| “Return to New York” | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012 TV series) episode | |||||||
 Title screen | |||||||
| Season Code: | 309 | ||||||
| Episode: | 61 | ||||||
| Original airdate | January 25, 2015 | ||||||
| Written by | Brandon Auman | ||||||
| Supervising Producer | Ant Ward | ||||||
| Producers: | MacGregor Middleton | ||||||
| Peter Hastings | |||||||
| Brandon Auman | |||||||
| Ciro Nieli | |||||||
| Vladimir Radev | |||||||
| Directed by | Alan Wan | ||||||
| Voice Direction | Andrea Romano | ||||||
| Supervising Director | Ciro Nieli | ||||||
| |||||||
For other articles titled "Return to New York", see here.
"Return to New York" is the ninth episode of the third season of the 2012 TV series and is the sixty-first episode overall in the series. It first aired on January 25th, 2015.
Synopsis[]
The Turtles return to the city to search for Splinter, only to find that the city is overrun by the Kraang and the Foot Clan.
Characters[]
Major Characters[]
- April O'Neil (Mae Whitman)
- Casey Jones (Josh Peck)
- Donatello (Rob Paulsen)
- Leonardo (Seth Green)
- Michelangelo (Greg Cipes)
- Raphael (Sean Astin)
- Shredder (Kevin Michael Richardson)
- Shredder Mutants (debut)
- Claw Shredder (Kevin Michael Richardson) (debut)
- Mini Shredder (Kevin Michael Richardson) (debut)
- Shiva Shredder (Kevin Michael Richardson) (debut)
- Splinter (Hoon Lee)
- Stockman-Fly (Phil LaMarr)
- Tiger Claw (Eric Bauza)
Minor Characters[]
- Carlos Chang O'Brien Gambe (Jim Meskimen)
- Crognard the Barbarian
- Crognard (Brian Bloom)
- Graah
- Megalord Zarrik (Jim Meskimen) (debut)
- Spooch (Scott Menville)
- Wizardess (Mae Whitman)
- Dr. Cluckingsworth
- Earth Protection Force
- Foot-Bots
- Ice Cream Kitty (Kevin Eastman)
- Karai (flashback only)
- Kirby O'Neil (cameo)
- The Kraang (Nolan North)
- M.O.U.S.E.R.S.
Plot[]
The episode opens with an episode of Crognard the Barbarian, but it is interrupted due to the Channel 6 Breaking news. The anchorman says that New York City is off limits under military order. The Turtles suspected of this while watching TV. They decided to break through the New York City barriers using Donnie's plan for a new vehicle. They converted the old van with new gear, weapons, and a new paint job, turning it into the Party Wagon. With the vehicle all set up, they're ready to go to New York City.
As the gang prepare to leave the farm, they hook up the Turtle Racer to the van. Donnie bids farewell to Dr. Cluckingsworth while April says goodbye to the farmhouse. They soon drove off and headed back to New York City. Upon arriving New York, Leo says that they must find Splinter, then Karai, and then take back the city. Their plan was to park outside the gate and sneak in, but that proves impossible when soldiers have every entrance into NYC quarantined. April then notices that the troops have Kraang mind control devices on their necks, so Casey simply floors it and the Party Wagon is able to smash through the gates and into the city.
Inside the city, everyone was gone. Mikey wonders if the Kraang mutated the entire population. April says she is picking up thoughts from only a few hundred people, meaning there are millions missing. They soon run into Kraang soldiers, so the Turtles get to test out the Party Wagon’s soda cannons and stink bombs, both of which prove effective as they make their escape.
Using the Shellraiser's old subway access hatch, they enter the subway, The group does some effective stealth, evading Kraang robots. Donnie asks April if she can use her powers to find Splinter. But April said that since Splinter's spirit has detached from his body, she’s not sure what has happen to him. Mikey decides to start searching for him at the lair.
At the lair, the turtles search for Splinter, but there is no sign of him, but the Kraang does have a robot security system that ends up using lasers to exterminate a ordinary rat. Mikey freaks out, saying that he missed many of the things he had before leaving the lair and wants to move back in, but the others thinks that’s not an option. Suddenly, April gets a faint read on Splinter, who seems to nearby, but he’s different somehow.
After the gang follow April, they find Splinter, only to discover that instead of acting like an experienced ninja, he acts like a savage rat, biting and attacking anything in his path. As they try to calm Splinter down (including keeping him from chewing Casey’s face off), and talk some sense to him, a Mouser calls in for backup, and Foot soldiers appears. Despite their best efforts, Splinter gets captured by Foot soldiers and is brought to the Shredder.
At his lair, Shredder sits on his throne, looking at a picture of himself and Karai, until Tiger Claw comes in to inform Shredder that their enemies are defeated, but asks if they should wait for the Kraang to destroy the Earth and wipe out the rest of humanity, being concerned that the Kraang desire to conquer Earth and eventually betray the Foot, as well as the fact that Shredder has made no move to stop the alien robots from invading the Earth. Shredder tells Tiger Claw to watch his tone with him and says that he is aware of the situation, and assures that soon they will eliminate the Kraang when the time is right and claim control of the city, then telling his henchman to keep searching for Karai. The Foot soldiers return with Splinter, which surprises both Shredder and Tiger Claw, who believed him to be dead. Seeing Splinter, who clearly lost his mind, Shredder is unsatisfied with the mental state of his enemy, saying that Splinter survived but became the uncontrollable rat he knew Splinter was. Tiger Claw asks if he should put the rat out of his misery, but Shredder disagrees and has him taken to Baxter Stockman instead.
In his new lab, which is beneath Shredder's lair, Baxter was working on his own retro-mutagen when the Foot soldiers bought Splinter to him. Shredder orders Baxter to restore Splinter's mind, so that he can be full aware of who and where he is, as well as what is happening when Shredder finishes him.
The turtles find an access tunnel that leads to Stockman's lab, only to come under attack by a miniature Shredder clone. After a quick battle, the gang find Splinter, still behaving like a rat. Casey then suggests that April should try to reach Splinter's mind like she did with the Turtles in their dreams. Donnie suggest that may work. But before they could do it, Baxter spotted them and quickly unleashes all three of his Shredder mutants. As the turtles battles the mutants, Mikey accidentally sets off an alarm, alerting both Shredder and Tiger Claw.
While the turtles fight, April tries reaching out to Splinter with her telepathy. He begins to get flashes of his memories back, but he mistakes Casey for Shredder and attacks him. Splinter then ends up charging at and cornering April, but from that range, her powers work even more effectively, and soon Splinter is once again himself. He quickly recuses the turtles and manages to defeat the Shredder mutants. The turtles rejoice that Splinter is back, but their reunion is interrupted when Shredder and Tiger Claw arrive. Realizing that now this isn’t the time for a fight, the team retreats, with Mikey using a ninja smoke bomb to cover their escape.
As they escape with the Party Wagon, Tiger Claw appears, holding onto the roof. With the use of Sir Siz-L-Lot, a flamethrower concealed inside a deer head that used to hang on the farmhouse wall, Tiger Claw is knocked lose as they drive out of the subway and into the city.
As they drove, Mikey wonders where they will live. Splinter says homes are transitory, but Leo points out they still need a place to hang their masks. Mikey then has an idea. They decide to use Antonio’s Pizza-Rama as their hideout for the time being. But April is still worried about her dad, and her power are giving her a weird reading on him and the missing people. It’s like they are right around them. We soon briefly see what April sees: a bunch of Kraangatized people mind-controlled by the Kraang including her father.
Quotes[]
Kitty: Meow Mikey: Come on, ice cream kitty. We're going home. Kitty: Meow Donnie: Dr. Cluckingsworth. Dr. Cluckingsworth: Hmmm?? Donnie: Mmmm. Raph: You both sicken me. April: Good-bye, old farmhouse. Mikey: Hello, new york city! |
Leo: All right. Mikey, you stay here. Mikey: But I want to... Kraang Security System: (shoot everything at Donnie and Raph) Donnie: Ah! Whoa! Kraang Security System: (looking a rat and shoot) Donnie and Raph: Ah!! |
Donnie: I'll have this baby open in no time. Like a turtle do. Raph: Pat yourself on the back later. Let's move. Mikey: It's shred-head. Leo, Donnie, Raph, Mikey, April, Casey: Hahahaha!! Raph: What the heck is that supposed to be? Mini-shredder? Mikey: Haha, it's kind of cute, like a shrimp. Leo, Donnie, Raph, Mikey, April, Casey: Whoa! Casey: What the heck? Ah, Ugh! Raph: And stay out, you little freak! |
Mikey: Perfect, right? Raph: I wouldn't exactly say perfect. Splinter: It will serve, for now. Casey: Next up, take the city back. April: And find my dad. He's out there... Somewhere. It's like he's right here. Right next door. |
Trivia[]
- With this episode, the opening sequence gets its fourth update—the largest to date. It was last updated in "Within the Woods".
- Old: Raphael launches from the Shellraiser in the Stealth Bike. The Shellraiser abruptly skids to a halt, showing Leonardo and Raph inside, with Leo getting a blue portrait scene sprawled with "LEO". Leo is then shown attacking and taking down the training dummy in the lair. Next, Donatello is in his lab in the lair, performing maintenance on Shellraiser, with Metalhead and Timothy (as Mutagen Man) in the background. Donnie gets a purple portrait scene sprawled with "DONNIE". Michelangelo speeds by on his skateboard, stealing Donnie's last piece of pizza. Next, Raph is shown playing the pinball machine in the lair with Spike standing on his left shoulder. The game penalizes Raph for tilting the machine and he gets angry. Raph gets a red portrait scene sprawled with "RAPH". Next, Mikey is skating out of the lair's entrance. He gets an orange portrait scene sprawled with "MIKEY". He takes one bite of the pizza he stole form Donnie, then drops the rest of the slice on the floor of the tunnel. He skates into a round sewer tunnel, doing half-pipes along its floor and walls. Next, the camera moves through the lair, passing April O'Neil as she reads a book sitting on the tire swing. The camera ends with Splinter, who bangs the floor with the bottom of his walking stick.
- New: Casey Jones is driving the Party Wagon with April in the passenger seat. It drives down an extremely steep slope onto a country road. Next, Leo is shown dressed in his "Vision Quest" gear, running through a forest of aspen trees. He stops, turns around and strings a yumi and arrow. Leo gets a blue portrait scene sprawled with "LEO". He is then shown chopping an aspen tree clean through with his katana. Next, Donnie is shown in his Vision Quest gear, standing on the gondola of the Turtle Blimp. Donnie gets a purple portrait scene sprawled with "DONNIE". The blimp moves further away, taking Donnie out of view. But Raph, dressed in his Vision Quest gear, jumps from the top of the blimp toward the camera, and blasts fire with his left hand. Raph gets a red portrait scene sprawled with "RAPH". Next, Mikey, dressed in his Vision Quest gear, is shown swinging horizontally around the trunk of an aspen tree. Mikey gets an orange portrait scene sprawled with "MIKEY". After swinging around the tree trunk a few more times, Mikey leaps to the sides of other tree trunks, jumping from trunk to trunk as he maneuvers through the forest. Next, Splinter and April are shown training in the dojo, April exactly mimicking Splinter's poses.
- Old: The four turtles fire their grappling hooks into a wall, then slide down the zip line between buildings.
- New: The Party Wagon and Bebop and Rocksteady's van are both driving down the same city street. Leatherhead is standing on the roof of the Party Wagon. B&R's van side-rams the Party Wagon, and Leatherhead leaps from the Party Wagon onto B&R's van just as the Party Wagon side-rams it. The two vans catch up to Mondo Gecko emerging in the foreground, riding his skateboard in the same direction, but B&R's van quickly overtakes Mondo and speeds past him.
- The New Sequence runs for the rest of the season, is temporarily replaced in Season 4 by completely different space opening sequence, returns in "City at War" with new updates.
- Old: Raphael launches from the Shellraiser in the Stealth Bike. The Shellraiser abruptly skids to a halt, showing Leonardo and Raph inside, with Leo getting a blue portrait scene sprawled with "LEO". Leo is then shown attacking and taking down the training dummy in the lair. Next, Donatello is in his lab in the lair, performing maintenance on Shellraiser, with Metalhead and Timothy (as Mutagen Man) in the background. Donnie gets a purple portrait scene sprawled with "DONNIE". Michelangelo speeds by on his skateboard, stealing Donnie's last piece of pizza. Next, Raph is shown playing the pinball machine in the lair with Spike standing on his left shoulder. The game penalizes Raph for tilting the machine and he gets angry. Raph gets a red portrait scene sprawled with "RAPH". Next, Mikey is skating out of the lair's entrance. He gets an orange portrait scene sprawled with "MIKEY". He takes one bite of the pizza he stole form Donnie, then drops the rest of the slice on the floor of the tunnel. He skates into a round sewer tunnel, doing half-pipes along its floor and walls. Next, the camera moves through the lair, passing April O'Neil as she reads a book sitting on the tire swing. The camera ends with Splinter, who bangs the floor with the bottom of his walking stick.
- Much like other episodes, the events in the cartoon the turtles were watching, in this case Crognard the Barbarian, foreshadow the events of the actual episode.
- The villain that appears in the Crognard cartoon is based on Man-E-Faces, one of the many characters from the Masters of the Universe series.
- The synthesizer-laden soundtrack of the episode, especially when the turtles were approaching the city, was a reference to the 1980s cult classic Escape From New York.
- Incidentally that movie starred Kurt Russell, whose portrayal of Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China was the inspiration for Casey Jones.
- The episode is the debut of the Party Wagon, a familiar vehicle that appeared throughout the franchise
- Raphael painted a green woman with a red mask with the name "Venus" next to her on the left side of the Party Wagon, possibly a reference to Mei Pieh Chi from live action The Next Mutation series by Saban.
- This art was first seen on the Battle Tank Feature Tent, released in 2012.
- Painting a pin-up style figure on the side of a vehicle was common on WWII aircraft.
- The turtles paint a big number 2 on the top of the Party Wagon, not only because it's their second "van" in the series, but also because it's the second incarnation of the Party Wagon in the cartoons.
- The bomb the turtles thrown from the Party Wagon is reminiscent from the original Turtle Party Wagon Toy.
- On the stink bomb, it reads "foot stinks", the same words on the 1980's party wagon.
- The brand of breath mints Donnie puts in the soda cannons are "Chillos" a parody of the real life brand Mentos.
- Although the original Shredder Elite from the Mirage comics were just mutant clones of Shredder, each of these new Shredder Elite members were created from a different crustacean: Mini Shredder is a shrimp, Claw Shredder a lobster and Shiva Shredder a crab. Additionally, there were crabs on Stockman's desk, indicating the Shredder Mutants were recent experiments.
- When the turtles explain they need a new hideout, one of Donnie's ideas was an old subway station. This is a reference to the 1991 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.
- A Choco-Log vending machine is seen in Baxter's new laboratory.
Errors[]
- Leo lost both of his katanas in the fight against the Shredder Mutants, but had both of them again at the end of the battle.
Gallery[]
- Return to New York (2012 TV series episode)/Gallery
- Return to New York (2012 TV series episode)/Animations