The episode opens in the park. Bluey, Coco, and Snickers are playing a game of “What’s the Time, Mrs. Wolf?” Coco is “Mrs. Wolf” while Bluey and Snickers stand some distance behind her.
Bluey, Snickers: "What's the time, Mrs. Wolf?"
Coco: "Seven o'clock!"
Bluey and Snickers take seven steps towards Coco.
Bluey, Snickers: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven! What's the time, Mrs. Wolf?"
Coco: "Ten o'clock!"
Bluey: (annoyed) "Coco!"
Bluey and Snickers take ten small steps towards Coco, ending up right behind her.
Bluey, Snickers: (speeding up) "One two three four five six seven eight nine ten."
Bluey: "What's the time, Mrs. Wolf?"
Coco: "Dinner time!"
Coco turns around and hugs both Bluey and Snickers.
Coco: "Got you!"
Snickers: (annoyed) "Coco!"
Bluey: "You always do this!"
Coco: "Do what?"
Bluey: "Something to make the game easy for you."
Coco: "Do I?"
Bluey: "Yes."
Coco: "Oh, sorry, Bluey. I'll try and stop."
Snickers: "What if we play Shadowlands instead?"
Bluey: "Yeah!"
TITLE CARD - Shadowlands
Bluey: [voiceover] "This episode of Bluey is called: Shadowlands."
In a different part of the park, Bluey, Coco, and Snickers are standing in the shadow of a large tree.
Coco: "What’s Shadowlands?"
Snickers: "It’s fun."
Bluey: "All the shadowy, grassy bits are the land, and all the bits in the sun is the sea."
Snickers: "Yeah, and there’s crocodiles in the sea."
Bluey: "Yeah, you can’t touch the water, or you get bitten by a crocodile."
Coco: "So you can only walk on the land?"
Coco points to the shadow they're standing on.
Coco: "These bits?"
Bluey: "Yeah, and we have to get from here to the picnic blanket."
Over in another part of the park, Chilli, Bella, and Snicker's Mum are chatting around a picnic under another tree.
Coco: "Alright!"
Bluey: "But you can’t just change the rules to make it easy this time, okay?"
Coco: "No, I won’t."
Bluey: "You promise?"
Coco nods.
Coco: "I promise."
Snickers is running in place, ready to get going.
Snickers: "Ok, let’s go!"
Bluey: "Yeah!"
Coco squeals in delight. The trio run off through the shadows of trees, jumping over and dodging bits of sunlit grass along the way.
Coco: "This is fun!"
Snickers: "I told you!"
They jump from the trees' shadows to the shadow of a low stone wall. Coco and Bluey make a longer jump to the shadow of another tree. They turn around behind them.
Bluey: "Ha-ha! You won’t get us, crocodile."
Snickers stops at the edge of the wall's shadow.
Snickers: "Ooh, I can’t jump that far. Look at my little legs."
Coco: "Well... maybe just this time, you can have crocodile-proof shoes."
Bluey: "Coco!"
Coco: "Oh, yeah, sorry. But how is Snickers gonna get over?"
Bluey: "Um... I know! Come here, Coco!"
Bluey leads Coco around to a protruding arm of the shadow, with their own shadows peeking out from the larger one.
Bluey: "Now get on my shoulders."
Bluey kneels down; Coco, giggling, climbs on top. Bluey stands up, causing their combined shadow to extend into the gap.
Bluey, Coco: "Go, Snickers!"
Snickers takes a running start, and is able to jump into Bluey and Coco's shadow.
Bluey,, Coco: "Yeah, we did it!"
Coco: "Great idea, Bluey!"
Laughing, Bluey, Coco, and Snickers run in the shadows of a line of cars. Bluey stops and kneels down in one of the shadows to look at a bug as Coco and Snickers keep running onto the next car's shadow.
Bluey: "Hey, this bug looks like bird poo."
Suddenly, the car casting the shadow Bluey is standing in beeps, and its engine starts. It then starts to pull away.
Snickers: "Bluey, look out! Bluey! Bluey!"
Bluey looks up from the bug to see the shadow closing in on her. The car horn sounds. Bluey gasps at the receding shadow, crawling and running away just in time to the safety of a van's shadow. She looks over at the giant gap between her and the other two.
Coco: (gasps) "You’re trapped!"
Snickers: "How are you gonna get across the river?"
Bluey: "I don’t know."
Coco: "How about we just pretend in this bit, all the crocodiles are asleep?"
Bluey: "You can’t change the rules, Coco!"
Coco: "Aww, why not?"
Bluey: "Because they’re the rules!"
A bus drives past the line of parked cars.
Snickers: "Look, a bus! Are you ready, Bluey?"
Bluey gets ready to run.
Bluey: "I’m ready!"
The bus’s shadow starts to bridge the gap between Bluey and the other two.
Snickers: "Go!"
Bluey begins running as fast as she can to beat the moving shadow of the bus.
Bluey: "Aah!"
Coco, Snickers: "Go, Bluey!"
Bluey leaps into her friends' arms, just beating the bus.
Bluey, Snickers: "Yeah!"
Coco: "That was so cool!"
Snickers: "Come on! We’re almost at the picnic blanket!"
Bluey, Coco, and Snickers begin walking along the slender shadow of a palm tree’s trunk.
Bluey: "Be careful, everyone. This bridge is really skinny."
Bluey suddenly stops everyone as the wind picks up.
Bluey: "Wait! It’s getting windy!"
Bluey, Coco, and Snickers scream as the palm tree - and thus the palm tree trunk’s thin shadow - starts swaying left and right. They try to stay in the shadow and maintain their balance.
Coco: "The wind’s making it move! I can’t stay on!"
Bluey screams.
Snickers: "The crocodiles are gonna get us!"
Coco: "What are we gonna do?"
Bluey: "Run!"
Screaming, the three run as fast as they can to the end, where the palm tree’s canopy creates a larger shadow. They stop, relieved.
Bluey: "Phew. We made it!"
Coco: "But look! There’s no way to get across the sea!"
A massive ocean of sunlit grass lies between the kids and the picnic blanket. Snickers looks back at the palm tree trunk's unsteady shadow.
Snickers: "And we can’t go back this way."
Bluey: "We’re trapped on a palm tree island! Oh noooooo!"
The trio begin to howl. Over at the picnic, their mothers notice.
Chilli: "The little critters must be hungry."
Bella: "Oh, I brought something for them."
Back on the palm tree island, Bluey, Coco, and Snickers continue to howl until they hear Chilli.
Chilli: "Cupcakes! Who wants cupcakes?"
Chilli holds up a plate of cupcakes.
Bluey, Coco, Snickers: "Cupcakes!"
Coco: "They’ve got blue icing! And sprinkles!"
Snickers spins around in excitement.
Snickers: "Sprinkles!"
Coco: "Why don’t we just make it so we can... walk on water?"
Bluey: "No one can walk on water."
Snickers: "Water boatmen can."
Bluey: "Well, we aren’t water boatmen. We need to find another way."
Chilli: "I’m going to eat your cupcakes!"
Bluey, Coco, Snickers: "No!"
Coco: (frustrated) "That’s it!"
Coco walks up to the edge of the shadow.
Coco: "I’m gonna be a water boatman and walk across this water. And have a cupcake!"
Bluey, Snickers: "No, Coco!"
Bluey grabs Coco before she can step over the shadow’s edge. Coco howls as Bluey carries her back. They fall down in the middle of the shadow, Coco desperately reaching out for the cupcakes.
Coco: "But I want a cupcake!"
Bluey: "You can’t just change the rules!"
Coco: "But you still haven’t told me why!"
Bluey: "Well, because..."
Bluey tries to think of a reason, but can't.
Bluey: "I don’t know!"
Coco: "See? There’s no reason."
Snickers: "Maybe Coco’s right, Bluey. Maybe we can just change the rules an eensy bit? It’ll still be Shadowlands."
Bluey: (dejected) "Okay."
Happily, Coco and Snickers prepare start walking towards the picnic. Bluey resignedly joins them, but before they can leave the shadow, the wind starts to pick up.
Bluey: "Wait!"
Coco: "What is it?"
Bluey: "The wind is back!"
They look around. Coco points up.
Coco: "Look! It’s blowing the cloud!"
Snickers: "It’s heading towards the sun!"
The clouds completely cover the sun. Bluey gasps, and suddenly, the whole park is covered in shadow.
Bluey: (gasps) "Run!"
Bluey, Coco, and Snickers make a break for the picnic blanket, screaming and laughing.
Coco: "Quick!"
Snickers howls.
Bluey, Coco: "Hurry up, Snickers!"
The clouds begin to uncover the sun.
Bluey: "Run your little sausage dog legs!"
Snickers: "I can’t run any faster! Oof!"
Snickers' hat comes off, and he falls to the ground. Bluey and Coco come back, pick him up, and run to the picnic blanket while carrying him.
Bluey: "Run!"
Coco: "The crocodiles are coming!"
They all scream as the shadow’s edge closes in on them, and manage to leap right onto the picnic blanket, laughing. Coco raises her fist in victory.
Coco: "We did it!"
Snickers: "That was so much fun!"
Bluey: "Yeah!"
Coco: "That’s why you can’t change the rules - because the rules make it fun!"
Bluey: "Oh yeah!"
Laughing, they come together in a jumping group hug. Chilli looks to the other mothers.
Chilli: "Kids and cupcakes, eh?"
Later, the kids and their mothers are all partaking in a game of “What’s the Time, Mrs. Wolf?” with Coco once again playing the role of “Mrs. Wolf.” Bluey, Coco, and Snickers are enjoying their cupcakes.
Chilli: "A cupcake for each hand, Snickers? You've got it made in the shade!"
Bluey, Chilli, Bella, Snickers, Snickers’ Mum: "What’s the time, Mrs. Wolf?"
Coco: "Three o’clock!"
Bluey, Chilli, Bella, Snickers, and Snickers' Mum take three steps towards Coco.
Bluey, Chilli, Bella, Snickers, Snickers’ Mum: "One, two, three! What’s the time, Mrs. Wolf?"
Coco: "Um..."
Chilli: (gasps) "Maybe this one will be dinner time."
Bluey rolls her eyes.
Bluey: "It won’t. Coco always waits until we’re right up next to her before she says —"
Coco: "Dinner time!"
Coco turns around and chases her friends and family as they start to run away - except Bluey, who drops her cupcake, screams in horror, and braces for impact.
[End credits]
The credits music is the episode's soundtrack - a playful orchestral tune. Bluey is dancing.