It’s often fun to check transformation sequences frame by frame.  Occasionally, you’ll get interesting single shots that go unnoticed in motion.  Here, for example, is Fox, in the middle of her transformation into  werebeast, but looking more like an evil simian with great hair.

By the way, the review for Eye of the Beholder should be up later this week, as I’ve finally come up with a satisfying alternative to the time-consuming recaps I’d been making and which nobody read.

So!  In an attempt to get in *some* new content with some regularity, I’m going to be doing these: every Wednesday, I’ll upload a screenshot from either Gargoyles or TMNT that I particularly like.  Sometimes I’ll include an explanation, and sometimes I won’t.

So today I begin with this:

This picture is fun without context on its own, but what I find particularly interesting is that people making out is something of a rare thing in kids’ cartoons–or at the very least, they’re used on very specific occasions which makes this particular case…really weird.

Written by: Marty Isenberg
Original Air Date: September 13, 2003
Recap Narrator: The Shredder
Gargoyles episode I could make a forced comparison to: N/A

Synopsis:

Thirty seconds before the explosion at the 2nd Time Around store, the turtles, April, Casey, and Splinter are trapped inside a storage area inside the building.  While Raph and Mike try to break through the barred door, April moves some furniture, exposing a sheet of metal covering a hole in the wall, (the remnant of a cooling unit that had been removed back when the O’Neils first bought the building).  After removing the covering, our heroes escape from the building, unseen, just before it explodes.

Now safe outside in the pouring rain, April cries in Casey’s arms as her home and livelihood burn.  Meanwhile, the group tries to consider their options: they need a place to recover and to treat the unconscious Leonardo, and the lair is still being watched.  Suprisingly, it is Casey who appears to have a solution o that particular problem.

The next day, snow falls as  Casey drives the group towards his grandmother’s old farmhouse, a family home made in the classic old New England style–pretty and comforting, if it weren’t for its serious state of disrepair.  He seems somewhat cheery, which makes him the only one: April is still depressed over the events of the past day, and the turtles are miserable due to a combination of cold and concern for their brother.  Once inside the house, they set Leo in a couch near the fireplace and try to keep him comfortable.

Back in New York, Saki has his own worries: with no bodies to be found at the scene of yesterday’s battle, he requires an alternate way to confirm his enemies’ demise.  Enter Baxter Stockman, who looks considerably worse than the last time we saw him: not only is he wheelchair-bound, he is also missing his left arm and sporting a neck brace.  The arrogant scientist makes a proposal: in exchange for the evidence the Shredder seeks, Stockman will be granted full access to the exoskeleton the Foot retrieved with the Sword of Tengu, which, he believes, would allow him to create technological breakthroughs of the sort that resulted in the Foot Tech Ninjas.  Saki agrees, with a caveat: if Stockman can’t provide the evidence of the turtles’ deaths, his next punishment will be his last.

Meanwhile, at the farmhouse, Leo’s family keeps a vigil around the unconscious turtle, waiting for a sign of recovery.  Donatello, hoping that Leo can hear him, begins talking to his fallen brother, assuring him that he can, will, and must pull through.  He recalls the time both turtles had been milling around the sewer, playing with Don’s remote control car when, after a misjudged turn, the car falls into the debris-strewn waterway.  Don tried to retrieve it, falling into the water himself. Unable to swim back to safety due to the strong current, Don is swept away into a central part of the sewer.  His foot trapped under debris, he would have been drowned by the rapidly rising water, if not for Leo–because that’s what he does, Don punctuates: he comes through for people, and he’s sure that Leo will do again.

Raph interrupts Don’s reminiscing, disparaging his attempts to get through to Leo.  Ironically, Leo appears to react to Raph’s comment, which only convinces the group that talking to the unconscious turtle is the thing to do. Michelangelo decides to take a turn, asking Leo to focus on his voice, the way he usually focuses on his ninjitsu.  He reminisces of a time when he tried to distract Leo from practicing his katas, to no avail, and insists that if Leo could remain laser-focused then, he can do so now.

Raph once again comments on the uselessness of trying to bring Leo back from the brink: after his defeat at the hands of the Foot, the turtle leader is too scared to come back and face the world.  His anger soon subsides, as tears begin to well in his eyes.  He recalls how he’d once felt that he’d be the most natural leader of the group, and would compete with Leo for the spot.  One particular time, the two turtles had been playing follow the leader when Raph took them to a part of the sewer Splinter had forbidden them from entering.    A mistake, in retrospect–it’s not long before Raph is attacked by an albino crocodile, and, were it not for Leo, Raph would have died trying to fight it.

Present day New York, 2nd Time Around store.  Baxter Stockman, aided by his mouser robots, has finished searching through the wreckage, with no success–there’s absolutely no conclusive evidence that anyone died in the fire.  Inspired by a mouser carrying a piece of red cloth, he decides that if no evidence exists, he’ll just have to create it.

Back in Massachusetts, Splinter takes his own stab at getting through to Leonardo, telling him that he must gather his courage and confront his fear.  He reminisces of a time, long ago, when Leo had a rather pronounced fear of heights, one that no amount of coaching would solve.  It wasn’t until Splinter appeared to be in mortal danger that Leonardo managed to conquer his fears, in order to rescue his sensei.  Splinter begs his son to return to them, which appears to be enough, as Leo slowly opens his eyes.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly becomes jubilant,  (including a rather overlong hug between April and Casey).  An exhausted Leo thanks his family: if not for them and their words, he would not have been able to return.  Splinter responds by telling Leonardo that it is he who fought his way back to the world of the living, and that the credit belongs to him.  With the danger past, he orders the others to leave Leonardo to rest.  As the group leaves, Raph tells Leo to give him a call if he needs anything.

Back in New York, Baxter presents Saki with his (fake) evidence. The crime lord takes a look at it, and proclaims that he is satisfied: Stockman will receive the exoskeleton in the morning. Saki leaves the room, leaving Stockman alone and free to gloat: with the exoskeleton available to him, he’ll be able to get his revenge on the Shredder once and for all.

Continuity Notes:

• The first part of this episode is an adaptation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Vol. 1) #10 and #11, both of which had previously been adapted in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film.
• Baxter Stockman’s mouser robots were last seen in “Attack of the Mousers“.  They will not be seen again (at least in this form) for the duration of the series.
• In this episode, Casey makes a throwaway mention of his cousin Sid, who appeared in Mirage’s Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 1) #1 and who will make his TV debut on episode 4.01 “Cousin Sid”.

So we finally arrive in Northampton.  This was a key part of the original TMNT narrative, the moment when Eastman and Laird showed that they weren’t all about the wacky action and set pieces, and could write more varied, emotional stories.  After their defeat at April’s apartment, the turtles retreat to Casey’s grandmother’s farm house to heal their physical and mental wounds, and spend a year there doing…well, they’re not particularly sure. A lot of key turtles adventures take place in Massachusetts area, to the point where it’s arguably a more important location than New York is.  While it’s not as important at this point in the animated series–only two episodes are spent there before returning the turtles to New York–like the comics, it will become the turtles’ second home, and the place they’ll return to to recuperate after particularly tense battles, or simply whenever they feel like going out in the sun.

In the original comic books, this first Northampton issue was used mostly as an opportunity to take stock of the situation, using April as the viewpoint character, and part of its theme was that the sudden exile had affected them all in different and subtle ways.  Here, however, perhaps because the story begins and ends the very same day they arrive at Northampton (the comic begins after they’ve been there for two weeks, and deals with their arrival in the form of a flashback), the focus is much more narrow and urgent, as the turtles and their friends keep vigil over Leonardo, telling him stories in an attempt to feel like they’re doing something.

It’s a good concept, particularly since, when you think about it, there really isn’t anything they can do for Leo that they can’t do later–he’s presumably not bleeding externally, broken limbs aren’t fatal, and anything else would require equipment they can’t access–all they can do is hope.

Unfortunately, the tales don’t really say anything particularly interesting about the characters–the only interesting bit, that Leo was once afraid of heights, is never really brought up again. Although perhaps the point is precisely that, that the things one remembers are often not those one would consider very significant.  Does Leonardo himself remember those things?  It would be interesting to know.

Much more intriguing are the bits with the Foot, which highlight just how brutal this incarnation of the Foot can be, and how it can backfire: so focused is the Shredder on hunting down the turtles (and it’s nice to see him refusing to underestimate the heroes–it’s not something we usually see in cartoon villains) that he fails to see the more immediate threat. It’s actually kind of odd: even after getting betrayed time and time again by Stockman, Shredder never treats him with the same seriousness he does the turtles, and I wonder why that is.  Is it because Stockman isn’t a physical threat?  Is it because he believes he can deal with whatever he throws at him (Stockman’s blows are rarely disabling, at least until the very end)?  Or does he simply believe that his contributions to the Foot outweigh his potential treachery?  In any case, the chemistry between Saki and Stockman has always been entertaining, and this is probably their best episode together, since Stockman gets off some wonderful bits of snark here.

Random Thoughts:

• This episode hints at a side of Hun we don’t get to see much; while he’s usually presented as more moderate character than the Shredder–something like “letting the floating city of Beijing fall into the ground in order to obtain some crucial tech” would never really occur to him–he is, nevertheless, a pretty dang brutal guy: you can tell he enjoyed gouging out Stockman’s eye, and snapping his arm off, and breaking his legs, and twisting his neck.  It calls back to his first encounter with Raphael, and it’s a nice, subtle bit of character building.
• The origin of the car and trailer the gang takes to Northampton is never explained, and we never really see it again–it’s simply adapted wholesale from the book.  Who does it belong to?   Probably not April–she’s eventually revealed to be the owner of a Volkswagen Bus (also from the comics) and it doesn’t really make sense for her to be the owner of two cars.  Casey has his bike (or had, as it was most likely lost in the fire), and I just don’t see him owning a car, given that he’s an underemployed New Yorker.  A loan from a friend of Casey’s?  Possibly–but it’d be nice to see it confirmed.
• This episode, I think, marks the first instance of what would be come a rather unwelcome and overused gag, where Casey and April spontaneously demonstrate some sort of affection for each other, only to retreat once they realize what they’ve done.  It’s unsubtle, it’s unfunny, and thankfully doesn’t last long, disappearing after the first big Casey/April episode, “Modern Love”.

TMNT fans may recognize recurring character Angel, who guest-starred in the episode “Fallen Angel” and made sporadic appearances throughout the show.  She, of course, has been turned into a gargoyle, which is a common thing among Gargoyles fan artists.  It’s not the most original of designs, but then again, originallity isn’t the point here.  She does better on that score with her original characters, who manage to have some neat design elements.  In any case, I’m glad to see stuff like this.

Written by: Cary Bates
Original Air Date: September 12, 1995
Introduces: Martin Hacker; Dominic Dracon; Pal Joey (unidentified); Mace Malone (Mentioned only)
Timeline placement: October 27- October 28, 1995
TMNT episode I could make a forced comparison to: Ep. 4.01: “Cousin Sid”

Synopsis:

It was a dark and stormy night, like something out of a cliche. Private Detective and master of unlocking in training Matt Bluestone breaks into a shabby, apparently empty building, and heads towards the cellar, which appears to be the site of some activity.  He is greeted by blinding spotlights and men with firearms.

Elsewhere, in a world without color, an armed mafioso two clogged arteries short of a heart attack runs, panicked. By the time he thinks to look ahead of him instead of back, it’s too late: a fire escape ladder is headed right his way, driven, if such a thing can be driven, by a man in a hat and trenchcoat.  The goon goes down, and, with nowhere else to go, he can do nothing but listen to the ladder-wielding man as he says:

You made one mistake, Louie.  You messed with my partner.  And when someone messes with your partner, you’re supposed to do something about it.

Back in the world of color, Broadway is saying those lines to.  It turns out Louie and ladder guy are characters in a noir movie.  Broadway, he likes old stuff.

Meanwhile, Elisa Maza, owner of the apartment where Broadway gets his Bogart on, speaks with 23rd Precinct Captain María Chávez, who tells Elisa how she’s worried about Matt Bluestone, who apparently hasn’t checked in 48 hours.  Although Elisa isn’t convinced that Matt needs the help, she agrees to check on him.  She unlocks her gun from her safe and prepares to leave when she is approached by Broadway, who offers to help her.  Thanks but no thanks, says Elisa.  One partner is enough.

Some time later, at Matt’s apartment, a masked burglar is ransacking the place when zie hears Elisa at the door. Outside, the intruder is being watched by a large guy in a hat and trenchcoat (Broadway, although given creator comments, it’s not clear if the animation was supposed to make that obvious at this point).  The burglar pulls out a gun and prepares to face Elisa when Broadway breaks in and attack hir.  Hearing the commotion, Elisa kicks the door open, and barely manages to avoid the burglar, whom Broadway throws into the hall.

The intruder tries to get away.  Elisa tries to shoot him (and it’s clearly a “him” now) down, but before she can get a bead on him, her view is blocked by Broadway, who enthusiastically gives chase.  The burglar manages to get into an elevator, but this proves to be a mistake, as now he is stuck as Broadway breaks into the shaft and pulls the elevator back up to Matt’s floor.  Elisa watches as Broadway throws the burglar again, this time knocking him unconscious.  She is pissed at Broadway, and the gargoyle doesn’t get why.

Elisa and Broadway bring the burglar back to Matt’s apartment and proceed to investigate.  Elisa unmasks the unconscious intruder (whom she can’t identify) and searches him, finding a page from Matt’s calendar with a note from the missing detective.  Broadway, for his part, turns Matt’s computer on, which, it turns out, had been rigged to explode: it’s only the burglar’s fortuitous return to consciousness, and his impulse warning, that allows the gargoyle to carry the two humans outside in time, thus avoiding very messy deaths for the three of them.  Not everything is peachy, though, as the momentum from the explosion causes Broadway to miss his landing and almost fall and, although he manages to get back up with Elisa’s help, the confusion gives enough time for the burglar (now Bomb Guy) to escape.

Broadway, unfazed by this setback, asks Elisa what they’re going to next.  Nothing, Elisa says: she‘s going to check the appointment Matt wrote about on the retrieved calendar page (“Hacker, 10 p.m., Cleopatra’s Needle”), while Broadway, who has already screwed up twice due to his inexperience, will go back home.  Broadway protests; while he acknowledges his mistakes, he argues that the fact that they’ve almost been killed twice is proof about how dangerous the situation is, and that, given what’s already happened to Matt due to working alone, Elisa really shouldn’t be investigating this without a partner.

Cleopatra’s Needle. Elisa meets up with (Martin) Hacker, F.B.I. agent and Matt’s former partner back during the detective’s bureau days.  Apparently, Matt a) told Hacker quite a bit about Elisa (including the fact that Matt considers her to be the best partner he’s ever had), while not really telling Elisa anything about Hacker, and b) asked his former partner to authenticate an item for him, specifically one that Matt believed could be a lead on the Illuminati society and c) had lost his job as a feeb specifically due to his “obsessive” attempts to prove his conspiracy theories.

The item in question, it turns out, is a letter written by one Mace Malone, a gangster during New York’s prohibition days who disappeared in 1924, and whom Matt believed had a connection with the Illuminati.  The letter went like this:

D.D.

Our little society has racked up quite a nest egg.  Every time I see the Silver Falcon, I have to smile.  Stay in touch, partner.

Mace

The letter is legit, Hacker adds, although that’s just about the only part of the whole thing that doesn’t raise even more questions–the only concrete clue is the letter’s 70-year old return address.  The F.B.I. agent offers to help Elisa, but the cop declines the offer.

Not long after Hacker leaves, Elisa is approached by three armed goons, including the intruder at Matt’s apartment.  Elisa, however, has a surprise of her own–namely, Broadway, who takes out two of the mooks with ease.  The third, however–Mr. Bomb Guy–manages to escape, thanks to a fourth gang member serving as the getaway guy–not good, Elisa explains as she handcuffs the other two: if Bomb Guy overhead enough, his bosses at the Illuminati know about the address Hacker gave her, and it becomes a race to see who gets there first.

High on the Apex Tower skyscraper building, atop a gargoyle/gargoyle in the form of a bird of prey, Broadway watches as, across the street, Elisa (who can watch Broadway back) interviews G.F. Benton, C.P.A., who, it turns out, is a Mace Malone buff who had chosen his apartment solely because it had once been the mobster’s.  He notes that the office is rather infamous for that same reason, and that it still attracted the occasional curious visitor, including, as it turned out, Matt.  G.F. Benton, C.P.A. further explains that when Matt saw a particular photo resting atop a filing cabinet–one of Mace Malone and an unidentified “handsome fella” wearing a suit with a monogrammed “D.D.”  on its lapel–he turned to leave with a quickness.  Elisa asks G.F. Benton, C.P.A. if he knows where the photo was taken, and the accountant replies that he does: The Silver Falcon nightclub, Mace Malone’s “pride and joy”.

After asking G.F. Benton, C.P.A. to go to the police and tell them what he just told her, and filling Broadway in on what she’d just learned, Elisa and her would-be partner race to The Silver Falcon.  They enter the night club and head towards the noise and light coming from the cellar.  From the stairway, they spot Dracon’s lieutenant Glasses, who is ordering two workers to dig through a wall will lasers.  They also find Matt, blindfolded and tied to a chair.  What they don’t notice is that Glasses has spotted them as well; the gangster presses a trigger, causing several pounds of C4 to explode right above the stairwell and our heroes, burying them.

Fortunately for the two heroes, the exploding C4 proves to be too weak to kill them on the spot, while at the same time being strong enough to open a hole  several feet deep on the cellar floor; Elisa and Broadway find themselves several feet underground, and only Broadway’s strength has prevented the rocks above them to collapsing and killing them both.  Unfortunately, that fickle bastard known as the sun chooses this moment to rise, turning the gargoyle to stone and preventing him from being anything but the world’s most elaborate pillar.

Matt, sensing an opportunity to help Elisa, goads Glasses, reminding him that he hasn’t fulfilled Tony’s orders about destroying Mace’s letter, and that unless he frees Elisa and sees the letter himself, he can never be sure whether she had it or gave it to someone else.

Elisa is working on digging herself out when she notices people doing the same from above.  In order to prevent the sleeping Broadway from being spotted, she breaks off one of the beams supporting the stones above them, causing a small cave-in which buries and hides the gargoyle.

Elisa is pulled out of the wreckage.  Ignoring the fact that there had been a second person down there, Glasses goes directly for Malone’s letter, which he destroys, just in time for the arrival of the big man himself, Tony Dracon.

With Elisa and Matt contained no more obstacles in sight, Glasses and the rest of Tony’s crew continue their work, unimpeded.  Matt remarks that the entire effort has to be rather expensive, which prompts Tony to note that his goal is worth it: if his hunch pays off, he’ll find a collection of uncut diamonds that Mace and his grandfather stole decades ago–a stash worth twenty times what he’s spent.

Matt provides Elisa with additional details:  D.D. is Dominic Dracon, Tony’s Grandfather, who had been Mace’s partner during a diamond heist decades ago, only for Mace to run away with the loot. In other words, Matt had been drawn into a wild sheep chase, one that didn’t involve the Illuminati at all.  Worse still, he says, he went into it without letting Elisa know.

Glasses and the crew have finished their digging, having uncovered a man-sized safe, the sort Dick Cheney would use.  Instead of calling Geraldo Rivera to properly hype it, they open it, only to find it empty, save for a note.

Right idea, wrong falcon.  Better luck next time.  Love, Mace.

Tony, incensed, throws the note away.  Elisa, with a bit of cockiness, asks Tony to calm down: she knows where the jewels are, and she will lead Tony there, as long as Matt and she go free.  Tony agrees, giving his word as a Dracon.  Elisa specifies that, given the loot’s  location, they’ll have to wait until dark before they can try to retrieve it.

Nightfall.  At the Silver Falcon nightclub, Broadway awakens to find the establishment empty.  After looking around, he finds Mace Malone’s discarded note and, with some difficulty, manages to make out its message.  Pondering the its meaning, he heads towards the opened safe and, as he stares at his reflection on its door, inspiration strikes.

Elisa leads Dracon’s helicopter to the Apex Tower, where she and Dracon exit onto the observation deck.  As Elisa climbs atop one of the building’s gargoyles, she explains that the building is visible from Mace Malone’s office, and that once you take away decades’ worth of soot from the falcon statues, you see…silver.

Elisa reaches inside the falcon’s open beak and retrieves a satchel.  She checks its contents and satisfied, turns towards Dracon, who insists that if she hands it over she will be safe.  Elisa isn’t buying it, but fortunately, she has another option: Broadway has arrived, and she sees the gargoyle standing unseen on a windowsill.  She takes the leap.

Dracon, his plans now falling apart, jumps back into his helicopter and orders the pilot to descend to the streets, to see if they can pick some of the diamonds from among the Elisa giblets. With Elisa safe, Broadway goes after Dracon’s helicopter; unseen, he disables the vehicle’s hydraulics with a punch, forcing Glasses to try to make an emergency landing, one that knocks him unconscious.  Tony makes a run for it, leaving Pal Joey alone with Matt, who easily overpowers the mobster.

Desperate and exhausted, Tony runs into an alleyway, and is knocked on his feet by a swinging fire escape ladder driven, if such a thing can be driven, by Broadway.  Dracon, who know recognizes his stalker, stares horrified as Broadway delivers his version of the line from the noir movie: “You made one mistake, Dracon: you messed with my partner.   When someone messes with your partner, you’re supposed to do something about it.”

Meanwhile, satchel in hand, Elisa climbs her way to safety, only to run into Dominic Dracon (a.k.a. G.F. Benton, C.P.A.), who prevents her from climbing over the railing and into solid footing.  Elisa isn’t surprised, though; she’d known who he was since she realized that he was the only one who could have warned Tony about her upcoming appearance at the night club.  Dominic demands the satchel, but Elisa throws it onto one of the silver falcons.  Growing panicky, the old mobster lets Elisa go and goes for the satchel, only to find (after feeling around inside the bag for a comically long time) that instead of diamonds, the satchel is filled with marbles…and a note from Mace.

Dominic, seems you still haven’t learned that crime doesn’t pay.

Demoralized, D.D. makes no attempts to resist arrest by Elisa.

Daylight breaks, and the NYPD formally arrests the entire Dracon gang.

Continuity Notes:

• Matt Bluestone first mentioned the Illuminati society in “The Edge“.
• Tony Dracon and his gang were last seen in “Deadly Force“.  The white streak in Tony’s hair was obtained off-screen, and is a physiological reaction to his encounter with the gargoyles.

This episode functions as a sequel to “Deadly Force”, but its actual thematic kin is “The Edge”, as it continues to deal with the theme of partnership and trust.  Matt doesn’t trust Elisa and gets captured, and his apartment is blown up. Mace Malone and Dominic Dracon don’t seem to trust each other at all, and indeed appear to have a relationship where they attempt to one-up one another via deception.  It is not until Elisa and Broadway begin to trust one another that they can work together.  We don’t know how much trust is involved in Tony Dracon’s outfit, but they seem to work rather well together–they’re just physically outmatched when it comes to the gargoyles.

I actually don’t much like the way the show handles these issues. The show goes to a lot of trouble to insist that solitude is undesirable and bad, which, as a person who loves solitude, sticks on my craw.  I like working alone.  I like being alone. This does not make me a sociopath, nor does it mean I hate people.  And yet, characters who enjoy and thrive on solitude are in short supply in the series; gargoyles, who despite Weisman’s best efforts do come off as an idealized race, are biologically primed against solitude; Elisa winds up losing arguments about needing a partner, and whenever somebody comments on being single, it’s so they can angst about it.

Regarding trust, I can understand the overall point, but I feel the show goes too far in making it, and I dislike the implication that true trust can’t co-exist with secrets.  For all its problems, I love that in One Piece, Luffy is unwavering in his trust for his crew, even after he’s warned that said crewmates have a history of repeatedly being the only survivor of whatever group zie’s in.  I love that Commissioner Gordon doesn’t need to know Batman’s secret identity in order to work with him.  I love that Black Canary could trust Oracle even when she was only an anonymous voice, even though I love that they eventually got to meet.  Trust involves more than just not keeping secrets; sometimes its about knowing that your partner is doing the right thing, even when you don’t have all the details.  And that’s something I feel the show misses in its depiction.

There’s really not a lot to say about the episode otherwise–it’s perfectly good, but rather unremarkable from a mytharc standpoint, so on to the…

Random Thoughts: 

• I’m not a big fan of Tony Dracon’s skunk stripe.  I get why Weisman put it there, but I sort of feel like Tony’s the kind of person who would try to hide it via hair dye than leave it on display.  On the other hand, I feel that more work should be put in making the henchmen distinct, particularly if he’s going to start naming them.
• Did Greg Weisman ever had plans for having Brooklyn and co. Timedance to the 1920′s?  Dominic and Mace’s past seemed like an obvious hook for future plots, and that particular device seems like the most natural way to deal with it.  Plus, I find Prohibition era to be a really fascinating stage in the U.S.’ history, and I’d love to see the show’s take on it.
• One particular thing that strikes me as odd is that at the Silver Falcon Night Club, no one, not even Matt, really makes an issue about the heavy guy that’s with Elisa when she falls into Dracon’s trap.
• This is the first episode in which Goliath doesn’t star, which I liked.  I feel that a lot of opportunities are missed when a show insists in showcasing every single cast member in all episodes, so it’s nice to see that Gargoyles‘ producers are smart enough to avoid that particular trap (TMNT, by the way, only had two episodes which didn’t feature all four turtles).  It’s also nice to see that it’s not just Goliath who has a special relationship with Elisa, and that there can  friendships between members of opposite genders without sex getting involved, particularly since last episode established that gargoyles and humans can feel sexual attraction to one another.
• Given Matt’s remarks on needing a partner in “The Edge”, his behavior here comes off as a tad hypocritical, and the more I think about it, the less I like the character, and I wonder if that’s supposed to be intentional on the part of Weisman and Co.
• Given the time difference involved and the thousands of possibilities, I wonder why Dominic and Tony were so sure that the diamonds had to still be in play.
• One wonders when exactly Matt was booted from the force, how much time passed between that and being hired at the N.Y.P.D., and what he did between both.  There’s a story there, I feel.
• Speaking of untold stories, taking the time of Elisa’s appointment into account (10 p.m.) and the alleged urgency of the case, it seems rather strange that it was almost dawn by the time they’d made it to Mace’s nightclub.  Where was all that time spent?

While the series tries to replicate the original comics’ tone, it’s clear that they’re not particularly trying to replicate its plot: one issue in, and there are already a ton of differences between this incarnation and the original, ranging from the merely aesthetic (the turtles have no tails; Splinter has gray fur) to details that place it right next to the first cartoon when it comes to actual faithfulness to the original story. The turles’ origin, in particular, appears to have been altered in almost every conceivable way. Instead of being pet turtles, they are turtles being used as part of particular genetic experiments at StockGen Research Inc.; instead of being named by Splinter after being mutated, they are named by April O’Neil while still in their non-mutated state; instead of being Hamato Yoshi’s pet rat nor Hamato Yoshi himself, Splinter is a lab rat being tested on as part of a different StockGen experiment.

Go check it out.

Written by: Erik Luke
Original Air Date: June 14, 2003
Recap Narrator: Splinter

Synopsis:

We begin where we left off last episode, with the turtles just having received a wounded Leonardo’s warning: The Shredder is back. The turtles initially try to convince themselves that that’s impossible–there’s no way he could be alive after their last encounter—but given the evidence, their skepticism proves short-lived.

Realizing the danger they’re in, Splinter orders the turtles to begin moving Leonardo out of the building. However, its too late, as Foot Ninja surround the building and begin breaking in through the second floor windows. Overtaken by sheer numbers, Splinter orders April and Michelangelo to retreat with Leo down the stairs and outside the building, while he, Raph, and Don hold the enemy off. Before Leonardo can be moved, however, he regains consciousness enough to ask April to leave him behind and save herself, a request she category: the turtles are family, which means they don’t get left behind. Carrying Leo, she makes her way to the stairs, where more Foot Ninja await. A quick intervention by Mikey takes care of them, however, and the group begins their descent, leaving Raph behind to provide cover.

Having reached a lull in the battle, Mikey is instructed to scout the 2^nd Time Around store so they can make their exit. Unfortunately, the store has also been occupied by the enemy, this time the four behatted Ninja that kicked Leo’s ass last episode. Nevertheless, they press forward, with Splinter taking Raph’s place to allow him to join his brothers.

The three turtles take on the four Elite Foot, and are barely managing to hold their own. As April watches from the shadows, Hun appears behind her and takes Leo from her, throwing him against a metal support rod. As the Foot liutenant makes his way towards April, Raph attacks him and manages to temporarily take him out of the fight…just in time for the Shredder to make his entrance through the store door. After the usual “none of you will leave her alive” and “you are a dishonorable opponent, Shredder” prefight talk, the battle continues, with Shredder taking on Splinter (who’s vanquished his foes upstairs and joined the fight below) while the Foot Elite and the rest of their forces continue their attack on the turtles. The Foot press their advantage and appear to be near victory…

And then a guy in a motorcycle bursts in through the store windows and takes care of the Elite. “Now that’s what I call crashing a party,” he quips.

Casey.

Fucking.

Jones.

Casey: [Looks at the approaching Foot Ninja] This can’t be the band.  I want rock and roll, man!  [Twirls hockey stick and golf club on each hand].  Good thing I brought my own drumsticks.  Now, who wants to be the drums?

Hell yeah.

With the turtles having obtained a much-needed  morale boost, the battle continues.  Hun returns to the battle and makes a beeline for April in order to kill her and take the fight out of the turtles.  Casey intervenes, however, and thanks to the power granted by protecting somebody you care for and/or whose pants you want to get into, defeats the mountain impersonator with ease.

Outside, a police patrol driven by Officers Eastman and Laird arrives at the store.  After taking one look at the brawl inside, they decide to call for backup.

Inside, Leo makes a valiant effort to stand on his own.  Unfortunately, his struggle draws The Shredder’s attention.  As the ninja master prepares to strike at the wounded turtle, Splinter intervenes.  Leonardo watches as the two masters’ battle continues; and realizes, to his horror, that The Shredder appears to have the upper hand.  Desperate, the turtle uses the last of his strength to knock over a cupboard, which has the effect of separating the two combatants and giving his sensei some breathing room.  His energy spent, the ninja turtle collapses.

Splinter, realizing that this is a battle they will not win and that his sons are already being run ragged, calls for a retreat.  April suggests they lock themselves inside what she reveals was a walk-in cooler (the shop used to be a grocery store), which they manage to do.  It’s a temporary solution at best–once the Shredder breaks in, all that’s left is the last stand.

Fortunately, it is at that moment that the cops’ reinforcements arrive and surround the building, causing the Shredder to call for a retreat.  Before he makes his exit, however, Saki leaves behind a parting gift.  After barring the door to the cooler to prevent escape, Shredder slices open a gas duct and, using a funky fire bomb, decides to go all scorched earth.

Inside the cooler, the turtles have noticed the sudden silence, the fact that they can’t get out, that the door to the cooler now feels unreasonably hot, and that it’s begun to smell of gas and smoke.  Putting two and two together, they begin to desperately look for a way to escape the Shredder’s improvised death trap.

Outside, officers Eastman and Laird are blown off their feet by the force of the explosion within the store.  Atop a nearby rooftop, the two guardians we’ve previously seen also witness the conflagration.  They report the event to their superiors, announcing that Shredder has defeated and killed the turtles.  The superiors agree that this is cause for concern about the Shredder’s power, and that they need to accelerate the implementation of their plans.

The transmission ended, the guardian who’d previously helped Leonardo tells his partner of his conversation with the turtle that day, and how the loss of he and his brothers is a great one.  The camera pans back to the burning building.

To Be Continued?

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Continuity Notes:

• This episode adapts the story “Silent Partner”, found in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Vol. 1) #10.  It is the second adaptation of the story to the screen, the first being found in the 1990  TMNT movie.
• Casey Jones was last seen in episode 1.08, “Fallen Angel“.  Guardian A–the one we’ve heard speak most often–last appeared in episode 1.11 “The Shredder Strikes” Part Two while his companion and their superiors last appeared in episode 1.07, “The Way of Invisibility“.

This episode was initially the last before a rather long break, which I remember being maddening–the best two episodes of the cartoon, followed by a cliffhanger?  Clearly, the creators were EVIL! Eight years later, this is still my favorite episode of the season, and one that went a long way into cementing my love for the series.  An episode-long fight scene through and through, this episode is basically just a collection of awesome moments.  “Nice hats”, the turtles’ fight with the Foot Elite, Casey’s entrance, Casey’s fight with Hun, the Shredder’s exit…it’s the most badass the series has been thus far.  This is especially true with Casey, who soon after gets hit with the José Canseco comic-relief bat and never quite recovers, even when his fighting skills do. While the more mature Casey of later seasons is a good character, by then he’s lost the aura of unpredictability and danger that made him awesome.

Part of the reason why this review has taken so long is because I couldn’t figure out what to say about it.  It’s an episode-long fight scene.  It’s awesome.  The end.  And then I started thinking about it differently.  This episode–this two-parter–is basically about one thing: The Shredder reestablishing his dominance after his initial defeat* at the hands of the turtles (or rather, Splinter)–which, if you’re comparing the series to Gargoyles, means exactly one thing.

This is TMNT‘s version of “The Edge”.

Now, it’s worth noting that the Shredder is not, by nature, an introspective character, and the series doesn’t really let us get into his head, even when he gets to narrate a teaser/recap.  It’s that particular detail that forms the basis of the difference between TMNT and Gargoyles‘ takes on the “Villain re-establishes how bad-ass they are” concept.    When Xanatos enacts his plans, it as much about boosting himself up than it is about demoralizing others–after successive defeats, he needs to prove to himself that he is not at fault–he’s just as badass as he’s ever been.

The Shredder, on the other hand, feels no need for self-reflection–there’s no doubt in his mind about his abilities.  Thus, his plan here is not to improve himself, but to send a message to his opponents: do not fuck with me.  It’s also why his plan is more or less the same as it was in “The Shredder Strikes”–send himself plus a lot of ninja after the turtles–except enacted in a manner that gives him the element of surprise and keeps his opponents off-balance, therefore negating the factors that resulted in his last defeat.  And it works, too–it’s only April’s quick thinking that saves the turtles.

The Shredder’s inability to be introspective will go on to become one of his main characteristics, and possibly his greatest weakness, one that will eventually lead to his downfall.  It’s also something that would probably be a minus in another show (this sort of thing is a key quality to one-dimensional villains) I feel it works here, partly because it feels so deliberate (if Goldfine and Co. wanted the Shredder to be a sympathetic, three dimensional villain, they could have done so**).  It also helps really sell the Shredder as the ultimate evil the turtles face: he might not be the most powerful villain out there, but in the end, he is very literally the one who will not give a damn about who or what he destroys, as long as he wins–and that’s powerful stuff.

Random thoughts:

• In a point related to the one above, it’s interesting how the Shredder’s victories over the turtles usually come down to number games.  Given the tendency for groups of mooks to be less effective the more of them there are, seeing the turtles get weight down by the larger forces is something of a rarity.
• This is the first episode where the show’s reluctance to use the words “dead” and “killed” became really apparent.  While some writers found ways to get around it with natural-sounding equivalents, some didn’t, leading to very awkward lines.
• The initial fight between the turtles and the Elite Foot is probably the best extended fight scene in the first season, both in animation and choreography, and a sign of things to come.  I never get tired of it.
• The season’s tendency to awkwardly recap past episodes  is at its worst in this episode, as we get an overlong and completely unnecessary flashback to “The Shredder Strikes” Part 2, one that feels more at home in Shonen anime than in American cartoons.  It’s a false step in an otherwise excellent episode.
• Comparing this version of the Second Time Around fight to the movies’ I have to say I like this version more.  Whereas the movie concentrates a bit too much on the slapstick for this particular fight, this version manages to find a happy balance between being action-y and fun.

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* Or rather, defeats–as we’ll see later, the Shredder had been defeated  a second time between “The Shredder Strikes” and this episode.

** See Karai, Bishop, Baxter Stockman, etc.

While Laird’s position within the show’s creative staff was that of “Creative Director”, the title doesn’t quite encompass the extent of his contributions.  He helped work on character designs.  He oversaw scripts.  He made suggestions on the show’s overall direction.  And the show was unquestionably better for it.  While it’s impossible to say for sure, the e-mails strongly suggest that a TMNT 2k3 without Peter Laird would have been a lot more like Fred Wolf’s cartoon–or Fast Forward. There’s a lot of silliness and sloppiness in those original drafts, and Laird helped curb most of it.

Another interesting thing to note is that, while  the tone suggests that Goldfine and 4Kids had the authority to ignore Laird’s suggestions if they wished, most of them eventually made it in some form into the final product*.  A good thing, too: while the finished product is clearly Goldfine and the writers’, a look at the e-mails suggests, somewhat surprisingly, that a good amount  of  details– from key details such as Bishop’s story, Karai’s season 4 character arc,  and the reveal that the Underground City was an Y’lyntean colony, to second-long details such as specific camera angles were initially suggested by Laird. It suggests that Laird and Goldfine shared the very best sort of creative rapport: the type where each improves the other.

So what happened?  Clearly, by the time Fast Forward came along, a lot of that silliness and sloppiness began making its way into the final product, not all of it a result of a rushed production schedule (see: Back to the Sewer).  Some of it is, of course, intentional–the show was undeniably meant to focus more on the comedy–but the execution would seem to suggest that by the time season six came around, Laird was no longer as involved as he once was–if he was overseeing and commenting on individual scripts, there’s no evidence of it.  Which is sad, really.  Fast Forward, I still feel, had a lot of interesting ideas marred by sloppy execution, and I feel it could have been a great season if there had been someone there to make sure it got that extra level of polish.  While 4Kids could still crank out great episodes–”Timing is Everything”, “Invasion of the Body Jacker”, and of course, Turtles Forever–something that made the initial seasons what they were had been lost.

So thank you, Peter Laird, for your contribution to what would become my favorite cartoon.  Thank you Lloyd Goldfine, for doing your best to obtain Laird’s imput and to incorporate it into the cartoon.  It paid off.

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* A trend I noticed was that the suggestions 4Kids would most often discard were ideas for things Laird found appropriately silly or funny–for example, a suggestion that Stockman’s holographic face (from seasons 3-5) be given cartoonish, anime-ish expressions when appropriate.  It feels right, and once again shows how both Laird and 4Kids improved on the others’ work.

Going through the Comics Should Be Good blog today, I ran into a recent article by Brian Cronin highlighting a particular artistic quirk in Frank Miller’s 80′ Daredevil comics: whenever assassin Elektra stabbed someone with her sai, the weapon would pierce the person’s body, and stretch, but not break, hir shirt.  Like so:

It’s been explained that the reason for this seeming implausibility is due to the fact that Miller had to comply with the company’s standards for acceptable violence, which stated that while people could be stabbed, no exit wounds could be visible.  Nevertheless, it’s a damn good visual, one that became a trademark for the character during that time.

Upon reading, the post, my mind, like it does, flashed back to the Ninja Turtles–specifically, the episode “The Darkness Within”, where we get a similar visual.

Grisly.  It’s rather unclear from a single picture, but that’s supposed to be Leo’s sword stabbing the hell out of Splinter, as a part of a series of nightmare sequences created by a nightmare creature, who let’s face it, is meant to be Cthulhu with its serial number filed off.  In any case, while one would not be wrong in assuming that the reason why Splinter’s kimono is sword-proof is due to standards and practices reasons, I wonder if it was also meant as a homage to Frank Miller and Daredevil.  It wouldn’t be the first time TMNT has done that.