Official Ep Discussion #14 "New Girl in Town"
 

Greetings, All! There may be snow and blizzards where most of us are right now, but on this show, the twitterpation of Spring is in the air... :P





I kid, I kid.. but we have a new arrival of a longstanding favorite amongst the generations of fans.

Karai has been many things - Leader of the Japanese Foot clan stopping an out of control faction of the Elite Guard, the ever loyal daughter to Shredder, Granddaughter of the Shredder, even the Lady Shredder. She's fought everything from the turtles to Utroms to strange Aztec monsters. Now we have a fresh new glimpse of our anti-hero: A slightly older teenager, with one of those strange two-tone salad bowl haircuts... bored with life and listening to her 'father', the Shredder.

It seems Leonardo is in the same kind of rut as our new Karai. He's been enduring Raphael's constant criticisms and Splinter's scrutiny on his handling of his brothers in countless situations. So he's thrown in the towel, told Raph to try being in charge... basically, go sit and spin. Personally, I'd cheer for Leo if he Did. Taking on the job of new leader has put Leo through the ringer quite a bit. We've seen him flung around by both Father And Foot alike...

But now this mysterious new fighter has appeared... and Leo's not quite sure what to make of her. And she's all for shirking the responsibility of the adults to do whatever she wants. I'm sure she gives Shredder a run for his money. Which would be harder to keep control of - a clan or a teenage daughter?

A LOT of rumors and speculation going around the fandom is that Karai is actually the long lost daughter of Splinter, Hamato Miwa. Splinter had explained that Shen had died, and he had 'lost' his daughter during the major fire back in Japan. The bad blood between Yoshi and Saki had just gone too far... what a heart wrenching thing for Splinter to find out, that his daughter could be alive - but is now the daughter of his most hated rival? No doubt she's been taught that he's the worst piece of humanity in existence...

It sounds almost like parents poisoning kids against each other during a bad divorce. Everyone loses.



So, will our star-crossed lovers survive the hatred between the clans?
Is Karai going to be an enemy or an ally?
Will we learn more about the photograph, and what happened to create the rift?
And is Karai ever going to change that haircut?


STAY TUNED!

Ep Notes.

Snakeweed was back!

Karai was AWESOME!

And Shredder is not a nice dad. Like at all. He threatened to kill her.

Thought it was a good episode. Great intro for Karai. Still not a fan of the design (mainly her hair) but I can live with it as long as her character is interesting.

Great way to bring Snakeweed back into the mix without making him the primary focus of the episode.

Well, Snakeweed may be gone for good after he got frozen by Raph, but Snakeweed was as much as the focus of the episode as Karai was, who basically just retreated after Leo was tied up by Snakeweed. Karai is Shredder's daughter, and April looks good in her pajamas. It was a bit silly that people would be kidnapped by Snakeweed just because he would use them as fertilizer. Raphael shows that he isn't the best leader by being repetitive with decisions, even though he was the most potent in battle, even bailing out Donatello with an ailing Michelangelo. That said, I wish we got a bit more out of Karai, and the powerful ninja sword remains collected in dust. Don's relationship with April continues to ebb, even if he feels a bit cocky.

Overall: 8/10

Wow just wow that was a great episode. First of all, the return of snakeweed :tgrin: I thought he would never return! And his lair, future playset!!!! Next, I loved how karai and Leo were half-friends. And how the team can't survive broken up and now Mikey learned where fertilizer came from:o. I hope we see more Karai soon.sorry for the jumbled up review, I'm just so happy:tgrin:

A Great episode in my opinion.

What, he appeared !

Splinter was in the episode twice.

Glad to see Snakeweed back (didn't know when we'd see him again).

I'm a little confused on how his "tracking spores" worked. Was he able to sense Raphael's location on the roof and that made the spore start to ignite? And would he still be able to track Donatello and Mikey in the sewers or did their spores wear off?

Think he was after the first one he could find, or Mikey crushed his when he was laying on the couch, I don't know.

Snakeweed is back! :tsmile:

This was a great episode! I love Karai, she seems like she is going to be a fun character in the future. It was nice to see April's apartment again. Donnie's line about "April texted ME!" cracked me up.

Man, I love this show. :tgrin:

Yeah, that was great:tgrin::lol: I like Donny's thing with April a lot more then I thought I would.

Snakeweed is hard to kill. Even after shattering him his heart was still beating. Great episode. Karai is interesting dynamic for Leo. And nice to see the softer side of Raph. I loved when Donnie told Mikey what sewage is made and where it's from LOL.

Snakeweed is still alive, his heart began to beat again after it thawed out, which I might add was rather quick since it was seconds after he gets destroyed :tconfuse:

This is now my favorite episode so far. Here are some things I really liked.

-Snakeweed returning. I was very surprised that he came back and I really think he is a cool villain. I don't see how the turtles will ever defeat him though, as his heart is seen pumping yet again. I can't wait to see Snakeweed in even more future episodes.

-Karai. Karai seems like a very cool villain. I like how she's vey mysterious, and how you can't tell if she really wants to kill Leo or if she's doing it just because her father told her to. I really think she is Miwa, especially since Leo said he sensed some good in her.

-Raphael. For once, I actually liked Raph! Instead of just being mean to/bullying/hurting his brothers, we actually got to see Raphael strugling with the responsibilities of being a leader and worrying about his brothers. Even though I know this won't happen, I wish Raph would act like this in more episodes.

-April and Leo's scene. With this scene, I really felt like Leo was a true teenage boy (how he's supposed to feel, I'm looking at you 2003 series) with his first crush. I loved how April acted like a typical teenage girl ("Tell me everything!" *Nods at every thing Leo says*) and I really liked how she was worried about Leo and pretty much assumed Karai was evil since she was in the foot clan. I honestly thought April was funnier here then when she's a main character. I can't wait to see her in school with the turtles next week.

All in all this was a great episode that, again, leaves me wanting more and more. They really teased us a LOT here, with Shredder, Karai, Snakeweed still living, and Leo still having a crush on Karai. I cannot wait for next week (I say that in every discussion, don't I :tlol:).

Cool episode. I like that its on Friday now... my kids were all "Leooooos gooooot aaaa girrrrlfreind". Haha

Leo: But she's different!
April: She's the Foot!

LOL

Overall, awesome episode. Love how Leo and Karai interacted. Favorite lines:

Donnie: "April texted me. Wait, April texted me?! THIS IS THE GREATEST DAY OF MY...!" (Looks back at Mikey) "Oh, right."


Mikey: "Man, where does all his come from?"

Donnie: "Uh, Mikey...(Whispers)

Mikey: "Don't they know we live down here?!"


Mikey: Mmm, pepperoni.

Leo: Works everytime.

What are you talking about? Did you not see his heart start beating again? They had a close up of it and everything...

Exactly what I like about snakeweed now that he's escaped death twice, they could just bring him back and have him attack people, now for spider-bytes......

God I love Snakeweed. There is just something about that fart noise making plant mutant that makes me get goosebumps whenever he appears.

I not only love Karai's design, but Kelly Hu did a phenomenal job voicing her. I actually didn't want this episode to end. I can't wait to see Karai appear again. Very well written, well acted episode. Am I the only one who after seeing this episode wanitng a Karai action figure ? I guess I have shell out (no pun intended) $80 + for the figure based on the 2003 series (a complete figure with the accessories).

I'm sure they'll make a figure of the new Karai. Wait awhile before you go spending 80 dollars on that old sub par figure.

Anyway, it's her in the shredder armor, that was personally for me a low point in her character story.

Are you talking about her new character design or the old figure?

Woah, that old Karai figure with the transparent armor really goes for that much? :ohwell:

TMNT 2k3 Karai figure. It's of when she became the Lady Shredder. There might be one of her normally, but I haven't seen it.

Personally I found that whole Lady Shredder story arc to be a real crap point in Karai's story.

Nah, on Amazon it goes for 49. Still alot though. But like I said, if you want a Karai figure, story wise that's a poor one to go for.

This one, right?
(I'm not too familiar with the 2k3 line).

That's the one.

Ah, okay.

Anyway, I really like the new version of Karai so far.

Ammmmmazing episode.

Wait...I thought that the Karai episode was supposed to air on Saturday morning and that the Rat King episode was the only prime time one before resuming Saturrday new episodes.

I have my cable box's DVR programmed to record new episodes of my shows, and it failed to record this too, despite the cable box's TV grid stating that tonight's episode would be new tonight. I was actually home to watch it too. Ugh.:roll:

Im not really sure what to say about this episode that has not already been said in this thread... It was a great episode.

Do you think Snakeweed's itty bits will wiggle their way back together.. or do you think his "heart" is like a seed and will plant itself and grow into a new Snakeweed body?

I think the heart seed thing would be cool.. but that is pure speculation on my part.

I have been a big fan of the show since day one, heck, since the very first "mutation in progress" teaser video... there have been strong eps and so-so eps... but this is the first ep I have to say is nearly perfect! 9.5/10. Only reason I don't just give it a ten is because after seeing this episode I sense so much more potential from this show than before, I know it can get even BETTER. now to rewatch it again before bed :P

some highlights for me:

* karai, perfect blend of badassery, mystery, sexyness, entire package all bundled into one :P
* karai/leo rivalry/relationship -- wow :P Leo is already falling HARD... and now he has her sword :o can't wait to see what happens next with them.
* dual plotlines... hard to pull off in a 22min show but they balanced it PERFECTLY
* snakeweed's return! he shows up right at the beginning of the ep like out of NOWHERE. reminds me of The Dark Knight when batman is chasing down scarecrow right at the start... really gives you a sense of things happening in-between episodes, makes the universe feel more real and believable. great.
* raph trying to lead, then realizing leo is indeed the perfect leader for the group. love how he very hastily welcomes leo back near the end before the snakeweed fight. hahaha, so pitch perfect
* raph's finishing move against snakeweed... WOW, will go down in history as one of the best battle shots ever in a TMNT ep I'm sure
*april/leo talking out his "girl probs" -- april is such a good friend :P
* way more, I need to absorb it all first :)

so much to enjoy!

Already seeing the action figure lust setting in in this thread. Big mistake on Playmates part to not have a Karai figure for the early Spring/Summer 2013 wave. Would have been a great seller.

I just walked in my house. I missed it but found the DVR had it recorded and I had no idea it aired tonight. This is one time I perfer the CVR over the classic VCR! It recorded an airring I did not know about! :tcool:

I thought the Leatherhead and Rat Kings episodes were better, but this was a nice intro for Karai.

I guess the writers felt Karai couldn't hold the episode herself, hence the Snakeweed B-plot. Is it because she's not a mutant that they think kids won't be interested?

So as expected, Karai called Shredder, "father." I guess the cartoons will forever make Karai related to Shredder. (And I realize she could be Miwa)

This was an interesting episode. It kinda reminded me of the OT episode that introduced Lotus Blossom.

And hey! We see the sword of the guy a certain Samurai rabbit was named after! :D Wonder if that's gonna be part of a plot point later on?

Like everyone else I too was surprised to see Snakeweed show up. And he was making fertilizer out of humans?? Eww....

Did anyone else catch Raph saying "Booyakasha" for the first time?

Am I the only one who wished Snakeweed stayed dead? I like the character, but it would have been cool to see the Turtles actually "kill" one of their enemies.

Yep... and oddly it sounded natural for him.