Mind Meld

**"Mind Meld"** is the twenty-sixth episode (Episode 15A) of *Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*. It first aired on March 9th, 2019.

## Characters

* Donatello (Josh Brener)
* Leonardo (Ben Schwartz)
* Michelangelo (Brandon Mychal Smith)
* Raphael (Omar Benson Miller)
* S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. (Greg Cipes)
* Splinter

## Plot

The episode begins with the Mad Dogs trying to steal the object called the "Dragon tooth". Donnie is determined to steal the object from his enemies the Purple Dragons, while his brothers are too busy trying to take a video of pigeon eating pizza, much to Donnie's annoyance. When they infiltrate the building, the alarms sets on as it traps Mikey in a beach ball (which is Donnie's greatest phobia), thus the turtles have failed miserably.

In the lair, Mikey and Leo comfort Raph (who's crying that he wasn't able to catch the pizza pigeon on his phone), but completely overlook the failure of the important mission. Donnie is furious that his brothers only care about the pigeon instead of their mission and rages at them for their unintelligent thinking. Leo mocks Donnie, telling him that his phobia is the real reason for the failure, and that they can't be born with teamwork, and Donnie goes into total meltdown, throwing a box of crayons across the room, shouting, and stamping out of the room. Once again, his brothers ignore his distress and return to their pigeon pictures.

In the next scene, it turns out that Donatello has constructed a new invention that could increase everyone's intelligence, convinced that it will be better for his brothers to be as intelligent as he is. He tricks them into entering the machine. After he tests it on them, he is delighted to find that it seems to work, and proposes they try the mission again.

The turtles are back to their position to steal the Dragon's Tooth. It appears that the newly intelligent turtles now work together very seriously and rationally, thinking as a perfect team. They use all of their intelligence and retrieve the dragon's tooth easily, much to Donatello's joy.

In the lair, the turtles celebrate their victory with a dance. As the turtles determine what are they going to do with the Dragon's Tooth, Donatello decides to test it, but discovers to his shock, his brothers have already created their own first inventions. Donatello is impressed, but concerned that the boost in intelligence is having unexpected side effects.

Later that night, the turtles fall asleep. Donatello sleeps peacefully while his brothers are seen asleep, but with their hands writing on notebooks without waking up. The scene cuts to Leonardo's brain, where his intelligence is growing even greater than before.

The next morning, Donatello is seen skating around in the giant skating ramp and sees his brothers carrying books and asks them to join him, only to be turned down, saying that they have a lot of work to do as they leave, leaving Donatello disheartened.

A few minutes later, Donatello arrives with the box of pizza and calls his brothers for dinner, until he learns that his brothers are doing science work. Leonardo then rudely tells him to leave as they have work to do. Donatello realises that they're just trying to get rid of him, and this is exactly the hurtful and dismissive way he talks to them when he's busy. The turtles then take off their bandanas and put on purple bandanas, drawing black eyebrows (like Donatello's). Shocked, Donatello drops the pizza box, insisting that purple is his color, but again is dismissed by them. Splinter enters the lab and sees his sons wearing the same purple bandanas, thinking that his head has just hit really hard, he shrugs and walks away.

In his room, Donnie expresses to Shelldon that he'd expected a rise in intelligence, but never a change in personality. He makes a cynical jab at himself that having a team of four Donnies is more nightmare than dream, and Shelldon agrees that Donnie messed up. Donnie realises that he'd rather have his 'stupid' brothers being themselves, than genius brothers with copies of his personality, and determines to get them back.

The scene cuts to the kitchen, where we see the open pizza box in the table as three intelligent Turtles arrive and see the pizza and decide to try it. As Michelangelo reaches it, the "pizza" is revealed to be hologram and the cage falls on top of them. Donatello appears, revealing he was the one who set up that trap. However, the matters become only worse as we can see the three turtles arrive, mocking Donatello. It is revealed that the "turtles" that Donatello have captured are holographic!

Outsmarted by his brothers, Donatello goes back to his room and stares at photographs of them having fun, expressing how much he misses them, but after having a talk with Shelldon, who dryly comments that he shouldn't beat himself up over being at fault for losing his brothers forever, this gives Donatello an idea.

Donnie goes to the laboratory to talk with his brothers, falsely claiming that he is giving up, but the intelligent turtles don't fall for his tricks as they see the string pulling out from his shell. They predictably start 'overthinking' the situation, just like Donnie does sometimes. While Raphael and Michelangelo glare at the string, Leonardo believes that it is some cunning trick, loses his patience and pulls the string.

Once the string is literally pulled, Donatello is wrapped in a beach ball and reluctantly uses it to bounce at his brothers, whom, just like him, now have this same phobia. The confused Leonardo tries to pop it, but when the beach ball explodes, it multiples exponentially, and the turtles panic. Shelldon then tricks the turtles back to the laboratory and into the same machine where Donatello first upgraded their intelligence.

Once they're trapped, Donatello tries to get them back, but they're just still too intelligent. Finally, having no choice, he decides to sacrifice the Dragon's Tooth as the machine explodes. The three turtles escape the machine and Raphael grabs the dragon's tooth and glares at it. Suddenly, Raphael then bets Donnie $10 if he can fit it in his nose, implying that they are back to their normal, fun-loving selves. Relieved to see his brothers back to normal, Donnie lets out a sigh in relief and tells Raph that he'll give him $20, ending the episode.

## Trivia

* Raph is wearing a trenchcoat, which is a nod to the Turtles' usual disguise in the 1987 TV series, as well as Raph's counterpart in the 1990 film.
* The pizza pigeon Raph tries to photograph bears a slight resemblance to Pigeon Pete from the 2012 TV series.
	+ It is also a nod to the internet famous Pizza Rat.
* When Leo says that he wants a new nickname, he suggests "Blue Bluey". This, confirmed by Ben Schwartz on his Twitter, is a nod to Dewey Duck from the 2017 *Ducktales* reboot, whom he also voices.
* When Donnie draws attention to the string on his shell, he calls it "a prototype for a new aquatic battle-shell." Nice metaphor for a beach ball, Donnie.
* Donatello is confirmed to be on the Autistic Spectrum. His complete loss of physical and emotional control in this episode - specifically throwing the crayons, and then the 'Mind Meld' - is reminiscent of a 'Meltdown', when a buildup of stress can lead to irrational actions.
* Some of Donnie's pictures, as seen in his bedroom, are from past episodes; "Donnie's Gifts", "The Fast and the Furriest", "Down with the Sickness", "Mascot Melee", and "Minotaur Maze".
	+ Flashbacks (in the form of images also) of "Origami Tsunami" and "Newsworthy" are also shown.