The Turtles are back in New York, and the Justice Force are having a recruitment campaign to expand their super team. Leo takes the opportunity to warn the Justice Force about the upcoming threat, but Mikey's distracted by the chance of joining his heroes as the Turtle Titan. Suddenly a familiar face shows up: Nano is back, and a microchip implanted by Stockman is making him violent and destructive.
This episode provides examples of
- Annoying Arrows: Unusually for this trope, they're annoying exploding arrows.
- Avengers Assemble: Leo approaches the Justice Force for their aid in combating the Tengu Shredder.
- Bad Boss: Implied but never gone through with when Bishop begins to sympathize with Ch'Rell for his constant, brutal punishments of the always failing Stockman.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Nano, with Stockman's control chip.
- Breather Episode: A brief, upbeat breather in the middle of the ongoing Tengu Shredder arc.
- The Bus Came Back: As this is the first episode to take place outside of the Tribunal's monastery this season, it's full of this.
- Nano returns for the first time in three seasons.
- Bishop and Stockman appear for the first time since "Good Genes, Part II".
- The Justice Force appears for the first time since the third season. In particular, Zippy Lad returns after his last appearance in "Return of the Justice Force".
- Nobody and Raptarr are back as Justice Force members.
- Call-Back: Donnie has built the "Turtle Taxi" that he and Adam were discussing back in "More Worlds Than One," and even incorporated some of Adam's ideas.
- Chekhov's Gun: Molecule's belt, which shrinks it's user to miniscule size.
- Clothes Make the Superman: Molecule's belt. Could possibly also apply to Gauntlet's gauntlets.
- Clothing Damage: Mikey's new Turtle Titan costume gets wrecked in the fight.
- Continuity Nod:
- Stockman mentions that they've found what may be the last piece of salvageable debris from the Triceraton invasion.
- When Nano escapes, Bishop grimly muses that he's beginning to understand why the Shredder kept mutilating Stockman.
- Nano apologizes to the Turtles for their last two encounters.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Nano versus the wannabe Justice League recruits.
- Deadpan Snarker: After Stockman's umpteenth experiment gone horribly wrong.Bishop: Dr. Stockman, I'm beginning to understand why your former employer kept relieving you of body parts.
- Didn't See That Coming: Stockman is quite surprised to find the nano-bugs he experimented on are sentient.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Zippy Lad while interacting with three possible new recruits. He screams at them about their unique gimmicks and practices.Zippy Lad: You think you can slug it out with supervillains, tough guy?! Huh?! You think you're ready?!
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Nano finally gets a family.
- Face Palm: Don, and Zippy Lad.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Thanks to Stockman's new programming, Nano alternates between pleading for help and trying to destroy everything in sight.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: Molecule's power, thanks to his belt.
- Irony: Leo is annoyed by Michelangelo when he decides to meet the Justice Force dressed as the Turtle Titan, believing the Justice Force won't take them seriously if he behaves like that. In reality, the superheroes are quite pleased to meet the Turtle Titan again. Ananda and Zippy Lad offer them both to be a part of the team and Silver Sentry is already known to be fond of the Turtle Titan.
- Little "No": Leo when he figures out just which enemy they're dealing with.
- Nanomachines: Nano, of course.
- Oh, Crap!: Leo and Mikey when they realize they're dealing with Nano.
- Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Part of what Stockman did to Nano had the effect of aging his mind up from a toddler to a young adult. He is able to talk coherently and even apologizes to Leo and Mikey for their prior encounters.
- Shout-Out: As befits a Superhero Episode, Mikey calls the viewer "true believer" during his opening narration.
- Sixth Ranger: Nano joins the Justice Force full-time, while Mikey joins the Justice Force every third Wednesday of every fourth month. And February 29th. When there is one. It's also noted that Nobody and Raptarr also joined the team recently.
- The Straight and Arrow Path: Zippy Lad even mocks Bowcaster for it.
- Superhero Episode
- Suppressed Rage: Gauntlet gets increasingly wound up by Zippy Lad.
- Technopath: Ananda's ability to communicate with machines lets her know that Nano is not actually ill-intentioned, but is being controlled by a chip on one of his nanobots.
- Token Good Teammate: Bowcaster puts up a valiant effort against Nano during his attack and seems pleasant (in a silent way) before that while Gauntlet is a hot-headed Jerkass quick to attack anything or anyone that comes his way, and Molecule is a Dirty Coward who tries to flee as soon as the fight starts.
- Trick Arrow: Of the exploding variety, to be specific. Not that they do much good....
