Hypno! Part Deux

**"Hypno! Part Deux"** is the fourteenth episode (Episode 8B) of the first season of *Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*. It first aired on November 3rd, 2018.

## Character

* April O'Neil (Kat Graham)
* Hypno-Potamus (Rhys Darby)
* Leonardo (Ben Schwartz)
* Mayhem
* Raphael (Omar Benson Miller)
* Taylor Martin (Danica McKellar)
* Carly Balmaceda (Candi Milo)
* Dale (Scott Menville)
* Donatello (Josh Brener)
* Noah Sheck (Eric Bauza)

## Plot

The story begins with a report by Carly Balmaceda at Fuddleton Middle School. One of the students, Noah Sheck, enjoys making his class disappear with a magic trick to the delight of his classmates. However, Hypno-Potamus has been watching the show, and resents Sheck for shaking such a brilliant trick out of his sleeve. And then he begins to set up a retaliatory strike.

Meanwhile, April is trying to prepare morally for the upcoming dance at her high school, mainly because she was invited by her classmate Taylor Martin, the most popular and "coolest" girl in the school, to the table of her clique. To her chagrin, Dale, an uncool schoolmate with a crush on April, was also invited to this exclusive dance. But when the two arrive in the ballroom, they notice how almost all classmates prefer to engage with a new online game called Hippo Crush on their smartphones. April is persuaded by Taylor to join the game; but when she goes to download the app, it's unexpectedly blocked by Donatello's anti-malware app. She calls Donnie, who is building something while surrounded by puppies, but before she can get him to lift the blocker, people start marching out of the room in rows. She pretends she has downloaded the app, and wanting to be part of the popular clique, marches along.

Mayhem, who secretly joined April, senses evil and teleports to the Turtle home. There he meets Raphael and Leonardo and, without further ado, transports the two of them back to the school with him. Meanwhile, in the school's main assembly hall, April faces Hypno-Potamus, the cause of these strange events, who immediately announces he wants to trump Sheck's magic trick by making the entire high school genuinely disappear. When April tries to escape, she is spotted by Hypno-Potamus and recognized as not hypnotized, and gets rushed by the entire hypnotized student body - led by Taylor herself.

Just as April is cornered, she is at the last moment cut out by Mayhem, Raphael and Leonardo. April drops the two Turtles at the assembly hall to free the students from Hypno-Potamus' violence while she and Mayhem collect the magical bombs the villain has distributed throughout the school for his "tricks". Hypno Potamus defends himself, but is subject to the two. As Hypno-Potamus' disappearance bombs begin to recharge, Mayhem teleports the bombs to their builder, and then him and the entire mass of bombs to the outside, where Hypno-Potamus is made to disappear by his own inventions. The shockwave of the detonation frees all students from the hypnosis, while April is excluded from her exclusive clique by Taylor for destroying her float and bringing her pet to school.

## Trivia

* Due to the structure of the title, it may be a reference to the 1993 comedy film *Hot Shots! Part Deux*.
	+ "Deux" is French for "two".
* This episode takes place during the events of "Repo Mantis". When April calls Donnie, he is building something while surrounded by puppies. Writer Ron Corcillo states in a Tweet that, "Repo Mantis and Hypno Part Deux were supposed to take place at the same time. They were the first eps that didn't use all 4 turtles: Raph and Leo were on one adventure while Donnie and Mikey had another. There was even a crossover Mikey-Raph phone call, but it was cut for time.".
* When starting to make the school disappear, Hypno-Potamus shouts "Abra-ka-Zealan--" before being cut off.
* Upon defeat, Hypno-Potamus shouts "Whanganui!".
	+ Whanganui is the name of a city on the southwest coast of the North Island of New Zealand. These are part of a running gag of easter eggs where Hypno-Potamus makes out-of-context references to New Zealand, as it is the home country of Hypno-Potamus' voice actor Rhys Darby.
* This episode reunites Scott Menville and Danica McKellar who were previously casting from the 80's show, *The Wonder Years*.
* "Hippo Crush", the name of Hypno-Potamus's bait app, is a potential nod to the popular app "Candy Crush".
* When April scrolls through her phone to install "Hippo Crush", an app for Channel 6 News can be seen.
* Donnie's download blocker on April's phone references Dennis Nedry's "Ah ah ah. You didn't say the magic word" animation from *Jurassic Park*.
* Mikey and Splinter did not make an on-screen appearance in this episode.
	+ Donnie appears in April's phone call toward the beginning of the episode.
* Dale's head is shaven, he wears only purple and he seems like a bit of a nerd. Dale is *also* the name of a character Josh Brener, who voices Donatello, plays in *Big Bang Theory*. And it sounds like he has a bit of a crush on April...