S1E8 - Star Return

Star Return is the eighth episode of the first season of Video Game All-Stars. The teams are broken up for good, and an eliminated contestant returns to the game, for better or for worse.

Plot
The episode begins not with the remaining contestants, but rather those eliminated. Banjo informs the six eliminated players that they will have a chance to return to the game, they would just have to race to the island, with first place rejoining. Pac-Man chooses not to participate in the competition, as he doesn't really care. King K. Rool, Rise and Mario look for ships, while Marisa helps Gundham find one. He gets it first, and starts moving, but K. Rool is close behind. Rise pushes Mario off of her ship, but K. Rool attacks her, taking her out of the challenge as well. It's a close battle between K. Rool and Gundham, but in the end, K. Rool makes it first, returning to the game.

The contestants return to space before Banjo reveals the returner, so Hiroko and Lilac mess around with the low gravity to pass the time. Spyro is about to join in, but Banjo calls the contestants over to meet the returning player. Mugman is curious to see who returns, but everyone is disappointed when it is revealed to be K. Rool. Lilac and Spyro are both disappointed that Rise did not return, and Eggman just dabs on K. Rool. Falco asks if Banjo can just send him back, but Banjo declines, so Mugman says at least their vote is easy after the challenge. Banjo also announces officially that the teams are broken up, and every contestant would be playing for themselves.

Banjo then pushes all the seven contestants into Arwings and says the challenge is Star Fox based, having to shoot everyone else down to win. Falco has the immediate advantage as nobody else quite understands how to pilot, but once they figure out how to fire lasers, they all go for K. Rool, who dodges a lot, playing around with some Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Spyro gets frustrated by his dodging, and starts berating K. Rool, saying anyone else would've deserved to return more than him. Mugman gives up on the challenge and just flies in circles. Eventually, Spyro lands a shot, destroying K. Rool's ship, which he is very happy about. He tries to complain about it, but Banjo tells him to shut up, surprising some of the contestants with the outburst.

The other six take a moment to calm down, with K. Rool being out of the challenge. Hiroko is struggling to control the ship, so Eggman takes the opportunity to drop a bomb on her. As she thought he was still targeting her after she tried to befriend him, she gets quite confused and upset about this. While Eggman is busy with this, Falco and Lilac shoot at him, but Lilac also notices Mugman struggling, and goes for him instead. Both are hit by these, leaving only three left. Spyro fires lasers at any ship he sees in an attempt to win, but feels bad about it after he explodes Lilac's ship, though she doesn't seem to mind too much. With Falco's advantage, he's able to take Spyro down easily, winning the first merge challenge and getting immunity.

The contestants return to the island after the challenge, and K. Rool tries to save himself in any way he can, but he's ridiculed by Spyro, who tells him coldly that he fired every shot to make sure K. Rool would be eliminated again. The two are about to fight, but Lilac steps in, also yelling at K. Rool for returning over Rise. Hiroko tries to get them to calm down, but elimination is announced, so they go there instead.

At elimination, Banjo admits that it isn't even a surprise, but in the interest of suspense, he says K. Rool and Spyro are the bottom two. Spyro knows he's safe, so he just gives him a smug look as Banjo reveals the vote was 6-1 for K. Rool to be eliminated just as soon as he returned. The other six contestants either express happiness that he's out, or just flat out ignore him. Eggman dabs again to lighten the mood, but Spyro realises as they aren't in teams, they've been locked out of the cabins. In the end, they decide to set up camp for the night, working together as a group.