“TCRI”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) episode
Inside TCRI
Season Code:	117
Episode:	17
Original airdate	March 1, 2013
Written by	Joshua Sternin & J.R. Ventimilia
Supervising Producer	Ant Ward
Producers:	MacGregor Middleton
	Joshua Sternin
	J.R. Ventimilia
	Peter Hastings
	Ciro Nieli
Directed by	Michael Chang
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "The Pulverizer" "Cockroach Terminator"

"TCRI" is the seventeenth episode of the 2012 TV series. It first aired on March 1, 2013.

Plot Synopsis Edit

The episode begins with the Turtles in the Patrol Buggy chasing after two Kraang-droids in a helicopter in an attempt to get back the power cell. Donnie attempts to track the power cell the Kraang are carrying with his T-Phone, but the phone breaks during the chase and the Kraang escape. Meanwhile, the Kraang return to their base with the power cell and prepare to restore it to their dimensional portal .

Leo decides they should talk to Leatherhead about the Kraang's power cell. So, they head over to Leatherhead's new home, and Mikey tries to wake him up gently. However, he freaks out and grabs Donnie by the head. Leatherhead is able to realize again that the Turtles are his friends, and he is able to calm himself. Donnie steps away from Leatherhead, then Leo tells Leatherhead that they lost the power cell. The only clue Leatherhead can give them about where the Kraang could have taken the power cell is a drawing of a symbol. At first, Donnie can't figure out what it means until Splinter advises he calms down. Donnie does so for a second before he has an epiphany. He brings his brothers topside and reveals the symbol used for the Kraang to operate under, and tracks that logo to the T.C.R.I. work center in Brooklyn.

Back in the Lair, April shows the Turtles blueprints of the building. She reports that the bottom two thirds of it are normal offices where humans work, but top third of the building is blank. They later break into the building hidden in a large box, with April disguised as a delivery person with a box that gets into the elevator. The Kraang wait there to defeat their enemy(presumed by them to be the turtles)but instead Leatherhead appears and fights off the Kraang-droids as the Turtles climb the elevator shaft to the upper floors. However, they have to fight even more Kraang-droids along the way, and by the time they reach their destination they are knocked out by toxic gas.

When they recover, the Turtles are trapped in a tank supplying them oxygen in large room with the portal in front them, Kraang aliens are everywhere and the air is full of toxic gas. Donnie concludes that the gas is what the air must be like on the Kraang's world. While his brothers wonder why the Kraang would invade a planet they can't live on, Mikey surprises them with the answer: the Kraang want to mutate the Earth so that they can live there, killing everything else in the process.

Luckily, they break a window, releasing all of the gas and use Leatherhead as a distraction, so the turtles can reach level 40 in the building. The turtles plan to retrieve the cell without the Kraang knowing, but when they try to hack or break the glass globe protecting the cell, the flying brain squids that shoot energy blasts also pose as a threat, and they had armor. The portal is now in use, and unexpectedly a giant evil rock monster, Traag, comes out of the Kraang dimension. The Turtles aren't strong enough to beat him, but roaring out of nowhere, Leatherhead steps up and grabs Traag by his feet, throwing him towards the portal, trying to blow up both the portal and Tragg. But however Traag is still not beaten, and the portal isn't broken eiether. Because the turtles couldn't take him, Leatherhead pulls him into the portal and they both disappear back to Dimension X. Before the Turtles can shut the portal down, more Kraang surround them and they are forced to escape.

Returning home to the lair, Leo reports that they've failed their mission and that Leatherhead is gone, much to Mikey's dismay. However, Donnie finds vital information on a Kraang data drive Mikey picked up in TCRI. Master Splinter and April discuss why the Kraang need April's father so badly. To everyone's shock, Donnie finds out from the data drive that the Kraang didn't need April's father. It's April herself they were really after.

Gallery Edit

See: TCRI (episode) / Gallery

Notes Edit

Continuity Edit

• Leatherhead returns in this episode and in the end goes through the portal to Dimension X.
• This is the first episode where the Kraang's home dimension is called "Dimension X".
• First appearance of Traag.
• First appearance of the Kraang's headquarters of TCRI.
• Leatherhead appears to recognize Traag, implying that he has encountered him before or that like the Kraang, there are more of his kind in Dimension X.

Exterior References Edit

• When Mikey tries to wake up Leatherhead, he says "Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey", a line Greg Cipes also used as Beast Boy in Teen Titans.

Basic Trivia Edit

• This was the first time April and Leatherhead appeared in the same episode, although they did not appear together at the same time.
• A woman identical to Mrs. Campbell (who is likely the same model) works the front desk at TCRI and tries to stop April when she sneaks the Turtles and Leatherhead into the building.

Quotes Edit

Donatello: "Yes,you did it again!!Why do you keep grabbing my face?What is wrong with my face?!"
Raphael: "Would you like the list alphabetically or in desenting order of grossness?"

Michelangelo: "What are they gonna do? Mutate the whole planet so they can live here and we can't?"(Leo,Donnie and Raph are shocked)
Donatello: "I don't know what's scarier, what you just said or you said it!"
Michelangelo: "Wait, what I'd say?"

Leonardo: "We're not in Kansas anymore."
Michelangelo: "I thought we're in New York!" (Raph punches in the back of his head)

Michaelangelo: The Olympics!
Donatello: No
Michaelangelo: I got it , The Olympics
Donatello: Stop guessing! Obviously it's a Kraang symbol
Leonardo: But from where?
Michaelangelo (raises his hand): The Olympics!
Donatello: Quit it! There's something here and I can figure it out. If you all just go away and LET ME THINK!
(The other three leave Donatello to his research , Shortly after , Splinter arrives)
Splinter: Oh , The Olympics?

Raphael: TCRI? They're behind the Kraang Plot
Leonardo: The Invasion?
Michaelangelo (while jogging in place): The Olympics? (Raphael slaps him)

Michelangelo:(hums the Olyimpics theme while climbing elevator wires)
Donatello: "Are you humming the Oylimpics theme?"
Michelangelo: "It seemed appropriate." (Raph climbs to the top. He opens elevator door and sees Kraang-droids putting on human disguise)
Raphael: "ARRGH!"(closes doors) "I gotta wash my eyes."

(Kraang open door and come on elevator and the turtles defeat them)
Leonardo: "All right guys. Lets get in where it's safe."(opens hatch and sees lots of Kraang-droids start shooting) "I've gotta stop saying things like that!"

(Raph accidently hits button, making an alarm go off)
Michelangelo: "Horray!"
Leonardo: "What?"
Michelangelo: "For once somebody sets off an alarm and it's not me!"

Leonardo: "Imagine if they knew who they were working for.(Kraang voice) The ones who are working for this place must punch the card that is known as the 'timecard' in the clock which is known as the clock of time."

Video

TCRI Episode Preview(00:24)
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