The Mutation Situation

The Mutation Situation is the 27th episode of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012 TV series, being the first episode of its second season. It first aired on October 12th, 2013, although it premiered first on Xbox 360's Nick application on October 9th.

Synopsis
The Turtles' mission to prevent the Kraang from delivering a shipment of Mutagen to Shredder causes the mutagen canisters to scatter into the city, where one of them hits Kirby O'Neil, causing him to transform into a mutant bat. Blaming the brothers for her father's mutation, April walks out on them.

Major Characters

 * Kirby O'Neil (Keith Silverstein)
 * April O'Neil (Mae Whitman)
 * Leonardo (Jason Biggs)
 * Donatello (Rob Paulsen)
 * Raphael (Sean Astin)
 * Michelangelo (Greg Cipes)

Minor Characters

 * Cottage Cheese Demon
 * Shredder (Kevin Michael Richardson)
 * Splinter (Hoon Lee)
 * Squirrelanoid
 * The Kraang (Nolan North)
 * Biotroid

Plot
The Turtles run around the city, celebrating their victory after defeating the Kraang's plot. The Turtles continue celebrating, until Donatello realizes that they must go to April's apartment, since it's only a few blocks away...He taps on her window, and she greets them with a suspicious sounding "Hey, guys!" Leonardo asks why she had been avoiding them for a while, and she responds, explaining that her father is having nightmares about The Kraang still being active. Kirby O'Neil then enters the room, claiming that the Kraang may indeed still be lurking out there - and that he'd do anything to protect April from them. Of course, along with the Turtle's help, April tells her dad that she can handle herself; especially with her ninja friends... Michelangelo encounters her argument, saying that there is nothing to fear, and that the Kraang are truly gone forever...

The scene then cuts to The Shredder's lair, as he puts his helmet on, with Karai walking near his throne, setting up a projection screen recently provided to them by The Kraang. A Kraang then appears on the screen and informs Shredder that his adjunct shipment is ready, and that they already have a 'special weapon' prepared for combat to complicate any superfluous interferences, when the screen shows the large foot of some kind of ape...

After a whole new introduction to the second season, Mikey, Raph, and Leo are playing with the communication orb, using it as a dodge ball...Donnie is shown testing out mutated Timothy's organs, until the orb is thrown onto Metalhead's head, having Donatello leave his lab, telling his brothers to not act with such a lack of care around the fragile orb. Raph then tells him to calm down, as well as Mikey. After that happens, Master Splinter enters and tells his sons that maybe their enemy isn't truly defeated...Leonardo declines, and tells him that there really is nothing to worry about. The Turtles are about to head out of the lair, until Splinter snaps at them and tells them that they need to stop resting on their laurels - and to start up their training yet again...Of course, they obey his orders as he leaves...Leo then suggests that they maybe are getting a little too cocky, but Raph still refuses. He begins to protest, but after a little while, the communication orb begins to make some noise. Donnie says that it can mean only one thing: The Kraang are back, indicating that Splinter's instincts were dead on after all...

In Donnie's lab, he researches what exactly the orb is alerting the Turtles of, and they realize that it's actually another Kraang Ship carrying a shipment of some sort across the city, meaning that their plan can be doing no good. Donnie asks April to help her father indicate high radiations (with a device that he recently created), in case The Kraang are nearby. She says that she'll try her best to tell her father, since he now greatly worries about both The Kraang and April's safety...After she leaves, Donatello introduces the T-Rawket to his brothers. Leo asks April through a "T-Phone" if she is in position, and she replies "Roger". Her father then inquires why they're up so late doing a "class project", but April makes up that it's extra credit for pigeon migration... However, the lie does not last forever, when Mr. O'Neil picks up a high radiation and soon spots the Kraang ship. He then freezes in shock after a short while...

Meanwhile, the Turtles are getting ready to launch the T-Rawket and it blasts through the subway at a very high rate of speed, before flying right up into the night sky. The four brothers then fall from the rocket (though it is greatly unknown where it lands), coming prepared with their Turtle Gliders to soar in the air and find the ship; Not long before they can start, however, they seem to have found it already when they crash into something really hard that's also invisible. They quickly enter the ship, facing off with the Kraang once again. A few of the Turtles begin to sound cocky again about their first victory - That is, until a door opens and one of the Kraang's absolute newest creations is released and begins to fight with the Turtles. This Bio-Droid (which was seen on the projection screen earlier) is controlled by a single Kraang brain. The Turtles are forced to fight the extremely tough robot, but when its weapons almost strike Mikey, he dodges out of the way and, instead, the weapons strike a nearby button, which opens a gigantic shipment of Mutagen!!! Meanwhile, April is hoping that her friends can make it out and take the ship down. Just when everything seems to be going alright during the big fight, Mikey is backed up into a corner and accidentally presses a button that opens the bottom of the ship, having the ship going side-by-side...Donnie then realizes that the Mutagen containers from the shipment are quickly rolling towards the opening - and he tries to catch one. But it is simply too late...Many mutagen containers then fall out from the Kraang ship in the sky, with April looking on in absolute terror. The containers land, some of them breaking, and yet most of them remain hidden from human sight. However, one canister full of Mutagen then falls directly toward April, leaving her not knowing what to do...

But, instead of falling on April, the Mutagen shares it's effects with hapless Kirby O'Neil, who blocks her away from it. He begins to mutate and he then falls off of the building, with many bats (that were perching under them the whole entire time), and he rapidly flies into the air after mutating. April stares at her mutated father leaping on top of another rooftop. She yells in panic, extremely frightened by what her father has become...Kirby, whom is now a gigantic mutated bat, flies toward April to attack her. Meanwhile, in the ship, Raph blames everything on Donnie and Mikey, but, as unfortunate as it is, the brothers are not able to action against the falling canisters, and they are forced to continue fighting. The scene then cuts to show April running away from her now repugnant father. She successfully uses her Tessen to strike him in the face with one shot, with him showing a scared and hurt expression, having her apologize to him. After Donnie is able to gain control of the Kraang ship with his Naginata staff, they are able to destroy the Bio-Droid and escape the ship. They then fly with their gliders and head off to find April. They eventually find April, along with a mutated bat, and immediately rush in to attack it. April exclaims to not hurt him, stopping them in their paths with confusion. Kirby pushes the Turtles aside and quickly grabs April and flies away with her. Leo then suggests that the mutant might indeed be April's father - and Donnie desperately wants to help get April back...Raph tells him that they have to find the Mutagen containers all around the city, but Leo agrees with Donnie - That the situation with April's father must come first...

In the lair, Donnie cannot think straight and is becoming more and more worried by the minute. Leonardo asks Master Splinter for advice on trying to catch a stray pet, and the sensei responds by saying to use some food, since that strategy typically works with most animals. He then asks why his son wants to know, but Raph covers Leo's mouth and says that they're just talking about parrots like they usually do....Splinter leaves without another word, and the Turtles quickly figure that bats eat rodents, small invertebrates - and insects. They then come up with an effective plan - conveniently dressing up Mikey as a bug. This makes the gullible turtle name himself, "Turflytle" as his brand new superhero name.

After a while, April wakes up on a high ledge on a tall building, wondering how she got up there...A mutated Kirby then flies at April, and he vomits a dead rodent and a few garbage items on her lap as food. April obviously refuses to eat it - and commands her father to go get some real food. So, he leaves to find some more food, and this buys April some time to try and figure out a way to escape the ledge. Meanwhile, the Turtles are flying on their gliders once again, searching the whole entire area for Kirby. Donnie tells Raph to move Mikey around a bit more to mimic the way bugs fly to possibly attract their target. Kirby then notices and flies directly toward Mikey and almost harms him, but is safely lifted by Raph with the rope. They then try to lead Kirby O'Neil toward the warehouse where they had apparently planned to trap him, and Leo freefalls onto him to hold him steady...The bat then pushes Donnie, and the latter falls from his glider, badly landing on a rooftop. April then calls out to Donnie from a pretty short distance away - and he rushes to get her off of the high ledge.

The Turtles soon lead 'Kirby Bat' (Mikey's actual new name for him, much to Donnie's dismay) into the warehouse as planned, and they manage to trap him inside a huge cage. Both Donnie and April then run inside the warehouse, and see that April's father has been caged. She worries for him and blames it on herself for not listening to her dad. Mikey calms her down, however, saying that it wasn't her fault - and that it was their own. The Turtles quietly try and tell Mikey to shut up, but Mikey continues to talk and April keeps on listening. Mikey doesn't keep his mouth shut and keeps explaining everything, but says that they will get the containers back as soon as possible. April becomes very upset and then mad for what they did - and Donnie says that he swears "by Darwin's beard" that he will cure him, but unfortunately, Kirby flies off and escapes through the roof. April turns in the Turtles' direction, increasingly upset now. Donnie reaches his hand out, but April commands him to not to lay one single finger on her...She then yells at Donatello very furiously that she doesn't want to see him or his brothers ever again. Donnie desperately tries to run after her, but Raph stops him, and tells him to let her go and that she just needs some space. This leaves Donnie very upset as well, and hurt.

Meanwhile, The Shredder asks the very same Kraang where his shipment of Mutagen is, and the Kraang replies that the Turtles either destroyed their ship or sent it far off course, but says that they will also offer to make amends somehow, implying that the aliens will try to send him another shipment. The Shredder then tells Karai that the Kraang are practically useless to him now, and that, due to the circumstances, he now believes that it is time to truthfully bring out the big guns, which is indicated by him vowing to take the appropriate measure of continuing to expand his army primarily on his OWN.

Back in the Turtles' lair, Splinter finds out about the situation, and Donnie is still mourning about it...Master Splinter tells them to not focus on the events of the past, and to begin searching for the Mutagen canisters before anyone else is able to get affected by it. In the very end of the episode, a squirrel is seen in an alley way, and it curiously runs up to a broken container, with Mutagen seeping out of it. The squirrel then curiously takes a sip of the Mutagen, ending with dramatic music and the animal turning it's head towards the audience - with a vicious white eye.

Trivia

 * With this episode, the opening sequence changes for the first time in the series, in subtle ways.
 * Formerly: A montage of s, punctuated by a pose of the with  and  at either side.  Then, a scene where  launches from the  in the .  Then, a scene where  is above the Shellraiser, firing the compressed garbage cannon.  Then, a Foot Soldier recoiling.
 * Replaced by: A montage of villains in the series, including Kraang Prime, Mrs. Campbell, Snakeweed, Spider Bytez, the Newtralizer, the Rat King with Aristotle, Fishface, Dogpound and the Shredder with appearing as a reflection in his Kuro Kabuto.  Then, the same scene previous where Raph launches from the Shellraiser in the Stealth Bike.  (Mikey shooting garbage and the recoiling Foot Soldier have been cut.)
 * Formerly: A scene of in  performing maintenance on the Shellraiser with his desk to the upper right side.  Donnie smiles and has a purple portrait scene sprawled with "DONNIE".  Then Mikey speeds by on his skateboard, stealing Donnie's last slice of pizza.
 * Replaced by: The same scene, except now in a different part of the lab closer to one of its walls. Donnie's desk is now longer shown, but now the upper right side has the medical monitoring equipment, Timothy (as ) in his permanent slot along wall, and  walking nearby.  Both Timothy and Metalhead look at Mikey as he skates by.
 * Formerly: A scene where the turtles pass some city buildings with a full moon dominating the background.
 * Replaced by: The same scene, but now is standing there as the turtles pass by.
 * The device that Donatello uses to track the Kraang ship resembles the original 1989 Game Boy handheld video game system made by Nintendo. When he turns on the device, it also makes the same two tone dinging sound that the Game Boy made when turned on.
 * When pretending to be a superhero, Michelangelo called the bat Kirby "Wingnut", an homage to that character.
 * The ending was a reference from "Dramatic Chipmunk".
 * The scene when Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo use the communication orb as a dodgeball is similar to a scene in the 1987 TV series episode Peking Turtle, where the turtles are playing around with a giant pearl.
 * A Biotroid action figure is in development process.
 * A Turflytle action figure is in development process.
 * As a direct result of the 64 canisters of accidentally dropped over New York City, various new mutants were created concurrently to the events of this episode.  The mutants have been gradually introduced over the course of the series, including:
 * Antonio / Pizza Face
 * Fungus Humungous
 * Jason / Mondo Gecko
 * Martin Milton / Sir Malachi
 * Kirby O'Neil
 * Squirrelanoids

Gallery
See: The Mutation Situation/Gallery