To combat the Ninja Turtles, the Shredder decides to mutate two street thugs into beastly supermen. In the battle, the Turtles learn more about their origins and connection to Shredder.
Tropes:
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: When Shredder approaches the street punks for volunteers to become mutants, he explains that it would give them strength and powers undreamed of, and make them mightier than a dozen normal men. The gang is uninterested. When Shredder also mentions that it would enable them to get even with the Turtles, who had humiliatingly defeated them in the previous episode, a line instantly forms.
- Create Your Own Hero: It turns out that the Shredder was the one who left mutagen in the sewers (provided for him by Krang), thinking that Yoshi would have always been a threat to him if he didn't do away with him once and for all. The fact that it turned him into a fully sapient mutant rat and provided him with four new ninjas in the long run wasn't the plan.
- Disney Death: The Turtles drop two Roadkill Rodneys into a deep drop. They're shown to have climbed themselves out of it later."YOU WON'T GET AWAY FROM US THAT EASYYYYYYYyyyyy..."
"We have to stop them!" - Informed Ability: In the climactic fight, the Turtles remark that they are never going to stop Bebop and Rocksteady, forcing them to trap them in a zoo cage. Except, throughout the episode, the Turtles are dominating every time they fight the duo. Bebop & Rocksteady fail to land a single hit on the heroes. The only problem is that they keep coming back.
- Product Placement: For breakfast, the Turtles pour actual brand cereal on their pizza. Each Turtles say the actual brands. Though Michelangelo calls his cereal "Choco Puffs".
- Second Episode Introduction:
- Krang makes his first appearance here, though he wouldn't get his robot body until the fifth episode.
- Bebop and Rocksteady were seen in the previous episode, though as humans. This episode have them mutate into their better known forms.
- The Technodrome makes finally its full appearance here. Though it did sort of make an appearance in the first episode, but the only thing that we saw of it was the control room from which Shredder spent most of that episode in. And we also learn of its name in the previous episode.
- Shout-Out: When the Turtles emerge from a manhole in the middle of a street, Raphael cries "I get the feeling we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto!"
- Stating the Simple Solution: When Shredder and Krang discuss how the mutagen did nothing but make Hamato Yoshi more powerful by giving him his turtle-sons and "the powers of the rats", Krang gives Shredder the idea to use the same mutagen to create his own mutant warriors to enforce his will and do away with their new turtle problem.
- The Walls Are Closing In: One of the perils the Turtles encounter in the Technodrone is this. They get through when Donatello hotwires the controls.
- We Can Rule Together: The Shredder reveals that he was the source of the ooze that mutated them (in the course of trying to poison Hamato Yoshi), and claims that it means they are destined to work for him. The Turtles tell him where to stick it.Raphael: Does the phrase, "Go suck a lemon" hold any meaning for you?
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- What became of the rhino and warthog following Bebop and Rocksteady's mutation is unknown.
- This was the only appearance of the Roadkill Rodneys.
