Warning: Full spoilers from the episode follow.
After the Turtles’ last encounter with the Creep in the season premiere, we knew it was only a matter of time before that jar of plant goo reemerged. (“Remember when he turned Raph into a plant? Good times.”) But as well as returning one of Season 3’s stronger new villains, “The Creeping Doom” also featured a very funny storyline for Donnie, whose accidental exposure to one of his concoctions left him rapidly losing brain cells.
It’s great how at this point in the series the Turtles’ rogues gallery is such that they’re able to bring in old one-off villains like the Creep and use them in new and exciting ways. For example, the Creep attacking the Turtles where they live (literally, in this case) was an interesting shake-up that gave us both cool set pieces and another baddie — the very first baddie, in fact — Snakeweed! Or rather, “Son of Snakeweed.”
“I like french fries!”
This led to some fun actions scenes midway through the episode, as the Turtles went up against both plant monsters at once. I particularly enjoyed Raphael getting his revenge (or at least trying to get his revenge) on the Creep for what he did to him in the season premiere. It was also nice how April joined in on the fight this time, manning the Turtle Van.
But obviously the highlight of “The Creeping Doom” was Donatello’s slow spiral into brainlessness, which brought about some of the episode’s biggest laughs. You could tell voice actor Rob Paulsen was having a ball recording this one, demonstrating his wide comedic range. (And was it just me, or did he slip a little Pinky from Pinky and the Brain into the mix at one point?)
“Highly doubtful.”
The finale here was also pretty cool. By now we’ve come to expect bad guy “evolutions” — and more recently combined evolutions, a la Mega Shredder in the previous episode — and this week’s Creepweed was definitely a rad design. I also dug the final confrontation between Creepweed and Donnie, with the latter doing his best Ash Williams impression. That said, the ending did seem a little rushed, as Mikey’s antidote apparently had a delayed effect off-screen. Regardless, “The Creeping Doom” was a hoot.
