Owen has just won a new toy from a crane machine that was confiscated by Chef. Duncan decides to lead Courtney, Izzy, Jude, and Harold to get the toy back by sneaking into the teacher's lounge via air vents while Noah stays behind to distract the teacher. Following the success of their mission, the leader abandons his team as it was simply a plot for him to escape the daycare.
Plot[]
The episode opens with Owen rushing into the classroom trying to find his friends, who are playing inside the castle. He announces that he recently won a prize from a crane game. When Duncan asks what he won, the class goth, Gwen, suddenly appears from the shadows and brings up how there were forty-three crane related deaths last year alone. Duncan retorts that the statistics might be referring to actual cranes, but Gwen simply says the article she read only said cranes before disappearing back into the shadows. Owen continues his story, telling his friends that he had won an Uber Ball, having spent seventy-eight dollars in quarters on the game. Noah warns Owen that Chef will confiscate any toys from home and that he should hide it, but Duncan insists that he should play with it. After some thinking, Owen agrees to bounce the Uber Ball once. Despite dropping the ball slowly, it suddenly picks up momentum and begins to ricochet around the classroom, breaking objects along the way, until Chef enters the room and grabs it. Chef immediately asks whose toy it was, to which the other children all point at Owen.
The kids get rebuked by Chef.
Owen, Noah, Izzy, and Duncan are brought to Chef's office where he places the Uber Ball inside a locker with an electronic number pad and retina scan. Chef has become fed up with the kids for constantly breaking the rules, and intimidates Noah for making a sarcastic comment about him being a poor teacher. Upon seeing the number of toys inside the locker, the kids all become excited. After returning to class, Owen starts crying as he misses his new toy. Duncan, seeing an open ventilation shaft, comes up with a plan to escape the daycare. Requiring a few things from Chef's locker, Duncan rallies the other kids to help Owen break into the locker and get his ball back.
Duncan discusses his plan with the other kids: he would lead a team consisting of himself, Izzy, Owen, Courtney, Jude, and Harold to sneak into Chef's office via the ventilation shaft. Izzy, who had memorized the combination earlier, would unlock the locker's code. However, Jude asks how they would bypass the retinal scan, to which Duncan reveals he had stolen Chef's glass eye while he was asleep and replaced it with a marble. Duncan then chooses to have Noah to stay behind in class, so Chef will not suspect anything. Courtney volunteers to stay behind, but Duncan suspects she would snitch on them, so he forces her to come along. In the confessional, Courtney reveals Duncan is right and that she would absolutely expose her friends. Gwen refuses to take part in the plan and tells the others that Duncan's plan would get them all killed before scarily fading away into the background again.
Once the safe is unlocked, everyone recovers their lost toys.
Using a map Duncan drew, the kids navigate through the vents and reach Chef's office. Izzy and Duncan unlock the locker, where the kids are overjoyed to have all their confiscated toys back. However, Duncan abandons them, revealing his actual plan was to escape the daycare. Izzy points out that Duncan has the map and without it, they are unable to return to class. Meanwhile, Chef has woken up and finds the class empty, except for Noah. When asked where everyone is, Noah claims they were playing Hide and Seek, and he is having trouble finding them. Chef accidentally hurts Noah's feelings by pointing out how terrible he was at the game. However, he then tries to comfort Noah by listing off the good and bad things about him, only to further make him as he is unable to think of a single good quality to balance his many bad qualities.
Without the map, the kids get lost in the vents and Courtney fears that they would all die in there, just as Gwen had warned them. Harold attempts to lead them but ends up getting them deeper into the maze. Suddenly, Owen smells the scent of freshly baked pizza and leads his friends to the source. Meanwhile, Duncan has reached the roof of the daycare and scales down the building using duct tape and an umbrella he stole from Chef's locker. Just as he is about to reach the ground, he gets tied up by the tape and is spotted by Chef through the window. After catching Duncan, Chef orders Noah to end the game and bring the other kids out. Upon calling for them, the vents above them breaks and all the kids fall out from it. As Owen tries to find his Uber Ball, the toy falls out the vents, bounces off into space before returning to the daycare and ricochets around the classroom until the entire building gets destroyed.
Credits[]
Leshawna is drawing at a table. When Owen comes by, she shows him a flipping page of Chef farting, which causes them both to laugh.
Cast[]
| Voice actor | Role(s) |
|---|---|
| Deven Mack | Chef Hatchet |
| Emilie-Claire Barlow | Courtney |
| Drew Nelson | Duncan |
| Lilly Bartlam | Gwen |
| Darren Frost | Harold |
| Katie Crown | Izzy |
| Christian Potenza | Jude |
| Cory Doran | Noah |
| Scott McCord | Owen |
- Beth, Bridgette, and Leshawna appear, but have no lines. However, they can all be heard cheering when Duncan suggests the idea of getting Owen's ball back.
Trivia[]
General[]
- This episode marks the first time in the franchise where several of the original cast members have received new voice actors. Chef Hatchet, Gwen, Harold, and Noah are not voiced by Clé Bennett, Megan Fahlenbock, Brian Froud, and Carter Hayden respectively. Instead, they are voiced by Deven Mack, Lilly Bartlam, Darren Frost, and Cory Doran.
- This episode marks the beginning of the running gag in which the daycare is destroyed.
Continuity[]
- One of the items that Chef has confiscated is a toy version of the Drama Machine.
- Duncan calls Courtney "princess" in this episode, one of his many nicknames for her in the original series.
- Owen's teddy bear, Beary, that was seen on Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race is among the toys Chef confiscated.
- The scene in which Duncan scales down the daycare is similar to his audition tape, in which he scales down a wall while escaping juvenile hall.
- The scene in which Owen opens a trash can is similar to a scene in "Basic Straining," right down to the same contents.
References[]
- The title of the episode is a reference to Valhalla, a mythical location in Norse Mythology where the soldiers of Asgard who are chosen by the god, Odin, travel after their deaths to train for Ragnarök.
- Nintendo Switches make several appearances throughout the episode including inside the claw machine.
- While the children are moving through the vents, the scene shifts to the appearance of a Pac-Man game.
- When Duncan asks Owen if he scooped anything good, a ball that looks like the one from Luxo Jr. is seen.
Goofs[]
- Duncan mentions that he loves to cause anarchy. However, you have to get rid of leaders for that, and it's unlikely he'll find a way to get rid of Chef.
- Duncan was seen falling down from the ceiling with the other kids in place of Courtney.
- Bridgette and Leshawna disappear before the kids discuss the plan and reappear at the end of the episode.
Gallery[]
