Mind Meld
- Absurd Phobia: Donnie is apparently afraid of beach balls.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Fed up with his brothers' stupidity, Donnie uses a machine to make them as smart as him, only for them to become even more insufferable than him.
- Call-Back: At one point, Donnie references the time Warren Stone was cut in half.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Donnie gives us this little gem.Donnie: Well, I think the problem is that while I come up with brilliant plans, you guys just goof around like dum-dums...'cause you're dumb.
- Literal Metaphor: While trying to trick his brothers with an apology, Donnie claims there are no strings attached while an actual string is hanging from his shell. Lampshaded by Raph.
- Nap-Inducing Speak: Leo nearly falls asleep while Donnie talks about their objective.
- Only Sane Man: Donnie is the only one to take the opening mission seriously and he’s correct in pointing out how his brothers just goof off all the time.
- Skewed Priorities: At the start of the episode, Raph is more focused on photographing a pigeon with a slice of pizza in its mouth than the mission the team is on.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Donnie says this about beach balls in the Absurd Phobia moment above.
Nothing But Truffle
- An Aesop: Don't let other people abuse your kindness for their own benefit. Moreover, don't ignore someone's feelings when they're upset. Mikey's shown at the start of the episode to be (accidentally) inconsiderate towards Todd's feelings, and only after being walked all over himself by Meat Sweats does he realize his mistake.
- Artistic License - Astronomy: Mikey claims that the shadow moon truffle only grows when Jupiter eclipses the full moon.
- Assimilation Backfire: Assimilating Todd makes Meat Sweats much nicer. Mikey is put off by this at first.
- Badass Boast: Parodied with Todd.Todd: You're no match for me! I'm a master of passive-fu! It's where I take your energy and do nothing with it!
- Big Damn Heroes: Todd steps in to save Mikey from the were-tree and Meat Sweats.
- Comically Missing the Point: Mikey says that he sees Rupert Swaggart. Todd looks and says all he sees is Meat Sweats, apparently not knowing they're the same person.
- Didn't Think This Through: Mikey gets Meat Sweats to assimilate the were-tree. This weakens the tree but causes Meat Sweats to gain its powers.
- Good-Times Montage: Mikey has one with Meat Sweats after he becomes nice.
- Guardian Entity: See When Trees Attack below.
- Irony: Meat Sweats, a pig mutant, eating truffled pork chops. The irony is not lost on him.
- Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy: Todd heard Mikey was in danger from his puppy friends who heard it from his bird friends who heard it from his squirrel friends.
- Metronomic Man Mashing: The tree monster subjects Mikey to this.
- Out of Focus: The episode is about Mikey and Todd exclusively. Raph makes a brief cameo when explaining monster weaknesses in Mikey’s thought bubble, but Leo and Donnie don’t show up once.
- Pretend to Be Brainwashed: By the time they reach the shadow moon truffle, Meat Sweats' niceness has worn off, but he still fakes it to use Mikey as bait for the were-tree.
- Taking the Bullet: Meat Sweats attempts to assimilate Mikey, only for Todd to get in the way.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Averted. People are weirded out when they see Mikey and Meat Sweats in a row boat together
- When Trees Attack: The shadow moon truffle is guarded by a tree monster.
