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 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's doing on exile. The scene then shifts to Boney Island, where Sam is shown hiding on top of a tree from a group of bears. He starts talking to a nearby squirrel, which knocks him down with an acorn, causing him to be torn to shreds by the bears. In the middle of the night, The Malevolent One 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 pervious 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 admit 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 a 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. Meanwhile, an irritated Courtney rushes 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. The Malevolent One laughs and tells the audience that he loves when things get scary. Mike comes back and completely forgets what he was talking about.

Outside the forest, Chris announces that the Vultures are now allowed to begin racing to the equipment. Zoey quickly climbs up the trees in order to locate the chests, impressing her teammates. In the confessional, Courtney feels threatened by Zoey's skills and hopes to vote her off next. 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 the Hamsters going to the left and follow Gwen's idea to take another path to cut them off to be able to get to the more desired crate first.

At the crates, the Hamsters are heading towards the larger crate when the Vultures rush in front of them, guarding it. The Hamsters are then forced to claim the small crate, which contains the slingshots, much to the dismay of the team. Upon opening their crate, the Vultures argue about who gets to use the single cannon that is inside. Alejandro then 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 then finds a cave to hide Sam inside for the challenge, with Courtney volunteering to stay with him since she didn't bring him breakfast. She then confesses that since she is the leader, it is a smart decision to stay behind while the "footsoldiers do all the work". Mike then tries to transform into Svetlana in order to help them in the challenge but fails. In the confessional, he also tries to transform into Chester and Vito but has no success. The Vultures continue to argue on who should partner 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, leaving only Duncan, Gwen and Jo for the Vultures.

Duncan suggests that Gwen should picture Mike as Courtney so she'd be able to clobber him. Gwen gets upset that Duncan thinks she's messing with Courtney too. Sierra then pops up from behind some bushes and tries to hit them but the leech she tries to fire shoots back and she hits herself instead. Duncan realizes that Cameron is trying to shoot Gwen and he quickly dives in front of her, taking the leech for himself. Gwen quickly shoots Cameron and 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 eliminating Gwen.

Jo reaches the cave containing Sam and Courtney before hearing from Chris that the final score is 5-2 with only one more Vulture left in the game. Jo then confesses that dumping Lightning may not have been the best idea before 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 shoot Jo but misses. She then uses Sam to defend herself from Jo. Zoey arrives and after dodging Jo's attack, Zoey successfully shoots Jo, eliminating her and 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, as he believed that it was a dream. Chris then asks which Hamster wants to volunteer for exile, to which Cameron quickly complies. In the confessional, he reveals that Sierra is starting to creep him out, just like how Cody was back in Total Drama World Tour and he hopes that being away from her will make her to stop thinking of him as Cody. After Cameron leaves, Chris continues with the ceremony, revealing that Jo is eliminated.

Before flushing her, Chris states that he is changing the teams a bit. Due to their actions in the challenge, Courtney is sent to the Vultures team because of the "human shield incident" while Duncan switches over to the Hamsters for taking dive for Gwen. Both of them are less than thrilled with the idea. Duncan kisses Gwen on the cheek before telling 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 on her head. Chris then laughs when she frantically tries to say that she didn't notice the bucket, before wondering in the confessional if she is truly doing it on purpose. Jo is flushed and Chris states he won't miss her before signing off the show.

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.
 * This is the first episode of the season to not feature any of Mike's four original personalities, though he does attempt to shift to Svetlana, Chester, and Vito, but to no avail.

Continuity

 * This episode's challenge is a combination of Paintball Deer Hunter and Full Metal Drama.
 * This is the second time in a row that Zoey wins the challenge for her team.

Goofs

 * The Heroic Hamsters logo is noticeably darker than usual throughout the episode.
 * 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.
 * Chris suggests that the Heroic Hamsters send Courtney to Boney Island instead of Cameron, however, with the team swap, she would be ineligible for exile. It is possible that he only said this to lead into revealing the switch, with no success.