User blog:Gogogadget831/Every Episode of Total Drama Reviewed: Episode 70 - Picnic at Hanging Dork

Episode 70: Picnic at Hanging Dork

Premise: The contestants head to Australia. Courtney and Gwen plot to get rid of each other and Courtney starts flirting with Alejandro.

Location: The Australian Outback

Challenge: Race up mountains on emu, bungee jumping and shearing sheep

Song: Shear the Sheep (Team Amazon)

Winner(s): Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot

Eliminated: Gwen, for losing the tie breaker

My Favorite Part: The song

So, this episode was supposed to be an end to the dreaded love triangle and boy did it backfire. I found this episode to be a very lousy conclusion to this. I'm going to state the elephant in the room and say that Gwen's elimination was very unfair. It was very clear that the tie-breaker was very biased against Gwen and it was extremely mean-spirited and unpleasant to watch. She left on a very bad note and there were no apologies and no regrets by the time she left. Duncan, as usual, was an unlikable jerk. He pretends to be hurt by Courtney, which ticks off Gwen, and he does play a role in causing his girlfriend's team to lose (by throwing the dingo at Cody). Also, even though Cody messing with Duncan by getting him attacked by a kangaroo and bumping into him with his emu was a bit out of character for him, I don't have anything against it because Duncan DESERVES IT! Despite that moment, Cody definitely has a sweet nature to him by sticking up for Gwen when she's down and siding with her. Like Tyler, Cody has a heart of gold and he's willing to stick up to the people he cares about. He even shows an idea for an alliance against Sierra, which I thought would have made for a brilliant plotline. It would definitely be a great way for Duncan to get some comuppance in the end and for Cody to get some good character development. But that was abandoned and didn't really go anywhere. Courtney started becoming more unlikable in this episode by flirting with Alejandro to make Duncan jealous. Good ambitions Courtney, but that's PROBABLY not going to work considering Duncan's into Gwen now. Yes, Courtney does need to get over her break-up with Duncan since she was the one who initiated the break-up, but it would be good for her to get revenge against the person who cheated on her. But, like I said, she becomes so out of character by going crazy and trying to sabotage her team's challenges. It's pretty frustrating to watch, especially since her character was headed in the right direction prior to Duncan returning to the game. Also, in my opinion, Alejandro and Courtney don't have very good chemistry, but it was funny seeing Heather get jealous. It's also good strategy for Alejandro to get further into the game and actually prove to be a worthy threat, which was exactly what Duncan should have been. There were a few things that I liked, like Sierra being concerned about Cody falling in the toilet in the confessional, Cody taunting Duncan, an emu sitting on Owen's face, the cool song, Owen getting attacked by a dingo, Heather constantly failing to catch sheep, and Cody calling Chris "Chef". I also really liked the portrayal of the Outback and the backgrounds definitely look great. But other than that, this episode has problems. It focuses way too much on uninvesting love triangle content when there are other plotlines that could be given focus too (like I don't know...Cody's alliance?!!!). But even ignoring the love triangle stuff, the episode is dull, frustrating, and mean-spirited through and through.