Splinter No More

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Bebop is the fifteenth episode of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series. This episode of the show was written by Michael Reaves and Brynne Stephens. It originally aired on November 26, 1988, in syndication, during season 2. It is available on the DVD box set released on April 26, 2005.

Plot Summary
Michelangelo  arrives at the turtles' New York City sewer lair with pizzas. For Splinter, he bought sushi, but Splinter is not hungry. The turtles feel that Splinter is depressed. Raphael believes that Splinter is worried about Shredder's next plan and Leonardo believes Splinter is depressed because he is a rat. Splinter tells the turtles that he dreams of becoming human again, walking the streets and feeling the sun. But as a rat, he has other abilities which help him. Michelangelo says that as a human, Splinter can go up and see what Shredder does. Donatello uses the remaining last parts of the mutagen from the mutation of the turtles and Splinter which many years. It works, and Splinter becomes human again. As Hamato Yoshi, he walks up. The turtles are depressed and worried that Splinter will leave them forever.

Meanwhile, April O'Neil and Irma are reporting Public Service Announcements from a local library when April spies Bebop and Rocksteady. April contacts the turtles, and tells them that she must return to Channel 6. The turtles take off to the library and encounter Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady, who escape. But Shredder leaves a clue behind. It seems that Shredder has stumbled onto a spell that will enable him to open a portal wherever he chooses at midnight. The turtles find a reference to a temple in an old subway terminal somewhere under the city that acts as a nexus. The spell was used in an old cult back in the 1920s. Now, the turtles must find Shredder before the midnight bells strike.

Hamato Yoshi tries to take a taxi, but when he has no money, the taxi driver drives away. Hamato Yoshi goes to Central Park, where he is attacked by a gang. Suddenly, Donatello's mutagen spray wears off. causing Hamato Yoshi to mutate back into Splinter. The gang escapes in fear. Hamato Yoshi heads back to the turtles' sewer lair, but along the way, he is pursued by the police, and a mob. He tries to reach a sewer manhole by jumping right into the trafficked street, but fails when the traffic light switches to green for the walking people and everyone can see him.

On their way to the underground temple, Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady walk through the sewers. Bebop and Rocksteady talk about how much they hate the smells of the sewers, and they can't understand how the turtles can live there. When they mention the turtles, Shredder contacts Krang to send him the Neuro Scrambler, an invention the Shredder designed to pit mutant against mutant. Shredder plans to have the turtles fight each other while he opens the portal to Dimension X.

April gives the turtles a video about subway tunnels.

When the turtles come near Shredder's Neuro Scrambler, they feel the effects and begin to call each other words like "foul" and "idiot", and then begin to fight each other. But when April asks the turtles what they think that Splinter would say if he saw this. April's words resist Shredder's Neuro Scrambler, and April hears a sound: the Neuro Scrambler. April throws the Neuro Scrambler and the turtles throw their weapons on the machine, destroying it. They can now continue their search for Shredder.

The Shredder arrives first in the underground temple. Bebop and Rocksteady guard the temple with their stun guns,. The bells strike midnight and Shredder he begins to read the spell from the book:

"By ancient lore and powers dark

Let space and time begin to part.

Portal now open wide

Reveal at least what is inside.

Key within to my success.

Bridge the gap to Dimension..."

Before Shredder can say "X", Splinter, now mutated back into rat, arrives and shouts "Stop!". The spell becomes "misspoken." And, as warned by Krang, a portal to another more dangerous dimension opens, and a one-eyed tentacled creature arrives. The portal closes and the monster can not be sent back. The turtles arrive and join forces with Shredder, Bebop, and Rocksteady. They lure the monster to destroy the temple allowing Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady to escape.

Back in the sewers, Splinter tells the turtles that today he saw how bad many humans treate each other, so he wants to be an animal and doesn't miss being a human anymore. Splinter also insists that if Donatello's experiment had worked, he would not have been able to go underground again in time to stop the Shredder.

Writers

 * Michael Reaves and Brynne Stephens

Character voices

 * Leonardo  (Cam Clarke )
 * Donatello  (Barry Gordon )
 * Michelangelo  (Townsend Coleman )
 * Raphael  (Rob Paulsen )
 * Splinter  (Peter Renaday )
 * April O'Neil  (Renae Jacobs )
 * Irma  (Jennifer Darling )
 * Shredder  (James Avery )
 * Bebop  (Barry Gordon )
 * Rocksteady  (Cam Clarke )
 * Krang  (Pat Fraley )
 * First Thug (Pat Fraley)
 * Second Thug (Townsend Coleman)
 * Third Thug (Pat Fraley)
 * First Cop (Cam Clarke)
 * Second Cop (Rob Paulsen)
 * Large Blonde Man (Pat Fraley)
 * Cab Driver (Peter Renaday)

Gadgets

 * Com-Link
 * Turtlecoms

Locations

 * Turtles' Lair
 * Public Library
 * Technodrome
 * City Streets
 * Central Park
 * City Subway
 * Abandoned Subway
 * Channel 6
 * City Sewer System
 * Shredder's Hideout
 * Subterranean Temple

Trivia

 * The monster from the unknown dimension, which dies off-screen, is one of the few living organisms who die in this cartoon.
 * This is the first time we see Splinter in his human form since the pilot episode.

Errors

 * When Splinter fully reverts to rat form after hiding at the side of the subway track he is seen without his shirt and tie but gains them back briefly when tracking down Shredder's incence
 * After Donatello restores Splinter back to Yoshi he is seen with a bare chest but automatically gains a shirt and tie in the next shot.
 * After Leonardo throws his katana at the radiator to pour hot steam on Bebop and Rocksteady he is seen getting up with both katanas on his back but the one his threw earlier is seen back in the radiator when the fight is over.
 * When the taxi cab that Yoshi hailed drives off it is seen against the roadside pointing diagonally in the middle of the road.
 * Donatello's Turtlecom is coloured grey in the second shot of it through the Turtlevan windshield.
 * When Raphael wonders if Splinter is okay, he is seen with Leonardo's katana.
 * When April is talking to Donatello at Channel 6, her Turtlecom is drawn like the Turtles and Splinter's version.

Theme
The theme in this episode is existential, and deals with racism (how many people fear different things) and how many people treat each other in everyday life. Many consider it a "sad episode" because Splinter fails to become human again.