Saving Private Leechball

'''The remaining contestants go to war with each other with a disgusting arsenal at their disposal. A villain tries to bring their team together while a hero acts as a coward in using others. While someone mysteriously loses his abilities, another stands in their place to win for their team. Ultimately, a terrible shot gets eliminated, former flames switch teams due to their behavior, and an unexpected hero takes an exile due to an identity crisis by another.'''

Plot
The episode begins with the Villainous Vultures in the loser cabin. While the males are complaining about its condition, on the girl's side, Jo and Heather are arguing about whose fault it was that they lost. Gwen, who is being kept awake, snaps at them, and in the confessional, worries that she sounded "villainous."

In the hotel, as the Heroic Hamsters are about to sleep, Sam's empty bed causes Cameron to wonder how he is doing on exile. The scene then shifts to Boney Island, where Sam is shown sitting on top of a tree with a group of bears below. He begins talking to a squirrel, which knocks him out of safety with an acorn.

Back at Camp Wawanakwa, in the middle of the night, Mal breaks Sam's Game Guy before reverting back to Mike. Mike is shocked to discover what he has done, and shoves the console back into Sam's bag before Cameron can wake up.

The next morning, while walking to the site of the next challenge, Heather and Jo each approach Gwen apologizing for their argument the previous night. They agree with her point of view that "teamwork is key," and Gwen accepts their peace offerings. In split confessionals, Heather and Jo then explain that they are both trying play Gwen into an alliance, knowing that Duncan will follow. Gwen is then shown saying that she knows what they are up to, but enjoys the power. Walking with Duncan, she spots Courtney glaring at her again, but unlike last time, cannot get him to do anything about it. He claims he is "blanking" her back for "blanking" him. Alejandro, aware of Heather and Jo's plans, tries to lure Gwen into an alliance of own. He hand-walks by her and states that he would've defended his girlfriend if someone were glaring at her. In the confessional, he is determined to win Gwen's loyalty so that he will be the only one Heather needs. Alejandro realizes his slip of the tongue and nervously adds, "And Jo. Heather and Jo."

The teams meet up with Chris as Sam arrives with Chef, beaten, bruised and hungry from his night on Boney Island. Cameron, Mike, Sierra, and Zoey reveal that they smuggled breakfast for him from the hotel, which he appreciates. Sierra asks Courtney what she brought him, who says that she wasn't told they were going to do such a thing. Chris then explains to the teams that the day's task is an homage to the war movie challenge from Total Drama Action. Contestants have to race to the heart of the forest to obtain the weapons needed, either slingshots or state of the art paintball guns. His parole not allowing him to use or be near paintballs, Chris has replaced them with leeches.

The Hamsters get a one minute head start for winning in the previous challenge. While waiting for their turn, Heather again argues with Jo, asserting that Lightning would have been useful in this challenge. Jo replies that the whole team voted him off. Later, Heather tells Gwen that she is impressed with her tactic of pretending to apologize to Courtney in order to defeat her. Gwen denies this, desperate for someone to believe that she never planned on hurting Courtney and that the flowers and garbage were accidents. Heather believes she is lying to hold up her strategy and agrees to play along. Chris then announces that the Vultures are now allowed to begin racing to the equipment.

Within the forest, an irritated Courtney rushes a struggling Sam and the rest of her team. Mike makes a confessional about how scary she can be, but is interrupted by a personality change. Mal laughs and tells the audience that he loves when things get scary. Mike comes back and completely forgets what he was talking about. Zoey does a series of flips up the trees in order to get a better look at the area, and soon moves them forward. While most of the Hamsters are impressed by her skills, Courtney feels threatened and hopes to vote her off soon. Cameron and Sierra begin to form a bond when Sam mentions Dakota's ability to carry him around "like a Game Guy." Meanwhile, the Vultures, who have quickly approached, notice their opponents going left and follow Gwen's idea to take another path and cut them off at the more desired crate.

Gwen's plan works. As the Hamsters are heading towards the larger crate, the Vultures rush in front of them, guarding it. The Hamsters are then forced to claim the smaller one containing the slingshots. Upon opening their chest, the Vultures argue about who gets to use the single cannon that is inside. Alejandro points out they should use it as a team, which pleases Gwen. Heather and Jo jump in and start agreeing, to Duncan's disbelief.

While Courtney complains about the slingshots, Sierra starts to hallucinate by seeing Cameron as Cody due to their newfound friendship. Zoey finds a cave to hide Sam while everyone else faces the villains, with Courtney volunteering to stay and protect him since she didn't bring him breakfast. She then states to the viewing audience that since she is the leader, it is a smart decision to stay behind while the "footsoldiers take the leeches to the face." Taking note of the need for stealth in this challenge, Mike tries to transform into Svetlana. However, when Cameron asks if she is present, Mike sighs and replies that he's still himself. In the confessional, he also tries to shift into Chester and Vito but has no success.

Meanwhile, the Vultures are dragging the cannon through the woods. Gwen suggests that they ditch it, calling the team "vulnerable" as long as they allow it to slow them down. It is decided that they will split up, with Alejandro, Heather, and Jo fighting about who will go with Gwen. The Hamsters use the moment of distraction to take out Alejandro. As the Vultures attempt to fire back, Jo launches the cannon, accidentally hits Scott and eliminates him, giving two points to the Hamsters. Heather scolds Jo for the "friendly fire" before being shot by Mike. Jo takes Scott's gun and flees to face Zoey, while Duncan and Gwen head off together.

Duncan tells Gwen that she should picture Mike as Courtney so she'd be able to clobber him. Gwen gets upset that Duncan thinks she's torturing Courtney on purpose, and with hurt in her voice, responds that he doesn't know her at all. Sierra then pops up from behind some bushes and tries to hit them, but the leech shoots back and attaches itself to her cheek. Duncan realizes a leech shot by Cameron is heading towards Gwen, and he quickly dives in front of her, taking it for himself. Sierra distracts Cameron momentarily by calling him Cody, and Gwen uses the opportunity to eliminate him. She then tends to Duncan in disbelief of what he just did. Duncan jokes that she doesn't know him at all, before Mike ruins the heartfelt moment by shooting Gwen in the head.

Jo reaches the cave containing Sam and Courtney. Chris announces over the loudspeaker that the final score is 5-2 with only one more Vulture left in the game. Jo labels the situation "pathetic" and considers the error in dumping Lightning. Suddenly a pre-recorded message from him pops up, taunting Jo for her mistake to which she angrily shatters the video screen. In the cave, Courtney attempts to eliminate Jo but misses. She then uses Sam to defend herself, with him taking several leeches to the face and body. Zoey arrives and after dodging Jo's attack, she successfully shoots the jockette, winning the challenge for her team.

At the campfire ceremony, Cameron reveals that someone broke Sam's Game Guy in the middle of the night. This shocks Mike. He believed it had been a dream and uses a confessional to worry about what's happening to him. Chris asks which Hamster wants to volunteer for exile, to which Cameron quickly complies. Having watched season three, he is aware of her affections towards Cody and strongly hopes to avoid becoming a subject of admiration himself.

Chris continues with the ceremony, revealing that Jo is eliminated. Before flushing her, Chris states that he is changing the teams a bit. Courtney is sent to the Vultures due to using Sam as a human shield, while Duncan switches over to the Hamsters for taking a dive for Gwen. Both of them are less than thrilled with the idea, but change sides without the need of force. Duncan kisses Gwen on the cheek and tells Courtney to admit that he exists, but instantly regrets it when she snaps at him. Gwen tries to welcome Courtney to the team only to kick a bucket of leeches onto her head. Chris laughs when she frantically tries to say that she didn't notice it. In the episode's final confessional, Gwen wonders if she truly is doing it on purpose. Jo is flushed and Chris admits he won't miss her as he signs off the show.

Exclusive clip
Jo ended up inside the sewers of Egypt where she noticed several scarabs with her as well. She was initially not afraid of them but quickly noticed that the insects started to surround her in large numbers. As Jo started to scream in terror, the camera zooms out to the streets above her.

Cast

 * Chef Hatchet appeared but has no lines.
 * The butler make an appearance, but it is currently unknown who voices him.

General

 * Courtney and Duncan swap teams in this episode. Thus, Total Drama Action is the only season to not feature any team swaps of any kind.
 * This is second time in the series that a message is sent by an already eliminated contestant. The first being in The Princess Pride, where Leshawna sent a letter to Harold to stop listening to Courtney's song while thinking about her.
 * Duncan shielding Gwen so she won't get hit by a leech is similar to when Cody protects Gwen in Dodgebrawl and when Sierra protects Cody in Sweden Sour.
 * With Jo's elimination, Scott is the last standing season four cast member on the Villainous Vultures, until Cameron switches teams in Moon Madness.

Continuity

 * This episode's challenge featured a nod to the challenge from Paintball Deer Hunter and the war movie challenge from Full Metal Drama.
 * This is the second time in a row that Zoey wins the challenge for her team.
 * In Heroes vs. Villains, Gwen doubts that Duncan will be placed on the Heroic Hamsters. Ironically, Duncan was switched to the team after performing a heroic deed in this episode.

Goofs

 * The Heroic Hamsters logo is noticeably darker than usual throughout the episode. This happens again in No One Eggspects The Spanish Opposition.
 * When the contestants are walking through the forest, Heather and Gwen are the last characters in the line, with everyone else in front. However, Alejandro and Jo are both suddenly behind them.
 * At the beginning of the Campfire Ceremony, there are three buckets full of leeches shown. One is by Gwen, another by the stump in between Duncan and Heather and the last one by the campfire. In the next shot, the one by Duncan and Heather and the one by the campfire disappear.
 * When Mike and Cameron are about to sleep in the hotel, they are in their pajamas but when Mal appears, Mike is in his regular clothes.
 * Additionally, when Cameron is shown sleeping, his lips are the same color of his skin instead of dark color of his hair.
 * Jo hits Sam with six leeches, but in the next scene there's eight.
 * In one scene after Heather was hit with a leech, Duncan's upper body doesn't seem to connect with his lower body.