The Big Blow-Out

**The Big Blow Out** is a season 3 episode of the 1987 TV series, written by David Wise. It is the final episode of the "Big Trilogy", also acting as the season finale. It aired on November 28th, 1989

## Synopsis

Picking up from the very end of the previous episode, the Turtles and April are driving back to New York, confident that Shredder and Krang are gone for good... until the Technodrome rises from the ground in front of them. Shredder fires missiles at the Turtles, blasting a nearby hillside open and burying them in rubble, before departing.

The Technodrome rolls through power lines, highways and anything else in its path. The Turtles are unsure of how they can possibly stop the Technodrome, but Splinter is confident that Shredder will be his own undoing.

The Technodrome heads west towards the Rushmore power antenna, with the Turtles in hot pursuit. Stealing the antenna will allow Shredder and Krang to draw power from anywhere on Earth. As they carve the antenna out of the ground and install it on the Technodrome's side, Donatello takes a massive power cable and prepares to shock the war machine... only for the current to shut off. All electrical energy is being drawn to the Technodrome.

The Turtles and Splinter are instead forced to infiltrate the Technodrome by climbing up the side. Krang manages to get rid of the Turtles by aiming an eyeball missile at Mount Rushmore, forcing them to climb on the missile to redirect it. They manage to jump off before it crashes into a mountainside.

April returns to Channel 6 and takes over Vernon's broadcast, just before the power goes off.

Meanwhile, the Turtles belatedly remember that they left Splinter at the Technodrome, which has just reached the city and is crushing buildings on its way to the World Trade Center. Splinter is inside, seeking a way to shut down the power antenna. Krang uses all the accumulated electricity to open a massive portal in the sky, large enough for the entire Earth to be sucked into Dimension X.

The military is attacking the Technodrome without success. Leonardo and Michelangelo are sent to infiltrate the Technodrome, while Raphael and Donatello head off to get "army surplus." They need to "borrow" a missile launcher, which Donatello drives into the sewer system.

While Leonardo and Michelangelo grapple with Rocksteady and Bebop, Splinter and Shredder finally confront one another and fall through the levels of the Technodrome. The Turtles arrive just in time to save Splinter from a fatal fall, blasting Shredder away with a spray of water. They escape from the Technodrome.

General Traag informs Krang that an entire armada is prepared to attack Earth when it passes through the portal.

Meanwhile, Shredder aims the Technodrome's weapons at the fleeing Splinter, Leonardo and Michelangelo, enraged at being humiliated. Donatello tells them to lure the Technodrome to a specific location, and Raphael fires a massive missile that propels the Technodrome into the sky and off of Earth. It passes through the portal and is attacked by Traag's forces, before crashing on a spherical base. Krang rages about being trapped in Dimension X before trying to throttle Shredder.

The Turtles are hailed as heroes by the crowds, before heading into a pizzeria for their "reward."

## Why It Is A Fauxnale

The Big Blow-Out was the 65th overall episode in the 1987 TMNT run at the time. 65 episodes was usually the amount of stories required for a full syndication package and many animated series from the period did not go beyond this number regardless of their popularity. The Big Blow-Out was therefore written as a potential jumping off point in case the series was not renewed. The story ties up all the loose ends of the third season and provides the series with another 'final battle', as had been the case with seasons one and two. It ends very much in the same way as the first, with the Technodrome vanquished once more back to Dimension X, with the machine being heavily damaged this time. The Turtles are also hailed as heroes and finally accepted by the public.

Although the series would be renewed and continue on for many years, this finale still marked a watershed moment for the show as it ended the tradition of high-stakes endings for several years. Shredder and Krang, while still persistent threats, never quite reached the same heights that they do here as would-be conquerors, and the Technodrome never quite fulfills it's fullest potential as a weapon of mass destruction on the scale it does here also. It would not be until Season Seven's "Shredder Triumphant" that the stakes would again be raised