TMNT | The Gauntlet Review

For Turtles fans, last week’s episode was the one. Shredder was not only a major character, he also fought. He dominated the fight, and the Turtles barely escaped.

Shredder’s presence had been hinted in past episodes, but he never was directly involved. He usually had his henchmen do the work for him. After a few failures, he personally decided to get involved. Although the fight was not until the last few minutes of the show, it was worth the wait.

His moves were incredible. He took down the Turtles easily.

The Turtles have taken down an army of Kraang, defeated highly skilled martial artists and defeat a few mutants. They looked to be unstoppable, and the Turtles knew it. Their confidence level was at an all time high. Splinter warned them that not all may appear as it is, but the Turtles ignored his warning.

The episode started off with April O’Neil being chased by a pigeon man mutant. The Turtles helped April capture the pigeon man, but he wanted to give her a message. He told O’Neil that her father was still alive, and that she should get out of the city.

Rather than listen to her father, she wanted more information. It was going to cost them a lot of bread….crumbs. Turtles would not be the same without its humor, and since there was a giant pigeon the writers decided to put a few jokes of that nature in the show.

The Turtles were able to track down the Kraang, and find out were O’Neal’s dad was. They attempted to rescue him, but failed. The Kraang outnumbered them. They also discovered that the Kraang were going to release mutagen onto the city.

The only reason the Turtles escaped was because of O’Neil’s dad, but he did provide the Turtles with some information about the Kraang. They are from another dimension. The reason they are kidnapping scientists is because the mutagen reacts differently on Earth then their own planet.

The Kraang finally had somewhat of an explanation on why they kidnapped O’Neal’s dad.

The Turtles had to act fast but not without some help. Donatello’s technologically skills have been impressive, but his latest gadget was very useful. He made smoke bombs, shaped like eggs.

Michelangelo found out first hand. He was going to cook with eggs, and mistook one of Donatello’s eggs. He loved it, and used them. Michelangelo may act dumb, but the writers used his style of humor well.

When the Turtles realized that they were no match against Shredder, they had to escape. Raphael did not even argue with Leonardo. The only problem was that Shredder did not let them escape. Michelangelo still had an egg left and used it, but to his surprise it was a regular egg.

All seemed lost for the Turtles, but a distraction came along and saved them. Earlier in the episode, Chris Bradford and Xever decided to fight the Turtles. They were disgraced in front of Splinter, and wanted revenge.

They fought the Turtles, while Donatello disarmed a bomb. Bradford and Xever did not care about death. They would rather die in battle then live with shame. Although Bradford and Xever put up a fight the Turtles defeated them.

Each Turtle has been developed very well. Their fighting skills had improved over the episodes, but the next time they meet Bradford and Xever things will be different. Shredder looked to see his men mutated, and that moment allowed the Turtles to run away. They may have came home defeated, but a war had started. The episode was action packed, and fans got to see Shredder in action. Overall an 9.5/10