Last week, The Turtles fought an old fan favorite, Baxter Stockman. In the original show he built machines meant to seek out and destroy sewer rats. The new show introduced Stockman as a joke scientist who had a mechanical suit that failed to impress.
He tried to break in what seems to be a storage unit with his robotic suit. The show never explained why he tried to break in, but perhaps in later episodes it will be explained. The Turtles easily defeated Stockman and all seemed well.
His mechanical suit got upgraded, thanks in part to Donatello’s newest invention the tPod. Donatello built the tPod by using parts he found in military dump. Michelangelo was the first to try it out.
The result, involved a humorous scene between the two brothers. Michelangelo found out that Donatello is a fan of Polka. Donatello changed the music for his brother and Michelangelo found out that he liked it so much that he had to dance. Raphael saw the dance and decided that he needed to get out.
The Turtles had to sneak out, because earlier in the episode they were grounded for trashing the lair. This was how the Turtles encountered Stockman. While they traveled the tPod downloaded new songs by itself without being programmed.
Michelangelo made one mistake in the fight, he dropped the tPod. Stockman found the tPod after the fight and decided to plug it in his headset jack. As soon as he made the connection his suit got an upgrade, due to the AI chip in the tPod.
Early in the season, Leonardo was inspired by a Star Trek spoof TV series. His favorite show made an appearance once again, but was interrupted by a news bulletin.
TMNT writers have introduced aspects of comedy very well in the show. Stockman’s rampage was no different. As he attacked his work on live TV, one of his co-workers asked him if he was Baxter Stockman. Stockman was in clear shock and denied that it was him.
The Turtles knew they had to stop him. The Turtles thought the fight would be just as easy as before, but they were wrong. The fight scenes were action packed from start to finish, but there was one mistake. The Turtles weapons were damaged in the fight, and Donatello’s staff broke. In the next scene his staff was shown unharmed on his back.
Michelangelo provided a cleaver and humorous escape strategy, he threw pizza. His actions, as silly as they are, worked. The Turtles escaped and confessed to Splinter what happened. Splinter helped realized what must be done. They had to clean up their mess using their wits.
The Turtles fought Stockman a final time, and used Michelangelo as bait. The secret weapon that the Turtles used was a beehive. Leonardo provided the final blow, and removed the tPod from Stockman’s suit.
The episode was perhaps the most action packed since the season premier. Michelangelo was useful. He did play the typical comic relief, but his actions were very resourceful. Even Splinter acknowledged this. Overall an 8.3/10.
