I Think His Name is Baxter Stockman

"I Think His Name is Baxter Stockman" is the 5th episode of Season 1 in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It premiered on October 20th, 2012.

"We'll see who gets the last laugh."

Official Description
When the Turtles sneak out against Master Splinter's orders, they battle Baxter Stockman, a deranged inventor in mechanical battle armor.

Plot
Master Splinter is in the middle of meditating when he is randomly interrupted by some loud noises. Mikey is preparing to vault himself over his brothers (with the use of a ramp) on his skateboard. Because Splinter asks "What is going on in here?!?" in a really loud voice, Leo, Donnie, and Raph all immediately stand up to find an excuse, whereby Mikey crashes into them after having begun the vault. Splinter grounds the boys for a week for skateboarding in the Lair, which he has actually never told them not to do...because he shouldn't have too!!

Soon, the Turtles, particularly Raph, start to go stir crazy from boredom. Donnie views this as an opportunity to show his brothers what he has been working on. While exploring a military disposal site, he came across an extremely advanced A.I. microchip made from self-assembeled chainlinked co-palymers, which he used to make what he deems to be "the most advanced music player in the world." Mikey volunteers to be the first to test it out and promptly names it the "T-Pod". After a violent dose of Polka music, Mikey decides that the T-Pod is in major need of more songs. Raph is still bored and thinks that they should go out and look for a good skate spot. Mikey and Donnie agree, but Leo is hesitant about going behind Splinter's back. Leo ultimately decides that, because he is the leader, he should go with them to keep them away from "bad things"...

While searching for an ideal place to skate, Mikey contemplates the T-Pod and thanks Donnie for 'all of the new songs'. Donnie is confused, as he didn't add any other songs. He examines the T-Pod and notices that the advanced chip has started to reconfigure the T-Pod, downloading new songs and applications onto it every second. Leo encourages his brothers to stay silent and stick to the shadows, though he accidentally falls through a skylight, down a fire escape, and into a beehive, causing Raph to tease him. After picking up Leo, the Turtles come across a man walking down the street in a shoddily-made suit of powered battle armor. The man tries to break into the T.C.R.I. building and the Turtles decide that this guy will need a beat down. A fight ensues and the Turtles defeat their nervous, inexperienced opponent very easily. They throw him into a trash dumpster and head home after an alarm is set off. The Turtles get back to the Lair while Splinter is still sleeping, but Leo feels regretful about going out against Splinter's will. However, Raph is pleased that they took down another bad guy and thinks that nothing is wrong. Mikey notices that he doesn't have the T-Pod, however, and must have dropped it during the fight, but he keeps this secret from his brothers...Meanwhile, the armored man climbs out of the dumpster and finds the T-Pod. He plugs it into a hole in his armor and the microchip quickly starts to upgrade his armor, giving it a design far more complex and imposing.

The next morning, during a training session, Splinter becomes suspicious about the Turtles' recent activities when he sees that they're tired and weak. They repeatedly say to him that they are fine, only leading Splinter to believe that they should have no trouble avoiding his Randori; a wooden practice sword. He proceeds to knock each turtle to the floor in a matter of seconds. While watching TV, all four turtles see a breaking news story about the man that they fought getting into the T.C.R.I. building and threatening the employees. They learn that the man is named Baxter Stockman who, in his diatribe against the workers, infers that he was fired from the workplace due to breaking a copy machine. Right after this, Donnie catches sight of the easily identifiable T-Pod on Baxter, making him realize that Mikey had dropped it and this is what allowed Stockman to upgrade his armor so quickly.

The Turtles decide that they will have to sneak out again to stop Stockman. They track him down to his lair and attack him. They fight hard, but Stockman's new armor is way too strong and he defeats the Turtles, tossing them into a dumpster in revenge. Then, before their eyes, Stockman's armor and the advanced T-Pod begin to merge into a single, enormously powerful entity that Mikey dubs "The Stockman-Pod". The Turtles decide to split up to escape and Stockman follows Mikey, who is able throw a couple Pizzas in Stockman's viewports and the turtle escapes into the sewers. The Turtles regroup and run through the sewers with singed shells and many cuts and bruises, though, once Splinter meets them in the Lair's entrance, Mikey tries to imply that their injuries were caused by an run-in with a bus. Splinter demands to know where they have been and how they actually got so hurt.

The boys tell him the whole story, with Splinter saying "The first rule of being a ninja is do no harm, unless you mean to do harm, then you do LOTS of harm!!" The boys decide that they must clean up the mess that they've made and stop the 'Stockman-Pod' for good. Mikey doesn't see how they can defeat someone in such a powerful suit of armor. Splinter explains that, in the past, warriors had to fight against Samurai in suits of strong armor. The ninjas knew that, in order to win, one must not fight the armor, but the man inside. This causes Leo to come up with a plan. If there is one thing that he knows about bad guys, it's that they all like chasing Mikey.

Mikey is sent out to lead the 'Stockman-Pod', now armed with missile launchers, back to the other turtles for an ambush. Another battle ensues and the Turtles are defeated, but this battle is only to distract Baxter long enough so that Mikey can stick a beehive into the armor's cockpit. The bees sting Stockman and make him lose control and expose the T-Pod on his chest. The Turtles all strike at the T-Pod and the 'Stockman-Pod' loses power and falls. Leo uses a Katana to stab into the T-Pod, destroying it for good, while Baxter Stockman finds his way out of his ruined armor. Stockman nervously asks if they can call it a tie. Raphael tosses Stockman into a dumpster and then remarks "Now, it is a tie."

The Turtles return home and Splinter tells them that he is very proud of them all. Leo asks if this means that they aren't grounded anymore. Splinter thinks about this for a moment, before finally saying "Yes". However, before being un-grounded, they must go through one more round with Splinter's Randori, and the episode ends with a comic style image of the Turtles fleeing from Splinter in fright.

Splinter's Wisdom
"Do not fight the armor, fight the man inside."

"The first rule of the Ninja is to do no harm. Unless you mean to do harm, then do LOTS of harm."

Character Debuts

 * Baxter Stockman

Reception

 * This episode recieved an 8.1/10 out of 83 users on IMDB.com.

Trivia

 * The T-Pod is reference to Apple's IPod which has the same features.
 * When Mikey puts the T-Pod away you can hear him humming part of the theme song.
 * There is a brief shot of a storefront named "FUTUR-TOID" whose logo uses a similar typeface as the cover of Mirage's comic "Fugitoid" #1.
 * This episode was aired out of order.
 * When Stockman breaks through the wall holding the turtles he exclaims "Oh Yeah" seemingly in reference to the Kool-Aid man