NickToons TMNT Episode 20- Enemy of my Enemy

by Mark Rodriguez

Karai returns in this epic episode to try to side with the Turtles on their fight against The Kraang... and we get to see Shredder in action again. Let's see what happens.

The episode begins with the Turtles staking out the TCRI building. Don found out that the Kraang plan to bring a scouter ship from their portal, and they have to stop it. Suddenly Karai comes in and the Turtles start to fight her. Raph tells her they don't have to time to waste with her since they're trying to stop an alien invasion. Just then the scouter ship comes in and it starts blasting at the Turtles and Karai. The Turtles escape into the sewers and they find out that the ship can cloak itself.

At Shredder's hideout, Karai tells her master about the alien invasion, but all he cares about is finding and destroying Splinter. He tells her about a new shipment of weapons coming in that will help them defeat the Turtles.

Back at the lair, the Turtles discuss what to do about the invisible spaceship. Raph says they could throw things into the air until they hit something. Don says they can... by installing radar beacons to help them pick up the signal.

Later on, Leo sets up one of the beacons and Karai attacks him again. After a little fight, Karai says she wants to help them take down the Kraang. Leo reminds her of her past betrayal and you know... the fact that she's a member of the Foot Clan and works for the Shredder. The female ninja says if the aliens destroy the planet, their little feud won't mean a thing. She is also tried of Shredder being blind to this and says his personal vendetta will bring everyone down. Leo however, chooses not to trust her and leaves. This time, Karai actually seems upset.

At the lair, Leo tells everyone how he feels Karai really wanted to work together with them. Splinter warns of the kunoichi's skills of deception. He advises to trust Leo's instincts and to not confuse them with what he wishes was true. Don says it's too bad Karai isn't trustworthy because it would be great to have a kunoichi on their side. April, who is practicing in the background, feels offended since she is a kunoichi too. Don fumbles around as he tries to explain how Karai is more experienced, and Raph drags him off before he makes a bigger fool of himself.

Later on, the Turtles are driving around in the Shell Raiser, and due to Mikey's bad directions, they hit a dead end and are attacked by the spaceship. Karai appear and jumps down on the ship, stabbing it with her blade. The ship flies off with her trapped on top of it, and Leo wants to help her. The other refuse, so Leo drives off on that Turtles Tumbler Cycle thing to help her by himself.

The ship manages to knock Karai off it, and Leo catches her in time. They hide in a dumpster until the ship flies away. Leo then brings Karai to the Shell Raiser, which surprises the Turtles. Karai tells them they need a lot more than compressed garbage (so that's what those weird things the Shell Raiser shoots out are) and sewer lids to take down that spaceship. She suggests a shoulder-mounted missile launcher that the Shredder will get at the docks. They still don't trust her, so Karai offers to steal it for them by herself. Leo agrees that if Karai steals the missile launcher, then they can team up. 

As the turtles relax in the lair, Raph realizes that Shredder will be at the docks... so this is the first time they know where he will be ahead of time, and they can finally take him down. The others agree but Leo doesn't want to betray Karai's plan. Raph reminds her she will eventually betray them anyway, so Leo reluctantly agrees.

At the docks, Shredder, Karai and the Foot pay a General for his shipment of weapons. Karai goes to inspect the weapons, secretly stealing the missile launcher for herself. One one of the rooftops, the Turtles prepare to fire off some sort of electromagentic ball that will hit Shredder hard due to his armor. Karai sees this and dives to push Shredder out of the way. She then angrily fires the missile launcher at them.

Karai calls Leo out on his betrayal (it's funny cause most of it is exactly the same crap she pulled in her earlier episodes) and starts to fight him. Leo said he thought Shredder was driving her crazy. Karai says he drives her crazy because he's her father. She then declares their truce is off and is ready to give them war. As Leo and Karai fight, the other Turtles try their best to take down the Shredder. Just then, the Kraang ship arrives and starts to attack everybody.

During the fighting, Leo manages to fire off the missile launcher and hit the spaceship. As the ship starts crashing down, it knocks Shredder into the ocean. Karai stops fighting Leo and dives into the ocean after him. The Turtles take this opportunity to get away.

A safe distance away, Leo is upset that he ruined things with Karai. Raph says she would never side with them anyway since she is Shredder's daughter. Elsewhere, Karai manages to pull her father out of the ocean and he actually congratulates her. He then said he got her a pet... showing that he has captured one of the Kraang.

This was a great action-packed episode since we got to not only see all four Turtles take on Karai, but also a rematch against Shredder. Shredder was still too powerful for them, but the Turtles still fared a little better than their first encounter. The fear and uncertainty they had before was gone and they were serious in taking the fight to him. The only thing that surprised me is how Raph decided to take the initiative and plan to take down the Shredder once they saw an opening... without Splinter being around to approve it or warn them or anything. Was he napping in the other room or something?

The episode had a lot of fun moments and great lines, besides just awesome fighting. Karai called out Mikey on what the heck Booyakasha means... and Mikey admits not really knowing but he thinks its fun to yell out. Don teases Leo about his 'girlfriend' getting a bit of payback from all the times they tease him about April. And as for April, feeling offended how they don't consider her a kunoichi and 'trust their enemy because she's beautiful'. Sorry April... but you're still a wannabe-kunoichi in training.... don't even start to compare yourself to Karai... Until you're ready to out on missions with the Turtles as a fellow ninja of equal skill... don't even start. 

As for Leo and Karai, it was good to see him turn her down the first time she attempted to join forces. I'm sure Dansleforet and other Leo fans were glad to see him learn his lesson. It's obvious he still cares about her, but is wary of her betrayal. Now that she's pissed and 'it's on now' between them, let's see what happens.

As for the Kraang, nice to know they remembered they have a portal and used it. The other plans, like drilling to the center of the Earth and whatnot were random, but this time it seems they are finally pissed off and tired of the Turtles ruining their plans and decided to set out to destroy them outright. What will happen now that Shredder has captured one of them? I can already see the TMNT forum speculation run rampant until the next episode. People have been speculating about some time of a possible Foot/Kraang team-up for a while now. I still don't see this version of Shredder as very 'team-up' friendly. We'll have to wait and see.

Oh... and extra points for making Shredder yell out in Japanese when he saw the alien spaceship.