A pretty quick chapter, but it makes sense for this to be one of the challenges with the least investment from the contestants since most of them were under the impression that whoever got the original Heather task would win immunity. Kinda makes me wonder how Duncan knew to actually do his own task, though, since Heather only divulged that to Noah and Owen.

Some things were a bit iffy this chapter. Still kinda icky on the Ezzy stuff, but it was at least nice to see Courtney being a good friend about it. I also had to re-read the scene where Heather tells Noah why the immunity isn't guaranteed in the fridge since the wording made me confused why they were randomly mentioning Leshawna in the convo. That being said, I appreciate her taking care to keep their alternate timeline knowledge a secret. When so much of the cast checks out like in this chapter it makes me wonder why Chris isn't getting more weirded out. Thankfully next challenge isn't really one they can do much about with their knowledge.

As far as eliminations go, Owen was a good choice since Heather really needed to take a hit. He had a solid run once he got over the imitate what he originally did gimmick, and him telling off Heather on his way out was a nice touch. That being said, now that I think it over I really don't know why Heather even targeted Geoff. Sure, his penalty vote makes him an easy target, but if he's going to be blindly loyal why not use that? Had her side actually voted with him there would have been an Owen and Leshawna tie with a chance of getting her out. Now there's really nothing stopping her from losing a number. I'm sure she'll somehow pull the "let me point you out to Chef so I get immunity" card next chapter, but unless you also give immunity to Courtney, Zeke, Noah, and Geoff she seems to have screwed herself. Not that I'm complaining since a main villain with an alliance that's too OP becomes boring.

Looking at the others I guess now is good a time as any to collect my thoughts on them all. Courtney is definitely the most likable and who I'm rooting for the most. I've enjoyed Ezekiel for the most part but the Ezzy thing could drag my vibe with him down. Izzy is trash, won't miss her when she's gone, lol. Sadie has kinda sunk to the background in the past few chapters, but her bonding with Lindsay was nice. Speaking of, while Lindsay is likable enough she's just kinda floating along right now it feels, occasionally reminding us of the Noah incident. Leshawna too, surprisingly. I'd expect her to feel more relevant at this point. Duncan, surprisingly, seems to be the most active anti-Heather person at the moment. Feels like he's actually making a big effort to help pull votes off and make things happen. A bit random to have one of the returnees potentially become such a major player, but I can dig it. Noah I'm really not sure how to feel about. He's the most willing to work with Heather, which is strange all things considered, but he just feels so strange now following how major he was in the pre-merge. He's almost like a generic Heather lackey at this point, which isn't how I envisioned him being. And last is Geoff, who brought back out the asshole roots with his petty bullying towards Owen. He just kinda feels like a dumb bully jock along for the ride at this point.

Overall, I think the cast is in a weird spot. Heather, Courtney, and in a way Zeke all feel like major characters with Duncan on the rise, but I'm just looking for more from the rest. I know you emphasize the don't just boot people for being irrelevant mindset, but I'd recommend looking at it less like that and more like "I want this character to go far, so what can I give them to do?"

Owen did have a good run.

Owen and Noah's friendship was so good, Owen really loves his little buddy.
Geoff is making quite the interesting villain. I never really thought someone could do that in a competition non aftermath story, but you have managed to do it. Good job.

So long, Owen. You'll be missed.

I'll miss Owen, he was one of the bright spots in this time travle redo thingy. I swear Geoff decreased in inteligence

Huh, interesting developments. A fair bit to go over here, so I'll go a step at a time.

First, the returnees! Not gonna lie, not really the pair I was hoping for the most. It makes sense that Izzy would return since she went out the exact same way as canon, but because of the creepy predatory towards Zeke thing I'm just hoping she's gone sooner rather than later. And Duncan is just kinda random, felt like Gwen was more deserving of a return due to her elimination method. Duncan I guess would be the runner up in that regards, but it isn't like Cody returned in canon after he healed up from the bear. But the inner line Duncan had about how TD can't have a merge without him was funny at least. As far as what they bring to the table, Izzy seems like she'll just do whatever Zeke is doing (ew), while Duncan tries to be savy and play things with his out of game knowledge. I guess he could wind up being a fun addition, but he's kinda flopped out of the gate by failing to get out Owen, so we'll see if his performance can improve.

Also, I do like the penalty vote gimmick as a punishment for the dudes breaking their contract. It's a good way to remind them that they can't get too godmoddy with their previous knowledge since they still need to make Chris think this is all new to them. They seemed to really be pushing their prior knowledge luck this challenge, so I like that Chris seems to be growing more suspicious that something is up. We'll see if those cracks seem to break through even more. That's Off The Chain will be very interesting.

On to the vote, I'm a bit mixed. On one hand, Trent has been mostly dull so losing him won't be too big a hit, though he was actually really funny this chapter with him being a bane to the CN censors. But overall, I'm just a big iffy on Heather having an OP amount of allies, especially with Izzy now in the mix and even Geoff offering himself up to her. As I've said before, Courtney is one of the characters I just really can't buy blindly doing Heather's bidding regardless of the circumstances, so since she's what Heather's power hinges on the whole thing feels off. I suppose in theory she has three definite allies right now with Zeke, Sadie, and Izzy to Heather's two in Noah and Owen, so she could go against her at any time. But since Heather seems to definitively be the story's villain with Noah kinda being demoted to buttmonkey that everyone hates, I suppose we can't really get rid of her. Still, I can't help but find it strange that she has SO much power at this point of the game considering the story's premise.

Despite my critiques, I'm definitely still enjoying it. Looking forward to the next one!

Personally, I’m glad Owen lived to see the next day.

Having the boys be penalized is rather interesting. Makes the elimination more tense for them.
Wasn't expecting Duncan to be one of the returnees. Sad to see Trent go.

Aiiie! Being penalized for making their way to Playa Des Losers is really bad. Chris ain't happy, regardless.
Trent is gone, Owen is safe, for now.

Gettig rid of Trent here seems fine, you actually wrote him pretty well all things considered. You didn't make him go all insane.
The Cartoon Network and American jokes were great.

Trent was cool this season, although I won't really miss him

So we finally hit the merge. First interesting of you to have the boys receive consequences for going to the Playa Des Losers from the last chapter. It should be interesting to see how it plays out legally for them. Also, I think that Chris is starting to catch onto the time traveling or is slowly reveling that he knew the whole time.

For the returnees, I was nearly certain that Gwen was going to be one of them. But Duncan is still a good choice here as he still have some plot with Courtney to fill.

Also, just a question. Are the others contestants that didn't debut in Island is or are going to time travel back to the past too. If they managed to go back to the same day as the rest of the first cast, it could change if they would even join the show mostly due to traumatic events, such as Alejandro and Scott.

Sorry If I put the review on the wrong chapter.
There was a glitch there.
But I didn't expect that Duncan came back after he healed that fast.
Poor Trent though..

Wow.. I didn't expect Duncan came back after being healed that fast..
Poor Trent though.

Bluh, very behind on my reviews. Alright, let's catch up!

So this was a much more surprising chapter than I was expecting. Obviously with it being non elimination and them knowing that the stakes were lower, but you figured out ways to keep it interesting. Obviously the challenge itself was crazy short, but I will note that I find it surprising Noah was so willing to just quit and piss off his team. He already knows he's on thin ice, all he's doing is making more enemies for himself. But more on him later.

So of the two groups, I guess you can say the girls were less interesting. Only real development was Leshawna filling in Courtney and Sadie on the Noah and Heather situation. Which is cool, it seemed to thankfully make Courtney less willing to stay true on her promise. She's one of the last character that you'd expect to roll over and let Heather boss her around, so hopefully this helps prevent that.

As for the guys, they had some crazy developments. They ALSO got filled in on Noah, which I find really surprising. Geoff creepily looking around for Bridgette despite everything was a neat development, and cool to see Trent and Gwen back on. But Ezekiel felt like the focus this chapter. For one, the scene with him calling Owen being in threesomes was an interesting development. I've seen people play up the likely religious side Ezekiel has before, but haven't seen it used in a way negatively for him before. And yeah, with him being so sheltered and never being educated on the matter, it would make sense for his old fashioned dad to tell him that gay is bad. And then the potential conflict between him and Owen keeps coming with Izzy. Which was... well, it was a development.

Gonna be honest, I'm very surprised seeing reviews reacting so nonchalant to the Ezzy scenes. Because the interpretation I took away from it was that Izzy was being HELLA predatory. Like creepily so. She forces the guy into her room, Ezekiel's over here pretty much scared senseless due to his faith, and she basically makes fun of it, fetishizes it, and pressures him to keep going. It was very very creepy on her part. I'm not sure if that was the intention, but it was how I read it. I genuinely hope they don't become like an actual thing after this because that would be incredibly weird with as messed up as Izzy's way of going about things were. I'm not necessarily calling this a bad plot point, it can lead to some major conflict for Ezekiel vs Owen and Zeke internally. I'm just not sure if you meant for the scene to make Izzy come across as a predator as much as it did.

Anyway, past that I have no idea who's returning. Izzy could, but I'd hope not after this chapter. I think Eva is definitely out. I think Gwen would be a top contender, since she had by far the most unfair elimination. Katie could also really shake things up. Speaking of which, I have no idea how you're going to have Noah weasel his way out of things. It seems like literally everyone other than Heather now hates his guts because they know what they did. And if Heather doesn't have him, and Courtney doesn't go for working with her, she's kinda screwed too. No idea how things will develop from her, so looking forward to seeing the answer!