Tales of Leo

	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Season 1; February 8, 2003 - November 1, 2003; List of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episodes
	Episodes: Things Change; A Better Mousetrap; Attack of the Mousers; Meet Casey Jones; Nano; Darkness on the Edge of Town; The Way of Invisibility; Fallen Angel; Garbageman; The Shredder Strikes, Part 1; The Shredder Strikes, Part 2; The Unconvincing Turtle Titan; Notes from the Underground, Part 1; Notes from the Underground, Part 2; Notes from the Underground, Part 3; The King; The Shredder Strikes Back, Part 1; The Shredder Strikes Back, Part 2; Tales of Leo; The Monster Hunter; Return to New York, Part 1; Return to New York, Part 2; Return to New York, Part 3; Lone Raph and Cub; The Search for Splinter, Part 1; The Search for Splinter, Part 2; Season 1 – Season 2 – Season 3 – Season 4 – Ninja Tribunal – Fast Forward - Back to the Sewer

“Tales of Leo”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) episode
Season Code:	S01E19
Episode:	19
Original airdate	September 13, 2003
Written by	Marty Isenberg
Supervising Producer	Lloyd Goldfine
Producers:	Gary Richardson
	Frederick U. Fierst
	Al Kahn
	Norman Grossfeld
	Thomas Kenney
Supervising Director	Chuck Patton
Story Editor:	Lloyd Goldfine
Episode chronology
"The Shredder Strikes Back, Part 2"	"The Monster Hunter"

"Tales of Leo" is the nineteenth episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It first aired on September 13th, 2003. It had 2.11 million views on the 4kids website as of 2007.

Appearing in Tales of Leo[]

Major characters[]

Minor characters[]

Baxter Stockman (Scott Williams)
Hun (Greg Carey)
The Shredder/Oroku Saki (Scottie Ray)
The Police & Fire Departments
Foot Ninja (flashback only)
Foot Elite (flashback only)
Albino alligator (flashback only)

Species[]

Objects and vehicles[]

'57 Chevy and trailer
Bō
Katana
Nunchaku
Mousers

Locations[]

April's Apartment Building
Casey's Grandmother's house in Northampton, Massachusetts
New York City streets
Oroku Saki Mansion

Episode[]

Voice-Over Introduction[]

The Shredder: My revenge is complete. My hated enemies thought they had destroyed me, but I am not so easily destroyed. I was merely biding my time, awaiting the right moment for my ninja forces to strike. [Donatello: Leo?] And they struck hard. They herded my enemies to me like sheep to the slaughter. And even though allies foolishly came to their aid, my enemies were forced to make a cowardly retreat. But vengeance was mine, nonetheless. At last, the turtles are no more!

Plot[]

The four Turtles, Splinter, April O'Neil and Casey Jones are still trapped in the old walk-in cooler, as April’s apartment building burns rapidly. The Shredder and the Foot have already left the scene, due to the sudden arrival of police. However, New York’s finest have arrived too late to stop the inferno, and it also looks like our heroes will go up in flames with the building! Fortunately, however, April suddenly remembers that the motor that used to power the cooler was removed a few years back, leaving a hole in the exterior wall that leads outside.

Raphael moves some boxes out of the way and finds a flimsily installed patch over the old motor opening. He quickly pries the patch off with his sai, and they all crawl through the opening into the adjoining alley. Once they pull the unconscious Leonardo outside, the crew beats a hasty retreat away from the fire. The group watches as the building explodes into flames. With Leo to care for, the Turtles and Splinter don’t know what to do next. April’s place has burned to the ground, which has left her homeless and it’s still too dangerous to return to the lair. Just when all hope seems lost, Casey comes up with an idea and he offers to take everyone to his grandma’s old farm in Western Massachusetts. No one will find or bother them there.

Master Splinter and the Turtles, including the unconscious Leo, huddle in an enclosed trailer attached to Casey’s old ’57 Chevy. It’s freezing cold outside as they leave the city, and it only gets colder as they head north to Massachusetts. When our heroes finally arrive at the dilapidated farm, the Turtles are almost frozen solid due to their cold-blooded nature and Leo is in very bad shape. Casey and April get a fire going in the fireplace ASAP, as Leo is placed on a couch and covered with a heavy blanket. Gradually, everyone warms up, but Leonardo remains, more or less, in a coma.

Meanwhile, in the Foot Headquarters, Hun is conversing with Saki about the Turtles' recent and apparent demise, and how they should be celebrating their victory. Saki then explains that the Turtles surmised that Saki had perished. Not wanting to make that exact same mistake, Saki wants positive proof that the Turtles truly died in the fire. Baxter Stockman (who's in a wheelchair wearing a neck brace and with a mechanical left hand) then enters the room and says that he could use a device of his creation to get hard DNA evidence…only if The Shredder will allow Stockman to study the mysterious exoskeleton (that Saki fished from the river), once the proof of the Turtles' demise is presented. Saki agrees, though he warns Stockman that he had better not fail him again - or he will receive his third and final punishment (meaning that he will be killed). Baxter says not to worry - if the Turtles died in the fire, he will find the evidence.

Back at the farm, everyone is worried about Leonardo’s lack of recuperation. In an effort to communicate with Leo’s lost spirit, Donatello asks if it would be a good idea to converse with the grievously injured Leo. Splinter approves, and Donny proceeds to tell Leo about a time when they were younger and how, when Don and Leo were playing with Don's remote-controlled car, it fell into the sewer water and Don pursued it effortlessly in an attempt to get it back. Don ended up getting his foot stuck beneath a wooden board underwater, only for Leo to save him at the last second. Michelangelo and Raph also proceed to tell Leo a heartfelt story; Mikey tells Leo of the time when he couldn't break Leo's concentration while the latter was perfecting his Ninjutsu skills, and Raph also tells Leo the time the former saved Raph from a huge albino alligator while they were exploring the sewers. With each story, Leo begins to stir a little bit more.

Meanwhile, in N.Y.C, Stockman surveys the site of April's destroyed shop with a few of his remaining mousers, but, after long searching, he can’t find any evidence whatsoever that the Turtles, or anyone else, died in the blaze. Fearing the consequences of returning to The Shredder empty handed, and wanting the opportunity to study the exoskeleton, Baxter manufactures some evidence to deceive Saki (a red cloth that he puts eyeholes in to make it look as though it's Raphael's mask).

At the farm, Splinter tells Leonardo the tale of how Leo was able to conquer his fear of heights when he was younger. Things still look bleak, as the Turtles fear that Leonardo has died of his wounds, but Leonardo suddenly mutters, "No fear" and wakes up! Everyone is overjoyed and excited to see that the boy in blue is back, even though there is still a long road to full recovery. Leonardo thanks them all for bringing him back, and falls asleep again as the others are ushered out of the room by Splinter.

Back at The Foot Headquarters, Saki is utterly deceived by Stockman's ruse and tells the mad scientist that the exoskeleton will be delivered to his lab in the morning. Saki then leaves, cheered by the news that his foes are apparently dead. The episode concludes with Stockman evilly laughing about the Shredder's gullibility, and that he has seized his opportunity to study the mysterious suit, thus enabling himself to deal his own form of punishment in the near future.

Trivia[]

This episode is ranked #10 on the TMNT Top Ten.
In Michelangelo's flashback, he asks Leo where his "Game Guy" is. This is obviously a spoof of Nintendo's Game Boy.
Whenever a flashback of the young Turtles occurs, their eyes are given irises.
The episode's beginning is based on Issue #10 "Silent Partner".
Baxter Stockman identifies the TMNT as belonging to the group Emydidae, which classifies them as terrapins. The red-eared slider, which the TMNT mutated from in the original comics and the live action movies, is a member of the terrapin family.

External links[]

"Tales of Leo" at The Official TMNT Web Site