After interrogating Snake and learning about the Kraang, the turtles start to plan how to get into the Kraang's stronghold. Using a van as a distraction while they scale a nearby wall they manage to get in, but are caught relatively quickly and need to fight their way through the base. Though they locate the O'Neils, the two are quickly ushered out of their cell and loaded onto a helicopter. The turtles are hindered in their pursuit by the appearance of Snakeweed— formerly Snake— who has mutated into a giant plant monster. While Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo take on Snakeweed, Donatello goes to rescue the O'Neils, but only manages to save April. Don promises April— who's been taken in by her aunt— that they'll help her find her dad. Meanwhile, in Japan, the Shredder discovers that Hamato Yoshi is alive thanks to one of the Turtles' shuriken making the news, and decides to go to New York.
This episode provides examples of:
- Bad "Bad Acting": Leo uses this as he tries to trick Snake. (Raph isn't acting. He's not even trying to help.)
- Catch a Falling Star: Don's mid-air rescue of April.
- Chekhov's Gun: Leo's signing (from the first part of the premier), his shuriken, and the power conduits.
- Cliffhanger: The ending has Shredder making plans to come to New York.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Quoth Don:Don: What are they doing? They're leading him straight toward that power generator! That's incredibly stupid! (Beat) Or brilliant... or... or both!
- Crush Blush: Donnie, near the end of the episode.
- Dramatic Unmask: Mikey goes for one, trying to expose Snake as a Kraang-droid. Unfortunately, Snake is not a Kraang-droid.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Despite the fact that she won't be introduced for quite some time, Karai can be heard saying "Previously" on the recap segment at the beginning of the episode.
- Establishing Character Moment: April gets to behave more like the Plucky Girl she is in later episodes in exactly two scenes; first when she tries to pull a The Guards Must Be Crazy, and later when she swears to track down the Kraang and save her dad.
- Facepalm: Most notably, Don's facepalm while wearing shuko spikes.
- Snake gets one too, as Mikey's showing off while keeping an eye on him.
- Figure It Out Yourself: Leo asks Splinter why he was made leader, Splinter's reply boils down to this.
- Flashback: To the final (pre-show) confrontation between Splinter and the Shredder.
- Foreshadowing: If you're paying attention to the background as Snake is shouting at the Kraang, you can see weeds growing out of cracks in the pavement, allowing one to figure out what he's mutating into while the screen only shows silhouettes.
- From Bad to Worse: The fight with Snakeweed turning into a fight with Snakeweed and Kraang-droids.
- Meanwhile, Don's trying to hold onto a moving helicopter... and then he starts getting shot at.
- Gilligan Cut: Raphael asks the worst thing that can come of the news story on ninjas in New York. The scene immediately cuts to Shredder, watching said report and recognizing the insignia on the featured shuriken.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: Nobody's very subtle in the Kraang's base. The usage of this trope is lampshaded at the end of the episode, with Splinter pointing out that making the news is not a good thing.
- I Warned You: When the other Turtles see for themselves that the Kraang are alien brains, Mikey spends the rest of the episode ranting about how he told them, but they didn't listen.
- I'm Standing Right Here: With the twist that Raph knew where Mikey was as he was insulting him. He just didn't care.
- Indy Ploy: Leo starts out with a plan to break into the Kraang's compound to save April and her dad. It works until they're inside the building, but things fall apart pretty fast and he's forced to improvise from there.
- My Greatest Failure: Splinter tells the story of how he fought the Shredder and lost his wife and daughter.
- Mythology Gag: Possibly the usage of the shuko/climbing spikes, since the same tool played a role in 2k3's second episode, too.
- Driving an empty van into an enemy's stronghold to act as a distraction/decoy sounds suspiciously familiar.
- "I thought this was gonna be too easy" is probably a nod to the second movie, and the over-long It's Quiet… Too Quiet gag.
- Percussive Maintenance: Raph gets fed up with waiting for Don to pick a lock, and stabs it repeatedly instead. This works surprisingly well.
- Police Are UselessApril: When you tell them your dad was kidnapped by alien brains in robot bodies, they don't take you all that seriously.
- Pun: Two from Raph.
- "An all-you-can-beat buffet" and "I'm gonna shellac you!"
- Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: The Turtles trick the Kraang into shooting at Snakeweed near a power generator to take him out.
- Sinister Silhouettes: Snakeweed as he's mutating. This likely doubles as a Gory Discretion Shot.
- Storming the Castle
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: The Kraang have apparently never seen the old "sick prisoner" routine before. Not that it allows April to escape, as there's still the problem of overpowering an alien robot to deal with.
- Twitchy Eye: Of the annoyance variety, demonstrated as Snake is getting fed up with the Kraang's Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The Shredder learned that Yoshi was alive because one of the Turtles' shurikens was left behind at the battle site and found by the news crew.
- Wham Line: "I'm going to visit an old friend."
