Turtle torture!
Warning: Full spoilers from the episode follow.
Part of what made “The Fourfold Trap” work so well was that it paid off a lot of the the setups from previous episodes. Whether it was the Healing Hands in “The Deadly Venom” or the brain worm subplot in “Attack of the Mega Shredder!,” this week’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles used just enough callbacks to make this episode emotionally satisfying — not to mention a lot of fun, thanks to a Saw-inspired plot. (Those TMNT writers sure do love their horror homages!)
This storyline also had a good air of mystery about it, with the Turtles being captured one by one. I particularly enjoyed the lead-up with Mikey, whose Pokémon-like card game with Ice Cream Kitty was cut short by the sweet allure of pizza gyoza. (“EVIL! — Delicious! — but evil…”) I also thought the buildup to Karai being behind it all was really well-done, along with the surprise attack from Shredder’s henchmen.
Of course, the pièce de résistance here was Karai’s trap rooms, which were specifically designed to foil Leo, Raph, Mikey and Donnie. Not only were these traps cleverly designed, but they also added tension to Splinter’s arrival — which in itself was suitably awesome. I still love how Splinter is basically the “God Mode” of TMNT, able to beat pretty much every enemy with the littlest amount of effort (aside from Shredder, obviously). His skirmish with Bebop and Rocksteady was easily one of my favorites in this (although his offscreen takedown of Fishface also rad).
But I think what really sold me on this episode was the confrontation between Splinter and Karai. Following the heartbreaking events of “Tale of the Yokai,” as well as everything else we’ve seen, it was a poignant moment to see Splinter fight his own daughter. Luckily, Leo’s suggestion to use Healing Hands paid off, even if Splinter’s victory “came at a price,” as Tiger Claw noted. And while we knew Karai wasn’t really gone, Splinter’s reaction to seeing Karai leave him again was powerful to watch.
However, my one gripe about this episode was the “fourfold trap” itself. Like I said, the design work here was spot-on, but the traps’ solutions were pretty rudimentary. And given that the underlying message of this episode was “An effective team works as one,” we didn’t really see that in the end. When Donnie mentioned that all the traps’ circuitry was connected, I thought there would be more to it than literally just breaking down brick walls.
Regardless, this episode ended strong, with Karai finally being freed from mind control. Hopefully this means we’ve seen the last of “Evil Karai,” as the series is quickly running out of convincing ways to keep her aligned with Shredder. Either way, “The Fourfold Trap” gave this side of her character a nice sendoff. Now it’s just a matter of finding her way back to the Turtles and settling her mutation once and for all.
“The Fourfold Trap” featured a great return for Karai, whose brain worm dilemma was finally settled thanks to Master Splinter. This episode also did a good job of pitting the Turtles against interesting new obstacles — even if they were overcome rather easily. Even still, the main conflict between Karai and Splinter was strong enough to override some of the abruptness towards the end.