“Numbers mean nothing. I do not fear you or your friends.” – Mona Lisa
After leaving their pit stop, the Fugitoid’s ship finds itself smack dab in the middle of the Triceraton fleet. It doesn’t take long for the ship to be shot down, crash-landing on an ice moon. To avoid freezing, the heroes must find a local supply of metal that can patch up the ship. However, they are not alone; the Triceratons had been chasing down two Salamandrian warriors, and the turtles’ ship caused the two amphibians to crash as well.
As the heroes make their way to the supply of metal, the Salamandrians attack. Though there is a brief moment where it seems like the two factions will work together, a misunderstanding causes the fighting to escalate – and the turtles to be buried under a mountain. Fortunately, the boys and their friends survive and continue their quest.
Proceeding to their destination, Raphael wonders if they could work with the Salamandrians, especially the female, who he seems to have a crush on. Breaking off from the others, Raph finds the amphibians and tries to convince them to join forces. Talks are interrupted, though, when the girl sends Raph plunging down the mountain again, and both factions find themselves face-to-face with ice dragons. The beasts freeze both Donatello and the Salamandrian commander, but Raph manages to save the girl just in time, earning her respect – and possibly her affection. As a way to call her by a much easier-to-pronounce name, Raph suggests she take the moniker of Mona Lisa.
With his new friends, Raph returns to his brothers and saves the whole gang (and Michelangelo dubs the male Salamandrian Sal Commander). Together, the team finds a Triceraton space mine that they can salvage to fix their ships. Of course, more ice dragons come charging in, but some quick thinking by Donnie saves them temporarily. However, oxygen runs out, and the Fugitoid must race against the clock to save them all from certain death. Successful in repairing all the ships and defrosting the group, Raph and Mona Lisa seal their newfound affection with a kiss, and the Salamandrians return to their own mission.
The early episodes of this season seem like they will be used to introduce all the new characters previously revealed, which is a fine way of doing things. Lord Dregg is supposed to be the main villain, and with the Salamandrians as friends, the turtles can feel a little more comfortable out in space. However, there’s been some discrepancy in how many episodes were actually produced for season four, and if the number is only 20, then it doesn’t seem like there’s really time to waste them on doing nothing (and no, character introduction with no forward motion in the plot is not “something”). There’s a larger mission that is suppose to be completed, so it would be nice if every episode was in furtherance of that mission. That could be accomplished by gathering information, going to a world where the part is likely to be, or any number of other ways, and all of those could also be used for character introduction. There’s no need right now to use up entire episodes like this (though, these standalones have been more of a staple in the last season plus, and they’ve been mostly misses in terms of actually being worthwhile).
Unfortunately, there isn’t much to be said for this episode. It just sort of existed, and while it was great to see Raph have a crush (and on a species that could actually result in a real relationship, no less), there was nothing particularly special about it. The name Thalos 3 wasn’t even mentioned in the episode. (Also, it was a little bit bothersome that again the show went with the old trope of “we can’t ‘pronounce’ your name, so we’re going to pretend it doesn’t exist and give the one that works for us” when it came to the Salamandrians.) Hopefully the episodes to follow will start to pick up the story again and push the heroes toward that first piece of the black hole generator.