NickToons TMNT Episode 10- Panic in the Sewers

 By Mark Rodriguez

Originally written on Nov 25, 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.

Now that the Turtles have been defeated by the Shredder, and that his top men, Chris Bradford and Xever have become mutants themselves.... what will happen next to the Green Machine? Let's find out.

'Panic in the Sewers' starts with the Turtles lurking around the dark city streets when suddenly, Shredder appears and attacks them. One by one the Turtles fall, leaving Leonardo to face the Shredder alone. As it seems that it's over for Leo, this turns out to be Splinter's nightmare. Splinter wakes up and heads out to stop the Turtles from going out on their usual patrols. He tells that from now on all they will do is train.

Weeks go by as Splinter is forcing the Turtles to train non-stop. The Turtles complain, but Splinter reminds them that the Shredder won't rest until they're all dead. With the Turtles being completely exhausted due to lack of sleep, Splinter decides to let them rest for a while. During their down time, Leo watches 'Space Heroes', Raph hangs with Spike, and Mikey tosses water balloons at everybody to annoy them. Don is working on a patrol buggy that can split into four separate go-karts. Mikey hits Don with a water balloon and is chased all over the lair.

Meanwhile, April heads to the Purple Dragons hideout disguised as a pizza boy that delivered a pre-paid pizza to the wrong place. The gang members take it, not knowing there's a listening device taped to the bottom of the box. April returns to the lair and shows what she recorded to the Turtles. The Shredder knows that the Turtles are in the sewers, and that's all he needs to wipe them out. Splinter declares their home is no longer safe, and the Turtles now have no choice but to go to the surface to find out what the Shredder is planning.

The Turtles head to the Purple Dragons hideout and run into Bradford, who is now a huge mutant dog. In his new form, the Turtles can do nothing to fight him and have to retreat. Back to the sewers, Mikey names the mutant Bradford, Dogpound. The Turtles still don't know what the Shredder is planning and April insists that she can help.

Later on, April tries the same pizzaboy routine, but it doesn't work with the Foot. April however decides to go to the top of a nearby building and jump across so she can land on top of the Foot Clan hideout. There she sets her cellphone nearby so the Turtles can hear what Shredder is up to. However, Raph and Don's arguing gets in the way and so they missed the Shredder's plan. As April leaves, she gets caught by Dogpound who takes off with her in their car.

The Turtles chase after them in the Buggy that Don had built earlier. The buggy splits into four go-karts and the Turtles try to rescue April while fighting off the Foot and the Purple Dragons. During the chase, the Foot hijack a truck full of a rare chemical called chlorosulfonic acid that is explosive when it hits water. Dumping this into the sewers would destroy everything, and Splinter is still at home. Don and Raph head off to rescue April, while Leo and Mike go after the tanker.

Even when Leo and Mike get to Bradford, the mutant dog is still too powerful for them to stop. Time is running out as the chemical is about to be dumped into the sewers. Leo then remembers what Don said about it being explosive in water. He tells Mike to throw the water balloon that he was saving to throw at Leo at the chemicals leaking from the tanker. The chemicals explode, destroying the tanker as well as knocking out Dogpound. With April safe, the Turtles make their escape, but not before Mike hits Leo with another water balloon he had hidden somewhere.

Shredder is angry that the plan failed due to a water balloon and some go-karts.... and Bradford begs for another chance. Back home, Splinter apologizes for training the Turtles too hard. They must be ready for Shredder, but they also need their rest. There will be no training.. if Mikey doesn't throw the water balloon he's hiding. The episode ends with the Turtles about to attack Mikey.

My thoughts-

Well, after an epic episode like The Gauntlet.... this one was just ok. The main drive of this episode is showcasing the mutated Chris Bradford as the huge dog Mikey names Dogpound, as well as some of April's bravery. We're seeing a very pro-active April here, determined to take the bad guys down, even when the Turtles can't.

However the bit with the pizza was a bit dumb. The idea was ok, but couldn't she have used a smaller listening device? I mean, the Purple Dragons have to be incredibly stupid to not notice this radio-thingie taped to the bottom of their pizza box. Even if they didn't feel the extra weight... just setting the box down on the table to eat some pizza would have made the box wobble and such. I mean, just look at it, it's impossible for anyone to NOT notice that.

Dogpound was the major attraction of this episode. The dude is large and in charge and the Turtles couldn't do a thing to him. It seems he replaced his martial arts skills with just swinging his arms around, but his raw power alone seems to be more than a match for the Turtles. I hope they continue this trend of making the bad guys tough and dangerous like this.

I guess the only down side for me was how Dogpound basically looked like a big toy come to life. I don't know and can't put my finger on it, but he just looked more like a huge 'Dogpound action figure' than an actual mutant dog monster. In fact, during most of the chase, the Turtles themselves looked like toys rolling around in their go-karts.

As for the Patrol Buggies... I don't really have much of an opinion of them, except that it was kinda dumb for the Turtles to just drive around the New York streets completely exposed like that. I'm also surprised it took them thing long to show some of the toy vehicles. I hope they don't abandon hopping across the rooftops in favor of the Buggies or whenever they make the Shell Raiser. Although I have to admit... a vehicle you can buy as two seperate vehicles, and combine them to form one that can take all four Turtles at once does sound pretty cool toywise.

Again, Xever was totally screwed by his mutation.... The scene with Bradford talking to Shredder had a brief moment of the Xeverfish popping out from a pool the Shredder just happened to have in his lair. I feel bad for the guy, because if Shredder was cruel enough, he could have just kept Xever as a bizzare pet talking fish. What did they do last time when he was gasping for breath and asking for help? Did the Foot stick him in a water tank as they all returned back to Shredder's hideout? It just sucks to be him.

One thing I liked was in the opening scene with the Shredder. As he walked slowly towards Leonardo, he was scratching the side of the wall with his claws, just like Freddy Krueger does in the Nightmare of Elm Street series. So awesome, and it goes well with Shredder's claws and the fact that this was a nightmare. I also liked how Raph had to quote the 'Space Heroes' show he finds so annoying in order to calm Leo down when he was having an anxiety attack.

The last thing I wanna say is... wow... they are really making Mikey dumb, annoying and running the fact that 'he's the funny one' into the ground. While all four Turtles were exhausted by Splinter's training, why was Mikey the only one actually falling asleep? And what's the deal with the water balloons? I guess it was funny to toss them to Raph and Don during their downtime... but come on... all the times he tried to hit Leo were during serious moments. The time they were discussing how to discovers Shredder's plan. During the fight with Dogpound as the chemicals were going to hit the sewers. It's too much you guys. Cut if the fuck out already. The only moment Mikey redeemed himself is when he made his brothers stop to think that they were in over their heads when facing the Foot and when his water balloon blew up the tanker.

Paige watched the episode with me, and this was the first episode of the new TMNT show she saw. The first thing that came to mind after a while was how Mikey was "a pointless character that just messes things up and nobody really wants to be with". She also considers Raph having a pet turtle to be turtleception.