Official Episode Discussion S4 Ep 17: The Insecta Trifecta
 

The episode is up on I Tunes

Good episode but not as good as the last 2 episodes but Splinter helping Raph to get over his hallucination/fear was awesome, I loved there interactions.

Some moments where disgusting, bug sick, Raph kissing the bug, mutating ants having mutating ants come out of there backside. Bug sick coming out of it's butt.

As expected Raph was hallucinating when he was kissing that bug, he thought he was kissing Mona Lisa.

The return of Turflytle :D

The end fight scene was great, I loved Karia and April's little team up.

Shredder is slowly mutating.

Scumbug was dope. I knew that's who he'd be as soon as I spotted the ripped business attire. :tlol: Overall a decent episode, if a bit repetitive in nature for this series (Raph's fear of bugs is ground retread one time too many, perhaps). As expected, it was very similar to Son Of Return Of The Fly 2, though that is a favorite of mine. :)

The only thing that stuck out for me as a real negative is seeing what special snowflakes the gals have become back to back. Psychic mutant tracking & snake powers all in one fell swoop. I miss the days when they were relatively normal chicks. Cool seeing those two get along, though!

I'm not going to be able to watch the episode until monday or tuesday, but was Shinigami in it?

No she wasn't, Karai was though and we got Casey back and talking.

Vicky you need to put the french kiss in the poll today LOL

Funny episode, no Shini this time but I loved the team Karai/April

Sensei laught at the end of the episode .... it was cute :)

You want Shinigami? Ok, Casey doesn't talk and appears in the background

You want Casey? Ok, f*ck off for an episode Shinigami

:lol:

From now on, I'm putting my reviews under spoilers due to length. :) Overall, better than last two weeks in some capacity, but still irritating.



Not much to say this week, just a serious mixed bag for me. Not going to rate it at this time.

Length????? it's not that big.

Watching right now. What's up with the animation? It's very fluid, but I feel like all the characters have this weird, exaggerated, loopy way of moving. Strange.

Huh, thought it would be bigger. :-? Either way, I'm keeping it under spoilers if I review earlier than the actual time it's on.

Goriwai Namino Initiwai (sp?) certainly needs to be a poll option and was the best part of the episode. That said, the second half of Season 4 continues to deliver good continuity, and to quote an OT episode, is a Big Bug Blunder. It didn't feel as deep as the previous episodes with a lot of recycling, but still had some fun action in it with all of the usual things that a Turtle fan would come to know, from a mutation, to a variation on a familiar weapon, to the rooftop actions, captures, rescues, robberies, pizza, and all the like.

Show Grade: 7/10

Cool episode, I enjoyed it. Hopefully no more phobia Raph from now on.

Kinda funny that last week we got a Nightwatcher shout out, and this week the big action set piece was cribbed from the Bigfoot scene.

Two writers should be writing these things more often. That was honestly miles better than the show has been in recent memory, and the closest it's come to Season 1 writing in a long time. Still a long ways away, but I do have to applaud them for everything they accomplished in this particular episode.

For one, I was very happy to see Splinter's personality come back for this episode. The mantra he teaches Raphael and the joke that comes with it at the end is classic 2012 Splinter, and I really wish we got more of that. He's a troll. That's what makes him a fun character. I hope we get some more of that in any coming episodes. Can we get April's personality back now? :)

First Raph-centric episode in a long time that actually gave the character a chance to shine. Not so much his personality, but he gets a chance to be put in the limelight, and for what we were given, I liked what we saw. Could've given us more of his personality to make it even better, but I do have to appreciate what we got since we haven't got that in a long time.

The humor DEFINITELY took a step up in this episode. The characters didn't play off of each other which is what made the show so great in its first two seasons, but the humor here was still really good. Next hurdle is for the writers to realize that you can have humor in otherwise serious episodes.

The plot, however, was this episode's downfall. Not as bad as the last two episodes, but Shredder suddenly being incredibly nice to Baxter when that just puts both characters out-of-character was a little strange. The plot itself felt somewhat rushed but to be fair, it had a clear beginning, middle, and end, which, ironically, is something that has alluded this show for quite some time.

Basically, what I'm saying is this filler episode about Baxter being out of character and Raph's bug fear is one of the best episodes of the season so far. While that's kind of sad, at the same time, the episode itself is actually quite good. I hope we get more episodes like this in the future, as the show is clearly trying to get itself back on track.

One of my many problems with this show is that the writers add too many mutants and villians without focusing on Shredder's lackey, we already seen Xever with his underground street racing why not see the other mutants. You can do so much with Bradford's loyalty to Shredder, Tiger Claw bounty hunting, Zecks thievery, Rocksteady's arm contracts and etc. Hell sometimes I forget Hun even exists half the time and Don Vizio next apperance is his only spotlight episode. 2/3 of this show is either Mutants or Shredder, I wants some magic and martial arts for gods sake.

Also why the hell was Baxter being nice and loyal to Shredder. That statement should't exist but for some reason the writers made it possible

Can I just point out that this is not a filler episode, all the last 3 episodes are connected.

Shredder was 'nice and out of character' because he is injured and possibly having drugs pumped into him as well as the mutagen. He won't be like that when he becomes stronger and fully mutate into Super Shredder.

He's being a Kiss ass and he's only one that can help Shredder due to his injuries and change him into Super Shredder.

A lot of people take issue with Raph retreading on his fears and I'd like to say he's not facing fear this episode, he's facing PTSD! He was on a planet full of giant insects, RIGHT before his girlfriend betrayed him, that messed him up! I was really glad they put Mona Lisa in the hallucination and showing it as a BAD thing, showing that things in "The Evil of Dregg" didn't magically go back to normal at the end, at least sub-consciously. There are things they need to talk about when she comes back.

EITHER WEITHER-this episode RULED, the action, the humor, the omni-directional move gear, the fact that Baxter Stockman is probably Shredder's best minion, and that AWESOME ending. A great half standalone half story ep in my book.

An episode that does not mainly focus on the main plot is considered by many to be a filler episode. While bits and pieces of the main plot show up in this episode, the episode's main focus is a fun little episode about Baxter, his lackeys, and Raph's fear of bugs.

That's an inference. The writers need to tell us these things if they want us to know. It's like Lilo & Stitch 2 (strange example, I know, I had just randomly watched this movie last night). In it, Jumba keeps the reason Stitch is malfunctioning from the rest of the family, which causes a lot of the plot points, hence plot convenience. Now, the reason for Jumba keeping this secret from the family is clear to me. He doesn't want anyone to worry so he can fix this problem without anyone really knowing about it. However, this is never addressed in the movie. Thus, it just feels like lazy writing.

That's more or less the effect here. Yes, Shredder's going to be nice to Baxter because he's basically the guy making him stronger. But since that is just glossed over, it comes off as lazy writing. Not that I'm complaining, though. It's a nitpick compared to everything else the episode gave us.

He's nice to Baxter since he's the only one doing a good job! Tiger Claw had a stinkin' army of robot super soldiers, a cyborg dance fighter, and Russian heavy, and he was STILL beaten by six teenagers and a bunch of nameless canon-fodder. Seriously, give them all names, without them they are weak!

Shell, the only reason Stockman Fly lost was because he didn't know about the grapple-harnesses, before that he captured two Leo, April, Karai, Casey, and not Shinigami because she and Casey can't be in the same place at the same time or else they'll explode like anti-matter...or Viacom's just cheap with its voice acting budget.

It's still connected to the main story, if you skipped the last episode you be confused on watching this episode.

- Baxter went out to steal money for Shredder that was lost in the last episode.

- Karai and the Turtles are looking for Shredder.

- Shredder starting to mutate

These episodes are fillers, they don't mention the main story

No, not especially.

What exactly are they going to do with those mutants they caught? Nice to not see Shinigami this week.

Unspeakable things.

What has Baxter done besides giving him life support via mutagen? :roll: The only things Baxter has done is make mutants (Serpent Hunt, this episode, Vengeance is Mine if you want to count it, and the joke from Lonely Mutation) and perfect the mind control worms in Deadly Venom, and guess what? Karai was freed in the end.

Seriously, if he had more focus, I guarantee Baxter would've had his body parts removed like 2k3 or something along that caliber.

A wasp appeared in Metalhead Rewired, Mazes and Mutants has been referenced twice now here and last week (at least the game, not Malachi), Pizza Face is purely subjective because of the pizza in Meet Mondo Gecko (either way, PF was trash). The only one that's truly filler of these episodes is Wyrm.

I thought this episode was really good. Raph really got some good development and I hope this is the end of his phobia. I loved the moments between Raph and Splinter and that bit at the end made me laugh as that's definitely something Splinter would do. However, it did work and helped Raph so that's a good thing and he did have a lesson about fear being nothing unless you make it something in your mind. Also loved Mikey and Leo arguing about Crognard vs. Space Heroes, the return of Karai and her team up with April, and the return of Turflytle.

Yes, Baxter is the only one who can help Shredder and Shredder knows this so that's why he's being nice to him. All of his other henchmen abandoned him, and I have a feeling they will pay for it later.

Overall, a very satisfying episode. Can't wait for next week.

Okay this might be crazy but how about put their skills in situations where they don't have to face teenagers also its not like Stockman is much of a fighter the only use he has is being the tech guy

As Karai got control of Shredder's lair, she will probably lock them up in the dungeon.

At the time of airing they were fillers. The creators only used them again for recycling and references so you can still consider them fillers.

No episode is a filler in a western cartoon. Just because it doesn't contribute to the main plot, doesn't mean it's "filler".

The term filler means that it's only there to take up time as the source material is to close to the show. There is no source material in question here, so nothing can be considered filler.

That being said, I wish some of the one off episodes were a written a little better. I liked Wyrn though. In my top 10 season 4 episodes fo sho

I'm glad Baxter got another episode as it was far too long since he had done anything. So Scumbug and Antrax finally debut in this show. They also showed the Cockroach Terminator in Raph's nightmares.

Weird they didn't bring him back though, we already have a cockroach mutant in the show.

Yeah, what has Spy-Roach 1 been doing this whole time?

Its been a long time since Stockman corrected someone about his name.

Sad that the episode didn't bring up Stockman's desire to become human again.

Where was Shini when Stockman was attacking Karai?

Pretty good episode! I loved that Raph had to go to Splinter for advice. Finding out the meaning of the words in which Splinter gives out a simple answer at the end reminded me of the second episode where he gave Leo the simple answer "he asked". I love how gross this show is getting where you have a mutant ant spawning out clones of itself through its' backside and another mutant vomiting on Casey. My tastes can be weird at times.:lol:

They haven't abandoned him...he said they have grown useless. So they would still be with the Shredder next time we see him. No questions asked.

And even the so-called niceties the Shredder gives are sweetened insults such as "The only person who is still of any use is a lowly housefly."

As for Casey and Shinigami, they probably didn't have enough of a budget to include Phil Lamar and Gwendolyn Yeo. So we will see both Casey and Shini on screen further down the line.

I agree that Karai might have them locked up for the time being. Since Scumbug was an innocent human...(Not entirely sure about the Antrax) I can see her reforming the two of them and adding them to her cause or maybe telling Scumbug that if he behaves himself she can see about having his humanity restored. After all the guy who was controlling them just abandoned them. So possible payback time for Stockman later on.

Am I the only one who's happy that the police actually show up and do something for once since season 2? I know they were beaten easily, but do you think they would expect mutant insect creatures robbing a bank? :lol:

I actually thought they were nicking ladies handbags but it was only money in them. :lol:

It would have been funny if it was ladies handbags they were stealing and then selling on ebay or on the black market :lol:

That's a good point. That would work as an excellent prison.

The DVR did not go off like it was supposed to. When does this get posted on Nick.com?

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Just watch it anywhere else.

It's not exactly legal and if I were to try to I have to have an account at site x that has the illegal stream.

Enjoyable episode! Attack on Titan homage?