Back to the first question...

Take it in mind, that when Itachi did his Mangekyou Sharingan, he wasn't trying to kill Kakashi or Sasuke, just torture them. Thats why he used it. If not, I think if you do throw dummies at him, he'll kill them off some other way rather than use his Mangekyou sharingan thingy..

Itachi has lots of stuff up his sleeve definitely.

Oh and Knives.. Mut@t@ was crapping about the 219 episode.