The Top 10 Worst TMNT (2012) Episodes!
With the sneak peek premiere of “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” tonight, the last thing to get to are the worst memories that this series provided. For better or worse, it’s time to close the book on the previous series (outside of rewatches of course) and what better way to do so than look at the ten episodes that (I myself at least) would never watch again!
Comedy and/or filler episodes, especially when they’re in a more serious and more dramatic TV series, are the ones that usually don’t have that much a chance of success amongst their peers. On the plus side, it makes it harder for them to be failures. The opposite in both cases is true for the more relevant and more dramatic episodes. So for a comedy episode like this to gain the top spot is a (bad) accomplishment in of itself! And that’s because nothing gets me riled up more than a comedy episode like this that doesn’t take advantage of its premise and pull off as many insane permutations on it as possible. The old Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies show wouldn’t usually fall victim to that as would any other great comedy series--live action or animation. And unfortunately, that’s the case with “Plan 10.”
The body swap trope can be very funny or very dramatic depending on the tone presented. While the former route is taken here, not much is done with the Kraang inside Raph’s body, from dumping the ostracized feeling it and Raph have from normal society (and vice versa) to providing nothing interesting to watch. And the same goes for Raph being inside the Kraang's body. All he does is flop around in that body for extended periods and that's it! The body switcher is used again on the protagonists again only once after that but nothing interesting is done unless you count when it pointlessly (and I can't stress that enough) have Casey admire April's figure while inside of her! This is so bad that not even the return of everyone’s favorite sea monster can save this project!
The best comedies always take whatever gags may be available in a script’s plot and run with them. And while it's easy to just shrug and say that it may be too much to ask a twenty-minute action show to work out and exploit every available permutation, it's also just as easy to wonder how good it could have been if they could’ve found a way to give us one of the best examples of body swapping in entertainment out there, instead of something as dull and time wasting as this!
Greg Weisman created one of my favorite animated series of all time, “Gargoyles.” I’ve seen every episode at least nearly twenty times and he really surprised me when he became the show runner of “Spectacular Spider-Man” and “Young Justice.” With him able to go back to work in the wake of the revival of “Young Justice”, I wish him all the best in the world. When he’s not helping run a show he’s freelance writing. He’s written episodes for series’ such as “The Batman”, Ciro’s previous project SRMTHFG!, “Kim Possible”, etc.
If there are any weakness I can point to, it’s his ability to successfully characterize and write dialogue for the characters on shows that he’s not fully invested in, sometimes having to borrow lines from previous works of his. Unfortunately, it’s evident here.
While this episode’s predecessor (“Race with the Demon”) was a fun time-waster, it was also the point where I personally began to question the direction of the series. “I don’t understand what they’re trying to do with ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’!” I said “What’s the plan?” The plot to this follow up episode is itself pretty dismal and uninspiring, and it definitely doesn’t help that Weisman’s script really does come off like a freelance piece. The synopsis usually reads that it’s about a mutant chimera (created from the mutagen of the previous episode’s villain) who kidnaps Don, Raph, Mikey, and Casey, and that it’s up to Leo and April to overcome their disabilities and rescue them. That’s not a very interesting story in of itself and there’s no new ground here to provide a little more mojo. So DRM&C are trapped in a geyser? Big deal! It’s not a very interesting conundrum, especially when you consider that the rising and falling action consists of two disabled characters pulling off action so exaggerated you almost wonder why the others couldn’t get free on their own. Throw in the horrible direction used to convey April’s link to the chimera, the incredulous action used by her and Leo to come to the rescue, and the stiff characterizations throughout and you’ve got one episode to forget! The fact that the creators reveal the chimera to be alive and kicking when it’s clear that they have no intention of ever using that character again just adds insult to injury!
As I stated in my list of the Top 5 Overrated Episodes, April’s Season 4 arc is a storyline that nobody asked for. And with its dismal conclusion taking place in the series’ 100th episode, it just makes things worse.
Imagine what else could’ve been told instead: Is Donatello finally going to find the cure for the long discarded Timothy AKA Pulverizer character--or at least help him become part of the Mutanimals, as is usually the course for the Mutagen Man character? Is Karai going to get one last opportunity to bond with her father before his departure? Is Shinigami going to get the development and the background needed to justify her existence? Is April finally going to decide between a teenage vigilante and a turtle-human hybrid who most likely still carries salmonella? ...Nah! Those would’ve been just too good for this season to tell! So instead we get this!
First of all, the Kraang were of course the ones responsible for April gaining her powers in the first place and have practically been meddling in her family’s affairs even before her birth. She had such a connection with them that having them no longer be around at this point made this arc not have a personal edge. Second, by this point April’s “My crystal” shtick got really old really fast especially considering how much it ruined or was a total dark spot on the other episodes it was featured in. Next, it makes the Aeons who gave April the crystal look bad, especially when it’s revealed that the spirit inside the crystal that was affecting April’s behavior also put those around April (not to mention the rest of the city) in danger! And while Donnie’s initial death may have come as a surprise to some, his eventual resurrection is as contrived as it gets! ...And don’t let others fool you, it doesn’t count as an “Apritello” moment. And lastly, what payoff is there at the end of it all? Zero!
Bonus down points have to go to the Foot mutants, particularly Tiger Claw who admirably tried to deny Shredder more unstable mutagen at the end of the previous episode. This time? It was though it never happened! Stupid!
In short, the whole entire arc was ill-conceived and was a complete and utter waste of time!
Before we begin: This is the second episode in the series to feature Tiger Claw’s name in the title and yet he doesn’t end up being the main character either time! Karai stole the spotlight from him in “The Wrath of Tiger Claw” and, while Tiger Claw was supposed to share the spotlight this time with Alopex (even though as you’ll see, she should never have been part of this episode), they both end up losing the spotlight to Casey Jones! Infuriating isn’t it? Anyway, on with the episode...
Note the asterisk. Whenever a fan feels the urge to put an asterisk next to the title of an episode, you know something’s gotta be wrong. It's either bad in execution or there's an error in continuity so bad it’s unforgivable. In this case, it's both!
Way back in "The Manhattan Project", which was Tiger Claw's debut, he mentioned his rival stating that "...and he will pay the price" for slicing his tail. After waiting two seasons for this sure to be exciting showdown, it turns out that the rival in question is a FEMALE mutant named Alopex! Alopex is a famous figure from the IDW issues so the only reasons you can deduce for this egregious oversight of continuity is either incompetence, the desire to put Alopex in this series no matter hell or high water, or both! And before you, Brandon Auman, etc. can rebut on the matter, Tiger Claw was NOT lying! One of the cornerstone rules of storytelling is not to lie to the audience. Usually that means providing telltale signs that a character is fudging their testimony and that usually includes speaking in an uneasy tone, body language, etc. In “The Manhattan Project”, there was none of that! Has Tiger Claw had a history of misogyny towards characters like Alopex, April, Karai, etc.? Of course not! Someone’s definitely a liar but it’s not Tiger Claw, so I don’t want to hear that!
Still, that doesn't mean that a story involving this error can't redeem itself. The key word is compensation! However many errors a story has or how bad the execution is in some areas, if there's enough good things in a story to compensate for its shortcomings, the overall project can still be salvaged. That unfortunately is not the case here and it all starts with involving not only our protagonists but, most of all, Casey Jones. Casey Jones, who never had a standout episode for himself after "Casey Jones vs the Underworld", has no connection between the two main characters except for the manipulative angle brought about by the episodes plot device known as the Blades of Vengeance. What follows is a run-of-the-mill bad luck/curse story that gets our heroes involved to fix the curse making Casey, like Mikey in "Attack of the Mega Shredder", the aforementioned third who makes a crowd. Not only does the ending put such a bad mark on Tiger Claw’s character, but perhaps its most crowning moment in terms of pointlessness and (pointless) shock value is the severing of Tiger Claw's...handpaw? Ha!
Honestly though, what was the point in doing that, let alone introducing Alopex, when we're never going to see her again due to the fact that TC himself is also going to be saying "Sayonara suckers!" just six episodes later?! If you know the answer please say so because I certainly don't!
...And Tang Shen. What else can you say? The poor girl’s Uncle Ben! Her voice actress, Minae Noji, makes a return not as her spirit (which is something both Splinter and Karai could’ve benefitted from going forward) but as the ultimately pointless addition of Alopex...
I’ve made it a rule of mine that when I’m discussing the worst that any kind of entertainment field has to offer, I don’t mention the main artists by name. Sometimes I can’t help it when Michael Bay makes another infuriating Transformers movie or when Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer get permission to make another abysmal spoof movie, but for the most part I avoid doing that. This time, I’m going to break it.
I say that because, whether by causation or coincidence, there is not one good episode with the names of Kevin Burke and Chris “Doc” Wyatt on it! Sure I think “Pizza Face” isn’t as bad as other fans make it out to be, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to spend my time trying to whip up a campaign in its defense.
This is the last of what I call the Failsome Five due to their bottom of the barrel scores. While some of us may have wanted to see an episode about how the three more serious brothers of the TMNT would deal without Mikey being around (for whatever reason they could conjure), they certainly could've come up with something better than this. Mikey's the black sheep of the family and he knows it and has, for the most part at least, accepted it and he’s endured worse tantrums at the hands of his brothers for some of his actions so him running away after making a mess at their cabin is not a good start for this story. He then comes across Napoleon Bonafrog voiced by the very overrated Jon Heder, especially now since his "Napoleon Dynamite" days are over. Jon just does his shtick here before introducing Mikey to a clan of mutated frogs. This group could have played out as a nice contrast to our protagonists, largely in terms of their views on humanity. Unfortunately, not only do the characterizations amongst this clan of frogs vary from cliche to tiresome, but both theirs and the heroes’ viewpoints on humanity are never explored and it devolves into a cliched us-versus-them story with the frogs' desire for revenge against both humankind and the protagonists resulting in them losing the one thing they cared about: their home. Ho-hum.
I know some people like this entry for the team up of Mikey and Leo as well as the idea that it’s a TMNT version of “Attack on Titan.” In the former’s case it’s the little brother teaming up with the big brother which a lot of viewers hold in high regard. Unfortunately, in both cases presented, both prove to be a flaw in an episode that has a lot more where they came from.
I’ve said this before but Karai’s arc, though understandable, is a complete waste of time and the episodes that consist of when she finally gets that brain worm in her head are all bad whether it’d be this, its predecessor “The Deadly Venom”, or “The Fourfold Trap.” Even before they got to these particular three, they spent so long on an arc that was basically a three sentence story: Unable to control her mutation, Karai flees from both her family and enemies. The Foot Clan captures and brainwashes her into destroying her family. Splinter frees her.
This whole thing started in S3E10 and didn't end until S3E23, think about that for a minute! This simple story does not need 14 episodes to tell, so it kept getting both padded out and sidelined! Plus, if they had just one episode showing Karai free and detailing the plans she has going forward, her arc (and maybe "City at War" too) might have been salvaged! But they couldn’t even bother!
As stated, this has to be the worst of them all! From the very first scene onwards to the happy ending that is totally nullified two episodes later, this one takes the cake! Indeed, the opening scene alone deserves a spot on this list not only because of how it makes Shredder look (a sadist rather than a man fighting for love he can't have) to it turning out at the end of "The Fourfold Trap" that Karai never had more than one brain worm in her. It's nothing more than emotional manipulation on an abhorrently disgusting scale and, as stated, it's deserving to be here just because of that scene alone! As I stated as well, this is the series’ version of "Attack on Titan" but, really, who cares? All the villains have bad characterizations from Shredder to Tiger Claw, Raph's injury plays no meaning except to pointlessly get the Turtle Mech to make another appearance, the beginning of “The Fourfold Trap” makes Leo’s efforts here all for nothing, and Mikey makes that meaningless tag along with Leonardo. Some people may like Mikey and Leo together, but let's admit that the most interesting relationship Leonardo has is the complex one he shares with Karai, and this episode was supposed to give him that knight in shining armor moment that would help to solidify it. And since Karai technically does appear in this episode, Mikey comes off as no more than the proverbial third who makes a crowd.
The Northampton episodes have three in the Bottom Ten (two in the Bottom Five). What an accomplishment, eh? As I stated before with regards to “Plan 10″, the room to fail with a comedy episode is smaller but so is the chance for success which is what the viewer wants. Thus the more dramatic, more serious episodes are usually made "to succeed" while the more comedic/filler, less serious ones are usually made “not to fail.”
This comedic entry makes it because not only does the comedy fall flat but so does the narrative. So much so that even Jesse Ventura’s performance as the hunter character can’t save it. There were quite a few episodes in this series revolving around Donatello trying to win April's heart which ultimately ended up going nowhere--understandably, the idea of a mutant and human isn't very appealing so the reluctance is understandable. But there's still no avoiding the fact that they did a lousy job! This is also not the kind of episode that's required after a season premiere such as "Within the Woods". I understand that the creators couldn't rush Leo’s recovery, but the fact remains that the six episodes sandwiched between the season premiere and “Vision Quest” had no reason to exist other than to have Ciro Nieli and Brandon Auman indulge themselves with a bunch of sci-fi and horror references. In this entry, there was toilet and juvenile humor which is hardly ever welcoming, there’s the expectation that Bigfoot (who had minimal development at best) is gay until it turns out that Bigfoot is actually a girl (it’s a hot button either way and is best to be avoided), and the subplot surrounding Donnie and April underwhelmed. There's a way to do comedy and this episode is an example on how not to do it!
It's hard for me to accept this as a bad episode because this was the beloved Fugitoid's last hurrah and his initial sacrifice pulled at the heartstrings. Everyone complains about Leo's attitude towards the Fugitoid earlier in the episode as well as the fact that their past selves are surprisingly alright with going into space with the Fugitoid forever, and while I'm understanding to a fair extent with the latter, I have bigger issues than these two things. There's the fact that the introduction of the Devastator really downplays if not outright nullifies the significance of the Black Hole Generator, the fact that it took forever to even get to that point, the confusion this episode raises as to the series’ rules on time travel, the unnecessary act of having the present Fugitoid be alive, and of course Tiger Claw! The last three need to be addressed.
“Tale of the Yokai” and its predecessor established the idea of the inability to change history, or at least the repercussions of attempting to. But after Fugitoid sets things back six months before the events of “Annihilation: Earth!” you know that the opposite must occur! So how are the creators going to reconcile both those things? What must the ramifications be for successfully rewriting history, if it’s at all possible. This is an unenviable task for a writer, especially when they aren’t given leeway to cheat via a more comedic angle which is sometimes what is actually done in impossible situations like these. But if the other route is taken, the challenge becomes as insurmountable as I asserted and only the best sci-fi minds might be able to pull this off: Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, HG Wells, and Robert Heinlein may have been able to pull it off but that’s pretty rarefied company. Needless to say Brandon Auman didn’t end up fitting the bill. ...Of course, since the “Mutant Apocalypse” trilogy ended up happening, maybe he didn’t do a bad job after all.
Anyone, within this paradox of course lies the Fugitoid caught in the middle. Regardless of how overly long or dull the space arc may have come across, you could always count on Tennant’s Fugitoid to provide some warmth, some depth, or some laughs along the way. And his ultimate characterization helps. This was a corrupted man who died, was resurrected, and selflessly devoted himself to both changing who he was as well as making amends. Here, he finally achieved that, even going so far as to try and make the group hate him in order to get them off the ship in order for what needs to be done happen. Not only does he get to hear that they’re feelings haven’t truly changed but then his younger self gets to come along and live out his redemption with his newfound family as his reward. And then it becomes ruined when the end pointlessly reveals that the present Fugitoid is in fact alive. Not only did he just achieve his redemption but there’s also the fact that we're never going to see him again, so what’s the point?!
But most of all, I’m down on Tiger Claw. How Tiger Claw didn't notice Shredder going for Splinter when everyone else did is beyond me...by the way, where were the other henchmen?! It would have made for some good point counter-point going forward at the very least. For him not to think, to not assess the situation, to not be able to put 2 and 2 together, to not even have so much as a seed of doubt planted in his mind with regards to what truly transpired, makes him look like an absolute fool! And this is one of the more rational characters of the series we're talking about here! Ciro Nieli, in a spotlight video about the character that can still be found on Youtube, once mentioned that he thought about Tiger Claw finding a goal outside the Foot Clan and suggesting that Tiger Claw would leave the Foot Clan and find his own way. This is a great idea! Characters reforming or having a powerful character-driven plot is rare in an action cartoon and, let's be honest, this is a franchise that has a fairly dismal Rogues Gallery--whether it'd be comics, movies, or cartoons! This was the best time to make that happen and they blew it! In fact, from that point on, he became just another moronic henchman with the Kavaxas arc being the final nail in the coffin (he should've never been the Crimson Leader BTW) for his character down the road. All in all, a terrible job!
Now I like James Wong, but this is a TV episode you do NOT want your name attached to. Like Mark Hamill voicing Kavaxas, you get the sense that the purpose of Ho Chan’s existence was to allow Ciro Nieli to work with another familiar name from his days on the Hyperforce series. This entry is both shrill, dull, and tiresome, and you get the sense that the creators know it! It’s a story with hardly any redeemable or relevant material whatsoever that just goes through the motions until it mercifully comes to a close.
What hurts this entry even more is its long term effects. Ho Chan makes a pointless return that really helps to sink the potential of “End Times” in Season 5. Not that it didn’t have much potential to begin with, but the episode was at least supposed to bring an official--and hopefully satisfying--end to the Hamato vs. Foot rivalry, with the Foot villains that you’re never going to see again getting the proper sendoffs that they deserve. That goes unfulfilled and when you have more effort being put into referencing Ghostbusters and giving that guy screen time it unfortunately should’ve been a red flag as the story drags along. All that ends up happening is you not only hating “End Times” but also hating “A Chinatown Ghost Story” even more!
I see this episode actually has quite a bit of love around the internet. I myself am at a loss! This is definitely one of the worst episodes of the entire series as far as I'm concerned, and it's not just because I wanted the Shredder (and admittedly to some extent Splinter) to stay dead.
Aside from the fact that the main plot is generic revenge-in-an-action-cartoon fare that we've seen hundreds of times before (and most of the time better), there were a ton of other problems with most of them centering around the grudge between Donnie and Visiozo. Think about the other characters driven by revenge in this series: Shredder, Newtralizer, the Triceratons, even Karai on her worst days! They become one note characters even if you can understand their desires. This however couldn’t be further from that! First of all, Donnie's grudge against the Don has absolutely no credibility whatsoever! Sure, Visiozo put Donnie and Mondo Gecko (ha! Where was he during this episode?) in a tough spot in "Mutant Gangland", but Donnie--not to mention him and his family and even friends, have been in situations like this before and quite a few of them have been way worse! Where is his grudge against all of their other foes? And I don't care how in character it may be for Raph to revel in Donnie's newfound anger because it was his fault that Donnie and Mondo Gecko found themselves in the situation they were in during "Mutant Gangland", thus Raph is to quite an extend responsible for Don's attitude in this story. In this instance, for Raph to not feel at least a tinge of guilt for Donnie being the way he is makes Raph a very unappealing character.
Second is Leonardo, who functions better as this episodes critic more than Don's conscience. For one, Leo had no right to go off on Don the first time he did. Sure, Leo may have wanted a stealthier approach, but Don actually had the heart/plot device in his hands before a mix of Bebop and Rocksteady, bad luck, and a cheating script took it away. Then the script came back to bite Donnie again when Don, on his own stealth mission sure but still being very effective at it nonetheless, ends up sending the mission sideways when a screw comes loose from the neon sign he's hanging from! How cheap! Then there's the fact that Leonardo keeps trying to sway Donnie out of revenge and focus on the mission when Leo himself had his own revenge three episodes ago in "Owari." Not that that's an entirely bad thing mind you. In fact, it adds a bit of psychological intrigue when you think about it: Don wants revenge, Leo had his own revenge a few episodes ago, Leo tries to deny Don his own so that they'll have a better chance that the being Leo got revenge on (Shredder) won't rise from the dead. It makes you wonder if Leo's concerns for his brother’s psychological well being are actually genuine, or if his motivations are born out of something akin to self interest. How fun it would have been to see Leo try and answer Donnie's question of "How come you can have your revenge, but I can't have mine?"
Even then, the grudge still has no credibility due to the character of Visiozo himself! The Don is a joke of a character who shouldn't be taken seriously, even when his flying chair turns into a missile launcher...see what I mean? In other hands, he'd come off as this series's version of Boss Biggis from "Batman: TAS"--one of BTAS's very few low points. Instead, he functions more as a knock on all those mafioso types in entertainment from Don Corleone to Marvel's Kingpin to The Blob. So to have Visiozo as the center of Donnie's grudge is a huge contrast and a big mistake! AND EVEN THEN, it's not Donnie's grudge that does them in at the end, but because the creators cheated!! That was the second time that the protagonists had their hands on the plot device only for the script to take it away in the most contrived way possible! The whole script is one big cheat and not in a good way at all! I mean let’s count the errors: they cheated us into this non-sensical grudge in the first place, they cheated the protagonists out of getting the upper hand on Kavaxas and Tiger Claw--that hot potato scene (as I call it) also deserves a dishonorable mention because they saw and knew how TC used the seal and yet for the script to have them play hot potato with it instead felt like a contrived way for the story to reach the conclusion it wanted...bless Mikey's efforts though--they also cheated us out of a potentially interesting conflict of ideals between Leo and Don, they cheated us out of a proper resolution, and they cheated their way into having the Shredder be brought back into the picture. I didn't like the Kavaxas arc overall, but this is one episode I can't stand!
Just like in my Top 10, ten episodes just aren’t enough! Case in point, “The War for Dimension X”. Now maybe it's just me, but I don't think an story titled "The War for Dimension X” (or even “Monsters Among Us”) should be handled by your comedy writers. Sure it's nice to see the Utroms at long last (and Bishop of course) but there's too much focus on Raph and one-of-two-characters-who-very-likely-shouldn't-be-here and not enough on this "war" itself. The first of those two characters who shouldn't be here is Mona Lisa of course, and as much as I love Keith David, his character shouldn't be here either--his Sal character is as close as Shinigami is to the definition of “pointless” in the dictionary! Their only use to the story was to regurgitate their plot from "The Moons of Thalos 3″ only to point their biases at the Utrom instead of the turtles this time around. Not only is that a waste of time but so are all the gooey interactions between Raph and Mona which takes away focus from the main story at hand. The "war" itself only comes down to the heroes saving the queen Utrom from Kraang Subsubprime and some of his recruits which really downplays the viewers' expectations.
Think about it for a second! While Mona’s and Sal’s appearances here aren’t as bad as “The Return of Dregg”--who here really believed that Dregg had an army capable of destroying an entire planet? Can you imagine how much juicier this story would have been if the creators not only cut Mona and Sal out of the story, but also ended up replacing them with the Triceratons? We'd have our main protagonists and the Utroms, the Kraang, and the Triceratons, all trying to determine the fate of that world and regardless who comes out on top, there would still be drastic ramifications moving forward! Oh, what could have been!
Like I said in my previous post, this is the worst overall arc from the final season. A weak setup, a campy-as-all-can-be second entry, a good enough third episode, and a conclusion that is problematic at best! Even before weighing all that in, this arc’s story never really had much of a chance. We’ve had nearly four seasons worth of horror, sci-fi, etc. references or rip offs from the creators of this series. Now we have to endure them throwing all this stuff in our faces in the most blatantly way possible? The villains, aside from vampire Raphael from the third episode onwards, are badly characterized and the direction is amateurish. From the second entry trying to oversell how good Renet must look with her helmet off, to vampire Raph’s campiness in the second entry as well, Raph not biting Mikey when he had the chance in the finale, the motivations of Savanti Romero revealed late in the last entry, Donnie being bitten with only a few minutes left in the entire story, the list goes on. Just watch TCM during the month of October instead of this!
One of the most cheat worthy things a TV episode can do is have one of the characters treat an outcome as a victory or even victory-in-of-itself when the whole thing is clearly a loss. The story gets off to a bad enough start anyway with Donatello selfishly comparing his supposed inadequacy to the Fugitoid. It suggests a jealousy of Donatello that isn’t very attractive and suggests an inner superiority that he can’t live without. It becomes more apparent when you think about the selflessness and optimism of the Fugitoid. Once he is contrivedly deactivated and it’s up to Donnie to save himself, the story doesn’t even revolve around that as much as it is about the rest of the team holding off the Gremlin inspired creeplings as well as a deactivated ship. The fight isn’t very interesting and is a complete distraction from the real story at hand but there’s not much point in focusing on that particular story since not much of anything interesting is going on over there! In the end, the Triceratons end up getting away with the two BHG pieces and a fixed Fugitoid ends up going to great lengths to convince Donatello that it’s not so bad even though we as viewers can tell that that’s not the case at all. The whole thing is like the 1975 Red Sox winning that thrilling Game 6 of the World Series and then losing the decisive Game 7 the next night. Do you think the Reds would want to trade places with the Red Sox? No way! So why would the Triceratons here?
I could’ve easily placed “The Fourfold Trap” here. It nullified the outcome of “Attack of the Mega Shredder”, the Foot mutants and April end up doing nothing more than cluttering up the conflict between the turtles (and Splinter) against Karai, and the teamwork theme of the episode pretty much ends up being nonexistent.
Still, I have to go with “The Deadly Venom” as the last entry here. From its controversial opening--indeed, like “Mikey Gets Shellacne”, it feels like you’re dropped right into the middle of a story rather than the beginning of one; to the bad jokes (KaraixCasey, Don with a pineapple head, etc.); all the way to the conclusion playing out like another version of “The Revenge of the Triceratons”; this was one of the most nihilistic and lamest additions to the series. Leo goes to all the trouble of learning the “Healing Hands” technique, uses it on not only his brothers and Karai, and yet Karai ends up being unaffected? And yet it works for Splinter four episodes later?!
And unlike “The Fourfold Trap”, it also makes you wonder about the Foot mutants not being apart of this. This would’ve been a better chance to explore their characters than in “The Fourfold Trap.” They’re never seen again after the opening and we’re left at sea as to their mindsets. Karai obviously didn’t get on the right foot with Bradford and Xever in Season 2 so it’s no surprise that they don’t care much about her current condition. But it makes one wonder what their feelings are about Shredder all of a sudden having the power of mind control, that he’s used it on the woman he holds as his daughter, and if he plans to use it on anyone else (themselves of course) down the road. Karai also had such a huge rivalry with Tiger Claw that his feelings should’ve been explored to. Is he no longer second in command? It seems that way since Karai is doing all these things on her own here. If so, what are his feelings towards not only her but Shredder for allowing this?
The whole thing is just so incompetently handled and it’s a bad start to Karai’s brain worm segment. Bonus down points have to be given to this being Kirby O’Neil’s last speaking role and appearance outside of two blink-and-you-miss-it cameos in the S3 and S4 finales. He’s April’s father for crying out loud, and yet he ends up all but forgotten with 53 episodes left in the series’ run!
This was another tough call. Between “City at War”, “The Mutation Situation”, and “Mazes and Mutants”, I could’ve easily given it to the latter due to Malachi having more than one-note character potential yet never resurfacing, to the cheating “returns” of Rockwell and Leatherhead, and the pointlessness of turning Raph’s head into that of a turkey’s (indeed, if Raph’s head hadn’t been changed the story would’ve still played out the EXACT same way!) “Heart of Evil” was bad, but this was a disappointment of colossal proportions. More effort was put into referencing Ghostbusters and giving Ho Chan screen time, the Foot villains (and Kavaxas) did not get the proper sendoffs that they deserved, Xever ended up revealing the origins of the Shredder/Foot cultists too late in a flashback he wasn’t even a part of, Leatherhead was the only Mutanimal to show up (did the others decide to stay home and watch TV?!), the conclusion was one of the most contrived this series had produced (bubble gum? Really?!), and most of all was Tiger Claw getting away with his actions (and being mentioned that he made a truce of some kind off screen)! Tiger Claw did not redeem himself in any way shape or form--indeed Shredder was way too quick to turn on him which gave TC basically no choice but to fight back. Sure he fought alongside the heroes against the Shredder but none of his actions were like his leadership abilities, rescuing Casey and April from a Triceraton, or his outrage at the end, all of which are from “Annihilation: Earth!” He should’ve either sacrificed himself in the midst of the battle so that the heroes could win or Karai should’ve killed him (and believe me, the creators could’ve found a way to get that past BS&P) when it was all over, not only for the choices and things he did in past episodes but for everything he did in this arc as well! Of course Brandon Auman was the creator of the Tiger Claw character and he also wrote this episode so it’s unfortunately not that surprising in hindsight that it happened.
Wooo, yet another exhausting write. And yet, now it’s over. Whether I convinced you or not, I at least hope I at least got your brain juices churning. Anyway everyone, enjoy the RotTMNT premiere tonight. See you guys around.
