S1E04: A Thing About Rats (Teenage Mutant Ninja Mobians Version)

## Summary

"A Thing About Rats (Teenage Mutant Ninja Mobians Version)" (Japanese title: Mouser Siege! The Case of Jack Lambert) is Season 1's fourth episode, and the fourth episode of the series "Teenage Mutant Ninja Mobians (1987)."

## Plot

The episode opens with our heroes leaving Cloud Strife and Aerith Gainsborough alone to rest in their bed from the previous episode's events. Then while Elise Oriana III, Christopher Aonuma, and Tai Kamiya's groups stay behind to watch over Cloud and Aerith, the TMNM go off to find Loki's group and the Jotundrome. At an abandoned mansion on Green Street, Loki's group sends out some tiny helicopter-like drones to help them find some new technical equipment to help them against their enemies. Then the drones come upon Jack Lambert offering the owner of Ajax Pest Control to the idea of mass-producing his robots called Mousers to get rid of rats in the city, giving Loki's group the idea on using them to get rid of our heroes and capture Aerith. After the owner of Ajax Pest Control threw Jack out, telling him that his Mousers will put him out of business, Loki's group then arrives and offers Jack the chance to mass-produce his Mousers. Upon arrival at the mansion, despite Jack being disgusted by it's dumpy appearance, Loki's group and their henchmen then ask Jack to create a master control for the Mousers. After leaving Jack alone and returning to the Jotundrome, Loki's group, mostly Sephiroth, then makes Yuffie Kisaragi promise to never whistle her favorite song that she heard long ago, which, according to Yuffie, sounded familiar to her. Then they immediately completed creating twelve Mousers, and during this, Uka-Uka's group angrily pester Loki's group again to make their upgrades, which again, Loki's group refuse, not wanting their help. After the completion of the twelve Mousers, Loki's group then orders Yuffie to take two of their henchmen volunteers to go with the Mousers and kill Cloud and capture Aerith, alive and unharmed. Yuffie then immediately chooses Tiny Tiger and Dingodile to go with her on the mission, and Dingodile is given a communicator to give out reports on their progress. At the same time this is happening, the TMNM are having no luck in finding the Jotundrome again until finally, they spot Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile running by to where the twelve Mousers are leading them to Cloud and Aerith and follows them secretly. Back in the sewer lair, Elise, Christopher, and Tai's groups, after Cloud and Aerith wake up, head out back to their homes, bidding Cloud and Aerith goodbye and promising to come back soon. After that's done, Cloud and Aerith were about to meditate when Yuffie, Tiny, Dingodile, and the Mousers arrive and attack.

Just when the Mousers were gonna finish off Cloud and Tiny, Dingodile, and a reluctant Yuffie were gonna capture Aerith, the TMNM arrive and destroy the Mousers. Then immediately after that's done, Yuffie, deciding to betray Loki's group because of her suspicions of them, joins our heroes' side and agree to help them solve the mystery of the Mousers and defeat Loki's group. Angered at Yuffie's betrayal, Tiny and Dingodile were then restrained in psychokinetic chains by Silver the Hedgehog, and our heroes decide to keep the two mutant punks captive and force them to cooperate with them on their new mission, offering them a deal that if they help solve the mystery, Tiny and Dingodile will then go free after it's over, even to the extent of confiscating Tiny's trident in E-123 Omega's storage bin and destroying Dingodile's flamethrower and communicator. Then our heroes decide to gather Christopher's group's help first and then go to Elise's group's apartment to look up Jack's involvement on the Mousers with help from Jack's name on a piece of the Mouser. Back in the Jotundrome, Loki's group and their henchmen discover the twelve Mousers' destruction from the computer monitor, but are unaware of Yuffie's betrayal and Tiny and Dingodile's capture, resulting them to create more Mousers with Jack's help since 12,00 Mousers are no match for our heroes than twelve. At the surface, the TMNM, Cloud, Aerith, Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile recruit Christopher's group from their house, and explain their mission. En route, Tiny and Dingodile attempt to trick our heroes into releasing them, but Silver sensed their scheme easily with his powers and our heroes refused, since they made a deal and Tiny and Dingodile are their hostages. Once at Elise's group's apartment, Elise's group agree to look up Jack's profile that'll help our heroes. While Twilight Sparkle looks up Jack on the computer and Cloud and Aerith rest in the bedroom, our heroes prepare to make a chili dog flavored pizza dinner with a miniature pizza oven Elise's group have in the apartment since the kitchen's oven is broken. But when they find they have no matches to light the pizza oven up, Dingodile then got our heroes to help make a new flamethrower for him to help in the cooking. During the cooking, Tiny and Dingodile finally warm up to our heroes and began to become friends with them. After that's done, Twilight Sparkle arrive and while joining in the meal with our heroes, shows them Jack's address from his police mug shot and a police report on him from before. Then with their answer on the mystery, our heroes, deciding to release Tiny and Dingodile as part of their deal, returns Tiny's trident to Tiny and Silver removes the psychokinetic chains from Tiny and Dingodile. But Tiny and Dingodile, having become friends with our heroes, instead decided to stay with them and join their side for good, which they happily agreed. Then our heroes, including Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile, resume their pizza meal before they resume their mission. Back at the mansion, Jack, having finished the master control and the army of Mousers, is allowed to go home by Loki's group. But as soon as Jack is gone, Loki's group sends their Gauntlet Soldiers to follow and then kill Jack, since "He knows too much" and find Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile on the way. On the streets, the TMNM, Tiny, and Dingodile, having left Elise and Christopher's groups, Cloud, Aerith, and Yuffie at Elise's group's apartment to keep a close watch for any Mouser activity in their absence, head for Jack's apartment address. In the Jotundrome, Loki's group orders the Mouser army to locate and kill our heroes, starting with Cloud, and capturing Aerith, alive and unharmed. Back at Elise's group's apartment after cleaning up from their pizza dinner, Elise and Christopher's groups, Cloud, and Aerith notice Yuffie whistling her mystery song and Cloud and Aerith reveal that song Yuffie is whistling is not just a random song she heard long ago. After going into the bedroom with Yuffie alone, Cloud and Aerith reveal to Yuffie that the song she always whistled was a lullaby her mother used to sing to her when she was a baby. Then, as Elise and Christopher's groups listen in on the conversation, Cloud and Aerith reveal to Yuffie that they're her real parents, Squall Leonhart and Rinoa Heartilly, alive all that time and turned into rats. Then under Yuffie's request, Aerith sings to Yuffie her lullaby. After that's done, Yuffie, moved to tears, cries happily and she, Cloud, and Aerith hug each other, reunited after fourteen years. Even Elise and Christopher's groups are touched by this reunion.

Outside Jack's apartment, the Gauntlet Soldiers caught up with Jack and then our heroes appear and defeat the Gauntlet Soldiers. Then they interrogate Jack on where Loki's group is, mass-producing the Mousers and how they're doing it. At first, Jack refused to talk, but after Vector the Crocodile and Dingodile threaten him, Jack, nervous for his life, finally cracked and revealed the mansion at Green Street. After letting Jack go, our heroes then take his van and were about to head to the mansion when they realized that the Mousers are going after Cloud and Aerith due to the master control leading them by Loki's group. Then they hurriedly drove back to Elise's group's apartment. At Elise's group's apartment, the Mousers appear and ambushed everyone when Tiny, Dingodile, and the TMNM arrive on time via Kayla the Wolf's grappling ropes, and defeated some Mousers. Then due to the heavy damage from the Mouser's destruction path and the battle, our heroes escape to the grappling ropes before the apartment collapsed from the damage (But luckily, all of the people living in the apartment manage to escape the destruction and Charmy Bee managed to rescue the pizza oven before escaping with our heroes). Then Tai's group, their apartment also destroyed by the Mousers, meet up with our heroes, and are briefed on not only our heroes' mission, but also on Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile on the good guy side (And the rest of our heroes also learn of Yuffie now knowing her heritage as Cloud AKA Squall and Aerith's AKA Rinoa's daughter). Upon arrival at the mansion on Green Street, our heroes then decide to have Miles "Tails" Prower use the remote controller they swiped from Jack to make the Mousers turn against Loki's group after the master control is destroyed. Then after some encouragement from our heroes, Charmy, Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile agree to go into the mansion and destroy the master control. But upon entry and finding the master control, the four were immediately captured by Loki's group and are imprisoned in another room. Then while Loki's group send their Mouser army to kill our heroes and capture Aerith, Uka-Uka's group free Charmy, Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile and tells them to destroy the master control. Despite not trusting Uka-Uka's group and not knowing who they are, Charmy, Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile agree and they return to the master control. After they distract Loki's group, Charmy, Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile then trick Dr. Neo Cortex into shooting his laser gun at the master control, destroying it. Then outside, the Mousers die down and Tails uses the remote to make the Mousers kamikaze into the mansion and destroy it. But Loki's group (And the hidden Uka-Uka's group) escape to the Jotundrome during the destruction. After that's over, our heroes manage to find Charmy, Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile luckily alive and unharmed from the destruction and discover Loki's group have gotten away with the Jotundrome again. Then after climbing into the van, they drive off to Jack's workshop (While they drop Cloud and Aerith off at the sewer lair first), and during the drive, Charmy, Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile explain their encounter with Uka-Uka's group in the mansion. At first, nobody believed them until Silver, having sensed their honest explanation with his powers, pointed out they are right.

## Notes

* Heroes' Insult Count: 29 (1 by Sonic, 6 by Yuffie, 7 by Dingodile, 3 by Charmy, 4 by Vector, 2 by Knuckles, 2 by Tiny, 2 by Silver, 1 by Twilight Sparkle, 1 by Tails)
* Villains' Insult Count: 7 (1 by Jack, 2 by Myotismon, 2 by Sephiroth, 2 by Vanitas)
* Insult Total: 36
* Locations: City Streets, City Sewers, Underground Tunnels, Mobians' Sewer Lair, Jotundrome, Abandoned Mansion, Christopher’s Group’s House, and Elise's Group's Apartment
* Vehicles: Jack's Van, Jotundrome Drill Elevator, and Mobian-Seeking Cycle
* Gadgets: Communicator
* This is the first appearance of Jack Lambert (Who would later become Jack O'Lantern) and the only appearance of the Mousers.
* In the English version only, Jack does a title drop once Loki's group and their henchmen leave him to work on the master control for the Mousers, saying that they must really have "A thing about rats." In the Japanese version, he just asked himself in confusion on why Loki's group and their henchmen are obsessed with rat catching.
* Tiny mentions a Manriki Gusari, a chain-like nunchuk weapon sometimes used by ninjas.
* The villains uses special Transport Module-like drilling devices which enable them to travel from the Jotundrome to city level, however these would never be used again and would be replaced by the more familiar model used in Season 3.
* This episode features Uka-Uka's group's first appearance to Charmy, Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile. Oddly enough, their first act is to actually help the four escape and defeat Loki's group and their Mousers, although we'll see later that Uka-Uka's group has an ulterior motive for doing this.
* First appearance of Jack's van, what would later become the Mobian Van.
* First appearance of the Mobian-Seeking Cycles.
* Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile officially join the good guy side in this episode. Also, Yuffie finally learns that she's Cloud and Aerith's AKA Squall and Rinoa's daughter and that Loki's group, for the past fourteen years, tricked her.
* After Charmy makes a quick sharp turn with the van so they can hurry to Elise's group's apartment and save their allies from the upcoming Mouser attack, Vector and Charmy reference Batman when Vector sarcastically says to Charmy "Nice turn, Batman," making Charmy admit that Batman "Inspired" him to do the sharp turn, which ironically in his comics and adaptations, Batman occasionally does with the Batmobile.
* Before the second Mouser attack, the board game Yuffie plays with Elise and Christopher's groups at Elise's group's apartment was "Clue."
* The song Aerith sang to Yuffie was "Home is Where the Heart is," a song from the "Talespin" pilot "Plunder and Lightning," which, for no reason when the pilot was split into four parts, was cut out.
* While our heroes discussed Tiny and Dingodile developing Stockholm Syndrome towards them, Charmy references "Beauty and the Beast." (Not the Disney version, the original fairy tale version, since the Disney version didn't exist until November 1991 since this takes place in June 1987, four years before that)
* Espio breaks the Fourth Wall during the pizza dinner scene, teaching us (And kids) to never eat extremely hot food (Especially pizza) that was just cooked immediately and to wait for it to cool first (Just to teach us not to burn ourselves while eating piping hot food that was just cooked and wait for it to cool first).
* In this episode and the next one, our heroes refer Mephiles as a "Shadow the Hedgehog double," yet it's never explained on why Mephiles looks like Shadow in the first place until the Season 3 episode "The Four Muskemobians" that the Impervium sensed Shadow from the future during its experimentation prior to its disappearance and permanently turned Mephiles' body into that form from a little freak accident as it disappeared. (For more information on this, check the Episode Biography of S3E17: The Four Muskemobians)

## Goofs

* When the Mousers are shut down, the shot makes it look as if the van is completely surrounded. Yet, when Tails reprograms them, they're all on the far side of the van, making it look as if the Mousers were just closing in.
* After the Jotundrome crashed through the underground building's floor at the beginning of the episode, the white of its eye was colored gray.
* Cortex's gunfire sounds like a laser while Charmy, Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile are taunting him. Later on, when the master control is destroyed, that same gun from Eggman sounds like a handgun being fired.
* The size of the ropes tying Charmy, Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile keep switching from big to small to big again in different shots.
* In one shot when Uka-Uka's group convince Charmy, Yuffie, Tiny, and Dingodile to hurry and stop Loki's group, Tropy's clock emblem on his helmet is colored copper as well instead of white for a brief moment.
* While Charmy says to Uka-Uka "Well, I've heard of voodoo masks, but you take the cake," Uka-Uka's bone decorations are missing.
* After Aerith sings her lullaby to Yuffie, the latter cries happily while they and Cloud hug, happy to be reunited. Yet in that shot, the suspenders attaching the arm cloth on Yuffie's left arm are colored dark blue instead of silver.
* In one shot while fighting off the Mousers in the sewer lair, Knuckles' eyes are colored blue instead of purple.
* The thermometer clock on Dingodile's new flamethrower is missing in one shot while he helped our heroes fight against the Mousers in Elise's group's apartment.
* In the shot where Ace says "She's just whistling a random tune," his hair is completely colored black with no hints of white shine on it.
* For a brief moment in the shot where Shadow says "We have to find Jack Lambert," his gold rings on his wrists are colored red instead.

## Character Appearances

**Heroes**

* Ace D. Copular
* Adagio Dazzle
* Aerith Gainsborough
* Allison Oriana
* Amy Rose
* Applejack
* Aria Blaze
* Big the Cat
* Big William "Billy" W. Williams
* 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 (Turned good in this)
* E-123 Omega
* Elise Oriana III
* Espio the Chameleon
* Flash Sentry
* Fluttershy
* Froggy
* 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
* 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
* Starlight Glimmer
* Sunset Shimmer
* Tai Kamiya
* Thunderlane
* Tikal
* Tiny Tiger/Tucker Tigerson (Turned good in this)
* TK Takaishi-Ishida
* Trixie
* Twilight Sparkle
* Vector the Crocodile
* Yuffie Kisaragi (Turned good in this)

**Villains**

* Arukenimon (Human form only)
* Cubot
* Demidevimon
* Dingodile/Dale Wallaroo (Turned good in this)
* Dr. Eggman
* Dr. Nefarious Tropy
* Dr. Neo Cortex
* Dr. Nitros Brio
* Dr. Nitros Gin
* Hunter J
* Infinite
* Jack O'Lantern/Jack Lambert (Debut; Human form)
* Koala Kong/Kent Kong
* Komodo Joe/Joe Komadipatatim
* Komodo Moe/Moe Komadipatatim
* Loki
* Mephiles the Dark (Weak form)
* Mummymon (Human form only)
* Myotismon (Temporally changes into Malomyotismon in this)
* Nitros Oxide
* Orbot
* Pinstripe Potoroo/Paul "Pinstripe" Potolini
* Ripper Roo/Ricky Rooter
* Sephiroth
* Tiny Tiger/Tucker Tigerson (Turned good in this)
* Tribot
* Uka-Uka
* Vanitas
* Yuffie Kisaragi (Turned good in this)

## Episode Titles in Other Languages

* Japanese
	+ マウサー包囲！ ジャックランバートの場合
	+ Mausā Hōi! Jakku Ranbāto no Baai
	+ Mouser Siege! The Case of Jack Lambert
* English
	+ USA: A Thing About Rats (Teenage Mutant Ninja Mobians Version)
	+ UK: A Thing About Rats (Teenage Mutant Ninja Mobians Version)
* Latin America Spanish
	+ El Caso de los Mousers
	+ The Case of the Mousers
* Castilian Spanish
	+ El Caso de los Mousers
	+ The Case of the Mousers
* Catalan
	+ Mouser Atac
	+ Mouser Attack
* French
	+ Invasion des Mousers
	+ Invasion of the Mousers
* Canadian French
	+ Envazyon nan Mousers yo
	+ Invasion of the Mousers
* German
	+ Jack Lambert und die Mousers
	+ Jack Lambert and the Mousers
* Italian
	+ Mousers a Piede Libero
	+ Mousers on the Loose
* Portuguese
	+ Novos Aliados e Inimigos
	+ New Allies and Enemies
* Brazilian Portuguese
	+ Novos Aliados e Inimigos
	+ New Allies and Enemies
* Mandarin Chinese
	+ 捕鼠动物的围攻！ 杰克兰伯特的案例
	+ Bǔ shǔ Dòngwù de Wéigōng! Jiékè Lán bó tè de Anlì
	+ Mouser Siege! The Case of Jack Lambert
* Cantonese Chinese
	+ 對捕鼠器的圍攻！ 傑克蘭伯特的案子
	+ Duì Bǔ shǔ qì de Wéigōng! Jiékè Lán bó tè de Anzi
	+ Mouser Siege! The Case of Jack Lambert
* Korean
	+ 쥐공성전! 잭 램버트의 사례
	+ Jwi Gongseongjeon! Jaeg Laembeoteuui Salye
	+ Mouser Siege! The Case of Jack Lambert
* Danish
	+ Mousers Mysterium
	+ Mystery of the Mousers
* Dutch
	+ Nieuwe Bondgenoten in Tiny, Dingodile, en Yuffie
	+ New Allies in Tiny, Dingodile, and Yuffie
* Swedish
	+ Den Onda Mousers Ge sig på
	+ The Evil Mousers Attack
* Icelandic
	+ Hrun með Mousers
	+ Clash with the Mousers
* Norwegian
	+ Invasjon av Mousers
	+ Invasion of the Mousers
* Thai
	+ การล้อมของนักสืบ! กรณีของแจ็คแลมเบิร์
	+ Kār ̂Lxm ̄Khxng Nạks̄ụ̄b! Krṇī ̄Khxng Cæ̆kh Læ mbeir̒
	+ Mouser Siege! The Case of Jack Lambert
* Russian
	+ Мышки на Oхоте
	+ Myshki na Okhote
	+ Mousers on the Hunt
* Polish
	+ Oblężenie Mousers
	+ Siege of the Mousers
* Finnish
	+ Mousers, Tiny, Dingodile, ja Yuffie, Oi Minun
	+ Mousers, Tiny, Dingodile, and Yuffie, Oh My
* Hungarian
	+ Jack Lambert és a Mousers Sztrájk
	+ Jack Lambert and the Mousers Strike
* Greek
	+ Μοβιανσ έναντι ποντικόθηρας
	+ Movians Enanti Pontikóthiras
	+ Mobians Vs. Mousers
* Hebrew
	+ להילחם נגד המוסר
	+ Ihylhm ngd Hmvsr
	+ Fight Against the Mousers
* Arabic
	+ غزارة صائد الفئران
	+ Ghazarat Sayid Alfiran
	+ Mouser Invasion

## Episode Links

Previous: S1E03: Enter Loki the Trickster and his Group

Next: S1E05: Hot-Rodding Creatures from Dimension X