The Turtles launch a full-scale alien attack on the Kraang.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
So far, the undisputed big bads of Season 4 have been the Triceratons, but in a season where the name of the game is Space Travel, it was only a matter of time before the Kraang came back into the picture — specifically the Utroms — and this week’s episode definitely made their latest appearance count.
The aptly titled “War for Dimension X” also featured the return of Mona Lisa and Commander Sal, who interestingly tried to form an alliance with the Kraang. (As the old saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.) And while the Salamandrians’ capture was inevitable, their presence here definitely added to the already-impressive scale of this storyline.
Of course, the most compelling parts of this episode were during the Turtles’ visit to Dimension X, along with Fugitoid (but without April or Casey, much to their chagrin). For one, we met the rest of the Chess-themed Utrom Council: Rook (Irma), Queen (Miss Campbell) and the hilariously mustachioed Pawn. (“Sacre bleu!”) What surprised me about this was finding out that, like Bishop and Norman, each member of the Council devised their own human counterparts, rather than basing them on existing humans. Which basically confirms what I already suspected: that an actual “Irma” probably never existed.
More importantly, though, we learned the very origin of Kraang Prime and how he subjugated the vast majority of the Utrom Tribe. Not only did this explain the Kraang’s hive mind and uniform speech pattern, but it also showed us just how few Utroms still remain (less than 100).
Following that, the rest of this episode was pretty much straight action, but also included lots of fun twists and turns along the way. I liked how both Mikey and Raphael followed Kraang Subprime to rescue Queen, and how that led to a nuzzly reunion between Raph and Mona Lisa. Meanwhile, Leo and Fugitoid convincing the Utrom Council to launch an all-out war on the Kraang certainly raised the stakes even more.
However, it wasn’t until the two parties clashed that “The War for Dimension X” really kicked into high gear. For example, the reemergence of the Dracodroid brought about a fun aerial set piece featuring Raphael and Mona Lisa. And just hearing Keith David say “Booyakasha indeed, Michelangelo” was enough to make me grin from ear to ear.
Meanwhile, Bishop and Subprime’s “rematch” (remember, technically, their first skirmish never really happened) was easily the highlight of this finale. In addition to the impressive camerawork, I thought it was cool how Bishop revealed Subprime’s original name was “Knight,” hence the two’s brotherly ties. Also, after Subprime’s fake-out death, it looked like he may have actually perished in that explosion with the Dracodroid. I guess time will tell if that death really sticks.
On top of that, “The War for Dimension X” gave the Turtles their next lead on the Black Hole Generator fragments — and by that I mean their exact locations. If Season 4 continues moving at the pace it’s going, the green team may be closer to achieving their goal than we thought.
In terms of balancing action, humor and story, “The War for Dimension X” was one of the strongest episodes to come out of Season 4 since the premiere. Not only did it delve into the lore and history of the Kraang, but it delivered tons of action and set pieces. Even without April and Casey getting in on the fun, there were plenty of great character moments to come out of this, particularly from Sal, Mona Lisa and Bishop.
