Top Dog

'''The cast participates in animal themed challenges. Things really start to get out of hand as someone is exposed for the mole they are, and at elimination a certain antagonist finally meets the end of the line, and a spy is fired. This all leads up to the final two of Total Drama Action being decided.'''

Plot
The episode opens with Duncan walking sleepily into the guy's trailer. He reveals that he and Courtney spent the night talking about "relationship stuff". Duncan then shows Owen the large relationship rule contract that Courtney wrote out for him, and he states that Courtney wants him to memorize it. Then, they all go to breakfast. Courtney is seen imposing the rules already, much to Duncan's annoyance. Beth also reveals that she heard everything that they had said, except for some minor parts. The cast also eats "scrambled eggs" cooked by Chef. Chris then appears with a parrot (which he later kills), saying that today is the "animal-buddy" movie genre, because he couldn't think of any alternative themes other than "guy in a coma movies." He shows the cast that they will all receive animals for the challenge, and the competitors choose which animal they would like. They then have to make the animals act like them.

Beth succeeds in training her raccoon, as she becomes friends with it. Duncan is trying to get his chameleon to change to the correct hue (his mohawk color), while Courtney tries to teach her Shark a cheer. Owen is also shown sabotaging the other castmates. It is then time for the cast to show what they have taught their animals. Beth gets a ten, due to her relationship with her raccoon. Owen get a six for teaching his bear to do a mild impression of him. Duncan gets an eight for getting his chameleon to be the correct color. Courtney doesn't receive a score, as she ended up in a fight with her shark.

Courtney does not participate in the next part of the challenge, as she is fighting off a pack of sharks. The rest of the castmates are taken out into the woods. They are accompanied by their animals and must find their way out of the woods. Beth and her raccoon get "lost," while Duncan and his chameleon just walk along. Owen and his bear moves along, all while Owen devised a plan to ruin it for the others and win himself. Meanwhile, Courtney is fighting with the sharks and one shark in particular, who grabs hold of her PDA and threatens to eat it. She is infuriated and fights the sharks, and ends up falling over a waterfall.

While that is happening, Beth is still stuck in the woods and is frightened, until her raccoon shows her a path. They end up going inside and Beth finds a very nice hideout for the raccoons. She spends time there, and then they are the first to return to the trailers, making Beth the winner of the challenge. They then wait for the others. Prior to Beth's win, Owen is still sabotaging them. He gets Duncan to fall into a trap, and then gets stuck in a trap himself with his bear. They manage to eat their way out by eating berries to break the branch that is holding them up and head back to camp days later.

Duncan, while in the trap, eats the papers and eventually finds his way out, but cannot see his chameleon. Days after Beth had originally arrived, the rest of the castmates arrive. Chris announces the winner of the challenge, and Beth and Courtney begin to talk, Courtney blaming Beth for her raccoon stealing her PDA. While they are talking, Courtney gets a message from her lawyers that Owen is a cheater, and Beth and Courtney accuse him of such, knowing that Harold was right in 2008: A Space Owen.

They then go to the gilded Chris Ceremony. Courtney is voted out, mainly due to Duncan disliking how many rules she was imposing on him. Owen is fired by Chris also, so he leaves the competition too. As Courtney is leaving, she breaks up with Duncan. After Courtney and Owen are taken away, Chris proclaims Beth and Duncan the final two and tells viewers to tune into the finale.

Quotes
Owen: Dude, Courtney gave you...homework? Chef: (laughs hysterically) Scrambled eggs! (laughs) Beth: (in confessional) Actually, it makes perfect sense. Those two are made for each other! The only difference is one would eat you alive in a heartbeat, and the other's a shark. Owen: Dude, Scruffy was a bug. Duncan: Nobody talks about Scruffy like that! Nobody! Duncan: Hour for what? Courtney: Page two, section five. Ring any bells? You promised to pay me a compliment once every hour! Duncan: Oh...yeah, right...um...You have....nice teeth. Beth: Owen betrayed us, but Courtney's the bigger threat. ''(votes) ''Owen: I like Duncan, but Beth and Courtney eat less. More for me! (votes) Courtney: See you never, traitor! (votes) Duncan: (snores, then wakes up, voting) Huh? Chris: The Gilded Chris goes to... Beth, and Duncan! Courtney, since Beth and Duncan both voted for you, it's time for your ride home! Owen, I'll deal with you in a moment. Courtney: WHAT?! Duncan voted for me? OH! Duncan: (in confessional) Court's popularity's in the toilet. I can't have her dragging me down, but the real reason - The 32-page letter. And people call ME psycho! (Cut to Courtney in the Lame-O-Sine) Courtney: How could you do this to me, after everything? We are so DONE! (Chef closes the door) Owen: Uh, Chris. I think you forgot to give me MY Gilded Chris Award. Chris: Sorry, Owen. You've been fired. Owen: What?! Why?! Chris: What's the point of having a spy who's been spied? (The Lame-O-Sine drives away) Duncan, Beth, the Final Two! One of you will become a millionaire, (the two smile) and the other will not! (they glance at Chris, and he pushes them aside) Tune in for our most controversial episode, ever, of TOTAL, DRAMA, ACTION!
 * Owen: (wakes up and farts) Wait, no pillow whipped at my head? No angry threat to stick a cork in it? (gasps) Where's Duncan?!
 * Owen: Where were you all night? An alien abduction? It was, wasn't it?  You were subjected to an endless night of alien probing!  Oh, the humanity!
 * Duncan: Chill, Owen. I spent the night in Courtney's trailer.
 * Owen: Really, what did you two do all night? C'mon, c'mon!
 * Duncan: Down Boy!
 * Duncan: (about him and Courtney spending the night together) We talked...about relationship stuff mostly. It's a little hazy. I'll let you know after I read this. (holds up a stack of papers)
 * Duncan: Great...maybe I'll get lucky and today's genre will be "guy in a coma" movie.
 * Beth: Wow, Chef! These scrambled eggs actually look pretty good!
 * Beth: (in confessional; about Duncan and Courtney's talking) I totally heard every insane word. Well, almost every word. I dozed off around page nine, section three, paragraph four then again on page twenty-two, section eleven, paragraph eight. Poor Duncan.
 * Chris: (referring to the parrot he has) That's my new BFFF: Best Flying Friend Forever.
 * Chris: So...here were we? Right! The first part of the animal buddy movie challenge will be to pick an animal and teach it to be just like you. That shouldn't be too hard, since you're all animals! (expects a laugh)
 * Chris: (in confessional) You try coming up with 26 movie genres! It was either "animal buddy" or "guy in a coma movies!"
 * Courtney: I got the shark! The shark's mine!
 * Duncan: I'll take the chameleon, in tribute to my beloved reptilian friend, Scruffy.
 * Courtney: (talking to shark) Look, let's not waste each others time. I don't like you, you don't like me, but if you help me get into the finals, and I will make you a very rich shark.
 * Courtney: Duncan! Hour's almost up!
 * Courtney: Ready? Here we go! (Spells out "FISHY" as she cheers) F-I-S-H-Y! You ain't got no alibi! You fishy, uh-huh! You fishy, uh-huh! Come on, get your fins up! Fins up! Come on, get your fins up! Fins up! (stops cheering) Get your fins up!
 * Owen: (in confessional) I learned a lot, today. One, Never eat wild berries without knowing if they're poisonous. Two, Explosive diarrhea is NOT a recommended outdoor activity. And Three, you're gonna wanna stay out of those woods for a while. (farts) A long while.
 * Owen: (in confessional) I'm kind of glad that they found out I'm the producers' mole, now I can go back to being myself, but on the way here I short sheeted Beth's bed, cleaned a toilet with Duncan's toothbrush, and filled the salt shakers with onion powder. What can I say? It's hard to quit cold turkey.
 * Chris: THIS is a big one, cast. Beth is safe from Elimination, which means, the rest of you are fair game. So, sharpen those claws, and cast your votes. Someone is going home, for the last time.

Trivia

 * The episode's title could be a reference to either Top Cat, Top Gun, or Top Dog. If it is referenced to Top Dog, it is the only episode to keep the referenced movie title the same.
 * Owen's role in the show is revealed by Courtney's lawyers, and Chris fires him from the position.
 * This strongly suggests that Owen was not really competing again, but was more like a staff member.
 * Beth made a reference to The Blair Witch Project, when she was alone in the woods with her animal.
 * This is the only episode someone wins invincibility twice in one episode.
 * Each castmate gets an animal during the challenge:
 * Courtney: Shark
 * Beth: Raccoon
 * Owen: Bear
 * Duncan: Chameleon
 * It is easy to infer who voted for whom in this episode's elimination ceremony:
 * Courtney, for Owen.
 * Owen, for Duncan.
 * Duncan, for Courtney.
 * Beth, for Courtney.
 * In the raccoon hideout, the raccoons are viewing Badminton: The Movie.
 * This episode is the first time a bear is seen since Monster Cash.
 * Courtney makes a Lord of the Flies reference.
 * Duncan mentions his pet spider Scruffy again (who is now deceased) and chooses the Chameleon in honor of him.
 * However, he refers to Scruffy as a reptile despite that he was a tarantula. Owen corrects him on it, but Duncan takes it as him insulting Scruffy.
 * However, Owen is also wrong. Scruffy is a tarantula, which are arachnids.
 * The Chameleon is the only new animal featured in this episode. The shark and the bear have appeared multiple times on show and the raccoon simply had a different facial design than the ones that have appeared before. In addition, the raccoons that appeared before did appear again here.
 * For the first time in the Total Drama series, the final two both come from opposing teams (where as the first season, the final three were all formerly from the same team). The two also come from opposing teams of last season's teams.
 * Two of Courtney's rules were revealed in the episode:
 * Only Courtney can utilize pet names.
 * Duncan must compliment Courtney once every hour.
 * Courtney was voted off by the votes, but Owen was eliminated because Chris fired him, not by a tie of votes.
 * Just as two contestants were eliminated in the second episode, two more were eliminated in this episode, the second-to-last episode of the season. Although Bridgette and Geoff were voted out officially, where as Courtney was the only one officially voted out, Owen was fired by Chris.
 * This marks the first occasion that a contestant has been fired.
 * This is the second time that a double elimination occurs. The first time is in Alien Resurr-eggtion.
 * This is the second time the final two contestants are male and female. (First time being Owen and Gwen, now Duncan and Beth)
 * In this episode, Owen is shown to enjoy being an antagonist, as he is happy, and feels no remorse for his actions.
 * But then when he was exposed, he was happy because he wouldn't be bad anymore.
 * Ironically, Courtney was eliminated with Owen, whom she had single-handedly eliminated before in Ocean's Eight - Or Nine.
 * Even though Chef's scrambled eggs weren't really scrambled eggs, it is not revealed what they are.
 * The two people who were originally Screaming Gophers (Beth and Owen) were the only ones who bonded with their animals.
 * Beth and her raccoon were shown to be close many times.
 * Owen and his bear mess up the others (except Beth) throughout out the show.
 * The two people eliminated in this episode, are the two people whose names were used in the episode Crouching Courtney, Hidden Owen.
 * This is the first time there have been two elimination episodes in a row since Alien Resurr-eggtion and Riot on Set.
 * When Duncan went crazy, it may be a counterpart of when Owen went crazy in Camp Castaways.
 * Chris calling his parrot his BFFF (Best Flying Friend Forever) may be a reference to how Katie and Sadie call each other BFFFL's (Best Female Friends For Life).
 * This is the first time that there is no proper final three because Chris fired Owen.
 * This is the only non-Aftermath Total Drama Action episode to not feature Harold (excluding the recap), though he is mentioned.
 * This is the second episode in a row when the only person who voted for Owen got the boot.
 * Chris makes a reference to "Back to the Future" when discussing the recap.
 * This episode breaks the pattern of "elimination, no elimination." It is presumed that an Aftermath episode would be in between these two episodes.
 * When Chris tells Beth and her raccoon that they are the first team to arrive, the style that he uses is a possible reference to The Amazing Race.
 * The parrot from Haut Camp-ture is seen once again in this episode.

Goofs

 * When the campers and their animals are arriving in the forest on the bus, the raccoon is shown to wear glasses. When it is shown again, it is not.
 * When Duncan is crazy, he has pupils in his eyes, this is unusual as throughout both seasons he has had eyes without pupils, they disappear throughout the episode, and eventually go away when he is no longer crazy.
 * Chris says that he had to make twenty-six movie genres but he didn't because of the three Aftermaths. He may be referring to the amount of episodes there are. But even with this he'd be one short of the correct number as this is the twenty fourth episode while the finale would be on the twenty fifth episode. It is possible that he had another planned, but canceled it due to Owen's cover being blown.
 * Courtney is eating the scrambled eggs, though her rules says she does not have to eat Chef's cooking.
 * Courtney also admitted being allergic to dairy earlier in the season, but she has eaten several things with dairy throughout the season. However, Chef's laughing hinted that it wasn't scrambled eggs.
 * Chef says that the bear had one more day on it's contract in Monster Cash. However, the bear returns in this episode. It is possible that his contract was renewed, however.
 * The Raccoon has a new facial design in this episode having white eyes and black pupils. Though when Chris shows all of the animals together at the beginning of the episode, it has black eyes and white pupils.
 * This is the first episode where two people grow a beard. In this case Owen (who has grown facial hair three times) and Chris.