By Mark Rodriguez
Originally written on Saturday, November 17, 2012. Keep in mind, these were our thoughts as they were back in 2012 when the show was new and was written shortly after seeing the episodes after their initial broadcast. At the time we had zero way of knowing what to expect.
This is a totally epic episode that throws everything at once at the Turtles and mixes in several plot points. And yes, the Turtles finally have their first battle against the Shredder!!!
Oddly enough this episode opens up with a mutant pigeon stalking April. Meanwhile, Donatello is showing the Turtles that he learned to make ninja smokebombs out of eggs. Mikey finds out and is impressed, using them to basically warp all over the place like Nightcrawler. April rushes in and tell them about the mutant pigeon that is after her.The Turtles decide to lure the pigeon out with April as bait so they can capture it. Just as they run out, Splinter stops them and tells them that they nothing about their enemy and are being too overconfident. Leo says they defeated mutant plants, mutant spiders, alien robots and an army of ninjas, and think they're 'just that good'. Splinter doesn't approve as they rush off.
Elsewhere, Shredder is still angry that Chris and Xever failed in the defeating the Turtles twice and sees he has to take them down himself.
April wanders around, making herself an open target for the pigeon to fly at her. The Turtles taze him down and capture him. The pigeon (named Pete) was actually sent by April's father to warn her about a big danger coming soon, and he wants her to leave the city as fast as he can. Instead the Turtles want to know where Pigeon Pete escaped from so they can attempt to rescue April's dad from The Kraang. However, some Foot Ninjas overhear this. Chris and Xever are at a fish market discussing their problems, when they get a call from the Foot.
The Turtles sneak into The Kraang's base while April waits outside. Don and Mike try to work the machinery while Leo and Raph go to rescue April's father. Through him they find out that The Kraang are from another dimension and the Mutagen doesn't work there the same way it works on Earth. They're kidnapping the scientists to help them modify the Mutagen. Don and Mike rush in telling them that The Kraang plans to set off a Mutagen bomb covering half the city. Mikey accidentally sets the alarm, alerting all the Kraang while Leo finally gets April's father free.
The Turtles try to escape but there are too many of The Kraang to do so. April's father grabs a blaster and shoots The Kraang, giving the Turtles time to escape. He asks them to keep April safe and save the city. April helps the Turtles escape, being sad that her father got captured again. Don promises that they will rescue him, but for now they have to put out that bomb.
The Kraang are atop the Wolf Hotel and say that the Mutagen bomb will go off in five minutes. The Turtles arrive and start taking down the robots with arrows. Don finds the bomb but is surprised by how incredibly complex it is. Leo comments that the bomb isn't going to look like a ball with the words 'bomb' on it.
To complicate matters, Bradford and Xever show up and start attacking the Turtles. Don tries to defuse the bomb as the others fight it out. Mike yells for Don to cut the green one, and sure enough it works and deactivates the bomb. With the bomb defused and Don back into the fight, the Turtles finally manage to defeat Bradford and Xever. Chris says that if he's going down, he'll take everyone with him and stabs the Mutagen bomb with his sword. This causes the Mutagen to bust out and splash all over Chris and Xever, sending them falling over the tower.
Leo sums up that they defeated The Kraang, Chris and Xever and also defused a bomb which saved the city, claiming that they're 'just that good'. Suddenly The Shredder shows up. Mikey tries to use a smokebomb to escape, but he has already used them all and tossed an ordinary egg by mistake. They fight it out, but the Shredder easily takes down all of the Turtles. Mikey does manage to hang him over the side of the Wolf Tower with his kusarigama... but then Shredder cuts himself free and sends a huge chunk of the sign on top of the Turtle. As the other help Mikey back up, Shredder gets ready for more, and defeats them all in mid-air combat.
As Shredder prepares to kill Leonardo, he asks him where to find his sworn enemy Hamato Yoshi, Suddenly, Xever appears, mutated into a fish and gasping for air, as well as Bradford, now a mutant dog. Shredder is surprised to see his men turned into monsters, but when he turns, the Turtles are already gone.
Back at the lair, the Turtles are bruised, battered, broken and humbled. Splinter says that they are lucky to have faced the Shredder and survive. Leo says he was right about them being too overconfident. Splinter says that it no longer matters because now they are at war.
My Opinions-
This was an awesome episode with so much to say. Don making smokebombs was awesome since I don't recall any previous versions of the Turtles EVER using ninja smokebombs.... with the exception of maybe the Mirage comics and that one scene in TMNT II The Secret of the Ooze with Raph and Keno. Smokebombs seem to be used mostly by the 'bad guy ninjas' so it was cool to see the Turtles use them too. However, it does seem like they're flat-out teleporting. A real smokebomb is supposed to just cover up your movements as you quickly run away or whatever before the smoke clears. Here, Mikey was basically Nightcrawler. But again, this is a cartoon and cartoon ninjas have used smokebombs to teleport before. And it was funny to see Mikey 'teleport' Splinter into the room.
Other scenes worth pointing out was Don calling April 'his April', and her father explaining more about The Kraang. I like how this episode connected everything and had them face both the Shredder and his men, AND trying to rescue April's father from The Kraang. Even though this is the episode in which Xever and Chris finally get defeated, they still put up a good fight and it was no easy feat. As many know from buying the toys, Xever and Chris end up getting mutated into a snakehead fish and a dog. We have yet to see how they will act whenever they return, I think Xever got pretty much screwed. While Chris becomes an even bigger powerhouse.... Xever becomes a fish that will need some kind of breathing device (he was already seen gasping for air) and will also need to rely on cyber-legs to walk around. We have yet to see how this will go for him, but I do feel sorry for the guy who basically turned into a big talking fish with arms. And like someone asked in the Technodrome forums, 'how will he able to pull off those sweet capoeira moves with robot legs?' We'll have to see.
As for the Shredder.... bad-ass doesn't even begin to describe him. For all those that watched the 2003 cartoon and assumed that just because they used an Utrom in a robot suit instead of a normal human it meant that there was no way for the Shredder to be a normal human and be still be bad-ass without turning him into comedy relief like the 80's version...... this new version should shut them up. Shredder took them all down without much trouble. Even though Mikey did tie him up for a while, he used that as an advantage to escape, drop a sign on Mike, and get back into the fight. The retractable blades also gives him the chance to throw a few punches without the claws getting in the way, since we know the cartoon will never show him actually slice someone's head off. I did like how Mikey was able to toss some shuriken while he was being sent rolling away, which Shredder still managed to block. The whole fight was awesome, and the Turtles were lucky to get away.
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