Camp Castaways

**"Camp Castaways"** is twenty-third episode of the first season of *Total Drama*.

*“Don't worry, Mr. Cocnut, your soft flaky marrow is safe with me.”*
―Owen
After ending up in a deserted island, the four campers have to survive on the island, meanwhile, Chef and Chris spend time hanging out, on the island, Owen makes friends with a coconut. But in the end, Mr. Coconut is "eliminated".

## Plot

It's raining at Camp Wawanakwa as the episode opens to Chris. He says that it was a hard thing to pull off, but somehow, the production crew managed to create rain, as Chris figured the remaining campers were getting off way too easy with all the nice weather. He becomes angry after almost getting hit by lightning. At the cabins, Duncan, Gwen, and Heather are lounging around. Gwen and Heather are naturally getting on each other's nerves, while Duncan is whittling a stick and enjoying their bickering, saying it gives him the "warm fuzzies", which causes Heather to call Duncan a "perv". Gwen then glares at Heather, causing Heather to remind her that pouting won't bring Leshawna back. Chris speaks over the loudspeakers and gives the weather forecast as "rain, rain, and more rain, followed by rain". Also, he announces that tomorrow's activities are canceled in favor of going to the craft tent. Duncan comments that even Owen couldn't find anything positive about this weather, when he suddenly notices that Owen is unaccounted for. Owen, however, is in the confessional, joyous that he made it to the final four. He admires the other three for being good campers and suggests they have a trust thing between them. He then says he hopes Chef doesn't find out about him raiding the pantry. Owen stops himself from saying any more and wonders what it is about the confessional that makes him want to confess things.

The other three campers head off to bed. During the night, the rain begins to wash bits and pieces of the camp away. The next morning, the rain has stopped and Chef rings the breakfast bell, but no one responds. Chris drives up to the main lodge to ask Chef if he's seen the campers and he says no, which is a shame, since he peeled a bag of rotten potatoes for them. Chris looks around and notices that not only are the campers missing, but so are their cabins. Chris suggests a meal, which Chef questions if he actually wants to eat "this slop", referring to the potatoes. Chris corrects himself, saying they should go to craft services, which Chef agrees to. In the cabin, Duncan wakes up and leaves his cabin, only to walk right into the middle of Lake Wawanakwa. Just beyond him are Gwen and Heather, sleeping in their bunk bed, only to wake up and rolling out into the water. The three have little time to consider their plight when they see freshwater sharks circling them, and race to the boys' cabin, just in time to see the bunk bed getting eaten.

All this time, Owen is still in the confessional, talking about how he once ate the soccer team's entire bake sale and his mom made him pay for it, as he was caught, due to the icing in his hair. Recounting the tale makes Owen hungry, so he tries to leave the confessional, only to discover that it is floating in Lake Wawanakwa. The cabin eventually grounds on an island and the campers have varying theories to their plight; Duncan figures that a rescue team will come looking for them shortly. For Gwen, she believes that the "stupid" producers of the show won't come looking for them. For Heather, she thinks it's just another one of Chris' sick challenges. Heather kicks a rock to prove it's just a prop, but she only succeeds in hurting her foot. In a confessional tape, Chris reveals that it is a set, but that the rocks are real, the campers are on their own and no search party is coming for them. Chris and Chef reconvene at another campsite on the same island the others are stranded on.

The confessional booth has landed on a shore and Owen runs out to the beach he's landed on with joy, but stops when he comes across the gaping jaw of a T-Rex skull. In shock, Owen returns back to the safety of the confessional booth. Meanwhile, Duncan and Gwen argue over whether to stay put or build a raft and leave. Heather goes off and locates a tree house. When she checks it out, she sees a skeleton in front of her, causing Heather to falls to the ground. When she backs up, she finds the same T-Rex skull Owen found, scaring her again. For Owen, his fear is eventually overridden by his stomach as he sees coconut palm trees on the beach. He goes over and starts eating coconuts until there is one left. He starts talking to himself, and then to the coconut, which he calls Mr. Coconut.

Duncan, Gwen, and Heather argue over the skeleton and continue to believe what they originally thought. Eventually, they go their own ways. Duncan uses a bow and arrow he made to hunt, Gwen tries to make a raft to escape, and Heather moves into the tree house. Duncan fires his one and only arrow into the air and it flies until it hits Mr. Coconut, which leads Owen to believe that the island is inhabited by "headhunters". Duncan has no idea where his arrow went, making a mental note to make more than one arrow next time and switches to hunting with his knife, cutting up a voracious pack of wild bananas. Duncan collects a giant fruit salad of food and also discovers a nest with a large egg in it. When he returns, Duncan finds Heather eating a chocolate bar, one from Owen's stash that she discovered. Duncan wants her to share, but she dismisses him, telling Duncan it's every camper for themselves, pointing out that they are alone on the island, when a loud roar is heard in the background.

Owen also hears the roar and cowers in the confessional. It turns out that Chef is making the noise by blowing a conch shell as a signal that brunch is served for the staff. Gwen finishes her raft and Duncan trades her the egg for a place on the raft, leaving Heather behind. Now completely alone, Heather is terrified, making a confession in which she apologizes to Lindsay and Beth over how she treated them. Owen leaves the confessional, now dressed like a long time ship wrecker complete with a tattered piece of loincloth, a huge beard that grows, and brandishing a plunger as a weapon. He goes off to take the fight to the headhunters; instead, he finds the tree house and a terrified Heather, who tries to beat him off by throwing chocolate bars at him. The chocolate brings Owen back to his senses, and Heather is relieved to find a familiar though bearded face.

On the raft, Gwen paddles in a large circle, ending up back on the island. As she comes back to the island, she sees the leftovers from Owen's coconut feast, believing that the island isn't deserted after all. Having failed to get off the island, Duncan reclaims his egg from Gwen. However, a large pterodactyl flies overhead and swoops down to pick up Duncan. Gwen ties a rope around his ankle and is pulled up into the air with Duncan. After flying around for a minute, they are dropped back to the ground just outside the tree house; reuniting the four stranded campers. While Owen gives everyone a big group hug, a large python falls down from the trees, forcing the campers to retreat to the tree house.

At the other campsite, Chris is wondering what the campers are doing right now. Chef comments that anything could have happened by now: mauled by bears, fell off a cliff or starved to death. Worried about a potential lawsuit, Chris decides to check the cameras, prompting Chef to commend Chris for his dedication and being an inspiration. Back in the tree house, the campers are contemplating whether they are going to die here; so Owen suggests that they should confess their sins to clear their conscience. During confession, Duncan reveals what got him into juvenile detention, which isn't as bad as what Heather did, and while a bit unorthodox, even that wasn't as bad as what Gwen did, "if that is her real name". After the confession, Owen sees smoke out in the woods; the campers decide to take up arms and attack whomever is messing with them, but first, they have to deal with the python waiting outside, so Owen throws Mr. Coconut and knocks it out cold.

At the other camp, the campers charge in brandishing improvised weapons and decorated in war paint, scaring Chef, while Chris calmly welcomes to their formerly secret production camp. Heather is angry that Chris and Chef were living it up, while they were lost in the woods. The rain returns, and Chris and Chef retreat into their camper-trailer; Chris claims he would invite them in, but there's only room for six, even though there are exactly six of them, and leaves them out in the rain.

At the campfire ceremony, Chris goes over the challenge, and chews them out for splitting up, saying that four heads are always better than one; Owen corrects him by saying five, holding up Mr. Coconut. Chris then moves on to the marshmallows, only having four marshmallows on the plate. Duncan points out the mistake, due to there being four contestants, but Chris says the number is correct, handing them out to Heather, Duncan, Gwen, and Owen. To Owen's shock, it is Mr. Coconut who is eliminated. Owen refuses to let his coconut friend go, but Chris wrestles the coconut away while Owen cries and throws it down the Dock of Shame, telling Owen to get a grip, since it was frightening him. As Mr. Coconut floats away, Owen is heard yelling "Don't worry Mr. Coconut, I shall never let go!"

## Characters

* Beth (*mentioned*)
* Chef Hatchet
* Chris
* Duncan
* Gwen
* Heather
* Lindsay (*mentioned*)
* Owen
* Mr. Coconut (*debut*)

## Trivia

### General

* When Owen dances and talks about his "Owen gets jiggy" fantasies, the music in the background music is similar to that of the song *Lovin' Time* in Walk Like An Egyptian - Part 2.
* It;s quite possible that there was no actual challenge intended for the campers as Chris only mentions having arts and crafts for them to do for the day, in addition to no actual contestants being eliminated. While it is likely that Chris intended the campers to be cast away, he seems genuinely surprised by their absence in the beginning of the episode and taken aback by their ability to find him and Chef despite being on the same island.

### Continuity

* This is the first time that a character who had not competed previously in the show is eliminated. In this case, Mr. Coconut.
	+ This is also the first of only three times in the series that something or someone who is not an actual participant in the competition is eliminated. The second is the intern in Greece's Pieces, and the third is Dakota (as an intern) in Finders Creepers.
	+ However, since he is generally not considered to be an actual camper, then this is considered to be a non-elimination episode.
		- This is the third and final non-elimination episode in Total Drama Island. The others are Not So Happy Campers - Part 1 and Brunch of Disgustingness.
* This episode marks the first time that Owen has grown spontaneous and inexplicable facial hair.; in this case, he grows a beard. The second time this happens is in Monster Cash, when Owen spontaneously grew a mustache in the confessional. He grows a beard once again in Top Dog after getting lost in the forest for two days, although the volume of his beard is likely exaggerated.
* If one does not count recaps, this is the first episode in which Geoff and Leshawna do not appear.
* This is third episode that features all of the campers still in the competition using the confessional booth. The others are Wawanakwa Gone Wild! and Trial by Tri-Armed Triathlon.
* Gwen tells Heather that she should vote herself off. Gwen will do exactly this in the next season.

### References

* This episode has multiple allusions to the movie *Cast Away*. Examples include:
	+ Their names are nearly identical.
	+ It has a similar plot of getting lost on a deserted island.
	+ Owen's friendship with Mr. Coconut is extremely similar to *Tom Hanks'* character's relationship with *Wilson the volleyball* (they are both inanimate objects that are fairly round, with a red face painted on the front, and a small tuft of grass serving as hair. Both are the main cause of their owners' mental instability and they both are thrown into the sea at the end of the movie and episode).
* Chris' mention of a dinosaur movie called "Big Assic Park" is a reference the franchise *Jurassic Park*.
* Duncan's makeup closely resembles that worn by *Gene Simmons* of the Glam Rock band *KISS*.
* The conch shell that Chef uses to blow into and the campers dressing up as warriors and becoming practically savage by the end of the episode are possible references to the book *Lord of the Flies* by William Golding.
	+ This is the first of two references to this novel in the series; the second is in Top Dog.
* The roars given off by the pterodactyl are the same as the roars given by the giant monster Godzilla in the movie of the same name.
* The incident in the beginning with Gwen, Duncan, and Heather running out of the water is a direct reference to the *Scooby-Doo* cartoons, even using the same sound effect.
* In the elimination ceremony, Chris mentions valuable lessons the campers learned in the past day, similarry to what's done in *Survivor*. However, Chris mentions that before the elimination, whereas in Survivor it's done after the elimination.
* At the end of the episode, there is a reference to the movie *Titanic* when Owen tells Mr. Coconut that he "shall never let go".

### Goofs

* When the campers fall off of their beds and into the floodwater, Gwen's hair is dry even though her whole head was in the water a few seconds before. In the next couple of shots, her hair is visibly wet.
* Immediately after Owen and Mr. Coconut leave the confessional stall, Mr. Coconut is hit by Duncan's arrow, leaving holes in its sides. In all of the following scenes, Mr. Coconut has no visible damage.
* When Owen throws Mr. Coconut at the snake, Duncan and Heather have spears. However, when they are in the woods next to Chris and Chef's secret campsite, Heather has a plunger and Duncan has his bow and arrow.
* Owen says he never had a date or kissed a girl, however he and Izzy have kissed before when they were making out in the bushes before they were attacked by the "Psycho Killer" in Hook, Line, and Screamer.
* When Gwen and Duncan fall from the big flying goose, they fall on a palm tree, but in the next scene, they are seen falling in front of Owen and Heather, where there are no palm trees in the area.
* There are many times in this episode where Gwen's hair is not at its proper length:
	+ When she is sitting on the step of the cabin with Heather.
	+ When she stares at Duncan in shock after realizing why he went to juvenile prison.
	+ When Heather accuses her of "Gwen" not being her real name.

### Running Gags

* Owen running back into the confessional.
* Someone seeing Owen's beard, asking him why he has a fake beard, and pulling on it, hurting Owen.
* The campers all have a habit of saying "Note to self" frequently.