Cary

* S2: Reality
* S10: WotW

Cary is a contestant on Total Drama Reality and Total Drama: Worst of the Worst.

## Biography

Cary has a twin brother named Grant. When Cary became a teenager, he became very confident in his looks. He spends a lot of time gazing at himself in the mirror, and talking about how great he is. His other favorite past time is insulting his brother's appearance, despite their being identical. Even though Grant is horribly mistreated by his brother, he says nothing but nice things about Cary. The twin boys' mother is tired of Cary's overconfidence.

## Total Drama: Worst of the Worst

Cary arrived last after Chris described him as abrasive. Cary spoke about wanting to spread joy to the world and that he hoped everyone could win. Zoe surprised him by unexpectedly measuring his oblique with a fat caliper.

In confessional, and after learning he would be on a tribe with all men, Cary recalled how there was tension among the men on his original season. He vowed to be more positive during his second chance. He noticed very early on that Frederick seemed much more abrasive than he did when the contestants were first introduced to each other. Cary attempted to befriend his wealthy teammate, and he offered to be his bunk mate. Frederick consented, but not without a prewritten list of requirements.

Later, Cary noted Frederick being friendly, again when he offered a bracelet to one of the female contestants. Frederick fell and hit his head after an altercation with Dirk. Cary had joined him in the medical tent after he lost consciousness. He admitted that none of their teammates seemed to care about Frederick’s injury, and he joined him out of obligation. Cary asked Frederick why he joined the show, and suggested it was for a showmance. Cary explained in confessional that they had a deep conversation about Frederick’s motives in competing, but that it likely would not make air.

During the treasure seeking challenge, Cary came across Tamira and Yuko after something eventful obviously happened. Frederick was involved before he was escorted away. Frederick was later taken from the island via helicopter. The sudden departure raised questions for Cary who was concerned about what might have happened. Production kept the details completely secret. Cary asked Chris what happened, and his response was cryptic. He did reveal that Frederick had been disqualified from the competition. Cary had retrieved Frederick’s crown and expensive watch and the monetary value of the items won the challenge for his team.

Herman, one of Cary’s fellow competitors from Total Drama Reality, entered the game as a replacement for Frederick. Cary and Herman seemed to reconcile, only for it to be revealed that Herman mistook Cary for his twin. He still held ire for Cary, however. Brent also revealed his disdain for Cary, and that he had yet to forgive him. Cary admitted that he felt he deserved the comments.

Cary spoke with Tamira after he startled her by using her cabin’s window as a mirror to apply eye cream. She recommended using the caffeine in tea bags to help his dark circles. After she slammed the window on his hand, she dressed his wound. He asked her what happened between her and Frederick. She admitted to not knowing, but to speak with Yuko who seemed to observe the situation. When he spoke with her, she mentioned her code to not report what she saw. He urged her that someone’s reputation was on the line and that she had the responsibility to share what she saw if it was serious. Yuko assured him that she would think about it.

During the dunk tank challenge, Cary was chosen to throw a ball to dunk Tamira into a tank of water. He hit the targets twice, all while Tamira begged him not to drop her into the water. As she pleaded, Cary ultimately decided not to throw the last ball. Ultimately, his team lost the challenge. Cary survived the vote, however, since several other contestants also did poorly in the challenge.

That night, Cary admitted in confessional that he felt responsible for Angelo’s elimination, feeling it should have been him. Cary sobbed. He went to shower alone late at night, only for his clothes to be stolen by LeVar and Herman, and replaced with a pink dress. After realizing he was trapped inside the locker room, the barricade was removed. When Cary emerged, he was doused by maple syrup that was propped above the door as everyone witnessed, and mostly everyone laughed.

As the challenge proceeded, Cary was forced to remain in the syrup covered dress. Despite this, he remained positive and cheered for his teammates. Zoe defended Cary, and shamed the unknown culprits. Despite protestation from LeVar, Herman admitted to being responsible for the prank on Cary. He apologized to Cary, and reprimanded Cary when he assured that he felt his treatment was deserved. LeVar still stated that if he had his way Cary would be leaving the game on a stretcher.

After a shocking, near miss when a sign almost injured Quimbery, the contestants were shocked to find Cary unconscious on the floor. It seemed like LeVar was the culprit. When footage of the incident was reviewed, it looked like LeVar punched Cary. This was accompanied by incriminating comments from LeVar that he assured were not actual threats. Cary was brought to receive medical attention while LeVar was disqualified from the competition.

Dirk visited Cary while he was in the medical tent. He says that the nurse had asked him to bring Cary’s things. He was surprised to learn that he had a black eye. His injuries were not serious, however. Cary also seemed concerned when Dirk commented on his frat brothers prancing him. Once alone, Cary received a shirt as a present from Herman, as well as an apology letter. Cary wore that shirt when joining the others in the cafeteria, however he sat by himself at an empty table. During the challenge when Skylar froze, Cary got emotional when assuring him that he wasn’t letting the team down.

Anders was able to pinpoint that their was still friction between Brent and Cary. Cary confided that he sensed that Herman had forgiven him, but not Brent. Anders took matters into his own hands by running with Cary and Brent tucked under his arms, forcing them to talk. Brent seemed agitated with Cary’s constant positivity and self deprecation. Brent was able to reconcile with Cary after recognizing that his vivid memories of Cary were different from the current Cary. Afterward, Cary sensed something was bothering Anders, which Anders denied.

During the challenge, Cary seemed concerned that Anders was taking too much upon himself when he volunteered to literally carry three of his team members. After Anders dropped Cary, and Brent and Herman, the structure they were on fell apart. Brent rescued Cary from falling off. After being safe, Anders confided in Cary that he put on muscle because he felt unworthy of his girlfriend, Francesca. Cary attempted to comfort him, but sobbed along with him.

Hedda returned to the show to provide gossip for a challenge where the contestants would receive points for sitting through a secret of theirs that they could press a red button to prevent Hedda from finishing their secret. Even though she tried to speed through Cary’s secret, he pushed his button very fast. This annoyed his team, because he only selected a secret worth one point. Later, when an image of a heavily injured Dirk was revealed, Cary asked if it was his frat brothers who hurt him. Dirk refused to answer, but Cary assured he would be there for him if he wanted to talk.

After the challenge, Cary requested information from the outside world that he and the other contestants were not privy to. He asked about Frederick, if there was any news about him. Hedda revealed that his mother passed away. She also revealed a rumor that Frederick was going to be disinherited, and that the family fortune would be left to his estranged adoptive brother, Brad. This cleared up the reason he was evacuated.

At the elimination, Cary was voted out after protesting about Isaiah being voted out, who just returned to the competition. It turned out to be a four person elimination. On the Boat of Losers, Cary was surprised when Brent had trouble zipping his raincoat above his pecs.

## Trivia

* Though never explicitly stated in Total Drama: Worst of the Worst, Cary is an empath. He is meant to be in tune with people’s emotions, often having a hard time not crying when around an emotional person, and stating that he senses how somebody feels. While I consider him not being fully aware of his being an empath, he does realize that he is sensitive when it comes to other’s emotions.
* After deciding to make Cary an empath, I watched Australian Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn, which featured a player named Cara who also is an empath. Ironically, their names are very similar. I used Cara as a little bit of inspiration for Cary, particularly in his sensing something was wrong with Anders. Cara bonded with her new tribe after being swapped by using her abilities to sense details about her tribe mates lives. Overall, Cara is one of the most unique players I have seen in Survivor, as she put others before herself to an extent still unseen by any other player, except maybe Janu in Survivor: Palau.
* Cary is insecure about his appearance. This was why he prefers showering alone.
* The scene of Cary getting maple syrup doused over him while wearing a pink dress was a reference to Carrie. It sincerely did not occur to me that Cary is a homophone of Carrie until after writing the scene.
* The scene was also meant to show that Cary was being tormented, kind of like how he treated some of his competitors in Total Drama Reality. He felt it was deserved, which was meant to be sadder than if he reacted by becoming mad or sad.
* In the image with the syrup, Cary’s hair being down is meant to resemble Grant. The syrup is also called ‘It’s Gonna Be Maple’, a reference to ‘It’s Gonna Be Me’ by N\*SYNC.
* Cary gives himself a pep talk in Tank U, Next. It references a line from The Neutron Dance by The Pointer Sisters, as well as the band The Human League.
* I had intended to include a storyline about Cary liking his face paint so much, and Tamira giving him makeup tips. Cary would become more satisfied with his appearance after starting to wear makeup. I attempted to add makeup to Cary’s image to test it, but could not get it to look right. I was also going to show him wearing his face paint for several days. This storyline was hinted at as Cary looked at his reflection in the facepaint and felt his face.
* Cary’s costume from the fashion show was based on the Pokémon Entei, and wrestler The Ultimate Warrior, it was not pictured in the story, however.
* Cary has a tattoo on his wrist that reads ‘Grant’. This was meant to be placed there as a motivation for Cary not to self harm.
* In the gossip challenge featuring Hedda, the secret Hedda was going to reveal was that Cary was homeless at some point after Total Drama Reality, and slept on a park bench, or some such thing.
* Also in the gossip challenge, I had originally written it for Cary to offer Hedda to reveal his five point level secret for information about Frederick. It was going to be a video of Grant and Sheena’s wedding, where a drunken Cary would make a speech and embarrass Grant and get thrown out. This felt far too dark after rereading it so it was hinted at, though not necessarily canon, now. This was also a factor in his elimination, where his team members would be upset that he gained no points in the challenge only to get his worst secret revealed for personal gain.

## Gallery

An unused image of Cary in his face paint from the runway challenge.