I, Monster

**Episodes:**
1. Cousin Sid
2. The People's Choice
3. Sons of the Silent Age
4. Dragon's Brew
5. **I, Monster**
6. Grudge Match
7. A Wing and a Prayer
8. Bad Day
9. Aliens Among Us
10. Dragons Rising
11. Still Nobody
12. All Hallows Thieves
13. Samurai Tourist
14. The Ancient One
15. Scion of the Shredder
16. Prodigal Son
17. Outbreak
18. Trouble with Augie
19. Insane in the Membrane
20. Return of Savanti, Part 1
21. Return of Savanti, Part 2
22. A Tale of Master Yoshi
23. Adventures in Turtle Sitting
24. Good Genes, Part 1
25. Good Genes, Part 2
26. Ninja Tribunal

Season 1 – Season 2 – Season 3 – ***Season 4*** –Ninja Tribunal – Fast Forward - Back to the Sewer

**"I, Monster"** is the eighty-third episode of the animated series *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* (2003), which originally aired on October 15, 2005.

## Information

### Major Characters

* Donatello (Sam Regal)
* Leonardo (Michael Sinterniklaas)
* Michelangelo (Wayne Grayson)
* Raphael (John Campbell)
* Casey Jones (Marc Thompson)

### Secondary Characters

* Rat King (David Zen Mansley)
* Agent Bishop (in flashback)

## Episode

**Spoiler warning: *Plot or ending details {{[[Template:|]]}} follow.***
### *Voice-over introduction*

***Rat King***: "I awoke in the mud and the slime of a filthy river. I don't know where I am or even who I am. I'm haunted by glimpses... momentary fragments of a life I think I had. But what life do I have now? What am I, but a monster? And now all will fear me... because everything fears the monster."

### *Plot Synopsis*

Open at an abandoned industrial park where the Turtles and Casey Jones have come to practice their skills in a game of ninjutsu "hide 'n' seek". The group leaps the fence and begins to investigate the premises. Little do they know that they aren't alone in the facility.

As they explore, Leo gets an eerie feeling as the Rat King watches them from above. Mikey explains the rules of the drill and that the record for holding the yellow marker bandanna is 15 minutes - he then takes off and sets his timer, hoping to set a new best-time. While Don, Leo, Raph and Casey search for Mike, the Rat King lurks in the shadows, watching and planning. Casey eventually enters a room that Michelangelo is hiding in, but the Turtle gives Jones the slip.

Outside, Leonardo spots a shadowy figure spying on his brothers and leaps into action. Leo crashes through a second story window - but there's no one in the room. Don arrives and tells his brother he's seeing ghosts - but Leonardo remains on edge.

Mikey finds a new room to hide in, but he's not alone here either. A speedy, dark form darts circles around the affable ninja. Mike thinks that his brothers are playing tricks on him and thus is caught by surprise as the Rat King hits him from behind with a board, knocking the Turtle cold.

Open in a boiler room. Mike is strapped down to an unhinged door, looming over him is the Rat King. Mikey bewilderingly asks what’s going on, but the Rat King merely laughs maniacally and departs as a group of angry rats enters the room.

Outside, Casey and the Turtles have found a pile of bricks that's convulsing. Jones and Raph assume that it's Mikey and chastise him for having the worst hiding spot ever - but when Raphael knocks over the mound, hundreds of rats pour out and run off. Suddenly, the Rat King leaps down into the courtyard and faces our heroes. The mysterious man then runs off, the Turtles and Jones in hot pursuit.

Cut back to Mikey as the rats swarm him. With adrenalin-enforced might, Mikey breaks the bindings on his legs and uses the door to knock the rats away. The Turtle dashes across the room with the door on his back as rodents leap and attack. Mike dives backwards into a wall and shatters the wooden door, completely freeing himself. The rats continue their assault.

Back on the surface, Rat King proves to be a skilled foe, performing stunts that a normal human being couldn't possibly do. Rat King flees into a large brick silo. Just then, Mike crashes through a pair of basement doors and emerges from the darkness right next to his team. Raph turns to tell Leonardo that their brother has returned, only to see Leo running headlong into the silo.

The guys make haste to catch up with their fearless leader. The group arrives in the center of silo and hear their quarry laughing. The guys look up and see the Rat King standing on the precipice of the chimney. The bedraggled figure pulls a rope that seals off the entrance. Our heroes look around and see no means of escape - the only thing visible are hundreds of pairs of angry red eyes peering out from the cracks in the walls.

Rats pour out of the walls and attack. The Turtles and Casey fight back, fending off the angry critters. Leonardo stresses that they won't have to defeat every rodent - they just have to put up enough of a fight to teach them a lesson. Soon enough, the rats do realize that this is one meal that's not worth the fight and they retreat. This outcome angers the Rat King and he jumps down and attacks in a flurry of blows. With the fast moving Rat King to help, the rats come back for a second try. Rat King has incredible fighting skills - a style that's very familiar to Leonardo. Rat King tosses Mike into a wall, dazing the Turtle and creating fault lines in the structure. Raph spots the weakness and plows through the stonework, making an escape route. The guys bail out of the rat-infested silo.

Our heroes escape the rats, but the Rat King is on the move. The enigmatic villain jumps on top of a nearby building. Leonardo throws shuriken at his foe, which he evades. However, one of the throwing stars hits the bricks beneath the Rat King's feet, weakening them and causing them to crumble. The rodent liege falls backwards, crashing through the decaying building in a cloud of debris. Leo states that it's finished and begins to walk away, but the Rat King explodes out of the bottom floor of the structure. With the others still blinded and lost in dust, Leo turns to face the Rat King.

As Leo and the Rat King do battle, the smoke clears so the others can watch on. Leonardo insists that this is his fight alone - Don wants to help since they have no idea how powerful their enemy is, but Raph intervenes and suggests that Leonardo has more monsters to work out of his system than just the one he's currently facing. The battle moves inside as Rat King retreats from the determined ninja.

As the fight ensues with Leo gaining the upper hand, the partially destroyed silo collapses into a gigantic chimney which then falls domino-like onto the building where the skirmish is taking place. Leo actually saves Rat King from being crushed by the falling tower. The two enemies are briefly standing together on a piece of the floor left balancing on girders. Beneath the mostly collapsed floor, we see an enormous army of rats on the ground below. The Turtles cry out for Leonardo to leap off of the swaying platform, and he does so - but he doesn't quite make the jump and Raph has to grab his arm to keep him fro falling into the rodent pit. Rat King then leaps at Leo and grabs onto his back. Raph and the others struggle to pull up their brother as Rat King tries to strangle him from behind. Leonardo is pulled up, and once safe, he elbows his enemy, sending him flying towards the hordes of rodents waiting below. As the guys watch from above, Rat King is swallowed by the mass of rats.

The Turtles and Casey leave the abandoned grounds. Outside the fence, Mikey notices that he's still wearing the yellow bandanna and thus has had it on for about 45 minutes - a new record! Raphael unties the bandanna from his gloating brother's arms and snaps him with it - Mikey yelps with pain. The guys then head for home.

Inside the collapsed building we see that Rat King wasn't consumed by the rodents - he is alive and well. Rat King crouches and muses about how everything that he sees loathes and fears him - everything, that is, save for the rats.

## Quotes

***Donnie*:** I didn't know there were any places like this left in the burrows. Room to move, shadows everywhere to hide in.

***Mikey*:** It's like a ninja playgrond!

**Casey**: Whaddya think, Leo?

**Leo:** We're losing daylight. Let's get training.

***Raph*:** Yes sir, Mister Sunshine sir.

***Mikey*:** Alright, we ready to play?

**Casey**: What's this screwey game called again?

***Mikey*:** It's called Stealth Hunter. Yours truly is the stealth master. I get 30 seconds head start, then you guys start hunting.

***Donnie*:** (to Casey) Picture it as Capture the Flag, ninja style. He'll be wearing a bandana that we have to take from him. So far, none of us has been able to protect the bandana for longer than 15 minutes.

***Mikey*:** But then, none of you is Michaelangelo: Battle Nexus Champion! And...he moves like the shadow.

***Raph*:** Hey Shadow. Think fast!

***Mikey*:** Ow! 1 2 3 GO!

***Raph*:** It ain't like Mikey to be *this* good at stealth-hunter. We usually find him in the first two minutes!

**Casey**: Wanna bet he cheated? Probably back at the Battle Shell playing video games right now!

**Leo:** It isn't right!

***Raph*:** Relax, Master Leo. Casey's just joking.

**Leo:** Not that! We're being followed.

**Leo:** I've had enough of this madness!

**Leo:** STAY BACK! **He's mine!**

## Trivia

* This episode is based on the Mirage Studios' title *Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4*.
* First appearance of the Rat King in the 2003 series (second appearance of Agent Bishop's Slayer).
* Despite airing after 'Sons of the Silent Age', when the opening theme was updated, this episode uses the original opening theme.

## External links

* "I, Monster" at The Official TMNT Web Site