User blog comment:Gogogadget831/Every Episode of Total Drama Reviewed: Episode 96 - Saving Private Leechball/@comment-31556666-20150815123021

I agree with most of this review, but I personally found the team switch to be a good one. It gave Duncan a pretty good plot, at least for the time it lasted, and Courtney joining the Villains made sense considering all  the characters on that team she's previously majorly interacted with.

You complained Courtney was ooc when Jo was hunting in the cave but I honestly disagree. Jo was facing right towards her with a much more powerful weapon. There was no way Courtney could overpower that. It was villainous what she did, but I wouldn't call her out of character.

A problem I'm surprised you didn't bring up was Jo though. Sure for most of this episode she stood out well, and she's one of the many AS contestants to be eliminated at the completely wrong time. However, she was slightly OOC when she used no logical thinking when firing her cannon, shooting Scott. The real Jo is much more precise when she shoots. Look at her precision in Backstabbing Ahoy. I wouldn't call this massively ooc since it's supposed to be a moment that implies Jo is not a team payer, but there was better ways to go about this. Jo's my second favorite character, so needless to say I was dissapointed.

Other negatives I found with the episode were, as you said, the many pointless moments. In a challenge like this, I don't really think padding is necessary. The filler heavily ruined what could've been one of the better challenges of the season. A few characters could've been interesting to watch when it comes to shooting, but were shot too soon. These included Scott, Alejandro, and Heather. All three were shot right at the beginning of the challenge 3-0, and as a result, the Villains losing became really predictable. There was no reason to just randomly drop people out of an episode like that.

In place of creating a long and interesting challenge, there's some moments that, while admittedly interesting to watch the first time around, look completely unnecessary now. On Villains, you have half of the team fighting over Gwen's trust. There's multiple ways to conclude this, and it really made me think those four would last at least another 3 or 4 episodes fighting over Gwen. Villains have the type of padding where things are just set up only to never really resolve. Heroes may not have this, but their type or filler is just as bad. There's pretty needless one - note things that happen to Heroes, most notably from Sam being annoyingly repetitive. The fact that he lasted longer than Jo is just hard for me to even word properly.

And why, why oh why, was Jo eliminated? I didn't want to believe it. I said to myself; no way is that leak true. Because come on, guys. Look at how much Jo was doing throughout her stay. What's the point of dropping her early when the likes of fillers like Sam,  Sierra, and Cameron are still there.

The episode also dissapointed me in regard to the fact that Brick didn't cameo. Why?!?! Chris was wearing a soldier helmet and using soldier terms. Plus they planned Brick for the season so this could've been a way to make up for that. He would've livened up a challenge too, even a rushed one.

As you can see, most of my grievances from this episode are to do with wasted potential. There was so many better ways to make the episode. That said, I can't really call this one bad. Though the pacing was rushed as all hell, the activity going on in the challenge was kind of fun for me to watch. And some moments are genuinely great character moments, like when Duncan took a leech for Gwen while referencing Dodgebrawl too. I liked most jokes too. Lightning still lightened up an episode fantastically in one simple moment despite being eliminated. Scott shooting a cameraman on Gwen's orders was an unexpected and funny moment. And Heather screaming "Avenge me!" was great on so many levels.

The biggest problem with the episode are also surprisingly it's biggest assets for me. There may be pointless moments filled with wasted potential, but those moments were some of the most interesting parts to watch. Filler jokes may be omnipresent, but some of them really made me laugh. The challenge may be rushed, but its energy never let me down. The episode is a big mixed bag for me on all levels.

6/10