TMNT Talkback: Episode 5.05: "Beginning of the End" (Spoilers)

[Ian]

Episode 5.05: Beginning of the End
Original Air Date: March 15, 2008
Written by Joe Kelly

Previously on TMNT: Increased training grants the acolytes more control over their new abilities, including the power to unleash spirit avatars. The Ninja Tribunal finds the location of the last artifact; after fighting off an army of demon rats (no Rat King, though), they retrieve the Shredder's gauntlet. In the real world, the show itself faced off against The Spectacular Spider-Man and won a narrow victory, but not without cost: the Talkback had it's lowest amound of replies ever.


This week, on TMNT: With all the artifacts now safely back under Ninja Tribunal control, hell is officially ready to break loose. The Shredders' Acolytes attack the Lap of the Gods, and prove to be more powerful than anybody expected.

 

[Simpler Simon]

While this is a good episode on its own terms, anyone who has seen Fast Forward will realize that

Spoiler

the Tribunal ain't dead. I'm not revealing how/when they come back, but Leo obviously finds it normal that they're around in the fake diary flashback, so that takes away some of the potential shock value here

And despite how solid the previous episodes were, I can't help but feel they were treading water a bit just to build to this point. Certainly as Ian pointed out, "Demons and Dragons" and "More Worlds Than One" are basically the same story. We probably could've afforded to lose an episodes worth of content somewhere and still achieve the same outcome. It doesn't help that after 6 episodes, the human acolytes are still superficially developed.


But anyway the story moves back to NY now, and the stakes only rise from this point on. Stay tuned.

 

[warnerbroman]

it was a fake diary


but this was the second saddest episode

 

[CyberCubed]

True, but FF still spoils the fact that the Tribunal aren't dead. Still, even if I never saw FF I wouldn't believe the Tribunal were dead anyway.

Now as for the humans, wow, they got away with showing Faraji (that's the right name, correct?), get impaled. It was definitely a more violent blow than how all the other humans got taken out, surprised they did it when they could have just had a wall fall on him or something like the other guys.

Overall I liked this episode, I didn't even see the twist coming that the Mystic Foot were pretending to be the Tribunal members. That caught me off guard and I'm glad we had no hints toward that either.

Its a shame that this is such a short season, I imagine the Shredder doesn't get all that much screentime either with only a handful of episodes left. Ah well, I guess this is the time where you just accept what you're given and don't get greedy.

 

[Undrave]

Okay am I the only one that was unimpressed by the deaths? There was something really... missing there...it was like they had no impact!

They spend 5 episodes NOT developing the acolytes and off them all in anticlimatic ways... once they started to bite it I kinda expected ALL of them to get killed off.

 

[creativerealms]

Okay am I the only one that was unimpressed by the deaths? There was something really... missing there...it was like they had no impact!

They spend 5 episodes NOT developing the acolytes and off them all in anticlimatic ways... once they started to bite it I kinda expected ALL of them to get killed off.

Spoiler

Thats because they are not dead.

 

[Undrave]

Spoiler

Thats because they are not dead.

Well yeah I figured as much...but they could have at least tried to make it convincing ><

 

[DrTooth]

I had a feeling the acolaytes would "die" in this one. After all, they did show the 7th episode just before the movie came out last year, and Donatello, working on the Turtle Taxi (which was discussed last week's episode), said "Adam would have loved to have seen this."


I really liked how they actually showed quite a bit of violent action in this one. it's been a long time since we've seen something this serious in an episode (FF was toned down a bit too much for my taste). The dialogue of the episode was kinda iffy, though. But all and all, a great episode.

 

[Simpler Simon]

Its a shame that this is such a short season, I imagine the Shredder doesn't get all that much screentime either with only a handful of episodes left. Ah well, I guess this is the time where you just accept what you're given and don't get greedy.

Don't let the episode count fool you. Once the Shredder comes back, he comes back. In fact

Spoiler

his resurrection scene is kinda creepy in a reverse "Insane in the Membrane" way

 

[Hades]

I seriously could not follow this episode for crap. When did the four evil dudes swap forms with Splinter-tachi? I know I saw last week's episodes and all was normal. As for the Tribunal and 4 human dudes, I expect them to be back at the end of the season since 4Kids is against killing. However, I must say, I'm a little disappointed in these episodes as they just seem so bland. The impact of the story feels lost due to the long wait they made us go through for this series. However, WHY are they giving us a filler episode in such a short season?

 

[CyberCubed]

. When did the four evil dudes swap forms with Splinter-tachi?

Probably somewhere around the start of the episode after the Turtles returned from their boat ride. I'm glad they didn't show how they did it, since its one of the few twists in this show where the writers don't dumb it down like they do other times.

 

[Knightmare]

I seriously could not follow this episode for crap. When did the four evil dudes swap forms with Splinter-tachi? I know I saw last week's episodes and all was normal. As for the Tribunal and 4 human dudes, I expect them to be back at the end of the season since 4Kids is against killing. However, I must say, I'm a little disappointed in these episodes as they just seem so bland. The impact of the story feels lost due to the long wait they made us go through for this series. However, WHY are they giving us a filler episode in such a short season?

I think the "filler episode" is because when it was originally written the season was supposed to be longer, until the season was aborted in favor Fast Forward.

 

[Simpler Simon]

The only possible "filler" episode this season was Nightmares Recycled, which was never finished. Otherwise the season seems like it was planned and produced as half the length of the other ones.

 

[Dank]

Actually there are two filler episodes Membership Drive and Fathers & Sons.

 

[Simpler Simon]

Actually there are two filler episodes Membership Drive and Fathers & Sons.

They're side stories yeah, but I'd hardly call them filler. They're nowhere near as awful as "Golden Puck" or some of those early season 4 stories.

 

[Hades]

They're side stories yeah, but I'd hardly call them filler. They're nowhere near as awful as "Golden Puck" or some of those early season 4 stories.

I'll take Season 4's fillers over most of Season 2.

 

[CyberCubed]

The two worst fillers were "Junkantis" which was the second Garbageman episode, and "Across the Universe" which was the Raph Planet Racers episode. I know the second one wasn't really a filler, but god that episode was boring.

Most of early Season 4 wasn't too bad. Cousin Sid and that other one about the fish people were kinda dull, but I wouldn't say they were horrible.

Season 2's fillers weren't bad either, save for the Garbageman ep, really.

 

[Ian]

The next couple of episodes (including the aborted Nightmares Recycled) are less filler and more of the writers putting all of their ducks in a row for the finale, by reintroducing concepts and characters that had been set aside after Ninja Tribunal. Recycled reintroduces Hun, the Purple Dragons, and (presumably) Ruffington, while Recruitment Drive reintroduces the E.P.F. and the Justice Force.

As for this one, it's good, less because of what happens in it (as people have commented, the Acolytes’ deaths should have more impact, even if they turn out not to be permanent) and more because how it's presented--this is some damn fine action here, particularly when you consider how there’s at least a dozen individual characters in the episode. Choice moments are when Raph uses his Bonrai Buzz-saw Jutsu to cut the stalactites on the roof, and when the serpent cut Faraji off mid-speech. I think that’s the first moment in animation when smacking someone against the wall actually does a plausible amount of damage—Batman would have just shrugged it off without comment.

Random thoughts:

· Nice shiner on Chikara, there. Nice to see more realistic bruising, after Season 1’s paint-blotch-looking things.
· I have to say, this season has really brought in a lot of cool-looking monsters. To bad most of them last three minutes at most.
· While I’m here, I have to give props to the people in charge of casting for their job in this arc. Given the huge amount of characters introduced here (twelve, and that’s not counting speaking monsters or Hisomi, who doesn’t have a voice) and the series’ already humongous recurring cast, it can’t have been easy to find voices for them all. I’m particularly impressed with David Moo for his portrayal of Faraji: it’s not the role I would have envisioned for him after the awesome disaster that was his Sanji, and I can’t imagine it being an easy voice to maintain for someone who’s not actually of African descent—it could easily fall into “offensive” territory, which several of the shows Japanese characters sometimes get close to—but he’s done a good job here.

 

[CyberCubed]

I'd also like to add that I'm really enjoying this season so far. I didn't see the season through Comcast or those other means, so this is the first time I'm seeing these episodes and I really like them.

I'm just really glad 4kids decided to air these after all, (as opposed to just putting them on DVD), because at least everyone got a chance to see them. Its also gets everyone caught up to date since by about April or May all of Season 1-6 will be done and everyone will be ready for Season 7 in the Fall.

 

[Dark Fact]

The episode was decent in some aspects but I can't help but feel it was badly rushed. The Acolytes "deaths" is one example as well as the Tribunal. You can't get any real emotion out of this episode. It also doesn't help matters that the dialogue had to dance around the utterance of the words "kill" and "death" but that's FCC regulations for you. I still like the animation used in the fight including the dream eaters (or whatever they're called) and the Mystics. At least the plot is thickening now more than ever before.

However, that said, next week's episode of "Membership Drive" looks incredibly out of place in a situation that calls for the imminent return of the true Shredder. I wonder how that will pan out?