Official Episode Discussion: S2 #5 "Mikey gets Shellacne"

[Powder]

I think Donnie's attitude probably has a lot to do with the fact that he's dealing with so much heavy stuff at once. Yes, all the brothers are going through the same things, but it hits Donnie differently. Not just because he's a sensitive guy, but because these problems are the result of his actions, or have the worst effect on him personally. Timmy, who he was to look after and guide, ended up melting into a skinless blob. He tries to aid him as best he can post-mutation but what happens? He eventually snaps and breaks out, becoming even more of a tragic freak who's now emotionally fixated on someone- not just any someone, either. April. Worse yet, he's posing a threat to her. Aside from having to run from this monster, she's gotta be morbidly depressed over essentially losing her father, which too is the fault of Donnie (and his brothers). So in short, the love of his life not only hates him, but is being hunted down and mourns the loss of her father, all of which being his fault, basically.

I imagine he's spending his every free moment trying to resolve ALL of these issues, which involves a great deal of time, effort, energy, AND resources. When he finally starts making progress, who but Mikey comes along and starts to muck up everything, putting another person at risk at the hand Donnie's scientific prowess, and causing them to jump into harms way once more just to fix it. How could he not be super pissed? That aside, it's been made clear they want Donnie to have more of a leadership role, so perhaps the focus he needs to fill that position will come with the nothing to lose scenario he's been put in. As for Raph, that's his character. He makes wisecracks to hide his feelings and lighten the mood. Leo, I think he's just trying to save face, show strength. He's supposed to be the glue of the team, he sets an example. If he loses his composure, it implies that it's okay for all of them to.

Bada biiiing.

[Slime State Alumni]

I knew Ciro was a huge horror buff, but I was still shocked to see art from Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead in Mikey's room.

[BubblyShell22]

And did anyone notice that the comic Raph was reading was titled "Green With Envy"?

[CyberCubed]

I wonder if Rahzar will look for a mutant turtle to partner with.

I just hope Slash doesn't somehow turn into Tokka.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

Check out this errie prediction about Nick's answer to Razhar.
http://jadetora.blogspot.com/2012/11...ant-ninja.html

I agree with him on the theme song though. That's the first thing I thought when I heard the Leo part of the theme song. It always sounded like some kind of 'ninja please' joke/pun.

[demonsweat]

Originally Posted by Slime State Alumni

I knew Ciro was a huge horror buff, but I was still shocked to see art from Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead in Mikey's room.

Ohhh that's what that was. Thanks, I was trying to figure that one out.

[Slime State Alumni]

Originally Posted by demonsweat

Ohhh that's what that was. Thanks, I was trying to figure that one out.

No problem! It's such a good movie.

[saber16]

Now I'm wondering how Baxter's collar will go off. It could be a total accident, but with how sleazy Bradford is, I could easily see him mutating Baxter just for fun - He's happy with his new form... But Baxter didn't turn him human....

[Allio]

just cause I'm sure soon a couple of people will make a video related to this combination...so decided to become the first.. just a cheap music video

[victory_angel]

Originally Posted by Powder

I think Donnie's attitude probably has a lot to do with the fact that he's dealing with so much heavy stuff at once. Yes, all the brothers are going through the same things, but it hits Donnie differently. Not just because he's a sensitive guy, but because these problems are the result of his actions, or have the worst effect on him personally. Timmy, who he was to look after and guide, ended up melting into a skinless blob. He tries to aid him as best he can post-mutation but what happens? He eventually snaps and breaks out, becoming even more of a tragic freak who's now emotionally fixated on someone- not just any someone, either. April. Worse yet, he's posing a threat to her. Aside from having to run from this monster, she's gotta be morbidly depressed over essentially losing her father, which too is the fault of Donnie (and his brothers). So in short, the love of his life not only hates him, but is being hunted down and mourns the loss of her father, all of which being his fault, basically.

I imagine he's spending his every free moment trying to resolve ALL of these issues, which involves a great deal of time, effort, energy, AND resources. When he finally starts making progress, who but Mikey comes along and starts to muck up everything, putting another person at risk at the hand Donnie's scientific prowess, and causing them to jump into harms way once more just to fix it. How could he not be super pissed? That aside, it's been made clear they want Donnie to have more of a leadership role, so perhaps the focus he needs to fill that position will come with the nothing to lose scenario he's been put in. As for Raph, that's his character. He makes wisecracks to hide his feelings and lighten the mood. Leo, I think he's just trying to save face, show strength. He's supposed to be the glue of the team, he sets an example. If he loses his composure, it implies that it's okay for all of them to.

Bada biiiing.

I agree with you in many ways powder. Donnie has become rather stressed as of late because of all the things that are put upon his shoulders. And this is an extremely heavy burden for one as young as he is to carry alone.


First we have Donnie's initial promise to Timothy that he would someday find away to return him to normal again. There isn't any pressure behind this promise, because he knows there are other things to worry about and finding a way to restore someone from a mutation isn't going to be discovered over night.

Then we have the fact that they inadvertently scattered canisters of mutagen all over the city, resulting in the father of the girl he loves to be turned into a mutant.

At this time becoming a mutant is considered a fate worse then death in some cases. There are some people who have found they have advantages in their mutation. But others have become prisoners in their new forms with no way of returning to who they one were. And as such they aren't granted any actual happiness because of it. So now Donnie feels he must to find away to do the impossible to fix what he has his brothers have caused.

On top of this Donnie also has a broken heart because the girl he loves most has stated that she never wants to see them let alone wanting to have anything to do with them again. And his brothers done seem to care about this. On the contrary they actually do care about what their brother is going through. But they don't really know how to deal with it or help him through it, so they are ignoring it in the hope that Donnie would get over it on his own.

Which is why we have Raph nonchalantly trying to offer some comfort by saying "Don't get so bent out of shape about April, she'll come back eventually."

But to Donnie it feels like he doesn't matter which leads him to ranting to the one person who really has no choice but to listen, Timothy. Worse yet Donnie see's April with another boy so now he feels threatened that the girl he has a crush on is going to be taken away by another who is closer to her species. Which stresses him out even further, because he feels he's losing the any chance of her reconciling their differences.

Worse yet the very person he has been venting his feelings to gets it into his head that he would be a better friend for April and escapes. This stress out Donnie further on account that Timothy could potentially end up hurting and possibly killing April whether the result is accidental, Or intentional after April rejects his advances.

And on top of that he has had to resort to hurting and possibly killing (permanently freezing) this said person in order to protect the girl he loves.
His brothers do get some sense that doing this has hurt their brother, but once again they don't entirely know how to deal with it or help him through his emotional turmoil so they offer what they can with a "You did what you needed to do."

So now Mikey adds to Donnie's frustrations by dousing himself in a rejected batch of retromutagen. We've seen Donnie has put warnings on some of the stuff in his lab because Mikey has a bad habit of playing with stuff in there. At first he acts like it's a joke because as far as he knew the zits were part of the human DNA that made up part of their mutation. But when they learn the zits were becoming more of an issue and what Mikey has done to cause them it only adds to his frustrations because he has more then likely warned Mikey on countless occasions not to mess with stuff in the lab. And now said brother nearly had to pay the price for it.

And on top of that it looks like Stockman is also in the race for reversing Mutations for his own ends. And now it's revealed that 2nd generation and possibly further mutations are possible. That is going to make Donnie all the more desperate to find a cure for mutations.

We know that Donnie has a bad habit of treating things like eating and sleeping as optional when he's incredibly focused on something. And it could end up destroying him before long.

[BabyTurtles]

^ I was at first made at the boys for treating Mikey so bad...but then I read this...and it kinda makes sense

------------from tumblr by sogdtsundere

Okay, guys, I love Mikey. I absolutely love Mikey.

One of the very first things that caught my attention about the show was Mikey’s interactions with his brothers - because I have a younger brother! And I thought it was so, so very on point, at least regarding my own relationship with my younger brother.



My younger brother was annoying. He wasn’t bad, he wasn’t mean, he was just … annoying. As some younger brothers are. But I still loved him, and I thought they did a great job of capturing the frustration/affection of dealing with a very goofy younger brother.

I am really happy to see Mikey maturing, I think it’s very natural and progressing wonderfully.

But it is a little frustrating to see everyone talk about how Leo, Raph and Donnie are finally learning to stop underestimating Mikey.

That’s not what’s happening.

Mikey is growing up. They’re learning that Mikey is growing. They were in the habit of dismissing things he said because he said silly things. Here are some of the things Mikey has done in S1:

Suspected Santa Claus was flying above them
Believed in Leprechauns
tried to eat gum off the ground
tried to eat gum off the ground again
like holy **** the entire opening of Parasitica he’s dangling off the back of Raph’s chair holy crap when someone does that to me I want to murder them holy crap
apparently repeated the same joke 14 times
Was unable to understand several basic plans
Had to have orders repeated to him multiple times
I mean I could obviously go on but this isn’t a tirade against Mikey - they love Mikey, and they live with Mikey 24/7. If they constantly took him seriously or expected him to be mature, they would end up hating him, because - he doesn’t (or didn’t) say very many serious things! He said silly, fun, weird things. So he was their silly, fun, weird, immature little brother.

I mean I’ve seen several people vilify Leo, Raph and Donnie for not believing Mikey about the brains in the chest in the s1 opener, when in the s2 opener he’s going on about a cottage cheese demon - dear viewer, you would not have believed him either! Not after 15 years of that.

Like this isn’t against Mikey, I like Mikey a lot. My own reading of the character says that early S1 Mikey was focused more on entertaining/hanging out with his older brothers, more interested in saying a joke that would make them laugh than anything else - but now he’s maturing into his own person, one that depends less on them for that type of validation. He wants different validation, because he’s growing, and that includes paying more attention, focusing more, and applying himself more to the situations around him.



(the heart muscle squish bit seriously made me so happy - it’s when I had real faith that they were going to take this character and make him mature in his own way, not just having him emulate Leo or Donnie or whatever - that was a very mature, undeniably MIKEY observation, said in a MIKEY way. Very pleased :>)

But it is frustrating for Mikey that they’re not noticing! He’s not okay with being dismissed for the sake of a joke anymore, he wants to be serious, he wants them to listen to what he says, not laugh at it.

His older brothers aren’t used to him doing that, and are adjusting as well, and frankly, I think they’re adapting to it way quicker than most older siblings would.

Like fandom is so quick to assign good guy/bad guy roles to everyone and it is so weird. I can’t roll my eyes hard enough at the people saying that “[my favorite turtle] is the only good character!”

There’s no good or bad guy here. It’s a bunch of teenage boys growing up, their world is changing and they are changing themselves and they’re learning to adapt.

The fact that there seems to be an almost perfect four way split among the fans about which turtle is the favorite says to me that they’re doing a very good job of writing four distinct different POVs, with relatable strengths and weaknesses - none of them are perfect, none of them are evil. Mikey’s weakness is that he’s a little goofy. There are worse things, but it does, and it WOULD, impact how his bros view him.

[Electric]

Donnie's actions did seem off for him, but as others have explained well above, he has a lot to deal with.

I really think this episode showed how Mikey is maturing. where old Mikey would've just sat around bothering his brothers, he decided that he knew he was right and needed to do something. Yeah the whole putting mutagen on him was pretty stupid, but again, he didn't do it for fun, he did it to try and become better for his brothers.

And, Mikey kinda got his one on one moment with splinter here. It was brief and the others were there, but it was splinter trying to teach Mikey specifically a lesson.

[turtletoons81]

Originally Posted by ElectricN

Donnie's actions did seem off for him, but as others have explained well above, he has a lot to deal with.

I really think this episode showed how Mikey is maturing. where old Mikey would've just sat around bothering his brothers, he decided that he knew he was right and needed to do something. Yeah the whole putting mutagen on him was pretty stupid, but again, he didn't do it for fun, he did it to try and become better for his brothers.

And, Mikey kinda got his one on one moment with splinter here. It was brief and the others were there, but it was splinter trying to teach Mikey specifically a lesson.

also didn't you noticed when mikey said you'll become more super if you take the mutagen twice and that was in season 1 episode 2..

[AT-Man]

It's cool Bradford mutated into something even more menacing, but I don't like the exposed bones that much. If Xever mutates further, I'd rather him having a pair of own legs and able to breathe both in water and above. But damn was Mikey disgusting or what!!

[Shark_Blade]

I think Donnie not being serious is because even if Mikey exploded, it'll be just a zit effect. I mean.. I don't know, I've never heard anyone dies from popping a huge zit.

[darthwahl56]

Originally Posted by ithken

I had to laugh at the reference to the "Rapping Mike" figure. Anyone get a screen cap of that?

I did. Almost thought I was the only one who caught that. I need a rappin mummy. I showed my dad the figure right as we saw the moment. I did the same when Rahzar showed up.

[Technogeek29]

Originally Posted by Shark_Blade

I think Donnie not being serious is because even if Mikey exploded, it'll be just a zit effect. I mean.. I don't know, I've never heard anyone dies from popping a huge zit.

There has been cases of hospitalization from Zits since overall it is filth trapped under your skin. Could make you incredibly sick if not treated and die (after long exposure) Not to mention it smells terrible.

[Shark_Blade]

I didn't know a Rapping Mikey figure even exist. Cheers for that.

Originally Posted by Technogeek29

There has been cases of hospitalization from Zits since overall it is filth trapped under your skin. Could make you incredibly sick if not treated and die (after long exposure) Not to mention it smells terrible.

Ew, yeah..

But I guess Donnie thought he had it under control hence him not stressing much.

[CyberCubed]

Its funny because the majority of kids watching this episode have no clue who Rahzar is, and just see it as an updated mutation for Dogpound.

I bet half the kids watching the Nick show never saw the older Turtle movies.

[Martin]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I bet half the kids watching the Nick show never saw the older Turtle movies.

Only half? I bet it's waaaaay more than that.