The Lesson (TMNT 2003 Episode)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003)
"The Lesson"
Season Code: S03E13
Episode: 65
Airdate: December 18, 2004
Written by: Michael Ryan
Supervising Producer: Lloyd Goldfine
Producers: Gary Richardson
Frederick U. Fierst
Al Kahn
Norman Grossfeld
Thomas Kenney
Supervising Director: Roy Burdine
Story Editor: Michael Ryan

"The Lesson" is the sixty-fifth episode of the animated series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), which originally aired on December 18, 2004.

Contents

[edit] Information

Major Characters:

Secondary Characters:
  • Arnie
  • Stevie
  • Neighborhood Bullies
  • Splinter
  • April

Main Locations, Vehicles and Accessories:

  • April’s Shop
  • Turtle Lair
  • Alley
  • Rooftop
  • Streets of NYC

[edit] Episode

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Voice-Over Introduction


Leonardo: The city has a life all its own, especially at night. Sometimes it's quiet—too quiet. But you don't notice. Maybe you should. Because in the darkness, when you're all alone, you never know what could be lurking around the next corner, or even at your own backdoor! And you always think nothing bad is ever gonna happen to you, so you have to ask yourself "Are you ready?" Well, are you?

[edit] Plot Synopsis


In April's antique shop and over hot chocolate, April tells the Turtles she's disappointed her martial arts training isn't going well because Casey Jones caught her by surprise. She asks the Turtles if they can train her but they immediately turn her down — not for lack of faith in her — but because they've already tried training someone not realizing the damage they were causing. They then tell April a story of when they were very young. Having been forbidden to go topside by Splinter, they do so one day in secret and see a gang of street hockey players teasing a young boy named Arnie. They decide to teach Arnie how to defend himself and do – one Turtle at a time – by putting on the same clothes and appear as the same person to Arnie.

The Turtles' differences in personality, preferred fighting method and ideology, however, cause them to feed Arnie contradictory information that makes it very confusing for him. For example, while Leonardo promotes finding inner strength through meditation, Michelangelo tells him to "forget all that boloney." Donatello tells Arnie to always be strategic, while Raphael tells him to never think, to only act and react. Leonardo, then, puts Arnie to the final test: face his enemy "using everything you've learned." Arnie gets beaten up. While he's gone the Turtles realize none of them had taught him anything useful, each one thinking the other Turtles would teach him fighting skills. They decide to re-train him but just then they are found out by Splinter. He forbids them from teaching any longer and tells them Arnie has to find his own path, as they must.

April asks the Turtles whatever became of their student. Because they never finished his training, they don't know. The scene cuts away to Arnie thinking of telling "the kid in the red hat" his training isn't working. Just then the gang of bullies begin to harass Arnie's friend. Angered, Arnie faces the bullies and beats them all up with their own hockey equipment. As they run away he yells they better watch themselves because "Arnold Casey Jones ain't letting you push nobody around no more!"

[edit] Quotes

  • April: Maybe you guys can help with my ninja training.
    Raphael: No way. (Other Turtles shake their head)
    Apirl: Why not? I'm a quick learner.
    Donatello: No, April, it's not you. It's us.
    Leonardo: Last time we tried to play sensei, well, let's just say it didn't work out too well.
    Raphael: Yeah, we thought we could teach this kid, and we were just kids ourselves.
  • Leonardo: You have to be serious about wanting to change things. You have to feel the power. Connect with the power. Find your inner core. Your honor. Your true heart. [...] Stay focused and breathe and you'll find your true strength.
  • Michelangelo: The first and most important lesson is this: you need the right attitude!
  • Donatello: It's important to really think your actions through. It's all like a game of chess. You have to be thinking three to four moves ahead of your adversary – planning, knowing what's coming.
  • Raphael: Listen, pal, the first and most important lesson is: Never think. Never! Just act and react, and always attack! What you need is a weapon. It's all about the weapons.

[edit] Trivia

  • Second flashback episode to the younger Turtles.
  • The book Casey Jone's friend is reading is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

[edit] Series chronology

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) Chronology
Previous Episode: Current Episode: Next Episode:
New Blood The Lesson The Darkness Within


Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) Season Guide
  1. "The Christmas Aliens"
  2. "Space Invaders"
  3. "Worlds Collide"
  4. "Touch and Go"
  5. "Hunted"
  6. "H.A.T.E."
  7. "Nobody's Fool"
  8. "New Blood"
  9. "The Lesson"
  10. "The Darkness Within"
  11. "Mission of Gravity"
  12. "The Entity Below"
  13. "Time Travails"
  14. "Hun on the Run"
  15. "Reality Check"
  16. "Across the Universe"
  17. "Same As It Never Was"
  18. "The Real World"
  19. "Bishop's Gambit"
  20. "Exodus"

Return to TMNT (2003) Episode Guide

[edit] See also


[edit] External links