Review: Nickelodeon TMNT "Cockroach Terminator"

Everyone has fears.  Big ones and small ones.  A fear can grab ya hard and whisk you out of the moment only to have your life flash in front of your eyes.  Freezing you from moving forward to face what it is.  To overcome those fears is very hard and for some people they just can not do it.  My personal fear is heights.  In the newest episode of Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles we learn that Raphael has a fear of Cockroaches.  Can Raph overcome his fear to stop the Kraang and help his brothers?  Here is my review of “Cockroach Terminator”.

The episode starts off with the Turtles down in the lair having food.  Leonardo is dishing up Ramon for Michelangelo and himself, as Raphael is already eating.  While they munch down their food, a visitor comes to the table, a cockroach, Raph flips out when it visits him and starts to chase it down with his sai.  Donatello comes running in the room stopping him, as he announces that they are going to use this cockroach with a camera attached to it, to spy on the Kraang.

This is a fun scene as we get to see the Turtles enjoying food other than pizza, while relaxing and not stressing out over a mission.  We also get to see Raphael’s reaction to his fear, setting that plot into the episode right away as well as the introduction to why the roach was there.  A great intro with some real funny moments, like Michelangelo pointing out Raph’s fear of cockroaches.  This fear of bugs is carried over from the 4Kids TMNT series where Raph did not like bugs at all, originally shown to us in the episode "April's Artifact".  A nice touch that I’ve enjoyed since they mentioned the Cockroach at New York City Comic Con in the TMNT Panel.

After the intro we come in to see the Cockroach going into the TCRI base, the camera showing Kraang’s talking as the Turtles are watching from the Shellraiser.  They have Donatello’s pet stop and listen in to a few Kraang’s and learn that the Kraangs are planning to drill to the center of the Earth.  Don gets annoyed with Raph asking him to repeat everything and hits a control that causes the roach to drop into a thing of Mutagen.  The Turtles see the camera go off and assume that it died.

First thing that I have to mention here is... the Shellraiser?  Don’t they need the power cel to work the Shellraiser?  Did Donatello fix up something else to run the Shellraiser?  This is one of those times where it just feels like something is missing from the episode.  Like it was ran out of order.  Our last time seeing the Shellraiser it had no power whatsoever, and was pushed back to the lair by hand.  Did Don find a battery strong enough to run it?  This really is my only problem with the episode... the mystery working of the Shellraiser.

I enjoy the scene we get to see here though as I get a laugh out of Kraang talking.  I also find it funny that Raphael is the Turtle who has the hardest time understanding what the Kraang is saying, instead of Michelangelo.  This could've been turned into one of those, let’s look Mikey look dumb moments.  Thankfully they did not take that route.  I think it’s funny to think of a Kraang taking an Earth diet.  I would love to see a scene with the Kraang sitting around a table with Earth food, having a meal while talking in their strange language at each other.  That would be fun to see.  A fun scene, with serious moments and comedy.  Mixed in nicely as Nickelodeon has been doing a great job with, through this series.

The Cockroach comes out of the ooze mutated and takes out two armed Kraang that was nearby.  It breaks out of the building, to see the Shellraiser across the street.  The Turtles are going after the crystal needed to power the drill, and hit the roach by mistake.  Once they go out to check on it, they are surprised to see Donatello’s pet mutated.  Raphael wants to get out of there.  The Roach wakes up and grabs Don, but when it scans the Turtles it sees Raph and starts to go after him.  The Turtles work to stop it, as Raph gets the sewer lid launcher from the shellraiser and starts to shoot at the roach till it seems to be knocked out.  When they decide to leave and do their mission, Raph realizes the roach is gone and rushes them all into the Shellraiser.

This is showing us more of Raphael’s fear.  It is also the first hint that the Roach is clearly after Raph.  It seems to remember Raphael so well, but it is willing to just throw Donatello.  As a tiny roach, it seemed to like Don.  Now it just does not seem to care.  Would've been interesting if we could of seen some affection there, where it would defend Don but try to hurt Raph.  Could helped with some character growth for the roach so people could connect more with the creature during this episode.  Not that most fans would want to connect with a roach.  This first battle showed us the strength of this new Mutant.

The Turtles find that the Kraang’s truck is loading the crystal lens they need into it.  To stop them they ram the truck.  As it seems we’re about to get a fight between the Kraang and the Turtles, the Roach jumps down and takes out all of the Kraang.  Leonardo orders Donatello and Michelangelo to fight the roach, then calls for Raphael to work with him.  Raphael is nowhere to be seen.  While Don and Mike fight the roach, a load of flying Kraang arrive on the scene.  They get the Lens as Leo is not ready to handle them alone.  The Roach gets pass Don and Mike going after Raph.  Raph is clearly scared, as Don and Mike come in to save the day.  Mike using bug spray works, till he runs out.  Lucky for them a truck arrives and hits the bug taking it away and crashing into a building.  Leo tells Raph off for being a coward as they get into the Shellraiser to try and find a way to stop the Kraang.

When fear hits, no matter how brave you are it is hard to fight it.  And this was a good show of that.  Raph had to get away, as his fear controlled him.  Leonardo had problems thanks to Raph disappearing.  Michelangelo and Donatello did their best.  Once again I was disappointed about Spy Roach not knowing Donatello when he saw him.  I did love Raph dreading his fear and when the Roach steps around the corner he stares up saying “That is a big roach”.  Just the way he said it, Sean Astin did a great job with that line, as well as the rest of the lines in this episode.  It’s fun to see how they were able to get away from the Roach again, as we’re seeing this is another one of those nonstop episodes.

Inside the Shellraiser Leonardo is upset that they lost them.  Donatello points out that they can still try to stop them, and the chase starts again.  Raphael says he’s sorry and takes the blame as a new noise is heard.  The Spy Roach is breaking into the bottom of the Shellraiser.  Don takes this chance to see what the spy cam is showing him.  At this moment we see that the main memory the roach has is Raph trying to kill him down in the lair.  The Turtles realize that Raph is the main target, so Leonardo and Michelangelo use Raph has bait to get the Roach away from the Shellraiser so Don can fix it.  Raph has to run for his life as it is only targeting him, he leads the roach through a thing of wet cement.  Once he thinks that it is dried up in the cement he finds that it has shed it’s skin to grow.  Now he has a bigger, flying, grosser looking roach after him.  After a short flight, Raph is able to get away and jump into the Shellraiser.  With Mike kicking the roach away as it tries to attack the Shellraiser they get it working and leave.

This scene is so much bigger and better in the show then I could write here.  I did not want to spoil all the great moments as it has you sitting there wondering how they’re going to get away with everything they're doing.    I do like that they finally show why it is after Raph, as that memory is stuck in it’s head.  Wish we knew if it was because of a computer problem or just the mind of the roach itself.  Seems there was so much we could of still learned about Spy Roach.

One of my favorite moments though goes to the car ride where Raphael is saying sorry, you see Michelangelo in the background just looking at him.  He looks concerned, not like he’s going to pop a joke, but that he is worried for his brother.  Though what is a scene without a good Mikey joke?  When Raph gets away from the Roach through the wet cement area, Mikey does a voice that scares Raph into thinking the Roach can talk.  A good laugh for the viewers, to help break up the tension.  To truly get the feel of the scene, it is at the point where you just have to watch it.

As the Turtles are trying to get to this drill to stop the Kraang, the Roach attacks the Shellraiser and gets it’s hands on Michelangelo.  Raphael decides to face his fear and goes out after the Roach to save Mikey, using a new ride which we’ve only seen as a toy so far.  To find out how Raph does against the Roach and just what the Turtles do with their Kraang problem, enjoy sitting back and watching “Cockroach Terminator”.

Personally I enjoyed this episode.  I think that there was some stuff left out, like how the Shellraiser was working.  How the flying Kraang knew about the van crashing so fast to come and get the lens.  Why Spy Roach’s only memory was Raph trying to kill him.   These are things I would've liked to have seen more growth in.  I love the lines.  I love the facing of the fear factor.  And I love the full time limit on the mission where they did not have time to fight, the battle that they were being forced to take part in.  While this is not my favorite episode of the season, it is one that I can watch over and over.

Have you seen “Cockroach Terminator”?  What is your thoughts on the episode?  Please share reviews, comments and questions below?