Nicktoons TMNT Episode 38- Of Rats and Men

 By Mark Rodriguez

Originally written on Sunday, March 2, 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.

 Time for another new episode of the TMNT! A bit of this was spoiled at the New York Comic Con when they showed a storyboard scene of Mikey tossing Ice Cream Kitty at Rat King.... so once last week's promo showed we'd be seeing ICK, it also meant the Rat King was going to return. Oh and hey, we get a lot of Irma in this episode as well.

 

The episode opens with Casey, April and Irma walking around together. Casey asks Irma why she had to be an extra 'chaperone' during their 'date' and April tells him this isn't a date. Just then a rat runs past them, which freaks out Casey. As Irma taunts him, and bores him with rat facts, April sees a stray cat chasing them. April picks him up and decides to take him in. April and Casey head off and Irma promises to one day find out where they always head off to. After they're gone, Irma gets attacked by rats.

After the theme song, Splinter is training with Leonardo, as the other watch. Splinter puts on a blindfold and Leo feels it isn't fair. Splinter explains its not just the fact his other senses are heightened, it's also the matter that the person faces him thinks they have control. It's this illusion of control that turns against the opponent, as Splinter defeats Leo easily. The other Turtles laugh at Leo and Splinter suddenly loses control and starts to attack them. Just before he can seriously hurt them, he stops. He goes off to meditate and says they can continue training later.

 

Later on, Mikey is enjoying some ice cream in Donnie's lab while Don is trying to work on some Retro-Mutagen. Mikey's ice creams splatters all over the place and Don tells him to go away. One of the ice cream scoops falls into a vial of Mutagen and Mike tries to cover it up. Just then April comes in, which cheers Donnie up, until he notices she brought Casey along as well.

April wonders if they can watch the stray cat (though Paige asked why not just take it to her place) and Don says Splinter might not like it. Casey mentions it might go crazy and eat Splinter, and while Don and Casey bicker, Mikey feeds the cat some of his ice cream. As Mikey is distracted, he notices the cat went on to lick the ice cream that feel into the Mutagen vial. Mikey freaks out as the cat turns into ice cream and melts into a puddle. As Mikey feels horrible for what he's done, the ice cream reforms itself as an Ice Cream Kitty. Mikey quickly grabs the cat and hides him from the others.

 

Splinter is meditating and faces the Rat King in his mind, who he thought was already dealt with. Rat King tells him that he is never gone, and is in his very soul. He says he now had what he came for.

Mikey hides the kitty in the freezer and starts to lick him. The others are right behind him and wonder what he's up to. Splinter comes in with a headache and wants to grab some ice for his head from the freezer. Mikey stops him from opening the freezer door and tells him no. Splinter then freaks out and starts attacking Mikey and the others as if he was a rabid rat. He acts like Falco saying 'he's got what he came for' and he will 'soon rule New York' and passes out. As the Turtles tend to him, he tells them that the Rat King is back.

The Rat King is standing on the rooftops and sends his rats to attack the city, only this time they're giant mutant rats, and they're capturing the people they attack. It's soon on the news and our heroes are watching. Leo wants Splinter to help them since last time he was able to take him down with a single attack. Splinter doesn't want to since he doesn't want to risk attacking his family. Leo says they need him though and he sighs.

Later on Mikey is being pulled along by April and Raph in the Patrol Buggy with a big block of cheese on his head, since he's always such good bait. The Shell Raiser is also there, as well as Casey on his gadget-prepped bike. The giant rats show up and start chasing the good guys.

The rat jumps on top of the Patrol Buggy, but the Shell Raiser's garbage cannons shoots him off it. Casey's bike drops marbles that trip up the rats, and he also uses a flame thrower to keep them away. One of the giant rats grabs Casey and runs off with him. April and Don chases after him, but the rat is gone. Rat King himself escapes by riding a giant rat. April is saddened, and even Don feels a bit bad to see that Casey is gone.

 

 

Casey wakes up and finds himself in a cage, right next to Irma. He soon uses kind of a 'Batman voice' so she wouldn't recognize him. She points out that all the people that have been captured by the rats are being held in cages here. Rat King arrives and points out that he has perfected the Mutagen Growth Serum and will use it to create rat people. We also see a quick dark scene of a messed up failed human/rat hybrid begging to be killed. Dark. He used knowledge that he obtained from Splinter that shows what makes him so unique to make this happen.

Back at the lair, Splinter agrees to join the Turtles this time as they all start to gear up. Unknown to everyone else, Mikey also gets the Ice Cream Kitty ready for his mission.

At the Rat King's lair, he gets ready to test out his serum on Irma. The heroes arrive and they tell April that she's going to have to rescue them so the humans don't see them. Mikey says he has a secret weapon in an ice box. Just then Splinter is controlled by the Rat King and starts attacking the Turtles. Mikey then yells out his secret weapon and tosses the ice box at the Rat King. Ice Cream Kitty jumps out and starts attacking his face. With his control over Splinter lost, Rat King escapes and the rat sensei chases him down the sewers.

April frees Casey and he helps her free the other people, sending them off to safety. Irma tries to help too and presses some buttons on Rat King's control console that mistakenly sets off a giant fan. Don almost falls in it and Mikey saves him. As Mikey pulls him up, he sees the Ice Cream Kitty and says they're gonna have to have a talk about that. 

Rat King and Splinter fight it out in a bizzare underground larybrinth.... or whatever that is. Rat King jumps across a huge swarm of rats to a high ledge. Splinter tries to jump across and barely makes it to the edge, but the rats knock him off. Splinter then climbs up the pipe, determined to end this.

The giant rats start attacking the heroes, and our team brings the fight to them. Mikey is cornered by one of them, but Ice Cream Kitty jumps in and fights it off, saving him. Casey faces his fear of rats and socks one of them out.

Splinter and Rat King continue their fight, and the rat sensei manages to knock the rat off Falco's shoulder. The Rat King is blind and sees through the eyes of other rats, and he points out that he can still see through Splinter's eyes. Splinter then blindfolds himself and explains how he gave him the illusion of control of the situation. As the credits start to roll (yes, mid-fight, wtf???) Splinter defeats Rat King as he falls off the ledge into nothingness. Splinter takes off his blindfold and walks off, sarcastically saying 'Good bye 'my king'.'

My Thoughts-

As usual there's a lot to say about the episode. Let me get some of the quick points here. First off, we see some more of the Casey/Don deal, though it's not exactly what I would call an April rivalry. At least from Casey's point of view, he really has no idea why the 'turtle with the stick' hates him, but he fights back whenever the exchange of insults start up. I assume someday Casey will flat out call out Don and ask 'what's your problem with me?'. While Casey hits on April and she does act nice around him around Donnie, Donnie himself has never acted out on his crush on her in front of Casey. So far the rivalry is one-sided in the sense that Casey still doesn't know that Donnie likes April and wants her for himself. I guess it will happen eventually but so far the people against the idea of 'TMNT love triangle' can relax.

Rat King returns and starts haunting Splinter before we even see him in the episode. Unlike past versions (or rather, the OT version) where Rat King can only affect Splinter if he's in the general area, Dr. Falco can reach into his mind at any given time. And he can also see through his eyes to know what's going on. However, it's also counter-productive since Splinter can also see whatever Falco is scheming and use that against him. While Rat King was taken out by one hit in the last episode, he actually lasts a lot longer this time against Yoshi. And yes... the plot of turning humans into rats was a page out of the 80's Rat King's playbook, as we saw similar plots at least twice (though of them literally did turn Irma and Vernon into were-rats). 

The Rat King also got a creepier and more ghoulish design this time around that makes him look like an even creepier version of the New Batman Adventures take on the Scarecrow.

And as for Irma, we did get to see a lot of her in this episode, so she is more than just a cameo. She also seems to be always blurting out useless scientific information (in this case a lot of rat facts), so she might get along with Donnie whenever they meet. And yes, that line of 'someday I'll find out whenever you two always run off to' is a bit of foreshadowing of her someday running into the Turtles.

Now as for Ice Cream Kitty... I guess he was a cute little guy, and he was actually helpful in the episode. I just really hate the fact that as ice cream, he can either be eaten or melt away. They better take good care of him. One of the things Paige, Venka, and many other cat-lovers out there were worried about was the poor cat screaming in agony as it was mutated, like we have seen happen to Snakeweed, Spider Bytes and oh geez, to Mutagen Man. But no, he just melted away and soon came back in a happier new form. By happy I meant the original cat was a mangy old stray that has seen better days, even missing patches of fur. He does seem way happier in his new form.

And yes, Kevin Eastman himself voiced the Ice Cream Kitty. While I think it's awesome that they got one of the creators of the TMNT to personally voice a character in this new show.... all he really did was just the meows and cat noises. I uhh.... no offense Mr. Eastman... but anybody could have done that and we never would have known the difference...??? I guess we can cut him a break since, while he did co-create the Turtles and is known for working on the Heavy Metal magazine, he's not particularly famous for voice-acting. But wow. At least voice one of the random captured people and give him a few spoken lines.

Overall, it was a good episode. The Rat King had an awesome showing here. Splinter had a chance to show off his skills one more time. Irma has more screen time. Ice Cream Kitty wasn't that bad. I guess one thing that was weird was how the episode just ended right after Splinter defeated the Rat King.

For anyone watching this on live TV and not on DVD or online or whatever, the credits start to roll several seconds before the show is about to end (the only way to actually see the ending theme is on DVD or online or whatever since the next show starts immediately after this one). Now usually by now the Turtles are back at home chillin in the lair and the episode is basically setting itself up for the 'ending gag' before it ends and we have that comic-book style freeze frame at the end. In this instance, Splinter is still explaining to Rat King how he 'gave him the illusion that he was in control' as the credits start to roll. In other words, the fighting is still going on and characters are jumping around as the credits pop up.

You already know whatever's gonna happen is gonna involve Splinter somehow taking him down in the next few seconds. And yes, the ep did end right then and there, but it felt so rushed. It's also weird that it just ended with Splinter taking off his blindfold and walking away without an extra scene of him regrouping with the others, or having the gang chill at the lair again. I'm sure watching this again later on DVD or something it won't feel so bad, but the credits rolling mid-fight does give the illusion that the episode was rushed and cut short. I don't think people are in that much of a rush to watch Kung Fu Panda (or whatever show will follow the Turtles whenever they happen to re-run).