The Turtles, Splinter, April, and Casey all return to New York as they commence an assault on the Shredder's hideout since he still believes them to be dead.
This episode provides examples of:
- Adaptation Deviation: In the original comics, Raph and Leo had an argument in Casey's farmhouse, that escalated into a big fight, which ended with Raph winning and returning to New York alone. The Foot was still in the sewers, whom Raph fought before he found Zog, a delusional Triceraton that had escaped from TCRI and used him to help himself and his brothers (when they also returned) have an advantage against the Foot. Here, the events of the Turtles in Space arc has not yet happened and the Triceratons were not even introduced in the show. On top of that, Baxter Stockman presented false evidence fo the Turtles' death, meaning there is no reason for the Foot to be in the sewers. Raph, on the other hand, helps Leo get back on his feet after his defeat, so none of these events happen here that way and Zog is intorduced in a later arc. Neither Master Splinter, nor Casey and April were involved in the Return to New York storyline in the comics. In fact the episodes seem to borrow some elements from the 1990 live-action movie.
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: When the Turtles realize the Foot think they're all dead;Mikey: Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?
Don: I think he's thinking what you think he's thinking.
Raph: If he's thinking what I'm thinking, then I'm thinking we shouldn't just be thinking. What do you think?
Casey: (Completely lost) Huh? - Continuity Nod:Donatello: I don't know if I can hack into that system. It was designed by Dr. Baxter Stockman himself.April: (sarcastically) Too bad you don't know anybody who used to work with Stockman.
- Let's not forget about Hun telling Shredder that he had seen the Battle Shell before.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: As Donatello opens the various security measures on their lair, he types an 8-digit code into a hidden keypad. The tones accompanying the keypresses mimic the main riff of the theme song.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Shredder hits this when Hun reports that the Battle Shell is owned by the Turtles.Shredder: The Turtles! Alive? But Stockman assured me that they were... Stockman!
- Medium Awareness: Raphael's opening narration about the event is like a video game. Doubles as Wrong Genre Savvy.
- Mission Control: April.
- Mythology Gag: During Raph's narration, when the first-turtle perspective of Raph's weaponized hover-bike is shown, it resembles the SNES-only Technodrome level of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, where the players see the boss-level from Shredder's point of view and he is defeated by the player Turtle by hurling Foot soldiers at the screen. Raph even calls it something like a video game.
- Painting the Medium: As Raph's narration talks about how their situation is like a video game, the camera briefly switches to a first-turtle perspective.
- Poor Communication Kills: Invoked by the heroes; April hacks into the Foot's network and disrupts their communications to keep Shredder from handling his forces.
- Spit Take: Mikey does this to Casey when he mentions that the milk he's drinking is 3 months old.
- The Starscream: One of the signs Stockman shows this is that he's not gonna answer Shredder's call.
