The final four's next challenge is in Drumheller, Alberta. Alejandro turns Sierra against Heather using a fake photo, but when his subterfuge is discovered, Sierra and Cody are quick to leave his corner. Heather, Sierra and Cody vote Alejandro out, but due to the inadvertent destruction of Chris's plane, Sierra is ejected from the competition instead.
Tropes:
- Ageless Birthday Episode: The episode takes place on Cody's birthday, yet it's never mentioned how old he's turning. While he was sixteen in "Island", it's unclear how much time has passed since then, and whether or not his seventeenth birthday has already passed.
- Artistic License – Engineering: The gag of the lie detector going off when Heather uses sarcasm. Lie detectors aren't magical machines that flawlessly know whether or not someone is saying something untrue or not. All they test is the spiked heart rate a person often experiences after lying. So, unless you're oddly nervous about your sarcasm (which Heather definitely was not), then the lie detector wouldn't notice anything. This is lampshaded by Heather herself, when after she is zapped the first time she immediately shouts at Chris that sarcasm isn't a lie.
- Bad Boss: Chris, when the interns screwed up... again!Chris: The interns were supposed to bury these barrels full of maple syrup, sugar, spiders, and rattlesnakes!
[he pounds the barrel and it rattles loudly, the contestants scream in response]
Chris: Long story short, the interns buried our reserved fuel barrels instead!
[he angrily proceeds to punish the two interns by pushing over one of the barrels they were supposed to bury, unleashing the deadly little creatures onto them] - Birthday Episode: Downplayed as it isn't mentioned until the end, but the episode takes place on Cody's birthday. Sierra finds his supposed betrayal especially heartbreaking because of it. She also gives her dinosaur a party hat and tries to make him a cake to celebrate.
- Break the Haughty: The destruction of his plane as well as many of his belongings really saddens Chris.
- Call-Back:
- The elimination ceremony uses marshmallows as the prize giver, just as they were in Island.
- The Electric Chair Lie Detector is almost identical to the "Truth or Electrocution" segment back in Action's third Aftermath. The only difference being that it counts sarcasm as a lie.
- The Cameo: Sasquatchanakwa and Ezekiel make one near the end, fleeing from the soon to be destroyed plane.
- Death from Above: Chris launches boulders from catapults at the contestants while they search for the plane's reserve fuel supply, occasionally launching Chef and the interns with those boulders.
- Diabolus ex Machina: Sierra's elimination could be seen as this, as all contestants by this point became aware of Alejandro's true nature and had the chance to eliminate him, once he didn't have immunity, and that is what would have happened had Sierra not accidentally blown up the plane and made Chris furious to the point of disqualifying her.
- Doesn't Know Their Own Birthday: With all the commotion going on, Cody completely forgot that it was his birthday, and didn't remember until Sierra told him.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even Alejandro and Heather are worried for Sierra's safety after she gets burnt from her accidentally blowing up the jet. Sadly subverted by Chris, who freaks out over the jet before angrily ejecting Sierra from the show.
- Everyone Has Standards: Sierra might be a Stalker with a Crush who is obsessed with Cody to an uncomfortable and disturbing level, but she at least admits she leaves him alone so he can go to the bathroom alone all the time.
- Everything Makes a Mushroom: There's oil around the entrance ramp of the Total Drama Jumbo Jet from the day's final challenge when Sierra steps outside with Cody's birthday cake. The sparks of the sparklers on top land in the oil and cause the plane to partake in a giant double-capped mushroom-generating explosion.
- Forgotten Birthday: Cody states last year, his own parents forget his birthday, and so he is touched that Sierra remembered.
- Frame-Up: Alejandro forges a picture of Cody and Heather sleeping next to each other in the jet's economy class. He hands it over to Sierra to turn her against Heather and is successful for much of the day's challenge until Cody gets his hands on the photo. Cody argues to Sierra that she never leaves him alone, so the photo can only be edited. Sierra sees reason and the two go gunning for Alejandro.
- Funny Background Event: Chef is in charge of a catapult to launch boulders at the contestants with. He accidentally gets flung away himself and flies by behind Cody and Sierra while they are having a talk about Alejandro's photo. As Cody begins his argument, Chef crashes off-screen and comes running back to the catapult.
- Hypocrite: Alejandro swears vengeance on Heather for voting him off - conveniently ignoring how he tried to sabotage her this episode by setting her up to be targeted by Sierra, which is especially ungrateful since Heather had brought him with her to First Class.
- I Meant to Do That: Both Heather and Alejandro deny that they let their feelings get in the way of the game, stating that it's all strategic.
- Irony: Alejandro's fossil construct was the only one that was real (an Allosaurus), yet he failed because everybody else's were very creative.
- Irrational Hatred: Sierra's one-episode feud with Heather over Cody turned out to be this, since Heather never went to sleep next to Cody in economy class.
- It's All About Me: Heather tries to instill this in Chris, by making a fossil construct named after him. This doesn't work as Chris isn't the one judging the fossils. Chris does play this straight when he's more concerned about his jet blowing up rather than Sierra's welfare, even furiously ejecting her from the show.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Sierra was rewarded immunity for winning the week's challenge and was sparred elimination. Unfortunately, when she accidentally blows up Chris's plane, with a birthday cake decorated with sparkler candles igniting the leaked engine fuel, he kicks her out of the game out of spite. He's not wrong to do this, however.
- Lampshade Hanging: Alejandro protests coming in last and not getting any tools, saying creating the most realistic dinosaur should warrant something. Chris snarks, "Yeah, you'd think so."
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The contestants, Chris and the animals in the cargo hold have this reaction when Sierra is revealed to have sparkler candles near spilled oil.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Alejandro somehow manages to find an Allosaurus specimen in Alberta, despite the Allosaurus only being known from the U.S. and Portugal. Several other dinosaurs not found in Canada, such as Stegosaurus and Dilophosaurus (both also known from the States), can be seen in the rocks in the background as well. Compounding it further is that all the abovementioned dinosaurs hail from the Jurassic period, whereas in real life, Alberta's dinosaur fossil record is exclusively Cretaceous.
- Mistaken for Evidence: Sierra believes that the photograph that Alejandro gave him was real evidence of Heather being close to Cody, until Cody sees it and clears things up.
- Not Me This Time: Due to Alejandro's manipulation, Sierra comes to believe that Cody and Heather have something going behind her back. Sierra's aggression towards Heather from then on causes the latter to confront her, but in her emotional state Sierra can only vaguely talk about the bad thing Heather did. Since Heather did a lot of bad things, this gets them nowhere until Cody figures out what Sierra is upset about and proves that she's been lied to.
- Not So Above It All: Heather, as it turns out, really likes glitter glue, which was why she voted for Sierra's fossil construct.
- Not-So-Forgotten Birthday: Sierra was the only one who knew it was Cody's birthday, since even Cody himself forgot about it (his parents always forgot and he eventually did as well) and made a cake for him. And then things went south.
- Parental Neglect: Cody's parents forgot his birthday so often that even he forgets it.
- Pet the Dog:
- Cody giving Sierra the win of the challenge, for her Undying Loyalty to him.
- Alejandro and Heather show concern for Sierra after she was caught in the middle of the explosion (that she accidentally caused), even asking her if she was okay (she evidently wasn't).
- Properly Paranoid: After the final three is set, Alejandro suspects that Heather did vote to eliminate him. He goes to check the votes and confirms his suspicions.
- Pun: Chris' name for the fossil part of the challenge? "Design-a-saurus".
- Sleep Cute: While alone in economy class, Cody and Sierra fall asleep together. This gives Alejandro the opportunity to acquire a photo and then edit that photo so that Sierra is replaced with Heather. In the morning, he gives Sierra the photo of Cody and Heather snuggling together to make her belief the two are having an affair.
- Shout-Out:
- The sequence and concept of "This Is How We Will End It" is very similar to the music video for "Bye Bye Bye" by N Sync.
- Alejandro's hand puppet is modeled after The Muppets.
- Spanner in the Works: Had Sierra not accidentally blown up Chris's plane, he wouldn't have had her eliminated and Heather's plan to eliminate Alejandro would have went forward.
- Spotting the Thread: When Sierra shows Cody the fake evidence Alejandro gave her of Cody and Heather together, Cody points out it couldn't possibly be real, because Sierra never leaves Cody alone long enough for him to have a chance to be with Heather. Sierra points out she lets him go to the bathroom alone all the time, but Cody points out they aren't in the bathroom in the photo, they are in economy class, which would make it impossible. This leads to Sierra and Cody realizing Alejandro faked the photo to set them up.
- Toilet Humour: Much of Cody's fossil construct is made of fossilised feces.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Throughout the season Sierra's obsession with Cody, such as her assaulting him with kisses and trying to get them married, has constantly made him uncomfortable with her to the point he has constantly tried to vote her off. In this episode though, he is genuinely touched when she remembers it is his birthday, when even he forgot, and he starts working with her to get rid of Alejandro to the point he starts thinking of her as a friend. When he lets her have immunity, she gives him a friendly kiss on the cheek with him giving a smile in return.
- Trauma Button: After Alejandro comes in fourth for the first challenge, Heather takes the opportunity to mock him for it. Instead of their usual Snark-to-Snark Combat, Alejandro gets uncharacteristically frazzled and demands she go away. We later learn that he has a Freudian Excuse about losing, due to his Big Brother Bully.
- Triumphant Reprise: "This is How We End It".
- We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future: Alejandro uses Chris' computer (while Chris sleeps) in order to create photographic evidence of Heather sleeping next to Cody, which will turn Sierra against Heather. Sierra believes this really is evidence, until Cody looks at it and clears it up.
- Wham Episode: Heather betrays Alejandro (who swears vengeance), Cody finally accepts Sierra's loyalty and friendship, the plane is accidentally blown up, and Sierra (despite having immunity), is eliminated for causing said explosion.
