The Gauntlet

"The Gauntlet" is the 9th episode in Season 1 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It premiered on November 17th, 2012.

"They finally meet, face to face."

Official Description
After April receives a warning from her imprisoned father, she and the Turtles embark on a mission to save him and stop the Kraang from detonating a mutagen bomb in the city.

Plot
The episode opens with a scene of April being stalked by a mutated pigeon on the streets of New York. April catches sight of the bird and takes cover. The bird dives at her, but it slams into a plate-glass window. Before April continues to flee, she approaches the gargantuan bird, thinking it to be senseless, but it then flies away and April comments that her life has gotten really wierd...

Meanwhile, in the Lair, Donnie is unveiling his latest creations, Ninja Smoke Bombs, which he created with the use of egg shells. Mikey severely abuses the use of the bombs and literally starts throwing them down whenever he moves. Soon, April rushes into the Lair and tells the Turtles and Master Splinter about the pigeon stalking her. After some banter about the situation, Leo decides that they should set out to trap the monstrous bird, but Splinter believes that they should be cautious and gather information about their supposed enemy before they recklessly confront him. Leo doesn't see the need to gather info, causing Splinter to worry that the Turtles might be getting overconfident. However, after Leo reminds him of their victories since they went up to the surface, all of the Turtles wave away his concern and head out.

Meanwhile, at the Foot HQ, the Shredder continues to censure Chris Bradford and Xever Montes, even going as far as to regret molding them in his image due to their failures to snuff out the Turtles. Montes makes one last attempt to negotiate with the Shredder, but the latter thwarts his attempt, insisting that he will now destroy the Turtles himself.

Meanwhile, the Turtles and April are on a street where they tell her to lure in the pigeon by acting natural and pretending to be oblivious. This actually works, as the pigeon arrives and nearly picks up April, but Raph, Leo, and Mikey tackle the monstrosity to the ground after Donnie zaps it with a homemade stun gun. The pigeon then reveals that it can speak and introduces itself as "Pete". When Pete mentions that, now, he was only trying to deliver April a message from her father, Mikey, Raph, and Leo let him up and Pete explains that he was a 'guest' of the Kraang, along with April's father: Kirby O'Neil. However, the Kraang dumped Mutagen on him and mutated him into what he is now. April jumps to the conclusion that he was a human, but Pete corrects that he started out as a pigeon. He then hands an I-Phone to April with a video of her father. In the video, he warns her that something terrible (related to the Kraang) is about to happen and he has no idea what it is, but she'll need to leave the city as quickly as she can. Pete offers to give the Turtles and April the location where her dad is being held, in exchange for a loaf of Sourdough bread. As the Turtles and April leave to conduct the deal with Pete, several Foot Clan ninjas are shown monitoring them from above. Meanwhile, Montes and Bradford are in an Asian fish market where Montes handles a particularly hideous fish. A Foot ninja informs them of the Turtles' plans via text message, whereby Montes and Bradford decide that they should ambush them in the name of winning back their master's favor...

The Turtles infiltrate the Kraang base and leave April responsible for lowering the escape rope when they give her the signal to do so. Leo and Raph quickly find Kirby and try to pick the lock on the cell he's in. While they're doing this, Kirby tells them that the Kraang are inter-dimensional aliens and that they brought their Mutagen to Earth with them. Apparently, the physical laws of their universe are different from our's and the Mutagen doesn't work the way they thought it would, so they have been grabbing scientists to help them modify its properties. Sadly, he has no idea what they actually want to do with it. Meanwhile, Donnie and Mikey have hacked into some computer systems and find that the Kraang are planning to detonate a Mutagenic bomb and coat half the city with the Ooze, which would turn tons of people into monsters and cause the city to become chaotic. The Turtles regroup, manage to free Kirby, and then rush to the escape hatch after Mikey accidentally sets off an alarm. They become pinned down by a squad of Kraang, but Kirby picks up a laser gun and holds off the Kraang long enough for the Turtles to escape. They don't want to leave him to be re-captured, but he demands that they save his daughter and the city. He is disarmed and restrained as the Turtles and a distraught April retreat.

The Turtles soon raid the Kraang's bomb platform (on the top of a hotel building) and use arrows to annihilate all of the Kraang around it. Donnie then finds the bomb itself and takes a peek at it, but is shocked and baffled by its complexity. Montes and Bradford then make their appearance and attack Leo, Raph, and Mikey, putting pressure on Donnie to disarm the bomb faster in order to join the fight. While Leo, Raph, and Mikey fend off their two opponents, Donnie struggles to find a way to disarm the bomb. The other turtles try to explain to Montes and Bradford that the bomb could wreak havoc and destroy them all, but the two villains would prefer to perish with honor than live with the notion that they angered their master. Meanwhile, Donnie is finally able to defuse the bomb when he has the choice of cutting either a green wire or a black wire. Mikey tells him to go for the green one and Donnie reluctantly does this, which shuts the bomb down, leaving Donnie surprised to find that Mikey was right about something, even though it was luck...With Donnie joining the fight against Bradford and Montes, the two thugs are eventually cornered right next to the bomb and cannot escape. Leo gives them the opportunity to surrender, but they refuse. In a last ditch effort to destroy the Turtles, Bradford uses his sword to pierce a Mutagen tank that's part of the inactive bomb, which releases a huge torrent of Mutagen that the Turtles dodge, but Montes and Bradford do not and are blasted off of the building with an unknown fate.

Leo sums up that they kicked the butts of the Kraang and the Shredder's top goons, defused a higly toxic and dangerous Mutagenic bomb, and saved the people of New York all in one night. They still think that they are just good as they thought they were. However, their small celebration is suddenly interrupted by the Shredder himself. He jumps down and comments that there's a fascinating story in how Splinter came to teach Ninjutsu to mutant turtles. Mikey then thinks of throwing down a smoke bomb to conduct their escape, but Mikey inadvertently used all of them up and replaced them with ordinary eggs by mistake. (The other turtles find this out when Mikey tosses one to the ground.)...The Shredder then charges at the Turtles, who hold their ground at first, but are then thoroughly defeated. Their weapons are almost useless against their opponent's extendable gauntlet blades. Battered, beaten, and broken, the Turtles all leap into the air for the final phase of their fight and so does the Shredder, who takes all of the Turtles down in mid-air!! He grabs Leo, pins his throat against a wall with the prongs of his hand-gauntlet, and menacingly demands Splinter's location from him. Leo is about to be beheaded when, suddenly, the Shredder is distracted by the appearance of Montes and Bradford, now mutated into an Asian fish with two sharp fangs and stick-like arms and a tall dog with a large left arm and spikes all over his body. While he is distracted, the Turtles manage to escape. Back in the Lair, they all feel guilty, depressed, and humbled. They finally agree with Splinter that they were overconfident, and were not ready to take on the Shredder. Splinter tells them that they were very lucky, as few have faced the Shredder and lived, but the worry of them being overconfident no longer holds importance. He tells his sons to prepare themselves, as, from now on, they are at war.

Splinter's Wisdom
"What you know is dangerous to your enemy; What you think you know is dangerous to you."

Character Debuts

 * Pete the Pigeon
 * Dogpound (Soon to be Rahzar)
 * Fishface
 * Hachiko

Trivia

 * This episode was originally titled "Enter Shredder."
 * During the fight between Shredder and the Ninja Turtles, many shots were taken right out of the original TMNT comic.

Errors

 * While Donnie was getting beat by Shredder, in the scene where his bo staff was unharmed, even though it broke when he tried to hit Shredder over the back.
 * After Montes and Bradford fell off the building, Raph's eyes are blue instead of green.