Dodgebrawl

**"Dodgebrawl"** is the fourth episode of the first season of *Total Drama* .

*“Go, team, go.”*
―Noah sarcastically
The two teams participate a five round game of dodgeball, the Screaming Gophers lead victory, until the Killer Bass has Duncan taking charge, when Harold is the last person standing, he wins the challenge for his team, meanwhile, Noah doesn't want to participate, leading to his elimination.

## Plot

The episode opens with the two teams gathered in the main dining hall, where quite a few of the campers still show signs of fatigue from the previous episode's Awake-A-Thon challenge. The Killer Bass are especially tired, due to Harold's snoring keeping them up all night. Harold enters, sporting a drawn mustache on his face, which he likes, followed by Gwen, who slumps onto the nearest table. Meanwhile Heather gives Beth and Lindsay a review of the alliance rules, explaining that she is allowed to use anything belonging to them, but her stuff is strictly off-limits. Lindsay tries to object to this, but is silenced when Heather threatens to kick her out of the alliance. Heather proceeds to mock the Killer Bass for losing two challenges in a row, causing Courtney to fling some oatmeal at her, but she dodges, and it hits Gwen in the face instead. Chris tells the campers the next challenge begins in ten minutes.

The two teams gather on a court with clear, glass walls. Duncan, still exhausted from the last challenge, collapses on one of the bleacher rows and threatens that if his team wakes him, there will be dire consequences. Courtney blames Harold's snoring for Duncan's bad mood, but he loudly proclaims it as a medical condition. Chris explains that the teams will be playing the classic game of dodgeball and explains the rules, with Chef Hatchet as referee. The Screaming Gophers have to sit out one person per game along with Gwen, and Noah immediately volunteers. Before the first round starts, Heather exchanges insults towards the opposite team. The round starts, and Cody throws a dodgeball at Tyler. Over-hyped in his abilities, he attempts to throw a ball back, but accidentally hits Sadie on his team's bench, and soon after, Owen knocks Tyler out of the game.

Harold attempts to use his martial arts skills to throw his dodgeball, but with no muscle power behind his throw, it doesn't reach Leshawna, his intended target. Leshawna easily throws the same ball back at Harold, getting him out. Katie knocks Lindsay out of the round, and Tyler flirts with Lindsay, which Heather sees and angrily throws a dodgeball that hits him in the groin. Courtney scolds Heather for doing this, even though Tyler is out, and retaliates by throwing a dodgeball in her direction, but it's caught by Owen, eliminating Courtney. Near the end of the round, after eliminating Leshawna, DJ and Katie corner Cody, the only Gopher standing. However, Cody proves to be an expert dodgeball player by making the ball work like a boomerang to take out DJ by surprise, then by rubbing the dodgeball on his shirt to generate static electricity, guiding the ball to hit Katie. The Screaming Gophers win the first game in a best three out of five.

Courtney believes Tyler isn't worth having on the court, due to his poor aim. However, he convinces her and the rest of his team he could do well if they gave all the balls to him. The rest of his team agrees to these conditions and let him hold all the balls. However, Tyler doesn't fare any better than before, and all the balls he throws fly out of control, nearly hitting Chef, Chris, and the Gophers who are on the bench. The last one finally hits a player on the Gopher team, but it is Lindsay. Tyler cries out and rushes to help her, but Lindsay's face is covered in bruises from the dodgeballs he had thrown. Despite this, Tyler reassures that she doesn't look bad, and despite it being against the alliance rules, Lindsay agrees to go on a walk with him. Trent softly tosses a ball at Tyler to eliminate him from the game, and Tyler and Lindsay leave the court.

Suddenly, Owen, overcome with a sudden rage, takes dodgeballs out of his teammates' hands and knocks out every single Bass player on his own, earning his team their second win. In the confessional, he admits he didn't know what got into him. Heather points out to the Bass that the score is now 2-0, and if they lose the next game, they would lose the challenge and end up in yet another Campfire Ceremony. Courtney, determined to not let this happen, looks to Duncan to aid the team. Though afraid of his response upon waking up, the team nonetheless wake him up anyway, and inform him of their situation. Duncan questions why he should help, and Courtney points out that he would undeniably be eliminated next if their team lost the challenge. Duncan concedes, but only on the condition that everyone follows his orders.

Duncan implements his "Rush the New Guy" strategy, where everyone throws their ball at the same person, making it almost impossible for that person to escape.The Screaming Gophers are caught by surprise when Owen, their strongest player, is taken down by this strategy. With Owen eliminated, the rest of the Gophers are taken down easily, earning the Killer Bass their first win. Noah, having refused to participate at all in this challenge, criticizes his team and tells them to put in more effort. Heather becomes angry, not willing to let the Killer Bass strike back successfully the next time. She notices that Lindsay is still missing, goes off to find her, and sees her cuddling with Tyler under the boat dock. Furious at Lindsay for breaking alliance rules, Heather throws a canoe on Tyler then drags Lindsay back to the court. When Heather returns, she sees that her team is getting slaughtered again by Duncan's strategy. The Killer Bass win, tying up the scores, with the next round determining the winner of the challenge.

For the final game, Harold, tired of sitting out, begs to play, but Courtney adamantly refuses. The round carries on for a while, with numerous players rotating throughout the duration of the game. Eventually, Geoff, pitying Harold, allows him to take his place in the game, though Duncan instructs Harold to stay in the back of the court. Gwen nails Courtney in the face with a dodgeball, as revenge for the oatmeal earlier that day. The Gophers and Bass take each other out until it comes down to the last players, Owen and Harold. Believing this to be an easy win, the Gophers start cheering in victory. Owen hurls four dodgeballs at Harold, but Harold dodges them all, showing his expert reflexes. Amazed, Courtney calls for a time-out, and as they tend to him, Harold explains he had taken figure skating classes, hence his reflexes. Geoff compliments his talent, but reminds him that dodging isn't enough to win the game. Courtney concurs, and tells him it's best to catch the ball, since he can't throw it.

The game resumes, and Owen uses all of his strength to throw a single dodgeball at Harold. The force behind Owen's throw is hard enough to drive Harold into the glass wall, but as he slides down to the floor, he reveals having successfully caught the ball. The Killer Bass win the round, and the challenge, causing a shocked Owen to wail in defeat. The Bass carry off Harold in celebration while Chris questions how the Gophers could lose with such a big lead. Noah blames the loss on a weak effort by his teammates, which only further angers the other Gophers. At the Campfire Ceremony, Chris hands out marshmallows to eveyone except Lindsay and Noah, with the final marshmallow going to Lindsay. Upon realizing he has been voted off, Noah looks shocked, telling his team that they voted off the only person who had any brains.They respond by throwing all of their marshmallows at him, with an added insult from Leshawna. Unfazed, Noah takes his leave of the island. Chris acknowledges the less than dramatic bonfire ceremony, but brushes it off regardless.

## Characters

* Beth (*no lines*)
* Bridgette (*no lines*)
* Chef Hatchet (*no lines*)
* Chris
* Cody (*no lines*)
* Courtney
* DJ
* Duncan
* Eva (*mentioned*)
* Geoff
* Gwen
* Harold
* Heather
* Izzy (*no lines*)
* Justin (*no lines*)
* Katie (*no lines*)
* Leshawna
* Lindsay
* Noah
* Owen
* Sadie (*no lines*)
* Trent (*no lines*)
* Tyler

## Trivia

### General

* Heather is the only camper who is not seen being hit by a dodgeball.
* Katie is the only player shown on-screen playing dodgeball for all five matches.
* This is one of two episodes in the series to be referenced in the game show Jeopardy! along with Brunch of Disgustingness, during this game.
* The scene when Cody jumps in front of Gwen to save her from a dodgeball, which then hits him in the groin, is similar to later in the series, when Sierra shields Cody in Sweden Sour and later when Duncan shields Gwen in Saving Private Leechball.

### Continuity

* Noah becomes the second person never to earn a marshmallow with Ezekiel being the first.
* This episode marks the first time the Screaming Gophers lose and the first time the Killer Bass win a challenge.
* Owen and Gwen are the first two members of the Screaming Gophers to earn a marshmallow. Coincidentally, they are the final two in Total Drama Island.
	+ They are also the final two campers left on the Screaming Gophers in the final round.

### References

* The way Harold dodges Owen's balls in the fifth round is a reference to the film *The Matrix.*
* Chris states, "The first rule of dodgeball is..." to which Noah responds, "Do not talk about dodgeball?" This is a reference to the famous *Fight Club* quote.
* The way a few red and white stars flew around on a black screen while "POW!" sound effects played, after Owen was hit by four dodgeballs in a row, is a parody of *Tom and Jerry's* hit effect.
* Owen mentions *The Great Gatsby*, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, in the second round.
* DJ and Gwen both throwing the balls and hitting each other at the same time could be a reference to a scene in *Kill Bill.*
* Heather calls Gwen a Sleeping Beauty.

### Goofs

* At multiple times, the bleachers change directions.
* When Geoff lets Harold play in the last round, right when he hands him the ball, there is another ball right on top of Sadie's head. There is no explanation for it being there, even the possibility it might be the ball that Heather threw at Tyler's groin earlier.
* When people are cheering most of the time, Heather can be heard saying "We won!" even when no one wins, or only the Bass have something to cheer about.
	+ There is even a moment when the shot cuts to scowling Heather while her voice can still be heard cheering.
* When Harold attempts to hit Leshawna with a ball, Courtney's hair is longer and angled downward.
* Harold's sideburn disappears when he slides into the wall of the court.
* When the Killer Bass decide they need to wake up Duncan, Courtney tells Harold that aside from Trent, he is the worst at dodgeball. As Trent was on the other team, Courtney should have said that it was Tyler that was the worst, not Trent.
	+ This goof does not appear on the Netflix version of this episode.
* At the beginning of the campfire ceremony, Heather has her hair in a ponytail. However, when she goes to get her marshmallow, her ponytail is gone.
* During the Campfire Ceremony, Noah is initially sitting to Justin's left. However, when Justin is called to get his marshmallow, the seat to his left is empty, despite Noah not having been called.
* When Owen and Harold go to face each other, the close-up of Owen shows three balls next to him and one in his hand. But when it closes out to the view of the entire court, he has four on the ground and one in his hand.
* Lindsay gets hit in the face with dodgeballs and her face gets lumpy and swollen. However, just before Tyler throws his last ball, her face is perfectly normal. Yet when the ball makes contact, it's swollen again.
* Right before the Screaming Gophers' bonfire ceremony, when the Killer Bass are congratulating Harold for winning the challenge for them, Bridgette wasn't seen.
* If one looks closely when the Gophers are all walking away from Noah after the game is over, Leshawna is briefly seen walking on air before stepping off the bleachers.
* At two points in the episode, the hair under Katie's ear disappears.
* When the Gophers are walking away from the bleachers towards the end of the episode, the lines on Lindsay's skirt are vertical instead of horizontal.
* When Gwen is hit with the oatmeal during breakfast, her bangs are missing.
* When Katie and DJ glare at Cody, Katie's eyebrows are missing.
* After the Killer Bass huddle up, Tyler is seen with four dodgeballs and the Screaming Gophers with three, even though they started with only six balls.
* Several of Duncan's piercings disappears several times throughout the episode.
* The symbol on Tyler's jacket inverts several times throughout the episode.
* Noah's undershirt behind his collar disappears many times throughout the episode.
* During and after the scene when Harold arrives with his mustache, Leshawna and Izzy are missing from the Gopher's table.
* On Netflix, the episode is titled "DodgeBrawl", with a capital "B".
* Chris tells the Screaming Gophers that they will have to sit one person out each round, despite them actually being two campers ahead of the Killer Bass. Additionally, only five players compete in each round, thus rendering Chris's instructions useless.
* When the Killer Bass cheer after knocking out Owen, DJ and Geoff can be seen floating backwards in the last few frames.
* Izzy is seen with the incorrect number of wristbands several times throughout the episode, from having two wristbands on each arm (when she and the rest of the Gophers are shocked at Harold's dodging abilities) to having none at all (when she is declared safe during the elimination ceremony)