S2E07: Enter the Pumpkinhead

## Summary

"Enter the Pumpkinhead" (Japanese title: Gazai Plant Race! The Birth of Jack O'Lantern) is Season 2's seventh episode, and the thirteenth episode of the series "Teenage Mutant Ninja Mobians (1987)."

## Plot

The episode opens with the TMNM, Tiny Tiger, Dingodile, Yuffie Kisaragi, and Christopher Aonuma's group flying the X-Tornado 2.0 towards the World Trade Center, having been contacted by Elise Oriana III's group about Loki's group and Jack Lambert being up there, up to no good as usual. On one of the towers, Loki's group is growing impatient on Jack trying to create a portal in between the two towers with a device. Suddenly, the device malfunctions and explodes black soot in Jack's face. Afterwards, our heroes spot Loki's group and Jack there and having no choice but to retreat, Loki's group and Jack, after shaking the soot off of himself, got away with the damaged device. Returning to the sewer lair, our heroes consult Cloud Strife and Aerith Gainsborough, resulting Cloud and Aerith to advise on waiting patiently for Loki's group's next strike, prompting our heroes to have a pizza break while waiting. On a garbage barge on the Hudson River, Loki's group contact Uka-Uka's group and convince them to send Ripper Roo, Koala Kong, Pinstripe Potoroo, the Komodo Brothers, Arukenimon, Mummymon, Orbot, Cubot, and Tribot to Earth to be Loki's group's henchmen instead. Uka-Uka's group agrees, but in order for this to work, Loki's group needs to send someone to Dimension X in exchange for the henchmen due to the interdimensional energy balance on the portal being fragile. Without hesitation, Loki's group immediately sends Jack through the portal to Dimension X in exchange, making the henchmen finally return to Earth as Loki's group's new henchmen instead, and Loki's group decide to lure our heroes to their doom by striking at their weak point in the form of Elise's group. At the Channel Six building, Elise's group receive a strange-looking plant from a delivery boy and, believing this to be a gift from both the TMNM, their allies, and Christopher's group, decide to head for the sewer lair with Tai Kamiya's group to thank them after Fluttershy smells them. Loki's group, having forced the delivery boy to deliver the plant to Elise's group, discovers that their plan is about to succeed due to Elise's group receiving the plant. At the sewer lair, Elise and Tai's groups arrived to thank our heroes when Cloud and Aerith revealed that they left already. Suddenly noticing the plant, Cloud and Aerith immediately snatched the plant and destroyed it by throwing it into a nearby garbage can. But when they learn that Fluttershy smelled the plant before, Cloud and Aerith's shocked reactions caused Elise and Tai's groups to realize that the plant has a deadly fragrance. Then to make things worse, Fluttershy falls unconscious with a high fever. In the Jotundrome in Dimension X, Uka-Uka's group decides to disintegrate Jack with their disintegrator unit with General Traag and Granitor's help. When Jack starts complaining about wanting to go home and have them think over his offer to be given another chance, Demidevimon, irritated by his complaining, throws one of the two pumpkins, which he was using to cook his pumpkin soup, into Jack's head, causing it to be stuck on Jack's head. Then just after the disintegrator unit activates, the energy beams strike Jack, but instead of disintegrating him, it transforms Jack into a pumpkin-headed mutant named Jack O'Lantern, much to Uka-Uka's group, Traag, and Granitor's surprise. Then immediately after the disintegrator unit explodes, freeing the now mutated Jack, the pumpkin-headed mutant escapes with a laser gun and scythe-like sword in tow through the portal back to New York City, deciding to take revenge against both our heroes *and* Loki's group for causing his mutation. Back on Earth in the sewer lair of New York City, our heroes returned, having been contacted by Cloud, Aerith, and Elise and Tai's groups, and finds them caring for the comatose Fluttershy. They then learn that the poisonous plant Elise's group received was, in fact, a Doku Plant, a rare flower from the Far East. And the only way to cure Fluttershy is to use an antidote containing the herbs of another flower called the Gazai Plant. Remembering one in a local greenhouse uptown, Cosmo the Seedrian suggests buying the Gazai Plant from there, to which our heroes immediately agree, as well as letting Elise and Tai's groups accompany them to save Fluttershy. As they head out, Cloud and Aerith warn our heroes that if they don't cure Fluttershy by nightfall, she will die from the Doku Plant's poison. In an abandoned warehouse, Loki's group and their henchmen are contacted by Uka-Uka's group about Jack's mutation and escape and are ordered to find him. Elsewhere in the city, Jack appears through the portal and immediately finds our heroes heading for the greenhouse's direction and ambushes them.

After outmaneuvering Jack, our heroes, despite not knowing that he's Jack, escape through the sewers to the greenhouse's direction. Jack then decides to go after Loki's group to get his revenge on them. On a rooftop, Loki's group and their henchmen are on lookout for Jack when Jack appears and almost attacks them when Loki's group and their henchmen subdue him. After Jack accuses Loki's group for causing his mutation, Loki's group, deciding to use his planned vengeance as an advantage to defeat our heroes, tricks Jack that our heroes were the only ones who caused Jack's mutation due to our heroes frustrating Loki's group into sending Jack to Dimension X in anger. Easily deceived by Loki's group's lies, Jack agrees to team up with them and their henchmen to help destroy our heroes. With our heroes, they arrive at the greenhouse with the X-Tornado 2.0 and successfully buys the last Gazai Plant from there with Elise's credit card after disguising the TMNM, Tiny, and Dingodile as florists. Back at the abandoned building, Loki's group tests out a spider-like robot, created by Jack before his mutation, on the Komodo Brothers, which ends successfully with the robot tying the Komodo Brothers into rope-made cocoon. Upon the completion, Loki's group names the robot Knucklehead. Immediately after Jack contacts Loki's group and their henchmen that he found our heroes, Loki's group and their henchmen, after cutting the Komodo Brothers free, ran out to meet up with Jack. With our heroes, Jack ambushes them and just when our heroes escape again, Loki's group and their henchmen arrive and ambush them with the Knucklehead as well. However, our heroes manage to destroy the Knucklehead just before it attacks Miles "Tails" Prower by tricking the henchmen into shooting the Knucklehead to death. After the TMNM, Tiny, and Dingodile discard their florist disguises, our heroes make it to the X-Tornado 2.0, only for Jack to shoot their vehicle down.

After Tails managed to land the X-Tornado 2.0, despite the landing being rough, our heroes are almost ambushed again when they escape to the blimp the X-Tornado 2.0 got detached from by climbing up a nearby building and/or flying up there quickly. But during the escape, Braeburn accidentally drops the Gazai Plant, causing it to fall into Loki's group's hands by Jack catching it. Then just when the blimp crashes onto the ground due to losing some gas, our heroes escape by parachuting to safety with the Mobian Trouper Shoe Packs. At the sewer lair, our heroes returned to report their failure when Loki's group contacts them on the Mobiancom, having hacked into it, and orders our heroes to come into battle with the henchmen for the Gazai Plant, ninja style. Despite believing this to be a trap, our heroes decide to confront Loki's group's henchmen to get the Gazai Plant back. In a local junkyard, Loki's group and their henchmen hid some electrodes they built with Jack's help, believing they'll use them to send our heroes into another dimension in a micro-second forward in time for good with them. Our heroes arrive and just when the henchmen almost secretly sends our heroes into the electrodes trap, Cloud and Aerith, having been asked by our heroes to help earlier, successfully intervenes by driving the Mobian Van into battle, despite Cloud not knowing how to drive. Then Aerith fires the laser cannons at Loki's group's feet, causing them to drop the Gazai Plant and making the Gazai Plant land in Braeburn's hands. Just when Jack almost attempted to snatch the Gazai Plant back for Loki's group, he accidentally gets caught in the electrodes and vanishes into another dimension. Outwitted, Loki's group and their henchmen retreated while our heroes, Cloud, and Aerith return to the sewer lair with the Gazai Plant in tow. Once back there, they make the antidote with the Gazai Plant's herbs and succeeds in curing Fluttershy's fever, waking her up from her coma. Then our heroes celebrate their victory of saving Fluttershy from certain death by having a Gazai-flavored anchovy pizza and Gazai-flavored tiramisu meal Charmy Bee, Cream the Rabbit, and Cheese the Chao made.

## Notes

* Heroes' Insult Count: 9 (1 by Max, 1 by Shadow, 2 by Dingodile, 1 by Yuffie, 1 by Knuckles, 1 by Snake, 1 by Applejack, 1 by Vector)
* Villains' Insult Count: 21 (3 by Hunter J, 2 by Eggman, 3 by Cortex, 4 by Loki, 1 by Uka-Uka, 2 by Myotismon, 3 by Vanitas, 2 by Sephiroth, 1 by Moe, 1 by Tropy, 1 by Pinstripe, 1 by Koala, 2 by Jack, 1 by Cubot)
* Insult Total: 30
* Locations: City Streets, City Sewers, Mobians' Sewer Lair, Jotundrome, Dimension X, Channel Six Building, World Trade Center, Hudson River, Abandoned Warehouse, City Junkyard, City Greenhouse, and City Landmark
* Vehicles: X-Tornado 2.0, Mobian Van, and Cheese Van
* Gadgets: Mobiancom, Communicator, and Knucklehead
* This episode where Jack cross-mutates into a pumpkinhead was somewhat influenced by the 1986 Jeff Goldblum film "The Fly" where a man cross-mutates into a fly, and it also references the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, regarding the Headless Horseman, who has a pumpkin for a head, and also a creature called a Jack O'Lantern.
* When Loki's group attacks our heroes after they obtain the Gazai Plant, Tails uses a move similar to his special move from the imaginary game "Mobians in Time" to knock Loki's group down.
* Jack's line, where he claims he should have "Reversed the polarity of the neutron flow", is a reference to the catchphrase employed by the third incarnation of the title character of the British science fiction television series, "Doctor Who."
* Vector flatly asks Charmy at one point "You’ve been watching too many “Peanuts,” have you?" when Charmy referenced the Great Pumpkin from that aforementioned franchise.
* Jack's role is reduced to a recurring guest star from this episode onwards. Ripper, Koala, Pinstripe, the Komodo Brothers, Arukenimon, Mummymon, Orbot, Cubot, and Tribot rejoin Loki's group as series regulars.
* This is the first time that Cloud and Aerith drive the Mobian Van and is also one of the rare occasions that the Mobian Van's roof mounted laser blasters are used.
* As the blimp deflates, Tails suggests that the heroes don their "Mobian Trooper Parachute Packs." This device was a loose interpretation of the Playmates Toys vehicle accessory, now while the toy had a helmet/visor, control handles, adjustable speed fins with anti Foot blasters (For pretend firing) attached to a seat added to the 22" opening chute, the animated counterpart was just a parachute pack with orange and green striped pattern.
* First appearance of Jack as Jack O'Lantern the pumpkinhead and the last appearance of his human form, Jack Lambert.
* "Doku" translates to "Poison" in Japanese.
* Jack never appears again until Season 3 Episode 23 "Return of Jack O'Lantern."
* The heroes never recognized Jack as a pumpkinhead until Season 3 Episode 23 "Return of Jack O'Lantern," where they finally realize that upon Jack explaining to them.
* This is the first episode where Shadow actually makes a flat joke, despite his calm brooding nature, by saying at the end of the episode "Well, keep your eye on the Gazais."

## Goofs

* After Sonic slices the pizza into slices on the table, Cream's tail is missing in that shot.
* When Eggman, along with Loki's group, unleashes the Knucklehead on our heroes, his nose is colored peach like his skin instead of pink in one shot.
* When the Knucklehead ties Tails up, his mouth is clearly seen being bound by the rope like a mummy, then when the Knucklehead is blasted off of Tails, his mouth is seen not tied in the rope, then in the next shot when Sonic cuts Tails free, his mouth is again bound in the rope along with his whole body like a mummy like it's supposed to until Sonic frees him.
* When Sonic kicks the valve on the blimp, his skin on his chest and belly is colored blue with his fur for a brief moment.
* When Vector shouts about pedestrians having their rights at the hidden Loki's group in the van, the yellow linings on his wristbands are also colored black in that shot.
* When Loki's group and their henchmen are up on the rooftop looking for Jack, Koala's rope belt on his pants are also colored yellow in one shot when he asks how they're gonna find Jack in "A burg this size." Then in the next shot when Jack appears, Moe's goatee beard is missing in one shot.
* Komodo Joe's spike on top of his helmet is colored purple in one shot while he, Loki's group, and the henchmen are chasing our heroes before our heroes escape to the blimp.
* When Pinstripe finishes placing the garbage onto the electrode, his eyebags are colored cream instead of red in that shot for a brief moment.
* Eggman's sleeve rims are missing buttons in one shot when the heroes first spot him, Loki's group, and their henchmen at the junkyard.
* When the Komodo Brothers ask "Is this where you want us to stand, Bosses" as Loki's group prepare the Knucklehead's test on them, the yellow patterns on both their robes briefly disappear and reappear in that shot.
* When Fluttershy collapses with a high fever into a coma, look closely as Cloud catches her, her pink butterfly image on her skirt vanishes from the shot, and then it's back again in the next shot when Joe says "My guess; The plant was poison, right?"

## Character Appearances

**Heroes**

* Ace D. Copular
* Adagio Dazzle
* Aerith Gainsborough
* Agumon
* Allison Oriana
* Amy Rose
* Applejack
* Aria Blaze
* Big the Cat
* Big William "Billy" W. Williams
* Biyomon
* Blaze the Cat
* Braeburn
* Caramel
* Charmy Bee
* Cheese the Chao
* Chris Thorndyke
* Christopher Aonuma
* Cloud Strife
* Comet Tail
* Cosmo the Seedrian
* Cream the Rabbit
* Dingodile/Dale Wallaroo
* E-123 Omega
* Elise Oriana III
* Ember
* Espio the Chameleon
* Flash Sentry
* Fluttershy
* Froggy
* Gabumon
* Gatomon
* Gomamon
* Grubber J. Gribberish
* Izzy Izumi
* Joe Kido
* Kari Kamiya
* Kayla the Wolf
* Knuckles the Echidna
* Li'l Arturo de la Guerra
* Matt Ishida
* Max the Wolf
* Miles "Tails" Prower
* Mimi Tachikawa
* Palmon
* Patamon
* Pinkie Pie
* Pokey Pierce
* Rainbow Dash
* Rarity
* Rouge the Bat
* Sanford "Snake" D. Ingleberry
* Shadow the Hedgehog
* Silver the Hedgehog
* Soarin
* Sonata Dusk
* Sonic the Hedgehog
* Sora Takenouchi
* Spike
* Starlight Glimmer
* Sunset Shimmer
* Tai Kamiya
* Tentomon
* Thunderlane
* Tikal
* Tiny Tiger/Tucker Tigerson
* TK Takaishi-Ishida
* Trixie
* Twilight Sparkle
* Vector the Crocodile
* Yuffie Kisaragi

**Villains**

* Arukenimon (Temporally changes into her Beast form in this)
* Cubot
* Demidevimon
* Dr. Eggman
* Dr. Nefarious Tropy
* Dr. Neo Cortex
* Dr. Nitros Brio
* Dr. Nitros Gin
* General Traag
* Granitor
* Hunter J
* Infinite
* Jack O'Lantern/Jack Lambert (Mutated in this)
* Koala Kong/Kent Kong
* Komodo Joe/Joe Komadipatatim
* Komodo Moe/Moe Komadipatatim
* Loki
* Mephiles the Dark
* Mummymon (Temporally changes into his Beast form in this)
* Myotismon
* Nitros Oxide
* Orbot
* Pinstripe Potoroo/Paul "Pinstripe" Potolini
* Ripper Roo/Ricky Rooter
* Sephiroth
* Tribot
* Uka-Uka
* Vanitas

## Episode Titles in Other Languages

* Japanese
	+ ガザイ工場レース！ ジャックオランタンの誕生
	+ Gazai Kōjō Rēsu! Jakku O Rantan no Tanjō
	+ Gazai Plant Race! The Birth of Jack O'Lantern
* English
	+ USA: Enter the Pumpkinhead
	+ UK: Enter the Pumpkinhead
* Latin America Spanish
	+ La creación de Jack O'Lantern
	+ The Creation of Jack O'Lantern
* Castilian Spanish
	+ La creación de Jack O'Lantern
	+ The Creation of Jack O'Lantern
* Catalan
	+ Cura Fluttershy
	+ Cure Fluttershy
* French
	+ Jack O'Lantern et L'usine de Gazai
	+ Jack O'Lantern and the Gazai Plant
* Canadian French
	+ Jack O'Lantern ak Plant lan Gazai
	+ Jack O'Lantern and the Gazai Plant
* German
	+ Der Kürbiskopf der Abmessung X
	+ The Pumpkinhead of Dimension X
* Italian
	+ Gara Contro la Testa di Zucca per la Pianta di Gazai
	+ Race Against the Pumpkinhead for the Gazai Plant
* Portuguese
	+ Jack O'Lantern o Cabeça de Abóbora
	+ Jack O'Lantern the Pumpkinhead
* Brazilian Portuguese
	+ Jack O'Lantern o Cabeça de Abóbora
	+ Jack O'Lantern the Pumpkinhead
* Mandarin Chinese
	+ 加赛植物竞赛！ 杰克·奥兰登的诞生
	+ Jiā sài Zhíwù Jìngsài! Jiékè·Ao Lán dēng de Dànshēng
	+ Gazai Plant Race! The Birth of Jack O'Lantern
* Cantonese Chinese
	+ 加賽植物競賽！ 傑克·奧蘭登的誕生
	+ Jiā sài Zhíwù Jìngsài! Jiékè·Ao Lán dēng de Dànshēng
	+ Gazai Plant Race! The Birth of Jack O'Lantern
* Korean
	+ 가자이 식물 경주! 잭 올 랜턴의 탄생
	+ Gajai Sigmul Gyeongju! Jaeg Ol Laenteon-ui Tansaeng
	+ Gazai Plant Race! The Birth of Jack O'Lantern
* Danish
	+ Doku-Anlægget, Gazai-Anlægget, og Græskarhoved
	+ The Doku Plant, Gazai Plant, and Pumpkinhead
* Dutch
	+ De Zaak van de Gazai-Plant
	+ The Case of the Gazai Plant
* Swedish
	+ Vrede Stålar Jack O'Lantern
	+ The Wrath of Jack O'Lantern
* Icelandic
	+ Árás á Graskerhausinn
	+ Attack of the Pumpkinhead
* Norwegian
	+ Angrepet av Gresskarhode
	+ Attack of the Pumpkinhead
* Thai
	+ การแข่งขันพืชกาไซ! กำเนิดของฟักทองฮาโลวีน
	+ Kār Khæ̀ngk̄hạn Phụ̄ch kā sị! Kảneid ̄Khxng Fạkthxng Hālowīn
	+ Gazai Plant Race! The Birth of Jack O'Lantern
* Russian
	+ Сразитесь с тыквой за Флаттершай и Газайский завод
	+ Srazites' s Tykvoy za Flattershay i Gazayskiy Zavod
	+ Fight the Pumpkinhead for Fluttershy and the Gazai Plant
* Polish
	+ Walcz o Fluttershy i Roślina Gazai
	+ Fight for Fluttershy and the Gazai Plant
* Finnish
	+ Doku Kasvien Vastaan Gazai Kasvien
	+ Doku Plant Vs. Gazai Plant
* Hungarian
	+ Hősök Ellen a Doku Növény és a Tökfej
	+ Heroes Vs. the Doku Plant and Pumpkinhead
* Greek
	+ Εκδίκηση της κολοκύθας
	+ Ekdíkisi tis Kolokýthas
	+ Revenge of the Pumpkinhead
* Hebrew
	+ מכות הדלעת
	+ Mkvt Hdl'et
	+ The Pumpkinhead Strikes
* Arabic
	+ غزاي النبات في حاجة
	+ Ghazay Alnabat fi Haja
	+ A Gazai Plant in Need

## Episode Links

Previous: S2E06: The Case of the Killer Pizzas (Teenage Mutant Ninja Mobians Version)

Next: S2E08: Invasion of the Punk Mutants