The fifth and final season of ''

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is an American media franchise created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Leonardo, Michelangelo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Miche ...

'' aired on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

from March 19, 2017, to November 12, 2017, consisting of 20 episodes. On January 11, 2018, the season became available at

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

Plot

Following Splinter's death and the Super Shredder's destruction at the hands of

Leonardo Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate ...

, the Turtles,

April O'Neil April O'Neil is a fictional character from the ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' comics. She is the first human ally of the Ninja Turtles. Her main love interest in the series is Casey Jones. April made her first appearance in the Mirage comic ...

Casey Jones John Luther "Casey" Jones (March 14, 1863 – April 30, 1900) was an American railroader who was killed when his passenger train collided with a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi. Jones was a locomotive engineer for the Illinois C ...

and Karai have all moved on with their daily lives. Leo takes on even more responsibility as sensei. However, Tiger Claw and an underground cult dedicated to the Foot Clan have plans to bring back the Shredder, with the help of a Demodragon named Kavaxas. Raphael's Salamandrian girlfriend, Mona Lisa, and their friend, Sal Commander, arrive on Earth asking the Turtles for help finding the Newtralizer, a Salamandrian bounty hunder who nearly killed Sal Commander at one point seeks to destroy the Utroms. It is later revealed that the Newtralizer is working with Lord Dregg, who has cheated death and sworn revenge on the Turtles. In another dimension inhabited by anthropomorphic animals in

Feudal Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inve ...

, a lone rabbit ronin named

Miyamoto Usagi is a fictional character, who appears in the American comic book ''Usagi Yojimbo'', a Dark Horse Comics book created by Stan Sakai. Usagi is an anthropomorphic rabbit (''Usagi'' is Japanese for "rabbit") and a ronin now walking the ''musha shu ...

has been tasked with protecting an unpleasant

Pug The Pug is a breed of dog originally from China, with physically distinctive features of a wrinkly, short-muzzled face and curled tail. The breed has a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, most often light brown (Fawn (colour) ...

named Kintaro, the "Golden Child" of the Sky Buddha. Meanwhile, the gray wolf wizard Jei transports the turtles into his reality to serve as mind-controlled hitmen, in order to prevent Usagi from ever reaching the Temple of the Sky Buddha. A flashback (prequel) shows how Splinter and the four Turtles, as babies, found their underground lair while being pursued by the Kraang. Splinter realizes he has been given a second chance at fatherhood, and names the infant Turtles after his favorite Italian artists of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

. After Splinter tells the story to his sons (who are kids when they first hear the story), he gives them their signature weapons and prepares them for the next level of their ninja training. In an alternate post-apocalyptic future (set half a century later), humanity and most of mutant-kind (the

Mighty Mutanimals ''Mighty Mutanimals'' is a superhero team spin-off comic in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The team first appeared in the comic books series ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures'', where they formed as a team of mutant animals ...

- who was somehow unable to shield herself from the blast with her strong psionic powers-

, snake-mutant Karai, and Shinigami) have all been wiped out after an extremely powerful and destructive mutagen bomb was mysteriously triggered. An elderly, weathered version of Raphael and a robot containing Donatello's consciousness scour a wasteland that was once their home of New York City. They encounter a meerkat named Mira who is hunted by a

honey badger The honey badger (''Mellivora capensis''), also known as the ratel ( or ), is a mammal widely distributed in Africa, Southwest Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Because of its wide range and occurrence in a variety of habitats, it is liste ...

named Verminator Rex and his gang of bikers. Mira reveals a map imprinted on her arm that leads to a haven called "the Green Paradise" or "Oasis". During

Halloween Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...

, the Turtles and their time-traveling ally, Renet, are reunited with their enemy, Savanti Romero as he plans to turn all of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

into a monster-filled

dystopia A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

while sending them back in time at

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

, during the age of Dracula and 1810s

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...

, with

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ex ...

. In the series finale, the Turtles once again meet their counterparts from the 1987 series. The 1987 versions of the Shredder and Krang have fled to the 2012 reality and seek help from the 2012 versions of Bebop and Rocksteady as they plan to conquer both dimensions. The Mighty Mutanimals are later enlisted by the Turtles to help stop the villains.

Production

On July 10, 2015, Nickelodeon ordered a fifth season of ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles''. The first four episodes were released to DVD on March 21, 2017, two days after the TV-premiere. On March 2, 2017, Nickelodeon announced that season five would be the show's final season. It was renamed ''Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' for this last season, and its opening titles were changed. "The Wasteland Warrior, "The Impossible Desert", and "Carmageddon!" are typically presented as a television movie, " Raphael: Mutant Apocalypse". Although these episodes were not the last to air, and not officially considered canon by Nickelodeon, they were the last episodes produced. In an interview, executive producer Ciro Nieli revealed that he intended for these episodes to be the series finale in order to prevent any alteration of the timeline that he and the rest of the crew had built, despite the episodes' contradictions to previously established canon (most notably Renet's description of the future from the

Season 3 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In tempera ...

episode "Turtles in Time"). However, Nickelodeon chose to air those episodes on Nicktoons in the middle of the season, and declared "Wanted: Bebop and Rocksteady" the finale instead. On threads from the official TMNT twitter, the company indicated that "Raphael: Mutant Apocalypse" is non-canon, and a press release for the DVD refers to the special as "another dimension".

Episodes

Notes

References

{{Portal bar, Cartoon, Television, United States, Speculative fiction 2017 American television seasons Transylvania in fiction Fiction set in 1819 Middle Ages in popular culture Television shows set in ancient Egypt Parallel universes in fiction Crossover animation 5 Halloween fiction Dracula television shows Works based on Frankenstein Post-apocalyptic animated television series Television series set in the future Crossover science fiction television episodes