After losing his temper in a fight with Michelangelo, Raphael goes to the surface to let off some steam. Instead he runs across a masked vigilante named Casey Jones. His temper turns out to be worse than the turtle's, leading the two to butt heads. When Casey challenges Raph to a rematch, the Purple Dragons plan to get the drop on both of them.
Meanwhile, Mikey bugs Donatello to build the guys a "Battle Shell".
First appearance of Casey Jones (duh)
This episode provides examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Casey Jones in the original comics was an Affectionate Parody of Anti-Hero vigilantes with tragic backstories and he was simply inspired to be a vigilante just from watching too much bad TV, like T.J. Hooker and The A-Team. Here he gets a tragic backstory (see entry below) and while his introduction is nearly identical to the comic book version, it is changed a little bit to reflect this: In the comics, he is introduced watching the aforementioned TV shows and cheering for the vigilantes while doing bicep curls with a dumbbell, whereas in the 2003 series, he is introduced in a similar manner, except he is watching a news channel reporting about the Purple Dragons, with Casey's eyes burning with rage with a quick flashback of his childhood encounter with the street gang. The tragic backstory was later adapted to the Mirage comics later on, however.
- Adaptational Modesty: Casey in the comics was introduced watching TV and doing bicep curls with a dumbbell while shirtless. Here, he is wearing his muscle shirt.
- Adaptation Deviation: The plot is changed a little bit from the original comic this episode is based on. The original story focused solely on Raph and Casey, with the other turtles only appearing in the beginning, while here, the turtles have more screentime, although, Raph still is the main character of this story. The others also join in the final fight against the Purple Dragons, whereas the original comic ended with a Bolivian Army Ending, with Raph and Casey agreeing that Casey needs to watch his temper while fighting crime and the two jump in to protect a random citizen being mugged. And while most of the dialogues are taken word-for-word from the comics, every instance of Michelangelo's nickname is changed from "Mike" in the comic, to "Mikey" in this episode.
- Adventure Rebuff: Splinter tries this, albeit unsuccessfully.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Raphael—and aside from being the first episode to focus primarily on him, this is also the first episode to focus primarily on just one of the turtles rather than all four of them as a group.
- Chekhov's Skill: Earlier in the episode, Leo's training with Splinter to master the split kick. In the episode's climactic battle, Leo shows his brothers that he's mastered it.
- Cool Bike: Casey has one and Don makes one for Raph.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Casey tells Raph that when he was a kid, the Purple Dragons burned down his father's shop for not paying protection money. Mr. Jones went to the police about it, despite being told not to, and it's implied that he was killed by the Purple Dragons not long after (it's also implied that Hun was the one who killed him).
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Normally when Casey goes into battle, he shouts "Goongala!". He, ironically, doesn't in his debut appearance, which is what happened in the comics as well.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite the fact that he attacked Mikey with a metal pipe, fully intending to do serious harm, the other Turtles were quick to forgive Raph for what he did when he came back home and apologized for it (at least it was a genuine apology). Also, when Raph first left to go up to the surface world, Mikey tried going after him (possibly feeling guilty about provoking Raph during their fight) before Master Splinter stopped him.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Casey with Raph and, eventually, the other Turtles.
- Good Is Not Nice: Casey Jones. He gets better though.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Raphael, after he calms down a little, is visibly horrified that he almost seriously hurt Michelangelo.
- Precision F-Strike: Well, the best they could do for a kids' show at least.Raph: Hockey season's over. (knocks the hockey stick out of Casey's hands)
Casey: Yeah? (takes out two baseball bats) Well baseball's in season. And so are you, you freaky, freakin' weirdo! Batter up! - Rule of Three: Leo performs the aforementioned split kick technique three times in a row.
- Shout-Out:
- At one point, Casey calls out "Purple Dragons...come out to play!"
- Raph does the obligatory sliding bike stop from AKIRA.
- Single Tear: Casey, after he tells Raph the story about the Purple Dragons threatening his dad.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Lampshaded.Casey: (When Leo, Don and Mike join the fight) Friends of yours?
Raph: Brothers actually.
Casey: I can see the family resemblance.
Mike: I'm the pretty one! - Ungrateful Bitch: One woman's response to being saved and having her handbag returned by Raph is being told to "keep away from me, you lizard-thingy!"
- What the Hell, Hero?: Leo and Don call Raph out when he loses his temper and almost attacks Mikey with a metal pipe.Leonardo: Raphael! Have you lost your mind?!Donatello: You OK, Mikey? What were you thinking, Raph?!
