TCRI (episode)

"TCRI" is the seventeenth episode of the 2012 TV series. It first aired on March 1, 2013.

Plot Synopsis
The episode begins with the Turtles in the Patrol Buggy chasing after two Kraang-droids in a helicopter. Donnie attempts to track the power cell the Kraang are carrying with his T-Phone, but the phone breaks during the chase and the Kraang escape. The Kraang, meanwhile, return to their base with the power cell and prepare to restore it to their dimensional portal.

Leo decides they should talk to Leatherhead about the Kraang's power cell. However, when they tell Leatherhead they lost the cell to the robots, he freaks out and grabs Donnie by the head. Leatherhead is able to realize again that the Turtles are his friends, and he is able to calm himself. The only clue Leatherhead can give them about where the Kraang could have taken the power cell is a drawing of a symbol. Donnie later recognizes the symbol used for the Kraang to operate under, and tracks that logo to the T.C.R.I. work center in Brooklyn.

Back in the Lair, April shows the Turtles blueprints of the building. She reports that the bottom two thirds of it are normal offices where humans work, but top third of the building is blank. They later break into the building hidden in a large box, with April disguised as a delivery person. Leatherhead fights off the Kraang-droids as the Turtles climb the elevator shaft to the upper floors. However, they have to fight even more Kraang-droids along the way, and by the time they reach their destination they are knocked out by toxic gas.

When they recover, the Turtles are trapped in a tank supplying them oxygen in large room with the portal in front them, Kraang aliens are everywhere and the air is full of toxic gas. Donnie concludes that the gas is what the air must be like on the Kraang's world. While his brothers wonder why the Kraang would invade a planet they can't live on, Mikey surprises them with the answer: the Kraang want to mutate the Earth so that they can live there, killing everything else in the process.

Luckily, they break a window, releasing all of the gas and use Leatherhead as a distraction, so the turtles can reach level 40 in the building. The turtles plan to retrieve the cell without the Kraang knowing, but when they try to hack or break the glass globe protecting the cell, the flying brain squids that shoot energy blasts also pose as a threat. Also the brains had slight armor. The cell is now in use, and unexpectedly a giant evil rock monster, Traag, comes out of the Kraang dimension. The Turtles aren't strong enough to beat him, but roaring out of nowhere, Leatherhead steps up and grabs Traag by his feet, throwing him towards the portal. Traag is still not beaten, however, so Leatherhead pulls him into the portal and they both disappear back to Dimension X. Before the Turtles can shut the portal down, more Kraang surround them and they are forced to escape.

Returning home to the lair, Leo reports that they've failed their mission and that Leatherhead is gone. However, Donnie finds vital information on a Kraang data drive Mikey picked up in TCRI. Master Splinter and April discuss why the Kraang need April's father so badly. To everyone's shock, Donnie finds out from the data drive that the Kraang didn't need April's father. It's April herself they were really after.

Continuity

 * Leatherhead returns in this episode and in the end goes through the portal to Dimension X.
 * This is the first episode where the Kraang's home dimension is called "Dimension X".
 * First appearance of Traag.
 * First appearance of the Kraang's headquarters
 * Leatherhead appears to recognize Traag, implying that he has encountered him before or that like the Kraang, there are more of his kind in Dimension X.

Exterior References

 * When Mikey tries to wake up Leatherhead, he says "Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey", a line Greg Cipes also used as Beast Boy in Teen Titans.

Errors

 * Not necessarily an error but: The Patrol Buggies are reversed in the start, unlike "Panic in the Sewers", they are different.


 * The Kraang have been shown to breath oxygen.

Basic Trivia

 * This was the first time April and Leatherhead appeared in the same episode, although they did not appear together at the same time.
 * A woman identical to Mrs. Campbell (who is likely the same model) works the front desk at TCRI and tries to stop April when she sneaks the Turtles and Leatherhead into the building.

Quotes
Donatello:Yes,you did it again!!Why do you keep grabbing my face,What is wrong,with my face

Raphael:Would you like the list alphabetically or in desenting order of grossness?

Video