Classic Ep Talkback: Son of Return of the Fly II

[Pterobat]

Episode #79"Son of Return of the Fly II"
Written by David Wise
Directed by Bill Wolf
Original Air Date: September 8th, 1990

(I like rambling about stuff, so t his is probably longer than most talkbacks.)

First of the CBS episodes, according to Wikipedia, but I've got no idea either way, since I never kept track of the change from syndication to network status when I was a tyke.

I can't say I notice any radical changes in tone or presentation from the earlier episodes, but I tend to be slow on the uptake when it comes to things like that.

But this is officially my favourite Baxterfly episode. I know that some wish he were a stronger villain, or remained a regular minion of the Shredder, but I like him as an idiot and a wild card: a silly character who nonetheless is trouble for both sides of the main cast.

Also, changing Baxter's form and personality would be kind of pointless if he just played the same role in the story as before.

(Except for, you know, the whole "marketing an action figure" thing. That's understandable.)

I can't look at the title "Son of Return of the Fly II" without thinking of the joke that "The Venture Brothers" made with "Return to the House of Mummies: Part 2".

Of course, it's never explained how the ship's computer transformed into a desktop PC, or how Baxter got out of the inter-dimensional spider's web. But it doesn't matter that much, really.

(I really wish I knew where the name "Zee" for the computer came from, since it's easier than trying to write about a character with no name)

I enjoyed the previous episodes where Baxterfly acts on his own, but the whole thing with the computer is just some wonderful inspired weirdness: Seth Brundle and HAL 9000 hanging out.

I also like that we never know if the computer is using Baxter or genuinely likes him. The constant compliment-feeding comes off as incredibly smarmy, especially since he obviously can see how dumb Baxter is, but that smarminess might not have been meant to say anything.

Baxter's side of it seems to be genuine, though, as he seems to chase the main villains back to Channel 6 because he knows they're going after the computer, and joins in the tug-of-war over the computer man.

Which is always funny to me because I remember the human Baxter hating artificial intelligence in "The Mean Machines", back-sassing OMNISS. The writers probably don't remember the difference, but it's fun anyway.

The computer is also clearly the one running the show, but that's fine: Baxter still gets his good moments of villainy, and he might just naturally be a follower. Besides, that computer is a surprisingly effective villain.

Oh god, I just love how idiotic and childlike Baxter is in this episode. He's asked to kidnap April, and instead kidnaps Vernon, *twice*, can't remember her name for more than a second, keeps walking through walls, and is distracted by sugar.

At the same time, it's a tiny bit sad that a former scientist, even one as nebbish and evil as Baxter was, keeps losing his faculties and acts like he's regressed in age.

The fuss made over Baxter's footprint has always struck me as weird, if for no reason other that Baxter's feet look almost the same as the Turtles' and nobody seems to notice.

But naturally, Splinter is the first one to figure stuff out.

As I said above, I'm convinced that Baxter's computer was meant to be a parody of Hal 9000, and his taking over the station could be another homage to it. Especially since "Invasion of the Turtle Snatchers" already had a reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

"Because I'm a big fly!" Impeccable logic, there, Baxter.

I love the clock tower trap: very Adam West Batman. Though I also can't help but think of the Edgar Allan Poe story, "A Predicament", when a woman gets her head cut off by the hand of a clock.

Raphael seems to be quoting Joan Rivers when he asks, "Baxter, can we talk?"

"By Ninja Law…." Dammit, Shredder, you just made that up, didn't you?

I love Baxter smacking Shredder and Rocksteady's heads together using both sets of arms. It's just really funny to me that such an ineffectual character is, at least in this episode, shown to be physically very strong.

"Only the most highly-skilled ninja master could get out of these ropes." *Leo cuts Donnie free* "Hi, Leonardo." Love that exchange.

Is this considered to be one of the episodes that has the more cartoony animation style? Actually, it works here, and it usually works for me, anyway. This is a comedic show, after all.

I love the computer's facial expressions, too. He looks very smug and evil.

Oh, hey, you can see Bebop's eyes near the end for a few seconds.

The "Destruction of other people's property...." running joke is great here. Raphael being annoyed with Donatello over it also cracks me up every time.

The twist that Mr. Mellish is a mercenary, money-hungry bastard and could have blown up that chip at any time is also great. It's a little sharper than the show's normal humour, but that's also the style of cartoon humour that I grew upon.

And there goes Baxter, stuck between dimensions. This is why I can't get so broken up over "Revenge of the Fly", when several Baxterfly episodes had already ended like that. It's just that his episodes stopped, not that there was real finality.

Why the heck is Vernon shaving in the office, and just after a major incident? It's a really bad set-up for that final joke this show always makes, when it looks like the enemy of the episode might be back, but it turns out to be something harmless.

But overall, this was the kind of hilarious, insane episode that makes the OT memorable.

[CyberCubed]

This was the first episode with the second theme song animation, so it was a, "new start" for the series.

The episode itself is indeed excellent, it was written by head writer David Wise and it shows, he usually wrote all the best or most important eps of the original toon. You already mentioned all the good points and lines so I don't want to repeat it.

I just wish the entire original toon had episodes on consistent quality like this one, it really feels like eps like this is what the entire show actually should have been like. I am actually very forgiving when it comes to the old show episodes, even the bad ones are still watchable because of how silly they are and they still have a good joke or two.

But yeah, if the old toon was written as a short 13-26 episode themed season like shows of today, you could literally whittle it down to all the best episodes like this one and get a short condensed version of the original toon at its best.

[oldmanwinters]

Man, Pterobat REALLY had a lot of thoughts about this episode!

I liked how Baxter finally got a buddy in his living computer. I always figured the CPU would betray him too over time. Poor guy...

[Jephael]

I thought it was pretty cool how they started to make Raphael more of a badass like his film counterpart, wanting to bust his way into Channel 6. In older episodes he was a little more level-headed.

[cammy85]

I'm guessing different writers and the fact that the show was supposed to end with "The Big Blowout" so they had to hurry and get stories done, with the inconsistencies in this episode among others with Baxter's shrinking intelligence, Z being a computer and having a name. If this aired first it would be confusing since it mentions a volcano erupting which would happen later in The Dimension X story.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by cammy85

and the fact that the show was supposed to end with "The Big Blowout"

Do you have a source for that? They still made a few more episodes for syndication after Big Blow Out before they moved to CBS Saturday mornings.

[pannoni1]

I thought that the Turtles may have gotten shredded by the hammers in the clock tower the way that clock was ticking toward midnight, so it was a good climax to the episode. Unlike most Season 4 episodes it actually has some continuity with other episodes. There was even a mention of the Rat King nad Leatherhead. The "2 + 2 = 4" was goofy but funny about how upset Shredder was. There was also a shot of lower Manhattan with the former WTC that seemed very faithful to the real thing. The opening scene with common criminals adds variety. Z's full body looks cool reminding me a bit of a grown Gumby. One mystery is why the "II" in the episode when its actually been the third time that the Fly has returned since Enter: The Fly?

Overall: 8/10

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by pannoni1

One mystery is why the "II" in the episode when its actually been the third time that the Fly has returned since Enter: The Fly?

I mentioned in my previous post that this is one of the two episode titles that intrigued me the most. "Son of Return of The Fly II". Today, I assume that it is a parody of the various sequls of b-movies and one of those is The Fly(1958 ) which I believe was the first of four and then two more in a reboot in 1986 and its 1989 follow up. The other episode title that left me scartching my head was the series finale "Divide and Conquer". The turtles were not divded to be conquered so it did not make much sense to me to this day. I will probably resurrect that episdoe's thread with that very question later today.

[cammy85]

The title is the way it is because Baxter has "returned" three times and Enter: The Fly had him out for revenge from the start anyways, hence the II.

[Coola Yagami]

I was glad to see Baxter somehow survived and was in new eps. I was sure he was dead at the end of Bye Bye Fly.