By Mark Rodriguez
Originally written on Sunday, February 9, 2014. Keep in mind, these were our thoughts as they were back in 2013 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 episode adds another piece to the Kraang puzzle and also deals heavily with April wishing she was 'just another one of the guys' when it comes to being a ninja and able to keep up with them. Let's see what happens.
The episode opens up with the Turtles doing their usual rooftop romp, but this time with April running along. Even though the Turtles do this often, April is already pretty tired. Leo says they usually do this for two hours, and Raph says it took them 15 years to get this good. As April and the Turtles talk, they are being photographed and April soon detects a guy hiding in the shadows. The Turtles and April give chase.
As the man gets away, the Turtles follow with their grappling hooks, but April's won't work, and when she fires it, it just bounces off Don's shell. Don offers her his grappling line and Raph taunts him, saying she's slowing them down. April swings down Don's rope, but instead of landing in his arms like he wanted, she bounces of his head and keeps running.
The Turtles sneak inside the man's apartment and notice drawings of the Kraang, as well as the Turtles themselves, April, and other random mutants (Spider Bytes cameo). Raph pretends to be leaving, and then grabs the guy when he looks to see if they really left.
The man's name is Kurtzman and he was following the Turtles and April for months. He said he started out looking for a missing scientist and his search led them to the Kraang. They've been around for years trying to terraform the Earth, but their Mutagen won't work the way they want it to in this dimension. They've been tampering with human DNA for years looking for the perfect strand to perfect their Mutagen. April's mother was captured... and experimented on. April is the the key to perfect the Mutagen.
Just then the Kraang arrive, blasting everything. A fight breaks out and Don protects April. She doesn't want his protection and feels inadequate since she can't fight them off the way the others do. Kurtzman tries to save his notes and falls out the window, but Mikey catches him. As they escape, a van blocks their path, with more Kraang inside. One of them is in a robot armed with a laser gun. The Turtles manage to get in their Shell Raiser and run over part of the robot, leaving the Kraang trapped inside.
Kurtzman tells the others that the TCRI building has been rebuilt and they have to sneak inside and erase all the info they have on April's DNA. He gives them an ID badge he stole from one of the Kraang. April is told to stay behind but she sneaks after them anyway.
The Turtles sneak inside and find sleeping Kraangdroids, since they're all recharging....and Mikey starts to make fun of them. April leaps in and insists on joining them, and Leo tells her to not let Mikey touch anything. The Kraangdroids all finish recharging and all awaken. The gang runs for it and jump into an elevator. Leo swipes the ID badge and it takes them to the 40th floor. It seems the Kraang are all up to something.
April senses that they're all sending mental messages to Kraang Prime, and she can hear their thoughts. They say that despite all set backs, they're still able to continue with the invasion. Kraang Prime senses there are intruders and all the Kraang, including Miss Campbell start to attack the Turtles. April gets grabbed by one of the Kraang, and despite her trying to fight him off without calling for help, she gets dragged off by it. Raph takes down Miss Campbell and then joins the others as they run after the Kraang that took April. As they turn the corner, they see April that leads them to another room so they can hide. They're now trapped and gas starts to fill the room as April suddenly starts to laugh evilly.
The Turtles are confused, but soon realize this is a fake April. The Turtles have no choice but to fight her, and she gets thrown into an electrical panel and explodes. Don is surprised it's an actual April clone and not another robot. The turtles then find a room that is full of April clones being harvested for their DNA.
The Kraang have April tied to a chair and say they need more DNA from her and plan to run a big needle through her head. She says she can just them hair samples since they have DNA, and they agree but find this other way to be more fun. As the Turtles start fighting the Kraang, one of them decide to 'open the reject bin'. This opens a panel on the floor and they see a giant sized failed April clone, with a second April head growing out of it's head and other deformities. The Turtles try to fight the clone, called April Derp since the only thing it says is Derp, but it's too strong for them. Raph goes to rescue April while Don manages to wipe out the computer files with anything about April.
Raph arrives to the room where April is, and more Kraang show up to attack him. Time is running out as the needle is inches away from April's forehead. April then lets out some kind of sonic scream that destroys the needle device, sends all the Kraang flying back and even makes the April Derp blow up. The Turtles arrive and see that April is ok, though she has a throbbing headache. Just then the room is full of April clones and they all claim to be the real one. To make it worse, they grab April and she gets lost among the crowd as all the Aprils continue to say they're the real one. The Turtles are confused until the real April manages to whip out her ninja fan and take some of them down. The Turtles defeat the fake Aprils and all get away.
Just as they get outside, a van blocks their path. This time it's Kurtzman to the rescue, and he drives off with them. He later lets them go and says that he will continue his investigation, and offers them his business card if they need his help. At home Don is studying April's blood samples and is shocked by what he discovers. April's DNA is half human... and half Kraang...which explains her psychic powers. April is a half human, half Kraang mutant....
My Thoughts-
This one is pretty hard to rate. I liked the episode though. It mostly dealt with April feeling unsure of herself and being less of a ninja compared to everybody else. Well... you can't get training for a few months and expect to be as good as people that trained for 15 years... Most of the episode was her wanting to break out and kick ass without needing to be rescued all the time. Sadly the situation around her as well as her own limitations continue to smack the truth in her face, she isn't a full-fledged ninja just yet.
Kurtzman was an interesting character, and kinda like how Paige made fun of Casey realizing just NOW that the city is full of freaks and mutants, he prooves that SOMEONE has been noticing all the weirdness and has been taking note of it. Although, wow, his research shows that they've been around and have been tampering with our DNA for years. To me his voice like that classic old school investigative reporter voice...mixed with a little bit of Fred from Scooby-Doo. Like the kind of old-school cartoon character that would say 'gosh' and such.
It's weird, but it's kinda suggested that most of evolution had something to do with them tampering with nature with their Mutagen. Kinda blows the mind that the show decided to take it that far. And then the mystery of April's mother being captured and experimented on by the Kraang. Was this before she slept with her dad, was it while she was pregnant, is her dad really her dad?
As for the April Derp.... I thought the design of that thing was going too far into the Resident Evil territory of grossness when I first saw the pic. I know the RE crew has some really gross mutations, but I guess it hits harder cause I don't want to see a gross-out mutation version of April O'Neil. What can I say? It has a second head growing out the side of its face... its left leg is basically a giant tumor... and what the picture didn't show... it actually has a mouth on its back... which I guess woulda been funny if it wasn't for it looking realistic and whatnot. Ughh... enough on that, I just ate. And I'm glad the damn thing blew up within the same episode. Say what you will, maybe you guys like the design, maybe you find it tame when compared to the more intricate designs of grossness in all the recent horror games out there... but I'm gonna quote Mr. Horse and say "No sir, I don't like it."
Finally, April's secret. I guess it's not THAT big of a surprise. We've had theories of this back and forth the moment we saw that the Kraang water didn't dissolve her arm. And now we finally got a better reason than just 'she has special abilities'. This definitely gives April a bigger role and reason to be involved in all the weirdness. I agree it does make April less of 'the normal one', but being that never did much for her in other versions. In most past versions once she's been introduced to the Turtles and we get a couple of scenes of her reacting to mutants, robot and ninjas, she kinda falls into the background without much for her character to do, but just be there. At least the news reporter April had her job to keep her busy, and would have continued to have her own risky adventures if she hadn't met the turtles. We'll have to continue to see what lies in store for April.
I did like the episode, I guess some felt it was repetitive since this wasn't the first time the Turtles have invaded the Kraang's lair to find some sort of new info on April. Rebuilding TCRI was just a lazy and cheap excuse to not have to make all-new backgrounds. I think the main issue is the whole 'plot amnesia' thing. Since the episode that they found out that the Kraang were after April specifically... they should have stormed to TCRI to find out what's what the very next episode, not until... whenever. Kraang Prime mentioned their invasion will continue as planned despite their setbacks... let's see how many episodes it will take for them to bring it up again.
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