Episode Summary:  After barely being trampled by pissed off rhinos and almost falling to their deaths down Victoria Falls, the remaining eleven teams head for the seemingly safer Melbourne, Australia.  Wait, Australia!  The same place where one of the worst episodes of the Total Drama series took place over four years ago!  Oh, this should be fun.

  While on the twenty two hour flight to their destination, Don informs the competitors about a special addition to the challenge.  On two of the travel tips, there exists an icon of a boomerang on the back.  Any team that finds it can use it on a another team possibly ahead of them, and send them back to the first part of the challenge.  Of course, the Ice Dancers, (dressed in darker colors this episode to "intimidate" the other teams), immediately want a boomerang to get the lead in the challenge.  However, they may want to watch out for the Police Cadets (MacArthur really) who wants to get a boomerang as well to use on their enemy, the Ice Dancers.  Sanders though does not share her partner's hatred of the Ice Dancers, and unsuccessfully tries to convince her partner on a different course.  Alright, was Sanders paying any attention to the Ice Dancers' horrendous acts throughout the competition?  It is pretty much common knowledge by now that they are not to be trusted. 

  Once the teams land in Melbourne, the two boomerangs are predictably given to both the Ice Dancers and the Police Cadets.  Then, the teams all board taxis unknowingly to the sight of this episode's challenge; the once high security prison of Geelong.  For those who don't know, it was kind of the Alcatraz of Australia, and is notorious for holding dangerous criminals.  Also like Alcatraz, it became a big tourist attraction after it closed for similar morality and monetary reasons.  Once the teams arrive at Geelong, they will be overly realistically "arrested" on the spot and sent into separate cells in hope of escape.  When I mean realistically, I mean some competitors get hit on the head with a night stick or even tackled down to the ground.  Maybe the realism in this challenge was a little too good?

  Before that happens though, the audience is introduced to one of the episode's main plot lines; Carrie trying unsuccessfully yet again to reveal her feelings to Devin.  However, unlike the million other times this plot has happened in the Ridonculous Race, it is kind of a race against the clock for Carrie.  Today's winners of the challenge get to have a phone call home, which Devin will definitely use to call his girlfriend Shelly back home if the Best Friends win.  You know, the same girlfriend that locked Devin out of her car in the freezing cold a year back just because he forget to get her tea.  Why doesn't he see that Shelly is a horrible person already?

  Once the teams are locked securely into their cells, conflict and friendships arise as they try to escape.  The Ice Dancers break out by Josse's extreme case of claustrophobia causing her to break the prison bars in hopes of getting "fresh air".  When I mean Josse's has bad claustrophobia, I mean it is worse than Gwen's, which was triggered only when she was  stuck underground.  As they escape, Josse taunts MacArthur into thinking she'll help her escape by making her "admit" ice dancing is the best sport in the world and that Josse is the best ice dancer out there.  All this is done with an over the top expression from MacArthur, who is only being nice to possibly escape.  Predictably of course, the Ice Dancers then just ditch them, and accidentally cause Sanders to finally hate them.  The Stepbrothers after an extremely brief argument over how to escape, bond due to their similar interests, and possibly make the fastest friendship to each other in reality TV history.  Carrie tries to admit her feelings to Devin through a hand written speech she wrote while on the plane to Melbourne, only for Devin not to hear it due to him finding a way out for the both of them.  Well, it looks like that phone call to Shelly might be happening.  Hopefully the phone call disconnects so Carrie can have another chance to tell Devin her feelings towards him possibly at the season finale!  Maybe their main plot line for this season is too full of exposition?

  As the Ice Dancers and the Police Cadets head towards the next Don Box, tensions arise between the both of them.  After tensions in the prison, the teams want to knock each other back to the first challenge, using the boomerangs they received earlier in the episode.  What follows is possibly the most over the top LARP (live action role play) of a "gun battle" ever, which results in Jacques and MacArthur "dying" from the "wounds" given by the used boomerangs.  As a result, both teams are sent back to the first challenge in a maximum security cell, and now have to race for last place.  Knowing they screwed up big time, both teams make an uneasy temporary alliance with each other in order to escape their cell through the vents.  I "wonder" how this is going to end? Probably so well.

While the Police Cadets and the Ice Dancers fix up their stupid mistake, the other teams build rafts to cross the Barwon River in order to reach the Chill Zone first. Out of complete plot connivence, the Best Friends arrive first at the finish line, and Devin takes the phone call to Shelly. However, once he reaches her after many failed attempts, he finds out Shelly broke up with him while he was in the competition and is dating her tennis instructor, Ashton. (I knew Shelly was nothing but a self-centered jerk!) This causes Devin to break down into tears, and enter the horrible feelings that come after a break up. The Stepbrothers could have arrived first before the Best Friends and prevented this from happening, but they were too busy being idiots by pretending their raft was a spaceship. This causes them to be placed in second, and kind of be the blame for this pretty sad moment.

After finally escaping their cell again, the Police Cadets and the Ice Dancers race to not be in last place. Right when it looks like good will prevail over evil, the Ice Dancers cheat by knocking the Police Cadets into the water. Due to this, the Ice Dancers get into tenth place, while the Police Cadets are stuck with eleventh. Even if you like the Ice Dancers as a whole for being good villains (like me), you have to admit that this moment was absolutely unforgivable. As a result, the Police Cadets are eliminated. Well, that is what would've happened if this challenge was a non-elimination round, which is was. Seriously, how many non-elimination rounds are there in this competition? At least the Police Cadets are safe, and will probably get revenge on the Ice Dancers in the mere future.

The episode ends surprisingly kind of bittersweet, considering the Ridonculous Race is a comedy based cartoon. Devin is still crying from his break-up with Shelly, which is admittedly hard to watch. The only good thing about it is that Carrie will probably admit her feelings to Devin a lot earlier, which means we are out of exposition alley with their plot. The Ice Dancers got away with cheating, but the Police Cadets are still in the game thanks to this being a non-elimination round. With this scene left for the audience to see, I "think" the next episode will be as good as "I Love Ridonc and Roll".  Right?

  Positive Aspects:  The strengths of "The Shawshank Ridonc-tion" lie with the conflict building up between the Ice Dancers and the Police Cadets, the Best Friends'  bittersweet sub-plot, and the surprising amounts of plots this episode was able to balance.  Like the episode "I Love Ridonc and Roll", the humor was balanced out with more seriousness as well, making for an entertaining watch.

  The Ice Dancers definitely from this episode earn the award for jerkiest team on the Ridonculous Race.  Not only did they make an enemy of both members of the Police Cadets, but they also went so low as to cheat to stay in the competition.  This is definitely a step-up from the beginning of the season, where the worst thing the Ice Dancers did was be egotistical.  There is no doubt from the events of this episode that they will be a huge threat to other teams in the competition later in the season.  At first, they look like they are being as egotistical as ever, with their desire to wear darker colors in this episode to show they are "intimidating".  However, once Josse causes conflict with the Police Cadets by making them falsely believe that they'll help them escape the prison, it is clear they have gotten more competitive.  Their conflict with the Police Cadets later in the episode goes so far as to boomerang them into last place with themselves, use them in order to escape a high security cell, and knock them into a river so they wouldn't lose the competition.  Sanders growing hatred of the team throughout the episode is extremely justified as a result, and inadvertently causes character development.  Now, Sanders will not rest until the Ice Dancers are eliminated, instead of being neutral with them like she is with the other teams.  It would be no surprise if these events lasted the entire season, and ended up getting to a head right near the finale, which grows the audience's interest with where this plot is going to go.

  Also, the Best Friends' main plot line throughout this season has finally left its expeditionary stages and has reached a climax. Although I really like Carrie as a character and the Best Friends easily make my top ten favorite team's list, I have to admit the one sided crush Carrie had on Devin was getting pretty old. It is kind of pointless in my opinion to keep showing Carrie's crush on Devin and attempts to admit her feelings for him episode after episode with the same result. Always, something stops Carrie from being able to admit anything or Devin won't stop talking about his horrible current girlfriend, Shelly. The whole thing was getting dry and needed an update. That is what the end of this episode has finally given the plot. By Devin getting his heart broken by two-timing Shelly, the first person he'll most likely turn to is Carrie. Through his heartbreak, the two of them will bond and Carrie will have a better chance of finally being able to spill out her romantic feelings for her friend. It was a great decision by the writers to do this, so this plot wouldn't just become another cookie cutter romantic story. Now, more originality can exist for this team's plot, as it moves into its rising actions.

Finally, the balancing for almost every team's amount of screen time is something to truly praise. In the course of just 22 minutes, all of the teams (apart from Goths and the Rockers) have their time to shine. Sometimes it is in a humorous way, such as with the Reality TV Pros (who I didn't mention in the episode summary), and on other occasions, it is in a more serious way, such as with the Stepbrothers. Considering there are eleven teams in the competition or in other words 22 contestants still on the show, it is amazing only two teams had pretty much no focus this episode. A deed like this is hard for any writer, inexperienced or experienced. Always, one or two characters get way to much focus for plot connivence, or all the characters have focus with terribly done plots. However, that is not the case in this episode. I'm surprised after watching this episode the Ridonculous Race is not known about by a lot of people. Someone by now should've noticed the extraordinary stories this cartoon can do, while staying a parody of the Amazing Race. I may be alone with this opinion, but I really believe the Ridonculous Race is a marvel and worth watching. If no other episode I've reviewed can prove my point, this episode could have a shot.

Negative Aspects: Although I really love this episode, there are some huge flaws in the episode concerning continuity. Some actions done by the writers in the plots of this episode have weakened other ideas established in past episodes of the show. Despite the fact I believe these mistakes can be fixed, it was still a problem point wise for the episode.

One huge example of this is Noah falling back in love with Emma in this episode in a mere five seconds. Sure, it is nice to see the two of them seemingly starting something with each other, but what about Noah's ending statement back on "I Love Ridonc and Roll". He clearly stated he was done with Emma at the end of the episode, after taking Owen's huge homily (speech) the wrong way and believing it was more important to keep his friendship with Owen. With that in mind, Noah should've ignored Emma completely when he bumped into her in the episode, and tried to blow her off while showing internal conflict about his possibly still existing crush on her (most likely through sarcasm). The worst part of all this is that it only takes up a small part of the episode, which is the reason I didn't add this in the episode summary. Hopefully in the future, better things will come from this rushed plot point, but the damage has already been done to " I Love Ridonc and Roll". (The rating will stay the same for it, as it was most likely written before this episode, but it is still a bad move by the writers regardless.)

Also, there is the lack of focus given to the Rockers and the Goths, which I mentioned in the positive aspects section of this review. I don't really see it as a huge problem as the episode was great without both teams, but it is still sinful regardless. The writers maybe could've come up with something for both teams. Hey, they skillfully made great plot lines for everyone else. So why not these two usually unfocused teams too?