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Teenange Mutant Ninja Turtles Recap And Review – Season 3, Episode 14: Casey Jones vs the Underworld

By Nick Tylwalk

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The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have liberated New York City from the Kraang. Hooray!

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That doesn’t mean everything in the Big Apple is hunky dory. Casey Jones knows it, and he’s going to do something about it. Possibly something a little foolhardy and dangerous. Let’s see what transpires in “Casey Jones vs the Underworld.”

Turtle-Powered Recap: Sure enough, Casey is upset about being sidelined during the big battle to save the city. As he writes in his journal, he notes that while most of the city has pulled together after the invasion, the same can’t be said for its criminal element.

Take the Purple Dragons, for instance. Casey attempts to stop them from robbing a bank, and while he’s successful at stopping them from taking any cash, he meets defeat at the hands and feet of their new leader, Hun — reimagined here as an obvious tribute to Bruce Lee. Casey even takes a hockey puck to the groin for his troubles.

Meanwhile, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Splinter are getting to work cleaning up their old lair. Donatello finds his lab trashed, Splinter restores his family picture and Michelangelo reacquaints himself with pizza, even though it’s roach-covered and moldy. Casey returns and argues with the brothers about their “downtime,” but takes a serious helping of ribbing when he reveals that the Purple Dragons got the best of him.

Later, Casey is out on patrol when he spies Shredder and the Foot cruising through the neighborhood on motorcycles. He goes undercover as a busboy to spy on a meeting at an Italian restaurant, where Shredder tells Don Vizioso that since he already controls the Russian, Asian and South American gangs, he expects some assistance from the old school Mafia as well. Specifically, he wants some dangerous chemicals of some sort. He suddenly turns and pins Casey to the table with his wrist blades, accusing him on being a spy (which, of course, he is). Fortunately, he seems satisfied with Casey’s explanation that he’s just a busboy, letting him go under the condition that he never show his face again. Good thing he typically wears a mask!

The Turtles are finding cleaning strenuous, and Mikey despairs until he finds the TV remote so they can watch Crognard. Raphael gets a text from Casey and goes to check it out, figuring he won’t need the help of the others.

Flush with ambition, Casey ambushes Fishface and Rahzar while they try to track down what Shredder wants. Bold, but maybe not that wise. Raph arrives in the nick of time, and together, they’re able to stop the mutant duo from making off with a heavy case. Raph opens it to discover some weird chemicals, but Casey leaves him to take the vials back to Donnie while he goes after Shredder.

At the Foot lair, Hun delivers some of the same chemicals to Shredder, though Baxter Stockman says he doesn’t have the right equipment to synthesize more of them. Hun offers to show them a place that does, conveniently located in Purple Dragons territory. Casey is spying again, this time using a jury-rigged listening device that is at least partially made from a toilet plunger. Hey, whatever works.

Leonardo berates Raphael for leaving Casey along while Donatello investigates the chemicals. He also realizes Baxter can’t make more of them with his current setup, but where else could he go? As usual, Mikey accidentally provides a crucial clue: the cheese balls he’s snacking on are mostly made of chemicals, and their manufacturer, Auman Chemicals is on Purple Dragons turf.

The bad guys are already there, with Shredder pleased at what he’s found. Hun’s request to be in charge is granted, though just before Casey shows up to confront the Shredder. My 8-year old daughter thinks this can’t end well.

Casey buys a minute with a taser, and the TMNT arrive just before Shredder can strike. A big battle ensues with everyone paired off: Leo fights Shredder, Donnie tangles with Fishface, Raph takes on Tiger Claw and Mikey scraps with Rahzar. That leaves Casey to go for Round 2 with Hun.

Amid the chaos, Donnie ends up in a storage closet and hatches a plan to contaminate the large vats of chemicals with more of the stuff in Mikey’s beloved cheese balls. He grabs a canister of it, but it ends up getting bounced around between all the combatants. It ends up with Casey, who is able to use a combination of his fighting and hockey skills to elude all of Shredder’s henchmen. He uses his hockey stick to swat the canister into one of the vats, and it’s mission accomplished.

Later, Shredder says this will only delay his plans, and he orders the mutants to clean up. Tiger Claw finds the yellow goo is strangely delicious.

As for Casey, he gets congrats from the Turtles for tangling with Shredder and emerging in one piece. He replies that he’s still a solo vigilante of the night. That happy moment is interrupted by Donnie, who has some bad news: the chemicals are probably being used by Shredder to create a mind control formula, one he could use on Karai, the Turtles … or everyone in New York. Cue ominous music here!

Favorite Moment: During the little big of Crognard we see, the barbarian yells out, “Never tell Crognard the odds!” Han Solo would approve. Also, is there any pop culture icon that show won’t spoof?

Final Thought: Casey was probably overdue to get some more of the limelight, and I liked the way this episode worked it into the larger narrative. We got a new ongoing threat in Hun, some forward motion on Shredder’s latest plans and the status of Karai (still captured), so things kept moving ahead even with some focus on everyone’s favorite hockey mask-wearing adrenaline junkie. Well done.

Next: Previously on TMNT: The Battle for New York recap

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