Jo and Lightning

This article focuses on the interactions between Jo and Lightning.

Overview
In Total Drama: Revenge of the Island Jo and Lightning were originally on opposite teams, and thus had little to no interaction. However, once Jo switched to the Toxic Rats in Runaway Model, she and Lightning started to have more interaction. Initially, they seemed to have a friendship (although it is mainly one-sided on Lightning's side), however both of them often clashed over the leadership of their team. Additionally, Jo was irritated by Lightning always mistaking her for a boy (a running gag of the season). After the merge, the two would still team up for a brief moment, only for Jo to betray Lightning, leading to a bitter rivalry. Their conflict culminated in the struggle for Cameron's loyalty, with Lightning trying to encourage Cameron, who was constantly bullied by Jo, to stand up for himself. Together, they managed to vote off Jo in Up, Up And Away In My Pitiful Balloon.

Jo and Lightning both returned for Total Drama All-Stars, and their conflict came with them as they were placed on the same team. However, the reunion did not last long, as both are eliminated by the third episode.

Bigger! Badder! Brutal-er!
When Jo beat Lightning to the finish line, she sarcastically apologized to him for losing to a girl. For the first time in the season, Lightning got Jo's gender wrong, insisting that he didn't lose to any girl.

Ice Ice Baby
When Lightning and Jo were climbing a mountain, Jo told Lightning that he'd lose to a girl, again. Just like in Bigger! Badder! Brutal-er!, Lightning got Jo's gender wrong again, insisting he wouldn't lose to a girl.

Backstabbers Ahoy!
Jo shot Lightning with a seagull making him pass out in the process.

Runaway Model
When Jo switched to the Toxic Rats and declared it to be her team, Lightning was excited that "team dude" would remain all dudes, once again thinking that Jo was a guy. In response, Jo poked his eyes and told him to go see an optometrist.

A Mine Is a Terrible Thing to Waste
Despite Jo's annoyance with Lightning constantly thinking that she was a guy, she decided to form an alliance with him, with their first goal being to eliminate Brick. When the contestants arrived at the mine, Lightning reiterated that he was on an all-guys team. In response, Jo asked if he was blind and was about to tell him that she was really a girl before Chris threw a backpack at her and cut her off. Just as the Rats arrived at the elevator first and Lightning cheered triumphantly, he caused a cave-in that covered himself and his other two teammates, which angered Jo. Later, after Lightning caused Brick to drop the fireflies, he and Jo ran off to chase them down, with Jo eventually catching them by shoving the jar onto Lightning's head to trap them and making fun of him for it. When Jo thought she was going to die without ever kissing a guy, Lightning said that he wouldn't judge her (still thinking that she was a guy). At the mine cart ride out of the toxic mine, Jo was holding onto Lightning both looking very scared. Their team went on to lose, and they both voted Brick off.

The Treasure Island of Dr. McLean
When Lightning was still sound asleep on the raft, apparently dreaming that he had just won the Super Bowl, Jo woke him up by kicking him off the raft and into the water. Later, when she ordered Lightning to start paddling, he questioned who made her the boss, only for Jo to say that if he didn't row, he wouldn't be captain of their "rowing team." This caused Lightning to start rowing, regardless of being bossed around. Later, when they were attacked by the giant squid, Jo repeatedly hit Lightning in the face with their raft's mast, even though she was trying to hit the squid instead.

Grand Chef Auto
In the confessional, Jo decided that, despite the merge, she would keep Lightning around for a little while longer just to intimidate the others. When Lightning found the first key and ran off with it, Jo was annoyed that he didn't give it to her, saying that the spoils should go to the boss. She started reconsidering her decision to keep Lightning around, saying that he might have outlived his usefulness. Later on in the challenge, when Lightning finally managed to bend open the bars on their prison door, Jo sacrificed him to save herself by kicking him right into Fang's jaws, distracting Fang and allowing her to get to a go-kart first. When Lightning thought that he had won the challenge, he instantly declared that he wanted to eliminate Jo, only to find out that he did not win the reward since he defiled Mount Chrismore. At the elimination ceremony, when the real winner, was about to make his decision, Lightning insisted that he must choose Jo, calling Jo a "rat."

Up, Up And Away In My Pitiful Balloon
Throughout the episode, Jo and Lightning's conflict continued out of a new common goal: Both were fighting for Cameron's loyalty in an alliance first, as his brains proved useful in the challenge. At the very beginning, Lightning tried to ask Cameron for help in building a helicopter before Jo swiped him up and told Lightning to "get your own nerd." Jo initially had the tighter grip on Cameron at the beginning, forcing him to build a hot-air balloon for her, convincing him to make a sabotage attempt against Lightning and his vehicle (which failed), forcing him to make a fake confessional in which he was grateful for Jo's help, swiping his fog machine from him after he won the first half of the challenge, and ordering him to shield her from Heather's attacks during the challenge. Lightning, however, kept trying to convince Cameron that Jo was playing him and only taking advantage of him for the time being, apparently more determined to help Cameron specifically rather than gain his own alliance with him. Ultimately, Cameron decided that Lightning was right and betrayed Jo by detonating a bomb he had placed in the fog machine, causing her hot-air balloon to catch fire and crash. At the elimination ceremony, Chris declared that Jo had been eliminated after receiving two votes against her, with those two votes most likely coming from Cameron and Lightning. Before getting catapulted off the island, Jo called Lightning an idiot for failing to realize that she was a girl the entire time, much to his shock. She yelled "In your face, Lightning!" before she was hurled away.

Brain vs. Brawn: The Ultimate Showdown
Initially, Jo refuses to support either Cameron or Lightning but after being forced to by Chris, Jo chooses to support Lightning, being the only person to do so. She shows disappointment when Lightning lost in Cameron's ending. In Lightning's ending, Jo complains that she should have won the million since she led both finalists to the end.

Heroes vs. Villains
While Jo pushes the cart with Lightning in it, they decide to form an alliance until the merge. Even with him already learning of Jo's gender, he continues to call her male, though he could have either forgotten or just didn't care.

Evil Dread
While Heather and Jo are clashing with each other for leadership roles for the challenge, Lightning tells them that nobody tells him what to do, while digging in the water for pieces to the statue. Also, when Lightning miscounts how many pieces they needed to build the statue of Big Ben Tower for his team, when they're missing a piece he tries to substitute it with a crab and accidentally collapses their tower. Jo becomes very annoyed at his stupidity and insults him. During the Campfire Ceremony, Jo and Lightning are the bottom two, seeing who would get the last marshmallow. It is revealed by Chris that Jo campaigned to get Lightning eliminated, shocking him in the process. In the end, Jo receives the last marshmallow, Lightning becomes shocked as he is sent to the Flush of Shame. He then berates his team for voting off "their strongest player" and swears revenge on Jo as he is flushed away.



Saving Private Leechball
During the challenge, Jo is the last member of her team still standing. In anger, she states that she's been then the rest of her team and also states that voting Lightning off wouldn't be a good idea. Suddenly, a pre-recorded message from Lightning pops up, taunting Jo for her mistake. In response, Jo angrily destroys the video screen.

Trivia

 * Both are athletic and competitive.
 * Both are the only Total Drama All-Stars participants to not have been involved in a relationship or attraction at any point in the series.