Invasion of the Squirrelanoids

This is the 28th episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012 TV series). Its initial airdate was October 19, 2013.

Plot
The episode begins with the Turtles in the Shellraiser, searching the New York streets for each and every dropped Mutagen canister. Michelangelo is shown reading scary comic books and Raphael warns Mikey that he will have nightmares if he keeps reading them. But then Donatello's Mutagen Tracker starts buzzing, which means that ooze is nearby. The Turtles follow the signal to an abandoned movie theater, where they find a homeless man being attacked by a...squirrel. Not only is it a little squirrel, but it is a nasty mutant squirrel! The turtles are freaked out and before they can do anything, the mutant squirrel scurries inside the man's mouth and makes him gag and faint.

The turtles, except Raphael and Michelangelo, suggest that they should take the homeless man to their lair and help him out. Leonardo and Donatello explain that dropping the mutagen was their fault and it was their responsibility. Leo even offers them that he'll deal with Splinter. While he does that, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey place the man on the table in Donnie's lab. Donnie analyzes the man, and Mikey tells Raphael that what happened to the man also happened in his comic book. Raph disagrees and tells him to stop. Leo comes back saying that it's alright; As long as they take the guy out of the lair before Splinter is done meditating. Before Donnie can do anything else, the homeless guy starts mumbling words that they don't understand. With a little help from their little brother, Mikey says that the guy saw the squirrel mutate and attack him, but he's okay. Suddenly, the man starts gagging again and throws up the squirrel--two squirrels that is. The man starts to panic again and runs out of Donatello's laboratory, and Raph runs after him to calm him down and lead him out of the sewer.

Leo, Donnie, and Mikey sneak up on the two squirrels eating the dropped popcorn. Leo tries to catch them, but they run off. Making Donnie's lab a mess and Raphael barely dropping in late, the turtles run to capture the mutants; but they fail. Leonardo orders his team to spread out and search for both squirrels in the lair or the sewer. One runs into Mikey's room and the other runs to Master Splinter's room quietly and stares at him curiously, without Splinter noticing (since he's meditating). Leo and Donnie sneak inside the Dojo to carefully catch the animal, without disturbing Splinter's deep trance. They miss and the squirrel runs up into the tree. Switching to Mikey and Raph, they enter Mikey's room to find the animal. They can't find it, and Mikey decides to get his four-day old slice of pizza and help lure the squirrel to them. Raphael, without hesitation, joins his brother. Back to the Dojo, Leo jumps on Donnie's shoulders and later jumps to the tree. He almost falls on his sensei, but he luckily flips and catches the mutant squirrel. Unfortumately, the squirrel makes a loud hiss, awakening Master Splinter. He snaps at Leonardo, but then gets interrupted when he sees that Leo is holding a chipmunk. Leo corrects that it's a squirrel and explains that it's a dangerous mutant. The squirrel struggles to leap out of Leo's hand and runs away. With the help of a "father", Splinter traps the squirrel underneath a basket.

Mikey is shown jumping on his bed and eating his pizza when he lays down, acting as if nothing happened. Raph, also, forgot what they were even doing, and that stopped until they heard the sound of the little squirrel in Michelangelo's shelf of his aciton figure collections. Raph hurries to try and get it, but he misses. Just when he had the squirrel after it ran out, it runs towards Raphael's face and into his mouth, making Raphael gag, and his little brother scream in fear.

Donnie lays Raph out on the table as well, and starts to panic and scream. Donnie tells him to calm down and that everything will be fine. Not with Mikey's help, he explains that in his comic book, the alienoid spreads a mucus inside the stomach and it reproduces to make another, which Donnie protested to stop and that he's not helping at all, "though 98 percent accurate." Raph continues to struggle. Donatello tells him that they're going to do a surgery and Mikey uses a chainsaw to cut into Raphael's stomach. Instead, he just did that to make him more scared and he only cut the locks, making the turtles have a laugh. Before Raph can argue and get his fury on, he becomes weak and starts to gag again. He then throws up two more squirrels out of his guts. The squirrels starts to glow and the electricity goes off, leaving them in the dark. Splinter hears the noise and rushes to his sons. The glowing mutants run away and disappear.

Leonardo orders again to split up and so they do. They search everywhere and can't find them. Mikey checks one room, but nothing's there either. Then, while walking backward, he accidentally bumps into Raph and he suggested that maybe he needed back-up. They hear a noise, that is exactly the same as what Mikey heard in his comic book; Raphael became confused, asking how it can sound the same when it was in a book. Before they can continue their conversation, Raph spots the mutant above them. Mikey stares at the mutant in shock, saying that they have transformed into a different type of stage: Squirrelanoids!

The two brothers scream in panic, and Leonardo hears them from the central part of their lair. Donatello yells that they are here, and one Squirrelanoid jumps to attack him. Another attacks Leonardo, and Michelangelo with Raphael running away from the one they've spotted. Splinter rushed in to defend the turtles and he uses his ninjutsu skills to strike at the Squirrelanoids. They flee and escape. Leo exclaims to his sensei that they just swam to where the sewer leads to the surface. Splinter tells them to go out and find them, so he can protect the lair in case they return. Mikey becomes nervous and scared that his father isn't going out with them. Splinter tells them all that whom wants to prove they are among the bravest, most strongest of will, and the worthiest of ninjas. But, Donnie instead uses Metalhead to walk out the lair to find the three mutants, and tells Splinter that there's some kind of lesson, like brains over bravery, or "something like that". Splinter sasses his son, saying that "something" part was most accurate, having Donnie pout, owned. Mikey says that it also happened in his horror comic book, but nobody stands to protest after hearing the noise through Metalhead's eyes in the screen. They spot one Squirrelanoid, and it attacks Metalhead, breaking his head. Mikey yells that it was also on page 33. Donnie worries and says that he would fix Metalhead, leaving Splinter saying he was right.

After the break, the turtles have no choice but to go out and search for the dangerous mutants. Raph asks what they would do if they find the mutants, Mikey answering that the mutants will find them. Again, Leo tells them all to split up, this time in teams. Mikey argues that it's still splitting up, having Leo ignore his argument and tells Donnie to search with him, leaving Mikey and Raph work together again. While they both search, Raph asked what happened in Mikey's comic book. He regrets hearing it after the ending of the story was when the people were killed until there was one remaining survivor. Then, they hear a loud squirrel noise. Meanwhile, Donnie picks up a strong radar and hears the sound too. The Squirrelanoids attack Donnie and Leo tells them to run away. They both bump into Raph and Mikey. They start to face the vicious mutant villains and defeat them once and for all, until they are surrounded by the monsters. Raphael asks Michelangelo what happens in his book and he replies that the only survivor baits the alienoids, but before he can finish, he bales on his brothers. Leonardo suggests that he had a plan. The turtles try again to defeat the villains, but eventually get cornered.

But the Squirrelanoids scent food, which was Michelangelo holding popcorn in his hands, distracting them away from his turtle brothers. So young Michelangelo did have a plan. Mikey ends up in a sewer room and throws the popcorn inside the water. The Squirrelanoids run inside to eat it, and Mikey turns the wheel to open a door to let the water flow somewhere else, and the mutants flush inside, falling. Mikey whispers "Booyakasha", saying he has succeeded...

Succeeded? Not quite. Suddenly, the tongue of a Squirrelanoid flies at Mikey's leg and pulls him inside the falling water with them. Mikey is flushing inside the large passageway to another part of the sewer and sinks inside, drowning. Not long while he's about to sink to his death, Raphael catches his hand and cuts the Squirrelanoid's tongue away. Mikey is carried and it is shown that Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael are holding each other to save Mikey. Their brother is saved at last, but one other Squirrelanoid lunges toward Mikey from the water and almost takes him with them. But Raphael uses his shurikens to take it down and the vicious mutant floods down. They are all relieved that Mikey is finally safe.

Back in the lair, Raph says that Mikey's comic book paid off and it helped them all succeed; all because of luring the animals with food. Donnie was disappointed at himself for not thinking of it. Michelangelo's wise words were, "Not everyone has to be the brains of the outfit." Master Splinter tells them that maybe one of their enemies found a way to escape, but Raph says that they're gone forever... But Mikey tells them all that there were sequels to his comic book that the alienoids return.

This episode ends up with an engineer (who was seen in It Came From The Depths), walking in the sewers. He finds a bag of popcorn and eats it. A figure of a Squirrelanoid stands behind him in the dark, and holds him behind closely. The Squirrelanoids return.

Trivia

 * The episode's airdate was chosen so that it was relatively in proximity to Hallowe'en, due to its frightening villain.
 * Production number of this episode is #203 making this episode actually the third episode of season 2, not the second episode.
 * The episode is a very strong homage to Ridley Scott's popular sci-fi/horror film, Alien, with the Squirrelanoids' appearance and behavior mimicking the film's titular antagonists, as well as specific lines and scenes being lifted directed from the film as well.
 * Michelangelo names the Squirrelanoids after the Alienoids that appear in his comic, "Invasion of the Alienoids" (which also echoes the episode's title).
 * The title bears heavy resemblance to the 1987 series episode, "Invasion of the Krangazoids" and the 2003 Fast Forward episode, "Invasion of the Bodyjacker".
 * Muckman makes a cameo appearance on a poster on the wall in Michelangelo's bedroom, complete with the clothespin on his nose.
 * In Mikey's room, he has a cardboard cutout of Chris Bradford in human form.
 * The area where Raph and Mikey first encounter the fully mutated Squirrelanoids is also where April first found the Kraang Communication Orb in "Operation: Break Out".
 * Written on Michelangelo's surfboard is the name "Cipes", obviously after his voice actor, professional surfer Greg Cipes.
 * Mutagen Man makes a brief appearance in this episode.

Gallery
See: Invasion of the Squirrelanoids/Gallery

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