Turtle Temper

"Turtle Temper" is the third episode of Season 1 in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It premiered on October 6th, 2012.

Official Description
During a fight with the Kraang, Raph loses his temper when he is insulted by a caustic New Yorker named Vic who videotapes the Turtles and threatens to expose them to the world.

Plot
This episode starts off with Donnie and Leo patiently waiting for the Kraangto arrive at a warehouse, where the Turtles might be able to find where April's father is being held and why the Kraang want to have him. Meanwhile, on the other side of the rooftop, Mikey is repeatedly poking Raph on the top of his head, which Raph gets annoyed by and ends up trapping his silly brother in a chokehold. In turn, this aggrevates Leo, as ninjas tend to be silent while they are on stakeouts like this. Nonentheless, Raph starts to humiliate Mikey and make him say things such as "Raphael is all wise and powerful and he is better than me in every single, possible way!". Leo tells them to settle down, and both of them do, reluctantly. A man named Vic then ventures up on to the roof, immediately seeing the Turtles. He yells at them because they busted his satellite dish and he starts to insult Raph specifically. Raph loses his temper and draws his twin weapons, but, luckily, the other turtles hold him back and prevent him from doing something that he could regret. However, all of this alerts the Kraang, who have just made their arrival. They then ambush the Turtles. The Turtles battle the Kraang on the same rooftop and, while they are fighting, Vic is fascinated by their unique moves and begins to record the fight on his phone, thinking the Turtles to be 'Kung fu frogs'. Seeing the threat of exposure that the video is capable of, Raph tries to confront Vic head on, but, just as Raph jumps at him, Vic opens an escape door and slams it on Raph, escaping with the video that he now values and enraging Raphael. The brothers are then forced to escape, as police have already been alerted of the commotion.

Back in the Sewer Lair, Splinter scolds every one of the Turtles for allowing their existence to be revealed so easily, as this jeopardized their very important mission. He berates Raph in particular, as his captious behavior is what costed them dearly. Splinter then has the other three turtles stand up and launch arrows, which have sunction cups on the ends of them, at Raph. Raph is ordered to avoid all of the arrows, which he does pretty easily. Splinter then tells them to repeat what they just did, but only to insult Raph as they shoot. Leo, Donnie, and Mikey all make fun of Raph while shooting arrows at him. This causes Raph to lose his temper, and with it, all of his concentration is lost, which eventually results in him getting overwhelmed quite easily. Finally, Raph has had enough, and screams that the exercise is nothing but stupid. Splinter tells Raph that the exercise was meant to teach him to have humility, and he then reminds the boys how important it is that they get that video back using reason instead of force.

Up on the street, Vic is talking to a friend of his on the phone and tries to persuade them into buying the video that he has. The Turtles then surround Vic and he quickly hangs up on his friend. Raph wills himself to ask for the video back in a friendly manner, but, no matter what type of thing Raph says, Vic will not budge. Vic eventually says that he will give it to him in exchange for a million dollars, but the Turtles don't have any money, except for a few Canadian quarters that they found in the sewers. Raph then prepares to injure Vic, but the Kraang show up once more, interrupting him. Raph manages to throw a girder into the windshield of the van, toppling it over. A battle between the Turtles and the Kraang follows. During the confrontation, Vic is accidentally knocked into the back of the Kraang's van, where he then decides to take cover. Raph momentarily leaves the fight that he's in so he can get the video from Vic, but, when the man refuses and says that he'll hand it over to the Kraang, Raph begins to lose his temper once more. The Kraang end up driving away with both of them trapped inside of the van, but the Kraang push Raph out of the vehicle, allowing them to get away with Vic. Leo then tells Raph to head back home because his temper is starting to get in their way. Raph reluctantly does so, angrily throwing his Sais onto the ground. Raph goes back to the Lair and exclaims that his anger will always make him the best fighter that the team has. He then confides in his pet turtle, Spike, for trusting him. Unexpectedly, Splinter then enters the room and tells Raph a story about when he had lost his temper and fought the Shredder after he had insulted Splinter in front of Tang Shen, who the two men were 'competing' for. Splinter admits that, if he decided not to fight the Shredder and if he had let all of the insults pass over himself, he wouldn't have lost everything that he held dear. Raph appears to take this story to heart.

Leo, Donnie and Mikey all infiltrate the Kraang's base, having found the hideout by following an oil trail that the truck was accidentally leaking. Mikey begins to wonder if Leo's choice to punish Raph was the correct thing. Leo replies that they can handle a battle without Raph's brute strength. Because of this, Mikey is forced to stop his wondering. The brothers then decide that they should rescue Vic after they infiltrate the hideout. Inside, the Kraang are viewing the recording of their own battle, pleased about the way that they look. They then start to think about showing the video to other Kraang in order to gain their favor. Leonardo then whispers to Vic that they're going to release him, but Vic does not want to go anywhere without his prized phone. For the third time, the Turtles' presence is revealed and the Kraang begin to attack them. During the fight, Vic tries to retrieve his phone, but he falls onto the floor while he is in the cair that he was tied onto. Just as Vic reaches out to grasp his phone, a spider crawls onto his hand and a stray shot from the Kraang's guns cracks open a tube filled withMutagen that's near the ceiling. The substance completely covers Vic, just as the spider bites his hand. This ultimately turns him into an unsightly Mutant spider. After seeing the large mutant, the Kraang flee in shock and horror.

The Turtles then have to fight the mutated Vic, who Mikey chooses to nickname "Spider Bytez". The Turtles have an very difficult time fighting him, mostly because of his extendable appendages and his ability to spit acid from his mouth. However, Raph shows up in the nick of time to help outmatch Spider Bytez. Knowing that Raph does have anger issues, Vic purposely tries to get on his last nerve, but Raph ignores him, using the wisdom he has learned from hearing about Splinter's past failures. Meanwhile, Raph's appearance has re-energized the other three turtles and they all use some teamwork so that they can defeat their enemy. Raph then shatters Vic's phone with a stomp from his foot, which makes Spider Bytez stunned. Spider Bytez then heads off into the city, but not before claiming that the Turtles will regret what they have done. The Turtles then relax for a little while on a rooftop and Raph continues to bully Mikey after the latter sarcastically calls him a bloated buffalo. The episode then comes to a close with a comic style picture of Raph with Mikey in a headlock.

Splinter's Wisdom
"Let insults flow over you, like a river over stone."

"Your own anger defeats you from the inside out."

"Raph learn's to ignore words and let them flow over him like a river over stone. "

Character Debuts

 * Spider Bytez

Reception

 * This episode received an 8.3/10 from 83 users on IMDB.com.