Leonardo Saddles Up

	Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Season 1; August 9, 2024 - August 9, 2024; List of Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episodes
	Episodes: Leo Nardo Stands Alone; Mikey Does the Right Thing; Raph Thinks It Through; Donnie Hangs Tough; Bishop Makes Her Move; Night of the Mechazoids; Raph vs. Water; Mikey Takes Charge; Splinter and April Fight a Goldfish; Donnie Goes Deep; Leonardo Saddles Up; The Pearl; Season 1 – Season 2

“Leonardo Saddles Up”
Tale of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode
Season Code:	001
Episode:	11
Original airdate	August 9, 2024 (Paramount+)
Written by	Elise Roncace
Producers:	Louis J. Cuck
	Seth Rogen; Evan Goldberg; James Weaver; Josh Fagen
	Alan Wan; Christopher Yost
Supervising Director	Colin Heck
Storyboard Artist:	Ian Higginbotham; Jerry Gaylord; Jasmine Goggins; Jaxon Sorby
Episode chronology
"Donnie Goes Deep"	"The Pearl"

"Leonardo Saddles Up" is the eleventh episode of Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It aired on August 9th, 2024.

Synopsis[]

The mutant seahorse called MUSTANG SALLY is going to flood the city... and the only thing standing in his way are LEO and Pigeon Pete. Being the leader isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Appearing in Leonardo Saddles Up[]

Major characters[]

Minor characters[]

April O'Neil (Ayo Edebiri)
Donatello (Micah Abbey)
Earth Protection Force
- Dennis (debut)
- George (debut)
- Jimmy (debut)
Goldfin (flashback only)
Lee the Eel (flashback only)
Michelangelo (Shamon Brown, Jr.)
Mr. Whiskers
New York Police Department
Raphael (Brady Noon)
Splinter (Fred Tatasciore)

Species[]

Barnacle
Cat
Eel (flashback only)
Goldfish (flashback only)
Human
Mutant eel (flashback only)
Mutant goldfish (flashback only)
Mutant pigeon
Mutant rat
Mutant seahorse
Mutant turtle
Pigeon
Seahorse (flashback only)

Objects and vehicles[]

Assimilator (flashback only)
Jersey Bight (flashback only)
Katana
Police car

Locations[]

New York City
- Natural History Museum (debut)
- Pump Station (debut)
- Sewers of New York City
- Turtle Lair

Episode[]

Voice-over introduction[]

Donatello: Previously on the "Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". The second we get a power outage in the Lair, it's somehow my fault. It's a storm! It happens. Me and Wingnut went to fix it, and Wingnut freaked. She's afraid of everything. But there's plenty to be afraid of like a scary mutant eel and an actual alligator. Did I think the gator was a de-mutated Leatherhead? Yes, and I'm not proud of it. But I embraced my right-brained self and we survived. And nobody cared because the whole city was in danger from the East River Three. Typical.

Plot[]

Open in the lair, as Splinter enjoys his tea. He then startles his audience by shouting and then announcing the conclusion, the final battle, as the forces of good and evil converged on the Museum of Natural History. April interrupts to ask about Leonardo and how he fit into the East River Three scheme. Leo quickly says that they can skip it because it's not that big a deal. An amused April says that now they have to hear it. Splinter agrees and says that Leonardo's story began when his irresponsibility lost Pigeon Pete to the storm and then nearly destroyed the city. Head in hands, Leo announces that this is going to be bad.

Cut to a sewer tunnel where Leo is reading the fortune from a cookie. It tells him that he is a natural leader. He munches on the cookie as he tells himself that they respect him and maybe fear him a little, too. But most importantly, they listen. Nearby, Pigeon Pete caws and pecks at himself. A frustrated Leo tells the mutant pigeon to listen to him and that they're supposed to be getting air. Pete doesn't pay attention to him, but then the sound of jackhammering startles both. Just as Leo is wondering how Raph is doing, the ground shakes hard enough to throw the pair to the ground. Pete sits up and his eyes, capable of seeing infrared, spots the heat signature of something traveling quickly through the walls. He begins squawking, grabs Leo's bandana tails, and starts pointing. Then Pete jumps on Leo's shoulder and leaps onto the ladder. Leo argues to let him go first and manages to pass the mutant in order to open the manhole cover. Pete shoves up next to him and Leo complains about always being saddled with him. He tries shoving Pete back down, but the mutant fights him, so Leo gives in and tells him to go get some air. Pete flashes past him and takes off, which Leo realizes is very bad.

On another city street, police officers try to handle flooding conditions as pedestrians race to get out of the storm. Standing under an awning in front of a police precinct, Detective Hauser contemplates the mess. Another officer addresses him and talks about the storm as well as the earthquakes and sinkholes. Suddenly, a pigeon takes a poop on Hauser’s shoulder. His eyes widen as he looks up at the bird in question, picturing it with demon eyes. There is the sound from Hauser’s past of screaming, wings fluttering and pigeons cooing. The officer snaps him out of it by commenting on the fact he was pooped on and says it’s good luck.

Hauser loses his temper as he asks if she knows how many diseases pigeons carry. He tells her that he hates birds and orders her to get him some hand sanitizer. She runs to do as ordered and Hauser starts repeating a mantra to calm himself. Then he promises himself that one day he’ll destroy them all.

Elsewhere, a couple is dining at a table near a picture window. They are in a tall building and the male diner expresses concerns about the storm and their location. The female asks if he’s afraid of the rain or wind and then nothing’s going to happen. Just then, Pete slams into the window and both people scream. Pete plummets and then regains his equilibrium to start frantically flying again. Below, Leo is calling his name and telling him to stop. He chases after Pete, continuously calling him and dodging obstacles. Pete, however, is still following the heat signatures he sees below the street.

A large metal trash can lid slams right into Leo’s face, knocking him down. He sits up with a sigh and comments on his leadership abilities. There is a loud rumbling sound and the ground shakes, causing the nearby police to stumble. The street begins to crack and then a long huge sinkhole opens and swallows parked cars. Leo wonders what kind of storm this is.

Splinter interrupts the tale to say that it was no storm, it was Lee the Eel. April and the Turtles grumble that they already know this, but Splinter goes on to explain that this was before Michelangelo encountered her, but after Raphael. Donnie calls out to ask what about him, and Splinter answers that his adventure was somewhere in the middle.

The story returns to Leo, who realizes that what he’s seeing is not good and he has to get back to the lair to tell his brothers. Then he worries about how he’ll find Pete in all this. He then hears shouting from the next street over and glances between two buildings to see police officers chasing Pete. Leo goes to find the mutant, but meanwhile, Pete has jammed himself partway through the window of a patrol car. Two officers stand nearby, at first complaining about what he’s doing to their car, and then arguing about what kind of mutant he is. One of the officers calls in a mutant sighting of an unknown species, but Pete startles both when he exits the car and squawks in their faces. Leo runs up, yelling at Pete, and then sees the officers. They think he’s attacking and yell to take him down, but Leo jumps in front of the mutant pigeon to explain that he’s not attacking, he’s just confused.

Pete flies up and Leo shouts that he’s not helping, only to have the pigeon grab his arm and lift him off the ground. Detective Hauser has arrived on the other end of the sidewalk, holding an umbrella over his head. He hears the squawking and lowers the umbrella to look up in time to see Pete, with Leo now clinging to his leg. Hauser flashbacks again to his bird trauma and then Pete defecates all over him. Hauser begins to shake and drops the umbrella. One of the officers asks if he’s okay and the other points out that it’s good luck. Hauser falls to his knees and shouts into the sky. One of the officers enters her patrol car, and then Hauser, still covered in poop, climbs into the passenger seat. The officer starts to ask if he doesn’t want to clean up first and then stops herself. Hauser takes the police radio microphone and says he needs all units dispatched to Midtown, SWAT and helicopters. As he starts to ask for the National Guard, the dispatcher asks what it’s for because they heard there was a mutant sighting. Hauser shouts that it wasn’t a mutant, it was a monster and he wants everyone.

Clinging tightly to Pete’s leg, Leonardo is carried high above the city. He keeps yelling at Pete to get them down because they have to get back to the lair. Pete ignores him as he flies in an erratic pattern, even breaking through a billboard for “Bob’s Gently Fried Chicken”. They fly down an alleyway, where Leo hits a clothesline and ends up with boxer shorts on his face. Pete follows the heat signature, which also means he’s following the wide crack developing in the street. Leo pulls the boxers off his face in time to see a fire truck ahead. He releases Pete, flips under the ladder and then flings himself up again to catch Pete’s leg, all the while pleading for him to stop. Leo sees that they are heading straight to a building and yells not to go that way. However, Leo plunges right through one of the glass windows. He looks around to find himself in a pump station.

Pete finally lands on an overhead beam next to a group of regular pigeons. Leo fusses at him, and then tries to figure out where he is, not noticing the large shape in the background as it runs past. As Leo examines a control panel, Mustang Sally watches him from behind a large tank. Pete notices and begins cawing loudly. However, Leo is more concerned with the shaking and hissing sounds coming from the tanks. Sally approaches him from behind and tells him he made a big mistake coming there.

Above them, the other pigeons are cooing and rubbing lovingly against Pete, who reacts tenderly. He then pulls his attention back to Leo’s dilemma. The ninja tells Sally that he’s sorry and he can just go. Then he asks who Sally is, but the reaction he gets isn’t an answer, it’s a punch to the face which sends him flying. Leo hits one of the tanks and smoke hisses out. As Leo tries to explain that something is wrong and they have to leave, Sally tries to punch him again. Leo leaps onto an overhead beam and repeats that they have to get out, but Sally removes a barnacle from the back of his neck, pops it into his mouth, and shoots it at the Turtle. The barnacle projectile strikes Leo’s forehead, making him fall backwards into a huge tank of water.

Leo shoots up out of the water, katanas drawn, and attacks Sally. Though Leo is able to knock him down, Sally is flexible and their fight continues. Sally brags that his armor is pretty tough, as Leo learns when his swords have no effect on his skin. Using his tail to distract Leo, Sally punches him so he falls down some stairs. They continue their battle, with Sally claiming that Leo came there to stop him. Leo doesn’t know what he’s talking about or who he is, so Sally introduces himself.

While they are fighting, a sound draws Pete’s attention and he looks up to see the heat signature of a helicopter flying over the building. He trills loudly, but Leo and Sally are too concentrated on each other. Sally mentions something about having hundreds of babies because that’s how seahorses roll. Leo kicks him in the chest, knocking him to the floor, and then asks where he came from and what he wants. Sally says “they” just want to go home and then goes into the story of how they came from the river, where they’d lived all their lives, under the safety of the pearl. Everything changed when they became mutants. All the other sea life was scared of them and they were cast out like the monsters they are. He says that Goldfin found a way to go home again by taking back what’s theirs.

Leo informs Sally that he only came there to get Pete and once he does, he’s leaving. He turns to yell at Pete and Sally expresses surprise that he’s not there to stop him. Leo says he doesn’t even know what he’s doing, but that he thinks the place is going to blow up and they should all go. Above them, Pete is hopping back and forth and trilling loudly. He keeps flapping his wings towards the windows and Sally wants to know what his problem is. Leo apologizes for Pete, explaining he’s only been a mutant for a few weeks and is having a hard time adjusting.

Suddenly, lights flash through a high window. A helicopter hovers next to the window and police cars and personnel surround the pump station. Using a megaphone, Hauser addresses the “demon pigeon” to inform him the police have surrounded the building and for him to come out peacefully. Sally tells Leo that Pete was probably trying to warn him about this.

A case bearing the emblem of the “EPF” is placed on the ground outside. It is opened, and law enforcement personnel take cartridges bearing warning symbols out. The cartridges are loaded into weapons. Hauser gives Pete five minutes to comply. Sally says five minutes is plenty of time, and when Leo asks if that’s to get out, the mutant seahorse says time enough to blow the place up. He turns the wheel handle on one of the pump tanks and a warning signal sounds, followed by steam hissing. Steam shoots out of small holes punctured in tanks nearby and Leo realizes that Sally is the one doing the damage. He asks why.

Sally says that the tunnels were Lee’s job, this place was his. He’s gotta mess with the machines so it’ll flood the museum and most of Midtown, too. Leo realizes that cracks in the street were caused by him too and looks up at Pete to ask if that’s what he was trying to tell him. Leo pulls his swords and tells Sally he can’t let him do this. Sally lifts Leo up high and the Turtles’ struggling looks like flapping wings to the helicopter officers who are using infrared binoculars. They report that they’ve spotted the mutant pigeon. A commanding officer on the ground tells his forces they want the thing alive and to use tranq darts and nets only. Hauser yells for them to take him down.

One of the helicopter officers opens fire with a mini-gun loaded with tranq darts. The darts bust out the skylights and begin raining down at the trio of mutants. Sally is hit, but the darts don’t penetrate his armored skin. Leo dives for cover beneath a large pipe and acknowledges to Pete, who is under a protective overhang, that he understands now that the pigeon knew all of this the whole time. The building starts to shake and Leo sees that Sally is still overloading the pump machinery. Leo dodges hundreds of darts in order to leap at and kick Sally in the face.

Just as the pair face off again, officers come into the building through the skylights and entries. Hauser yells for the pigeon’s head. As officers search the building, Hauser has a flashback to when he was a child on a bench in the park. He is eating an ice cream cone and dozens of pigeons swarm him. He comes back to the present to watch the proceedings, which are hard to see because the building interior is completely fogged by steam. The officers tell each other to stay alert, but they admit they can’t see anything. Meanwhile, Leo whispers to Sally that he doesn’t have to do this, but is ignored as the seahorse fades into the mist.

The officers hear a noise and see Sally’s outline in the mist. They open fire and Sally attacks, taking out most of the officers either by knockdown or causing them to shoot each other with tranquilizers. Hauser loads a net onto his gun and begins searching for Pete. Bird poo hits the railing in front of him and Hauser looks up to see Pete taunting him. He takes aim and doesn’t see Sally charging at him. Sally leaps at Hauser, but Leo leaps as well, kicking Sally aside. Hauser fires, but Pete moves and the electrified net hits the overhead beam instead. Hauser loads another net, unaware of the fight between two other mutants nearby. Leo tells Sally that all the water in the city comes through the station and if he doesn’t stop, it’s going to blow. Their argument is interrupted by Pete’s frantic trilling, but while the pigeon is distracted, Hauser fires and catches him in the net.

Pete falls and lands hard on a machine, and is then shocked by the net. Hauser shouts his victory and Leo calls out to Pete. Sally tells him he should have listened to the bird, and then jumps to the floor below. Leo runs to Pete and takes the net off him. The building shakes, alarms blare and steam breaks through pipes as Sally continues his mission. Leo yells again for him to stop, saying if he does this, they’ll blame all mutants for it – his family, his friends. Sally tells him that his family is the East River Three. Pete coughs and Leo tells him it’s okay, he’s got him. Pete looks up and says “thank you” very clearly. Leo is astonished he can talk and asks when that happened. However, the shaking of the building along with the debris falling around them makes Leo decide to discuss it later.

On the landing above them, Hauser is yelling for the officers to catch the mutant while he’s incapacitated. Pete tells Leo they should go now. Officers are shouting that they can’t see and Leo looks up at the normal pigeons, who are perched on pipes overhead. He has an idea and says if they want a pigeon, they’ll give them one. Pete catches on and squawks loudly to the pigeons. Hauser wants to know what’s going on as the building comes apart around them, but officers say they have to get out. Hauser refuses to go until they have the mutant pigeon.

They hear cooing from below and then the steam clears enough for them to see a normal pigeon sitting on the net. Hauser is shocked, but the officers are angry that this was the big, terrifying pigeon they were chasing. Beams starts to fall and the officers grab Hauser, dragging him out of the building. Outside, everyone is running and no one sees Pete fly over them carrying Leo. They land on the rooftop of another building where they can see the action.

Leo wonders if the officers bought their ruse, and Pete says that people believe what they want to believe. Then an angry Leo demands to know if he was able to talk this whole time and was just messing with him. Pete says he just needed time, and that getting electrocuted might have helped a little. He then thanks Leo for being so kind and patient and cleaning up after him. Leo says that he laid down newspapers and Pete says he read them all. Pete touches his head to Leo, thanking him again for taking him under his wing. They go back to looking out over the street and Pete explains that he saw the eel in the water and that’s why he led them to the pump station.

Leo apologizes for not being a better listener, but Pete says it’s okay because now they know what the East River Three want. Leo doesn’t know, so Pete explains it’s the pearl, the Jersey Bight that’s on display in the Natural History Museum. He says that’s were Sally is going as he indicates the building, which is right across the street from the pump station. Just as Leo is wondering how that helps them, the pump station rumbles, shakes, and then water shoots out to flood the street and the museum.

Trivia[]

When this episode was first uploaded on Paramount+ Australia, it stopped at 17 minutes. It was later reuploaded with the full episode.