Race with the Demon

"Race with the Demon" is the 58th episode of the 2012 Series.

Synopsis
When Casey and Donatello bond while building Casey's new hot rod, the bond is challenged by a hot-rodding mutant.

Major Characters

 * (Mae Whitman)
 * (Josh Peck)
 * (Rob Paulsen)
 * (Seth Green)
 * (Greg Cipes)
 * (Sean Astin)
 * Speed Demon (Steve Blum)

Minor Characters

 * Dr. Cluckingsworth
 * Crognard The Barbarian
 * Crognard (Brian Bloom)
 * Graah
 * Wizardess
 * Spooch

Plot
April, Casey and Donnie are driving back to the farmhouse after grocery shopping. Donnie complains about why he must always sit in the back and can never drive. He suspects Casey of having ulterior motives and Casey only remarks that having a man-sized turtle driving a van might look suspicious. April shouts for enough and says she is tired of their complaints and wishes they would get along, at least enough for a quiet ride. They both comply, but the peace is short lived as a purple muscle car pulls onto the road and begins to edge them off the road. Casey complains and says that it will take more than this to drive him off the road. The car pulls a maneuver that sends the car spinning out of control and finally slamming into a tree. After confirming everyone is alright, Donnie makes a sarcastic remark about Casey's earlier boast which causes Casey to slam repeatedly on the steering wheel in temper.

Meanwhile, the others are at the farmhouse, watching another episode of Crognarrd the Barbarian when the local news interrupts the show. The reporter states that due to the maniac driver, people are encouraged not to drive. Donnie, Casey and April return with groceries and retell their encounter. Casey wants to go after the driver, but April says to leave it alone and be grateful that everyone is safe and unharmed. Donnie complains about getting "shell lash" while holding onto the food. April begins to massage his neck, which Donnie immediately takes advantage of and shoots Casey an evil glare while Casey throws another tantrum.

In the barn, Casey continues to work on the old truck, with Donnie's assistance. After they are done, Donnie, Casey, Mikey and Raph take it out for a test drive. The car behaves well but Casey takes off on his own for a "real test": hunting down the maniac driver. At first, there is no sign of him and Casey feels disappointed, but the car does appear and Casey prepares for the next encounter. But it is revealed that the driver is a mutant and Casey is, once again, unprepared and loses control. The hot rod is totaled and Donnie, angry that Casey ditched him instead of letting him help, prepares to help tow the car back. Mikey notices a green ooze on the pavement and Donnie takes a sample back. It is some sort of mutagen gasoline. When they return to the farmhouse, Casey apologizes to Donnie for leaving him behind and asks for his help in fixing up the hot rod to track down the mutant driver. Donnie agrees, stating that he does have some crazy ideas. The two take parts from the Kraang ship underneath the house and outfit the car to use the Kraang tech. During their work, one of Mikey's chickens gets into the barn and drinks spilled mutagen gasoline. The result is the chicken grows a humongous brain and becomes super intelligent. Donnie, who had been trying to set up an AI for the car, decided on an alternative, after seeing the chicken is able to connect with the hot rod's computer. Leo, Raph, Mikey and April are given the big reveal shows the hot rod is outfitted with Kraang tech and the chicken's intelligence as a navigational system. The chicken also shows it can lay radioactive mutagen eggs. They decide then to hunt down the mutant driver with the newly outfitted hot rod. And Casey and Donnie have a plan.

Casey drives the hot rod out again and finds the mutant driver. After a few maneuvers, Donnie, in the party wagon, is able to pull the mutant driver out of the car. But the driver has returned to being a normal human and Donnie realizes that it was the car that was mutated. The mutant car, calling itself Speed Demon, pulls Donnie inside itself and possesses him, during him into a frightening and crazy mutant driver. Casey sees the result and informs the others in the party wagon. Leo tells him they need a plan but Casey won't wait. He chases after the car and tries to fight it but it only results in both cars hitting the side rail. Speed Demon, speaking through Donnie, offers Casey a challenge: race him and if he wins, Donnie will be released. But if Casey looses, Casey will give up the hot rod with all the tech and become the new driver for the car. Casey agrees and the race is on.

The others watch and figure out what they can do while Casey and Speed Demon are fairly evenly matched, but Casey uses the tricks Donnie put on the hot rod to confuse the mutant car. Casey puts the car on auto pilot, leaving the chicken in charge and jumps out to fight the demonic looking Donnie. At last, Casey is able to pull Donnie free and he returns to normal. Speed Demon attempts to swallow Casey but Donnie takes him on and puts his bo staff in the car's mouth. This slows him up, but the staff breaks and the car attempts to swallow both until the party wagon appears and slams into the car, sending it flying off the cliff and exploding.

Casey and Donnie congratulate each other. April is thrilled that they are getting along, but her joy is shortlived as they obnoxiously praise each other. A new bromance has been born while April and Raph look on rather dejectedly.

Trivia

 * Although this episode shares a similar name with the 1975 film Race with the Devil it has the same premise from the 1983 John Carpenter's horror film Christine, which is about a sentient and violent automobile of the same name.
 * The premise of the episode is also similar to Maximum Overdrive and The Car That Ate Paris which are also horror films about sentient cars.
 * A component of Kraang technology Don and Casey uses in the montage resembles a Simon Says.
 * The Speed Demon makes stock monster laughter when it crashes
 * The tires on the Turtle Racer reads "Good Enough Tires", as reference to Goodyear tires.
 * "Deadman's Curve" is a reference to Dead Man's Valley, an infamous road found in Memphis.
 * Surfer Rock music plays on the radio while in the hippie van a reference to surfer music's popularity in the 60's
 * Surfer music also plays during the scenes with the Speed Demon and the human the speed demon possessed has hair and clothes similar to a stereotypical 60's car jockey.
 * The head of the Turtle Racer's lever highly resembles a Madball, a line of gross out monster toy balls from the mid 80's.
 * Speed Demon Donnie is inspired by Rat Fink and other characters created by Ed Roth.
 * Casey and Donnie use the "Insult Alphabet" at the beginning of the episode in the same way their Live action movie counterparts do from the first Live Action movie
 * though the lines are reversed as in the movie, Casey called Donnie "Barf-a-Roni" while it was Donnie in the TV show
 * The Cage that Dr. Cluckingsworth is in bears a slight resemblance to R2D2 from Starwars.
 * Ironic in that the R2 units from the Starwars franchise serve as a fighter Pilot's assisted AI inside of their individual ships. Dr. Cluckingsworth serves as the Hotrod's AI and communicates with Casey via a WIFI link from a laptop to a modified Hasbro spelling toy.

Gallery
Race with the Demon/Gallery