REFLECTIONS

01PLOT

April, Casey, Splinter and the Turtles are at Casey's grandmother's farmhouse in Northampton, Massachusetts. While O'Neil and Jones relax, the Sensei teaches his students how to blind fight (by having them turn their bandanas sideways so they cannot see out of the eye slits). The teens complain and Splinter launches a series of attacks, all of which are blocked by the young ninjas. Master Splinter is pleased and announces that practice is over for the day, which the Turtles welcome with relief - but before they can turn their masks, the old master launches one final attack that knocks Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael off their feet. Leonardo, however, evades the attack and is congratulated. Donatello complains that Splinter had stated that the session was over, and the Sensei explains that a ninja never trusts all that he hears. Leonardo bows to his master and the group heads over to join Casey and April. Raph points out that Leonardo isn't so perfect, and Splinter asks him to explain. Raphael begins telling the story of how Leonardo bought Oroku Saki's story and was willing to join him. Leo states that he still feels terrible about the whole thing, but Raph is more than happy to retell the events of episode 10, when Leo was almost convinced that the Shredder was a “good guy”.

Mikey then recalls how Master Splinter had saved the Turtles lives when they first encountered the Shredder, as detailed in Episode 11.

The guys then flash back to Episode 18, when the Shredder attacked them inside April's antique store, a memory that causes April grief, since her shop was burned to the ground due to the battle. The Turtles then reminisce about the battle at Foot HQ, where Leonardo actually behead their arch enemy (Episode 23). But despite losing his head, the Shredder was not killed, and he returned in Episode 34 to harass our heroes as the Utroms from the T.C.R.I. building made their escape.

Mikey notes that the Shredder is tough to destroy, and then we see another flashback to Episode 10, retelling the tale of how the villain murdered Hamato Yoshi, Splinter's master. The Sensei is deeply grieved when this story is told, but he takes comfort in knowing that his master died with honor. Casey has had enough tales of loss caused by the Shredder and his minions and he throws a temper tantrum, grabbing his chair and smashing it against a nearby tree and then stands screaming in a frustrated, primal rage. April stands up and takes Casey's hand, leading him to the blanket where they kneel down in front of Master Splinter. April tells the Sensei that Casey is trying to say that they are all very sorry for his loss. Splinter thanks her and states that the Shredder has had a hand in making them all suffer. When the old rat mentions "hand," April and Casey notice that they're still holding hands and break away from each other in cheerful embarrassment. Donatello points out that there's a funny side to the story - because without the Shredder - the Turtles would still be living in a glass jar! No one gets the brainy ninja's point.

Don goes on to explain how the evil Utrom's action of crashing the spaceship lead to the Utroms establishing a base on Earth - and from that base came the mutagenic ooze that created the Turtles! A brief flashback to Episode 3 explains how Splinter found the turtles in the Mutagen, and then we see scenes from Episode 32 and Episode 34 that illustrate the transformation of the evil Utrom into the Foot Clan's Shredder. Donatello explains that the Turtles and Splinter owe their mutated existence to Shredder!

Leonardo and Raph get the willies when they come to that realization. Leo says that no matter what happens or what the Shredder does, they will always remain a family.

This sentimental statement causes Mikey to begin laughing and he makes fun of Leo for overloading the "Sap-ometer". Raph gets angry and tells Mikey to keep eating his S'mores and shut up, as Leo has a good point. Mike tosses a marshmallow at Raphael, hitting him right in the nose. Raph snarls and jumps his brother - Leo and Don try to break up the fight and Casey joins in for the fun of it. As the five roll around in the grass wrestling, April turns to Splinter and acknowledges that they are a family. She then asks the Sensei if he'll ever be able to teach the Turtles manners, and the old rat tells her that training them in ninjutsu is difficult enough - he's not a miracle worker.

02CAST & APPEARANCES

03OBJECTS, VEHICLES & PLACES

04SCREEN GRABS

4 frames. Auto-matched screencaps via Fancaps.net.

05MEMORABLE QUOTES

Mikey: _(Splinter knocks the handheld game from mikey's hand.)_ Game Dude! Speak to me, Game Dude!

06NOTES & GOOFS

• This is the first flashback and "clip show" episode of the series.
• This episode flashbacks to the episodes "Attack of the Mousers", "The Shredder Strikes," "The Shredder Strikes Back," "Return to New York," and "Secret Origins."
• Donatello brings up the fact that the Shredder was indirectly responsible for their mutation. Coincidentally, this was similar to a scene in the second season of the original cartoon back in 1988.
• This is the first time you can see the Turtles' pupils (in the present) as their masks were off during their "rest".

07TRIVIA

• Michelangelo makes a reference to Darth Vader's famous quotes "No, I am your father!" and "Join me!" in _Star Wars_.
• Michelangelo's quote "What you talkin' 'bout, Willis?" is a line often spoken by the character Arnold Jackson from the show _Diff'rent Strokes_, which ran from 1978 to 1985.
• There is an extremely rare disc that has this episode on it, only 500 were made, and they were handed out in select cinemas throughout New Zealand for free in 2006. These discs are smaller than most discs because they were GameCube compatible, and only small discs fit in a GameCube.

08FAN REVIEW

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