Chapter 28: Leading the Blind
Reviews:
richboylion: Thanks.
Knifez: It's not my best work, but hey, the important thing is that I'm back and ready to write. Sadly, there just wasn't much left to be done with Owen.
OmniShaggyUIOverexaggerated: Owen was sadly the obvious target with nobody else to easily blame. I wrote the interaction between Beth and Zoey to give a bit of insight into their characters, but I'm sure they could be friends. As for Lindsay, she doesn't have a lot of things going for her but she does have luck. That has to count for something.
HashtagJustMonika: Sugar will likely not be passive; it's just not the kind of person she is. Yes, it could be. Trust me, Dave is as much of a whiner offscreen as onscreen. Scarlett probably finds him very annoying. As for Cameron, we'll see how it affects him.
Gucci Mane LaFlare: Thanks. Yeah, Heather has been trying to hold back a lot of her Heather-ness, but it's got to come out sometime.
DramaBuddy: Thanks.
Teams:
Team Chris Is Really Really Really Really Mean: B, Beth, Brick, Courtney, Dave, Heather, Jasmine, Katie, Lindsay, Sammy, Scarlett, Scott, Topher, Tyler
Team Survivor: Alejandro, Bridgette, Cameron, Dawn, Duncan, Geoff, Leshawna, Lightning, Noah, Shawn, Sky, Sugar, Zoey
The episode opened with the Mess Hall as the two teams were eating breakfast. As Alejandro passed Scott, Scott stood up and poured a cup of ice down the back of his shirt. He laughed hysterically at Alejandro's reaction.
"Was that really necessary?" Alejandro asked him.
"Not really," Scott admitted. "But it was funny." Some of his alliance-mates from the former Gopher team gave him disapproving looks, and he rolled his eyes.
Chris then barged into the Mess Hall. "Hey, Team Survivor! Enjoy your early morning workout?"
"Shove off," Sugar spat between bites of her breakfast.
"Excuse her," Noah said. "She's just exhausted after never having exercised a day in her life. Besides yesterday, obviously."
Confessional: Noah
"I still find the morning workout a miserable experience. But it's made a bit better by having someone else more miserable than me."
Confessional: Sugar
"Hey, I work out! I'm strong e-nuff to throw a tractor! I just ain't a runner, or a sit-up-er!"
End confessional
"And Team Me! How's that idol hunt going?"
"Up yours," Courtney replied.
"Well, regardless of all of that, it's challenge time! Get ready for the Blindfold Obstacle Course of Doom!"
"Taking naming conventions from Saturday morning cartoon villains, I see," Noah remarked dryly.
"Silence! Follow me, peons!"
"This is your challenge for the day!" Chris announced, as the camera showed an obstacle course. "First up, the Deadly Dash! A simple one hundred foot dash (we measured it this time). But don't step on one of the Whoopie Cushions if you value your skin!" In the center of the run was Chef, holding a power washer.
"Second, we have the Miserable Maze! Walled with 100% genuine thornbrush!" A small garden maze was shown, with thornbrush walls as promised.
"Third is the Pitiless Pipes! Be warned, all but one are hiding painful surprises!" The camera showed a wall with nine large plastic pipes like you would see on a playground going through it, each of which was a different color.
"Fourth, the Perfidious Palisade! Climb the rope over the wall and then jump down, but choose your rope wisely!" The camera showed a wall with four ropes hanging down. Two of the ropes looked like normal ropes, one was red, and the last was actually a large wire that was only mostly insulated.
"Up next, the Treacherous Tires! Twenty-five feet of tires, but some are concealing traps!" The camera showed a field of tires, some of which were painted red.
"Following that, we have the Daunting Descent! Be careful which step you step on!" The camera showed a deep pit with two very steep wooden staircases. Some of the stairs were heavily cracked.
"For lucky number seven, the Adverse Ascension! Careful where you put your hands!" A rock wall stretched out of the pit. Some of the handholds were standard, but others were trapped in ways from being covered in grease to being made of metal and sparking.
"Next is the Nefarious Net! Most of the places where the ropes are joined are held together by actual metal. But some are just held together by magnets, so don't fall!" The two nets were vertical nets made of rope, and each connection between two ropes was covered in metal. Most of the joining points were silver, but some were red. They resembled something that might be found at a park.
"Then we have the Perilous Path. Step carefully now, or you'll fall in the mud!" The camera showed that the "Perilous Path" was a series of connected wires, a few with tiny wooden footsteps attached. Some of the footsteps were supported by two or more wires, but some were supported by only one.
"The Slippery Slope comes next. Make your way down, but don't step on the grease, or your descent will be a painful and very greasy one!" The camera showed what looked to be a pair of large slides covered with grease, with grease-free pieces of wood occasionally jutting upwards to act as places for the contestants to put their feet.
"Back on the ground, we have the Calamitous Crawl. Crawl under the barbed wire, but be careful not to crawl under a point where the barbed wire is too low!" Twenty-five feet of mud was shown, with posts holding barbed wire over it at varied heights.
"The Penultimate Pendulums are the second-to-last obstacle. If you get knocked off the balance beam, you have to go back to the start and try again! Mainly because there's no other way up to the observation tower for the final obstacle except to climb the ladder and cross the balance beam." The camera showed rope ladders leading up to a wooden platform. From the platform, two balance beams led to a small wooden tower. In the middle of each balance beam was what looked like a swinging foam wrecking ball.
"And, last but not least, the Malicious Minefield! I think that one's pretty self-explanatory." The camera showed a fifty-foot stretch of dirt, with unburied land mines in several places. Then it focused on Chris. "Today's episode is sponsored by Moria's Mines. Land mines, dynamite, fireworks, they have materiel for all of your explosive needs."
He turned back to face the campers. "Questions?"
"I have one," Duncan said. "What's the deal with the alliteration?"
"I got the idea from a series of books I've been reading," Chris replied. "The titles are—"
Courtney interrupted him. "Wait, you read?"
"Yeah?"
"You don't read," she said dismissively.
"Yeah, I do."
"No, I'm with Courtney on this," Zoey interjected. "You seem like a 'movie of the book' kind of guy."
"Wait, I think I know what series he's talking about," Noah commented. "It's about three kids who get tormented by a washed-up actor who wants their money."
The campers made a collective noise of understanding. "If that's what it's about, then I believe Chris," Heather said. "He probably relates to the villain."
"Well—I mean—that's not the only reason I like the books," Chris defended. "Just shut up and figure out who's doing what so we can get started. Oh, but one more thing first. You'll be doing all of the obstacles blindfolded!"
"We know. The name gave it away," Sky told the host.
"After you do your obstacle, you will take your blindfold off, and guide the next person through their obstacle," Chris elaborated. "The guide for the Deadly Dash will be the one doing the Malicious Minefield. Team Me? Since you won last time, you can select a person to sit this one out. Oh, and get the interns to give walkie-talkies out, because some of you will need them."
He then faced the camera. "We will be back after this short break."
After a short time skip, Chris announced the beginning of the challenge. "And we're back! Let's get things started! First, we have Jasmine versus Lightning for the Deadly Dash!"
"Sha-peasy!" Lightning shouted. Jasmine smirked.
"Next, Topher faces Dawn in the Miserable Maze!".
Dawn faced Topher. "You might want to take a step to your left."
"Why would I..." Topher was cut off by a seabird with a plastic bottle-holder around its neck hit him in the shoulder and he recoiled into the thornbrush.
"Heh heh. Good stuff. You are actually wearing your blindfold, right Dawn?" When Dawn nodded, Chris moved on. "At the Pitiless Pipes, Lindsay will face Cameron."
"Wait, I thought I was supposed to crawl through the pipe," Lindsay questioned. "But how do I face Carmen unless he goes through the other way?"
"It's a figure of speech, Lindsay," Chris told her. "At the Perfidious Palisade, it's Courtney against Geoff!" The camera showed Geoff doing stretches while Courtney just stood there.
"Next are the Treacherous Tires, where Sugar will race against Beverly." B scowled at the use of his name, and Sugar laughed.
"The Daunting Descent follows, where Noah will take on Beth!" Beth looked nervous, while Noah simply looked bored.
"Tyler and Bridgette climb for the win at the Adverse Ascension!" Tyler cracked his knuckles, while Bridgette did some sort of breathing exercise.
"Heather and Zoey will navigate the Nefarious Net!"
"Ready to lose?" Heather taunted. Zoey ignored her.
"And then it's Duncan against Scott on the Perilous Path!"
"I'll smoke you like a sausage," Scott trash-talked.
"Hope you like the taste of defeat," Duncan slung back.
"And then, for the Slippery Slope, Shawn against Dave!"
"Why did I let myself get talked into doing this one," Dave mumbled to himself.
"You will warn us if zombies show up while we're blindfolded, right, Chris?" Shawn asked.
"Sure I will, Shawn. Up next is the Calamitous Crawl, and Al against Samey!"
"It's Sammy!" and "It's Alejandro!" were shouted at the same time.
"Then we have Scarlett versus Sky versus the Penultimate Pendulum!" Sky stretched as the two waited.
"Finally, Brick and Leshawna will navigate the Murderous Minefield. But first they must direct Jasmine and Lightning. Katie, meanwhile, will not be participating."
"Okay, are you all ready? Three...two...one...GO!"
At that, Jasmine and Lightning took off. After several seconds of running, Brick sharply spoke into a walkie-talkie, the matching one of which was held by Jasmine. "Stop! Now, step to the left. Forward, but slower this time."
Leshawna, two seconds later, shouted for Lightning to stop. Unfortunately, Chef heard her and sprayed in the direction the shout had come from. Lightning was far enough away that it didn't hurt him too badly, but the water did sting him.
Leshawna more carefully directed Lightning through the improptu minefield of whoopee cushions. For several meters it looked like the football player would make it through without being sprayed further, but as Jasmine was reaching the end of the obstacle and Lightning was still about two-thirds of the way through, he stepped on one of the cushions, causing Chef to spray him again.
Jasmine reached the end of the run. When Brick told her so, she removed her blindfold and adjusted her walkie-talkie to be on the same frequency as the one Topher's was on. "Okay, two steps forward, then turn left."
"And Jasmine brings Team Chris Is Really Really Really Really Mean an early lead!" Topher narrated as he followed her instructions. "Can Topher furt-AAH!" He didn't take big enough steps, leading to him walking into the thorns.
"Take bigger steps!" Jasmine told him. "Okay, just one American foot and you're clear to turn left."
While Topher was bumbling his way through the maze, Lightning reached the end of the run, his skin reddened. He took off his blindfold and looked at the maze. "Uhh..."
"No need to worry about me. I can handle this one." Dawn jogged into the maze and navigated it perfectly, reaching the end ahead of Topher.
"Okay, time out!" Chris declared. He angrily walked over to Dawn and examined her blindfold himself, obviously believing there was no way she could have navigated it on her own. Eventually, he was satisfied that she could not see through her blindfold. "How did you do that?"
"I'm part dryad," Dawn told him.
Confessional: Dawn
"I'm not part dryad. But he wouldn't believe me if I told him that I figured it out by listening to Jasmine directing Topher."
End confessional
"Okay, you can keep going," Chris said as Topher reached the exit and removed his own blindfold. "Not that one, the one to the right of that one," Dawn directed Cameron into the blue pipe. He crawled through, seemingly with no trouble.
"To your left," Topher directed Lindsay towards the same pipe.
"Which one is left?" Lindsay asked, but by chance, she moved in the correct direction and entered the same pipe as Cameron.
At the end of the pipe, Cameron exited first, followed by Lindsay. Cameron had his finger in a mousetrap, but otherwise both were unhurt.
"Heh heh. I wasn't being entirely honest when I said one was trap-free," Chris admitted.
Sugar and B began to run through the tires. Sugar put her feet inside the tires, but B ran along the rims of them to avoid tripping.
B moved much faster than Sugar, but he was slowed down at one point by a trap. When he passed by one of the tires, a boxing glove shot out and hit him in the side, causing him to fall. A second one shot out of a different tire and hit him in the face.
The footage of the episode paused. "Let's watch that again in slo-mo," Chris said, showing the clip again in slow motion. "Ha ha ha! I could watch that all day!"
Despite Sugar not setting of any of the traps thanks to Cameron's direction, B reached the end of the obstacle well ahead of her. Beth asked him, "How are you going to warn me about broken steps if you can't talk?"
B took her walkie-talkie and turned up the volume high enough that there was audible static. Then he used his to contact hers, causing the static to cut off. "Oh! You'll do that when I'm about to step on a broken one?" Beth realized. She then started descending the steps.
When she was nearly at the bottom, Sugar arrived and took off her blindfold. "Stupid tires. Well, skinny, get to climbin' down. I'll warn ya if yer gonna step on a broke step."
"Fine," Noah said, unable to see Sugar's malicious smirk from under his blindfold. He began to walk down the stairs, but one of them broke under him and he fell down the rest of the steep flight.
Sugar laughed uproariously, as did Chris. "Well, that's one way to do that obstacle," Chris said.
Beth reached the bottom of the steps just as Noah was recovering from the tumble he took. "Are you all right?" she asked.
"I'm fine," Noah said. "You'll warn me, eh?" he shouted at Sugar.
"I figgered this was quicker!" Sugar replied.
"Well, might as well get the rest of this over with," Noah grumbled. "Bridgette, the handholds above you for three feet above your head are safe.
Bridgette and Tyler climbed the rock wall, Tyler slightly faster than Bridgette. While for the most part, their partners kept them from grabbing the trapped handholds, at one point Bridgette grabbed one that was covered in glue, and Tyler put his weight on one that hadn't been properly screwed in and it fell off the wall. It would have taken him with it, but Tyler grabbed another handhold just in time.
"Boo! This isn't good TV! Get hurt more already!" Chris shouted.
Tyler reached the top of the wall first, and tagged Heather and removed his blindfold. Heather started on the net.
A few seconds later, Bridgette reached the top and removed her blindfold. Zoey began making her way across the net.
"Oh, don't put your hand there," Bridgette told her. "Yes, that one's safe."
"Oh, yeah!" Tyler realized. "I knew I was forgetting something."
As if on cue, one of the net's joints disconnected and Heather fell into the mud.
"Ha ha! That's better!" Chris said.
Confessional: Heather (covered in mud)
"Tyler is so dead."
End confessional
Zoey made it across the net while Heather was still getting back up. She then took off her blindfold and let Duncan start on the Perilous Path. However, he quickly ended up falling off the wires and into the mud below. Chris laughed at his misfortune.
Heather eventually managed to reach the end of her obstacle just as Duncan had reached the halfway point. However, he got unlucky when he stepped on a tiny wooden platform that wasn't properly held up and fell in the mud again.
"Well, this is gonna suck," Heather said.
Scott thought for a moment. "Maybe not." He then crouched down, took one of the wires that made up the path in both hands, then wrapped both legs around it and let himself hang from it. He then used his hands to pull himself forward.
"That's a clever idea on Scott's part, but can he deal with the wire digging into his calves?" Chris asked.
However, Scott made it to the other side, changing position only long enough to get past the points where the wires joined together. It wasn't a flawless process, though; his progress was slow, and when he got other side, Duncan did as well, despite having fallen two more times.
Both of the boys took off their blindfolds, and Dave and Shawn started on the Slippery Slope. Both were moving slowly, albeit Dave being the slower of the two.
Confessional: Scott
"I saw that we were going to lose the advantage here, but then I came up with a brilliant idea to win this challenge! If Shawn removes his blindfold before completing his obstacle, Team Survivor forfeits, so I just need to make him do that!"
End confessional
"Is that a zombie?" Scott asked loudly.
"Zombie?" Shawn shouted. He immediately dismounted from the elevated step into the grease, slid down the slope perfectly, and then removed the blindfold when he had reached the bottom.
Confessional: Scott
"It didn't work."
End confessional
Scott snarled, evidently angry. Then he smirked when he saw Dave put his foot over empty air. "Right there," he told the germaphobe. "The step is lower, so you'll have to lean in."
Dave leaned in. "I don't feel anything."
"Further!"
Dave leaned in further, and fell into the grease. He slid down, hitting multiple bars supporting the steps on his way down but still moving fast enough to catch up.
Alejandro had only just started crawling through the mud when Sammy started as well. However, even though she moved much faster than anyone would expect just by looking at her, she couldn't match Alejandro's pace. Alejandro was held up briefly by a bit of barbed wire snagging his shirt, which he had to unbutton and leave behind. When he did so, the camera zoomed in for several seconds on his abs.
Alejandro reached the end of the crawl several seconds before Sammy. When he reached the end, he removed his blindfold and Sky began walking across the beam toward the pendulum. "Wait," he said to her. "Now." Sky safely passed the pendulum and reached the tower.
Sammy reached the end of he crawl after that and removed her blindfold. "Okay, go."
Sky removed her blindfold, and told Leshawna to start. "Okay, slow now. Left. Forward. Stop. Right."
"McLean better watch himself," Leshawna said. "'Cause I'm gonna get him back for puttin' somethin' so dangerous in this challenge."
As Leshawna was about a third of the way through the minefield, Scarlett reached the tower. With that, Brick started making his way through the minefield, with Scarlett directing him. "Turn 30 degrees to your right. Now forward five steps."
Both Brick and Leshawna made slow progress. Chris asked the other teens, "What do you think? Should I try to spice things up?" Upon hearing the universal answer of "No you sick *bleep*!" he relented and decided to let them be.
Eventually, Leshawna began to get close to the end. Sky glanced at Scarlett, looked back to direct Leshawna, then looked back at Scarlett, having seen that Scarlett was smirking.
"Brick? Twenty degrees to your left. Six steps forward."
"Yes, ma'am!" Brick said, obeying her instructions. What he didn't realize was that there was a land mine in his path five steps ahead of him. When he stepped on it, it exploded.
"Stop the challenge! Stop the challenge!" Chris shouted, as two interns rushed to Brick with a stretcher.
As Brick was being taken away on the stretcher, Sammy confronted Scarlett. "What did you just do?"
"My eyesight isn't that good," Scarlett defended herself. "It was entirely unintentional."
"Bull*bleep*. You set Brick up," Sky accused. "I saw your face when you told him to step on that land mine. You were smirking."
"I-"
"And don't say you were thinking you were going to win! You were losing! Badly!"
"Sky is right," Dawn said. "Even if Scarlett didn't set Brick up on purpose, I can tell by her aura that she feels no guilt about what happened to him."
"Don't even try to spin your pseudoscientific falsehoods against me," Scarlett said. "Besides, if anyone is to blame, it's Chris. If he was at all responsible, he would not have implemented land mines at all. Or he would at least have used land mines that explode when you remove your foot, rather than land mines that explode when you step on them."
"You *bleep*! I'll kill you!" Courtney screamed. "Not if I kill her first!" Jasmine shouted. Chef and the interns had to physically restrain several of the campers to keep the scene from turning into a lynch mob.
Confessional: Chris
"Scarlett is right about the mines. I didn't know what type of mines I needed, so I just ordered the cheapest ones I could. Apparently that was a mistake. My bad."
End confessional
At the Campfire Ceremony, Chris addressed Team Chris Is Really(x4) Mean. "Brick has been airlifted to the hospital for treatment," he informed them. "I really should have been more careful about what kind of mines I bought. As for Scarlett, we considered having her removed from the competition."
"I. Did not. Direct. Brick. Onto. The landmine. On purpose," Scarlett insisted.
"However, we could not be entirely sure that it wasn't accidental," Chris continued. "Eye tests from before the game confirm that Scarlet's eyesight is indeed rather sucky. So she will not be removed from the game."
"WHAT?!" was the general reaction.
"But she's a menace! Just look at her!" Scott shouted.
"My decision is final," Chris said.
"This is all about ratings to you, isn't it?" Beth accused. "You don't want to get rid of Scarlett because she's a ratings magnet!"
"No comment," Chris replied. "And anyone who attempts to violently assault Scarlett will be accordingly punished."
After the Ceremony, everyone had collectively decided to ostracize Scarlett. When she could tell that the only ones paying attention were Lindsay and Tyler, she started fake-crying. To her credit, the fake-crying was fairly convincing.
Lindsay and Tyler took notice of her. "Why are you crying?" Lindsay asked.
"Brick got hurt and it's my fault!" Scarlett wailed. "And nobody believes me when I tell them it was an accident! I didn't mean for him to step on that land mine!"
"It's okay, I believe you," Lindsay told her.
"You've had our backs since day one," Tyler agreed. "I don't think you could have done something like that on purpose."
They both gave Scarlett a hug, neither able to see the evil smirk that had formed on Scarlett's face.
Yeah. I went there.
Some of you may not fully understand why I went there. I will explain. I wanted to keep Scarlett firmly out of "Designated Villain" territory. Despite everyone talking up how she's a terrible person, up until now she hadn't done much to justify it. Doing something so cruel to someone as nice as Brick was a surefire way to demonstrate that yes, this is the same psychotic Scarlett we know from canon. It wouldn't be true to the character if she didn't do something like this.
I'm very sorry to Brick and all of his fans. I love the guy, as you might or might not have been able to tell. He's a great person who really does deserve all of the appreciation. But this simply wouldn't have been as much of a gut punch if it happened to a less pleasant person. Don't worry, he will make a full recovery by the end.
Elimination order:
Dave, the Germaphobe (RETURNED)
52: Staci, the Compulsive Liar
51: Dakota, the Fame-Monger
Sugar, the Pageant Queen (RETURNED)
50: Amy, the Evil Twin
49: Leonard, the LARPer
48: Anne Maria, the Jersey Shore Reject
47: Izzy, the Psycho Hose Beast
46: Rodney, the Lovesick Farm Boy
45: Max, the Super-Villain Wannabe
Jo, the Take-No-Prisoners Jockette (RETURNED)
44: Ezekiel, the Homeschooled Guy
42 (Tie): Gwen, the Loner
(Tie): Dawn, the Moonchild (RETURNED)
42 (Tie): Eva, the Hothead
41: Ella, the Fairytale Princess
40: Justin, the Eye Candy
39: Cody, the Flirty Geek
37 (tie): Mike, the Thespian
37 (tie): Aiden, the OC Hate Sink
36: Sadie, the other BFFFL
35: Beardo, the Human Soundboard
34: Sam, the Gamer
33: Sierra, the Super-fan
32: DJ, the Brickhouse with Heart
31: Trent, the Musician
30: Jo, the Take-No-Prisoners Jockette
29: Harold, the Nerd with Mad Skillz
28: Owen, the Optimist
27: Brick, the Cadet