Mikey Gets Shellacne

Mikey Gets Shellacne is the fifth episode of the second season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012 TV series) and the thirty-first episode of the series overall. It aired on November 16, 2013.

Major Characters

 * Baxter Stockman (Phil LaMarr)
 * Dogpound/Rahzar (Clancy Brown)
 * Donatello (Rob Paulsen)
 * Fishface (Christian Lanz)
 * Leonardo (Jason Biggs)
 * Michelangelo (Greg Cipes)
 * Raphael (Sean Astin)

Minor Characters

 * Karai (Kelly Hu)
 * Mousers
 * Splinter (Hoon Lee)

Plot Synopsis
The episode opens with Leo, Donnie and Raph trying - and failing miserably at - making breakfast. They wonder where Mikey is, since he's usually the one to make it. It is revealed that Mikey is still in bed and feeling quite sick today. He then looks into the mirror and sees his face covered in zits, and screams. Donnie studies him, and says that the zits will continue to spread, until he basically becomes a giant zit and will pop. It is kind of debatable whether or not Donnie was saying this to terrify his younger brother - or if he was actually speaking the truth...

Mikey locks himself in his room, not wanting to come out until whenever these hideous zits go away...But then, he notices that the zits are now growing on his tongue, freaking him out. Elsewhere, we see Karai sitting on The Shredder's throne, being in charge whilst her father is in Japan looking for recruits. Dogpound and Fishface then walk into the room, and Dogpound trips since his tail gets caught in the automatic door, and he falls down...Fishface teases him, and Dogpound subsequently expresses his true feelings about having gone from a fleet-footed ninja master to a huge lumbering lummox. Karai demands some respect from them, and she then tells them that she wants someone to help her maintain the robotic Foot Soldiers on a daily basis. She needs someone easy to manipulate and/or intimidate into working for her, which means Baxter Stockman...However, Dogpound reminds her of how he tried to kill the two of them in that 'Maze of Doom', but Karai sends them to capture him anyway.

Back in the lair, Mikey tries to hide from his brothers by putting an empty pizza box over his head - and Raph makes fun of him for doing so. Splinter then tells him to stop and consider what humans would think of Raph if they saw him...Splinter then senses that Mikey is hiding something from them. Mikey finally comes clean. He admits that he found something that would make him 'Super Cool' in Donnie's lab and he put some on himself to make him a cooler and "better" person, since his brothers often view him as a big halfwit. Donnie explains to him that it was a reject batch of Retro-Mutagen - and says that the label was indicating that it was suppoust to be kept 'Super Cooled'...Mikey says that it should have been made clearer, only for Donnie to flip the vile around to reveal all of the warning signs. Now that Donnie knows what caused Mikey's condition, he can do something about it. He might still turn into a huge zit and pop, but now they know that it will happen in over 3 hours. To make the antidote, Donnie needs a molecular centrifuge, and the only one they know of is in the remains of the TCRI building that they seemingly blew up.

Meanwhile, Dogpound is running around the city, being able to track down Stockman with his acute sense of smell. He continues to moan and groan about his current condition - and desperately wants to be human again. He finally gets a scent and follows it...Meanwhile, the Turtles search through the remains of TCRI for the centrifuge. However, they find Baxter in there as well, and once discovered, he sends a bunch of Mousers after our heroes. It seems that he's planning to create a mutant army of his own, and amongst the items he is planning to use is the very centrifuge that they need. Dogpound then arrives and starts fighting with the Turtles. Baxter takes this as a chance to escape, but Mikey chases him. Dogpound then grabs the scientist and punches into a wall, causing part of the entire building to cave in. Mikey pushes the others out of the way and saves them, but both of the bad guys are gone now...

At home, Mikey starts to both feel and look worse. Donnie says that he has to stay safe, since, at this stage, if one of his zits pops, it might cause a chain reaction that will make him explode even sooner. The Turtles try to figure out where Dogpound could have taken Baxter. Mikey suggests Baxter's old lab, but everyone dismisses it and says that it simply doesn't make sense. While the others discuss about possibly checking out the TCRI building again, or one of Bradford's old dojos, Mikey decides that he isn't going to wait around until he pops and goes to Baxter's lab by himself...

In the lab, Baxter shows Dogpound the giant vat of Mutagen that he has at his disposal. Fishface then arrives soon afterward, and is surprised that Dogpound found Baxter first. He then asks why they aren't taking him to Karai right away, and Dogpound explains how he is convinced that Baxter can turn him human again. Fishface says that he wants to become a human again as well. Dogpound then attaches an obscure collar onto Baxter's neck, with small bottles of mutagen on it. It's also on a timer, so, unless he doesn't find a cure fast enough for them, the tiny bottles will explode and completely cover him with Mutagen. Meanwhile, Mikey sneaks around above and overhears this conversation. He then tries to steal the centrifuge with his kusurigama chain, but Dogpound catches him off-gaurd. Mikey's zits are now huge and very sensitive, so he performs to the best of his ability in his fight against Dogpound, while trying to avoid being touched...Mikey then jumps up onto a platform above the Mutagen vat and Dogpound jumps after him also. Dogpound's weight destroys the area they are standing on and Mikey jumps out for a plank to grab onto. Dgpound doesn't make the jump, however, and is holding onto Mikey's leg for dear life. The turtle has no choice but to smack Dogpound off of him, and this makes the latter fall into the huge vat of Mutagen. Dogpound then leaps out soon after - and is now mutated into a creature that resembles a wolf and is covered in macabre spikes and many exposed sharp bones. Mikey calls him "Rahzar" now......

As Rahzar, Bradford finds himself to be a lot faster and much more agile - and he finally feels like a true warrior again. Rahzar then tosses Mikey against a wall, but our sensitive turtle manages to use his nunchuks to grab onto a support pillar to stop himself from crashing against the wall. Just as Rahzar leaps out at him, his attack is blocked by one of Raph's sais that he throws at him, as the other Turtles have entered the scene (they had figured out that Mikey came here). Mikey tries to make off with the centrifuge, but Fishface is now after him. Baxter also calls for more Mousers to come into the equasion as well...As the lengthy fight continues, Mikey suddenly comes up with an idea. He tricks Rahzar into lunging towards one of the control panels in the machinery that runs the place. Mikey gets out of the way and Rahzar jams his claws into the control panel and ends up accidentially electrocuting himself. Mikey teases that the mutant just got Shell-Shocked. The Turtles then take to the high ground and Donnie activates some nearby sprinklers, making it 'rain' water, so all of the Mousers, Baxter, Fishface and Rahzar all get zapped  at the same time and are all utterly defeated. Mikey laments that they couldn't get the centrifuge that they needed, but Raph reveals that he has it, and everyone makes a successful escape...Karai then shows up and taps on Baxter's mutagen collar with her katana. She tells him that he's going to be working for her and The Shredder once again...

At the lair, Donnie is just finishing up the antidote and pours it all over acne pads, which Mikey proceeds to quickly rub all over himself. The antidote works just fine and he is soon turned to back to normal. Splinter walks in and commends Mikey on his 'resourcefulness'. Mikey then turns around and brags to the others about how he was right all along about Dogpound taking Baxter to his former lab, but Donnie suddenly says that he sees a zit growing on Mikey's nose. Mikey realizes that it was a trick to simply scare him, and he angrily lunges out at Donnie...

Trivia

 * The sound effects from Michelangelo's first "acne fantasy" (where the giant finger is attempting to pop him) come from Nintendo's Donkey Kong game.
 * Dogpound says that he bets Baxter would turn into a "some lowly bug" if mutated - an obvious foreshadowing to his future fate (Baxter Fly).
 * Like Shredder before him (in the nightmare Splinter had in Panic in the Sewers), Rahzar pays homage to A Nightmare on Elm Street's Freddy Krueger, by scraping the wall with his claws.

Gallery
See Mikey Gets Shellacne/Gallery