Recap / Total Drama: "The Pink Painter Strikes Again"

After a one year break, the previous season’s 16 contestants return to the island for another shot at $1,000,000– some looking for redemption following their initial poor performances, and others having to deal with the fallout of some of their actions during their earlier run. After the Final 2 from last season choose the new teams— Team Rat Face and Team Skunk Butt— the contestants face off against each other in a match of "Grandma's Footsteps", an extreme version of Red Light, Green Light against Chef's grandmother and former WBL pitcher, Axe Hatchet. As contestants get beaned by pink paint filled balloons left and right, who will rise above the challenge, and who will take the unfortunate title of first contestant to be sent home?

Tropes:

• Backhanded Apology: Bowie's apology to the people he screwed over last season quickly turns into him telling them they should thank him for showing them how Total Drama should be played. Bowie is glad to have that off his chest, even though no one is mollified.
• Big "YES!":
  • After becoming the fourth person (fifth counting Priya) to join the Rat Face, Caleb happily exclaims "Yes!"
  • Nichelle joyfully yells "Yes!" when she's not the last one chosen to join a team.
  • Raj happily exclaims "Yes!" when his boyfriend, Bowie, is safe from elimination.
• Camera Abuse: Played for Laughs, though in a confessional, Nichelle punches the camera which causes it to crack.
• Call-Back:
  • When she returns, Axel says she's trying to be a better person in the confessional. Cut to the next scene where she punches Ripper then says she's a work in progress. This is similar to Josee in The Ridonculous Race when she promises to be a better person then immediately pushes over a vendor, saying starting from now.
  • Priya and Bowie getting to be the team captains for their previous performance and picking their teammates is similar to how Gwen and Trent got to choose their teammates in "Riot On Set" for winning in the previous episode.
  • Chase being eliminated with a curveball is similar to how Cody eliminated DJ in "Dodgebrawl."
• Foreshadowing: In the confessional, Raj and Wayne mention they won't be able to function well without each other or on separate teams. Come Working K9 to 5.where Raj gets eliminated, forcing Wayne to continue alone.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: MK attempts to win the challenge by hitching a ride on Caleb's back. He sees what she's doing and this leads to both of them being eliminated.
  • Axel also cheats in the challenge by tripping Ripper and getting him eliminated from the challenge. However Axel also gets sent out of the challenge alongside, Raj, Wayne, and Scary Girl.
• Chekhov's Gun: Though Chris firing Sally the intern for using pink paint in the balloons instead of red as he requested just seems like his usual mistreatment of the interns at first, he mentions to her that she'll need to turn in her intern uniform to the production trailer before she leaves— something that MK catches on to and decides to incorporate into her next scheme to try and cheat her way through the competition.
• Clark Kenting: Wayne, Raj and Bowie fail to recognize Scary Girl at first, even though the only thing that has changed about her is that she now wears an button-up collared shirt and shorts instead of her usual dress and less makeup and accessories. Granted, the former two aren't the brightest, but she still has a very distinctive look.
• Death Glare: All the campers who were eliminated last season because of Bowie give one to him.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Julia didn't realize that Bowie may have only picked her to join his team so he and the Hockey Bros could make her the first boot until MK points it out.
  • Nobody expected Nichelle to beat Bowie when it comes down to them in the final challenge until they see her vault over him.
    Nichelle: I think my training paid off.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Axel beating Ripper up throughout the episode is Played for Laughs.
• Everyone Has Standards: MK considers Bowie's actions last season evil, despite coming off as a hypocrite since Bowie at least respected everyone and MK stooping to lower lows later in this season such as attempting to injure Priya, Emma, and Caleb by dropping a log on them to sabotage them and trying to cheat in challenges (with Bowie at least becoming uneasy at forcing Raj and Wayne to follow).
• Gasp!: After realizing that Bowie and the Hockey Bros might've picked her to join their team so she would be the first booted off, Julia gasps in horror.
• Hand Rubbing: When talking about "crushing somebody's dreams", Chris sinisterly and sadistically rubs his hands together.
• Hated by All:
  • Bowie has become the least popular contestant with everyone on the island, except for Wayne and Raj, due to his rather villainous actions in the previous season, especially after he stole Millie's notebook and used it to almost destroy her friendship with Priya without remorse just to have a better chance at winning the million dollar prize. His half-assed apology during the team selection process certainly doesn't help his social standing either.
  • While not to the extent of Bowie, Julia is this as well with Bowie picking to join his team to try and send her home early on.
  • Ripper is this due to his massive Jerkass behavior in the previous season to the point where he is Picked Last when team captains choose their teammates.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Well, more like villainous sacrifice in this case, but Julia tackles Emma during the red light phase of the challenge, getting them both hit in order to give Bowie a better shot at winning.
• Hidden Depths:
  • As Priya discovered from researching Caleb, he got an early acceptance letter into MIT and volunteers at a kitten orphanage.
  • Despite being previously known as a beacon of toxic masculinity, Ripper is apparently familiar enough with the Women's Baseball League to be able to recognize Chef's Grandma, Axe Hatchet, as one of the greatest pitchers in the entire history of the League.
• In a Single Bound: When it's just Bowie vs Nichelle at the end, Nichelle is able to pull an impressive jump that leaves everyone, (including Bowie and Grandma Axe) in stunned silence which helps her to land at the finish line, allowing Team Rat Face to win.
• Karma Houdini Warranty:
  • Though Chase managed to get back into Emma's good graces in the previous season, things naturally ended up going south for him again after Emma inevitably watched "The Truth, The Pole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth" and realized that he actually quit the challenge for the pizza and not her, which causes her to break up with him again and go right back to hating him with the implication that it's for good this time.
  • Bowie's actions in the previous season have caused his social standing among the contestants to take a hit, becoming one of the least popular among the cast with Wayne and Raj being the only ones who still have a positive opinion of him.
• Laughing Mad: Befitting of someone like her, Scary Girl lets out unstable laughter when she's being take away by the Drone of Despair.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Since she doesn't have the challenge know-how to get through the "Grandma's Footsteps" challenge due to not reading Priya's "TDI Training Guide" like she had said that she would, Millie instead tries to bullrush her way to the very end of the challenge even after Grandma Axe has started looking at her, causing her and Priya to become the first contestants to lose the challenge.
• Loud Gulp:
  • Several contestants gulp in horror after learning Grandma Axe (who was throwing paint balloons at them) was a competent pitcher.
  • Chase gulps in fear when he realizes he may have a chance at going home first. Thankfully for him, this was before Scary Girl's slip-up which caused her to be eliminated first.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": A few this episode.
  • The first comes when Chris dumps everyone out of the helicopter they were flying out of.
  • The second is when Ripper reveals that Chef's seemingly unassuming grandma is actually Axe Hatchet, the greatest pitcher in the history of the Women's Baseball League and she's throwing things at them.
  • The Skunk Butts all freak out upon realizing that Scary Girl had been stalking them during the off season.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Chef's Grandma is a retired Baseball Player who is widely recognized as one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the Women's Baseball League. She is appropriately named Axe Hatchet.
• Never Mess with Granny: Grandma Axe makes her first impression as a sweet old lady that everyone finds adorable, to the point that even Julia even comments that someone like her couldn't possibly throw anything that well. Then the challenge starts and she's revealed to be one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the WBL and is able to throw the paint balloons with enough incredible strength and precision to take the contestants out effortlessly.
• Picked Last: The "bottom of the barrel" picks, as Chris puts it, are Scary Girl, Nichelle, and Ripper. Bowie picks Scary Girl because he didn't recognize her, and Priya picks Nichelle because she's not the guy who used her as a human shield last season, leaving Ripper to be sent to Skunk Butt by default. He's legitimately bewildered by why no one wanted him over anyone else.
• Psychotic Smirk:
  • When she starts forming a new scheme, MK makes an evil smile. She makes another when she decides to "hitch a ride" on Caleb during the challenge.
  • Grandma Axe pulls these whenever she's prepared to throw a paint balloon at a contest to take them out.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": When Chase tries to talk to Emma, she only says "no" and "nope" to him, refusing to even speak to him anymore.
• Reformed, but Rejected:
  • "Reformed" might be pushing it a little given that, despite her efforts to be "normal" to help with her social standing, Scary Girl's speech during the bonfire ceremony shows that a lot of her "normal" transformation was mostly on the surface level and she was still the same blissfully creepy little psychopath on the inside. That said, she did actually try to change herself in her own weird little way, but hearing about her stalking them all during the off-season causing the other Skunk Butts to immediately send her home anyway, which causes her to angrily rage about how all the effort she made was for nothing and swearing that she would return and make them all pay for this rejection in the confessional.
  • Ripper Took a Level in Kindness, but is bullied by Axel throughout the episode and no one seems to care. Being the last pick left, he's also the only contestant who wasn't chosen by either of the team captains.
• Retired Badass: Chef's Grandma, Axe Hatchet, is considered to be one of the best pitchers in the history of the Women's Baseball League. Despite being long retired and clearly aged, she hasn't lost her touch in the slightest, as seen by her performance during the challenge.
• Saying Too Much: During Chef's bonfire callout at the elimination ceremony, Scary Girl interrupts his criticisms of her to give an impassioned speech about all of the work and effort she did to try and be more normal and get along with everyone… which apparently includes stalking them all through their windows and from inside their closets to try and be able to learn how to do so. This causes the others to become so creeped out and unnerved that they immediately decide to send her home first.
• Shout-Out:
  • This episode's name is a clear reference to The Pink Panther Strikes Again.
  • The challenge is a typical game of "Red Light, Green Light." Its execution - including a female observer, being shot for moving, as well as the scenery in the background is a reference to the first game of Squid Game. Furthermore, much like in Squid Game, the first player was eliminated for running recklessly while the second was their friend who was eliminated after checking up on the former.
• Stalker without a Crush: Scary Girl confesses at the elimination ceremony that she's been watching them all through their windows and closets to help her learn how to be normal. This creeps everyone out so much they all vote her off.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Bowie laughs at how embarrassing Priya's team name the Rat Face is, only for him to soon receive a worse team name, the Skunk Butts. He even lampshades he should have foreseen that.
  • Ripper claims that his team's got victory in the bag once the final 2 contestants left in the challenge are Bowie and Nichelle, calling her a "pretend actor." She instantly proves him wrong by winning the challenge for her team.
  • Raj and Wayne note in the confessional that there's not really a good person to vote off that night when Skunk Butt loses. As soon as this confessional ends, Scary Girl explains her methods of trying to become more "normal" included stalking the other contestants. Raj and Wayne promptly note how voting just got really easy.
• Too Kinky to Torture: Upon being heavily pelted by a barrage ot paint balls alongside Axel, Raj and Wayne, Scary Girl cheerfully asks to be pelted again. Grandma Axe happily obliges.
• Took a Level in Badass: After her embarrassingly pathetic loss in the previous season and being exposed as an action movie star fraud on international TV, Nichelle was basically tossed out of Hollywood and had all of her movies and TV series' cancelled. As a result, she spent the last few months before the season training with the top parkour, kung-fu, and gymnastics experts in the world to improve her own physical capabilities and redeem herself as an action star, which pays off when she ends up winning the challenge for her team.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Ripper is considerably nicer than in the first season.
• Villain Team-Up: Despite basically screwing each other over in different ways last season, Julia and MK don't actually seem to hold a grudge towards each other, commenting on each other's villainous skills and even forming an alliance to try and take down Bowie.
• We Will Meet Again: To quote Scary Girl:
  Scary Girl: This isn't the last of Scary Girl! I'm going to make them pay!
• Wicked Wasps: A hornet landing on and eventually flying in front of Damien causes him panic during the red light phase and get taken out of the challenge.
• The Worf Effect: Priya's concern over Millie when she's out causes her to rush over to help her and get hit by a paintball in the very first round.
• Would Rather Suffer: In a confessional, Priya admits to preferring being dropped from a helicopter (which happened to her and all the other contestants) than working at her summer job at the Weenie Wagon due to her dad making her put away her prize money from last season.
• You're Insane!: After he drops her and the other contestants out of a helicopter, Julia calls Chris a "maniac".