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Recap / Total Drama: "Trial by Tri-Armed Triathlon"

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The remaining six campers are paired up with each other in a tri-armed triathalon, all paired based on which pairs would clash the most.

Tropes:

  • Air Quotes: During a rant in the confessional, Duncan hits on the topic of Leshawna's improved opinion of him. As he incredulously puts it with air quotes, she thinks he's "a nice guy" and he thinks she's quite wrong about that.
  • All for Nothing: The whole point of the challenge was to have immunity for both members of the pair who won; however, since all three pairs won one challenge each, there was no overall winner and nobody gained immunity.
  • Alliterative Title: The episode's title has three words that start with "Tri", although only the latter two words use "Tri" as a prefix for three.
  • Berserk Button: Insulting Izzy is Owen's, which Heather pushes one too many times.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: As a result of the above, Owen nearly uses the wimp key to take both himself and Heather out of the competition for her insults against Izzy. He also proceeds to badmouth Heather in a confessional, even as they were still handcuffed together.
  • Big Eater: Owen being this (as usual) allows him and Heather to win the first challenge.
  • Big "WHAT?!": Done by Gwen after it's revealed that Geoff is getting voted off.
  • Brick Joke:
    • An episode after claiming that he isn't afraid of Heather, Owen admits in the confessional that "Heather scares me", and tried to use the wimp keys to get away from her at the start of the second challenge.
    • Owen had a dream about a 'Doughnut-Copter' at the beginning of the episode. Heather later quips about this in the first challenge.
    • Gwen says that she will "seriously damage" Geoff if he says 'dude' or 'cool' again. During the first challenge, she gets a little mad at him for saying just that.
    • Owen and Heather say "No Offence" to each other after finishing their respective rants on each other.
  • Call-Back:
    • The second challenge involves returning the tiki idol Beth got in "Up the Creek", back to Boney Island.
      • The Woolly Beavers also reappear while they're on Boney Island, chasing Duncan and Leshawna.
    • The final challenge is putting wooden heads of the campers into a totem pole in order of elimination.
    • The reason Leshawna knows Duncan is not the jerk that he claims to be is because Courtney told her about DJ's pet bunny.
    • While voting for Geoff, Duncan remarks that he "made a big mistake a few weeks ago"—likely in reference to Geoff going against the guys' alliance by not helping them vote off Bridgette.
  • Chained Heat: The central premise, with Gwen handcuffed to Geoff, Heather to Owen, and Duncan to Leshawna. Each pair must cooperate on all challenges. The winning pair gets invincibility. Anyone can opt out by using the wimp key, but in that event, that person and whoever they're handcuffed to are immediately eliminated.
  • Circling Birdies: Chris bullies Duncan over his crush on Courtney, so Leshawna helps her challenge partner out by knocking the host out. She and Duncan win the challenge moments later, so Chris groggily forces himself back on his feet to declare "Bedunca" and "Shewaninin" the winners as three stars and Saturn circle above his head.
  • Cluster Bleep-Bomb: Owen snaps at Heather after a day of lousy teamwork and especially her insults towards Izzy. About half of his insult is bleep-censored, though in the American version the bleeps are replaced with childish swearing.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Gwen towards Geoff. Gwen's friction towards Geoff stems from her resentment towards never being invited to parties at her school by the populars, and Geoff says that had they gone to the same school together, that he would assure that she would be invited.
  • Didn't See That Coming: Gwen genuinely expected to be eliminated instead of Geoff and can't believe most of the others booted him.
  • Dream Sequence: Owen gets one at the beginning of the episode, filled with candy and cheese and with him naked.
  • Force Feeding: Leshawna does this to Duncan after he insults her.
  • Foreshadowing: Early on, Chris rattles off the names of previous contestants in the order they were eliminated. This ends up being relevant to the final challenge.
  • Friendship Moment:
    • Geoff offering to invite Gwen to an awesome party back home.
    • Gwen receiving Geoff's camera and the two taking a photo together.
  • Hidden Depths: Owen reveals that he feels sad about how people rarely listen to what he has to say. Heather, of course, ignores him.
  • Hidden Heart of Gold: Duncan, and his hiding it is what causes the conflict between him and Leshawna for the episode... and his admitting it is what causes them to work together to win the challenge.
  • Hyperventilation Bag: Heather uses a hyperventilation bag to calm down after being locked in the outhouse with Owen when he had to go number two.
  • I'm Standing Right Here: Heather and Owen are handcuffed together for the challenge and mostly get along until Heather won't stop insulting Owen's girlfriend Izzy. Owen drags Heather to the confessional, where he tears into her lousy personality on camera. He does have the courtesy to tell her no offense and she takes none, being impressed at his brutal honesty.
  • Lampshade Hanging:
    • During the final challenge, Gwen and Geoff are stumped by which order Sadie and Katie got the boot, due to how they often acted like The Dividual.
    • When Gwen acts very dignified about the prospect of being eliminated, Chris yells at her to stop ruining the drama of the moment.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Leshawna tackles Duncan to the ground and gives him an off-screen beatdown while still handcuffed to him after he insults her weight too much.
  • Non Sequitur, *Thud*: Leshawna chucks one of the wooden totem heads in Chris's face because he's being a jerk. He gets up groggily to declare her and Duncan the challenge's winners, mispronouncing and garbling his way through it until he blacks out.
  • Nothing Personal: Heather says that her performance against everyone in this season is this.
  • Odd Friendship: Geoff and Gwen and Leshawna and Duncan to a lesser extent by the end of the episode.
  • Pet the Dog: In response to Duncan getting mocked over Courtney, Leshawna beams Chris with one of the wooden heads.
  • Plot Hole:
    • Geoff's voted off for being 'too nice' despite him being shown to go along with some of Duncan's pranking on Harold, while Owen gets a free pass despite him being arguably the nicest contestant left by this point.
    • Furthermore, with Duncan, Heather and Owen confirming or hinting they voted for Geoff, Leshawna confirming she voted for Heather, and Geoff and Gwen becoming friends in this episode, this is the second episode in a row where Gwen being in the bottom two doesn't make sense.
  • Rage Breaking Point: Owen's patience with Heather runs out when she starts insulting Izzy in the third part of the challenge.
  • Rule of Three: "Three arms, three challenges, three teams of two", as Chris puts it.
  • Taking You with Me: After Heather insults Izzy one too many times, Owen threatened to eliminate himself and her from the challenge by using the wimp key.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: All three pairs experience friction during the challenge.
    • Owen's patience with Heather ran out when she insulted Izzy one too many times.
    • Leshawna and Duncan were fighting practically throughout the whole challenge; however, when Chris makes fun of Duncan's affection for Courtney, Leshawna chucks a wooden head towards Chris.
    • Gwen had beef with Geoff's cheery attitude, but she eventually warms up to him.
  • That Was Not a Dream: Owen dreamed of having helicopters carrying large doughnuts, only to wake up and see a real helicopter outside the cabin.
  • Throwing the Fight: After Heather insults Izzy one too many times, Owen literally drags her to the wimp key, even though it would result in him losing the challenge. However, this was rendered moot since Leshawna and Duncan won the third part of the challenge.
  • Villain Respect: After Owen rants about Heather in a confessional while she is still handcuffed to him, not only does Heather take no offense to it, she actually says she respects him for it. Though she also tells him to never do it again.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Geoff sees making it to the final six as (what else?) a big party, and he's confused why everyone (barring Owen and Leshawna) is being so serious now.

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