Divide and Conquer

Divide and Conquer is the 194th and last episode of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series. This episode of the show was written by Jeffrey Scott. It originally aired on November 2, 1996, on CBS.

Character Voices

 * Leonardo (Cam Clarke)
 * Donatello (Barry Gordon)
 * Raphael (Michael Gough)
 * Michaelangelo (Townsend Coleman)
 * Splinter (Peter Renaday)
 * April O'Neil (Renae Jacobs)
 * Lord Dregg (Tony Jay)
 * Mung (Cam Clarke)
 * Orange Dimension X Alien (Peter Renaday)
 * Blue Dimension X Alien (Barry Gordon)
 * Pink Dimension X Alien (???)

Plot synopsis
{C This episode starts with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ("TMNT") fighting against a scaly alien at a old airport. He proved to be more than a match for them, he is armed with a plasma blaster and a razor disk. He also had a timer to see how much time left with the turtles. Michaelangelo drives a plane and heading towards the alien. The alien uses x-ray vison and sees Michelangelo, he fires and hit a propeller. However, he can still drive it uses the tail of the plane to knock the alien to the ground. The turtles went up to question him of why is he here to attack, but he tears off Leonardo's belt and disappears. Raphael stats that's the sixth alien that got away before they can question them and one of them took Michaelangelo's grapplers. Leonardo asured that they'll catch the next one to find out what's up.

The next scene shows the alien have returned to some Cantina on a strange planet. At the Cantina, Dregg is holding a court, where he guarantees power and wealth for anyone that "survives" 90 seconds against the TMNT.

Inside the Turtle Van, the TMNT are discussing over what has been going on that week. No matter where they go, an alien finds them. Michelangelo finds a transmitter in his shell, they quickly thrown it away. A blue alien with four arms appears and attacks the TMNT. This one has a shapeshifting ability. She turned her upper left arm into a chain with a claw at the end and catches Leonardo and Donatello. Then she change into a rhino and rams the horn through the seats. The van drives off the edge of the road, but with Michaelangelo is unable to reach the emegency botton due to being push againest the seats. The alien grabs Donatello's bo and disappears. Michaelangelo then presses the botton to open the parachutes and turtles landed safely. They exited the van and wondered why would the alien fled when had the upperhand. Donatello notice the homing device that Michelangelo had on him looked like a microbot, meaning that Dregg is up to something.

The blue alien returns with the staff. Dregg announces that he has what he came for, so the games are over. He cruited five aliens that passed, the scaly alien, blue alien, stone ball alien, brain-like alien, and a robot, saying that he has a job for them. The turtles return to their lair, wondering why aliens attacked with no reason, take something with no value, and leave after 90 seconds. Raphael jokes that it could be a new event in outer space. They called April to see if there were any alien sighting in the world. Strangely, there hasn't, but she'll call back just in case. Confused that they are the only ones that been attcked. Donatello looks up the computer and finds transporter energy that beams the aliens to Earth, it is coming from the black hole where they last saw Dregg. When noise was heard in the other room the turtles came to attack, but it revieled to be Splinter. He told them that they are unnerved, so they meditate with him.

Back at the strange planet, Mung is working on tanks filled with microbots. He meets up with Dregg telling that their nearly full. Dregg says that he needs a container of microbots, Mung told him that they need all of the microbots in order to complete their invasion fleet on schedule. Dregg pushed Mung and calls him a fool, when he had the power of Krang and Shredder he was a pinch close of defeating the turtles, he doesn't care of the invasion plans, he only wants the turtles destroyed cause they foiled his every plan, so he needs microbots to defeat the turtles. Mung tells Dregg that he lost sight of their goal to conquer Earth, he had gain obsession of destroying the turtles, Dregg threaten that he will destroy anyone who gets in his way, including Mung. Dregg fires his eye beams at the tank and gets a container of microbots himself, then he departs with the aliens. Seeing that Dregg now lost it, Mung exclaims, "You're mad, Dregg! Mad!". At the Dreggnaut, Dregg releases the microbots to make him one last thing he needs to use againest the turtles. Back at the lair the turtles are sparring, Splinter told to use the new skill he taught them, called the Flying Claw. That is when they jumped to their opponents back and get good hold. He said if they learn it well that don't need any more techniques, Splinter and the turtles bowed. Back at Dregg's ship, the microbots are done what he needs, a suit called a Morphogenesis Exoskeleton. When he puts it on himself he'll show what it does. He pushes the bottons and the wrist, five mechanical arms from the chest lashes onto the aliens, realizing it was a trap that they cannot escape. Then he absorbs them into his body. The arms glew red and the aliens has shruck into them, sending them to Dreggs body. Now that Dregg has stolen the powers of the five aliens, he believes that he is ready to attack the TMNT himself. He steps on to the teleporter to send himself to Earth.

At the lair Leonardo practice the move while the others watched. He told they should practice it so can use on the next alien, but it's been hours. When the alarm rung, Donatello checks up that someone has beam down to a site not far from them, the TMNT went to investigate. At construction site the turtles met up with Dregg, he said that he waited for them for their demise. They questioned him of the aliens, assumed that they were his friends. Dregg press a botton, then grows in size. He reviels that the those aliens were the most powerful in all the galaxies and he has all of their powers. Dregg attacks the TMNT, he uses the shapeshifting power to turned into claw tipped chian and threw it at the turtles, catching Donatello by the foot. Raphael and Michaelangelo ties it to a steel frame, but Dregg pulls it to left Donatello. Leonardo and Michaelangelo pulls him out. Dregg then pulls the building down, but misses the turtles. Knowing that their no match, the turtles are retreating back to the sewer. Dregg turns into a ball to roll onto the them. Luckily, there was a opened manhole to escape, but Dregg uses x-ray vision to see through the street. He uses robotic arms and catches Michaelangelo, Leonardo frees him. He orders the team to head lower while slows down Dregg. He breaks a pipe that pushes Dregg away and the turtles escapes.

Now the TMNT are trying to figure out how to defeat Dregg since he has numerous powers. Splinter gave them advice, when a hermint crab wants to impress its enemies, it gets a bigger shell. That gives Donatello an idea, a bigger shell, but not a turtle shell. He recalls Krang's old robot body, it has a molecular expander, a device inside of it that makes it grow, but the body was in the Technodrome, which was destroyed in their last encounter, but the suit is indestructible, so it should still be useful. The turtles protest of using the dimensional portal since the last time it got them in trouble, but Donatello got it to work this time. At April's apartmant, Dregg appears in her computer and uses her something he needs, bait. Dregg then calls the TMNT and shows that he has April. Leonardo and Raphael will go save her, while Donatello and Michaelangelo will go get the robot body. They go through the dimensional portal to Dimension X and take it from the ruins of the Technodrome. Meanwhile, Leonardo and Raphael went to April's apartment, but they realize they've been lured into a trap.

Dregg gives them a choice of their death, but he gladly choices for them. Raphael threw his Sai at the wall that knocks a cabinet onto Dregg. When Dregg sprayed the floor with liquid nitrogen, Leonardo hits floor with a chair sending Dregg below. Then they freed April and escapes in the Turtle Van, but Dregg turns into a motorcycle chased after them.

At the Technodrome, Donatello and Michaelangelo found the body, but it was a another robot what looks like it attacks them. Michaealangelo flips it over and they see other androids. They manage to fight them off and caught one to them and demanded to know where is Krang's real robot body. It was in the other room under a pile of debris, they picked it up and going to the base portal to get back. Back at Earth Dregg followed the van all the way to a junk yard, stating it's a perfect place for turtles death. At the Technodrome, Donatello is turning on the portal to send them back. They have reached the junk yard and made the body grow. Dregg is about to place the van into the car crusher, but Donatello and Michaealangelo arrived just in time to save them. Leonardo can't open the door due magnet is keeping the door shut. Dregg knocks the body over to the crane, lowering the cable the van is on. Dregg then knocks the body to the ground. Donatello can not make the body much bigger because sooner it will collapse, they have one minute to stop Dregg before it shrinks to the size of a ping-pong ball and explodes. Leonardo uses the laser of the van to knock Dregg over to a tower of cars, but he turns in the ball alien knocks over the body again. After he is done crushing the Turtle Van, they will be next. Time is running out for the body, so use the Flying Claw move on Dregg. The body got back on its feet jumps over Dregg, grabbing a hold on him, leaving him frightened and helpless. Donatello and Michaelangelo got out of the cockpit, the body and Dregg shruck down to normal size. The body will explode at any second, Donatello and Michaelangelo quickly tosses the body and Dregg into the portal to Dimension X where Dregg, even if he survives the impending explosion of Krang's body, will be trapped for good. Then they got Leonardo, Raphael, and April down safely.

At the lair, Splinter tells the TMNT that now, they are full-fledged "Ninja Turtles" having earned the status by defeating Dregg, their last major foe with Krang and Shredder gone. He told that he is proud to their equal, Michealangelo thought he meant to their teacher, but Splinter said that they no longer need a teacher, like a lion they have no superior in the jungles of life. Leonardo believes that the TMNT can handle anyone and anything, except Donatello's cooking, when he just remembered that he left popcorn in the microwave goes out of control.

Animation/Technical Errors

 * After the alien at the beginning of the episode stole Leoardo's belt, he has it back when we see them in the Turtle Van.
 * When the Turtles power up Krang's exo-suit, it's towering over Dregg in terms of height. A few seconds later, it's barely taller than him. The exo-suit would change size throughout the battle. You can try explaining this away as Dregg changing his size to match the suit in terms of power, but shots showing the crane indicate Dregg's remaining the same size throughout the fight.
 * The Turtles piloting the suit can appear downright tiny at times, despite Krang implying since the suit's first appearance that they should be growing with the suit.

Continuity Errors

 * One of Lord Dregg's 'requirements' for choosing the best warriors is having them last 90 seconds against the Turtles. The four-armed shapeshifter is one of the chosen, but she only fought them for 30 seconds before vanishing with Donatello's staff.


 * When the Turtles regroup at the lair to discuss why aliens have been attacking them, Leonardo's the one at the computer. A few seconds later, after Michelangelo finishes talking to April, it's Donatello at the computer instead.


 * After Leonardo orders the Turtles to head to the lower drains while he tries to slow down Dregg, he opens a manhole cover, dives right inside, followed by the other Turtles, right before cutting a water main and diving into the same manhole cover...again. Wait, what?


 * Donatello warns Michelangelo that making Krang's exo-suit grow in size comes with a time limit, right before it 'shrinks to the size of a ping-pong ball and explodes'. When was this ever an issue?


 * How was Lord Dregg able to walk on those wooden floors after spraying them with liquid nitrogen? He should have gone under long before Leonardo smashed the floors.


 * Donatello yells that they've only got five seconds left in the suit before it explodes, but 15 seconds pass before anything happens.


 * Who or what opened the portal to allow Donatello and Michelangelo to push the suit and Dregg to Dimension X?


 * The Technodrome's portal is working just fine, but in "Turtle Trek" this would have made Shredder and Krang's 2 year absence pointless.


 * When April first sees Krang's Android body fight Dregg, she says "What on Earth is that?" Because it's pretty easy to forget something you've seen only a hundred times out of sheer terror, isn't it?

Nods and References

 * The ruined remains of the Technodrome appear in Dimension X, complete with the ominous theme that plays when it usually appears.


 * Raphael mentions King Kong during the battle with Lord Dregg.


 * Krang's exo-suit makes one final appearance here, and it's instrumental in the Turtles' attempt to finally get rid of Lord Dregg.


 * The use of Liquid Nitrogen as a weapon hearkens to another classic 80's cartoon, namely, the Transformers, where it is employed by the character Ironhide.

Trivia

 * This is the last episode of the 1987 series, and therefore the last appearances of the Turtles, April O' Neil, Splinter and Lord Dregg in the 1987 series; untill Turtles Forever, which The 1987 Turtles, April, Splinter, Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteedy all appered.
 * Items stolen in this episode (or mentioned as being stolen) include: Leonardo's belt buckle, one of Michaelangelo's grapplers and Donatello's bo.
 * The key technique taught to the Turtles in this episode is the 'Flying Claw', a move that does ultimately defeat Lord Dregg, but is otherwise impractical, since the opponent's arms are free and there's nothing preventing the captured party from flinging himself backwards, if Leo's application of the move is anything to go by.
 * According to Raphael, seven aliens have attacked the Turtles in Lord Dregg's contest, not including Dregg himself, who is number 8. Since Dregg absorbed five of the aliens, presumably the other two failed miserably during their attempts to battle the Turtles.
 * Raphael gets the last line in the series...and it's to make a dig at "Donatello's cooking."
 * This is the first and only time the Technodrome is in an episode without Krang and Shredder, who are destroyed and lost in Dimension X by now.