Also suggesting a new Metalhead are the Terminator 2 references. The obvious allusion is the thumbs up exchanged between Metalhead and Donnie at the end (and like Simon Pegg in Spaced, the ending made me emotional). The less obvious reference though, is that Metalhead basically became Skynet. At the end of the episode, Donnie remarks, “I programmed him to be intelligent, but I didn’t realize how much he had evolved.” Either through Donnie’s programming or the shock caused during the vending machine explosion, Metalhead became self-aware. The Turtles (other than Donnie) are all suspicious of Metalhead. He/it is diabolically smart in their training session and Donnie gives it more responsibilities than they’re willing to trust with a character that’s already sided with the Kraang once. It’s a really smart swerve that the story takes. Between the malfunctioning, Donnie asking what could possibly go wrong, and the show’s tendency to have allies turn in to villains of the week, the show sets it up that Metalhead will become the villain. Instead, Metalhead uses his self-awareness to save other sentient beings from a Kraang mutant prison. Metalhead’s fate was sealed the moment it got another episode focused on it. By upgrading Metalhead so much, Donnie made it fall in to the (meta-)trap of being too powerful for its own good; if it were faultier the writers wouldn’t have had to destroy it. Other Thoughts: – The vending machine that Mikey tries to get his pizza burrito out of included some interesting flavors for potato chips, including menthol, scab n’ sausage, salt n’ sweat, and mucous & chives. Anyone want to submit those to Lay’s Do Us A Flavor contest? – “LTD – Like a turtle do!”
