Since he first appeared on the show, some people didn't like the fact that Metalhead was well... basically just an ordinary robot, that had to be controlled and used like a prop or a tool, and not one with its own AI like the old cartoon and videogames.
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| 'I'm gonna mangle you slimeballs!' It's weird he was a bad guy in Turtles in time, but at least he was in the game. |
Well, in this episode Don gives Metalhead AI, despite Leo thinking it's a bad idea. What will happen? Oh and hey, Spider Bytes. And more cameos. Let's get started.
The episode opens with Don working on Metalhead's AI since they're using him as a training tool. Leo says whenever they use him, he blows something up. Don is sure everything will go fine and he gets the robot ready to fight. He warns them that he programmed him with several fighting styles, including those of the Foot and the Kraang. The Turtles start fighting, but Metalhead takes all of them down, and sends Mikey flying all over the lair with his flying robot hand stuck to his face.
Splinter comes in and tells everyone to stop. He tells Don that Metalhead is a valuable tool, but he must be used wisely. Just then Metalhead's alarms go off, indicating someone is getting close to the lair. Don insists that Metalhead comes along to help out, despite Leo's attitude. As the Turtles go to investigate, they hear some screams that Raph finds to be very familiar. They see Spider Bytes running around!
The Turtles are surprised to be the mutant spider again, but he's not looking for a fight, he's being chased by the Kraang and he's asking for their help. The Turtles fight the Kraang, but they manage to get Spider Bytes in their van and drive off. Raph wonders why they should bother, and Leo says he asked for their help and they have to find out what the Kraang want him for. Just then Metalhead shows up, driving the Shell Raiser.
The Shell Raiser chases the Kraang van, which fires missiles at them. Metalhead activates the Garbage Cannon that takes out their missiles. They drive alongside it and the turtles hop on top of the van. As the turtles fight the Kraang, Don gets knocked off the top of the van but is saved by Raph. Metalhead uses the Garbage Cannons to shoot the Kraang off them. He them rams into the van, which made it crash into a warehouse. Leo complains about how dangerous that way, but Don says it helped them stop the Kraang and now they have them cornered.
The Turtles and Metalhead enter the warehouse, but it's completely empty, without any sign of an escape route. Metalhead does a 3D scan of the place while Mikey tries to get a Pizza Burrito from a vending machine. Mikey gets his arm stuck in it, and when Raph pulls him out, it opens a secret panel which has Kraang technology hidden inside it. Don has Metalhead hack into it, despite Leo saying it's a bad idea. Metalhead then gets blown back and causes another explosion. Metalhead's hand grabs Mikey again and Don explains it must have been an energy surge. They take Metalhead back to the lair.
At the lair, Don works on Metalhead trying to find whatever information he might have downloaded from the Kraang computer. The robot continues to cause explosions, and send his flying hands after Mikey (although Mikey keeps taunting him so it's kinda his fault this time). Raph says if the Kraang rebuilt TCRI, they might also rebuild their portal. Leo continues to complain about Metalhead and tells Don he has to shut his AI down. Don doesn't want to since it would be like shutting his brain down. Leo says the robot turtle is just too dangerous, and while they argue the matter, Metalhead is listening. Don sighs and agrees to do it. However, Metalhead won't go down without a fight.
The Turtles hear Don scream and run to see what happened. They see Don in one of the 'algae pools' we sometimes see in the show and Mikey pulls him out. Metalhead is gone and locked the Turtles in. They head for the garage but find that door locked too. Splinter opens the door to his room and is angry at all the noise this late in the evening and asked why his door was also locked. The Turtles run off without giving much reason.
The Turtles have a tracker and follow Metalhead as they see him go into a porta-potty. When open it they don't see a sign of him. Then was have a little gag where whenever Mikey opens the door, we see a dimensional portal in there, and when Don opens it it's just a normal porta-potty. Mikey opens the door one more time 'like a turtle do' and Don sticks his hand in the portal. Something pulls him in, and when Leo tries to grab Donnie, he gets pulled inside too. Mike and Raph dive through the portal as well. We have a cool scene of the Turtles falling through the portal, similar to the cut scenes in Turtles in Time.
The Turtles realize the portal didn't take them to Dimension X, but to another one of the Kraang bases. They notice that the Kraang have captured Spider Bytes and put him in some kind of stasis chamber. But that's not all, the Turtles also see that they have captured Slash, Snakeweed, the Rockwell monkey and even April's dad!
They find Metalhead working on a control panel and he's about to be attacked by the Kraang. Don has seen enough and jumps in to help his creation. The Turtles fight the Kraang while Metalhead sets the mutants free. The Kraang activate some sort of mind control device on the mutants, and now they all try to attack the Turtles. As the Turtles fight off Spider Bytes and Snakeweed, Metalhead notes the mind control devices and has the mind-controlled mutants destroy them. Spider Bytes tells the Turtles he's gonna have to save himself, and all the mutants start attacking the Kraang.
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| "The ones called Turtles that I call frogs are the one that must be destroyed!!!" |
The Kraang are seriously outnumbered as all the random mutants attack them. We also have a brief moment where Slash comes in and destroys one of the Kraang that was about to attack Raph. They give each other a little glance of acknowledgement before the 5th Turtles jumps out of the scene. Metalhead opens the portal and everyone gets away. Leo helps the mutated Kirby bat to go through the portal, since April needs him. With everyone gone, the Turtles have to escape but realize that Metalhead has to stay behind to keep the portal open long enough for them to leave. Don doesn't know what to do, but Metalhead motions for Don to get away. He gives him a final thumbs up, and Don sadly leaves as all the Kraandroids start grabbing Metalhead.
As the Turtles escape, Metalhead's head also tossed through the portal and Don regrets his loss. Leo apologizes for how he was acting and says he should have trusted Metalhead. He saved all the mutants and sacrificed himself to save them. Mikey even says he didn't really mind having the robot hands grabs him. They ask if he will rebuild him, and Don says he might some day.
My Opinions:
As always in this series, there is just so much way. From the moment Venka told me this was going to be an episode about Metalhead gaining AI, I was afraid we were going to be saying goodbye to him. I was afraid, like similar eps before them, Metalhead would go insane, attack the Turtles, and they would have no choice but to destroy him. When he was listening to Leo talking about shutting him down, I thought that was his cue to go beserk. But instead, he figured out whatever the Kraang was into, locked the Turtles up so they wouldn't get in his way, and went off on his mission. It's like he was thinking 'I got people to save, and they're talking about shutting them down. Ain't nobody got time for that. By the time they get out, they'll figure out that I'm trying to save the day here'.
I did find Leo to be overly critical throughout the episode. He did point out that the Kraang did control Metalhead before, but any other time he's been used he hasn't really caused any trouble. He was helpful during the first season finale, he was their little practice Turtle during the Squirrelanoid episode, he really hasn't done anything dangerous past that. Leo was just a jerk, and I'm glad he apologized in the end. I did like the part of Metalhead driving the Shell Raiser, kinda reminded me of the Wii game based on the show, where Don mentions that Metalhead is driving while you fight the Kraang on the roof.
Spider Bytes returns, and even though he wasn't the main focus of the episode, it was nice to see him again. He didn't come looking for a fight, he was asking for help. Hell, Spider Bytes wasn't really a bad guy if you really think of it. Just a fat greedy bastard that got pissed at the Turtles for turning him into a spider (though technically they didn't). I love that he kept calling them frogs, even when under Kraang mind-control. That was my favorite line of the whole episode.
And as for the other cameos, wow, I really wasn't expecting such a cameo fest. Besides Snakeweed and Slash, we also see the Rockwell monkey and April's dad. And during the scene where they're all set free, we see brief cameos of Pigeon Pete, the giant mutant wasps and Justin. I did like the little scene of Slash helping Raph out, and we did get to see Leo try to reason with April's dad. I'm also glad they didn't kill Snakeweed yet again in this episode since the only time he attacked the Turtles was when he was under mind control, and when he was free he chose to attack the Kraang instead of them. This episode also helps explain why we haven't seen or heard from all the random mutants the Turtles always seem to let get away at the end of every episode.
Other people spotted a random mutant in the background and for a while some of the Technodromers had a debate wether or not was Leatherhead or the Newtralizer. It would be odd to have someone like that not be acknowledged by anyone, especially since Mikey would want to say hi to Leatherhead. Official sources said it was just some random mutant, most likely using a mix between the Leatherhead and Newtralizer character models. Of course they could have just made an all new model of um.. whatever... or throw in a Squirrelanoid or something... but eh, whatever.
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| Who's that Pokemon???? |
The episode shows another small example of their limited budget for new backgrounds. That parking garage where Mikey was fighting with the vending machine is the exact same one used when they fought the Newtralizer. Of course it's not the same garage within the logic of the episode.... but yeah, I did notice that little detail.
Returning to Metalhead... I guess keeping him mute is a nice touch. It gives more attention to his body language, and it just helps him be a character all his own, in a way. And it's definitely better than having him share the voice of all 4 turtles like in the 80's cartoon. And hey, who didn't like the T2 self sacrifice thumbs up scene? Classic. Will Donnie make another one? We'll have to see. He does have his head, and as we know, all the important data and 'memories' are stored there. All he really needs is a new body to put it on. I do wonder if they'll take advantage of this to redesign him? Either way it looks like we'll get a small break from our little robot buddy until Don decides to rebuild him. Still one of my favorite action figures.
A great episode overall. No real complaints here other than minor nitpicking. The next episode will feature the Ice Cream Kitty, much to Paige's dismay... oh, and some dude named the Rat King is gonna be in it too.
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