The episode begins with all the contestants' morning routines. In the Toxic Rats' girls' cabin, Dawn is seen hanging upside down talking to a blue bird while Dakota asks her to keep her voice down, complaining about needing more beauty sleep, saying she will lose it, to which Dawn agrees, saying that Dakota's need for fame is really a depressed cry for love, creeping Dakota out. Meanwhile, in the boys' side, Sam and Lightning catch Scott coming back in the cabin, asking him where he was. Scott lies to them by saying that he was making out with one of the girls. When they asked which one, Scott responds by saying "a gentlemen never kisses and tells." Not familiar with the phrase, a confused Sam asks Scott if he "kissed a gentleman."
All right, I was out looking for that hidden immunity idol, not that they need to know. It's all part of my strategy: Let my team lose, so the Maggots develop a false sense of security before I pick them off! [hears knocking] Occupied! [a woolly beaver bursts in the confessional, scaring Scott]
”
In the Mutant Maggots' girls' cabin, Zoey asks Anne Maria, who is blow drying and brushing her hair, how she managed to smuggle in so many hair products, to which she reveals she stored all in her pouffe. On the guys' side, Mike talks to Chester in his sleep, while Cameron turns his sleeping bag into his protective bubble to help him sleep.
I had a hard time falling asleep. It was my first night outside my bubble, but finally I recreated it with my sleeping bag and was out like that! What an adventure!
As the only soldier here with any military training, I've definitely got a winning edge. My biggest competition is probably Jo. Yeah, good thing we're on the same team! Like my drill sergeant always says, 'Keep your enemies close and your rivals closer!' Wait, I did that wrong. 'Keep your family close and your enemy at arm's length!' Uh, no, no, no, hold on…
”
Then, as a chocolate-eating squirrel stares and laughs at both of them as Brick and Jo accidentally crash into each other. They get competitive, bragging about who ran more or harder. Jo says that their team is lucky to have them since they won the challenge for them.
I'll carry them to victory! I'm just being nice so that aptly named clump of cadet meat will be loyal, but when the time comes…(breaks a twig) Ow! Splinter! You little—!
”
Chris gathers everyone, greeting them, to start the day's competition already. However, Lightning and Dakota both complain about not having had D.P.A. —"daily protein allotment"— and beauty sleep, respectively. Sam tries to be nice with Dakota, saying she can not look bad, but he is scared off when she takes off her sunglasses as she reveals her reddish eyes with bags under. After Chris directs them to the "bay of dismay," Dakota is shown on her phone, indicating she's going to a bay, while Sam is seen playing with his video game system, both of which are confiscated, which leads to both of them suffering from withdrawal. On their way, Mike and Zoey bond over movies, as Zoey says the "bay of dismay" sounds like a location from a movie called Total Warriors 2, while Mike playfully says that, if she is into ultimate kickboxing, he might have to marry her. Behind them, Sam comes up to Dakota, apologizing for screaming after seeing her without her sunglasses, so he tries to compliment her by saying he was taken by her "beautiful nostrils."
Dakota thanks him and tries to come up with a compliment in return, but asks him if she can come back to him on that, unsure. Cameron and Jo are seen walking besides them and having a conversation, in which Cameron is hopeful that the next challenge is not physical, preferring something more academic, insisting that his greatest strengths are mental. Jo says that he is mental if he thinks he can win Total Drama without getting physical. Meanwhile, Anne Maria is seen walking next to some of the members of the Toxic Rats, and she asks B what he thinks that challenge will be about, to which he answers just by looking upwards, angering Anne Maria about him not talking.
[B does not say anything, but shrugs in confusion.]
”
The competition takes place out in the bay in the form of a quiz show, a challenge called the "Getting-to-know-you Trivia Game," in which the contestants are strapped into their seats tightly with children-sized harnesses. Chris explains that he will read out majorly humiliating, embarrassing personal questions of one of the players. If the victim buzzes in and confesses by pressing the poorly wired buzzer before their time runs out, then their team gets a point. First team to five wins part one and a distinct advantage in the second part of the challenge. However, if the victim fails to own up, then the whole team is dunked in the lake, where a four-legged mutated shark, named Fang, now dwells. If a team gets dunked, the opposite team can steal by guessing which dunkee is guilty; they get a point if right, or dunked if wrong. Then, the game starts.
For the Rats, Chris asks who farted on the one and only date they had, to which all laugh, except for an embarrassed Sam, who asks Chris where did he get that information as he presses the button, earning a point for his team.
The next question, for the Maggots, is who wet their pants on the first and last day of school, which surprises Mike, as Zoey giggles and Brick blushes. Jo reminds Brick to be strong for the team and to swallow his pride, so he presses the button, tying the game 1-1, and the Toxic Rats laugh once again. Zoey hushedly thanks Brick, knowing that must have been tough for him.
Now, a member of the Rats must confess whose name is actually Beverly. Brick admits that isn't even a question, thinking it's a girl's name, until B presses the button, confessing.
Chris says that is correct but that he would have preferred a verbal response, so Dawn reminds him that B never talks. Therefore, as a punishment, Chris dunks the Rats inside the water, where Fang tries to eat Scott, who manages to escape with a part of the shark's tooth with him.
[looks in the mirror to find out that he lost his tooth and then growls with anger and broke his mirror.]
”
Scott sarcastically thanks his team for not helping him, refusing to keep competing, so Anne Maria, Sam, and Mike try to bail out from the challenge, too. Then, due to the time wasted by their arguing, Chris cancels the challenge and tells the contestants that a new one will await. However, this one will be even worse than the first.
Afterwards, the contestants are now seen heading to the location of the replacement challenge. As the Mutant Maggots walk together, Cameron says he is grateful the challenge ended before Chris could ask him a question, to which Jo guesses his question would be, "Who needs their diaper changed?" Cameron admits he has not worn a diaper since he was eleven, causing her and Anne Maria to laugh at him. Brick tries to remind Cameron that the challenge is over, so there is no reason for him to keep humiliating himself. Jo mocks him, calling him a baby, and Cameron says he has the same right to be in the competition as she does, saying she will prove that to her.
Meanwhile, as the Toxic Rats walk, Sam bonds with Dakota as both complain about not having their technology — Sam for not being able to play his video game for a long amount of time, and Dakota calls Chris a jerk, saying she could have sent six-hundred texts by now. Sam says they have a lot in common, confusing Dakota, but he specifies it is only because of the tech withdrawal, saying that she is nothing like him otherwise, pleasing her as they smile at each other. Scott notices their conversation and tells Lightning that Chris screwed their team by taking Sam's and Dakota's devices before the challenge.
Man, Chris should have let Lightning be a team of one. Lightning's used to carrying his teams back home, but at least those guys can actually play this game, not like this bunch of losers!
”
The second competition is called the "Mad Skills Obstacle Course," which takes place in a mud pit. The contestants have to relay race, starting with a mad dash from the kickstart; then, they have to face the cannonball run, until they reach the painful wrecking ball ally, where they will move on to the gang plank, complete with rabid mutant beavers, followed by the bouncy agony of double trouble. Their last obstacle is the "Grand Slam," where they will use ropes to swing into the giant baseball mitt, while avoiding giant baseball bats, too. Also, as part of the advantage spoken of previously, since no team won the last part of the challenge, both of them are given blurry glasses so they can't see well. By way of batons, the teams were given their team mascots: a mutant maggot and rat.
Anne Maria and Lightning begin the relay race by getting kicked by a giant boot, as Lightning falls off as the rat bites his butt while Anne Maria successfully gives Brick the maggot. Brick begins to run but runs into a pole multiple times, until Lightning gives the rat to Dawn, who takes the lead over Brick. When she reaches the cannonball zone, the rat alerts Dawn to duck, making Brick get hit by a cannonball in the face. Dawn gives the rat to Scott, who tries to lose on purpose as his strategy, until he gets bit by the rat and hit by a wrecking ball, making him bump into B. Meanwhile, Jo rushes a hurt Brick, who moves his whole body with his left hand, giving her the maggot as his head drops of tiredness. Scott, still using his strategy, pets the rat, as B signals for him to put it in his hand, and Scott sarcastically says he should have said he wanted it, mockingly calling him Beverly. B angrily takes the rat, placing it in the pocket of his jacket, and jumps on the gang plank, which the beavers take down. In defense, B builds a fake female beaver to successfully attract them, angering Scott.
Then, Jo gives the maggot to Zoey, who starts running, until the beavers are angered once the fake beaver's head falls off, chewing down on the wood that makes Zoey fall. Once Sam receives the rat, he hops onto the the giant bouncy obstacles, telling Dakota to take the rat, but he falls on the mud before she turns around. Meanwhile, Zoey tries to reach Mike, who helps her up, having a romantic moment where they stare at each other, until the maggot vomits on Mike's face while the beaver reaches Zoey. As Mike runs, another of his personalities is revealed: a gymnast named Svetlana, who successfully gives Cameron the maggot, as Mike does not realize what just happened. The challenge comes down to Dakota and Cameron trying to land in a giant baseball mitt surrounded by bats. Dakota gets distracted when a group of photographers floats in on a hot-air balloon, allowing Cameron, tangled up in the rope, to get dropped right into the mitt and win for his team.
Before the elimination, Scott and Dawn both suggest eliminating Dakota, with Scott pointing out how easily distracted she is, and Dawn saying that a great disaster will befall her if she stays on the island any longer. Sam tries to plead with his team to keep Dakota, to no avail. Lightning comments that everyone besides him should be eliminated due to their performance in the challenge. At the bonfire, the bottom two are B and Dakota, with B receiving the final marshmallow, and Dakota, who is busy filing her nails, is eliminated.
Man, I can't believe Dakota's gone! I was ready to repeatedly ask her out and get turned down all season! (sighs)
”
Before Dakota is hurled off the island, Chris asks if she has any final words. She says that she does. However, Chris hurls her before she can say anything else and then signs off the episode.
The Australian title for this episode is "Truth or Mutant Shark".
The obstacle course's name includes the term "Mad Skills", which is a phrase often said by Harold. Coincidentally, the glasses everyone are forced to wear during the second challenge resemble those worn by him.
According to Todd Kauffman, Harold was originally supposed to make a cameo appearance in Total Drama: Revenge of the Island before it was cut from the final release. Due to this episode's references to him, it's highly likely that this episode would have been the one featuring his cameo.
Audio from Lightning's audition tape was used in the confessional for the second and final time.
Dawn's aura reading of Dakota in this episode ultimately comes to pass due to events laterin the season.
References
The title is a reference to the popular party game, Truth or Dare?
The second challenge is similar to the show Wipeout, where the obstacle course is over mud and the red balls is a parody of the show's "Big Balls." The glasses also references the "goofy goggles" used in a few challenges.
Scott refers to the Chris Head as a hidden immunity idol, which is what it is called in the reality TV show, Survivor.
Goofs
Teletoon incorrectly lists the Toxic Rats as the "Radioactive Rats" on its video page, which was the prototype name of the team.
When Scott is running away from mutated beaver, he has two right hands.
After Brick and Jo crashed into each other, Jo's hairstyle is mirrored.
During the first challenge, Chris only uses one buzzer, but it seems to be able to dunk only one team, the other, or both whenever he chooses despite it only having one button.
During the second challenge where the contestants have to wear special glasses, Sam falls and hits the ground and is seen with his normal glasses on.
When Scott escaped from Fang, his harness was gone, but when he got back up the harness was on him again.
While Scott talks underwater, he does not give off air bubbles when talking.
During the second challenge, Zoey is somehow able to jump to the first platform although the beavers chewed it up and knocked it down when B went.