Invasion of the Squirrelanoids

**"Invasion of the Squirrelanoids"** is the 28th episode of TMNT and the second episode of the second season, It aired on October 19th 2013. It is a Halloween episode.

***"In the sewers, no one can hear you scream."***

## Official Description

While tracking mutagen, the Turtles bring a mutated squirrel back to the lair. When it starts multiplying, the Turtles must hunt the squirrel mutants and prevent them escaping into the city.

## Plot

The episode opens with the Turtles in the Shell-Raiser as they search the streets of New York for canisters of Mutagen Ooze. However, Mikey's concentration shifts from their mission to the Halloween comic book that he's been reading. Raph warns him that he will have nightmares if he keeps reading these kinds of books. Raph and Mikey are about to start a conversation, but Donnie's Mutagen Tracker starts to buzz, meaning that ooze is nearby. They all jump out of the Shell-Raiser and Donnie spots a trail of Mutagen that leads them to a broken canister near a movie theater. They then hear some one yelling and round a corner, only to find a homeless man being attacked by a...squirrel. Not only is it a little squirrel, but it's also a nasty mutant squirrel! The Turtles get freaked out by its ropy tongue and, before they can do anything, the mutant squirrel scurries inside the poor man's mouth and makes him gag and faint.

Leo and Donnie suggest that they should take the homeless man to their lair and help him out, but Mikey is reluctant to do this, as his comic book depicts what might 'happen' if they were to do this. Raph believes that the comic book is nonsense, but he also knows that Master Splinter wouldn't like to find a stranger in their lair. Leo and Donnie explain that dropping the Mutagen was their fault and, because that mutant squirrel was most likely a result of the Mutagen that they dropped, it's their responsibility to fix it...Leo even offers to talk to Splinter about the situation and come up with a justification. While he does that, Mikey, Donnie, and Raph place the homeless man on the counter in Donnie's lab. Donnie analyzes the man, while Mikey tells Raphael about what happened to a man of similar nature that was brought back on to a spaceship in his comic book. However, Raph could care less about the comic and tells Mikey to stop. Leo comes into the lab and says that what they're doing is alright, as long as they take the guy out of the lair before Splinter is done meditating. Before Donnie can think of what he should do next, the homeless guy starts saying words that Leo and the others don't understand. Mikey seemingly manages to translate what the guy is saying: He saw the squirrel mutate and it has been following him around for days, but he's completely okay. Suddenly, the man starts gagging again and throws up the squirrel--as a matter of fact, make that *two*squirrels! The man starts to panic again and runs out of Donnie's laboratory, so Raph runs after him to calm him down and lead him out of the sewers.

Meanwhile, Leo, Mikey, and Donnie sneak up on the two squirrels eating some dropped popcorn. Leo tries to catch them, but they run away. Making Donnie's lab a mess and with Raph barely dropping in late, the Turtles run to capture the mutants, but they fail. Leo orders his team members to spread out and search for both squirrels in the lair. One runs into Mikey's room and the other runs into Master Splinter's Dojo quietly and it stares at him curiously, but Splinter has no idea (since he's meditating). Donnie and Leo sneak inside the Dojo room to carefully catch the animal, without disturbing Splinter's deep trance. They miss, however, and the squirrel runs up into the tree in the Dojo. Cut to Mikey and Raph as they enter Mikey's room to locate the other squirrel. They can't find it, so Mikey decides to grab his four-day old slice of pepperoni/jelly bean/maple syrup Pizza to help lure the squirrel to them. Raph, without hesitation, joins his brother. Back to the Dojo, where Leo jumps on Donnie's shoulders and jumps onto the tree right afterward. He almost falls on his sensei, but he luckily flips and catches the mutant squirrel as it falls. Unfortunately, the squirrel utters a loud hiss, which disturbs Master Splinter. He starts to scold Leo, but then gets interrupted when he sees that Leo is holding a squirrel, which he misidentifies as a chipmunk. Leo corrects that it's a a squirrel and tells him that it's a mutant that reproduces inside stomachs. The squirrel then easily hops out of Leo's hands and runs away. With a little help from Splinter, the squirrel ends up trapped inside of a basket.

Mikey is then shown jumping on his bed with his tighty-whities on and eating his Pizza, but he then lays down, acting as if nothing has happened. Also, Raph has forgotten what they were even doing. This is an example of turtle bromance, but this ends when they hear the sound of the little squirrel in Mikey's shelf full of action figures. Raph hurries to try and get the rodent and he catches it on a prong of his Sai, but the mammal runs up Raph's arm and goes into his mouth, making him gag, while Michelangelo screams his name in fear.

After this happens, Raph is locked onto Donnie's table in his lab, where he starts to panic and scream. Donnie tells him to calm down and that everything will be fine. Raph's mood is only made worse when Mikey mentions that, in his comic, an alienoid species secretes a mucus into a host's stomach lining and this mucus starts to spread, but Mikey's speech is interrupted by Donnie, who complains to Mikey and tells him to stop. Raph continues to struggle. Donnie tells him that they're going to do a surgery test and Mikey uses a spinning saw blade to make Raph think that he's about to cut his stomach open. Instead, he just does this to make him more scared and he only cuts the locks, making his brothers have a laugh. Before Raph can get his fury on and argue, he becomes weak and starts to gag again. He then throws up two more squirrels out of his guts. After that, the squirrels then went and undergo another 'mutation' and start to glow green, making all of the electricity in the Lair go off. Splinter hears the commotion and rushes to his sons. The glowing squirrels run away and disappear.

Splinter then tells all of his sons to split up and search each room, but Mikey protests and Splinter tells him to comply and that he's a trained warrior that shouldn't be scared of looking for squirrels. The brothers search everywhere and cannot find them. Mikey checks one room, but nothing is there either. Then, while walking backwards, he accidentally bumps into Raph and tells him that he thought he'd need back-up. They hear a noise, which is exactly the same as what Mikey 'heard' in his comic book, but Raphael becomes confused, asking how it can sound the same when it was in a book. Before they can continue their conversation, Raph looks up and spots a mutant above them. Mikey stares at the mutant in shock, saying that the squirrels have transformed into a different kind of stage: Squirrelanoids!!

The two brothers scream in panic, and Leo hears them from the central part of their lair. Donnie yells 'They're here!', and one Squirrelanoid jumps out to attack him. Another attacks Leo, while Mikey and Raph run away from the one that they've just spotted. Splinter bravely rushes in to defend the Turtles and he uses his Ninjutsu skills to strike at the Squirrelanoids, hitting them in the face. They flee and escape. Leo exclaims to his sensei that they just swam to where the sewer leads to the surface. Splinter tells them to go out and stop them, and he will protect the lair in case they come back. Mikey becomes nervous and scared that his sensei isn't going out with them. Splinter asks them if they want to prove that they are among the bravest, the strongest of will, and the worthiest of ninjas. The Turtles take a minute to consider this, but Donnie decides to use Metalhead to search for the three mutants and to monitor Metalhead's vicinity through cameras in the robot's 'eyes'. Donnie tells Splinter that there's some kind of lesson here, like brains over bravery, or "something". Splinter sasses his son, saying that the "something" part was most accurate, making Donnie pout, owned. Mikey says that all of this also happened in his horror comic book, but no one stands to protest when they hear noises through Metalhead's detection screen. They spot one Squirrelanoid and it attacks Metalhead, breaking his head. Mikey comments that this is also on Page 33.....of his comic!!! Donnie worries about this and promises to fix Metalhead, leaving Splinter to say that he was right.

After the break, the Turtles have no choice but to go out and search for the dangerous mutants. Raph wonders what they should do when they find the mutants, but Mikey tells him that the mutants will find them. Leo tells all of them to split up again, but this time in teams. Mikey argues that it's still splitting up, but Leo ignores this argument and tells Donnie to search with him, leaving Raph and Mikey to partner up again and search. While they both search, Raph asks how the survivors beat the aliens in his comic book. However, Raph is stunned to hear that the aliens actually defeated the humans by sucking off their faces until there was just one survivor. Then, they hear a loud squirrel noise. Meanwhile, Donnie picks up a strong signal and also hears some sounds. The Squirrelanoids attack Donnie and Leo, who orders a retreat. However, both of them bump into Raph and Mikey, and they are cornered by the monsters. They start to face the vicious mutant villains and are able to contain them for a few minutes, but the squirrels make a comeback and defeat the Turtles. Raph asks Mikey how the sole survivor defeated the aliens in the comic book and Mikey says that he baited them somewhere, but, before he can finish his sentence, he "bails" on his brothers. Leo suggests that he has a plan. The Turtles try to defeat the villains again, but eventually get cornered.

However, the Squirrelanoids sense food, which is actually popcorn in a bag being held by Mikey, diverting their attention from his turtle brothers. So, young Michelangelo **did**have a plan. Mikey ends up in a sewer room and throws the bag of popcorn into a sewer pool. The Squirrelanoids jump in to grab it, but Mikey turns a wheel to open a door to let all of the water flow somewhere else and it plunges down toward some septic tanks, along with the Squirrelanoids. Mikey whispers "Booyakasha", meaning he has succeeded...

Not!! Suddenly, the tongue of a Squirrelanoid flies at Mikey's leg and pulls him down into the falling water with them. Mikey quickly gets sucked down into the large passagway and is about to go to another part of the sewer and drown. Not long before Mikey is about to sink to his death, Raph grabs on to his hand and cuts the Squirrelanoid's tongue away. Mikey is carried up and it is shown that Leo, Donnie, and Raph are all hanging onto eachother to save Mikey. Their brother is safe at last, but one other Squirrelanoid lunges toward Mikey from the water and almost takes him with them. Raph uses his Shurikento take it down and the ruthless creature is washed away. Mikey's brothers are all relieved that he is finally safe.

Back at the Lair, Raph says that Mikey's comic book reading paid off and it helped them all succeed; all because of baiting the animals with food. Donnie is disappointed with himself for not thinking of that. Mikey's 'wise words' of the day are "Not everyone can be the brains of the outfit." Master Splinter asks them if they thought about their enemies escaping, but Raph says that they are gone for good...However, Mikey tells them all that there were sequels to his comic book where the alienoids come back.

This episode comes to an end with an engineer (from "***It Came From The Depths***") walking in the sewers. He finds a bag of stale popcorn and takes a bite. A figure of a Squirrelanoid appears behind him and it clutches the man from behind, covering his mouth. The episode ends in a comic style.

## Splinter's Wisdom

*"Who among you wants to prove you are the bravest, the strongest of will, the worthiest of ninjas??"* (The turtles chicken out, attempting to send Metalhead. However, he gets destroyed by a Squirrelanoid.) *"I do not wish to say I was right but, I was right."*

## Character Debuts

* Squirrelanoids  (Post mutation)
* Muckman (Poster Cameo)

## Trivia

* In Mikey's room, there is a cardboard cut out of the human Chris Bradford.
* The episode is a very strong homage to Ridley Scott's popular sci-fi/horror film, *Aliens*, with the Squirrelanoids' appearance and behavior mimicking the film's titular antagonists, as well as specific lines and scenes being lifted directed from the film as well.

## Video

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Season 2, Episode 3 Invasion of the Squirrelanoids