BRIEF STORYLINE: Channel Six News Boss Burne Thompson has a traumatic encounter with a pesky rat, and this motivates him to tell April to do a report on the increasing population of rats in New York. April goes to the sewers and finds nothing that will help her report, and returns to the Channel Six news building, just in time for her deadline. However, April and Irma's TV van gets chewed and punctured by the rats on the way back. They are chased by a aggressive pack of rats and they get on the nearest bus.
More problems arise for April, when the lights go out during her live editorial. April has vanished after the lights come back on. The turtles hesitate no longer after witnessing the strange happening on TV in their lair.
We find out it's the Rat King who has kidnapped April, and he has an army of all the city rats that are only loyal to him. He plans to form a "ratocracy" government. April mistakenly slips out that Splinter is a rat, and this interests the Rat King very much so.
Irma helps out the turtles and Splinter in the search for April. Splinter then suffers strange bouts of confusion and is in a trance. Then the turtles meet the Rat King for the first ever time. The Rat King plays flute music and Splinter is under his control, Splinter is now set on destroying the turtles!
Is the new threat of the Rat King going to put the final nail in the coffin, for the turtles as Splinter has been forced to turn against them? Splinter has great mental powers though, will he manage to snap out of it?
TMNT REVIEW HQ COMMENTS: A very solid episode, and a good introduction to the Rat King. The episode gets off to an original start with Burne Thompson in his car stuck in a traffic jam, and you're not sure is going to happen next. A rat pops out of nowhere, causing him to crash.
The turtles in their first scene, funnily over-react to Michaelangelo going out into the rain to collect a pizza. The suspenseful music think it is something really serious going on, deceiving the viewer.
The first action scene works well, with a large groupof rats chasing Irma and April. The music creates the panic scenario of the scene.
Once again, we see the turtles saying something funny that reminds you this is only a cartoon. Donatello wishes he had the anti-gravity boots he had in episode 6, when the turtles are climbing the Channel Six building. Irma's turn next to be funny. After being sickened by Vernon's bumbling, she says she is glad to be a member of the opposite sex.
The build up to the first sighting of the Rat King, and who exactly is behind the rats crisis is done well, with the rats starting to cause more trouble in the city, and a taste of his flute music, which hypnotises Splinter for a few seconds.
The villain's plan is original, to take over the city with his army of the rats and create a "ratocracy". April's reaction to his plan is funny, saying he is "nuttier than a trukload of fruitcakes".
The surpise action scene of seeing Splinter attacking the turtles and dismantling all their offensive moves is good. Then there's a good twist that Splinter looks like he will fly-kick the turtles, but he goes for the waterpipe instead, and has broken free from Rat King's control.
In a rare happening, Vernon and Irma drop down into the sewers. However, Vernon comically doesn't last long down there, getting too worked up about rats, and runs out mistakenly thinking a passing cuddly toy is a rat. A funny line from Vernon too, when he first hear of the Rat King, "i'm not dressed for royalty!".
The editing is sharp to the end, in a good final action scene, where the Rat King nearly gets blown up from his own small soda can-size bombs. Its not the best of endings, when Donatello invents a new machine that will dispose of the Rat King. Yes you guessed it, the machine goes schizo.
"ENTER:THE RAT KING" GETS A: 3/5 RATING.
