Dial M for Merger

'''The teams have been dissolved as the cast faces off in a spy challenge filled with lasers, explosives, bombs, and really bad accents! As one castmate trusts his previously reluctant brain throughout the challenges, another, who still seems to be shunned, successfully makes an alliance with two others. After the blackmail plot of a schemer gets foiled, two winners are declared and this earns them a trip that was not worth the effort.'''

Plot
The episode opens to Leshawna complaining about the show's disgusting food. She then notices the other six remaining contestants glaring at her. They are once again angry about Leshawna insulting all of them during her spa trip. Leshawna asks for at least her own team to support her, resulting in Harold sarcastically cheering her on by saying her name, with very little emotion. Leshawna sarcastically tells Harold not to strain himself, and that he might get wind burns from moving so fast. Duncan admits that he doesn't trust anybody anyway.

Lindsay attempts to get into the girls' trailer, but when she touches the door handle, a camera appears out of nowhere. It scans her face and then says "Intruder alert! Entry denied!" The stairs flip over and turn into a slide, sending Lindsay falling through a trapdoor into a pit in the ground. Duncan runs over to her, only to be shot in the neck with a tranquilizer dart, and falls into the pit himself. Courtney runs to Duncan's aid (calling him "Dunky" as she does so), and is knocked into the pit by a flying bowler hat that hits her in the head. Leshawna, Justin, and Beth run into the boys' trailer for safety, locking Harold out. Harold tries to find safety in the confessional, and in the process, talks about being worried that the producers are actually trying to kill the contestants. At that moment, an intern knocks him out with a nightstick. Justin worries about what happened to Harold. Beth becomes worried, but Justin tries to help her by telling her to focus on his beauty. She begins crying, making Justin think he's hideous. A gas bomb is thrown through a window, releasing gas that knocks out Beth, Justin, and Leshawna.

Everyone wakes up in a cave. Beth accidentally elbows Justin in the eye while getting up, giving him a black eye. After noticing this, Justin runs off to find ice for it. Justin sees his reflection in a mirror and once again thinks he's a hideous freak and that his modeling career is over. Courtney loses her personal digital assistant, but Beth finds it and gives to Courtney. Courtney accuses Beth of stealing it again. Chris appears on a projection and (in a poorly-imitated Jamaican accent) tells the castmates that the challenge is based on the spy movie genre. Chris says that the castmates will need to defuse a bomb, and jump from an exploding building. Courtney asks if anybody has experience with bombs, and Lindsay claims to, saying that she was in a musical in which the director said it "bombed."

Chris then announces that as of now the teams are merged and it's every castmate for themselves.They then manage to find a way out of the cave. Then a 6teen theme song parody comes on after Leshawna says they all have been through a lot together. The castmates try to find an exit and Justin finds one by accident. It leads to an elevator that leads to a fancy water tower. Chris then appears on a hologram screen and tells them they must get the bag in the glass at the center of the room. While they think it's easy it then shows that they also have to avoid the laser beams, which can slice them in half if they aren't careful. Leshawna, Harold, and Duncan finally decide to form an alliance during the challenge. Beth and Lindsay fight about how they got stuck between laser beams and Justin has some issues thinking only about himself. Courtney shows her flexibility by jumping around and sneaking under the lasers, something which earns her an admiring howl from Duncan, who stares at her butt while she slides below the lasers, and gets the bag. Once she gets the bag, she finds out that there are just wire cutters and a grappling hook in it. Leshawna then remembers that Chris mentioned jumping off of an exploding building and Chris begins the ten second countdown. Everyone begins to panic and hug each other, Courtney hugs Duncan, Beth hugs Lindsay, Leshawna hugs Justin, and Harold is in fetal position, alone. Chris then begins to laugh hysterically telling them it was just a joke. Unfortunately, he then begins the real countdown.

Courtney, being the only one with a grappling hook, offers the other players a quick escape, in exchange for half the prize money from whoever won the game. Although hesitant, the other castmates agree and Courtney gets them all out. The next challenge is disarming bombs (which are explosive timers tied to trash cans). Should anyone fail to deactivate their bomb, it will explode and cover them in smelly garbage. Courtney tries to contact her lawyers to get her the best disarming experts, but is unable to reach them. Lindsay decides to cut the blue wire (as it's the most fashionable one). Courtney is hesitant to trust her, but tosses her the cutters. Lindsay cuts the wire and successfully deactivates her bomb. The other castmates (in various ways) cut their blue wires. Lindsay's bomb is then deactivated after she cuts the wire. The castmates relax, until they realize they can still hear the ticking. The other bombs explode and Chris (from a safe distance) explains that the producers wouldn't program all the bombs the same way, as it would be too easy for the interns.

The castmates then bathe in a tomato juice pool to get the smell out (even though Lindsay defused her bomb, she was still hit by the other active ones). The castmates refuse to let Courtney join unless she calls off their obligation to split the prize money. Courtney weighs the options, and reluctantly agrees. Chris then tells Lindsay and Courtney that they've won a tour of a cheese factory. Courtney is unhappy, stating that she's lactose intolerant. Still unable to reach her lawyers, she sighs and dunks her personal digital assistant as well as herself in the pool of tomato juice.

General

 * The Killer Grips and Screaming Gaffers are merged in this episode.
 * Lindsay, Duncan, and Leshawna are the only contestants to make it past the merge in both Total Drama Island and Total Drama Action, without returning to the game after being eliminated.
 * This is the sixteenth episode of the show and the teams merge, whereas in the previous season, they merged in the fifteenth episode after a one-off "halftime show" rejiggering of the teams in the fourteenth episode. The teams merged later in season two, because Izzy and Courtney returned before the merge, whereas Eva and Izzy returned after the merge in Total Drama Island.
 * Leshawna, Harold, and Duncan form an alliance in this episode. Notably, Leshawna had once tried to form an alliance with the other in One Flu Over the Cuckoos.
 * The alliance ends up being dissolved due to Leshawna's elimination in the next episode.
 * The way Justin knocked on his head and talked to his brain in the confessional stall was very similar to the way Izzy knocked on her head and talked to her imaginary friend, Phil, in Masters of Disasters.
 * In this episode, Harold is knocked out while in the confession stall, yet earlier episodes suggest that confessions are made after the challenges. This suggests that cast can make their confessions anytime as long as they have access to the confessional.
 * Chris seems to favor Courtney in this episode, despite showing disdain for her in Ocean's Eight - Or Nine and One Million Bucks, B.C..
 * The bombs in this episode look similar to the one Cody had to defuse in Phobia Factor.
 * There are several foreshadows of Justin and Courtney's relationship in a future episode.
 * In the 6teen parody, Courtney has her hands around Justin's waist.
 * Justin jumps into Courtney's arms when the cast realizes there's a bomb.

Continuity

 * This is the first episode in the entire series in which Heather is neither present nor mentioned.
 * The music that played when Courtney was sliding under the lasers is the same music as when Cody arrived on the island in Not So Happy Campers - Part 1.
 * This episode reveals that Courtney is lactose intolerant, making her the second known contestant to be so. The first is Leshawna.

Goofs

 * The time on the bomb's countdown appears to be shorter than three minutes, though this is a common goof in cartoons.
 * The countdown in the building is also much longer than thirty seconds.
 * Even though the teams had dissolved, when Courtney and Justin are in the confessional, the Killer Grips' symbol is shown.
 * This is also the same with Duncan's confessional, when they show the Screaming Gaffers' symbol.
 * Assuming that the bomb-defusing challenge takes place on top of the same building that Courtney harpooned to:
 * The bombs are not seen when Courtney aims.
 * The harpoon is not seen during the challenge.
 * Courtney states that she is lactose intolerant, but in One Million Bucks, B.C., she is eating a lobster with Belgian chocolate, which contains milk.
 * However, she could've stated this because she didn't want to go to the cheese factory with Lindsay.
 * When Justin comforts Beth, his necklace is not seen.
 * When the contestants walk into the building, Justin's bruise from his eye disappears and is not seen for the rest of the episode.
 * Chris states that each of the seven bombs was wired differently to make it more interesting. However, each bomb had only three wires. Thus, this means that at least one other bomb would've been deactivated, in addition to Lindsay's.
 * When Justin is talking to his "Brain" in the laser room, when he blinks, one of his eyes turn beige.