Line #50 Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E9TheGauntlet


1	After April receives a warning from her imprisoned father, she and the Turtles embark on a mission to save him and stop The Kraang from detonating a mutagen bomb in the city. Meanwhile, Shredder takes the matter of destroying Hamato Yoshi's disciples into his own hands.
2	----
3	!!This episode provides examples of:
4	* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Despite their victories in fights with the Kraang, Foot Ninja, various mutants and Shredder's top henchmen, the Turtles quickly find they're severely unready to take on the Shredder himself. Barely managing to land any hits on him, the Turtles find themselves with an opponent with far better skill and experience than them and it's only because he was distracted by Xever and Bradford mutating that they manage to escape.
5	* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Pete gets distracted from delivering his message when Mikey mentions bread. Doubles as ThroughHisStomach later, since Pete agrees to take April and the Turtles to where the Kraang have her dad in exchange for sourdough.
6	* BadBadActing: April acting as bait for Pete. Donnie even gets into an argument with her about how good bait is supposed to act.
7	* BigNo: Two of them. First from April when the Kraang hold her dad at gunpoint and then drag him away, later from Shredder when the turtles escape him.
8	* BigNever: From Xever when Leo tells him and Bradford to surrender.
9	* BlahBlahBlah: Raph in response to Donnie's explanation of how to make ninja smoke bombs.
10	-->'''Raph''': Blah blah, science, blah! Do it again!
11	* BreakTheHaughty: The Turtles' victories start to cause them to get a bit arrogant, and they only realize it as they get smacked down by the Shredder.
12	* CerebusSyndrome: Episode 9 has officially pushed the series into this direction.
13	* CallBack: April's dad remembers the Turtles from when they saved his daughter in ''[[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E2RiseOfTheTurtlesPart2 Rise of the Turtles Part, 2]]''.
14	* ContinuityNod: Leonardo listing off previous enemies to Splinter.
15	-->'''Leo''': Sensei, in the past few months, we've taken down [[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E3TurtleTemper giant spiders]], [[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E2RiseOfTheTurtlesPart2 plant creatures]], [[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E2RiseOfTheTurtlesPart2 alien]] [[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E6Metalhead robots]] and [[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E4NewFriendOldEnemy an army]] [[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E8NeverSayXever of ninjas]].
16	* CryIntoChest: April cries into Donnie's chest after they are forced to leave her dad behind with the Kraang.
17	* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Mikey gets a few in this episode. His random button-mashing leads to Donnie successfully hacking into the Kraang system and his random guess that Donnie should cut the green wire instead of the black one on the mutagen bomb is also correct. Moreover, he's actually the only turtle to even come ''close'' to challenging Shredder, by catching one of his arms with his kusarigama and dangling him over the building, and judging by the sound of Shredder’s arm when he’s secure enough, it sounds like Mikey almost caused a dislocation.
18	* CurbStompBattle: The Turtles are barely able to lay a blow to Shredder, who has decades more training and combat experience in martial arts than them. He is also a pragmatic fighter, using his environment to electrify Ralph and later cause a letter to fall on Mikey.
19	* DamselInDistress: Exploited. In order for the Turtles to catch Pigeon Pete, April goes out in the open as live bait.
20	%%* DarkerAndEdgier:
21	* DownerEnding: The Turtles fail to save Kirby and suffer their first major defeat when they meet the Shredder.
22	** BittersweetEnding: They ''did'' succeed in stopping the Kraang bomb and saving the city, while proving themselves capable of handling Xever and Bradford (though this is also the episode they have now mutated in), however.
23	* DudeWheresMyRespect: Nobody wants to be paired with poor Mikey when the Turtles split up.
24	* TheExitIsThatWay: When the Turtles are arguing about which of them should get stuck with Mikey, he is offended, proclaims he'll just go off on his own and vanishes via smoke bomb. Seconds later, he pops out of a closet.
25	* ExoticEyeDesigns: Pete has bulging eyeballs with red sclerae, yellow irises and horizontal pupils.
26	* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: The Shredder's NoHoldsBarredBeatdown of the Turtles include kicking Raph into an electric sign and dropping pieces of said sign on Mikey.
27	* FishPeople: Xever after getting doused in Mutagen.
28	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
29	** There's a reason Bradford and Xever are shown touching a dog and a fish, respectively.
30	** While Kirby reveals that the Kraang kidnap scientists to help them modify the mutagen, he doesn't know what for. Come [[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E17TCRI TCRI]], April reveals that Kirby's a psychologist, therefore he wouldn't really have any idea on what the Kraang are trying to do.
31	* FreudianSlip: Donnie does this again with April, combined with VerbalBackpedaling this time.
32	-->'''Donnie''': There's a creature out there trying to hurt ''my'' April! ({{Beat}}) ''Our'' April. ({{Beat}}) April.
33	* HeroicSacrifice: April's dad grabs a gun and covers the Turtle's escape so they can protect his daughter, throwing away his own chance at freedom.
34	* HonorBeforeReason: Bradford and Xever's motivation for attacking the Turtles, even Leo explains that they will all be wiped out if the bomb they are fighting next to goes off. Doubles as RevengeBeforeReason.
35	* InnocentlyInsensitive: April to Pigeon Pete.
36	-->'''April:''' That must have been horrible, being turned into a pigeon.
37	-->'''Pete:''' Actually, I started out as a pigeon.
38	* InstantMessengerPigeon: And a mutant one, at that.
39	* IWarnedYou: At the end, Leo shamefully admits that Splinter was right about him and the others getting overconfident.
40	* LightningBruiser: The Shredder.
41	* LiteralMoneyMetaphor: Pigeon Pete offers to take the main characters to where they need to go, at the cost of "bread" -- sourdough to be exact. Leonardo nervously invokes this when asking Pete to clarify.
42	* MoodWhiplash: The mood is pretty light after the Turtles defuse the bomb and beat Bradford and Xever. Then, out of nowhere, [[KnightOfCerebus the Shredder]] shows up, then the Turtles try to escape with a smoke bomb that turns out to be a normal egg, then the fight begins...
43	* MythologyGag:
44	** Pigeon Pete is named after Michelangelo's pigeon friend from the episode ''What's Michaelangelo Good For?'' of the 1987 cartoon.
45	** Wolf Tower is a shout out to Fred Wolf of Murakami Wolf, the animation studio responsible for the 1987 series.
46	** The CurbStompBattle part of the fight with Shredder plays out frame by frame like [[http://i.imgur.com/96WztqR.jpg the original fight with the Shredder]] in the [[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage Mirage Comics]].
47	* NeckLift: Shredder does this to Leo.
48	* NeutralFemale: Invoked. Leo stops April from going into the Kraang's lair with the turtles because she doesn't have the necessary ninja skills. She is left to wait on the roof for the Turtles to come back, and her only job on the mission is to lower the rope for them to climb out (much to her annoyance).
49	* NeverTrustATrailer: The commercials for this episode focused only on April being hunted by a giant pigeon and said nothing about Shredder.
50	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Not only does Chris's attempted TakingYouWithMe disarm the Mutagen Bomb, it covers him and Xever in Mutagen, mutating them into a dog man, and a fish man. They also distract Shredder in time for the Turtles to escape.
51	* OhCrap: Subtle one, but the Turtles do have one when the Shredder shows up.
52	** They have another moment when they use a real egg instead of a smoke bomb before the Shredder attacks them.
53	* PapaWolf: April's dad becomes a HeroicBystander.
54	* PresentCompanyExcluded: Bradford says this word for word when Xever handles an ugly fish.
55	-->'''Bradford''': That's the ''ugliest'' thing I've ever seen. Present company excluded.
56	* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Donnie to Mikey. "Don't. Touch. ''Anything''."
57	* RankScalesWithAsskicking: The Shredder turns out to be the first guy the Turtles are unable to beat by any means.
58	* RecurringExtra:
59	** The guy with the cat from ''[[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E4NewFriendOldEnemy New Friend, Old Enemy]]'' who also appeared in ''[[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E5IThinkHisNameIsBaxterStockman I Think His Name is Baxter Stockman]]'' can be seen hanging out by April's building in the first shot of the episode.
60	** The fishmonger from ''[[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E8NeverSayXever Never Say Xever]]'' makes another cameo.
61	* ShoutOut: Shredder's dog [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachik%C5%8D Hachiko]].
62	* SmokeOut: Donatello invents some smoke bombs, which the Turtles will make use of throughout the series. Mikey enjoys them a little ''too'' much in this episode, which comes back to bite the turtles when they are all out of smoke bombs by the time Shredder arrives, meaning they can't use them to escape.
63	* StaticStunGun: Donnie uses one of these to subdue Pete.
64	* StealthHiBye: The turtles are masters of this by default, but taken up to eleven when Donnie invents egg smoke bombs.
65	** So good that even after getting [[CurbStompBattle Curb-Stomped]] by the Shredder, they were able to escape from him when he was distracted for a few second, even without a smoke bomb.
66	* TakingYouWithMe: Said word for word by Bradford. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Failed hilariously]].
67	* TemptingFate: The turtles brush off Splinter's warning about them getting overconfident. It comes back to bite them ''hard''.
68	* TrickArrow: The turtles use explosive arrows to take out the droids guarding the mutagen time-bomb.
69	* VaguenessIsComing: April's dad warns that the Kraang are about to do something terrible to the city, but he doesn't know what it is.
70	* WasOnceAMan: Inverted with Pete; he started out as a pigeon. Played straight with Bradford and Xever.
71	* WhamEpisode: It starts out innocently enough with the Turtles investigating a [[ItMakesSenseInContext mutant pigeon]]... then the Turtles plan to break out Mr. O'Neil from the compound he's being held only for them to make a SadisticChoice and save themselves rather than free him. THEN they have to defuse a bomb that's going to cover the entire city in ooze while fighting Xever and Bradford (both of whom get mutated by the chemical in said bomb). If that wasn't bad enough they then get their first battle with the Shredder which ultimately ends with them all nearly getting killed and Splinter ending the episode by stating that the Shredder won't go away and tells his sons that they (the Hamato Clan) are now at war with Shredder and the Foot Clan.
72	* WhatDoesThisButtonDo: While Donnie tries to hack into the Kraang's computer, this is how Mikey gets in the way.
73	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Pigeon Pete disappears from the episode after delivering the message.
74	** Hachiko bites Bradford, which is to make way for his mutation into Dogpound. Afterward, however, Hachiko never appears again. [[note]] Though the producers later said that Shredder is a horrible pet owner [[/note]]
75	* WireDilemma: Donnie's main problem with defusing the Kraang's TimeBomb. With only seconds left on the clock, does he cut the black wire, or the green wire?
76	-->'''Mikey''': Go for the green!
77	-->'''Donnie''': Eh, why not?
78	-->(cuts green wire, bomb shuts down)
79	-->'''Donnie''': Guys! Guys! Mikey was right about something!

Context Recap / TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S1E9TheGauntlet