Airdate: August 22, 2012
Lloyd is getting closer to unlocking his full potential as the Green Ninja and is almost ready to take on his father. In another attempt to stall his son's progress, Lord Garmadon uses the Mega Weapon to travel through time and change the past.
This episode provides examples of:
- Back to the Early Installment: The ninja follow Garmadon back to the pilot episodes after Garmadon travels to the past to prevent Lloyd from becoming the Green Ninja.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: The sight of the present becoming altered causes Sensei Wu to exclaim, "Great Scott!", à la Doc Brown.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The reason for Garmadon's roundabout plot. He refuses to harm or kill his son, so he has to ensure Lloyd never becomes a Ninja in the first place.
- Make Wrong What Once Went Right: Garmadon goes back to when he kidnapped Nya, and purposely botches the attempt, in hopes that Kai would never become a ninja as a result. The present-day ninja talk Wu into persuading Kai to join his school, anyway, and then assist Garmadon's mooks in a more successful kidnapping of Nya to properly motivate Kai's past self.
- Mirror Routine: Present Kai removes the mirror Past Kai was looking in and mirrors his movements to trick him.
- Misery Builds Character: The main reason Kai became a ninja is because he wanted to save his sister, Nya. But since Garmadon stopped Past Nya from getting captured, Past Kai isn't motivated enough to become a ninja. So the future ninja have to give kidnap Past Nya to motivate him.
- My Future Self and Me: Garmadon teams up with his past self to destroy the ninja in the past. Also technically counting as a Villain Team-Up. Kai later teams with his own past self in order to save him from Future Garmadon.
- Never the Selves Shall Meet: The present-day Ninja constantly try not to bump into their past selves. However, when Garmadon teams up with his past self, Kai does the same.
- Oh, Crap!: Garmadon seems outright upset when he sees how Lloyd has been aged up.
- P.O.V. Sequel: This episode revisits the Pilot from some new perspectives, such as that of Sensei Wu, whom the present-day Ninja involve in their plans to save the past.
- Ripple Effect Indicator: Lloyd disappears from a present-day photo of the ninja whenever Garmadon sets the past off track.
- Temporal Paradox: The Ninja reset the timeline by destroying the Mega Weapon, causing its remains to shoot up into the sky. However, while time remains reset, the Mega Weapon remains in space by the time of Season 3, meaning Garmadon's trip to the past both did and didn't happen.
- Terminator Twosome: A bit more than twosome, but the idea is the same.
- Time Travel: The plot of the episode.
- Time Travel Episode: The Mega Weapon is utilized in this episode to create a time travel plot.
