YMMV / Total Drama: "Basic Straining"

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • When Duncan kisses Courtney and is congratulated by Geoff for winning her heart, Harold looks surprised and then glares at the two, with Courtney being eliminated after they lose the challenge thanks to Harold rigging the votes. While the scene was likely the moment in which Harold got the idea that eliminating Courtney would make Duncan miserable, maybe his surprise and glare were because he also had a crush on Courtney (when Courtney approaches him the following season, he says that he knew that she would eventually come around to him) or because he felt that it was absolutely unfair that after bugging him all season Duncan got a girlfriend while he didn't get one?
  • In contrast to Duncan, Geoff and DJ being surprised at Courtney being eliminated and Harold staying, Bridgette just stands there emotionless as Harold goes to get his marshmallow. Does this mean that she also voted Courtney off and/or didn't expect Harold to be eliminated? Or maybe she correctly guessed that Harold had done something but didn't say anything as she felt that Duncan and Courtney deserved it for being so cruel to him? And if this were the case, why didn't Bridgette vote Harold off if he wasn't close to her friends? Was it because she felt that she owed Harold for potentially saving her from elimination and comforting her in past challenges? Or just because Courtney ate the last ice cream sandwich despite her likely wanting it?
  • Also, why did Chris allow Courtney to be voted off even though there was clear evidence that something fishy had happened? Did he know that Harold cheated but declined to do anything because Chef promised retribution against those who stole his dessert (their faces when they throw Courtney into the Boat of Losers heavily imply that they found out that Courtney stole their food) or simply because he disliked Courtney already? Or perhaps he found out that Harold rigged the votes after the ceremony while reviewing the episode's footage with the editors and thus assumed at the time that everyone voted Courtney off because they couldn't stand her like in earlier episodes?
• Broken Base: People are divided on if Harold was justified in voting Courtney off or not. Most fans find it stupid for him to vote Courtney off when it was Duncan who picked on him. While Courtney did mistreat him occasionally in previous episodes (something that is much overlooked by most of Courtney's fans), she didn't seem to particularly enjoy the bullying Harold was subjected to, but even before Chris announced who was getting the boot, Courtney gave Harold a smug and cocky look. However, others argue that given how Duncan didn't really seem interested in the competition from the beginning and due to his popularity on the team, Harold likely deduced that if he voted Duncan off, not only would Duncan not have really cared (maybe he could as he had just hooked up with Courtney, yet that's not sure), but the rest of his teammates would have deduced that Harold had something to do with his elimination. Therefore by voting Courtney off, Harold knew that it would make Duncan miserable due to forcing him to stay in the game without his girlfriend.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Ezekiel's face is on a milk carton in the fridge that Duncan and Courtney are stealing from. By the end of World Tour, the now feral Ezekiel goes missing, occasionally popping back up on the plane, only to live on Boney as of All-Stars, with his parents being implied to look for him via a wanted poster in Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race.
• Squick: Courtney and Duncan sharing their first kiss is undoubtedly cute... until you remember Courtney had just puked mere seconds before it occurred.