Verminous Skumm attempts to create a cloud of super-acid rain to destroy cities, while Ma-Ti battles self-esteem issues that ultimately lead to him taking a hiatus from the team.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Achilles in His Tent: Ma-Ti refuses to go with the others, claiming that he'd just get in their way. However, when he realizes that they're in danger, he takes his ring again and goes after them.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Nose: Kwame catches Gi in a Bridal Carry after she falls off the climbing wall. In return, she playfully boops his nose after getting back on her feet again.
- Book Ends: The episode begins with Ma-Ti struggling with and ultimately falling off the climbing wall. It ends with the others watching and congratulating him on successfully scaling it.
- Catch a Falling Star: When Gi falls off the climbing wall, Kwame, who's waiting at the bottom, catches her. It's a relatively realistic example because Kwame is strong and the climbing wall isn't very high.
- Crisis Makes Perfect: Ma-Ti struggles with the climbing wall and eventually loses his grip and tumbles to the ground. When the other Planeteers are trapped and his only way to help involves climbing a wall, he manages it. Given that Ma-Ti says he's "afraid" and that Gaia gives him a pep talk the second time, it's implied his initial failure was more related to lack of confidence than lack of skill.
- Deadly Gas: Skumm seals the captive Planeteers into a room filling with toxic fumes. They can't use their rings to get rid of them for various reasons (e.g., Gi's powers would cause the waste to leach into the groundwater), so their only option is to call Ma-Ti, whose ring fortunately gets his attention.
- Height Angst: One of Ma-Ti's main complaints about himself is how small he is compared to the other, teenage, Planeteers. It starts early when he has difficulty with the obstacle course and becomes one of his main reasons he's useless to the team. He discovers an upside to his shortness when he has to sneak into Skumm's lair; Skumm and his henchmen can't easily see someone who's so much smaller than the others.
- Hey, You!: The trope name appears when Captain Planet shows up to stop Verminous Skumm's latest plot (a cloud of acid rain). Skumm is not pleased or respectful.Skumm: Hey, you! GET OFF OF MY CLOUD!
- Innocently Insensitive: The other Planeteers presumably don't mean to hurt Ma-Ti's feelings by laughing when he falls into the mid pit on the obstacle course. After all, Gi and Kwame spend a little bit messing with each other and laughing at the minor mishaps that result (one of which involved Kwame narrowly avoiding falling into the mud pit like Ma-Ti). However, it serves as the final straw that convinces Ma-Ti he's not helpful to the group.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his habit of putting his foot in his mouth, Wheeler is the first to notice that Ma-Ti is upset and stays, trying to argue him out of it, until Ma-Ti snaps at him to go away.
- Muggle Sports, Super Athletes: Gi and Kwame get into a race up the climbing wall, and they use their powers playfully to get in each other's way. Gi turns the dirt in front of the wall into a mud pit, forcing Kwame to pull up short. Kwame retaliates by causing a minor earthquake that shakes her off the wall.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Ma-Ti's Heroic BSoD over his perceived uselessness is strong enough that the normally gung-ho, cheerful Nice Guy effectively quits the team and snaps at Wheeler to go away when his older friend persists in trying to talk him into coming on the latest mission.
- Pun-Based Title: The title is a pun on "reign of terror."
- Shout-Out: When Captain Planet shows up to deal with the problem, Skumm yells at him to get off his cloud.
- Terms of Endangerment: Skumm calls Linka "my pretty little Planeteer" after he catches her sabotaging his latest operation. Given that he's a rat-like mutant and that he almost immediately tries to suffocate her and the others in an improvised Gas Chamber, it's not remotely friendly.
- A True Hero: Although Captain Planet deals with Skumm's latest scheme, he declares that Ma-Ti, who overcame his fear and self-doubt to save his older teammates, is the "real hero."
