In the final episode of The Ridonculous Race, the Police Cadets, Ice Dancers and Surfer Dudes must race through New York, travel up the Empire State Building, and travel through Central Park in order to win the million dollar prize.
Tropes
- Anti-Climax: After spending the entire season making enemies and proving what depths they're willing to sink to in order to win, the antagonistic Ice Dancers are abruptly removed from the competition halfway through the episode, with virtually no sendoff (other than Don's eccentric announcement). The finalists end up being the Cadets and the Surfers — who play fair and have absolutely no conflict with each other. The uneventful nature of the ensuing final stretch is lampshaded by a few of the eliminated teams, including the Ice Dancers themselves. And like with other finales from the TD franchise, there's barely any differences between the two endings. The only real difference between either of them is how Brody's crush on MacArthur gets a kinda/sorta resolution in the ending where he and Geoff win where MacArthur asks him to call her after he wins.
- Back for the Finale: All the eliminated teams from across the season make a return as part of the audience.
- Blowing a Raspberry: Josee blows a raspberry at the Cadets when she and Jacques pass them in their taxi. She does it with so much fervor that several splatters of spit end up on the car's window. Jacques thinks it's gross and Josee couldn't care less.
- Break the Haughty: When Jacques and Josee were finally eliminated, they take their elimination well. However, when Josee realizes she didn't win silver, she and Jacques won a medal worse than silver. This was when things got ugly.
- Call-Back:
- Taylor mentioned that she and Kelly were finally eliminated from the show, instead of doing some disgusting challenges, like eating worms in China or sharing a sauna with another team in Finland.
- Crimson expresses her "happiness" on the Ice Dancers' eliminations, which was something she and Ennui predicted when they were eliminated in Mexico.
- The Cameo: Several characters from the main series make brief appearances. Chris and Blaineley show up with their face hidden behind other objects, Ezekiel is depicted on a poster, and Anne Maria is the only one to appear in full.
- Chekhov's Gun: Sanders' broken arm allows her reach down a drainpipe to grab the travel tip that was dropped down there after.
- Crazy-Prepared: After his painful leg cramps back in the first episode (which was justified as a potassium drop), Brody has kept a banana in his shorts just in case something like that happens again. Unfortunately, the banana became really moldy after sitting in there so long.
- Fooled by the Sound: The Police Cadets get out of a traffic jam by imitating a police siren, convincing the cars to move out of their way.
- Graceful Loser:
- Jacques actually does take losing with a surprising amount of dignity. Josee most assuredly does not.
- In either ending, the losers are disappointed but display absolute class to the winners.
- Grand Finale: Aside from being the season finale, The Ridonculous Race is also the final episode of Total Drama overall given the show's cancellation in September 2018. Subverted as the show has been renewed for more seasons.
- Ignored Epiphany: After calming down, Josee resolves to learn from this loss and become a better person. She immediately pushes a random woman into a fountain and then suggests maybe now she'll change.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The Ice Dancers cheated their way to first place many times in the race. When they get eliminated, their final placement is 3rd place (aka bronze), which is worse than silver (2nd) and gold (1st).
- No Sympathy: In both endings, the winners are happy and the losers congratulate them. Don observes that everyone is happy, but when the Ice Dancers say they're not, he loudly tells them that he doesn't care. Though considering what kind of people they are, it sort of makes sense.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: While searching for numbers, MacArthur attempts to exploit Brody's attraction to her. He ignores her, much to her irritation.
- Plot Hole: The first part of the challenge specified that all three teams must catch a taxi to the Empire State Building. The Ice Dancers crash Geoff & Brody's, resulting in them taking a nearby subway instead. Despite this, they don't receive a penalty. Granted, this might because Geoff & Brody had no real way to get another one at the moment.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is a play on the film A Million Ways to Die in the West.
- The Scream: Josee after seeing that the Surfer Dudes completely beat them to the punch in the first part of the challenge. Happens again after getting eliminated.
- Shout-Out:
- Brody mentions how a "huge gorilla went bonkers" on the Empire State Building.
- Sanders impersonates a police siren just like how Larvelle Jones from the Police Academy films impersonates realistic sound effects.
- The hot-dog car is based on Oscar Meyer's Weinermobile.
- Series Continuity Error:
- Devin is shown with a bandage on his head. However, when he got severely injured in Argentina, he never had bandages on his head.
- In the Police Cadets' ending, part of MacArthur's body is still outside of the Carpet of Completion, but they still win, despite Don telling Gerry in "French is an Eiffel Language" that the contestant's entire body has to be on the carpet. Additionally, Sanders isn't even standing on it.
- This Is Gonna Suck: After they're eliminated, Jacques right before Josee explodes.
