TMNT has been on hiatus for a few weeks now and finally returns with a new episode. Parasitica was a little underwhelming for me. I can always appreciate a good zombie episode of pretty much any show (I'm looking at you Community) but this TMNT effort was less than spectacular. That being said there was still some standout hilarity and good action.
The episodes "zombie-ism" revolves around a mutated wasp that has the ability to infect other insects with a virus to protect its eggs. (I have no idea if this is an actual thing but it feels very similar to the cordiceps fungus from The Last of Us) A fun action sequence between the turtles and a giant wasp takes place and eventually Leo gets stung. This is when the first signs of him acting strange start to appear.
When the bros return to the layer with the giant wasp egg in tow, things start to get creepy. (The black eyes effect they used for the infected turtles was very effective) Leo becomes more and more obsessed with the egg and eventually Raph decides he needs to step in and destroy it. But in the proccess he gets bitten by Leo. This passes the virus to him and they both become egg obsessed.
That leaves only Mikey and Donni to figure out whats going on. We learn that the end game of the wasp egg is to eventually hatch and allow the infected turtles to be willingly eaten by the newborn wasps. (creepy right?) In an attack by Leo and Raph, Donni gets bitten and becomes infected before he can finish the antidote. Leaving only Mikey to finish it. Unfortunately even he gets bitten and we're lead to believe that the turtles have met their doom. Luckily we find out in a pretty funny flashback sequence that Mikey was able to finish the antidote and cure himself before it was too late. He even pretends to be infected to fool the other 3. ("I finally see whats to awesome about the egg")
I'm begging to get tired of the zombie craze that seems to be affecting everyone (excuse the pun) and this one felt especially tired. We get enough zombie-ness from all over the place and I don't need it in my TMNT.
All said and done Parasitica just wasn't as fun as some previous episodes have been. Without the supporting cast of interesting characters like Splinter or even Karai the episodes can get tiring. Additionally this is very standalone episode, which normally I wouldn't mind, but this one is taking place after a long break and right after things with the Krang and Shredder were heating up. So to have an episode that doesn't touch on any of the continuing story was even more of a let down. I hope they return to the main story in the coming weeks.
A few side notes:
- How cool was the slow mo sequence at the beginning with Mikeys Nunchuck? The show continues to show how cool those weapons can be.
- I still want Space Heroes to be its own show. Its too funny not to be.
