The host turns back the clock to the stone age in this challenge, and the castmates are forced to take part in prehistoric challenges. While one castmate bends the rules, another proves that they are not above cheating. Meanwhile, a bald castmate goes to drastic measures in order to get what they want. In the end, one team proves that they are higher than the other in the evolution chart and receive a nice good meal.
The episode opens inside the girls' trailer, with them discussing Courtney's return due to a lawsuit. Lindsay, brushing her hair, asks about Owen and "the boy [she] once liked, Tyson," to which the other girls correct her that it's Tyler. Leshawna says that she better try getting lawyered up, too, and get the million for being locked in the safe in the last episode all day; Heather tells her she had to pay for stealing her spa day, but Leshawna complains about how she could've starved in there, which Heather doubts. Leshawna mocks Heather by asking her what she would've done in the spa without a "wash-and-go hair." After Lindsay complains about a knot in her hair, asking Beth for help, Heather instantly volunteers to solve the problem.
It kills me that Lindsay-iot has all that hair on her head when it's her fault I lost mine. I would've chopped it off, but all I had was a hairbrush.
”
Heather roughly pulls on Lindsay's hair with a hairbrush, causing Lindsay to yelp out in pain and to tell her that she thinks Heather pulled her eyes to the back of her head, which Leshawna admits wouldn't be a bad idea, metaphorically, considering that Lindsay has to watch her back with Courtney now being on her team. Beth agrees, saying Courtney is bossy, and Lindsay says they didn't know another know-it-all, to which Heather reacts by pulling her hair with the comb, but Lindsay clarifies she meant herself and that no one is going to listen to her because of Courtney. Leshawna, distracted from playing with her hair, asks Lindsay what she just said.
I have gotta get me some hair! Not Leshawna's gross weave or Beth's pathetic ponytail, and I'm way too smart to be Lindsay blonde, but Courtney's? Hers would be perfect. I'm just gonna borrow these, 'kay? [snip]
”
After Heather gets the knot out of Lindsay's hair, Courtney enters the trailer. When Courtney enters, everyone glares at her. Lindsay glared at Courtney more, because now that Courtney is on the team, no one will listen to her anymore. However, when Heather sees Courtney's hair, she becomes very interested in it. She holds and admires some of Courtney's hair while telling Courtney that it's great to have her "hair," but corrects herself with "here." In the guys' trailer, Justin talks about all the body parts his agent tells him to protect, while Duncan talks about how he doesn't care about Courtney anymore (while secretly daydreaming about her).
The teams hear a loud foghorn and exit their trailers to find Chef and Chris outside in loincloths. Chris tells the castmates about a set of special treatments Courtney gets for herself, such as keeping her PDA, dining on gourmet food, and even having her own bathroom due to her winning her lawsuit. The castmates are all angered by this and consider it unfair. Chris then announces the challenge to be about a period movie. Beth then thinks that the period will be the 1800s (with white wigs and petticoats), but it is actually the Palaeolithic period, a.k.a. the Stone Age. Chris then tells the castmates to dress up in loincloths and gives Heather a Flintstones-like wig.
The first challenge involves both teams trying to make fire with only rocks. Chris instructs them to go search for firewood, and while they're all searching, Chef lifts Duncan, exposing his private parts, and makes him get rid of all the non-prehistoric objects he tried to smuggle into the challenge. However, they're interrupted by Harold getting chased around by woolly beavers.
Duncan and I have our differences. For example, whereas I hate him, he can't stand me, but we're guys, and guys can put stuff like that aside for the sake of the team. We can also pee standing up.
”
Duncan uses this moment of diversion to palm something without any other castmate, Chef, or Chris noticing, but Leshawna comes running to help Harold. Meanwhile, the Killer Grips are trying to start their fire, but Lindsay is confused as to how you start a fire, thinking out loud if it's similar to the game rock paper scissors, annoying Courtney.
Courtney thinks she knows everything. But she doesn't know that when I was twelve, my flat iron once accidentally set fire to my grandma's house. Twice!
”
Courtney says she'll get the fire going in no time, reminding them that she was a C.I.T., angering Leshawna, who says they're not in camp but in a movie set, and Duncan says Courtney is a total drama queen, which Courtney questions if it is due because she thinks he's "a dog for hooking up with Gwen."
I got some! Courtney's hair! Soon, it will be mine. All mine! [laughs crazily] What? I'm not crazy; I'm just bald.
”
When the challenge begins, Duncan steals glances at Courtney, and they start a competition with each other to see who can light the fire faster. Duncan ultimately wins by using the item Chef failed to confiscate, his lighter, to light the fire. After Courtney complains about how the rocks couldn't light anything, Lindsay accidentally lights a bigger fire with only one strike of the rocks.
The second and final challenge involves two members from opposite teams on wooden columns, trying to knock each other off with bones. Chris then reveals that since they saw Duncan cheating using the lighter on the camera footage, the Grips win the first challenge, and they get larger bones to fight with. The first round is between Lindsay and Leshawna. After Lindsay asks when the fight begins, Chris blows on the giant bighorn from the beginning of the episode, startling Lindsay enough to make her fall into the tar pit. In the second round, Heather fights against Beth. While Heather throws random strikes, a giant Monster Loon snatches her new wig and makes her fall forward, only to cling onto Beth's bone. Beth lets go of the bone, and Heather falls into the tar pit.
They make us do a lot of horrible, humiliating things to each other on this show, and I haven't been very good at most of them, but when I knocked Heather off her high pedestal and made her fall into a pit of bubbling tar, well, that was my high point of the competition. [chuckles] Maybe my whole life!
”
The next round is between Harold and Justin, with Justin posing on the column and showing his muscles.
[filled with tar] I'm gonna win the million, but that shot of me standing atop the stone column is worth even more. It's gonna be an iconic image for the series. Hey, Lindsay was right about the tar. My skin does look even better.
I never thought I'd say this, but I'm scared of… beavers! Especially fake prehistoric beavers.
”
When the fight begins, the woolly beavers return and chew through Harold's wooden column, as if it were a piece of tree trunk, making him fall forward and pull Justin off his column, causing both to fall into the tar.
With the score tied at two apiece, Chris proceeds to announce the final tie-breaker round, Courtney vs. Duncan. Since the woolly beavers destroyed one of the columns, Courtney and Duncan must now share one. While on top of the column, Courtney clings onto Duncan so as not to fall. After Duncan teases her about her wanting to kiss him, they both fall backward, but Courtney grabs Duncan's arm, pulling them back up, and they accidentally kiss.
Sure, Duncan has this primal animal magnetism, but he also makes me want to hit him where it hurts!
”
This time, Courtney pulls Duncan into an almost kiss, but before they can, she hits Duncan in the crotch with the battle bone and knocks him off the column, giving the Killer Grips the win.
Chris then announces that no one gets voted off since it was a reward challenge. The Grips get a special reward: a giant Flintstones-like mammoth rib, which Chef later accidentally knocks into the tar pit. As a consolation prize, the Gaffers get a giant loon egg to make a tartlet. When the Giant Loon comes back for its egg, Heather beats it up and gets her wig back.
I know everyone wanted to see Heather cut off Courtney's hair. Trust me, so did I. (slurps) But the girl's got a kick-butt lawyer, can't harm a hair in her head. See ya next time, kiddies! Same Chris time, same Chris channel! (throws away Mr. Coconut, breaks glass) Uh, wasn't me! (quickly runs off)
Reward challenges are such a waste of time. I wish we had a Gilded Chris Ceremony every night! Let's get on with it already so I can get my million bucks and get a decent makeover. I mean, a super-sized serving of meat? Who cares?! I've got something better — Courtney's hair! [wears strand of hair on head, fighting with intern] No, you can't have it! It's mine! Well, okay, it was Courtney's, but I took it, which makes it mine! [wears wig] It won't come off! I have hair! I finally have hair!
Chris states that a mammoth-hunting challenge was originally planned, but Owen's elimination prevented it from actually happening.
This is the third challenge that Owen ruins either directly or indirectly this season.
The first was when he ate all the prop food in "Monster Cash," as he thought it would be an eating contest rather than looking for a key.
The second was in "3:10 to Crazytown" when he drank the water from the water guns.
All three remaining male contestants have shown nudity in this episode.
Harold's towel flies off after he slips on his soap.
Duncan's loincloth rides up when Chef grabs him.
Justin's loincloth is ripped off by Harold as he falls off his column.
Continuity[]
This is the first episode of the series to air in the United States before airing in Canada. The U.S. would continue to air episodes before Canada until "Mutiny on the Soundstage," when Canada finally caught up to the United States' run.
This is the first episode in Total Drama history in which Owen did not appear. However, he is mentioned twice by Lindsay and Chris.
This episode marks the second time the Killer Grips have won a challenge.
This episode marks the first time Harold doesn't have his glasses on, revealing that he has dotted eyes.
This episode marks the second time in which Duncan uses a lighter to solve a fire-building challenge. This time, however, his team is penalized for its use.
Leshawna finally exits the safe, after being locked inside it in the previous episode.
The woolly beavers and Stymphalian Canadian geese return in this episode.
There are many references to The Flintstones series in this episode:
Heather's wig bears a resemblance to the hair of Pebbles from The Flintstones as it is red and has a bone in it.
Beth's cavegirl outfit also resembles Pebbles, who has a similar green top.
Other references to the Flintstones are the giant ribs tied to the top of a car/golf cart, the ribs causing the cart to fall on its side, and Chef's line, "Eh, it's a living."
Heather calls the prehistoric goose that takes her wig Tweety, which is a reference to the Looney Tunes character with the same name.
Chris' ending line "Same Chris-Time, Same Chris-Channel!" refers to the ending lines of almost every episode ofBatman (1960s Series) with the phrase "Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel!"