Tired of Shredder's endless demands to return to Earth, Krang complies and sends Shredder back. However, Shredder is denied access to any of Krang's technology, and so must destroy the Turtles on his own. Enlisting a corrupt marital arts dojo and Baxter Stockman, the Shredder prepares a trap for his enemies.
Tropes
- Bad Boss: Krang effectively becomes this to Shredder for the duration of the second season. He cuts Shredder off from all forms of assistance while simultaneously berating him for past and present failures.
- Blind Without Them: The cash register woman tells the news of the turtles who saved her from the crooks, although she's generally unsure just what kind of reptiles they were due to not having her glasses.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: April breaks a fourth wall of sorts when she assures the Turtles that she was winking at Splinter over a TV screen.
- Card-Carrying Villain: The "Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang", the leader even tells the victims to remember the "Turtle" part of the name, he even gives a person a card with their name and number.
- Clear My Name: Shredder creates the "Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang" who commit robberies all over New York, letting the actual heroes take the blame. He hopes the real Turtles will do this so he can set his trap.
- Cassandra Truth: April says that the Turtles are heroes, but her boss Burne Thompson says that they are a menace to society, and his girlfriend Tiffany (who loathes turtles in general) agrees. The involvement of the "Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang" doesn't help her case.
- Easy Impersonation: The "Crooked Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Gang", who are clearly humans in turtle uniforms.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: Michelangelo aimed his nunchucks on cans of orange juice with one thug holding up the grocery store remarking that he missed, only for Michelangelo to blow to topple the juice on top of him.
- Fantastic Racism: Tiffany is extremely phobic of turtles, to the point where she'd dump Burne merely for ordering turtle soup. Mock turtle soup, to be exact.
- Fighting Fingerprint: Leonardo is able to figure out the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang's connection to Shredder by watching the gang leader's technique, as the only other sensei who could have taught it was Splinter.
- Frame-Up: Shredder strongarms a martial arts class to pose as the Turtles while going on a city-wide crime spree, he hopes the real Turtles will surface from the sewers to clear their names, allowing him to make his move. Krang demands a quicker method, however, leading him to hire Baxter Stockman to abduct their master Splinter. While Burne falls for the frame-up, April already knows the farce and calls the turtles about the news.
- Freudian Excuse: Tiffany hates turtles to death because her brother had once placed a turtle in her bed when she was five years old.
- Hypocritical Humor: Leonardo scolds Michelangelo for his unhealthy food choices... while they're both shopping for pizza toppings.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Half-wrong, kinda. When Burne tells his girlfriend Tiffany that he hates turtles in general, Irma arrives with his lunch which happens to be [mock] turtle soup. This angers Tiffany, accusing him of being a "turtle lover" and dumps him on the spot.
- The Last Straw: When Tiffany catches Burne having [mock] turtle soup for lunch, she dumps him.
- Mugging the Monster: The minute he returns to Earth, Shredder is beset by some two-bit hoods. He scares them off by slicing a tree branch down single-handedly, reminding viewers that while he has no chance as a conqueror, he's still a master martial artist.
- Napoleon Delusion: Baxter Stockman's roommate at the insane asylum thinks he's Napoleon Bonaparte, mistaking the Shredder getting through the window as the peasants revolting.
- Oh, Crap!: While rescuing Splinter, the Turtles spot a giant battering ram aimed at him, too big for any of them to stop, so the have to hurry before Shredder triggers it.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: The "Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang"'s costumes; their leader merely disguises his face with a red eye mask, and the other members wear paper bags made up to look like turtle heads.
- Revealing Skill: When the turtles watch a videotape that shows the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang robbing a jewelry store, Leonardo realizes that the technique of Smash is the same as only two senseis in the world: Splinter and Shredder, and of course they conclude that Shredder is behind this.
- Time for Plan B: When Krang chews out Shredder that his Frame-Up plan will take forever to get the Turtles, he calls on Baxter Stockman to create a new Ratcatcher invention to capture Splinter and use him as a bait.
- Tragic Bigot: Tiffany is extremely chelonaphobicnote , ever since her brother placed a turtle in her bed as a prank when they were kids. She reasonably freaks out when she sees the four Mutant Turtles in the Channel 6 building (though they were framed by the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang. She later dumped Burne merely for ordering turtle soup. Mock turtle soup, to be exact.
