Follow the Leader

**Follow the Leader** is the second episode of the second season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012 TV series), and is the 29th episode overall. It aired on November 2, 2013.

***"He stepped up, only to be dragged down."***

## Official Description

When Karai captures Leonardo, she forces him to do battle with the Robot Foot Soldiers, which can adapt to his every move.

## Plot

This episode begins with the Turtles in a back alley where they are looking for more canisters of Mutagen in dumpsters. Donnie gets a signal from his gadget that a Mutagen canister is located on the roof of a nearby building. Raph thinks that Donnie's Mutagen Tracker is nothing but useless, which makes Leo encourage Raph to give Donnie a chance. They climb the building and eventually find the canister. Mikey asks what this brings them up to and Donnie replies that they've only found 1...and a half. Donnie says that they 'only' have sixty-three containers left. Unbeknownst to the brothers, Karai is on another rooftop, spying on them with binoculars. Their search for the missing Mutagen supply motivates her to do something malicious.

While continuing to look for more containers, Mikey yawns in boredom and states that the search is getting too boring, so he screams very loudly in a sarcastic manner, causing Leo to tell him to stop and that they will do what he believes to be fun; ninja training. He quickly ushers his brothers to a building that's the gateway to Chinatown, telling them that what they will be 'playing' is alot like King-Of-The-Mountain. Leo tells his brothers to try and fight their way past him with Close-Quarters-Combat. Leo ventures out on to some wires to defend his 'territory', while Raph comes up with a plan to dissapoint Leo and conspires with Mikey and Donnie. Leo prepares to fight with his brothers, but Mikey puts on his earbuds and listens to music while spinning on the wires. Leo states that this isn't fighting, but Mikey says nothing and just bounces around, making Leo lose alot of his focus, allowing Mikey to do a jump-flip across the wires and on to the roof of the building behind Leo. Leo correctly states that this was not a real fight, but Donnie then steps on to the wires. Donnie uses his mathematical calculating ability to determine what surfaces to bounce Shuriken off of and strike Leo. Leo ends up using his sword to block tons of them and, after he gets exhausted, he realizes that Donnie has also made it to the other building, with Mikey. Leo asks Raph what "trick" he'll get from him. Raph says that he doesn't have any - *yet*!! He throws one of his Sais toward Leo, who dodges the initial attack, but then gets kicked off of the wires and on to the street, along with his two blades, one of which says "LAME-O-NARDO" on it. Leo starts to get mad and objects that his brothers are never taking his teaching seriously. Raph believes that they should have their own techniques in a battle and that Leo shouldn't try to change them. They walk away from him and Leo is left staring down at his sword unhappily.

At the Lair, Leo talks to Master Splinter about his brothers treating him disrespectfully, and he wonders if he has any of the skills to be the leader. Splinter tells his son to stop imposing his will and that his brothers will trust his authority when he starts to trust himself. As the scene fades, we switch to Bradford's old Dojo, where Karai is staring at a torn picture of her now deceased mother. Then, a squad of Foot ninja approach her from behind and challenge her. Little does she know that these are actually robots. She holds her ground for a while, but she keeps repeating her attacks and the Foot ninja quickly come up with defenses for them. One of the ninjas grabs Karai by the wrist and she falls to her knees. The Shredder interrupts the fight and tells the ninjas to stop attacking Karai. After informing her that the ninjas are deadly robots that the Kraang made, the Shredder tells her that he is going to Japan to take care of urgent business and that, should Karai make any moves on the Turtles while he is gone, the penalties will be stiff, especially for his 'own daughter'. In the Shell-Raiser, Raph is driving, while Mikey is reading a comic book. Mikey soon asks Leo if he is angry at them and he then offers to give one of his comics to Leo if he isn't. Leo states that he isn't mad, but would appreciate it if his brothers respect him more. He just thinks that the others have to be better at following his instructions, but Raph points out that you can lead a horse to water, but can't make it drink. Leo is about to argue with Raph, but Donnie tells them to stop the Shell-Raiser becuse there is a Mutagen canister in the area. When they are out of the Shell-Raiser, Donnie states that the canister is in a nearby basement. Leo tells them not to go into the basement yet, but he quickly realizes that they have already disobeyed him. They spread out to look for the canister and Donnie misses it. However, Mikey is able to see it. Leo then tries to stop him, but Mikey doesn't see the string attached to the canister and picks it up, causing the doors to spring shut. Karai then shows up and a bunch of Robot Foot Soldiers surround the Turtles. The team then faces the robots, but Raph thinks that, with them fighting the Foot, they won't break a sweat. They then start fighting. Raph knocks down one of the robots, but it then kicks him, knocking him into Donnie. The Turtles then start losing from that point on. Leo tells them to flee, but Raph disagrees with him and briefly starts to fight again, but is defeated and leaves with Leo, along with Donnie and Mikey. They then enter an elevator shaft and climb the elevator ropes where a robot grabs on to Mikey's foot, but he is able to kick it off. The robot falls all the way down on to a platform and its head snaps off, at which point Donnie realizes that robots are what they're up against. Some robots then come up and grab on to Leo's foot, however, and this makes the elevator ropes snap in half. Raph, Donnie, and Mikey make it to safety, but Leo falls down with the robots and seemingly gets captured, much to Raph's dismay.

The other three have no idea what they should do. Mikey doesn't know if they should explain to Master Splinter what happened. Splinter overhears him in the Lair, however, and his sons express their thought that Leo got captured by Karai. Splinter explains to Donnie, Raph, and Mikey that Karai believes he took a loved one away from her. He then tells them to find Leonardo and rescue him, as that is the thing of importance to think about. Donnie is able to hack into some security footage and spots Karai's van heading to the Bradford Dojo, with Leo inside. Knowing where their brother is being held, the Turtles rush out and Raph tells them to be more like Leo and try to fight like him when they rescue him. Back in Bradford's dojo, Leo has been hung from the ceiling in a small cage and Karai explains that he will be getting some punishment because he 'betrayed' her the last time they met ('Enemy Of My Enemy'). Karai then orders the Foot-Bots to line up in rows. She explains that they have extreme loyalty to her and can mimic every traditional fighting style after it is used just once. Karai soon releases Leo from the cage and the Foot-Bots gang up on him. As Leo gets overwhelmed, Karai 'reveals' that she never got to know her mother because Splinter took her away. Leo yells that this a lie that the Shredder fed to her. Karai demands the Foot-Bots to get Leo out of her sight and he yells that Splinter would never hurt her mother. The rest of the team find the Bradford Dojo and easily infiltrate it after using pigeons to cover up the outside security cameras. They find Leo tied to a chair and gagged...mumbling. The Turtles destroy all of the robots that are guarding him and they remove his gag. Leo finally tells the others that it's a trap, but it's too late, as many more robots appear. Karai then explains that she needs the three of them to lure Splinter in so that he can learn what it's like to suffer.

The Turtles fight the robots and hold their ground at first, but the robots eventually learn their moves and defeat them with little effort. The Turtles then jump out of the building and the fight heads outside, where the Turtles lament that they can't fight the robots without being defeated more aggressively...The team then decides to use a style that they think the robots can't memorize: unpredictability. Donnie, Mikey, and Raph all use their King-of-the-Mountain fighting styles against the robots, while Karai comes after Leo and fights him. At one point in the battle, Karai pins Leo in a position where he's about to fall from the roof of a building, but he clutches it with his hand and dear life. Karai then throws Shuriken at one of his hands and Leo almost falls, but he actually punctures his swords into the underside of the roof, without Karai noticing. He then jumps backward to go upward and hits Karai, causing her to fall on to a sidewalk in defeat. Here, Leo tries to tell her that the Shredder must be deceiving her because Splinter would never hurt an innocent civillian. He warns her not to lay a pinkie on his family *ever* again...or else. He and his brothers then leave, as the robots seem to have figured out their moves. Back in the Lair, Leo asks Splinter about his involvement with Karai's mother and if he hurt her. Splinter says that he didn't and then tries to make his son leave. After Leo begs Splinter to trust him, Splinter says four words that will change what Leo thinks he knows: "Karai - is my daughter"...

## Splinter's Wisdom

*"How are others suppost to believe in you if you do not believe in yourself??"*

## Trivia

* When Mikey spots Mutagen, he says "Go Ninja Go Ninja Go!", which is a reference to Vanilla Ice's "Ninja Rap."
* Around the end of the episode, when Leo and Karai were fighting behind them, there is a billboard that had "Stockman Industries" and a picture of a Mouser.

## Errors

* When Leo was talking about Splinter bothering the turtles to train more, his voice was different.