That’s Off the Chain! (Total Drama Island, 2007)

"That’s Off the Chain!"
How this episode is a TWO-FACED, BACKSTABBING, LYING LITTLE, (BLEEP) - Lindsay
Series: Total Drama Part of Season: 1 Episode Number: Season: 18 Overall: 18 Air Date: October 2, 2008 (United States) October 28, 2007 (Canada) Writer: Erika Strobel Director: Todd Kauffman Mark Thronton Previous episode: Hide and Be Sneaky Next episode: Hook, Line, and Screamer

That’s Off the Chain! is the 18th episode of Total Drama Island.

Plot

As the campers build their own bikes using supplies from a pile of old bike parts and then race them in a dangerous motor cross, Izzy takes Leshawna who has never learned how to build or ride a bike on a joy ride. In the end, Heather betrays Lindsay, leading to an explosive elimination.

Why It's Off the Chain!

1. The biggest problem with the episode is that the elimination makes absolutely no sense. Apparently, Lindsay gets eliminated for technically crossing the finish line last after Heather who won, despite the fact that Owen and Duncan didn’t cross the line because they wiped out. Gwen, DJ, and Geoff lost the first round, and Izzy and Leshawna skipped the entire challenge. Why should Lindsay be punished for doing better than everyone except Heather, who she let win? Why didn’t the writers just have Heather win invincibility and have a traditional vote off?
2. The challenge also doesn’t make sense. Why are the final four bikers the ones to be up for elimination? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to compete for just immunity?
3. Lindsay is treated unfairly, as she is forced by Heather to build her bike. Even worse, she is the reason Heather wins while she gets eliminated.
4. Heather is very unlikeable that goes too far this episode, as she admits she was just using Lindsay this whole season just to stay further in the game. She admits she never really liked her and doesn’t even care that she got eliminated.
5. Geoff’s crying is annoying in this episode, just because Bridgette got eliminated the previous episode. It really didn’t matter as much, because Geoff would get eliminated three episodes later and would see her again.
6. DJ is way too much of a wimp because he was scared of riding a bike. He’s overcome his fear of snakes and water earlier in the season, so it’s hard to see the problem with him overcoming his fear of riding bikes.
7. Izzy and Leshawna got away with skipping the whole challenge for some reason.
   • Chris is somewhat unlikable in this episode as he didn't call out Leshawna nor Izzy in any way despite them both not competing in the challenge.

Qualities That Are on the Chain

1. The scene where Lindsay told off Heather for betraying was extremely awesome and satisfying, not to mention her censored-out curse in the original Canadian airing was hilarious and iconic. This has earned her so much respect from the rest of the campers, and even Chris was satisfied with that.
2. The friendship between Owen and Lindsay was cute.
3. The ending is heartwarming as she said farewell to the other campers except Heather.
4. Heather does get her comeuppance for betraying Lindsay and getting her eliminated in a later episode as it was Lindsay’s dare that got Heather to lose her hair and get eliminated. Lindsay even foreshadows her own role in Heather’s elimination by wishing that karma would catch up to Heather later on.

Trivia

General

• The bike switches were:
  • Gwen gets Owen's.
  • Owen gets Duncan's.
  • Duncan gets Lindsay's.
  • Lindsay gets Heather's.
  • Heather gets DJ's.
  • DJ gets Geoff's.
  • Geoff gets Gwen's.
• As of this episode, Heather is the only remaining member of her alliance left on the show.
• With Lindsay's elimination, both contestants voiced by Stephanie Anne Mills have been eliminated.
• Lindsay's long-censored curse at Heather was replaced in the Cartoon Network and Netflix versions of the episode with her calling Heather a "no good, selfish, heartless, pushy, bossy, mean, bully of a girl!" though, this was not the case for Netflix prior to 2015, as well as many other instances of mildly mature content throughout the series.

Continuity

• Lindsay is the first camper not to leave the island at night.
  • This is the first episode where someone leaves the island without a campfire ceremony.
• This is the first episode of the series to feature a contestant being eliminated via sudden death.
• Heather wins solo invincibility by herself for the third time in a row.
• This is the first episode where the campers miss the challenge before it even begins.
• This is the second time Lindsay has accidentally hit Heather while trying to swat a fly, and Heather thinks Lindsay did it on purpose.
• Leshawna happily complied when Lindsay told her to kick Heather's butt. Later in the series, Leshawna finally did kick Heather's butt.
• When Lindsay tells Heather: "I hope you get everything your karma owes you," it actually foreshadows a future episode.
  • Coincidentally, the accident is indirectly caused by Lindsay. This is further foreshadowed when Lindsay indirectly calls Heather an "ugly doll with pretty hair."

References

• The title of this episode may be a reference to the slang term "That's off the hook."
• The song Geoff sings in the confession booth is similar to the song "Baby Come Back" by the group Player.
• Chris makes references to several of Mel Gibson's movies when talking about Duncan's bike.
  • When Chris first sees it after Duncan finishes it, he calls it the "Mad Max-mobile," referring to the Mad Max series.
  • Later, just before Owen completes the first round on Duncan's bike, Chris refers to it as "Duncan's lethal weapon," in reference to the Lethal Weapon series.
• Before the final race, Chris announced that the loser would be voted out immediately and there would be "no bonfire, do not pass go, do not collect a marshmallow". This is a reference to the Monopoly community chance/chest card that says "GO TO JAIL: Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200."

Goofs

• When Duncan leaves to check on Geoff, Leshawna says, "Wait, what about our game?" with her lips don't move until seconds after she starts speaking.
• Duncan's bike had an engine, although Heather had the only access to an engine, which Lindsay took from Chef Hatchet's hot rod to build her bike.
• Although he pronounces it correctly later, at the end of the Invincibility Race, Chris pronounces motocross as motorcross even though the portmanteau isn't spelled with the r from the first word, motor.
• Chris refers to the first race as the invincibility race when he announces the four winning bikes, but the "TDI Motocross" challenge was the invincibility race.
  • Even more, losing the first race made DJ, Geoff, and Gwen exempt from elimination, making Chris' reference to the first race as the invincibility race even more nonsensical.
• Before the start of TDI Motocross, Duncan grabs Owen's ear, but until he grabs it, Owen's ear is missing.
• When Heather argues with Lindsay about why she should help her win, Heather says that if Lindsay comes in second, Owen or Duncan will be voted out, and they will have to go through another campfire ceremony. All of this is said right after Chris explains that there will be no vote or campfire ceremony.
  • It is even proven that she is not just trying to trick Lindsay, but actually thought that her getting second might have that result when she states in the confessional that she had no way of knowing that Lindsay would actually get second.
  • Heather later tells Lindsay that she can almost taste the marshmallows, although Chris also added that there wouldn't even be marshmallows.
• When Duncan's bike slides on the oil slick and falls over, his bike is nowhere to be seen when he is shown on the ground.
• Oddly enough, Geoff's bike doesn't break when someone sits on it, even though its main support is thin branches.
• Chris says that Owen and Duncan didn't technically cross the finish line at all, even though Owen did technically cross the finish line because he was blown directly over it at the start of the race. However, Chris may have meant directly touching the finish line, which Owen did not do.
• Chef can be seen standing next to Chris when Lindsay starts swearing. However, when she swears a second time and Chris is smiling, Chef is nowhere to be seen.
• When Chris checks out Duncan's bike, it has pedals. However, when Owen rides it, it lacks pedals and uses a hood ornament instead.
• When Owen gasps as Lindsay curses at Heather, his animation pauses for a split second before the shot changes.

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