NickToons TMNT Episode 12- It Came From The Depths

 By Mark Rodriguez

Originally written on Sunday, December 16, 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 or knowing what to expect.

This was quite an interesting episode, and although it was simple and straight-forward it was full of all sorts of character moments. And hey, it had Leatherhead!!! Let's check it out.

"It Came from the Depths" starts with The Kraang attacking and trying to capture a mutant gator. However, the large reptile manages to get away. Elsewhere in the sewers, the Turtles are chillin' as Mike brings out a pizza milkshake... which makes everyone sick. Yeah... I'm not going into detail with that scene, I just ate. Anyways, Leo is watching another ep of Space Heroes, which makes a funny parody of the classic Star Trek episode 'The Trouble with Tribbles'. Raph changes the channel and they see a news report about a giant reptile attacking sewer workers. It's not good to have a random monster running around in the sewers, nor is it good to have the news media running around down there, so the Turtles go to check it out.

The Turtles find the mutant alligator being attacked by The Kraang, demanding to know where a power cell is. The Turtles are surprised by how strong the mutant is, but Mikey sees him as a guy that needs their help. He jumps in to attack The Kraang, who have knocked out the gator with their taser weapons. After the fight, Mike wants to take the gator back home with them, but the others look at him as if he's crazy. They call him a monster, but Mikey considers him a fellow mutant that needs their help. Seeing that's too heavy for Mikey to drag off by himself, the other sigh and help him out.

At home, the Turtles continue to think this was a bad idea, but Mikey thinks the gator will thank them. However, when he wakes up he attacks Donatello and the rest. Leo uses Don's taser gun to knock him back out again and Master Splinter steps in. Mike explains that the The Kraang were attacking him asking about a power cell. Splinter surprises everyone, including himself, by saying that Mikey did the right thing. He sends the Turtles to go find the power cell, while Mikey stays behind to try to befriend the gator.

Leo, Don and Raph go back to where they found the gator and search for clues. They dive underwater and find a hidden subway area full of all sorts of traps. As the Turtles get past them they find the power cell and head back home.

Meanwhile Mikey wakes up the gator, who is now chained up. Enraged and struggling to get free, Mikey assures him that he's safe. The gator says he has problems controlling his rage and isn't safe around others. Mikey named him Leatherhead and serves him pizza noodle soup, which surprisingly the gator enjoys.

The Turtles come back and are shocked to see that Mikey had set Leatherhead free. They try to ask him about The Kraang without getting him angry again, but Leatherhead loses all control once he sees that they have the power cell. Mikey tries to calm him down, but Leatherhead lost it. Splinter comes in and demands that the gators stops. Leatherhead attacks Splinter, but the martial arts sensei easily blocks, avoids and stops his every attack. Splinter demands that Leatherhead leaves the lair, and the gator does. Mikey goes after him.

The others follow and find Mikey with Leatherhead. Finally being calm enough to explain himself, Leatherhead tells the Turtles that he was a normal pet alligator until his parents found him and flushed him down the toilet. In the sewers, he was found and mutated by The Kraang, but in their own dimension. Suffering horrible experiments, Leatherhead soon saw his chance to escape and took the power cell with him. The power cells gives power to the dimensional portal The Kraang need to travel to our dimension, and without it, more of them can't come into our world. 

As they talk, The Kraang arrive and start attacking the Turtles. Don says he can use the power cell to turn on the abandoned subway car they're in to escape, but they need time. Leatherhead jumps into battle and gives them time. He says he will now trust them with the power cell. The Turtles manage to power up the subway car and it goes off like a rocket. By the time Don manages to turn it off, the Turtles are now in a sewage plant, possibly millions of miles away from where they were. Broken and defeated, the remaining Kraang want to tell the others that the Turtles now have the power cell, but Leatherhead makes sure that they won't be telling anyone anything.

My Thoughts-

Wow. This was a hell of an epic episode. There's a lot to say about it and I have to say this is Michealangelo's best episode so far. Since the beginning I've complained about how he was labeled as the 'dumb one'. And yes, again I have to say being naive is one thing... being dumb is another... and while at Mikey seemed naive and innocent... at other times he just seemed dumb. Like thinking about throwing a water balloon  at Leonardo during an epic battle where the stakes are high.... Well, an all media I believe, despite Mikey being the surfer, the spoiled brat, the troublemaker, the dumb one or whatever, he's always been the one with the most heart of the team. 

His compassion shows strongly in this episode as he didn't see Leatherhead as a monster, but as a fellow mutant reptile in need of help. "We're doing to him what everyone else does to us!" and "the enemy of my enemy is my bro" are probably two of his best lines in this episode. He actually made a friend of Leatherhead and through that friendship, uncovered a plot from the Kraang to further invade the world. In this case I felt bad for Mikey when the others noticed he must have gone after Leatherhead and Leo had to throw in that 'only an idiot would go after him' line. In that case Mikey wasn't being an idiot. He was worried about his friend. 

On other things, there was a funny gag about Leatherhead grabbing Don by the face... and he did so both times he freaked out. I got an extra chuckle when one of the random Kraang arms also grabbed Don by the face. Between this and Raph shoving Don into the water, this was Don's unlucky episode. Like I mentioned earlier this was a pretty simple episode without any subplots or anything else going on, which is why it's so easy to blog about without repeated viewings. I guess the scene with the Turtles going through traps to get to the power cell could count as a subplot, but it was too short and almost felt like either padding or just thrown in there to give the other Turtles something to do.

But wow, Splinter finally saw some action. Kinda what I expected from him, Splinter handled Leatherhead the way Mr. Miyagi handled bigger opponents in the Karate Kid movies. Mostly dodging and sidestepping the enemy's movements, and only countering and attacking when he needs to. Splinter barely had to move from where he was standing to quickly defeat the giant mutant alligator and let it be known that he was the superior fighter. It was an awesome scene, one that many fans were waiting for since Splinter was always seen just dealing out advice and sarcasm but never got to fight. I can imagine Splinter going all-out whenever he gets to face the Shredder.

As for Leatherhead himself, he was mostly like his Mirage counterpart. His origin and random fits of violent rage are taken directly from the Mirage comics version (which the 2K3 version copied) except of course, in this case the Utroms are evil instead of friendly. Rather than trying to find a way home to hang with the Utroms, in this version he is keeping any more of the evil Kraang from invading our world. I liked the extra touch of him relaxing to some old fashioned music on a record player in his secret lair. It shows he is more than just a savage beast that can talk. 

I'm also surprised that of all the characters so far, Leatherhead is the only one without an action figure out yet. I can argue the same can be said about Spider Bytes and Snakeweed, but unless they return, they're both one-shot throwaway characters. There's even a Fishface figure out now and we still haven't seen him get his robot legs yet. I guess we'll have to wait a while before we get an epic Leatherhead figure. 

This episode also gives a new problem for the Turtles. Now the Kraang have a reason to attack them directly since they want the power cell back. Before they were just carrying on with their kidnapping of scientists, being randomly interrupted by the Turtles. Now they have more reason to go after them. I just hope that the next episode doesn't just forget all about this and go on about something else, the same way everyone keeps forgetting that.... 'oh yeah, we still have to rescue April's father... don't we?'.

And before anyone thinks I forget, yes, April wasn't in this episode, but hey, the girl has to go to school SOMETIME, doesn't she?

As for Paige, she also thought the episode was good and it actually gave credit to Mikey without making him as stupid as usual. She also liked Leatherhead, the Kraang and their story. She's been watching several eps of the 80's Turtles, and the night before this ep aired we watched Turtles Forever. I wanted to show her some eps of the 80's version of Leatherhead for some comparison, but sadly that DVD just up and died on me. I'll try to get a new one soon, but either way, Paige is slowly getting into the Turtles.