Invasion of the Squirrelanoids

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

Major Characters

 * Squirrelanoids
 * Leonardo (Jason Biggs)
 * Donatello (Rob Paulsen)
 * Raphael (Sean Astin)
 * Michelangelo (Greg Cipes)

Minor Characters

 * Splinter (Hoon Lee)
 * Metalhead (Rob Paulsen)

Plot
The episode begins with the Turtles in the Shellraiser, searching the New York streets for each and every dropped Mutagen canister that were accidentially spilled by them in "The Mutation Situation". Michelangelo is shown reading scary comic books - and Raphael warns Mikey that he will have more nightmares if he keeps reading them. But then Donatello's Mutagen Tracker starts buzzing, which indicates that ooze must be nearby. The Turtles follow the signal to an abandoned movie theater, where they find a homeless man being attacked by a....squirrel, apparently. Not only is it a little squirrel, but it is also a nasty Mutant squirrel (which is revealed when it sticks out it's repulsive tongue)! The Turtles are clearly freaked out by this, and before they can do anything, the mutant squirrel scurries inside the man's mouth and makes him both gag and faint...

The Turtles, all except for Raphael and Michelangelo, suggest that they should take the homeless man into their lair and help him out. However, Leonardo and Donatello explain to them that dropping the Mutagen was their fault - and therefore it would be their own responsibility to help a man who has a mutant squirrel (that was mutated during the incident) in his stomach! Leo even offers them that he'll deal with Splinter. While he does that, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey place the man on a table in Donnie's lab...Donnie analyzes the man, and Mikey tells Raphael that what is happening to the man right now also happened to a guy in one of his comic books. Raph disagrees, however, and tells him to stop...Leo then comes up to them, saying that it is alright with their master; 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 quite have the capacity to understand. With a little help from their little brother, Mikey says that the guy saw the squirrel mutate and attack him, but he's pretty much fine. Suddenly, the man starts gagging yet again and throws up the squirrel--two squirrels that is. Donnie finds this revelation to be very unprecedented. The man starts to panic again and runs out of Donatello's laboratory - and Raph runs after him to try and calm him down and lead him out of the sewers (if possible).

Leo, Donnie, and Mikey soon sneak up on the two squirrels eating some dropped popcorn. Leo tries to catch them, but they quickly run off. Making Donnie's lab a complete mess and Raphael barely dropping in late, the Turtles run to capture the Mutants; but they fail miserably. Leonardo then orders his team to fan out and search for both squirrels throughout the lair. One then runs into Mikey's room and the other runs into the Dojo where Master Splinter is in a deep, meditative trance. The squirrel runs to his side and stares at him curiously, without Splinter even noticing. Leo and Donnie sneak inside the Dojo to carefully catch the animal, without disturbing Splinter's deep trance...However, they miss once again and the squirrel runs up into the tree. Switching to Mikey and Raph, they enter Mikey's room to find the animal as well. They cannot find it, however, and so Mikey decides to get his four-day old slice of Pizza and try to possibly lure the squirrel to them. Raphael, without alot of hesitation, joins his brother. Back to the Dojo. Leo jumps onto Donnie's shoulders and then jumps up into the tree. He almost falls onto his sensei, but he luckily flips and catches the mutant squirrel with his left hand. Unfortunately, the squirrel utters a loud hiss, awakening Master Splinter...He snaps at Leonardo, but he then pauses when he sees that Leo is holding what appears to be a chipmunk. Leo corrects that it's a squirrel and explains that it's none other than a dangerous Mutant. The squirrel struggles to leap out of Leo's hand and runs away. With the help of a "father" figure, Splinter traps the squirrel underneath a basket.

Mikey is then shown jumping on his bed and eating his pizza, when he lays down, acting as if nothing has just happened. Raph, however, did not forgot what they were doing, and freezes when they hear the sounds of the little squirrel in one of Michelangelo's action-figure shelves. Raph hurries to try and get it, but he misses. Just when he has the squirrel after it runs out, it runs right towards Raphael's face and into his mouth, making Raphael gag, and his little brother screams in fear......

Donnie lays Raph out on the table as well, and the latter starts to panic and scream, claiming that he can feel the rodent squirming around in his intestines. Donnie tells him to calm down and that everything will be just fine...Mikey explains that, in his comic book, the alienoid that is featured spreads a mucus inside the stomach lining and it ultimately reproduces to make another alienoid, which Donnie protests to stop and that he's not helping at all, "though probably 98 percent accurate." Raph continues to struggle, much like the man did before. Donatello tells him that they're going to do a surgery and Mikey grabs a nearby chainsaw and makes Raph believe for a second that he's about to cut open his torso. However, Raph quickly realizes that he had just did that to make him more scared and he only cut the locks, making the Turtles have a laugh. Before Raph can bicker  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 mysteriously start to glow and all of the electricity then goes off, leaving them trapped in the dark. Splinter hears the noise and commotion and rushes to his sons' aid. The glowing Mutants then run away and disappear...

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

The two brothers scream in panic, and Leonardo hears them from the central part of their lair. Donatello yells that a squirrel is there, and sure enough - one Squirrelanoid jumps out to attack Donnie. Another attacks Leonardo; and Michelangelo with Raphael are running away from the one that they've just spotted. Splinter then rushes in to defend the Turtles and he uses his impressive Ninjutsu skills to strike each of The Squirrelanoids directly in the face. They flee and escape. Leo exclaims to his sensei that they just made a break for it into the sewer, which will eventually lead to the surface. Splinter tells them to go track them down, while he vows to defend the lair in case the beasts return. Mikey becomes nervous and scared that his father isn't going with them. Splinter asks them whom wants to prove that they are among the bravest, the strongest of will, and the worthiest of ninjas. But, Donnie instead decides to use Metalhead to find the three mutants, and he tells Splinter that there is some kind of lesson here, like brains over bravery, or "something like that". Splinter sasses his son, saying that the "something" part was most accurate, having Donnie pout, owned. Mikey says that it also happened in his horror comic book, but, this time, nobody is able to stand to protest that after hearing a loud noise through Metalhead's eyes in the screen. They spot one Squirrelanoid, and it attacks Metalhead, breaking off his head. Mikey claims that that very part was also in the book, on Page 33!! Donnie stresses and says that he will fix Metalhead, leaving Splinter to tell them that he was right...

With Metalhead utterly destroyed, the Turtles have no choice but to go out and search for the dangerous mutants by themselves. Raph asks what they will do if they find the mutants; Mikey answering that the mutants will find them...Yet again, Leo tells them all to split up, but this time in teams. Mikey argues that it's still splitting up, having Leo ignore his argument and he tells Donnie to search with him, leaving Mikey and Raph to be partnered up once again. While they both search, Raph asks if and how the survivors defeated the aliens. However, Raph becomes regretful that he asked when Mikey tells him that all of the people in it were killed until there was but one remaining survivor. Then, they hear a loud noise made by a Squirrelanoid. Meanwhile, Donnie picks up a strong radar, and he soon hears the same sound too. The Squirrelanoids begin attacking Donnie, and Leo tells orders him to retreat. While running away, they both bump into Raph and Mikey. They start to face the vicious mutant villains and manage to score some good hits on the foul creatures, until our heroes are surrounded by them. Raphael then asks Michelangelo if and how the sole survivor managed to beat the aliens - and Mikey replies that the survivor baits the alienoids, but before he can finish, he bales on his brothers. Leonardo thinks that he has a plan. The Turtles regain their flair and try once again to defeat the villains, but they eventually get cornered.

But the Squirrelanoids then smell food -- which turns out to be Michelangelo holding a bag of popcorn in his hands, distracting them from his Turtle brothers. So, young Michelangelo did indeed have an effective plan. Mikey begins fleeing, but not before throwing the bag of popcorn into the sewer water. The Squirrelanoids then jump into the water with the intention of eating it, and Mikey turns a nearby wheel to let the water flow down below to the septic tanks, and, ultimately, the mutants are flushed down inside. Mikey whispers "Booyakasha", indicating that he has succeeded......

Succeeded?? No - Not quite. Suddenly, the ropy tongue of a Squirrelanoid flies up and grasps Mikey's leg and pulls him inside the falling water with them!! Mikey is also being flushed down inside the large passageway to another part of the sewer and he sinks inside, beginning to drown. Not long before he's about to sink to his death, Raphael catches his hand and cuts the Squirrelanoid's tongue away. Mikey is hoisted up - and it is shown that Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael are holding on to eachother in order 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 reading actually paid off and it helped them all succeed; all because of baiting the animals with food. Donnie is disappointed with himself for not thinking of it. Michelangelo's wise words in the episode are, "Not everyone can be the brains of the outfit." Master Splinter then tells them that one of their enemies could've found a way to escape, but Raph says that they are gone for good...But Mikey tells them all that there were sequels to his comic book that deal with the alienoids' return......

This episode concludes with an engineer (who was also seen in "It Came From The Depths"), walking down in the sewers somewhere. He finds a bag of popcorn down there and begins eating it. A figure of a Squirrelanoid then appears behind him in the dark, and grabs him from behind, covering his mouth...

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.  Mikey makes a reference to aliens exiting "out of the dude's butt", which was a major plot point in Stephen King's Dreamcatcher.
 * 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.
 * Written on Michelangelo's surfboard is the name "Cipes", obviously after his voice actor, professional surfer Greg Cipes.
 * Mikey also makes the quote "Game over, man, game OVER!", a quote from the movie Aliens.

Quotes
"Take a right. No left, left!"

- Donatello

"Uhm Donnie, maybe you can tell me before we cross the street."

- Leonardo

"I'm sorry Leo, but there are still so many mutagen canisters out there that my tracker is having trouble zeroing in on a single reading. Oh turn right!"

- Donatello

"Whoa, I think I just got shell-lash!"

- Raphael

(Mikey screams from reading a comic book. Raph gets up and grabs the comic book.) "Hey, that comic is in mint... near mint condition! Don't mess it up!"

- Michelangelo

"Great, another horror story. Guess who's gonna be up all night again?"

- Raphael

"What? No. I was up all night because I was....polishing my grappling hook."

- Michelangelo

"Quick! Help me seal off the lair! We can't let them escape!"

- Leonardo "Well, I don't exactly want them in here with us!"

- Raphael

"Sensei's in a deep trance..."

- Donatello "Shh… Full ninja mode..."

- Leonardo

"What is going on in here? I WAS in a deep meditative state, trying to block out your constant noise, and-- Is that a chipmunk?"

- Splinter "Yeah… Uh… It's a… a squirrel Sensei… A dangerous mutant squirrel that reproduces inside stomachs… -squirrel escapes Leo's grasp-"

- Leonardo "I should have been in a deeper trance..."

- Splinter

"Splitting up to find multiplying mutants in the dark. Could we pick a more cliché way to get eaten?"

- Raphael

Gallery
See: Invasion of the Squirrelanoids/Gallery