Official Episode Discussion S2 #10 "Fungus Humungous"

[blindturtle02]

Yeah, I kept hearing the lyrics to White Rabbit in my head while this episode was airing. It's pill instead of shroom but you get the idea. Just ask April why she's ten feet tall. Glad the writers didn't go there. Liked the Sugarplum Fairy bit better. My better half and I were also reminded of the trippy Heffalumps and Woozles sceen from Disney's WTP and of course, the Fantasia bit. I can relate to Raph's worst fear. Ask Jester who's a great friend in the real world. Hate roaches! Rats, I think I can handle.

The episode was alright. I was glad Leo got a chance to shine. His personality needed to be explored a bit more, so that was a real treat to see. Sure the rats were brought up in order to lead in to Casey's worst fear, but I was hoping we'd get a glimpse of the Rat King at the end perhaps finding a bit of mutagen. I love those little teasers they tag on EG the squirrel at the end of Mutation Situation. Not exactly Marvel's post credits sceens, but close enough for government work.

Glad the writers are still showing the effects of the mutagen spill. These killer shrooms were among some of my favorite mutants. The show just keeps getting better, and I'm very excited about the episodes still to come. But I wish Nick had shown these in order. This totally fits after GB and Casey, and can't wait to rewatch the first 10 eps of s2 on amazon in proper order later this week. One more piece of advice before I go, fellow dromers. Remember what the dormouse said!

[CyberCubed]

I find it funny this ep sorta brought back one-ep characters like Cockroach and Squirrelnoid but not the "real" ones.

Also kept thinking Rat King would show up due to all the rats.

[DarkLightDragon]

It does make me think how Casey would react to seeing Rat King on that ginormous rat of his when he eventually returns this Season.

[TurtleTitan97]

Originally Posted by DarkLightDragon

It does make me think how Casey would react to seeing Rat King on that ginormous rat of his when he eventually returns this Season.

The poor kid would die of a heart attack.

[victory_angel]

who had that theory that Donnie was the Oroku Saki in this whole love thing??

Cause I can kinda see it now.

his April obsession is taking over his life to the point, rejection is one of his greatest fears.

I had a theory as far back as season 1 about the Love Triangle being a mirror to the Hamato Yoshi/Teng Shen/Oroku Saki triangle. I've even mentioned so in this forum at least a couple of times.

Donnie does love April, at least in his mind he does. I don't think Splinter would have been as willing to have the Turtles go on a rescue mission to save her in Rise of the Turtles if it was just a passing crush.

However to the rest of the Turtles and maybe April's it's just an infatuation and there is nothing going to come from it other then Donnie getting hurt in the end.

Splinter's private lesson in Mutagen Man Unleashed was largely to remind Donatello that he can't simply force someone to love someone I.E. He can't force April to love him back.

But it had the underlying purpose to help prevent Donatello from falling down the same path the Shredder had. And since there is an over arcing theme of the choices one makes and the consequences that come from said choices.

In the past, Oroku Saki made the choice in letting his jealousy consume him, resulting in a loss of all love and respect that Hamato Yoshi may have had for him as a close friend and brother figure.

Splinter chose to answer his former friends hatred and that resulted in him losing his wife, and his daughter being abducted and raised to believe the Shredder was her father.

We know Splinter has lost many things as a result of his farce with the Shredder, he has lost his home, his family (i.e. wife and child).

However Donnie has more to lose in this sense, because if he follows the Shredder's path he would lose more then April...he would lose any trust or respect his brothers and father have for him. And that would be something he would be hard pressed to get that back if he has the opportunity to get that back at all. And even then his brothers still wouldn't feel they could trust him and April most definitely wouldn't be able to either.

And yes in this triangle Donnie does have a choice of playing the role of Hamato Yoshi or Oroku Saki in this story. And currently he is hovering over Oroku Saki's role, so we are likely to get more talks between Splinter and Donnie in up coming episodes.

Check out my fic "Learn to let her go" http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=43811 for a plausible heart to heart between Splinter and Donnie about this.

[Shred87]

Not a bad filler episode...nice to see leo step up as the leader and i like how they are showing him to be the closest to splinter....lots of funny moments... Would have liked to see a better villain than a giant mushroom but what can you do...

[kelligrafie]

Maybe the reason that more of the turtles didn't have losing family fears (ignoring the fact it would've made an extremely repetitive episode) is because it isn't a fear for them?

They've always looked out for each other, always had each others' backs and they always pull through.

Plus, and I hate to use the 'they're teenagers' thing AGAIN, when you're that age, you think you're invincible. That death is miles away.

It's an issue for Leo because he's especially accountable for his brothers' safety. As an older sibling I can relate to that an awful lot.

Plus I can't stand cockroaches. Raph, I hear you.

[JTH]

It's like BabyTurtles brought up, I've been talking about Donnie playing the role of Saki in the whole triangle between the three of them. And after the Mutagen Man episode, I came to the conclusion as soon as Casey debuted what they were doing, as soon as I saw more people saying the whole, "This Donnie/April thing is getting ridiculous, Donnie's completely obsessed with her now. Good grief! "

My response has been this from that thread:

Originally Posted by jth

When I said "Playing the role of Shredder", I didn't literally mean turn evil and go bad, I simply meant playing the role of Saki to Tang Shen, where he did everything to try and make April choose him, almost obsessed like, even though he clearly sees that she will choose Casey, and he just can't accept it; much like Shredder tried to get Tang Shen even though it was clear that she chose Yoshi.

That's why I've always been confused to everyone's dismay about the whole Donnie/April thing. I keep hearing people say when referring to Donnie, "Why is everything about Donnie revolved around April, it makes it look like he's obsessed with her."

And since I came to this assessment, my reply has been:

"What if that's the whole point?"

This episode is the final bullet point.

People, it's the whole point now. It's not that the writers don't know what they're doing, they do. Donnie is being turned into Saki and is becoming obsessed with April, even if it's trying to protect her, he's still obsessed with her. You're supposed to realize this now, especially with the new "Metalhead" episode coming up.

Heck even when Splinter told Donnie to let April come back on her own, what did he then do in "Target: April", started following her again. It's obsession, and not listening to reason, regardless of who's offering the advice. I think if people rewatch all those earlier episodes with this mindset, it'll make more sense what the writers are doing.

With Season 1, it was supposed to be cute and cuddly and you weren't supposed to make this Splinter/Tang Shen/Shredder assumption because the third party hadn't arrived yet.

Now people look at these Season 2 episodes and look at Donnie and are going, "Wait a minute? This isn't right anymore. He's completely obsessed now."

Yeah, as I stated, "It's the whole point."

[LeotheLateBloomer]

This episode was slightly better than the last one but it still was pretty lacking to me. I thought Mikey's fear was kind of forced but then again Mikey can be afraid of anything, lol. I know it's a comedy episode but I didn't find myself laughing much except for when Don and Casey argued, XD. What I really did like was how Leo faced his fear. That was the highlight of the episode. And like everyone else, this episode gave me Darkness Within from the 03 cartoon.

Decent episode but I think it could have been more.

[DONATELLO DUZMACHINES]

Anyone think it was insensitive the way Donnie treated Casey... j/k (I always expect to see some comment about a character being insensitive on these episode discussion forums, I couldn't help myself) Anyways this was an awesome episode, one of my favorite Leo eps, I really dug the hallucination scenes.

[MiBs]

Originally Posted by jth

It's like BabyTurtles brought up, I've been talking about Donnie playing the role of Saki in the whole triangle between the three of them. And after the Mutagen Man episode, I came to the conclusion as soon as Casey debuted what they were doing, as soon as I saw more people saying the whole, "This Donnie/April thing is getting ridiculous, Donnie's completely obsessed with her now. Good grief! "

This episode is the final bullet point.

With Season 1, it was supposed to be cute and cuddly and you weren't supposed to make this Splinter/Tang Shen/Shredder assumption because the third party hadn't arrived yet.

Now people look at these Season 2 episodes and look at Donnie and are going, "Wait a minute? This isn't right anymore. He's completely obsessed now."

Yeah, as I stated, "It's the whole point."

Yes, there has definitely been a shift between the first and second season. Even though Kraang Conspiracy and this episode wasn't supposed to air in that order it really makes sense when it comes to Donnie beeing more and more obsessed with April. He was just trying waaaay too hard in "KC".
To me, the interesting thing about this episode was that Donnie for the first time really was in someones face. He has been annoyed with his brothers and yelling at them (well mostly Raph and Mikey) but he never showed hostility like he did towards Casey

Originally Posted by DONATELLO DUZMACHINES

Anyone think it was insensitive the way Donnie treated Casey... j/k (I always expect to see some comment about a character being insensitive on these episode discussion forums, I couldn't help myself)

I really liked Raphs: "you've got a problem with that?"

[asfaloth12]

Loved this episode.

Leo was just plain awesome! The animators did a great job with his fight sequences.
The whole mushroom dance cracked me up.
I wanted to give Don a hug and Mikey was hilarious

[ninja-zero]

Is there a video of this episode online yet?

[Powder]

Yeah, on itunes, vudu, etc.

[victory_angel]

It just popped up on Anime Flavor

[InsaneZane]

I loved this episode, i consider this nicks version of"the darkness within"... When i saw the trailer i had doubts, but this one turned out to be one of the better EPs so far this season... The fantasia sequence was trippy and hilarious and i loved the creepy elements they added.. Lol like Mikeys freaking head falling off lmao!!!! Great episode, plus we got to see Casey again, along with the Squirrelinoids and Kirby bat... I hope this Freud between Donatello and Casey Jones isn't gonna last long though

[BubblyShell22]

Awesome episode. As a Leo fan, I loved it and thought the way Leo faced his fear was awesome. I loved the Captain Ryan cameo as we all know Leo has always strived to be like his cartoon hero, so it was nice seeing him in Leo's fear as well as his brothers telling him that he let them down and was a horrible leader. I loved the mushroom dance, too, and was laughing while it was going on. I loved Leo's line about failing and though Jason did an awesome job with the emotion when Leo said the lines.

The other fears were good, too. I loved April's and even Mikey's was one I didn't see coming at all, though it was a good one. Don's was obvious, but I still thought it was good. Casey's and Raph's fears were also good, too. Also loved the two moments between Leo and Splinter as well and how Leo recalled Splinter's words and was able to fight out of his fear. However, it leads me to wonder if perhaps there may be a lingering effect with those spores since Leo got blasted with them multiple times. Would there be any other side effects to that? Oh, and I loved the "Super Mikey Bros." reference, too. I told my mom about that and the Fantasia reference, and she laughed.

Overall, an awesome episode and definitely on my favorites list.

[NinjaPug]

IGN review up. 8.0 / 10

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/...mungous-review

[Ursalink]

Preview for next episode? Anyone saw it?

[NinjaPug]

Originally Posted by Ursalink

Preview for next episode? Anyone saw it?

There wasn't one.