranium: Izzy goes wild at the end-of-season buffet. As soon as she's swallowed her 95th marshmallow, she flushes it down with a soda pop, burps without a shred of restraint, and smashes the can against her forehead.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder:
  • Courtney repeatedly betrays Duncan over the money.
  • Heather double crosses Harold the first chance she gets.
• Circling Birdies: Courtney slams into a wall surrounding Camp Wawanakwa. She gets up from being knocked back as four birds chirp and circle her head. Annoyed, she shoos the birds away, prompting one of them to chirp something rude at her.
• Comedic Spanking: Heather gets this courtesy of a beaver standing on her backside while her head was caught in a beaver dam.
• Continuity Nod: The tank with green jelly to where Courtney was supposed to jump into in "Phobia Factor" is seen again.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Geoff bears the brunt of Bridgette's clumsiness, even being knocked off a cliff. In the confessional, Geoff admits he's worried about her accidentally killing him.
• Deadpan Snarker: Noah has some pretty good ones this episode, such as:
  Eva: You run like a girl.
  Noah: Forgot my 'roids back at the gym.
• Diabolus ex Machina: In the version where Gwen is the winner, she's forced to give up her winnings from the previous episode whether she likes it or not due to her contract.
• Ear Ache: While hiding behind a bush, Heather and Harold are witness to another team finding the briefcase with the prize money. Harold is willing to accept defeat while Heather plans for a little thievery. She pulls Harold by the ear down to the ground to discuss the details.
• Easily Forgiven: Averted. As Duncan deals with the angry moose, Courtney cheers him on. Duncan, however, says he hasn't forgotten about her running off with the money while his ankle was injured and promises to settle up with her next.
• Everyone Has Standards: While it's clear that Justin is a bit of an Attention Whore, he doesn't like the constant attention he's getting from Katie and Sadie.
  Justin: If I have to hang around these two (Katie and Sadie) for much longer, I'll throw myself off a cliff.
• Eyebrow Waggle: Justin intercepts Izzy, Eva, and Noah when they have the briefcase with the prize money to take it from them. He waggles his eyebrows when Noah enters the confrontation with "Justin! The anti-me! So, we meet again."
• Face Doodling: For all the stunts Heather pulled on the campers trying to get the prize, Leshawna draws a smiley face on the back of her bald head. She considers herself merciful because Heather deserved to get it straight-up tattooed. Several campers get a good laugh at Heather's expense, but only Beth bothers to inform her about the smiley face.
• Forceful Kiss: In the race for a new prize of a million dollars, all contestants collide into a pile. Courtney is among the first to wrestle herself free and she stops to help Duncan out too. Then, full of energy, she shouts how they'll get the money, grabs hold of Duncan, and plants a kiss of excitement on his lips. Duncan is very pleased.
• Foreshadowing: A small bit for what would come in Action.
  • Courtney's betrayals and abusive treatment of Duncan becomes the basis of their relationship and her character for Action up until its end in World Tour.
  • Justin manipulates Katie and Sadie with his looks, something he'd do to Beth and Lindsay for the first third of Action.
  • The entire episode is a reference to a movie. The next season would be based entirely around movie genres.
• Grand Finale: Of Island.
• Hand Gagging: When another team gets their hands on the briefcase with the prize money, Heather decides it's time to rob them and asks Harold if he's in. Harold is all too happy to and prepares to reminisce about something that happened at computer camp when Heather cuts him off by putting her hand over his mouth.
• Hanging by the Fingers: Cody, DJ, Tyler, and Owen, who have bound themselves together with a rope to ensure they operate as a team, are chased off a cliff by a bear. Cody is the one to grab onto the edge in time and he actually manages to pull the four of them up a bit. Then the edge breaks off and it's a lucky circumstance Courtney's balloon floats by at that moment or else the quartet would've made an ugly fall.
• Happy Dance: When the alliance consisting of Tyler, Cody, Owen, and DJ get its hands on the suitcase containing a million dollars, each member does a happy dance. Tyler jumps up and down like a grasshopper, while the others dance more conventionally with Owen holding on to the case.
• Happy Ending Override: Of the entirety of Total Drama Island, particularly "The Very Last Episode, Really!" No matter which of the two endings is chosen, Heather was defeated in the most satisfying way possible, and either Owen or Gwen is the winner, meaning that the $100,000 went to a good person either way. They both also promise to use at least part of the money to throw a celebration party for the whole cast. Then at the start of this episode, Chris steps in to invalidate the victory and make the contestants compete for $1 Million instead, which gets eaten by a shark and means no one actually got the money in the end. He gives everyone another chance by having them take part in a new season (Not that they have a choice, anyway).
• Hopeless Suitor: Despite Leshawna having dumped Harold, it doesn't stop him from pursuing her.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Heather is left alone and friendless by her eliminations. While looking for the million dollar case, Heather double crosses Harold by stealing his makeshift hang glider, which promptly falls apart, and she lands head first into a beaver dam and proceeds to get slapped silly by beaver tails.
• Literally Laughable Question: While looking for the briefcase with the prize money, Trent, Gwen, and Leshawna come across Heather, whose head is stuck in a dam and who's getting beaten up by beavers. It's brutal and she begs to be saved. Trent asks his teammates if they should come to her aid, a question which, in light of all the horrible things Heather pulled on them during the season, is met with roaring laughter by all three of them. As they walk away, Leshawna even compliments Trent on the joke.
• Look Behind You: Owen, Tyler, DJ, and Cody want the briefcase of money that they found first back from Justin, but threats don't work. Cody thinks quickly and points behind Justin while excitedly exclaiming that the paparazzi are here. Ever the camera addict, Justin instantly models in the alleged paparazzi's direction, which gives the quartet the opportunity to rush him and take the briefcase.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Justin uses his looks to convince Izzy to hand over the case. When Noah protests this, Eva fully supports doing so on the grounds that Justin is just so good looking. After Justin leaves, Eva is completely mortified by her behavior and remarks she'll never be able to face her gym friends again.
• Not What It Looks Like: Geoff helped a moose too small to reach some branches eat, but then Bridgette accidentally bumped into him. Geoff landed on the moose and, as it cried, he noticed the moose's now very angry parent looming over him. Geoff insisted this isn't what it looks like just before he and Bridgette started running.
• Pants-Pulling Prank: Noah taunts Duncan when Courtney leaves him behind to make a clean escape with the money. He also comes unwisely close to the bully, so Duncan retaliates by not just pulling his pants down, but by stealing them wholesale. It takes a while before Noah has the time to fetch a new pair.
• Plot Hole: Several contestants miss out on Total Drama Action as a result:
  • Cody and Tyler have been tightly tied to DJ and Owen with a rope, with Cody even commenting once how it's impossible to untie now. In spite of that, they somehow get separated during their fall into the green jelly, with the rope suddenly completely gone.
  • Eva and Noah witness the chase after the million dollar case from the communal bathroom's roof. Given that contestants have jumped from much higher even in the very first challenge ever, it shouldn't be a problem for them to jump down and join the chase. It can be argued that since they would've been running on their own instead of being pulled by the improvised sled, they still would've missed their shot, though.
  • Ezekiel was caught under Justin's parachute, along with Beth. Soon after, only Beth is free, with Ezekiel still underneath for some reason. Since he wasn never shown freeing himself from the parachute, Ezekiel should've qualified as well. Even assuming he somehow did escape, he's not even shown attempting to chase after the case either. In fact, he completely disappears from the rest of the scene.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is a play on the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
• Read the Fine Print: With the case lost, Chris says it's a 14-way tie and declares that that group will have to star in Season 2 to break it. When some protest that they never signed on for that, Chris says it was in the fine print of all of their contracts.
• Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: Heather gets her head trapped in a beaver dam, and she gets slapped silly by beaver tails. Trent, Gwen, and Leshawna, while looking for the case, happen to come by and see Heather's situation. Trent asks if they should help Heather, in which all three share a long laugh before continuing their way, leaving Heather to her fate.
• Scooby Stack: From top to bottom, Eva, Izzy, and Noah peer around the corner of the communal bathrooms in search for Justin and the briefcase containing one million dollar that he stole from them.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Noah makes fun of Duncan after Courtney ditches him, causing Duncan to steal Noah's pants, making Noah run away screaming.
• Sequel Hook: Chris invokes and enforces this himself when the campers lose the briefcase, which sets up Action.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: The briefcase is eaten by a shark and nobody gets the million dollars. However, several of the campers get chosen to compete on Action as a consolation.
• Shaking the Rump: While Duncan goes wild to the music at the party, Courtney sees no cause for celebration because she didn't win. Partly to tease her, he shakes his rear in her direction longer than any other dance move while she rants away.
• Ship Sinking: Leshawna dumps Harold, saying their Last-Minute Hookup was her being caught up in the spirit of the moment.
• Shout-Out:
  • Gwen's friends bear some resemblance to a group of goths from an episode of 6teen.
  • Heather says her calculus teacher made her join the Mathletes for extra credit.
  • Harold tries telling a story about "this one time at band camp..."
  • Heather asks, "What's your damage?".
  • Izzy does a Tarzan call.
  • Sadie says "Oh my gosh, Katie! Look at that butt!" when talking about Justin, a reference to the song "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot.
  • Justin calls himself "really, really, ridiculously good-looking".
• Suddenly Voiced: Justin. He goes from speaking all of once during Island proper to talking like any other camper.
• Tap on the Head: Chef heads out on the ATV to get the balloon back from Courtney. As he passes them in the woods, he asks Trent, Gwen, and Leshawna if they've seen a balloon fly by and informs them it matters because Courtney stole it. He continues to expound to Trent and Gwen that with the balloon Courtney is sure to win, which inspires Leshawna to grab a thick branch and knock Chef out from behind so she can take the ATV and even the odds with Courtney's balloon.
• Two-Faced Aside: With some heavy demands, Harold accepts a new alliance with Heather and allows her to get in the back of his canoe. He asks her if she thinks they'll become friends after all this is over, which Heather answers with an affirmation. As Harold paddles back to camp, however, Heather turns to the camera, sneers, and shakes her head.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Duncan wrestles an alligator for the case of money for himself and Courtney, who have formed an alliance. Courtney repays him by attempting to run off with the money the instant he gets an injured ankle.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Izzy, who ate way too many marshmallows, vomits on the steak Chef was grilling, only to grab a platter of hot dogs shortly thereafter.
• Whole-Plot Reference: To It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
• The Worf Effect: Justin is able to use his handsomeness to manipulate Gwen and Leshawna into giving up vital information on the current status of the case and get Izzy and Eva to give up the case.