Curse of the Mummified Dog

Curse of the Mummified Dog was an alleged curse that was "placed" onto DJ and the rest of Team Victory in Total Drama World Tour after he broke a mummified dog while he was in Egypt. It caused him to hurt at least one animal in every episode up to his elimination.

Overview
DJ supposedly "acquired" the curse in Walk Like An Egyptian - Part 1, after accidentally destroying a mummified dog while running through one of the Egyptian Pyramids of Giza. Over the course of the next few episodes, DJ continued to accidentally harm every animal that he came across, which ultimately led to the destruction of his confidence, and multiple challenge losses for Team Victory. Eventually, DJ became so overwhelmed with guilt and remorse for all of the harm that he had done over the season, he became eager to get out of the game, and attempted to throw challenges in order to be eliminated. However, all of his attempts failed and he was left as the last remaining member of Team Victory. The curse was supposedly lifted in Newf Kids on the Rock when DJ found a fish with an Egyptian symbol on its side, which he named Irene. By the end of Jamaica Me Sweat, however, DJ began to restore his belief in the curse and started hurting animals again when he discovered that Alejandro had lied to him about his curse being lifted, as Irene's symbol had been drawn on by him.

Leshawna was the first to suggest that the curse wasn't real and that it was all in DJ's head. Thus, the more he believed in it, the more real it would seem. This ultimately proved to be true, as when DJ thought the curse was lifted, he didn't harm a single animal, but when when he found out that it wasn't "lifted," he began hurting animals again. Also, after he was eliminated, he never harmed a single animal again. Thus, it was more or less proven that this curse was never real, and was just a figment of DJ's imagination.

Opening sequence
While the contestants are on the human pyramid, a seagull flies straight into DJ's face, foreshadowing his animal curse throughout the season.

Walk Like An Egyptian - Part 1
When DJ, Leshawna, and Harold enter the pyramid in the "Pyramid Over Under" challenge, they see a row of mummified animals while they are running through the hallway with the door marked with a scarab at the beginning. DJ stops and says that he feels sorry for the mummified dog and wants to give it a treat. He then pets it, and it crumbles into dust, beginning the supposed curse. DJ gets very nervous about "killing" the dog, which Leshawna dismisses. However, the breaking of the dog causes a large number of scarabs to emerge out of the walls and ceiling to attack them.

Walk Like An Egyptian - Part 2
In the beginning of the episode, DJ tries to stop Harold from using their team's stick as a jousting weapon. He grabs it from Harold's hand and throws it into the air, only for it to hit a seagull in the air and knock it to the ground, upsetting him. He talks in the confessional about how he loves animals and that this kind of thing would never happen back home. Team Victory ends up losing the first challenge due to Ezekiel losing the stick that they needed to finish the challenge, causing him to be voted off. This is Team Victory's first loss after the curse.

Super Happy Crazy Fun Time Japan
This episode has the first actual mention of the curse. In the "Human Pinball" challenge, Leshawna volunteers DJ to do the challenge. DJ is dead set against this because he has to be in the pinball with a panda bear and after destroying the mummified dog and hurting a seagull in the previous two episodes, he doesn't want to hurt any more animals. He reminds everyone of the curse that was set on him. He greatly exaggerates the story, though, imagining that both the dog and the pyramid exploded after he pet the dog. Leshawna reminds him that that isn't what happened at all and the dog just disintegrated, however, he still is unhappy about it. He does the challenge (albeit reluctantly) anyway. During the challenge, DJ badly injures the panda bear that he's in the challenge with, T'sing T'sing. He is visibly upset about this and even loudly declares that he wants to go home. At the end of the episode, Team Victory loses their second challenge in a row after DJ throws the commercial challenge, in hopes that his team would vote him off for it. T'sing T'sing appears in the confessional and votes for DJ, despite not being a contestant. Even DJ votes himself off due to guilt. DJ's plan almost worked, as he received a majority of the votes from his team. However, when DJ was supposed to leave, Harold quit the competition instead, sparing DJ.

Anything Yukon Do, I Can Do Better
DJ is pulling his sled for his team, but cries because he misses his mother. This causes his tears to freeze on his face and blind him during the challenge. He has no idea where he's going and tries to tell his team, but they don't hear him. While his eyes are shut, he keeps running and accidentally kicks a baby seal off a cliff. This devastates him and he wants to go back and help it, but Leshawna lies and tells him that the seal is climbing back up. DJ doesn't believe this until Lindsay makes a fake seal sound. The baby seal does eventually make it back up, but is very angry with DJ. Despite crossing the finish line first, Team Victory loses once again because Bridgette wasn't with them when they finished. DJ says the only way that he'll believe he isn't cursed is if he isn't voted off. Later, Bridgette was voted off instead of DJ, causing him to be convinced for a short time that he's not cursed.

Broadway, Baby!
When the contestants make it to turtle pond, DJ goes to go get the big apple from his team. But once he gets it, he is attacked by a large group of snapping turtles. He eventually escapes and gives Lindsay the apple. He notices a snapping turtle biting the back of his shorts and takes it off and tosses it in the water, but a larger snapping turtle surfaces and eats it. DJ is saddened and asks "Why?" Leshawna tells him that it's because he's cursed and that's why. Team Victory finally did not lose a challenge, instead, they came in second. But Chris reveals that it isn't an elimination challenge so they have no benefit of getting second place and are not satisfied.

Aftermath: Bridgette Over Troubled Water
In the "That's Gonna Leave a Mark" segment, T'sing T'sing is revealed to have cast his vote right before DJ. When DJ opens the confessional door, T'sing T'sing pounces onto DJ and attacks him by stamping his face with elimination stamps.

Slap Slap Revolution
In the beginning of the episode, DJ claims that he does not want to hurt any more animals and believes that he is still cursed. Leshawna says that DJ needs to pretend like the curse doesn't exist or it will never go away. DJ likes this idea, but his reassurance doesn't last long. A seagull sits on DJ's lap after Leshawna closes the hole on the plane. DJ tries to warn it about his curse, but the seagull continues to appear around him. After DJ falls out of the plane with the rest of the contestants, the seagull lands on his head. In the first part of the challenge, it accidentally gets caught in the meat grinder, leading DJ to believe that it dies. It makes it out alive, but is completely bald. The seagull throws meat at DJ's eye for revenge. After Team Victory finishes creating their sausage, they go down the snowy hill and Chris gets a dangerous and rabid baby goat to attack the contestants. DJ catches the goat as it lunges at him, reassuring it that he won't hurt it. However, after he says that, it is hit by a passing tree branch, and is knocked right out of DJ's hands, spinning around painfully on the branch and making DJ upset once again. However, doing this did result in the goat not harming anyone. Team Victory once again lost the challenge in this episode and eliminated Leshawna for losing the challenge just to take down Heather in the last challenge.

The Am-AH-Zon Race
After it starts to get dark in the Amazon, DJ feels insects crawling all over him, so he tries to shoo them off. He later finds out that he was hurting small monkeys that were attracted to the bananas that he and Lindsay won. He bandages each individual one that's hurt and tries to creep away while they sleep, but steps on a stick and wakes them up, resulting in all of the monkeys attacking him. Lindsay points out that the animals attacked him instead and they also won the challenge, meaning the "curse" may be lifting. However, nothing ended up changing in the competition, as the episode was non-elimination.

Exclusive clip
DJ is seen in the cockpit of the plane with Chris and Lindsay as he is flying the Total Drama Jumbo Jet as part of his team's reward. However, he crashes into several geese, visibly upsetting him.

Can't Help Falling in Louvre
Before the challenge starts, three animals are released to chase the contestants, one of them being the baby seal that DJ ran over in the Yukon, which begins to chase him. DJ then finds an Egyptian exhibit that contains the same mummified animals he saw in Egypt, and thinks his curse can end here. He leaves Lindsay alone, letting her do the rest of the challenge alone. He takes the mummified dog he found there, and plans to take it to Egypt and put it in the pyramid where the old one was. Even though he has no idea of how he would do this. On the way out of the museum, he is attacked by the seal (again), and accidentally crashes into the Sasquatchanakwa, and a vase falls in his head annoying him and Sasquatchanakwa starts to chase him. Later, DJ squashes the foot of the bear, causing it and the Sasquatchanakwa to crash, and chasing him again. Then all of them crash with the sculpture that Lindsay was near to complete, destroying it. The mummy dog is going to fall, which it does. However, Izzy catches it, which DJ breathes a sigh of relief for, but does so too soon, because right after, Izzy smashes the mummified dog onto the ground. Team Victory loses again and DJ wants to vote himself off, but Chris doesn't let this happen. DJ tries to lose the tie-breaker challenge, but does not, leaving him as the last remaining Team Victory member despite the fact that he doesn't want to be there. This may be an effect of the curse.

Newf Kids on the Rock
After landing the plane in water, Heather throws DJ the seat cushion she was clinging to so he would float. He refused to get into his boat, but is picked up by a killer whale. While on the whale, he accidentally pushes the cushion into its blowhole, causing it to struggle. The whale manages to fling DJ into the boat and also shoots the cushion out of its blowhole, which hits a passing seagull, the same one which had been affected by the curse in the past. Towards the end of the episode, Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot and DJ are left to do a challenge involving drinking apple cider vinegar, solving a Newfoundland saying, and kissing a cod. Heather points out the Egyptian symbol on the fish, telling DJ that it might break his curse. DJ won't do it at first, but Alejandro agrees with Heather and DJ winds up kissing the fish. After two hours of nothing bad happening to an animal, he believes his curse is broken and sides with Alejandro rather than Heather. Alejandro reveals at the end of the episode that he was the one that drew the symbol on the fish to trick DJ into thinking his curse was lifted.

Jamaica Me Sweat
DJ is convinced that he's not cursed anymore because he believed Alejandro and Heather's idea of kissing a cod with an Egyptian symbol on it breaks the curse. He names his fish that broke his bad luck "Irene." He takes Irene everywhere with him, even to the confessional, and this continues throughout the challenge. She almost gets hurt once, but DJ saves her, further convincing him that the curse is over. But later in the episode, Alejandro reveals that the Egyptian symbol on Irene's side was painted by him. He purposely says this to Tyler, hoping that DJ overhears him and he does. This causes DJ to panic, while Alejandro apologizes with fake sympathy. He leaves Irene behind when he does the third round of the "Bobsled of Death" challenge, to make sure that she is safe, but hurts three seagulls and a walrus in the middle of the challenge, causing him to lose and DJ was automatically eliminated because of it. After DJ landed in the sand from the plane after he was eliminated, a pile of red ants began to crawl up over his body, causing him to scream and run off. The fact that the curse only began again once DJ had realized Alejandro had lied to him leads to the conclusion that the curse was psychological and only had the power that DJ gave it, as Leshawna had mentioned at an earlier date.

Aftermath: Revenge of the Telethon
DJ appears as a guest during the aftermath after his recent elimination. So that Geoff can get donations for the show, he introduces a segment called "DJ's World of Animals." He shows scenes of DJ hurting animals during his time on the show. The first two are scenes from Super Happy Crazy Fun Time Japan when he hurt a panda bear and Broadway, Baby! where he hurt a turtle. Then previously unseen clips are shown. At one point, he knocks down a tree which lands on a bear going to the bathroom. He is also shown to accidentally crush two mice sleeping in his shoes when he steps on them. At one point he stops a squirrel in New York to give it something to eat and the homeless man from Celebrity Manhunt's Total Drama Action Reunion Special and What's Not To Love from Broadway, Baby! runs over it on his bicycle. In Newfoundland, DJ runs his boat into an iceberg with a polar bear on top. A helicopter then randomly falls on top of the polar bear. The seagull is shown to have gotten hurt by going into the propeller of the Total Drama Jumbo Jet when DJ released it into the air. The segment then ends and many of the animals that DJ had hurt before (such as the baby seal, baby goats, and the monkeys) are at the aftermath studio in cages. DJ almost pets the goat, but it roars and scares him away. When the donations get to a certain price, Blaineley releases the animals, which causes DJ to run away outside the studio. However, the animals do not chase after DJ, they instead attack everyone else, including the cameraman. After the commercial break, it is shown that they left the studio destroyed and everyone injured.

Trivia

 * This is the Total Drama World Tour counterpart of the tiki idol's curse in Total Drama Island, as the dog cursed DJ and Team Victory, while the tiki idol cursed Beth and the Screaming Gophers.
 * However, unlike the tiki idol's curse, this curse was never proven to be real.
 * Both curses were removed when the contestant who cursed the team was eliminated, as DJ was the last member of Team Victory to be eliminated.
 * The only animal he has handled without harming in Total Drama World Tour is his pet fish, Irene, which is seen in Newf Kids on the Rock and Jamaica Me Sweat, and then disappears after this, following DJ's own elimination.
 * In Can't Help Falling in Louvre, Izzy smashed the mummified dog but her team wasn't cursed, which means all of this was just in DJ's head.