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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Review – Season 3, Episode 9: Return to New York

By Nick Tylwalk

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It’s time to go back. Back to New York, that is. Echoing a classic storyline that has been replayed throughout Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles history, the brothers are leaving the farmhouse and returning to the city.

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And there’s a lot to do. They need to find Splinter and Karai. Shredder is still out there with his mutants and Foot ninjas. And the entire city is under the control of the Kraang. No sweat, right?

Let’s see how this “Return to New York” goes …

Turtle-Powered Recap: Though the newscasts coming out of New York City assure people that everything is fine in the Big Apple, the Turtles know better. The first thing they need is a vehicle, so they set to work retrofitting an old van, and voila: Party Wagon! Michelangelo tells Ice Cream Kittie that it’s time to go home, Donatello bids farewell to Dr. Cluckingsworth and April says goodbye to the farmhouse itself.

Leonardo says that the first order of business is to find Splinter, and then Karai. He thinks they should park outside the gate and sneak in, but that proves impossible, as soldiers have every entrance into NYC quarantined. April notices that the troops have Kraang mind control devices on their necks, so Casey simply floors it and the Party Wagon is able to smash through the gates.

But, um, where are all the people? April says she is picking up thoughts from only a few hundred people, meaning there are millions missing. There are lots of Kraang, though, so the Turtles get to test out the Party Wagon’s soda cannons and stink bombs, both of which prove effective.

The group does some effective ninja-ing, evading Kraang robots, Foot ninjas and mousers. Can April track Shredder? Maybe, but Leo decides to start searching at the lair.

There’s no sign of Splinter, but the Kraang do have a crazy robot security system that ends up using four lasers to exterminate a poor rat. Mikey freaks out and wants to move back in, but that’s not an option. April gets a faint read on Splinter, who seems to nearby … but he’s different somehow. Everyone races over and we find out why he’s different — Splinter has gone feral!

As they try to keep Splinter from chewing Casey’s face off and talk some sense to him, a Mouser calls for backup, and Splinter is captured by the Foot.

Speaking of the Foot, Tiger Claw asks Shredder when they are going to take action. He still finds the Kraang useful, and his top priority is finding Karai. The Foot robots return with Splinter, who Shredder says has clearly lost his mind. Tiger Claw asks if he should put the rat out of his misery, but Shredder wants him taken to Baxter Stockman instead. The idea is that Stockman might be able to restore Hamato Yoshi’s mind, the better for him to understand what is happening when Shredder finishes him.

The Turtles and company are on their way, and … hey, look! Mini Shredder! They manage to keep the little guy off of them as they descend into Baxter’s workspace, where they see the fly guy taunting Splinter. A rescue attempt is on, but Baxter spots them and unleashes all three of his Shredder mutants. Fans of the original Mirage comics will recognize this as a fitting tribute to that take on the same story.

Amid the chaos, April tries reaching out to Splinter with her telepathy, encouraged by Donnie’s assertion that it might work. He begins to get flashes of his memories back, but he mistakes Casey for Shredder and attacks him. Also, Mikey accidentally sets off an alarm, because that’s what he does. Splinter ends up charging at and cornering April, but from that range, her powers work even more effectively, and while there’s still a nervous moment, Splinter is once again himself.

Good thing, too, because the Turtles are losing their fights with the mutant Shredders, with Leo even losing one of his swords into a giant vat of mutagen. But with Splinter, they make short work of the mutants. Apparently his time without his mind hasn’t dulled his ninja skills any. Shredder and Tiger Claw arrive, but Splinter says this isn’t the time for a fight, and a ninja smoke bomb covers their escape.

Except it doesn’t, completely. In the Party Wagon, they find Tiger Claw holding onto the roof, though a little visit from Sir Sizzlalot — that’s a flamethrower concealed inside a deer head that used to hang on the farmhouse wall — gets rid of him.

The question now is where they will live while they continue their mission to free the city. Splinter says homes are transitory, but Leo points out they still need a place to hang their masks. Mikey has an idea, though, and for once it isn’t horrible. They’ll be working out of Antonio’s Pizza-Rama for the time being. Convenient, eh?

April is still worried about her dad, and her power are giving her a weird reading on him and the missing people. It’s like they are right around them, and we briefly see what see sees: a bunch of people mind-controlled by the Kraang. Are they shifted between the dimensions somehow, so they’re int he same physical space but still elsewhere? That’s what it looks like.

Favorite Moment: Definitely the three Shredders, which were the product of much weirder science in the comics. Here’s a look at what they resembled back in the day:

Not exactly the same, but an obvious inspiration for what we saw today.

Final Thought: Not a bad way at all to get us back into the overall story arc of this season after some wandering in circles, though it did feel a bit rushed to find and restore Spinter right away. It’s always fun to see your heroes overcome impossible odds, and the deck looks more stacked against the Turtles than ever right now.

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